South Korea’s Rise
Thanks to South Korea, Asian content is the 2nd most watched on Netflix & the most consumed non-US content in America
🥇 The US has the most popular movies and shows on Netflix.
🥈 #SouthKorea ascended to 2nd in Fall 2021.
The global export of culture via entertainment mediums has turned culture into a commodity in which nations gain international recognition by broadcasting their stories, heritage, customs, values, etc to a worldwide audience.
“We’re trying to make content from anywhere in the world for the rest of the world” ([Netflix Co-CEO] Sarandos, 2018)
In 1999, South Korea “passed a law devoted to bolstering the arts & vowed to dedicate at least 1% of the entire state budget to culture.”
Today, South Korea is the most emergent pop culture powerhouse of the 21st century. It’s a shining example of how media can help the world come to “understand & open up to a country & culture it knew little about” (Posner, Caswell, & Netflix, 2018).
Gender Roles & Screenwriters
Families generally hold women responsible for cultural socialization of offspring
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the global export of culture is one of South Korea’s major industries
🟰 about 90% of South Korea’s screenwriters are women
♀️ #KDramas — Bohdan, 2023 ♀️
— Women are ~90% of screenwriters in Korea but only 33% of screenwriters in the US.
🥈 #KDrama — Moore, 2022
— Asian content is the 2nd most watched on Netflix & “it’s almost entirely because of Korean content” (Moore, 2022).
— South Korean content is the most consumed non-US content in America
The US has the 2nd highest rate of tweets about K-Content among all countries.
“More than 60% of Netflix’s 233 million subscribers around the world are watching South Korean films, dramas, and reality shows, according to Netflix’s company data.” (Bhattacharya, 2023)
✈️ KDrama Tourism — The Korea Herald 코리아헤럴드, 2022 (March 4)
About 57.6% of the locations that 1.6M tourists to #SouthKorea visited in 2022 were locations where #Netflix #KDramas were filmed (The Korea Herald 코리아헤럴드, 2022).
Global K-Wave — Patrick Frater, 2021 (2.24)
“Audiences around the world are falling in love with Korean stories, artists, and culture.
The K-Wave, or Hallyu as we call it here in Korea, is a huge moment of national pride and we’re proud to be part of it.”
— Kim Minyoung, VP of content for Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, said in a blog posting.
South Korea’s Booming Cultural Exports — Ananya Bhattacharya, 2023 (4.25 — Quartz)
“In 2021, South Korea’s exports of cultural content — music, games, films, animation, and more — hit an all-time high of $12.4 billion, according to the country’s ministry of culture, sports and tourism.
For South Korea, cultural exports ($12.4 billion) have become an economic force to reckon with, surpassing the export value of home appliances ($8.67 billion), secondary batteries ($8.67 billion), electric vehicles ($6.99 billion) and display panels ($3.6 billion), according to ministry data.
The South Korean government is aiming to more than double content exports, to $25 billion by 2027. Film and drama producers will get financial and infrastructural support from the government.
“South Korean stories are “now at the heart of the global cultural zeitgeist” as more than 60% of Netflix’s 233 million subscribers around the world are watching South Korean films, dramas and reality shows, according to Netflix’s company data.”
All Netflix all users watch more shows/series than movies (Moody, 2022)
Table of Contents
∘ Gender Roles & Screenwriters
· ♀️ #KDramas — Bohdan, 2023 ♀️
· 🥈 #KDrama — Moore, 2022
· ✈️ KDrama Tourism — The Korea Herald 코리아헤럴드, 2022 (March 4)
· Netflix & South Korea — Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos, 2023 (4.24 [Netflix])
· Globalization & Netflix — Swelana Briliyanti Sekartaji, 2023
· 🎼 K-Pop Explained – Joe Posner, Estelle Caswell, & Netflix, 2018 (May 30)
· The Transnational Appeal of K-Dramas — Benjamin Han, 2023 (2.23)
· Women in Streaming vs. Broadcast — Lauzen, 2023
∘ 🎵 KPop & Transnational Music — Asian American Music, 2017
· 🎼Korean Music Education — Hyun Kyung Youm, 2008
· The Kim Sisters, K-Pop’s Cultural Ambassadors— Danielle Seid, 2019 (May 9)
· South Korea’s Soft Power — Valieva, 2018
∘ 🎮 Cybersports 🎮
· KDramas & National Security — Paruchabutr, 2023
🤖· Multiracial by Ai — Campbell Brown, 2023 (Wasian)
⭐· Media-Related Sidenotes
· 🎮 Female Dialogue in Videogames — Rennick et al., 2023
· Gendered Dialogue Disparity Across Mediums
· Videogames > Music & Movies Combined
· The 2nd part of a trilogy is usually the best
· ✝️ For future piece on religion in South Korea — Joseph Pak, 2022
· Remote Acculturation
· Height in South Korea & North Korea
⭐⭐· General Sidenotes (most of the material below is just excess)
∘ President Obama’s Sisters
· Multiracial Experiences — KQED News Staff, 2023
· Vice President Kamala Harris & Identifying as Multiracial
· Adoptees & DNA — Haye-ah Lee, 2016 (4.16 — Yonhap News Agency)
· Adoption of Multiracial Children — Kori Graves, 2020
· 👰🏻✈️ Simpson, 1998
∘ The historic Immigration & Naturalization Act was passed in 1965.
· Mixed Messages Episode 8 — Guest = Samira Mehta (Whindian)
· 🩰 Globalization & Salsa Dancing — Boulila, 2017
· Instagram Quizzes
Dani-dee, 2022
Korean dramas are continuing to gain popularity all around the world, leading to a boost in conversation about them on social media. Indeed, the amount of tweets relating to Korean dramas, films, and webtoon has experienced a 546% increase [from July 2011 to June 2022].
