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bookemdanno
Joined: 30 Apr 2008
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 Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 12:31 am Post subject: A RARE APOLOGY FROM A KOREAN JOURNALIST TO FOREIGNERS |
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I seldom come across an article like the following in either The Korean Herald or The Korea Times. It comments on a spate of spousal killings and abuse by Korean men of their foreign wives. While this poignant story deals with Vietnamese, it's also a tragic occurrence among Filipinas married to Korean men. The article goes way back in history before coming to its point in current times, so be patient. Mr. Lee is an intellectual and the founder of a non-profit organization for outreach to the foreign community in Korea. If more Korean male journalists like Mr. Lee can have their voices heard, maybe something will change for the better.
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KOREAN TRAGEDY
By Lee Keun-yeup
May 23, 2008
Historically, there had been only a few good relationships between Korea and Vietnam until the Vietnam War. I'd like to introduce the story of a Vietnamese man named Mac Dinh Chi (1272-1346).
Mac was Vietnam's ``Chang Wuon,'' a candidate who achieved the top place in the royal court examination. At the news of the Chinese Yuan Dynasty's Emperor Mujong's coronation, he led Vietnam's tribute delegation to Beijing. He got acquainted with a delegate from the Korean kingdom of Goryeo through literary exchanges under the literary-oriented Mujong's patronage in Beijing. (This part from Dai Viet Su Ky: Vietnam's authentic history.)
Mac followed the Korean to Gaegyeong, now Gaeseong, just north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and married the niece of the latter, having three sons. The Mac family settled in Beijing for five years.
When Emperor Mujong died Mac took his family to Gaeseong before his return to Vietnam. He asked his wife to preserve the Mac family name through his children. He bade a heartbreaking farewell to them and left for the faraway Southeast Asian country.
Ten years later while she was using a spinning wheel, a noble man appeared at her gate. It was Mac, her husband. He had traveled thousands of miles for more than one year, on foot, by carriage, on mule, by the Grand Canal, and by risky seafaring routes.
I think the motive of the story is more touching and stronger than that of Puccini's ``Madam Butterfly'' that was first seen in 1904. After a few months stay Mac left Gaeseong for Vietnam.
Later his wife became a Buddhist nun. (This part from Vietnam's unofficial history and from the Mac family lineage in Haiduong Province east of Hanoi where Mac descendents live.)
We come across Vietnam again when Korean fishermen from Jeju Island were blown adrift by a typhoon and landed in Hoi An after 35 days. A landlady there in a beautiful silk dress asked her people to take good care of them. They were free to travel.
They were later taken to the royal palace in Hue, where the king complied with their petition for safe return. The king hired a Chinese merchant ship and sent them back to Jeju supplying food and fare with an official letter requesting the Korean authorities to inform him of their safe return.
This account is in Chu Yong Peun (A Random History Book) written in 1805-6 by Chung Dong-yu (1744-1808).
The author deeply appreciates the Vietnamese kindness. But he laments and feels shame about the barbarity his nation inflicted on foreigners, to the killing of a Ryuku (now Okinawa) prince and stealing his belongings and the mistreatment of the Dutch sailors including Hendrick Hamel.
Is it in the same historical context? That the beautiful Vietnamese ladies Huan May and Tran Tay Lan died here on foreign soil ― one beaten to death on July 26, 2007 and the other ``committing suicide'' on Feb. 6 this year.
Huan Mai, 19, wrote a letter to her Korean husband on the day before her death. ``I do want to know what your favorite dishes are, what happened to you at your work, and about your health. Let me know about them that I may please you better,'' she said.
``But you do not. I am only one of many women you picked out if you liked. I will not resent you after returning to Vietnam. Only I wish you a happy life.''
Language barriers, cultural differences, and economic difficulties cannot justify her death. What matters is love, understanding, and the reverence of human dignity.
Tran Tay Lan, 22, wrote in her diary, ``I am only staying in this house as if a woman without mouth, Every day I long for the day I can return to Vietnam.'' Obviously she felt humiliation.
``It is they that asked marriage in Vietnam, We are all the same human beings. The difference is only nationalities. I want to go home. I am scared. What is going to happen here?''
She returned home as a small boxful of ash with consolation money. Now her mother is here in Gyeongsan City in North Gyeongsang Province in order to know the truth about what drove her beloved daughter to ``commit suicide.''
In the 1960s thousands of Korean nurses and young men went to West Germany to work in hospitals and mines to earn money. Did we hear any report of abuse and mistreatment of Koreans there during those years in Germany?
