FOCAL POINT trains its lens on one of the 15,000 North Korean defectors who have made it to South Korea. Twenty-year-old Haejung (not her real name) was smuggled out of North Korea some years ago in the hope of a better life — leaving her family behind. She now attends Hangyeore High School, a special boarding school an hour outside of Seoul, founded in 2006 to help North Korean teens adjust to life in the South. Most of the school’s 240 students are separated from one or both of their parents back in the North, with little hope of ever seeing them again. They experience severe culture shock transitioning from one of the world’s most isolated Communist states to one of the most technologically and economically advanced societies. The school tries to fill both the emotional void and the cultural gaps. The students eat, sleep, and study on campus. The teachers live with them in the dorms, and many have training as therapists to provide psychological counseling. The curriculum includes everything from history to English to learning how to use a cell phone, computer or credit card. In Field Trip to the DMZ, the students make their annual trip to the border, and Haejung dreams of a time when her family and her homelands will be reunited. (Field Trip to the DMZ )

DMZ (Demilitarized Zone)

 DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) sounds impossible to visit; yet it is not that hard to visit DMZ. In fact most of the South Korean students have a field trip to DMZ once in their 12 years of educational life. Even I have been to DMZ last year; the whole governmental economics and global issues students had a field trip to DMZ. To South Koreans DMZ is just a site of historical and educational value. Yet what would it be like for North Korean refugees to visit DMZ? The 8 minutes documentary we have watched in class clearly portrayed the sorrow of the North Korean refugee students during the trip to DMZ.
          Being a refugee is not just running away from a certain country; it means that a person needs to leave something very important behind. For the students in the documentary, they left their family in North Korea. DMZ would be the closest place from their families for those students. Such seperations of families are not rare incident today. There are hundreds of families that have to live their lives forever without being able to see other members of the family. This is the reality that both Koreas have to face ever since DMZ was established to divide the nation into two. The lives in South Korea for the North Korea refugees aren’t easy as well. The people’s views treat those students differently from South Koreans. I just cannot imagine that students even younger than my age are experiencing such hardship. While watching the documentary, I was just glad to be born as a South Korean.

A student who is a North Korean refugee, visiting DMZ

CORMAC MCCARTHY has practiced the Joycean virtues of silence, exile and cunning more faithfully than any other contemporary author; until very recently, he shunned publicity so effectively that he wasn’t even famous for it. By his single-minded commitment to his work and his apparent indifference to the rewards and aggrandizements quite openly pursued by the rest of us, he puts most other American writers to shame. The work itself repays the tight focus of his attention with its finely wrought craftsmanship and its ferocious energy. ( NYT’s article covering the release of All the Pretty Horses)

Cormac McCarthy

1. What authors or genres of writing are cited as influencing McCarthy’s writing style? 
          An above exerpt is from the New York Times and it explains about Cormac McCarthy and his writing style. The article states that “Cormac McCarthy has practiced the Joycean virtues of silence, exile and cunning more faithfully thatn any other contemporary author.” This shows how McCarthy was different from his contemporary writers and was not really influenced by them. Yet the article mentions, “This mixture builds on Faulkner’s work, yet, more than Faulkner ever did, Mr. McCarthy seems to be pulling the language apart at its roots,” implying that Faulkner has somewhat influenced McCarthy’s writing style.

2. How does McCarthy treat human characters in his story as opposed to landscape and animals like horses? 
         The article reads, “Mr. McCarthy’s descriptions of the landscape are breathtakingly beautiful, but anyone who thinks he is sentimental about nature need only read “Blood Meridian” for a permanent cure.” This implies McCarthy’s beautiful use of language to put value on to landscape and animals. “…while in Mr. McCarthy’s work human thought and activity seem almost completely inconsequential when projected upon the vast alien landscapes where they occur,” is also a quote from the article that demonstrates how McCarthy does not put his value upon the individual characters, but the picture as whole. Unlike other authors like Faulkner, McCarthy is disinterested on individual characters; he portrays beauty of his novel through his mixture of landscape and the characters. Yet his value upon landscape is partly bigger than that of his characters.