“South Korea has the fastest Internet connection speed and the highest internet penetration rate of 96%, being cited as “the most heavily connected society.”
“Research shows that 89% of young adults check their social media accounts at least once per day, and women check even more frequently (Pew Research Center, 2018)” (Hyejung Park, 2020).
Netflix & South Korea — Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos, 2023 (4.24 [Netflix])
Netflix is investing in South Korea…
“based on the belief that the Korean creative industry and related creative ecosystem will continue to present great stories. In addition, I was also influenced by the President’s love and strong support for the expansion of the Korean entertainment industry and the Korean Wave.
Love for Korean stories is having a positive impact on the world’s interest in the country. I think all of this is thanks to the excellent storytelling capabilities of Korean creators. Korean works are now at the center of the global zeitgeist.
President Seok-Yeol Yoon, I would like to express my gratitude and respect to Korea’s great creative ecosystem and all of our partners at Netflix.”
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Globalization & Netflix — Swelana Briliyanti Sekartaji, 2023
“Wayne and Sandoval (2023) stated that Netflix is one of the bridges in cultural interaction worldwide.
During COVID19, Netflix became one of the online streaming platforms that replaced many other activities or entertainment by presenting many viewing options for the public (Kim, 2022).
South Korea’s success with its current soft power has succeeded in stealing the world’s attention not only politically but also culturally (Valieva, 2018).”
The global export of culture via entertainment mediums has turned culture into a commodity in which nations gain international recognition by broadcasting their stories, heritage, customs, values, etc to a worldwide audience.
“As a result, the customs and practices of different nations & cultures are seamlessly integrated and learned by global audiences.”
In this way, ‘the globalization of media has facilitated the perception of a world without borders & continuous cultural exchange.’
🎼 K-Pop Explained – Joe Posner, Estelle Caswell, & Netflix, 2018 (May 30)
[South Korea is the most emergent pop culture powerhouse of the 21st century. It’s a shining example of how media can help the world come to] “understand & open up to a country & culture it knew little about.
In 2005, the whole Korean music market was ranked 29th in the world.
By 2016, it was ranked 8th as K-Pop was a worldwide sensation.
The US Market has historically been really averse to non-English music… but that changed when South Korea became a pop culture powerhouse.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a K-Pop song that doesn’t have some English lyrics.”
[Interestly it’s still rare to find US songs with Korean lyrics]
K-Pop
“It’s as much a visual art as a musical one. You can see it in the bold colors & impeccably timed choreography. At this point, even if you’re from a small label, your production value is still going to be 1000x better than a music video coming out of the United States.
They’ll have a vague story element that is just completely inscrutable… but no one’s got any idea what’s happening and then they intersperse that with beautiful dance moves which is fantastic.”
Genre Mashup
Every popular genre at the time is packed into one song. In terms of how agencies create the music, K-Pop is more product than art.
References
Explained [Television series episode]. (2018). K-Pop. In J. Posner (Creator), Explained. Vox Media. Netflix.
Production Company = Vox Media.
Distributor = Netflix.
Writing Credits =
Produced & narrated by Estelle Caswell
Created by Joe Posner
Stangarone, 2021 (10.14)
Netflix’s global reach is providing a platform for Korean movies and dramas that wouldn’t exist in its absence and creating opportunities to develop content like “Squid Game” that wouldn’t get made otherwise.
The demand for dubbing and subtitles for Netflix’s global releases has also helped to support the entertainment industry’s translations services.
The Transnational Appeal of K-Dramas — Benjamin Han, 2023 (2.23)
— “Netflix’s aim to reach different national media markets with content in multiple languages has unintentionally transformed its subscribers with more global and cultural tastes into a version of cosmopolitan and globalized subjects…
— The technology of streaming platforms allows cinephilia “to be born as a globally networked phenomenon based on diversity and not as much on exclusivity” (Jun Okada, 2015).
— The proliferation of streaming platforms, including Netflix, allows the emergence of cosmopolitan (beyond local and domestic) audiences, who consider culturally specific television programs more authentic and their consumption as expressive of their progressive views and investments in diversity…
To understand why certain media texts transcend national borders scholars have proposed concepts such as cultural proximity, transcultural affinity, and transnational proximity to examine global media circulation & (Straubhaar, 1991).
Transnational Proximity
Dal Yong Jin (2022) proposed a new theoretical concept of “transnational proximity” to examine the global success of Korean popular culture.
Transnational Proximity is “the universal uniqueness that people, in particular global youth, easily identify with in the early 21st century” (Jin, 2022).
Universal/Transcultural Traits ≠ Cultural Hybridity
Jin (2023) argues that Korean popular culture relies on “both local authenticity and global familiarity as cultural content representing Koreanness.” [In short,] Korean popular culture capitalizes on Koreanness with specific universal traits to appeal to the global audience (Iwabuchi, 2022; Choi, 2010).
The theorization of cultural specificity must dislocate the West as the main point of reference for both specificity and hybridity.
Indeed, localized hybridity needs to be understood as a creative and dialectical process that emerges organically from specific translocal experiences that remain outside the boundaries of universalizing Western experiences, influences, and inspirations.
Localized hybridity that dispossesses the West must also consider the myriad tensions within a nation’s culture, enabling different variations of hybridities that are an outgrowth of translocalism.
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The consumption of global content does not inherently produce cultural othering or cultural valorization. The content, and its potential appeal to a global audience, exist as it is. Whether the result is cultural othering or cultural valorization depends on how a specific consumer interprets & appraises the material.
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Women in Streaming vs. Broadcast — Lauzen, 2023
Overall, women experience greater equality via streaming than broadcast.
🎵 KPop & Transnational Music — Asian American Music, 2017
“While Kpop has proved to be a highly successful and lucrative form of transnational media, it seems difficult for a reverse flow to happen” as Asian-American artists have yet to find success in Korea.
