“Happy Seoul for foreigners”: scenes from multicultural life in South Korea

Abstract

Since the mid-2000s, multiculturalism has become a prominent buzzword in South Korea as the nation, which was founded on the myth of a single bloodline, tries to come to terms with its growing foreign population. This article looks at the figure of the industrial migrant worker who, despite being ignored by the mainstream media, has appeared in a handful of independently produced Korean films, including three—Bandhobi (2009 Bandhobi [???]. 2009. Directed by Shin Dong-il. Seoul: IndieStory Inc. [Google Scholar]), Hello, Stranger (2007 Hello Stranger [?? ?? ???]. 2007. Directed by Kim Dong-hyun. Seoul: IndieStory Inc. Host and Guest [???]. 2005. Directed by Shin Dong-il. Seoul: LJ Film. [Google Scholar]), Where Is Ronny? (2008 Where Is Ronny? [??? ???]. 2008. Directed by Sim Sang-kook. Seoul: JinJin Pictures. [Google Scholar])—that will be discussed here in detail. These films, as I will show, not only provide an alternative perspective on immigrant life in Seoul and other parts of the country, which is more often than not represented through the privileged world of the Western “expat,” but also reveal the underlying tensions and contradictions in Korea's approach to multiculturalism as it tries to regulate diversity through the fiat of legislative policy while ignoring the moral and political choices confronting its citizens as they decide whether or not to befriend the other.     

Gigging “classical” in Iran

ABSTRACT

The term “classical” is often applied to the genre of Iranian music known as musiqi-e sonnati (traditional music), normally identified by a form of music making involving extensive extemporization based on a structural framework called the radif, historically performed at length in intimate settings among initiated individuals. Today, classically trained musicians working the public concert circuit in Iran face a somewhat different picture of musical practice. Concert halls are typically much larger, audiences much wider, and performances much shorter. Many musicians tend to categorize themselves as classical, though they do not always perform according to the traditional parameters of the sonnati genre. This raises questions about new developments in classical music that fall just outside radif-based performance, and about the perceived conceptual relationship between sonnati and new-classical performance as the genre evolves. This article explores some of these dynamics through reflections among performers navigating Tehran’s classical concert circuit today.     

“Gangnam Style” in Dhaka and inter-Asian refraction

This essay explores the political implications of the flash mob dance in Dhaka, Bangladesh performed in response to the 2012 global viral sensation of South Korean rapper PSY’s “Gangnam Style” music video. The global fame of “Gangnam Style” has much to do with its success online and in the U.S. popular music industry. It, however, also solicited suspicion from popular culture critics that the images of comical PSY worked successfully thanks to unchecked consumption of the racial stereotypes of Asian men. While recognizing these problems as more than valid, this essay simultaneously calls for a more transnational and inter-Asian understanding of the material to argue for a productive quality of PSY’s performance. Using “refraction” as a mode of thinking about inter-Asian circulation of pop culture, this essay considers the flash mob performed in Dhaka, Bangladesh as an important yet underexplored case study that shows different performative practices associated with “Gangnam Style” deeply rooted in historicity of colonialism and nationalism. The case study shows that the circulation of “Gangnam Style” materialized through a performance in Dhaka enlarged contemporary discourse among young urban Bangladeshi spectators around Bangladeshiness and its cultural identity. This complicated an easy assumption about “Gangnam Style” and its success in the U.S. mainstream pop culture, while simultaneously displacing the Bangladeshi cultural subjects from the immobile position of “the Other.”     

Malaysia as an “Other” in Indonesian popular discourse

This article reads contemporary popular publications in Indonesia on the topic of Indonesian–Malaysian relations. It looks at how Indonesia perceives Malaysia and the function of that perception in relation to Indonesian national identity. The article also looks at how Indonesian perceptions of Malaysia were discussed during the revolutionary period by reading the speeches held at the constitutional meeting (BPUPKI) and the Konfrontasi period, reading the speeches written by Sukarno and the letter of Pan-Malay leader exiled in Indonesia, Ibrahim Yaacob. The article then compares the ideas espoused by Sukarno, Yaacob and others in the past and the arguments presented in the present day concerning Malaysia. A preliminary conclusion is reached that geopolitical anxiety and not kinship is a more important factor in how contemporary Indonesia sees Malaysia.     