3. What type of dialogue does the article state McCarthy uses?
         This is what the article states about McCarthy’s use of his dialogues: “Powered by long, tumbling many-stranded sentences, his descriptive style is elaborate and elevated, but also used effectively to frame realistic dialogue, for which his ear is deadly accurate.” It says his prose is produced with stranded sentences with comma splices and run-on sentences, which effectively brings reality to his dialogue. The article states that McCarthy’s use of dialogue is like a real dialogue between two real people.

4. What is notable about his diction (word choice)? 
          McCarthy uses strange words that he even makes up by himself; there are many odd words. I believe this is to bring reality to his prose. The article even says that his words evolved from all around the history of English: “His diction and phrasing come from all over the evolutionary history of English and combine into a prose that seems to invent itself as it unfolds, resembling Elizabethan language in its flux of remarkable possibilities.”

Today’s vehicles might be one of the big examples of modernism. Vehicles like the Black Ferrari in the left resemble modern technology and the development to modernism from past horsebacks. With the establishment of modernism, transportaion evoloved greatly, making people’s life much easier and much fasionable, luxurious.

2.  Skyscrapers / Hotels

Today’s skryscrapers and hotels examplify modernism. First of all, in the past tall skyscrapers were not in the diction of architecture. Yet with the growth of modernism field of architecture evoloved and started making skyscrapers, even to the height that no one could have thought about. Hotels are also new luxury present of modernism. The hotel system was brandnew to the world as people were able to get temporary shelter with money. Luxuries provided in the hotels are also new kind of system.

3.  Hip Hop

Modernism is also demonstrated through changed music art & style. Unlike classisc of the past, modern music includes new genre of hip hop. Hip hop was a great challenge to traditional music and dance art with beats, rhymes, and language usage. We can’t define modernism without hip hop.

4.  Movies (from drawing->pictures->motion pictures-> to movie)

We also cannot skip movies in modernism. Movie has shown gradual growth from drawing to pictures to motion pictures. Movie is today’s method to display message and entertainment through image. Variety of genre also account to the growth of movie through modernism. Movie theaters established for movies also represent modern culture very well.

NEW YORK – Increasing numbers of Korean students who successfully enter prestigious universities in the United States are dropping out or turning to private institutes for help in meeting the rigorous academic standards. The difficulties Korean students face can be mainly attributed to poor English skills and educational differences between Korea and the U.S., experts say.

In Flushing, New York – one of the major Korea towns in the Eastern United States – more than 300 hagwon have sprung up, largely due to the Korean zeal for education. Bell Boulevard stretches 3.5 kilometers (2.1 miles) through the district, crowded with 60 private schools targeting Korean students. The area looks just like a street in Daechi-dong, a popular hagwon district in southern Seoul.
- Hagwon in U.S. cash in on Korean undergrads (JoongAng Daily)

As I have already posted on the previous post, Korean students tend to rely hugely on helps from hagwons. Hagwon is a big and successful industry in Korea as most of the Korean parents send their children to hagwons for academic enhancements. These hagwons help hugely on raising students’ grades on GPA and SAT’s; yet there is a huge consequence that follows along. As students become more accustomed to hagwons, they lose their self-study skills and become much more dependent on hagwons. This is one of the biggest reasons to why Korean students tend to drop out most from the Ivy League schools. Not only do their English skills lack, but they lack experience of studying by themselves without hagwons. In order to help these students, hagwon industry was developed even in the United States. As the article presents, the hagwon industry is very popular even in the states, prevailing the Korean students’ huge dependence on hagwons. It is extremely surprising how within a decade numbers of hagwons in the United States increased dramatically. The popular boom of going to schools in America made more and more students to apply for American colleges.

Building full of hagwons in Dae-Chi Dong

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — American teenagers lie, steal and cheat more at “alarming rates,” a study of nearly 30,000 high school students concluded Monday.

The attitudes and conduct of some 29,760 high school students across the United States “doesn’t bode well for the future when these youngsters become the next generation’s politicians and parents, cops and corporate executives, and journalists and generals,” the non-profit Josephson Institute said.

In its 2008 Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth, the Los Angeles-based organization said the teenagers’ responses to questions about lying, stealing and cheating “reveals entrenched habits of dishonesty for the workforce of the future.”