🎼Korean Music Education — Hyun Kyung Youm, 2008
In South Korean households where at least 1 parent played the piano in childhood, it’s mostly moms only (56.3%) followed by both parents (37.5%), (2, N = 16) = 6.13, p = .047. Czerny Exercise Piano Proficiency didn’t differ between moms (M= 36.67) & dads (M = 35). [Secondary Analyses]
Moms were more like than dads to play the violin (60–40%) though moms were more likely than dads to play the guitar (17–83%).
The Kim Sisters , K-Pop’s Cultural Ambassadors— Danielle Seid, 2019 (May 9)
“The Kim Sisters embodied K-pop before K-pop emerged as a cultural industry in the 1990s
Little known outside of Korea, it was sisters Sue (Sook-ja) and Ai-ja, along with their cousin Mia (Min-ja), who introduced American audiences to Korean popular entertainment.
The Kim Sisters’ musical career began in Korea during the Korean War in the 1950s. Born into a famous musical family, Sue and Ai-ja spent their early years in a large house near Seoul under the thumb of the family’s patriarch. Their father, Kim Hai-Song, was a decorated composer and set high expectations for his children’s musical performance.
Kim was an outspoken anti-communist who incorporated Western styles into his musical composition. When war broke out in Korea in 1950, Kim was taken prisoner and later executed by communists from the north. This left Lee Nan-Young, the girls’ mother and the most famous singer in Korea at the time, to fend for her seven children alone.
With a handful of American music records, Lee-Nan Young molded Sue, 12, Ai-ja, 11, and adopted niece Mia, 10, into a sister act.
Musical performance spelled survival for the Kim sisters in the 1950s, as it had for their parents under Japanese colonial rule in the 1930s and ’40s. During the Korean War, a military entertainment circuit linking US military “camp towns” sprang up in the war-torn country, and local performers could eke out a meager living performing for American soldiers.
The Kim Sisters’ energetic style and smooth vocals were a hit with American GIs. Singing for army rations like chocolate and alcohol, the girls performed a mix of American standards and styles, from folk and hillbilly to country and salsa. One of the first songs they perfected was Hoagie Carmichael’s “Ole Buttermilk Sky.”
The Kim Sisters didn’t speak English, so they sang their songs phonetically.
An ex-GI-turned-music-promoter, Bob McMackin became the Kim Sisters’ first manager and worked to bring their act to the US.
Cultural Ambassadors
Securing visas from South Korea’s newly-formed government, the Kims traveled as special “cultural ambassadors” to the US, helping to reinforce a Cold War alliance between the nations. The US had invested in rebuilding the war-torn Republic of Korea, stationing troops there to contain the spread of communism from North Korea, China and Russia. A decade after they arrived in the US, Kim Hyun-Chul, ambassador of the Republic of Korea, presented the Kim Sisters with an award honoring their contributions as goodwill ambassadors.
Three months after they arrived in the US and after performing on stage in a Las Vegas show called “China Doll Revue,” in 1959 the Kim Sisters debuted on US television. Ed Sullivan, who years before had seen a short reel of the girls performing, took a strong liking to the young women and offered them a multi-year contract on his hugely popular Sunday night variety show.
During their tenure on the show, the Kims, now in their early 20s, continued to perform in Las Vegas showrooms and night clubs across the country.
Throughout the 1960s, the Kim Sisters were the “face of Korea” and seen as adopted family members to American audiences. They worked tirelessly as traveling performers and minor TV personalities on variety shows like “Hollywood Palace,” “The Dinah Shore Chevy Show” and military-themed shows like “Ensign O’Toole.”
By the 1970s, with years of hard work, struggle and heartache behind them, the Kims finally began to experience musical performance as a way to connect with fans, not just as a means of survival.”
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South Korea’s Soft Power — Valieva, 2018
“We can not fail to note the country’s efforts in exporting its culture — from kimchi to K-pop (Korean pop)” (Zhidkov, 2014).
“The modern strategy of “soft power” of South Korea is based not only on the promotion of national culture and traditional cultural values, as well as the dissemination of modern cultural values, but also the state of the Republic of Korea is actively engaged in the distribution of products of the pop industry.
For Asian countries, culture, especially traditional, has a high value due to its uniqueness and great difference from the culture of other countries. Therefore, to date, culture as one of the elements of “soft power” of South Korea is one of the most developed and actively used by the state.Thanks to such a phenomenon as “Korean wave” and e-sports, the Korean lifestyle, Korean fashion, Korean cuisine, etc. became popular. The main achievement was the formation of a positive image and the creation of its South Korean attractive brand on the world stage. The creation of a positive image and attractive brand makes it possible for South Korea to implement its national interests without conflicts, to pursue foreign policy without the threat of using force and confrontation.
The peculiarity of Korean pop culture is that it combines both elements of traditional Asian culture and Western culture, which allows us to talk about its mixed nature. Thanks to such a unique nature, Korean pop culture is interesting and at the same time such combination is the key to its success. Already starting around the 1990s, Korean culture has been gaining worldwide popularity step by step.
🎮 Cybersports 🎮
Another important part of the “soft power” of South Korea is cybersport. Moreover, Korea is called the cradle of cybersport (Playground, 2016). The history of cybersport in Korea dates back to the 1990s, when the government of South Korea made a bet on the promotion of technology and the Internet in order to further develop the country’s economy.
10 years later, a generation of gamers has grown up here, who exchanged basketball courts and sports grounds for computer clubs.
Then the state created a national Korean e-Sports Players Association (KeSPA) — an association of professional computer gamers, established in 2001) (Vostok, 2012). The foundation for this kind of sport in South Korea was laid by the release of StarCraft (an online strategy developed by Blizzard.