Chinese Cloth Paste Painting “Clepatra” Displayed in Cairo

Chinese artist Shi Yunmei showcased her cloth-paste painting works at China Cultural Center in Cairo. The livelv rabbit, the image of Egyptian Queen Clepatra and many other cloth-paste paintings captivated local audiences.     

Cultural Exchange Promotes Common Development “African Cultures in Focus 2010” Launched in China

<正>A press conference on"African Cultures in Focus 2010" was recently held in Beijing.This cultural event is jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, the State Administration of Radio,     

Song of the Compassionate Echoes in UN “Reflecting Confucius Analects Choral” in UNESCO HQ

<正>Song of the Compassionate--Reflecting Confucius Analects Choral(hereinafter referred to as "the Choral") was jointly hosted by China's Permanent Mission to UNESCO and China Literature and Arts Foundation,supported by China Classic Culture Communication and Exchange Committee,assisted by China Cultural Center in Paris,     

“Great Romance of the Three Kingdoms”Displayed in Beijing

<正>In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, the exhibition "Great Romance of the Three Kingdoms", presented by Art Exhibition China, traveled to seven Japanese cities including     

Creative industries in “developing” countries: Questioning country classifications in the UNCTAD creative economy reports

The UNCTAD Creative Economy Reports (CERs) are arguably the most influential policy-oriented texts on the global scope and potential of the creative economy. They contain arguments for greater policy attention to the creative economy worldwide and statistical data to illustrate their claims. These reports argue that the creative economy is an area of growth, not only in “developed”, but also in “developing” economies. The central argument of this article is that the way the country classification used in the CERs increases the share of “developing countries” in global creative goods exports in contrast to The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) classifications. When singling out China, the share of these countries decreases even further. According to The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in 2010, 41 “developed” countries account for 51.18 per cent and 158 “developing” countries for 48.03 per cent of the global creative economy with 17 economies in transition accounting for 0.79 per cent. This obfuscates reality and obstructs the creation of evidence-based policies relevant to the creative industries. The classification of developed and developing countries is redrawn in accordance with building on data on the export of creative goods, provided by UNCTADstat. This article proposes that a more correct, balanced, and disaggregated outlook on the classification of countries is needed because one single “developing country” (China) is the single biggest exporter of creative goods in the world (25.51 per cent in 2010) yet the 49 “least developed countries” account for merely 0.11 per cent of creative goods exports (in 2010) while they comprise 880 million people (or some 12 per cent of the world's population). In conclusion, it is argued that different kinds of developing countries need different approaches and policies. Reference is made to Burkina Faso to illustrate this point.     

“Uncultural” Asian Americans in ABC’s Dr. Ken

In this essay, we interrogate the ways in which the uncultural masks the cultural in ABC’s Dr. Ken. We analyze Dr. Ken’s first season, through the conceptual lens of strategic whiteness, to identify and critique the ambiguous and nuanced positions of Asian Americans. By repeatedly demonstrating the simultaneous functions of Asian Americans both as almost Whites and as (nonthreatening) Others, Dr. Ken resecures invisible territories of whiteness as property. Our goal is to disrupt the uncultural assumptions about Dr. Ken as it strategically draws attention away from its reproduction of norms of whiteness at the expense of Asian Americans.     

Rajnikant in Japan: Indian “superstardom” and low value markets

This paper draws attention to some questions thrown up by the increased circulation of mass-produced cultural commodities sourced from Asia in the relatively new markets of the region. Juxtaposing the short-lived success of the Indian star Rajnikant in Japan in the late 1990s and the unsuccessful attempt to promote Korean films in the Indian theatrical circuits a decade later, the paper argues that in spite of their considerable differences both instances foreground the difficulties cultural industries of Asia have in generating revenues in the region's markets. The paper goes on to elaborate on a model of stardom, exemplified by Rajnikant, which has evolved as a direct response to the challenges posed by low value markets.     

