Occidentalism

According to this article, KBS, the Korean national television broadcaster, had a television program shown between 29/08/2009 to 05/09/2009 called “Manchuria big investigation” that claimed that Manchuria is land belonging to the Korean race, and that the Qing Dynasty emperors were descendants of Koreans.

Other quotes from the program -

*The Manchu Liao river area civilization started at 6000BC, 1000 years before the flower of civilization blossomed at the Yellow River.
*In 3500BC the Hongshan civilization had the rudiments of a forming nation-state.
*The Yellow River and Liao River civilizations are definitely different. In artifacts from the Liao River civilization, there are earrings and the like that look exactly like those exhumed in Korea.

The program goes on to say that Manchuria had deep connections to Korea (and not China).

In relation to the program, the chief of a Chinese social science research institute said, “Some Korean people arbitrarily fabricate history. Currently from the result of archeological studies, we know that the Liao River, Yellow River, and Yangtze River civilizations are an important source in the inheritance of Chinese civilization”. He rejected that Korean theory that the ancestors of Manchurians were all Koreans, saying that Korean related people were ethnic minorities.

The reaction on the Chinese side this time has not really been anger (it has on past occasions). This time a lot of them are laughing about it and making sarcastic comments.

On a portal website, two polls was taken about this issue. Asked how they felt about the show, “feel resentment” was 29%, “want to laugh” was 69%, and “don’t care” was 3%. On the question of, “with the Korean media doing this kind of conduct, does it lower your general opinion of Korea?”. “Opinion lowered” was 89.3%, “not lowered” was 3%, and “don’t care” was 7.7%.

Although some of the comments were of anger or of scholarly rebuttal, many were humorous in nature. Comments included, “Koreans change history at their own convenience”, “how funny, what poor people”, “if South Korea unites with North Korea, then it will be doubly funny”, “Korean’s ancestors are Martians. Go back to Mars ASAP”, “that’s right. The Koreans that carried out the big bang were the first ones on the earth to carve the two characters 韓国 (Korea) on a stone”, etc.

Scott Loper, and American citizen, says he was tortured in a Canadian prison. His son was also kidnapped by the Canadian authorities, and was never returned to him. See this interview with him, starting at 5:40 on the video below.

You can read his website here. Scary stuff.

A few comments got deleted from various commenters over at the marmot’s hole because they were off topic. In relation to this comment by Hamel -

Shak: I grow weary of seeing Gerry claiming some intellectual and moral high ground. Yes, he does express a contrarian viewpoint, but so what? I do that sometimes too.

When you say that he apparently does it “in a society that refuses to consider points of view outside the official political orthodoxy” are you speaking of this blog, or Korea? Because the two must not be conflated.

I am aware that Gerry has spent some decades in Korea, and has some facility with the Korean language. I do not see any signs, however, that he “is able to take Korea on Korean terms.” I would say that of, for example, Oranckay, who essentially lived his entire adult life here, or John Linton, who grew up here.

As to my big mouth that likely can’t string a sentence together past the minimum 호프 Korean, well that’s funny. Is this really to become a “my Korean is better than your Korean” debate? I won’t claim to be any great shakes in the language, but I don’t like to blow my own trumpet.

As to what Gerry said about Dosan, I agree it wasn’t that unusual per se. I don’t necessarily think he meant anything negative. But for many here, the fact that Gerry is speaking about a Korean independence figure, and that he tends to speak mainly on Japanese colonisation of Korea and Dokdo, well, you do the math, as the Americans say.

I answered -

There is a substantial difference between whatever contrarian viewpoints you express and the specific viewpoint that Gerry has been expressing.

Virtually all Koreans, probably statistically 100%, agree that the Liancourt Rocks are historically and legally part of Korea, and have been for centuries. Any opinion that goes against this is considered distortion and lies. This unanimity of opinion in itself is problematic. I cannot think of a single issue in Australia, for example, that inspires such goose stepping in opinion. I think it is fair to say that the Dokdo issue is a cultural taboo. Discourse outside of accepted orthodoxy is proscribed, with harsh penalties dealt out to those that deviate.

I doubt that you have ever had a contrarian opinion, or if you did, expressed such a contrarian opinion regarding a Korean sacred cow to your Korean hosts. There are quite a few issues that are open to debate in Korea, but the one that Gerry discusses is not one of them.

That is why, regardless of the merits of his arguments (which I think are excellent), Gerry’s work is very important. There needs to be dissenting opinion. There being no dissenting opinion in Korea on this issue, this taboo, and it is very unhealthy. Think about it – Gerry expresses an opinion backed up with vast amounts of data, yet all we have are people ascribing evil motives to Gerry’s work without even dealing with the substance of his argument. We are not talking about a normal academic issue here, or even a territorial issue, it is a taboo.