A deep immersion in computer sports allowed politicians to use computer games in their electoral programs and speeches. Mun Zhe Ying, who became president of South Korea, posted on his blog two maps for StarCraft: Brood War, while his opponent Sim San-Chong used Overwatch.”
KDramas & National Security — Paruchabutr, 2023
South Korea’s entertainment industry is also part of integrated deterrence
Yoon’s historic visit to the United States commemorated seventy years of the US-South Korea security alliance. This alliance, so far, has successfully deterred a North Korean military invasion and provided a secure foundation for South Korea’s unparalleled accomplishments in economic growth, democracy, and culture.
Compelling stories created by the South Korean entertainment industry — from traditional values highlighted in Korea №1 to modern hits such as Squid Game and Crash Landing on You — resonate not only with general audiences seeking entertainment but also have a profound effect on North Korean society.
South Korean narratives, when consumed by multiple segments of North Korean society, directly challenge Kim Jong Un’s manufactured justifications for his regimes near complete control over North Korean society and its aggressive actions against South Korea’s sovereignty.
Efforts such as the Netflix deal advance South Korean programs, increasing the volume of narratives that can potentially find an audience inside North Korea. This alternative to state-controlled media in North Korea can directly support the US Department of Defense concept of integrated deterrence. National security leaders must account for and plan to support private and public initiatives with diplomatic, military, economic, and informational tools of national power.
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Multiracial by Ai — Campbell Brown, 2023 (Wasian)
“Techno-Orientalism portrays Asians as futuristic.
[It portrays the future] with Asian elements or current Asia as an exotic, mysterious, tech hub. Asians are portrayed as almost robotic, if not literal robots.
I’m depicted by this AI as White in the past & Asian in the future (because of techno-orientalism). AI-generated art often only recognizes one race or another. It never really recognized my mixed features.
“There isn’t much material to draw on for AI to reflect the mixed experience; no precedent has been set. But we need to be conscious of the ways mixed people have existed.
…not being able to say we have ‘a face that belongs in a certain era,’ like the TikTok trend. It made me realize — I don’t really have access to that. I couldn’t exist in the past — I could, but very rarely, & I will most likely never get ‘Renaissance era!’
Bias in the system can go unchecked due to a lack of minority designers. There’s problems with racist facial recognition programs, racist AI judges in beauty contests, soap dispensers that wouldn’t detect a black customers’ hands, the list seems to keep going on & on.”
Masculinity & Portrayals of East Asian Men
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Blasians & Wasians in China
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South Americans Watch the Most Netflix — Rebecca Moody, 2022
South Americans watch the most Netflix as they are binging the most TV Series.
Even though all users binge more series than movies, it’s the South Americans who are getting through the most. Argentinians have watched the most minutes of TV series, though Singaporeans have the highest proportion of time spent watching series (94%) over movies (6%).
Jarryd has devoted less than .1% of his Netflix time watching movies.
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Media-Related Sidenotes
🎮 Gender Imbalance in Videogame Dialogue — Roberts & Rennick, 2023 (May 24)
“Video games are played by nearly three billion people worldwide, make more money annually than the film industry, & around 50% of gamers are female.
Our study of 13,000 characters from 50 video games found that video games include twice as much male as female dialogue on average.”
🎮 Female Dialogue in Videogames — Rennick et al., 2023
“Studies of the gender distribution of fictional dialogue show that male characters speak more than female characters in films, television shows, radio shows, plays and books (Anderson & Daniels, 2016; Biber & Burges, 2000; Busso & Vignozzi, 2017; Doukhan et al., 2018; Hamilton et al., 2006; Harwood & Anderson, 2002; Macharia, 2015; Ruzicka, 2021; Hillman, 1974).”
‘From 1986 to 2020, “there was a positive correlation between a game’s year of publication & the proportion of female dialogue (r = .47)” with gender balance on track to be achieved by 2036.
Overall, “female characters are not systematically given fewer words of dialogue per character than male characters. The imbalance is more likely to be due to there being significantly fewer female characters (29.37% female, 70.63% male).”
NPC = non-playable character
“Generic male NPCs are more than 4x more likely to be given unique lines of dialogue than generic female NPCs.
NPCs alter their responses based on the gender of gamers’ character.”
[This may increase the immersion of the gender gamers are playing with and/or reflect the persona of specific NPCs. For instance, most romantic options are only available based on playing as a male or female]
Who Speaks to Whom
“A male speaker is followed by a male in 66% of transitions” whereas “a female speaker is followed by a female only 32% of the time.”
Gendered Language
Female videogame characters display more gratitude, apologise more, swear less, use more hedging, consistent with other studies of gendered language (Coates, 2015; Holmes, 2013; Lakoff, 1973).
In The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall, female quest-givers focus on motivations relating to family and relationships, and use stereotypically female linguistic strategies for negotiation (tag questions and hedges).
Gendered Dialogue Disparity Across Mediums
🎮 About 94% of videogames had more male dialogue (Rennick et al., 2023).
🎥 Men had more dialogue in 75.65% of movies (Anderson & Daniels, 2016).
🪄 Males had more dialogue in 88% of Disney films (Fought & Eisenhauer, 2016) & 73.33% when adding Pixar (Anderson & Daniels, 2016).
Videogames > Music & Movies Combined
Videogames are played by over 3 billion people. In 2022, global revenue generated by the gaming industry ($184.4B) is greater than the global revenue generated by the music ($26.2B) and movie ($26B; $42.5B in 2019 pre-COVID) industries combined.
The 2nd part of a trilogy is usually the best
— Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth producer Yoshinori Kitase, 2022 (July 16)
“Making the middle part of a trilogy has its own challenges, but there are plenty of classic second installments in the world of film that are defined by stunning story twists and deeper explorations of their characters.
Often these second installments become a favorite amongst the fans.
