Watching it right now. The even though it’s in Korean and I can’t understand most of it, it’s still funny. And joy of joys, it is NOT slapstick!
Same jazzy Manhattan intro music, same live sets, same intro, i.e., same format in all ways. And, after a brief comedic film short, the first act takes place in the National Assembly!
They’ve got some Senators in a meeting room. At the head of the room is a blackboard with a map of the National Assembly floor and a football coach, mapping out strategies for the assembly’s session of contact sport law-making.
The show’s first skit – following a performance from musical guest, Dynamic Duo – set the tone for everything else to follow. The show’s producers are seen gathered around a conference table, discussing the material set to be broadcast later that day. The following conversation ensues:
“How can you think of writing the real names of political parties? And who’s Myung Bak? Is he your friend? How can you write his name like this? … You’ll go to jail! You, me, everyone here! No one mention political parties from now on!”
“But Saturday Night Live originally has a strong focus on political and cultural parodies, so shouldn’t we also…”
“Do you want to get fired? If you want to write about that, wait until next year when the administration changes.”
“What if it doesn’t change?”
“Why shouldn’t it change? Then just wait five more years!”
The show also didn’t leave Congress out of its line of fire:
“Is this skit about Congress? Why does it only show people fighting for no reason?”
And yes, it even has weekend update! Which is also delivered in Dennis Miller style…
OMG, this is so great. Hopefully this will spell the end of ridiculous defamation lawsuits in Korea. Let satire reign!
Recently I reflected that X and myself really aren’t so far apart on our views. I have come to believe that “justice” is both hard to define and probably a fool’s pursuit. We can’t change what has already been done and must learn to live comfortably with it. We can work to improve the future for those that follow us, but it can’t undo our abandonment or heal us. We must come to terms with our history, our lack of history, and all the trauma that formed us. But I wouldn’t be so cruel as to say as he does, “Quit yer whining.” Cryng is part of the healing process, and maybe that’s why he can’t heal.
Well, a few days ago X showed up on facebook adoptee groups putting his opinion out there again, not really discussing, again., and giving the same old story – that not only were mixed-race adoptees saved, but that racism is still a problem and stigmatizing is still a problem and that Koreans don’t want to adopt these problem children so international adoption is still necessary.
I didn’t have time to respond at the moment and now can’t find his comment because THERE ARE TOO MANY FREAKING ADOPTEE GROUPS ON FACEBOOK to keep up with. So, I will respond here.
We should ask ourselves first, “Is there, in fact, such a problem,? then if yes, “Is the problem nearly so large as to warrant evacuation measures?” and, more important still, “Why is this still a problem?”
In today’s Korean society, couples put off having family for career ambitions, couples divorce prior to conceiving, some travel abroad and marry foreigners, some marry visiting foreigners, and some who don’t have the status or skills to woo an eligible Korean woman import brides from other countries. Korean ethnicity is no longer homogeneous. The orphanages are not filled with half-breed children, they are filled with children who have dysfunctional parents or orphans whose extended family can’t care for them or children in respite care whose guardians are having a temporary rough time. Then there are the Holt orphanages filled with special needs children. The children sent abroad for adoption are infants, sent away to hide a family’s shame and jettison the weight which will prevent a woman from succeeding because she has no other options without family support. We also see personalities in the media rising in popularity who are mixed race. They are not feared nor reviled, they are thought of as beautiful and exotic. We know those raised in Korea did not have an easy time growing up here, but because of them society is becoming more tolerant. What if they, too, were sent away? There would not be this progress being made, that’s what.
X believes that Korea is an ignorant society that can’t change, and so intervention by the West is necessary to “save” its lesser citizens. This is in stark contrast to what I’ve experienced living here. I’ve never witnessed a place and people that changes so rapidly in my entire life. Change IS possible, and it IS happening at lightening fast speed. It just seems slow to impatient adoptees because we want to see change in our lifetime, or even more unreasonably, in the small time we are involved with Korea. The reason X can’t see this is because he’s old. He makes his living from the older, wealthier, most self-serving, conservative Koreans who have a lot at stake if society becomes more liberal. He is out of touch with youth culture. He also is holding onto the canonization of his savior Harry Holt because the entire identity he’s created for himself pivots around being saved. Now, as a war baby he has the right to love and admire Holt – but what happened to him didn’t happen to most of us – and I’m not going to argue that as a war baby he wasn’t saved – he was – but that isn’t the case anymore.
