Matchmaking firm Duo surveyed 482 women — between the ages of 20 and 39 from November 1-15 regarding their ideal mates, and Choi In-chul, a psychology professor at Seoul National University, analysed the data
The least important factor for Korean women was physical appearance (9 percent).
A quote from the famous Robert Neff column in The Korea Times.
“Fortune tellers were often consulted prior to a marriage. If the fortune teller announced that the young bride-to-be would be widowed at a young age, drastic measures were sometimes taken.
According to Homer Hulbert, an early Korean historian, on the day prior to the wedding, a young boy would be lured into the bride-to-be’s home where he would be forced to take part in a mock wedding.
Once the sham ceremony was concluded, the boy was quickly strangled in the belief that his death fulfilled the prophecy of the woman becoming a widow.”
The Korea Times, 2 December, 2011
‘But not all women were married and for this they were punished ― not only while they were living but also after they had died. Unmarried women in Jeolla Province were sometimes buried in the middle of roads and paths.
As one writer described it, “the life of a girl who dies unmarried is an utter and complete failure, a disappointment only; therefore it is to be expected that in the next world her spirit will be restless and revengeful. To prevent this, she is not buried on a hillside among those whose lives have been happy and prosperous, but in the center of the public road, where all passers-by may trample her spirit under their feet and thus keep it in subjection.”‘
Comedian Kim Byung-man from popular comedy show “Gag Concert” has revealed that he is registered to marry his girlfriend, a single mom who is older than him.
Joongang Ilbo, November 30, 2011
Credit to the funnyman, he’s better looking than Lee Hyori’s new beau, who is more funny looking than funny.
Professor Park Young-ja of the Ewha Institute of Unification Studies stated that her interviews with recent North Korean defectors revealed a preference for younger husbands, so that the woman can; “take the leadership position in the spousal and familial relationship”.
Dead set. This is a (translated) quote from Kim Young-chul, a researcher at the KDI:
“As long as women adhere to the traditional attitude that their husbands must be better off than they are in all areas, it will be difficult for them to find anyone to marry.”
Which areas?
1. Financial
2. Educational
3. Fidelity
4. Manners
5. Appearance
장동건-고소영 결혼식
Not everyone is going to be as fortunate as Go So-young.
심은아와 누구세요?
The Prosecutor’s Office seems likely to succeed in its second attempt to arrest former vice-minister for culture, Shin Jae-min, for accepting bribes from SLS Group chairman Lee Kuk-chul who was arrested last week for bribing Shin.
Shin Jae-min studied politics at Seoul National University and after graduation worked for MBC.
With three decades of service in the entertainment business, Shin must know a lot of people and what’s in their closets.
신재민과 이국철
서울자전거
“More than 11 million people live in Seoul, and 2.8 percent of them now use their bicycles to get around, four times more than 10 years ago, according to research by the Korea Transport Institute.
With soaring petrol coasts (sic)*, the government is trying to encourage communities to better support people on bikes.”
* The Korea Times has sacked a load of sub-editors?
Lee Chong-sik, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Pennsylvania was interviewed by The Joongang Ilbo about his views on Stalin’s role in instigating the Korean War.
Here’s the cutdown version.
In Manchuria, the Chinese Communist Party engaged in a fierce civil war with Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Party. By August 1945, Stalin had decided that the Communists could not win. As such, he encouraged them to stop fighting while he sought ways of forming a secret alliance with the Kuomintang.
But this all changed after the London Conference, when Soviet-U.S. ties switched from a framework of cooperation to confrontation. Stalin even ordered China’s 300,000 Communist Party soldiers to be dispatched to Manchuria. This led to intense fighting between the Communist Party troops backed by the Soviets, and the Nationalist Party troops backed by the United States.
In the beginning, the nationalists lost ground, but they managed to turn the tide by mobilizing more soldiers. The Communist Party troops retreated to the region now known as North Korea in May 1946.
North Korea was [then] turned into a rear base for the Chinese Communist Party from May 1946 at the order of Stalin, and the North became involved in China’s internal war. Just as Manchuria was off-limits to U.S. forces during the Korean War, North Korea, between May 1946 and 1948, was a sort of a holy place that could not be trespassed on by the national party.
The Communist troops were reorganized in the North and trained by Soviet forces. Due to Stalin’s desire to use the region as a rear base for China’s Communist Party, the division of the Korean Peninsula seems to have been inevitable.
Chinese Civil War: Sept-Nov 1948. US Military Academy History Department
SBS has been running a series of inconsequential sidekicks for Yoo Jae-seok. The more inconsequential the better, lest a temporary replacement replaces Kang Ho-dong in the hearts and minds of gagmen addicts.
강호동과 유재석
Lee Chul-ho (sic)* of the Joongang Ilbo puts in an online plea for the return of his idol.
Lee Chul-ho (sic) then has a gratuitous (and apparently irresistible for Joongang crew members) shot at Ahn Cheol-soo, by claiming that building a company from nothing is less experience than being a salesman for an already established construction company, in the middle of a building boom.
* Chul vs Cheol. One is 21st C spelling and t’other is old-style.
Ahn is well on the way to forming 안민당.
순천향대학교병원
Late last month, the diplomatic corps in Korea sent a strongly worded letter to the Korean government calling for an independent inquiry into the death of the Thai ambassador’s wife.
The letter questioned the level of professionalism in many Korean hospitals and the level of English communication available.
According to the Thai Embassy, the ambassador’s wife complained of pain throughout her time at Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital in Yongsan District, Seoul, and her condition deteriorated to the point of passing out while waiting for an X-ray on Sept. 17.
But “the hospital made no effort to call any doctor, nurse or CPR team to rescue her,” the official said.
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