Log in

No account? Create an account
한국 사람이 아니다

[ website | The Daily Abyssinian ]
[ userinfo | livejournal userinfo ]
[ archive | journal archive ]

Hating the Korean Wave [Nov. 19th, 2005|12:41 pm]
한국 사람이 아니다
[Current Mood |enthralledfascinated]
[Current Music |Leave it to Beaver]


The New York Times, November 19, 2005
Ugly Images of Asian Rivals Become Best Sellers in Japan










The reality that South Korea had emerged as a rival hit many Japanese with full force in 2002, when the countries were co-hosts of soccer's World Cup and South Korea advanced further than Japan. At the same time, the so-called Korean Wave - television dramas, movies and music from South Korea - swept Japan and the rest of Asia, often displacing Japanese pop cultural exports.

The wave, though popular among Japanese women, gave rise to a countermovement, especially on the Internet. Sharin Yamano, the young cartoonist behind "Hating the Korean Wave," began his strip on his own Web site then.

"The 'Hate Korea' feelings have spread explosively since the World Cup," said Akihide Tange, an editor at Shinyusha, the publisher of the comic book. Still, the number of sales, 360,000 so far, surprised the book's editors, suggesting that the Hate Korea movement was far larger than they had believed.

"We weren't expecting there'd be so many," said Susumu Yamanaka, another editor at Shinyusha. "But when the lid was actually taken off, we found a tremendous number of people feeling this way."

So far the two books, each running about 300 pages and costing around $10, have drawn little criticism from public officials, intellectuals or the mainstream news media. For example, Japan's most conservative national daily, Sankei Shimbun, said the Korea book described issues between the countries "extremely rationally, without losing its balance."

As nationalists and revisionists have come to dominate the public debate in Japan, figures advocating an honest view of history are being silenced, said Yutaka Yoshida, a historian at Hitotsubashi University here. Mr. Yoshida said the growing movement to deny history, like the Rape of Nanjing, was a sort of "religion" for an increasingly insecure nation.

"Lacking confidence, they need a story of healing," Mr. Yoshida said. "Even if we say that story is different from facts, it doesn't mean anything to them."

The Korea book's cartoonist, who is working on a sequel, has turned down interview requests. The book centers on a Japanese teenager, Kaname, who attains a "correct" understanding of Korea. It begins with a chapter on how South Korea's soccer team supposedly cheated to advance in the 2002 Word Cup; later chapters show how Kaname realizes that South Korea owes its current success to Japanese colonialism.

"It is Japan who made it possible for Koreans to join the ranks of major nations, not themselves," Mr. Nishio said of colonial Korea.


That peculiar aesthetic, so entrenched in pop culture that most Japanese are unaware of it, has its roots in the Meiji Restoration of the late 19th century, when Japanese leaders decided that the best way to stop Western imperialists from reaching here was to emulate them.

In 1885, Fukuzawa - who is revered to this day as the intellectual father of modern Japan and adorns the 10,000 yen bill (the rough equivalent of a $100 bill) - wrote "Leaving Asia," the essay that many scholars believe provided the intellectual underpinning of Japan's subsequent invasion and colonization of Asian nations.

Fukuzawa bemoaned the fact that Japan's neighbors were hopelessly backward.

Writing that "those with bad companions cannot avoid bad reputations," Fukuzawa said Japan should depart from Asia and "cast our lot with the civilized countries of the West." He wrote of Japan's Asian neighbors, "We should deal with them exactly as the Westerners do."

As those sentiments took root, the Japanese began acquiring Caucasian features in popular drawing. The biggest change occurred during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 to 1905, when drawings of the war showed Japanese standing taller than Russians, with straight noses and other features that made them look more European than their European enemies.

"The Japanese had to look more handsome than the enemy," said Mr. Nagayama.

Many of the same influences are at work in the other new comic book, "An Introduction to China," which depicts the Chinese as obsessed with cannibalism and prostitution, and has sold 180,000 copies.




"The only attractive thing that China has to offer is Chinese food," said Ko Bunyu, a Taiwan-born writer who provided the script for the comic book. Mr. Ko, 66, has written more than 50 books on China, some on cannibalism and others arguing that Japanese were the real victims of their wartime atrocities in China. The book's main author and cartoonist, a Japanese named George Akiyama, declined to be interviewed.