International adoption does not save anyone from Korea. What it does do is provide the means for racial cleansing. What it does do is allow for the disposal of less than perfect progeny. What it does do is allow families to not answer for shame that maybe they deserve to bear responsibility for. What it does do is provide a really painful means to regulate women who do not follow the prescribed moralities set up by the patriarchy which subjugate them . What it does do is give the government a free pass to ignore their social responsibilities. International adoption maintains and nurtures the very ills it means to save children from. It is the catalyst for relinquishment. It is the grease that oils the perpetual machine, this vacuum. And what we are seeing in Korea is what will happen in the rest of the source countries of the world unless we put some brakes on the madness and find ways to show people that every color is beautiful, all children are perfect in God’s eyes, and that our wayward daughters are still our daughters and our grandchildren are still our grandchildren.
Catching up writing while Momo sleeps as Saturday Night Live Korea is about to begin. Am wondering how closely it will follow the format of the iconic show that’s been so instrumental in getting everyday Americans to think about larger issues through humor. I’m wondering if Korea will allow satires of Korean politics and taking on thorny issues that aren’t seen through a conservative filter, what with all the lawsuits on defamation of character & reputation…and can they portray themselves without resorting to tired characters that in reality are already like cartoons? Can Korea really, truly laugh AT themselves? I hope so. I don’t think I can handle any more slapstick. Like many instances of Konglish, the word for comedian is frozen in time and sometimes the times are also frozen. Korean comediens, gagmen, really ARE like 40’s slapstick. And while Koreans have a really great humor about them, in general Koreans take being Korean very very seriously…Maybe it’s a good sign. I hope Saturday Night Live Korea really sets a new standard of irreverence and social commentary!
Monday as I sat waiting to meet up with my future employer and friend in front of the I-Park mall, in the shadow of the military base at Yongsan, a svelte ajumma about my age quipped something friendly in Korean as she sat down next to me, removing her over-sized sun visor long unnecessary as the sky turned to dusk. She started chatting me up and I had to go through the usual litany of questions about where I was from and was I Japanese and if I was an ibyeong, could I speak Korean and really? Not at all?
And then she started waxing rhapsodic about how she loves all things American and how it was her dream to visit America one day and how lucky I was to grow up there and not here…and I tried to tell her it was really not better, just different. And then she went on about my great education and how Americans can go to ivy league universities…and I tried to tell her that they were too expensive for most Americans, but she was having nothing to do with anything that didn’t reflect her fantasy. I was getting weary of this same tired conversation yet again, when thankfully my friend showed up.
Later during our conversation over dinner he told me how he really couldn’t take living here anymore. “Why?” I asked. Because he was tired. Tired of Koreans thinking the whole world has it better than Koreans. (And I thought of the ajumma and how, really m’am, a Korean has a much better shot per-capita at going to Harvard than an American does) “Why do you think that’s so?” he asked me. I told him it was like my time in Guam, where most people had never been off of the island and the only picture they had of America was what they got off cable t.v. What the rest of the world thinks of America is a parody of America. It isn’t real. It’s the absolute best and worst because that’s what entertains us Americans. But that portrayal – of rich, mean, competitive, beautiful, successful, violent, etc. people is what the world comes away with as their impression of us. And then we come to Korea and we don’t match that image. And we bust their bubble if you are me. And we become a prospect for social climbing if you are him, a successful businessman.
Quite fortuitous to seal my arrangement with him on Monday, because on Friday my co-teacher informs me that school-district funding for my position will cease next year and that my school won’t be able to afford to carry my contract on their own. This is happening at most of the school districts in Korea at the high school level. Both she and the other co-teacher will be applying at other schools as well. They’re sick of the school and sick of the low level students always sleeping in class. Oh, and btw, the passive co-teacher’s classes have become my favorite lately. She’s started supporting me more and her students are a lot less grim than the other teacher’s so it’s easier to get them to engage in conversations. Go figure. I guess we just had to learn to respect each other’s methods a little more. It just needed time, which it turns out is something we don’t have any more of.