Boys were found to lie and steal more than girls.
- American teens lie, steal, cheat at ‘alarming’ rates: study (Google News)

Students cheating during their test

The above article is very interesting. As the article presents, the number of students convicting cheating and other sorts of behaviors breaking academic integrity is increasing in a dramatic rate. The primary explanation for such increase would be the increase of pressure to strive academically for future careers. Today’s society values education, especially which college the person is from, very much. It is extremely difficult to get a high price job with low ranked college graduate certificate. Korean society strongly rejects people from bad colleges and it is very difficult to get a job with such resume. As society functions in this way, students are more pressured to get higher grades to raise GPA, which counts hugely for college application. I have seen numerous incidents of cheating personally within the school; even I have been having thoughts of cheating. This was all because of pressures to get high grades. As competition for colleges increase more dramatically, such pressure becomes bigger by the day. The part about boys cheating more than girls, I think, is very true. I personally have seen much more boys cheating, lieing, and stealing than girls. Even if we look at TV’s and movie films, it is mostly boys who do such immoral behaviors. Girls are expected to be much more calm than boys. I believe the pressure to get good grades is the biggest reason to why students tend to cheat more.

The above film is a fight scene between two main female characters of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. From the scene, the viewers are very likely to catch some of the female warrior traits. First of all, the movement of the Invincible Sword Goddess is very flexible and fast. If we look at action films, we notice men’s movements are very heavy and strong, whereas, the fight movements of the two female characters of this film are very soft, adroit, and flexible. The strength of these two women are also not represented through muscle or big body. Rambo’s picture below demonstrates how male warrior’s strength are represented through muscles. The gender difference between female and male warrior is also very significant. Throughout the society, women are believed and expected to be weak and men are expected to be the ones who fight; thus the society rejects female warrior. If we look at the Disney film, The Mulan, we can notice how Mulan tied her hair like a man and acted like a man, so that she wouldn’t be looked down upon. Even in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the Invincible Sword Goddess dresses and acts like a man, so that her foes are fear her. From the Woman Warrior, we also see how women are believed to be weak and how the society rejected female warriors.

Rambo displays his strength through his muscular body

Mulan cuts her hair to look like a man, which cleary demonstrates the gender expectation as warriorsThe two female warriors from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon do not look strong physically; however these two characters display their strength through flexibility and adroitness

Two female warriors from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon do not look strong physically; yet they display their strength through flexibility and adroitness

The film below is a fight scene between two men from Fist of Legend:
The film displays much more powerful fight compared to the scene from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Yet the most remarkable, and often overlooked, quality of The Woman Warrior is that it is a book without a genre. At various times it has been described as a memoir, an autobiography, a novel, a manifesto; yet anyone who spends 10 minutes with it understands that none of these labels really apply. Not because Kingston sets out to exaggerate the “facts” of her own experience, à la James Frey, but because she deliberately acknowledges that to write autobiography is to stand at the borderline between memory and invention. Like the “ghosts” in its subtitle (the word refers to the white Americans around whom Kingston grew up in Sacramento), The Woman Warrior stubbornly refuses to be either entirely fictive or entirely real. Perhaps the second most remarkable thing about the book is that in its wake, the American literary world still seems to regard the tissue-thin boundary between memoir and fiction as absolute and inviolable.
- The Woman Warrior at 30

As I was reading The Woman Warrior, by Maxime Hong Kingston, I found Kingston’s writing style very confusing and weird. First of all, the book, as it was described, is a book that summarizes Kingston’s childhood life as a Chinese American. This fact would obviously make it an autobiography as she is writing about her story; The Woman Warrior is also classified as autobiography in certain places. Yet if anyone reads the book by first two chapters, he/she would easily recognize that the story isn’t like all other autobiography. In fact, it is exaggerated so that it no longer seems like fact. Thing that is making the novel more like a fiction is that Kingston is telling the stories as if she was the one who was taking the actions, in a very specific manner. Even in chapter 4, Kingston describes the scene where Brave Orchid, Moon Orchid, and Kingston’s brother had a conversation in the car. It is very clear that she wasn’t there when they were talking in the car; yet when we read the scene it is written very specifically as if Kingston was really there. Kingston making up scenarios for how her no nam aunt got pregnant proves the fact that the story is exaggerated and opinionated, whereas autobiography must contain only the truth. Kingston’s writing style is also very unique as she talks in the novel as if she was the people who she describes through the story. Moreover, when the book was descrbied as the story that will describe Kingston’s life, it is more like Kingston describing her family through exaggerated stories. Read more about her writing style at http://www.slate.com/id/2162276/.