“Supporting excellence in the arts: from measurement to judgement”

The DCMS paper “Supporting excellence in the arts”, also known as the McMaster Review, raised more questions than it answered in terms of how UK cultural policy is likely to develop in the future. Although many of its intentions are laudable, the report fails to resolve the inherent problems associated with defining, measuring and judging cultural “excellence”, even though this forms the core of McMaster's argument about how policy should develop. This may have significant implications for cultural institutions in the future.

In addition, many of the report's recommendations may either be contradictory or impractical in the current policy climate – such as the desire for institutions to take more risks whilst simultaneously increasing visitor numbers and meeting other targets. As such, without a wider change in the Government's approach and a re-acknowledgement of culture's intrinsic value, “excellence” may just become the latest buzzword for practitioners, rather than the key principle upon which future decisions will be based.     

The trajectory of the “Third World” in early modern Chinese thought

In this essay, I trace two aspects of the thought on the “Third World” in early modern China: how to understand the world revolution, and how to create a new China. While focusing on two trendy notions at that time, i.e. “Chinese revolution” (Zhongguo geming), and “nong country” (nongguo), I argue that the thought on the “Third World” in early modern China breaks free of the shackle of fashionable theories and draws upon local circumstances and China’s own repertoire of power when exploring an ideal of a new world. While the difficulty in confronting the “Third World” consciousness in today’s China is still overwhelming, the fact that we now remember “the spirit of Bandong” signals some progress.     

Same or different? The “cultural entrepreneurship” and “arts entrepreneurship” constructs in European and US higher education

“Arts entrepreneurship” is beginning to emerge from its infancy as a field of study in US higher education institutions. “Cultural Entrepreneurship”, especially as conceived of in European contexts, developed earlier and on a somewhat different but parallel track. As Kuhlke, Schramme, and Kooyman [(2015). Introduction. Creating cultural capital: Cultural entrepreneurship in theory, pedagogy and practice. Delft: Eburon] note, “In Europe, courses began to emerge in the late 1980s and early 1990s?…?primarily providing an established business school education with an industry-specific focus on the new and emerging creative economy.” Conversely, the development of “arts entrepreneurship” courses and programmes in the US have been driven as much or more from interest within arts disciplines or even from within the career services units of arts conservatories as a means toward supporting artist self-sufficiency and career self-management. This paper looks at the conceptual development of “arts entrepreneurship” in the US as differentiated from “cultural entrepreneurship” in Europe and elsewhere. Its intention is to uncover where the two strands of education (and research) are the same, and where they are different. In addition to a review of existing literature on European cultural entrepreneurship, US data is drawn from a new survey and inventory of US arts entrepreneurship programmes developed for the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru).     

“You don’t sound black” African immigrant youth experiences of discrimination in the labor market in Calgary

This paper aims to understand the factors promoting racial microaggression from the perspective of first-generation Black African immigrant youth in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Most of the literature on Blacks and other visible minorities [1] in Canada is centered on integration challenges, which have been identified in terms of socioeconomic and political marginalization. Within the context of immigrant challenges of navigating the job market, one realizes that many institutionalized factors influence access to opportunities. However, there is little research on immigrant youth, notably Black youth, and their experiences of racial microaggressions in Canadian society. This study fills this gap by offering an understanding of the experiences of microaggressions among Black African youth in Calgary. This city is arguably becoming increasingly diverse with the influx of immigrants from different countries and other Canadian provinces. Drawing on qualitative research methods (40 semistructured interviews with Ghanaian and Sudanese youth immigrants, 20 females and 20 males between the ages of 18 and 30 years), we incorporate meaningful insights from African immigrant youth on racial drivers of microaggressions. The analysis is grounded in critical race theory (CRT). Findings indicate that the youth face marginalization in the labor market during the hiring process (linguistic discrimination), discrimination at the workplace, and exclusion because their names are exploited as identity markers. Overall, policies advocating for an inclusive society need to be strengthened to address these inequalities that are ingrained in Canadian cities. [1] In this study, a visible minority is defined by the Government of Canada as ‘persons, other than aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour’ (Statistics Canada, 2015).