In the same vein, we are aiming to make Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth an even more gripping and memorable experience than Final Fantasy 7 Remake.”
[Rebirth was the greatest experience of nostalgia I could’ve ever imagined]
https://about.netflix.com/ko/news/netflixkoreainvestment
K-Dramas’ Narrative Anthologies
The anthological parts of it are weaved into the external narrative (see K-Drama: May I Help You)
The show is a linear anthology with the external narrative serving as the vehicle (see K-Drama: Tomorrow)
✝️ (For future piece on religion in South Korea) — Joseph Pak, 2022
”Among South Koreans who have a faith, the majority are Christians.
Korea’s religious heritage of Shamanism (a belief in spirits who may influence the lives of the living) is partially why “the Holy Spirit is the member of the Christian Trinity that plays the most influential role in Korean theological reflection and practice” (Lewis, 2014).
‘South Korea sends more missionaries abroad than any other country except the US & has the 4th most Catholic saints since 1984’ (Pak, 2022).
The majority of Christians in South Korea belong to Protestant denominations, including mainline churches such as Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist churches as well as various Pentecostal churches” (Phillip Connor, 2014, 8.12 [Pew Research])
“South Korea currently sends more missionaries abroad than any other country except the United States.
Korea has the 4th largest number of saints in the Catholic world.
Until the late 19th century, less than 0.1% of the Korean population was Christian. Today, only a little over a century later, 28% of South Koreans are Christians.
Korean Christianity approximately doubled each decade from 1945 to 1985" (Joseph Pak, 2022, 4.11 [The Echo])
Remote Acculturation
The globalization of media has exposed people to cultures in which they have never lived, producing a phenomenon called remote acculturation.
For example, Kdramas provide American fans with cultural resource(s) out of which they select elements that resonate with their interests and values to help build a personalized identity.
“An emerging adult in Mexico City declares “K-Pop really changed my life” as she immerses herself in the music, fashion, and beauty standards of Korean pop culture (Stone, 2013)” (Ferguson et al., 2017).
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This trend — insofar as it is engaged in out of genuine personal interest & primarily experienced privately (as opposed to for commercial value) — would be an example of Cultural Appreciation.
Japanese Anime & Remote Acculturation of Religion — Packard & Ugoretz, 2022
“Anime, filled with Japanese spirituality, is part of a massive boom in the popularity of East Asian media.
Japanese spirituality inspires and permeates much of the manga, anime and video games that have exploded in popularity among iGen and Millennial Americans — known for their “borderless” embrace of artistic content from other countries and cultures they encounter online.
Anime is full of undertones, symbols and explicit references to diverse religious and spiritual traditions that billions of people follow.”
Height in South Korea & North Korea
South Korean men & women are the tallest of their sex in East/Southeast Asia.
The fact that South Koreans are also taller than North Koreans demonstrates the influence of nurture given that they have the same genetic lineage (same nature) but different freedoms, rights, access, etc.
Women tend to be taller in countries with greater gender equality, r(101) = .20, p = .044.
General Sidenotes (most of the material below is just excess)
Multiracials’ HLA
Multiracial patients may have a harder time finding a match due to uncommon human leukocyte antigens (HLA), which are used to match donors and patients.
Some ethnic groups have more complex tissue types than others & this is especially true for Multiracials.
President Obama’s Sisters
Dr. Auma Obama (Black monoracial) & President Obama share the same dad
Dr. Maya Soetoro-Ng (Wasian) & President Obama share the same mom
His sisters aren’t genetically related to each other
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First Lady Michelle’s Ancestry — Swarms, 2012 (6.16 [NYT])
By 1890, census takers counted 1.1 million Americans of mixed ancestry.
All four of Michelle Obama’s grandparents had multiracial forebears. There were Irish immigrants who nurtured their dreams in a new land and free African-Americans who savored liberty long before the Civil War. Some were classified as mulatto by the census, while others claimed Cherokee ancestry.
Barack Obama and the Ironies of Afrocentrism — Algernon Austin, 2009
Although Obama identifies as a black American (Obama 2004b : xvi), he is not a typical black American. His desire to speak for the universal is likely influenced by his multiracial and international background. His mother was white. His step-father was Asian. He has a half-Asian, half-sister, and he lived in Indonesia for a period of his childhood (Obama 2004b : 28–52, 440). Even the places where Obama lived were extremely multiracial. Hawaii has a very multiracial racial landscape compared with the rest of the United States (Schaefer 2000 : 347–351). Indonesia, too, is, from an Asian perspective, very multiracial5 and very multicultural for Asia (Obama 2004b : 28–52). Although Obama identifies as a black American, his life experience is far more multiracial and multicultural than that of most Americans of any race.
Obama is comfortable not speaking for any particular group, because he does not see himself as belonging to any one single group. He is most comfortable speaking for all groups, speaking for the universal.
Multiracial Experiences — KQED News Staff, 2023 [4.28]
“educational services change lives for the better and help individuals and communities achieve their full potential.
We celebrate diversity, embrace innovation, value lifelong learning and partner with those who share our passion for public service.”
American Airlines Accused Black Dad of Trafficking his Multiracial Sons — Helen Coffey, 2023 (9.25 — The Independent)
Musician David Ryan Harris was flying from Atlanta, Georgia, to Los Angeles, California, on 15 September when a flight attendant on board allegedly became suspicious because one of his #Multiracial (Black-White) sons didn’t interact with her.
“Maybe it isn’t a race thing, but when you don’t respond at all, I’m left to make sense of the altercation on my own. No one said ‘sorry sir, there’s been an uptick in human trafficking and our policy is …….’. Nothing. American Airlines, I’ve spent more money with your airline than any other. I’m just shy of a million miles. Poor form.”