Has Korea ever been or is it an advanced country? We see a snobbish mentality prevailing in our society.
It is not that I want every Korean male to be a Mac Dinh Chi, nor that my wife is from Vietnam, but that I want to talk about the barbarity hidden in our inner selves and prevalent in our society that I write this sad story. |
Anyone else have a story to share along these lines? Comments? |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 6:26 am Post subject: |
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Thats a nice article, and all the more effective because it is written by a Korean.
Its really, really, high time the one-sided media turned over a new leaf and stopped predictably tapping into the nations xenophobia. |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 8:53 am Post subject: |
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| I do like many things about living in Korea. I also like many of the dishes, the food has grown on me to some extent. However, the xenophobia is unreal and the lack of professionalism when it comes to dealing with foreigners at banks, at hagwons, or as investors is mind boggling. The exploitation of foreigners whether we're talking about Vietnamese or Phillipino workers or Western teachers of English has to stop. It is a disgrace for a country purporting to be an advanced country, and the people seem to not care enough to fight the exploitation. That is very sad. |
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bookemdanno
Joined: 30 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 3:49 pm Post subject: |
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Hear, Hear, Adventurer.
Today I turned down a job that would have paid me a million more won a month simply because they gave me only a day's notice for the interview. And yet they expected me to give the same ol' song and dance demo lesson and such. This from a leading Korean university no less.
I declined the offer--three hours before my scheduled interview.
Sorry, but I'm not an organ grinder's monkey with an English textbook. |
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happeningthang
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 10:17 am Post subject: |
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| Maybe they wanted to see you perfom under pressure? |
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rockyroad
Joined: 03 Feb 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 4:19 pm Post subject: |
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| happeningthang wrote: |
| Maybe they wanted to see you perfom under pressure? |
I think so.. They found happiness if the foreigners performing under pressure, no matter who you are. |
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rockyroad
Joined: 03 Feb 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 4:41 pm Post subject: Re: A RARE APOLOGY FROM A KOREAN JOURNALIST TO FOREIGNERS |
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| bookemdanno wrote: |
I seldom come across an article like the following in either The Korean Herald or The Korea Times. It comments on a spate of spousal killings and abuse by Korean men of their foreign wives. While this poignant story deals with Vietnamese, it's also a tragic occurrence among Filipinas married to Korean men. The article goes way back in history before coming to its point in current times, so be patient. Mr. Lee is an intellectual and the founder of a non-profit organization for outreach to the foreign community in Korea. If more Korean male journalists like Mr. Lee can have their voices heard, maybe something will change for the better.
| Quote: |
KOREAN TRAGEDY
By Lee Keun-yeup
May 23, 2008
Historically, there had been only a few good relationships between Korea and Vietnam until the Vietnam War. I'd like to introduce the story of a Vietnamese man named Mac Dinh Chi (1272-1346).
Mac was Vietnam's ``Chang Wuon,'' a candidate who achieved the top place in the royal court examination. At the news of the Chinese Yuan Dynasty's Emperor Mujong's coronation, he led Vietnam's tribute delegation to Beijing. He got acquainted with a delegate from the Korean kingdom of Goryeo through literary exchanges under the literary-oriented Mujong's patronage in Beijing. (This part from Dai Viet Su Ky: Vietnam's authentic history.)
Mac followed the Korean to Gaegyeong, now Gaeseong, just north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and married the niece of the latter, having three sons. The Mac family settled in Beijing for five years.
When Emperor Mujong died Mac took his family to Gaeseong before his return to Vietnam. He asked his wife to preserve the Mac family name through his children. He bade a heartbreaking farewell to them and left for the faraway Southeast Asian country.
Ten years later while she was using a spinning wheel, a noble man appeared at her gate. It was Mac, her husband. He had traveled thousands of miles for more than one year, on foot, by carriage, on mule, by the Grand Canal, and by risky seafaring routes.
I think the motive of the story is more touching and stronger than that of Puccini's ``Madam Butterfly'' that was first seen in 1904. After a few months stay Mac left Gaeseong for Vietnam.
Later his wife became a Buddhist nun. (This part from Vietnam's unofficial history and from the Mac family lineage in Haiduong Province east of Hanoi where Mac descendents live.)
We come across Vietnam again when Korean fishermen from Jeju Island were blown adrift by a typhoon and landed in Hoi An after 35 days. A landlady there in a beautiful silk dress asked her people to take good care of them. They were free to travel.