Turns out I might not be going to Vegas after-all. Job location is to be determined. Ha! And I was even started to look forward to it. But it really doesn’t matter where I end up. What matters is I’m working for someone who’s got faith in me, trusts me, and has my best interests in mind. I mean, that’s solid gold. In fact, I’m so grateful for this regard that I’m feeling this new feeling of loyalty that I’ve not really felt for an employer before. All these years I’ve been leaping from job to job, apartment to apartment, always looking for greener pastures – and yet maybe all I’ve really needed was for someone to believe in me and trust in me. And even my desires to obtain self-actualization, I’m thinking these are also shades of the same story. That maybe these interests are my past-time and having a job where I’m respected as a person and earn enough to be comfortable is really more valuable than I’d imagined.
What tickles me is that in my new life working in America I will still be in the company of Korean faces. I’ve come a long way from the woman paralyzed with fear when I saw an Asian face. I’ve come a long way from the arrogant American thinking I owned the stock on proper living. I’ve come a long way from the angry adoptee thinking I could force Koreans to fix their wrong ways. I love the messy interaction that causes peoples of differing cultures to reconsider their own values and inspire individuals to take chances to improve what they know and inspire a shift in thinking.
And so my chapter in Korea soon comes to a close. I hope I’ve made some difference. I know I’m a different person because of my stay here. And despite all my trials, these days I feel very fortunate to have experienced – and have a claim to – two cultures on different sides of an ocean. As for identity, I am an American citizen, a Korean by blood, belonging nowhere, yet free to choose my own life. I was an adoptee, but now I’m just a person looking to enjoy my remaining days on the planet, who has her priorities and values in order. The future looks bright.
In preparation of washing out years of dying my hair, I decided to bite the bullet (the fear of getting your hair cut in a foreign country where all nuances of communication are lost) and get my hair cut. This is the haircut I printed out and took with me to the salon:
This is a graduated bob in the back with a basic layer cut with scissor bites in the facial framing in the front, blended and connected.
This is also the third time I’ve tried to get this haircut – each time a disaster, each time it taking me a year or more + to grow it out to try again. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why this seems to be the litmus test of a skilled hairdresser and why they all fail the test! Just like most things I’ve gotten myself involved in, one reason I went to beauty school was simply because I wanted to fix such situations and thinking, “gee, I bet I can do that.”
And so I brought in the picture again (long since lost the credits for who the great hair designer was for this cut) carefully explaining what I want and making the special request to please PLEASE reserve some length so some select pieces can be pulled out and cut long and asking the hair stylist to please be an artist with the fringe.
This kind of thing strikes panic in hair stylists who are not confident with anything but their prescribed set of standard cuts. This kind of thing is also what every hair stylist worth their salt dreams will walk in the door, bored into a stupor by the constant in-flow of mind-numbing sameness they must deliver. I mean, am I asking too much? It’s not as if it’s anything avant-guarde or anything…
And so I chose the same salon I went to before, because despite the mind-numbing same same style I chose before, I recognized I was in skilled hands. This particular salon’s stylists are trained in Toni & Guy methods and Vidal Sassoon methods, which is the perfect combination for this cut. Toni & Guy methods are usually fast cut-over-finger cuts with theory behind them and tend towards edgy and trendy. Sassoon cuts, however, are precision cuts which have elevated working with each head’s contours to new levels. I went to this place knowing the back would benefit from Sassoon training and the front would benefit from Toni & Guy training.
Only my girl was gone and I got someone not listed on their website. An incredibly handsome young Korean man who should have been a model instead of a hair stylist. And he didn’t have Sassoon training, only Toni & Guy training. And I was already in the chair and in the position of being a jerk if I rejected him. And of course he couldn’t figure out what I wanted but dove in anyway. I should have pulled the brake the second he went to his poorly made collection of basic cuts and showed me images that weren’t analogous at all. I mean, I brought in THE photo, what part of I want THAT cut, didn’t he get? He put in a huge effort on the wrong cut. Fortunately there was still length enough in the front to save it, so I told him I wasn’t convinced it was the same cut and after some discussion, he dove in again.
not even close...