Like many in Taiwan who are virulently anti-China, Mr. Ko is fiercely pro-Japanese and has lived here for four decades. A longtime favorite of the Japanese right, Mr. Ko said anti-Japan demonstrations in China early this year had earned him a wider audience. Sales of his books surged this year, to one million.


Guess which character is the Korean?
(Thanks to dantc for finding this!)

[User Picture]From: remindmeofthe
2005-11-19 06:18 pm (UTC)
Wow. I'm aware that Japan is pretty fucked up, but every time I hear new evidence of this I still go, "Wow." That's wild. That's kind of like how our pop culture portrayed black people in the first half of last century.
(Reply) (Thread)
[User Picture]From: talonvaki
2005-11-19 06:49 pm (UTC)
It is. It's a lot like that, actually (which is why I found that illustration so appropriate). It's a thing people here really aren't aware of. Japanese look down on Koreans as a "lesser" race. One of the big racial slurs Japanese use for Koreans is "Garlic Eaters," because Koreans love garlic and Japanese don't use it. Another thing Japanese will say is that Korean food has no taste, because they bury it in spicey sauce and garlic - two things not found in Japanese cuisine.

The funny thing is, Koreans see Japanese products as superior to Korean: Dave won't buy a Korean grocery item if there's a Japanese version available. At the same time, there's a big "little brother" culture going on, where Koreans maintain their identity as seperate, their language, alphabet...similar to what you see with Québec and the rest of Canada, as an example. So in a way, it's a two way street.

I've been learning about this for two years...and yeah. My teacher tried to tell me that it was mainly the older generation, but it seems to still be happening.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]From: remindmeofthe
2005-11-19 07:09 pm (UTC)
It's funny too, because if you don't look too deeply into Japanese culture, it seems like one of the more balanced got-it-together nations in the world. The casual observer would not expect to hear of such racism in Japan.

Interesting link. I like the toilet paper one, myself. I love to learn about other cultures; it's an endlessly fascinating subject.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]From: talonvaki
2005-11-19 08:28 pm (UTC)
Japanese are very rascist...kind of like that Mike Myers character who ran the "All Things Scottish" shop: "If it's not Japanese, it's Crrrraap!"

You get a sense of this, actually, in movies like The Last Samurai...but then, too, there's huge Japanese fascination with American culture, like Surfing (as seen in Lost in Translation and 50's Rockabilly/Hot Rods (Think James Dean).

They're an interesting people.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]From: deathbytamarind
2005-11-19 09:01 pm (UTC)
Yeah, they don't really like gaijin but they like other cultures quite a bit. I guess as long as they don't have to deal with the people....

There's a rule in Nippon Professional Baseball that states no team in the league can have more than four foreigners on one roster, for instance.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]From: deathbytamarind
2005-11-19 08:59 pm (UTC)
Can't we all just get along?
(Reply) (Thread)
[User Picture]From: talonvaki
2005-11-19 10:20 pm (UTC)
That "Korean" guy kills me...see how his eyes are little slits? Slits = bad. That why the anime characters have the huge eyes. They're the opposite of slits.

The first time Dave watched Lost, it was a big Daniel Dae Kim episode. Dave said that he didn't think that DDK was that good looking; "Look at his eyes! They're just lines!" So there's that...
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]From: deathbytamarind
2005-11-19 10:49 pm (UTC)
Right, Japanese equate big eyes with innocence and goodness.

Plus he's angry and cross, damn Koreans!
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]From: talonvaki
2005-11-19 11:16 pm (UTC)
Not to mention the mess his hair is!

(You inspired me to make this icon, btw)
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]From: deathbytamarind
2005-11-19 11:24 pm (UTC)
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]From: talonvaki
2005-11-21 06:56 pm (UTC)
You know...this just occurred to me: I wonder if that's why Japanese love cats so much? Because they have great big round eyes?
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
From: aastg
2005-11-20 09:43 pm (UTC)
The Japanese have certainly made a significant contribution to the world supply of racist assholia. It's (cold) comfort that America isn't hogging the market...

So, who do the Koreans bitch about?
(Reply) (Thread)
[User Picture]From: talonvaki
2005-11-20 09:47 pm (UTC)
Sometimes the Japanese, sometimes the North Koreans (ha!)...mostly they bitch about themselves. It's a lot like the Finns and the Swedes, actually...another reason I'm so attracted to the culture, I imagine.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)