They were later taken to the royal palace in Hue, where the king complied with their petition for safe return. The king hired a Chinese merchant ship and sent them back to Jeju supplying food and fare with an official letter requesting the Korean authorities to inform him of their safe return.
This account is in Chu Yong Peun (A Random History Book) written in 1805-6 by Chung Dong-yu (1744-1808).
The author deeply appreciates the Vietnamese kindness. But he laments and feels shame about the barbarity his nation inflicted on foreigners, to the killing of a Ryuku (now Okinawa) prince and stealing his belongings and the mistreatment of the Dutch sailors including Hendrick Hamel.
Is it in the same historical context? That the beautiful Vietnamese ladies Huan May and Tran Tay Lan died here on foreign soil ― one beaten to death on July 26, 2007 and the other ``committing suicide'' on Feb. 6 this year.
Huan Mai, 19, wrote a letter to her Korean husband on the day before her death. ``I do want to know what your favorite dishes are, what happened to you at your work, and about your health. Let me know about them that I may please you better,'' she said.
``But you do not. I am only one of many women you picked out if you liked. I will not resent you after returning to Vietnam. Only I wish you a happy life.''
Language barriers, cultural differences, and economic difficulties cannot justify her death. What matters is love, understanding, and the reverence of human dignity.
Tran Tay Lan, 22, wrote in her diary, ``I am only staying in this house as if a woman without mouth, Every day I long for the day I can return to Vietnam.'' Obviously she felt humiliation.
``It is they that asked marriage in Vietnam, We are all the same human beings. The difference is only nationalities. I want to go home. I am scared. What is going to happen here?''
She returned home as a small boxful of ash with consolation money. Now her mother is here in Gyeongsan City in North Gyeongsang Province in order to know the truth about what drove her beloved daughter to ``commit suicide.''
In the 1960s thousands of Korean nurses and young men went to West Germany to work in hospitals and mines to earn money. Did we hear any report of abuse and mistreatment of Koreans there during those years in Germany?
Has Korea ever been or is it an advanced country? We see a snobbish mentality prevailing in our society.
It is not that I want every Korean male to be a Mac Dinh Chi, nor that my wife is from Vietnam, but that I want to talk about the barbarity hidden in our inner selves and prevalent in our society that I write this sad story. |
Anyone else have a story to share along these lines? Comments? |
Yes, I feel sad for them. My friend is lucky, she ran barefooted despite of the weather. hid under the table in Kyong Dong Market because his husband and his younger brother was planning to KILL her for her being Tough in her decision,, she didn't want to become a korean citizen either, but to become citizen was the best way not to escape from the husband, and the secret would be a secret if she is korean citizen, but the younger brother didn't want her to become korean citizen.. the friend of mine begging to her husband to let her go or if she die, she will continue being a Filipino and send the ashes to her country, Philippines, coz she didn't want a korean land to get Dirty because of Filipino leneage, that was year 2000-2001. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 5:19 pm Post subject: |
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| Today I turned down a job that would have paid me a million more won a month simply because they gave me only a day's notice for the interview. And yet they expected me to give the same ol' song and dance demo lesson and such. |
Let's see if I have this straight...You have a demo lesson on file but because they only gave you 3 hours notice, you turned down the interview. Is that right? |
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bookemdanno
Joined: 30 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 8:25 pm Post subject: |
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happeningthang surmised:
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| Maybe they wanted to see you perfom under pressure? |
Talk about giving them the benefit of the doubt. Are you serious? Do you know how many times I've heard stories from other professors--real professors like me--about being informed at the last minute to do something on the fly? I have no qualms about my ability to do so; I just shouldn't have to. That's the long and short of it.
The person who arranged it even apologized to me on the phone for the short notice--and I hadn't even complained about it not wanting to seem like a troublesome prospect.
Maybe when you and Ya-Ta Boy get to the point in this profession where your education and experience dictate that you be accorded some courtesy if not respect you will see otherwise.
But to me it's all part and parcel of a hierarchy of authority wherein foreigners are lower in the pecking order regardles of their academic credentials, which are often superior.
Need proof of that beyond this anecdote? Just compare the salaries and benefits of Korean and foreign professors in the same positions and keep in mind that even foreigners who want to stay longer are seldom granted tenure track here.