Anyone can have contrarian views about safe topics, and have them safely – I am sure you are the archetype of that. Having a contrarian view about topics in which 100% of people are going to disagree with you despite themselves being basically ignorant of the topic in question is another thing all together. A little support for someone that actually faces societies taboos would be helpful. Your snide insinuations, sarcasm, and disingenuous remarks are just part of the taboo enforcement mechanism, whether you consciously participate or not.

What do you do when your homeland is going down the toilet, and there are well connected people and organisations that actually support spreading AIDS? I don’t know. If you do, let me know.

The latest from the ’spread AIDS’ lobby is their reaction to a 2 1/2 month jail sentence given to a HIV positive male prostitute in the ACT, Australia.

Australia’s peak sex workers association says the jail term prostitute sends a “disgraceful” message that having sex with an infected person is unsafe.

The Scarlet Alliance chief executive Janelle Fawkes said the organisation was “appalled” by the decision, saying she was extremely concerned at the possible repercussions after this kind of message.

“Last week, the ACT attorney-general, Simon Corbell, came out and stated that Section 25 should be reviewed and considering current risk in transmission that, in fact, an HIV positive person being a sex worker does not hold a higher risk for the community,” Ms Fawkes said.

“But this week, we have a judge in the ACT making an example of a person who was only being a sex worker whilst HIV-positive.

“That sends a clear and cutting message that having sex with an HIV-positive person is unsafe and that is simply not true.”

The same activity in NSW and several other states would not be deemed illegal, Ms Fawkes said.

Having sex with a HIV positive person “does not hold a higher risk for the community”? That is absolutely insane. Of course there is a higher risk of contracting HIV from someone that is HIV positive, because the risk of contracting it from someone that does not have HIV is zero.

“Sex worker whilst HIV-positive”? Is that supposed to be something like “driving whilst black”? These people are lunatics, and people could contract HIV or AIDS because of their activism.

Having sex with HIV positive people is unsafe. What on earth is this country coming to?

Hat tip to bananaboy

I got this email from a person using an anonymous email service called ‘Borked Pseudo Mailed’.

Why don’t you put you full name, workplace, and home address on your blog.
If you give a good reason on your blog I will keep your information secret.

Is not wanting to be pursued by strange stalkers like yourself reason enough, perhaps? Here is a better idea – why don’t you give me your full name, workplace, and home address, and we can sort this out like gentlemen. Or at the very least use your own email address to send a mail.

I wonder who sent this email.

Pyo Manung, a Korean author, wrote a special contribution to the Joong Ang Ilbo, asserting that based on historical facts, Kyushu, Shimane prefecture, Tsushima, and the Liancourt Rocks are Korean territory. He insists that the Korean government should take bold action to insist that these lands are Korean territory.

There is no need for me to translate the article. It is just a lot of dubious history with an even more dubious conclusion. Unfortunately there are no comments on the article as yet, so there is no way of knowing what Koreans that read this article think of it.

A Japanese news story of the Korean protest in Takeshima. Funny seeing the mayor of Tsushima saying how bewildered he is that the Korean protesters are trying to claim that Tsushima belongs to Korea.

A group of Korean ex-servicemen are in Tsushima right now protesting against Japan and demanding that Japan recognise Dokdo as Korean territory, and also to withdraw from Tsushima.

According to the article, at 10:20 am the group of 21 Koreans started protesting in front of the Tsushima town hall, with a banner saying “Dokdo is Korean territory, Taema is also Korean territory” (Taema is the Korean name for Tsushima – the natives call it Tsushima). Some of the protesters bit their fingers to the extent that they were able to pour enough blood on a Korean flag to write “Takeshima is our land” in Hangul.

There were some Japanese counter protesters there with a Japanese flag, and in objecting to the Korean protest some yelled “Koreans are mistaken”, “Tsushima is Japanese territory”, and “Go home!”.

A local worker watching the events commented that he could not understand why the Koreans were protesting in Tsushima, and if they want to object they should go to the national parliament. The mayor said that “It is impossible that Tsushima could be Korean territory. I want them to “withdraw” their incorrect historical awareness. Takeshima is a national problem, and we can’t deal with it in this city. I hope for the development of a future oriented and friendly Japan-Korean interchange”.

If and when there are photos of this, I will post them. Protesting about Takeshima is one thing, but fancy insisting to Japanese locals that their land belongs to Korea. Quite a nerve.

Update: Here are some pictures from here and here.

Forget about pheasant massacres for the moment, how about disabled Dokdo activists touring around and running over Japanese flags in their wheelchairs?

I think Koreans are the masters of unorthodox protest.

The pheasant massacre. Just make sure you are not eating when you view this.