March 16, 2007
News flash! America doesn't have a monopoly on bigoted, violent hate speech.
In this movie on a popular Korean video site (link only works in Internet Explorer), two Korean teenagers engage in a mock "debate" on Dokdo. That is, the Korean presents a couple of maps, while the "Japanese" (referred to as "Zzokbari," a derogatory term for Japanese that I'm told means "pig's feet" in reference to geta sandals), in his fake mustache and coke-bottle glasses (what is this, 1980s Hollywood?) spouts mousy insults over images of Japanese war crimes.
The Korean finally says, "I'm gonna kill ya" and drags the Japanese out of his chair, beats him up (under a card showing a mannequin holding a chainsaw) and finally forces him to surrender his claim to Dokdo at (fake) gunpoint before finally shooting him in the head.
These kids are way too young to have been involved or even for their parents to have been involved in the Japanese occupation. And they're way too young to be so hateful. I thought I'd seen everything when it came to nationalist wackos on both sides of this, but that video shocked me.
This next one off YouTube is just weird. An anti-Japanese rap song, the gist of which is that if Japan wants Dokdo Korea should just take over Japan, blares over a slide show of images. Some of them are about Dokdo, but others don't have anything to do with Japan, like TV images of Korean and Italian soccer players abusing each other during a World Cup game, the notorious "Baekdusan is Ours" sign held up by the Korean women's skating team at the Winter Asian Games, several shots of Korean protesters struggling with American soldiers, some screen shots of articles about Korean ninjas (?) . Gradually it becomes clear that this is in fact an anti-Korean piece, as shots of Japanese products -- magazine ads, merchandise, TV shows, motorcycles -- are positioned next to Korean copies, with "ORIGINAL" and "COPY" crudely superimposed. I happen to think the Korean copies of Japanese products -- particularly media -- are a rather creative and harmless form of infringement since, after all, most Japanese pop culture was banned back then.
But the remarkable thing about both these steaming turds is that they are subtitled in English. I'm not sure what these two sides expect to accomplish by exposing their diatribes against one another to the rest of the world. I think we've made it abundantly clear that we don't care. And yet, like cult missionaries on a street corner, people like these continue to preach at us, while programs like the Dokdo Riders receive support from the Korean social and corporate mainstream.
I really and truly don't know how to begin to approach a nationalist youth campaign of this magnitude. All I know is, not only would that first video be entirely unfunny in the U.S., it would get both those kids expelled from whatever school they were in.
Posted by b-applegate at March 16, 2007 7:25 AM
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Comments
Ah...just reminiscing about a year ago, when I chilled Korea-style with you. Miss ya buddy. How time does fly.
Posted by: Scott at May 3, 2007 12:31 PM
Ben rules!
Posted by: Nathaniel at May 28, 2007 6:29 PM