I stopped him and asked, “Are you sure you know what I’m talking about? Do you have a plan?” And he said it was all good and it ended up being your garden variety bob, only too long because he didn’t have the brains to get out a comb and do a cut-over-comb for the back where it should be short, only it wasn’t even good garden variety bob because the front was a half-assed attempt to be like the photo, and instead of a blended area I had a Dorothy Hamill shelf..
As I frowned and tried not to scream, he knew it stunk and started trying to “fix” it. He started trying to blend and connect because too much hair was ending where it should never end, in that region where the head is widest. The more he tried to fix it, the shorter the hair became on the top so that the shape became more and more like a helmet, until I had to say, “Stop! Just please stop cutting.”
When I got home I was even more horrified to see one side was longer and lop-sided around the eyes/cheeks. Fortunately, I brought my hair cutting scissors with me and have fixed it. Also fortunately my hair grows super fast. Usually I curse how fast my hair grows. Now I pray for it to grow faster every night before I go to bed. Aigo…
Today, after meeting two Holt adoptees who had never heard the opinion of anyone outside of Holt’s circle before, I let fate take me where it will and just meandered, with the idea I’d like to get some boots with heels, since I’ve worn my current ones out. But on the way I got side-tracked by an interesting-looking live bar. (this is what Koreans call a bar that has live music) Llooking to have some anju (drinking food) because I’d skipped lunch, I had a chat with the waiter there. It was really refreshingly strange to have an attractive young Korean man interested in talking. Musta been a good hair day or something. No. It was probably the English! ha!
Well, I was too early for food or music, so I went down to the alley and saw a man roasting huge whole fish. I pointed to the fish and he said, “fish-ee?” and I said “nae” and indicated/asked if it was okay for only one person, and he nodded and took me inside for a table. Doesn’t sound special, I know, but it’s not typical to just be able to point to a main course being cooked on the street and then have it brought to your table. Anyway, it and the banchan was awesome. AND it only cost six bucks! It’s rare to get a really good meal in Seoul for so cheap. Definitely worth a repeat…
After the yummy food I decided to look at the bookstores for some esoteric Korean cookbooks, and hit the jackpot.
I got one book first printed in the 80’s that has 40 kinds of kimchi in it.
And then, a recent book which has images of wild greens, both picked and in their natural setting so you can identify them when you go and forage, as well as one banchan recipe for each namul featured.
There are tons of fusion cookbooks and “well-being” cookbooks and diet cookbooks, but didn’t have any luck in the vegan category until I found two separately published books on temple food, one by two female monks. I got my daughter a coffee-table book in English on temple food for Christmas, and these are similar yet less romantic – less text & images and a little more food, but not as beautiful. I was happy that each book’s dishes don’t duplicate each other, so there seems to be quite a variety to the fare if you’re a monk in Korea. If I had more time and money for shipping, I’d go see if I could find more great cookbooks at the used books market in Dongdaemmun, though I DO think I’ll try to get at least one book on making hanbok (한복 만들기). Oh, and a lot of these books are available on-line at yes24.com, though that site’s all in Korean and don’t know if they ship internationally. It was good to finally see what I’ve been eating was prior to cooking and in its natural setting, Some of them, like dandelions, and lambs quarters, I know can be found anywhere U.S.A.m but there are probably about forty different ones highlighted in this book, so I’m sure some are only indigenous to Asia. Hopefully I’ll be able to translate enough words and be able to get my hands on (or substitute) enough wild greens to be able to make them. And, now that I have some handy reference, I can also look up some of my favorite dishes on-line and share them with you. I’m hoping I can purchase some of these greens at Korean markets once I get to America.
That is, if I get to America: I’m getting anxious about Vegas, as I don’t have much contact with my future boss, but I keep preparing for it anyway. Regardless, I hope I can make the most of Korea once school lets out after Christmas. I wish I could be here as just a tourist and not working. I’d make every day a serendipitous journey and/or ferret out some gems to experience.
Hello Korea ! 