Southwest Accused White Mom of Trafficking her Multiracial Daughter — Gerrard Kaonga, 2023 (8.23 — Newsweek)
A lawsuit against Southwest Airlines alleges that a white woman and her 10-year-old Multiracial (Black-White) daughter were victims of racial profiling during a flight after an airline employee, suspecting that the child was being trafficked, called police.
“To this day, when Moira and I are out in public — and especially at airports or on planes — I’m hyperaware that we might be judged and reported for any interaction we have with each other,” MacCarthy, who lives in Los Angeles, told Newsweek.
“It’s a strange feeling to be on alert about your most basic behaviors with your child, and it’s exhausting. As for Moira [who is now 12], she still clams up and doesn’t want to talk about what happened.”
“Just as the police are constitutionally not permitted to stop-and-frisk young men of color based upon their race, corporate America is similarly not permitted to resort to such profiling to use law enforcement to stop and question racially diverse families simply based upon their divergent races, which is what Southwest did.” — David Lane (Mary’s Attorney)
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Vice President Kamala Harris & Identifying as Multiracial
Halsey’s Multiracial Identity, 2014 (April 20):
“My dad is Black & a little Irish and my mom is Italian & Hungarian”
= 2nd-Generation Multiracial
The iGen (Z)
The iGen (or GenZ) has seen the world internationally since birth because the iPhones they were born with gave them the portals to the virtual public square.
From an All In With Chris Hayes segment
‘There is something salutary about moral vanity; one’s vanity about being seen as a morally aligned person is associated with a greater propensity to do the right thing.
To the degree that the action is consequential & requires investment over time, authentic understanding & appreciation for why something is the right thing will develop over time, in spite of the initial vanity motivations’
Late Night Diversity — Eric Deggans, 2023 (10.5 — NPR)
”Late night TV has seen a recent exodus of non-White stars — from Desus and Mero and Ziwe to Trevor Noah himself. And Wood remains concerned that, as the genre contracts, people of color are stuck in a “last hired, first fired” position.
“I don’t believe diversity to be the paramount priority [anymore],” Wood says.
For interracial couples… Did the cultural negotiation while dating translate to child socialization?
Adoptees & DNA — Haye-ah Lee, 2016 (4.16 — Yonhap News Agency)
Some estimates put the number of Multiracial adoptees from Korea at more than 4,000 between 1953 and 1965.
Adoption of Multiracial Children — Kori Graves, 2020
According to Michael Cullen Green, “in contrast to African American endeavors to assist European brown babies… no sustained campaigns arose for the support of Multiracial children in Asia.”
Green further explains that this difference existed because African Americans faced legal, economic, and cultural barriers that made adoptions of Multiracial Korean-Black children harder to complete than adoptions of Multiracial children born in European countries.
Consequently, the “Cold War imperatives that encouraged cultural celebrations of the adoption of Asian orphans and abandoned Wasian children… did not extend to Blasians.”
👰🏻✈️ Simpson, 1998
Asian war brides came to represent the single largest migration of Asian women ever to come to the United States. Between 1947 and 1964, approximately 72,700 Asian women immigrated:
45,853 Japanese women;
14,435 Filipino women;
6,000 Chinese women; and
6,423 Korean women.
Considering there were 383,650 Asians in the US before the war, the arrival of 72,700 women in 17 years is an 18.95% increase in the US Asian population (Daniels, 1990).
According to Shukert and Scibetta (1988), “most of the 6,000 Chinese war brides married Chinese-American soldiers” and were technically not “war brides” but “proxy brides” or young women whose marriages to these men had been arranged prior to the war.
The historic Immigration & Naturalization Act was passed in 1965.
Thus, between 1964–1975, the numbers are listed as:
66,681 Japanese;
51,747 Filipino;
28,205 Korean;
11,166 Thai; and
8,040 Vietnamese war brides.
Sayonara (1957). Directed by: Joshua Logan. Writ. James Michener and Paul Osborn. Performances by: Marlon Brando and Miiko Taka.
Mixed Messages Episode 8 — Guest = Samira Mehta (Whindian)
“Was wondering whether this bedrock relationship in my life was falling apart in front of my eyes.”
“He apologized for being a bad friend … for wanting to have an argument about it instead of being present with my pain.”
“You may have someone with that shared history
and they show up for you in other ways
and now you’re watching
and they’re not repeating the mistake.”
“How much do they love you if they think this about a huge part of yourself & your life… and how much has that friendship existed if they feel this way…” Sarah
Samira
“There’s value in allowing people to be messy & imperfect… and I think there’s loss in cutting people off.
But there’s also this huge risk that you’ve been habituated since birth to accept harmful behavior at the cost of love.”
“There’s massive loss in having cut off relationships because people were imperfect.”
Do they show openness/receptivity to grow?
“There are times when you have to say
What it will do to me to call this out [shouldn’t be my responsibility]…
It is also not my responsibility to fix this brokenness…”
“Although neither of us realized it she was being profoundly culturally insensitive.”
“The Indian side of my family has always been perfectly happy to tell me that I was not Indian enough.”
(Still Samira) “I’m monolingual.
I get blamed for not speaking a language that the adults in my life did not speak around me.”
“The racism that hurts me the most isn’t the racism that scares me the most.”
“The church is a hospital”
A hospital that can help people proofread chapters of their life. Sometimes hearing another voice read what you’ve written makes it easier to detect issues. In this way, faith provides a version of spellcheck & grammarcheck when the chapters of our lives are written.
Anti-Affirmations
“Young Chinese women are increasingly turning to AI boyfriends, appreciating their chatbot companions’ ability to communicate better than a real man.”
Fun With Chloe 🤖 (my GPT)
The perspective offered by the CSWAC presents a thought-provoking argument about the intersection of Multiracial community-building and the deconstruction of white supremacy. It suggests a proactive approach, where dismantling a dominant racial paradigm goes hand-in-hand with establishing a new, inclusive center that celebrates Multiracial identity.
