Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kiwiduncan]

How many tree-hugging Koreans have you met in your time in Korea? Do you know any Koreans who harbor dreams of eco-friendly, country living, going back to nature etc? The green Koreans that I met in Korea tended to end up immigrating. Do you have many Korean friends, spouses, students or acquaintances who are bike riding, vege growing, rubbish clearing, bona-fide hippies?

[princess]

No, but your avatar is adorable! meow-meow^^

[uberscheisse]

there was that buddhist nun who went on a hunger strike to save some forest... it was big in the news about two years ago. don't know if she ate granola, had herpes or listened to bad music, but she was pretty into saving the environment.

[guido]

there area group of hippies that live on anmyeondo.they run an arts theatre...dreads...hippy names, the whole thing...pretty cool people although no English so communication was limited.

[uberscheisse]

there's also a bunch of bongo-banging drumcircle fashion hippies in hongdae that you would probably see on a nice day. i'm sure they're as alternative lifestyle as your average k-hiphop guy, but it's a lifestyle that hasn't really been tapped too much as far as ret-u-ro-su-ty-l-uh goes. i'm sure their hippieness goes about as far as bongos and indiscriminant sexual behavior.

[Oreovictim]

A Korean hippy? My friend met a couple of Korean hippies in Busan. He (my friend) said that these guys weren't into the typical Korean lifestyle. Apparently, they didn't even like kimchi. (Gasp!)

As for other hippies, I've met quite a few hippy ex-pats. They're probably my favorite crowd. I'd rather deal with a laid-back, stoned out foreigner than a loud, drunk obnoxious one.

[Vollrath]

[the eye]

Hah!
There's this Korean man who owns a peircing shop here in Daegu. Hippy personified.
Tall, lanky, loooong wirey grey/black hair. Colorful tatoos right up the arms. Bell bottomed jeans with patches and dyes. Tank tops with all the colors of the rainbow.
He runs off into Southeast Asia for months on a backpack based buying spree for his shop.

In his shop, he also sells rolling tobacco, rolling papers, pipes, and BONGS.
You can see him sitting on a carved wooden chair from Senegal, outside his shop on any decent day, smoking a rolled cigarette.
He swears he doesn't touch the wacky tobacky anymore, contemplating the wrath of his wife.
She doesn't look very hippyish.

[DaeguKid]

[RACETRAITOR]

I've met plenty of punks, skinheads, and straight-edge folk, but not many of them would be considered to have much in common with hippies.

There is one group of Korean punks, all younger guys who haven't gone to the military yet (and are seriously considering prison over service) who are a little more out there. They had a show last year where they aired Loose Change and they were deeply involved in the Daechuri protests. One of the guys became a vegan last year and everyone made a big deal about it.

[the eye]

[twg]

[swetepete]

I've met two also, and they were very nice ladies.

This country needs more barklickers. Not as many as I have at home, please, but some, anyway.

[sojourner1]

I met a kool old long haired Korean hippie that runs an art and asian antique store in Itaewon.

[kiwiduncan]

Thanks for all the info. From conversations I've had with Koreans in the past 'hippy' is a word associated with retro clothing styles than with green issues etc, but then that's the same here in the UK, where so many 'hippies' and 'India-heads' are all image and no action. Typical is the little prat who lives on our site - he's got a bus full of meditation books and tie-dyed clothing but he jumps in his car everytime he need to go to Sainsburys for his organic veges.

I've checked out various green groups in Korea in the past. Some are really cool and have good ideas, but other groups just like to blame the United States for every little fault in Korea - tedious.

All I want to do is meet Koreans who grow veges, ride bikes and have 10 year old cellphones

Swetepete, you are in Suncheon aren't you?