Picture of Maxine Hong Kingston

Forty-four percent of Korean students at top American universities give up their studies halfway through.
This data is contained in Samuel S. Kim’s doctoral dissertation “First and Second Generation Conflict in Education of the Asian American Community” delivered at Columbia University Friday.
The drop out rate is much higher than 34 percent of American, 25 percent of Chinese and 21 percent of Indian students.
- Article from Korean Times

       Koreans are extremely crazy about education and college ranks. Korean mothers think only the top 25 schools are good schools and believe other ones are just bad schools. This may sound really immature and stupid, but this is the reality among Korean society. Korean students would do anything to get good grades and SAT’s to get into Ivy League Schools.  Hagwon until 12 o’clock isn’t a rare incident among Korean students. They would study and study even when they nose bleed from tiredness. And they would finally go to Ivy League Schools (of course not everyone) as they dreamed. However, what happens after they attend their dream schools?
         A news article from The Korean Times states that 44% of Korean students in Ivy League Schools give up their studies by the halfway of their college. If they are going to drop out, why would they try so hard from the first? There are some valid reasons that explain the cause for drop outs. First of all, after Korean students go to college, there are no more hagwons to help out with their academics. In Korea, almost all students go to hagwons to study and learn whereas American students have always studied by themselves. As I have heard from people around, college is all about studying by yourself. For Korean students who had always relied on hagwons, college life would be obviously difficult, causing them to drop out. Korean students will also feel no more pressure for study as they have already entered college. Korean parents had always pressured their children to study to go to college, but once they are in, all those pressures are gone. Lack of pressure would loosen the students and would make them lazy, which could lead them not to study, causing drop outs. I think these are two very strong and valid reasons that could explain the 44% of Ivy League drop outs.

Image of Harvard University, the most wanted college among Korean parents

Miranda Hong describes her generation of Chinese as confused due to the changes that had occurred to her generation since 1990. As she describes her generation, during childhood, used ration tickets to buy things like fabric and oil; yet as the generation entered 1990’s, the old traditions faced transitions to modern ideals. Such change consists of social, political, and economical transitions. The change is a result of China changing from restrictive communism to much more open and democratic society. This change was very rapid that their childhood beliefs contradict their adulthood ideals; thus her generations are confused.

3. In what ways do you think Ben Wu, the entrepreneur launching the Internet café, is representative of the “new” China?

Ben Wu’s establishment of Internet café is a great representation of the ‘new’ changed China. China, traditionally, had been a restrictive communist nation; this meant that people did not have freedoms to talk against the government and freedom of speeches and beliefs were also restrictive. Allowing the public to use internet was also suppressed by the government in order to control people’s minds. Yet such traditional China compensated transitions to modern culture; internet and technology is one of the best representations of today’s culture. The Internet café does not only represent the growth of technology, but also the development of economic ideal. Opening a public Internet café clearly demonstrate the shift from conventional China to modern China, which illustrates freedom, democracy, and opportunity. This is why Ben Wu’s establishment of Internet café is a great representation of the new China.

7. To what extent are the struggles of the rapper, Wang Xiaolei, unique as a Chinese artist?

Wang Xiaolei is a Chinese rapper who had multitudes of struggles since childhood. When he was young, his parents divorced and he had to live with his poor grandfather; his social status had been disastrous since young age. He had been fingered and mistreated for his poor social status. He realized that his life sucks and realized the importance of money for survival. This was only when he was young. Rapping was the only way to help him survive through the hardships; black rappers had been great influences upon him. Since he had experienced various hardships since young age, his raps are emotional, dark, and criticize the unfair society that favors the rich and powerful. Unlike other artists, who sing and rap as they like to do so, Wang Xiaolei raps to live. Rapping is the only escape for Wang Xiaolei for good life. Thus his life obviously is very different from other rappers abroad. 
 

Click the image above to go to the streaming video of the film.