January 3, 2006--Korean-ization
As the Chinese economy continues to expand and consumer goods and popular culture products proliferate, many in China are finding it more acceptable to absorb American styles via Korea. According to the NY Times (see full article linked below) here’s how this works:
For example, rather than broadcast Sex and the City, which in its unadulterated form is rather too modern, actually to quote one Qu Yuan a student at Tsinghua University in Beijing, too “postmodern” they watch The Marrying Type, a South Korean knockoff in which three single professional women in Seoul are on the prowl and looking for love. The same is true for popular music and clothing, where Koreanized versions of American products and youth culture define taste in Beijing and elsewhere in China. They call it the Korean Wave.
Korean hip-hop bands are especially popular, and it is in the lyrics that one can see how this transmutation works—one of the most popular groups is H.O.T. and its song, We Are the Future, is at the top of the Charts in China:
We are still under the shadows of adults
Still not free
To go through the day with all sorts of interfering is tiring.
Not exactly your basic Gangsta Rap.
Which made me wonder--maybe we could use a little Re-Koreanization right here in the Good Old U. S. of A. Here’s how that would work:
Take the following lyrics from the Tupac Shakur song, Me Against the World, which he recorded while recovering from a gunshot wound:
Can you picture my prophecy?
stress in tha city
tha cops is hot for me
tha projects is full of bullets
though bodies is droppin'
there ain't no stoppin me
constantly moven while maken millions
witnessin' killins
leavin dead bodies in abandoned buildings
caries tha children
cause they're illin'
addicted to killin'
Happy that your kids are up in their rooms right now listening to this while hooked up to their iPods? Wouldn’t you prefer the following Koreanized version that they could then re-export back to us?
How do you feel
About all the stress?
The police are checkin'
Cause of all the crime in the neighborhood
Some are bein' wounded
While we’re striving
Take care of the children
Just a thought.
For example, rather than broadcast Sex and the City, which in its unadulterated form is rather too modern, actually to quote one Qu Yuan a student at Tsinghua University in Beijing, too “postmodern” they watch The Marrying Type, a South Korean knockoff in which three single professional women in Seoul are on the prowl and looking for love. The same is true for popular music and clothing, where Koreanized versions of American products and youth culture define taste in Beijing and elsewhere in China. They call it the Korean Wave.
Korean hip-hop bands are especially popular, and it is in the lyrics that one can see how this transmutation works—one of the most popular groups is H.O.T. and its song, We Are the Future, is at the top of the Charts in China:
We are still under the shadows of adults
Still not free
To go through the day with all sorts of interfering is tiring.
Not exactly your basic Gangsta Rap.
Which made me wonder--maybe we could use a little Re-Koreanization right here in the Good Old U. S. of A. Here’s how that would work:
Take the following lyrics from the Tupac Shakur song, Me Against the World, which he recorded while recovering from a gunshot wound:
Can you picture my prophecy?
stress in tha city
tha cops is hot for me
tha projects is full of bullets
though bodies is droppin'
there ain't no stoppin me
constantly moven while maken millions
witnessin' killins
leavin dead bodies in abandoned buildings
caries tha children
cause they're illin'
addicted to killin'
Happy that your kids are up in their rooms right now listening to this while hooked up to their iPods? Wouldn’t you prefer the following Koreanized version that they could then re-export back to us?
How do you feel
About all the stress?
The police are checkin'
Cause of all the crime in the neighborhood
Some are bein' wounded
While we’re striving
Take care of the children
Just a thought.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
2:06 PM
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