Their argument hinges on the idea that simply removing the current center — whiteness — is not sufficient for an equitable society. They posit that an intentional effort to create a Multiracial center is necessary to truly transform societal structures and relationships.
On the other hand, the counterargument favors a society without a racial center, aligning more closely with the ideals of a pluralistic society where all racial identities are given equal space and recognition without one dominating the cultural narrative. This view advocates for a racial fluidity and a non-centered approach that could potentially allow for a more organic interplay of cultures and identities, reflecting America’s diversity.
Both arguments are rooted in a vision for a society that moves beyond white supremacy. The CSWAC’s view is strategic and directed, believing that a new, positive center must be established. In contrast, the counterargument appeals to the American ideals of equality and freedom, suggesting a more egalitarian outcome from the absence of any racial center.
It’s a complex debate with no easy answers, as it delves into the core of how society constructs and values identity. This dialogue is essential as it reflects the evolving understanding of race and community in the American socio-political landscape.
.It’s indeed possible that both perspectives could converge around the concept of fluidity, which is inherent to Multiracial identities. A “Multiracial center,” in this sense, wouldn’t be a fixed point, but rather a dynamic space where multiple identities can coexist and be validated without a single one dominating.
By promoting a Multiracial center, the CSWAC might be advocating for a space that inherently challenges the notion of a static racial hierarchy because Multiracial identities, by their very nature, embody intersectionality and fluidity. In this center, the boundaries are less defined, allowing for the kind of racial and cultural interplay that reflects the true diversity of experiences.
The notion of a fluid, non-centered approach aligns with the counterargument that no single racial identity should be at the center. Instead, all identities are given equal recognition and the space to define themselves as part of the whole. This approach dismantles the idea of a fixed racial hierarchy by celebrating the movement and evolution of identities within the societal fabric.
Both perspectives seem to strive towards a similar end — a society that moves beyond rigid racial constructs towards a more inclusive and equitable space. The difference lies in the methodology and the envisioned pathway to achieve such a society. The CSWAC emphasizes the need for intentional space-making for Multiracial communities, while the counterargument envisions a society where racial fluidity allows for a naturally egalitarian landscape.
Multiracial Gospel of Thailand — Multiracial Thai-Belgium Kiddos — Fresnoza-Flot, 2019
luk-kreung = mixed-Thai
farang = Western White person
farang dam = Western Black person
mia farang = “wives of Western men”
“In 1914, King Rama IV restricted marriages between Thais and farang across social class lines for the purpose of “national security” and the preservation of “local religion” (Lapanun, 2019: 50). It should be noted that during the early period, it was often Thai men from privileged social and/or intellectual backgrounds who formed couples with farang:
for example, the union of Prince Chakrabongse and his Russian wife Catherine (Chakrabongse, 1957).
Thai women from less privileged backgrounds, on the other hand, usually married farang men (Lapanun, 2019).
🙏🏻 At first, it was interreligious unions between partners with different ethnicities that drew strong disapproval in Thai society. During the 17th century, the Siam state issued a decree prohibiting such unions involving “specifically the Thai and the Mon” people, due to “the fear that the offspring” born of those relationships “would convert to the religion of their father, and side with their father’s nation in time of conflict” (Bumroongsook, 1995: 72).
For the same reason, intermarriage between Thai women and foreign men of “non-Buddhist faith”, including “English, Dutch, Javanese and Malay men”, were also forbidden (Loos, 2008: 31). This early view of mixed unions’ children as “potential traitors” to the Siam state took shape against the backdrop of the negative social image of farang at that time.
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Intermarriages between farang and Thais became an important object of state control: for example, a 1897 law required Thai-farang couples to legally register their marriage, a regulation that Thai-Thai couples were not subjected to (Bumroongsook, 1995).
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, when the Thai fascination with farang progressively turned from a “craze for things farang” to the “luk-kreung phenomenon” (Kitiarsa, 2010: 72). Multiracial children of Thai-farang couples became an indicator of privileged social class belonging.
Children of the Rented Wife
However, this symbolic social value of luk-kreung started to decline during the Vietnam War period (1955–1975) when US military bases were installed in the north and northeast (Isan) of the country. Contact between Thai women and US military men took place near these bases, notably in “Rest and Recreation (R&R)” areas (Feanghu, 2011), which led to the formation of mixed couples on a mostly temporary basis. During this time, the image of luk-kreung became synonymous with the “children of rented wife (mia chao)”, that is, the offspring of a Thai woman sex worker and a US military man.
Mixed-Thais were seen by Thai people as the “rice outside the paddy field” or khao nork naa (see Reynolds 1999). This specific “luk-kreung phenomenon” revived the Thai state’s view of farang as a threat and of luk-kreung as “potential traitors” to the Thai nation. This view explains the Thai government’s “special announcement” in 1972, prohibiting the acquisition of Thai nationality by the children of Thai women and farang (Bumroongsook, 1995: 76). Aside from legal exclusion, lukkreung underwent social discrimination and ostracism due to “racial” and social class factors intersecting in their lives.
Mixed Colorism
Since the height of Thailand’s economic growth from the latter part of the 1980s to the first half of the 1990s, the figure of the luk-kreung has acquired a new valorised meaning, but with “racial” overtones due to the emphasis on “whiteness”.
Mixedness also provides a sort of privilege to some who gain access to certain opportunities in the entertainment, sports, and beauty pageant industries (Van Esterik, 1996). We observe here the social transformation of the “monster” figure associated with mixed-parentage people into that of “fashion models” (Haritaworn, 2016).
In Laos, “Fair complexion appears to be an indicator of “money, wealth and privilege” (High, 2004).
In contrast to their White-Thai counterparts, Black-Thais with a Black father & a Thai sex worker mother carried a double social disadvantage, because of their dark complexion and the stigma associated with their mother’s work.
