[HanCinema's Digest] Culture Corner

Young South Koreans challenge the status quo by become 'job nomads', Robert Neff writes about a bizarre post-New Year tradition from Korea's past in the Korea Times, Vice explores the past and present state of North Korea's suffocating literary scene, and what does K-pop have to do with the #MeToo movement?

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"South Korean 'job nomads' follow their dreams to Japan"

Are more youngster finding new ways to escape the pressures of 'Hell Joseon', as some young people in Korea have called modern Korea? South Korea's job marketing is very competitive-if you don't have the right "specs" (a degree from a top university, a language certificate, internships, etc.), many young people in Korea believe 'high flying' jobs are beyond their reach. In this post in the Japan Times, Min Jung Min talks to a number of "job nomads" who are challenging this entrenched stereotype and scoring 'plum positions' overseas. "Facing an ultracompetitive job market in South Korea, more graduates are choosing the nomadic path and heading abroad to fulfill their dreams".

...READ ON JAPAN TIMES

"[Joseon Images] Sokchon: sport of New Year"

Did you know that young Korean boys and men used to participate in stone battles called "sokchon"? According to this feature in the Korea Times by Robert Neff, the event (which involved an "incessant showers of stones") was held 15 days after Lunar New Year and often went on for hours: "Husbands, sons and brothers died in these games, but no one was punished for their deaths as they were deemed unavoidable accidents". Thankfully, this stone-throwing tradition has long since ceased to be a part of modern Korean culture.

...READ ON THE KOREA TIMES

"As 'Me Too' sweeps Korea, conspicuous silence within K-pop"

The "#MeToo" has "spread like wildfire" in South Korea this year, but "is K-pop, an industry worth nearly $5 billion, genuinely so clean as to be free from the Me Too movement?" This feature in The Korea Herald watches some of the waves the movement has made in Korea and how the K-pop machine has responded. "With many companies going public and investing fortunes in training and productions, ranging from albums to music videos, for multiple years, basically too much is at risk to allow several bad apples to run amok".

...READ ON THE KOREA HERALD

"Numbing Literature of North Korea's Dictators"

South Korea's literature has emerged as an exciting new crest of the so-called Korean Wave. Due in part to quality translations, 'K-lit' is finding more and more traction with international readers, and adaptations are also increasingly on the cards. Up North, however, such freedom is nonexistent. In this feature on Vice, Daniel Kalder looks at the history of North Korea's literature, as controlled, created, and curated by its Dear Leaders over time. "Through the manipulation of words, music, and the moving image, Kim II had daily asserted an ideal reality in defiance of the physical one the people of North Korea actually lived in".

...READ ON VICE