UPDATE (28 Dec. 2010): The date was extended, so if you want in, you have a good chunk of time now! ORIGINAL POST: I just got this from Brian Yecies, and figured I’d share in case someone out there has anything appropriate on the boil: Call for Papers 2011 Special Issue for Acta Koreana (http://www.actakoreana.org) Korean Cinema Challenges and the Transformation of ‘Planet Hallyuwood’ Guest Editors: Brian Yecies, Media and Cultural Studies, University of Wollongong and Ae-Gyung Shim, School of English, Media and Performing Arts, University of New South Wales After the government eliminated film censorship in 1996, South Korea …
Tag: Korean media & popculture
The Land of the Morning Neologism
Yeah, I’m talking about Korea. John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar–one of the most neologism-heavy SF novels I’ve ever read–comes to mind quite often as I hear the new neologisms spinning out, month after month. If you’ve never read Brunner’s novel, then I suppose I’ll have to give you a few examples. 된장녀 (Dwenjang Nyeo) One, of course, was the 된장녀 (dwenjang nyeo), a truly nasty word that translates literally as “soybean paste girl.” Soybean paste, while the basis of a number of Korean dishes (like dwenjang jjigae), is basically a brown stinky fermented bean paste. It’s not all that complimentary, …
So True
Miss Jiwaku and I happened to be around a TV when some woman was talking onscreen about the ridiculously-named Bucheon World Intangible Cultural Heritage Expo going on in Bucheon right now. The woman talking didn’t look Korean (she seemed more Southeast Asian, to me, but I’m told she is Japanese), but she was speaking in Korean. “Is she Korean?” I asked, just as the camera shifted to some white woman with curly hair who seemed to have worse Korean pronunciation than anyone I’ve heard before, and speaks the language with a tone of voice just like the Wicked Witch of the …
방가?방가!
So the other day, I got a chance (apparently rare!) to see the film Bang[g]a-Bang[g]a. I’d seen the poster around, but had I not been told about the wacky screening schedule, I’d have missed it completely. If you haven’t seen it and plan to, I strongly encourage you. I don’t think the film is perfect, but it’s rare to see a film that deals with multiculturalism at all in Korea, let alone one that hits some really right notes. The film has a very limited release, but it should be on screens on Sept. 30th. Yes, one day. I don’t …
Seoul Crime Map, Race, Fantasy, and Politics
This article pretty much says (with the exception of a little half-assed caveat at the end contradicting the rest of the article’s message) that the higher incidences of murder and rape in Yeongdeungpo and Guro can be explained, according to “experts,” by the increased presence of “foreigners” in those areas. Never mind: that these are relatively poorer areas. that poverty and lower education go hand in hand, and both go hand in hand with more violent crime. that these neighborhoods are (like most neighborhoods in Korea) saturated with places to get shitfaced drunk, in a cultural setting where getting drunk …