As Chaipraditkul (2013) remarks, “[t]he image of dark skin is generally less popular than white skin, as dark skin can symbolise degradation, considered a type of untouchability to the Thais” (p. 30).”
🩰 Globalization & Salsa Dancing — Boulila, 2017
“Cosmopolitanism is the epitome of ‘living with difference’ (Ahmed, 2000; Binnie, Holloway, Millington, & Young, 2006). In Britain, positive conceptualisations of cosmopolitanism are often associated with the possibility to consume a diverse array of foods and cultural goods (Binnie et al., 2006).
Salsa here is presented as a practice that puts the cosmopolitan body at ease as it creates ‘comfort’ and a ‘home’. The ‘cosmopolitans’, in Skinner’s (2007) study, are shown to be more attached to their dancing rather than to their geographical locations. Skinner therefore conceptualised salsa as a mobile skill that provides those who attain it with mobility. He theorises this through Hannerz who asserted that cosmopolitans dispose over ‘decontextualised knowledge [which] can be quickly and shiftingly recontextualised in a number of settings’ (1996, p. 109). Hence the ability to de- and recontextualise salsa is what makes it so mobile.
Skinner presents mobility as a vital career perquisite for many salsa professionals. Exploring salsa scenes in Northern Ireland he recounts: They might teach in Belfast but they also teach in neighbouring cities in Northern Ireland; they run franchise classes for other teachers; and they sell ‘bootleg’ salsa merchandise CDs and DVDs (2007, p. 497).
Framing salsa as a cosmopolitan practice requires removing the dance from particular geographical and cultural locations. Katherine Wilson (2010) called for divorcing salsa from its association with Latin American and Latina/o culture and politics. She writes: ‘Modern Salsa is outsider/insider music because it is owned by none and all’ (Wilson, 2010, p. 246).
Although she admits that most salsa music is still produced with Spanish lyrics, she calls to re-define ‘the local’ away from notions of ‘ethnic roots or language of origin’. For her, salsa as a dance practice is ‘at home’ at transnational salsa congresses where the latest aesthetic and instructional practices are shared.”
Stuart Hall (1992) argued that cultures are imagined communities that act as homogenising devices providing a point of unification for subjects that are segregated by power dimensions [or identity & lived experiences].
Bhabha suggests is that cultures are always product of this process of translation and displacement. Originality, in this logic, can therefore not be accessed and claims to cultural authenticity are nothing but claims to authority.
At first sight, both Hall’s and Bhabha’s interventions seem to support Wilson’s case to remove salsa from ‘Latina/o culture’ as they deconstruct authenticity as an essentialising claim to authority over the practice of salsa. However, what Wilson fails to take into account are the symbolic and material power processes that inform the commodification of salsa in a global market. Moving salsa to a cosmopolitan stage seems to be indifferent to the racialising processes and the classism that underpins theorisations of ‘the cosmopolitan’ (Hannerz, 1996; Skinner, 2007, 2008).
Multilingual Salsa Music
Salsa is presented as globally desirable because of its ‘universal character’ and ability to adapt to local taste cultures. Salsa’s appeal and global mobility is often explained with its hybrid character.
Salsa music is cleverly marketed and although mainly sold with Spanish lyrics, it is recorded in various languages including Arabic, Hindi, Thai, Nepali or Indonesian (Wilson, 2010).
For the European market, Rhythms Del Mundo have recorded salsa remixes of U.S. and British pop songs featuring artists such as U2, Coldplay or Radiohead.
There is even an album with German language pop songs for the Swiss, Austrian and German market.
Wilson highlights that salsa music in languages other than Spanish enhances the genre’s desirability. It seems that this marketing strategy allows for salsa to make itself ‘at home’ in other contexts than in the Americas or the Caribbean.Salsa is reproduced as an ‘open’ and ‘diverse’ leisure practice that is open to ‘everyone’ and unites peoples from ‘different cultures’ (Skinner, 2007; Wilson, 2010). Although salsa as an individual movement can be interpreted and performed by any body, not all bodies have the same access to symbolic and material systems of power.”
Stefanie Claudine Boulila (2017). Salsa cosmopolitanism? Consuming racialised difference in the European social dance industry. Leisure Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2017.1405459
Instagram Quizzes
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Thoughts After a Faculty Meeting in September 2023…
Until today I’d never been in a room with mostly Black professors in my life
I’ve never interacted with that many Black professors (9) within the same day… or the same year. It was surreal
I never took a class with a Black professor in college. My first Black professor was me (I was also my first Native American professor)
“Interference with matriculation and career progress” (UCSD TA referencing the UAW Strike in Fall Quarter 2022)
“Writers such as Christine Lehnen (2021) and Joshua Weiss (2021), in their reviews of Squid Game, point out how the Korean series offers a new take on Battle Royale and Hunger Games. These accounts assume that Korean media appropriates from Japan and the United States, attributing any cultural specificity to the hybridity that emerges from that appropriation. Rather than acknowledging the distinctive qualities of Squid Game, hegemonic cultures too often get positioned as the main points of reference from which the cultural specificity of Korean media is constructed, further underscoring how [Korean media’s] transnational viability reveals a process of legitimization forged through neocolonial logics” (Han, 2023).
“The classic paradigms with which domination was explained are incapable of taking into account the dissemination of the centers, the multipolarity of social initiatives, the plurality of references — taken from diverse territories — with which artists, artisans, and the mass media assemble their works” (Nestor García Canclini, 2005)..
Guyana vs. Venezuela
The Venezuelan vote in favor of extending sovereignty over the oil-and mineral-rich area was 90%. The referendum, which Guyana has described as a pretext for “annexation”, marks a new phase in a dispute over the Essequibo region.
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My Netflix knows me very well