The concept of "visiting professor" means squat in Korea. I would love to be in an administrative position where I could bestow on Korean professors visiting American universities--and there are more than you might imagine--the same "privileges" we receive here. No doubt they'd be not only indignant but hire a lawyer. Too bad there's no redress for such discrimination here. But then in Korea, foreigners are aliens until they become visitors; rarely do they earn the right to be treated as real guests, as in many other Asian countries. And that's a fact, Jack.
One has to be outside the loop or an outright apologist for the locals not to understand my consternation.
As for you, La-Ta-Dee-Da Boy, some of us put principle before the big salary. I'm still earning 4 million won a month regardless.
This was only a short-term arrangement anyhow as I'm out of here by fall and gladly so. |
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happeningthang
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 1:15 am Post subject: |
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I was serious Danno, since, as you yourself recognise, being asked to do something with little or no notice is commonplace in Korean universities. You even recognise that there's a heirarchy that has foreign professors at the bottom of the heap. This to me is the reality of working in Korean Univeristies. It's not ideal, but not many jobs are.
I don't know what you've got in your CV that makes you so indignant, but unless fluent Korean langage skills are among them then I'd guess that's a strong reason for your position in the heirarchy. |
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nicholas_chiasson
Joined: 14 Jun 2007
Location: Samcheok
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:18 am Post subject: |
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| They'll eat this guy(the journalist) alive in a few years just wait and see. I keep shouting the difference between Korea and other countries is it sees foreigners as useful but not as real people. This is no longer an aceptable attitude in this day and age. The Korean on the street, even the young and educated, don't really care when a vietnamese 19 year old is killed, but burn candles and scream for justice when a korean teenager is runover by a tank. Defending the rights of foreigners is just NOT an issue here. And really, if they don't, they will continue to get the disrespect of the world business comunity. |
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genezorm
Joined: 01 Jul 2007
Location: Mokpo
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 8:43 pm Post subject: |
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| nicholas_chiasson wrote: |
| They'll eat this guy(the journalist) alive in a few years just wait and see. I keep shouting the difference between Korea and other countries is it sees foreigners as useful but not as real people. This is no longer an aceptable attitude in this day and age. The Korean on the street, even the young and educated, don't really care when a vietnamese 19 year old is killed, but burn candles and scream for justice when a korean teenager is runover by a tank. Defending the rights of foreigners is just NOT an issue here. And really, if they don't, they will continue to get the disrespect of the world business comunity. |
While this is true to some extent, I am reminded when two Korean girls "drowned" together in Thailand, I remember reading posts by some people on this board about how they were working in the sex industry and similar disrespectful comments. But, when an English Teacher dies in a fire, or a teenage foreigner dies in a sauna, the righteous posters of dave's esl cafe politely offered their condolences and some people of course found a korean to blame for the deaths (the ESL teacher's employer - for not giving him insurance, or the building owner - for not having a fire safe building, or the other koreans in the sauna with the teenager, or the sauna owners).
Last edited by genezorm on Mon May 26, 2008 7:41 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 10:14 pm Post subject: |
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| nicholas_chiasson wrote: |
| They'll eat this guy(the journalist) alive in a few years just wait and see. I keep shouting the difference between Korea and other countries is it sees foreigners as useful but not as real people. This is no longer an aceptable attitude in this day and age. The Korean on the street, even the young and educated, don't really care when a vietnamese 19 year old is killed, but burn candles and scream for justice when a korean teenager is runover by a tank. |
You left off: "or a freaking unoccupied building is burned down." |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 10:48 pm Post subject: |
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| As for you, La-Ta-Dee-Da Boy, some of us put principle before the big salary. |
Would this be the same principle as the one where you flat out lied, claiming you were somewhere you weren't in an effort to 'win' in a discussion? That principle?  |
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bookemdanno
Joined: 30 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 9:02 pm Post subject: |
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nicholas noted:
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| Defending the rights of foreigners is just NOT an issue here. And really, if they don't, they will continue to get the disrespect of the world business comunity. |
Yep, that's the just desserts the Koreans get for their xenophobia. And what's so laughable to me is why they think they're so damn special. Actually, for a country that claims to be globalized and advanced, they seem to go to great lengths to insulate themselves from others.
If I were a rich man, I'd travel to the Philippines and post radio and newspaper ads forewarning Filipinas of the plight they'll likely face if they wed a Korean man. Of course, they're are exceptions but it's really a game of Russian roulette.
Ya-Ta Boy:
What in the hell are you muttering on about? Come clean or clam up. |
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