Tall is All-Korean Men are ‘Short-changed!’

 


The KWB, as one of medium stature just shy of 180 cm, is not amused! On a recent program of KBS2 TV's talk show, “Misuda” (Beauties' Chatterbox), a young woman dropped a bombshell, by saying a short man is a ``loser,'' adding she wouldn't date a short male. She also said short men were losers. A mountain of furious letters stormed the broadcaster that aired the popular TV show. The Internet forums were enraged by angry males.



Subsequently, the poor girl was cyber-slimed (as the poor Dog Poop Girl) by Korean male Netizens, who seemed to believe that it was actually HER THOUGHTS. Anyone familiar with Television programs would KNOW that each member is given “Scripted dialogue” to read. Instead, the self-aggrandizing ignorant cyber-netizens quickly OUTed the woman’s name, personal information, etc. without letting her air her own story. One might say she should have refused, but that would not have crossed her mind. She has dropped out of college and the program, “Persona non Gratis”.


Read article here: In Korea, Fried Egg Is Not for the Loser


“Decades ago when Korea was one of the poorest nations in the world, eating an egg on the dinner table was considered a rare treat. When there was an egg, a housewife didn't give it to her children. She saved it for her husband who returned home after a long day's hard work.

 



The fried egg symbolized the respect the society attached to the Korean men, who were the pillar of the family and the backbone of the Korean workforce. In fact, that was how Korean men had been treated in a society where men called the shots. Perhaps not any more.


Traditionally, Korean women subjected themselves to men in a highly stratified society under the Confucian influence. A woman should defer to her husband. When she gives birth to a baby, who happens to be a son, then the mother should also defer to her son. A female who was docile, quiet, obedient, was considered "virtuous."



But the male-led social hierarchy in Korea is shifting. The male authority is tumbling. Korean men now live in a society where he could be easily prosecuted for simply sending a wrong look to a woman for "sexual harassment." Children now don't have to automatically adopt their father's last name. A man is not supposed to challenge the "feminism" discourage to avoid being labeled as a "male chauvinist."

AND This came out:

'Tall Man' Industry Thriving


These articles are amazing and shocking, yet they are so evident of “This Is Korea” and the other side of the coin of the “Tallness” issue.

South Korean Parents see TALL as All NyTimes


“Swayed by the increasingly popular conviction that height is crucial to success, South Korean parents are trying all manner of remedies to increase their children’s stature, spawning hundreds of growth clinics that offer hormone shots, traditional Eastern treatments and special exercises.


“In our society, it’s all about looks,” said Ms. Seo, 35. “I’m afraid my daughter is shorter than her peers. I don’t want her to be ridiculed and lose self-confidence because of her height.”


Ms. Seo spends $770 a month on treatments for her daughter and her 4-year-old son at one such clinic, Hamsoa, which has 50 branches across the country and offers a mix of acupuncture, aromatherapy and a twice-a-day tonic that contains deer antler, ginseng and other medicinal herbs.


These clinics are all over, raking in the money with techniques that have dubious results. Over the past 30 years the average height of high school senior boys in South Korea has increased 3.5 inches, to 5-feet-8, according to government data. Senior girls grew an average of 2 inches, to 5-feet-3.


“She simply said what everyone thinks but doesn’t dare say in public,” said Dr. Kim Yang-soo, head of a growth clinic called Kiness. “Here, if you change your height, you can change your fate.”


At his clinic, Kim Se-hyun, a fifth-grader, walked on a treadmill with her torso encased in a harness suspended from an overhead steel bar. The contraption, the clinic maintains, will stretch her spine and let her exercise with less pressure on her legs.”


Yet the belief that tall is all, prevails in Korean Society. The unfortunate ‘Misuda’ beauty simply stated what most people believe and is paying for it dearly. Speaking truth can be hazardous to your image, because TIK-This is Korea.
 

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• Ambitious South Korean Parents See Tall as All (nytimes.com)

Shades of Gray/Koreanness

From White to Black-Greyscale

Shades of Gray

The Korean War Baby, has read the excellent study from Evan B. Donaldson’s Adoption Institute called "Beyond Culture Camp". It has to do with the questions many have looked at concerning the identity issue of Koreanness.

The KWB found this at the blogger Ask a Korean “What makes a person Korean?”

“How to Measure One’s Koreanness?
Then is there any way to determine if someone is Korean? The most obvious first step is whether someone considers his/herself to be a Korean. After all, one cannot be forced into a group identity – group identity is only a part of self-identity, and no one can control the way you regard yourself.

25% Korean Miss Universe

(Here is an interesting example of forced-upon group identity: In 1997, Miss Universe was Brook Lee, a quarter Korean. Her grandfather was a Korean who immigrated to Hawaii. The Korean media went nuts when Lee won Miss Universe – Look, world’s most beautiful woman has some Korean in her! However, all this attention from Korea bewildered Lee, who said until she was mobbed by Korean media, she did not really consider herself Korean.)

But does subjective acceptance of group identity suffice? It cannot. There have to be some objective barometers because purely subjective measures would be ludicrous. One who is be born outside of Korea from non-Korean parents, has never visited Korea, does not know one word in Korean, dislikes all Korean food, cannot handle even one shot of soju, etc., cannot possibly become Korean by simply believing oneself to be a Korean.

In fact, objective factors, if numerous enough, can overwhelm the importance of subject acceptance. It would be plain stupid if someone who is born and raised in Korea to Korean parents, speaks only Korean and has never left Korea suddenly claim he is no longer Korean.

From this, we can extract a unified theory of Koreanness: Koreanness is about how much, and how well, you buy into the idea of Korean group identity.”

The KWB thinks Ask a Korean has very good points, as for how much and how well you buy into the idea of Korean Group identity must be looked at from many levels. Korean Media has always grabbed hold of “Famous Korean celebrities” syndrome where anyone who has 25% (Grandparent) Korean is claimed by the media as “KOREAN”.
However, the public in Korea has some very interesting views on “What is a REAL KOREAN”. The KWB has heard from thousands of students, yes, at least a couple of thousand, on this issue. He has taught at two major universities, three Middle Schools, plus business classes, Shinsegae Department Culture Centers, and Private classes for over 14 years in Seoul, Korea.
In EVERY case the issue of being a Korean War Baby and IP Yang In or 입양인 comes up. At one middle school, which must remain unnamed, over 2/3 of the students had lived abroad 3 years or more. They had studied at private or public schools in English speaking countries or in International Schools.
The remaining 1/3 of students told the KWB several times that those who had lived OUTSIDE Korea for more than two years “Were NOT Korean anymore! When he questioned them further, they implied that living outside the country that long put them OUTSIDE the “WE” or “우리" concept. They were not in the group of Real Koreans in their jealous mindsets.

Please consider this chart:

What shade of Korean-ness are You?

Percentage of Korean-ness	Factors
100	Full-Blooded Real Korean-Both parents Korean/live in Korea (N or S) entire life/speak and write in Hangul/know history, culture, food,/ served in military (for males)/studied abroad less than 2 years
90	M/F both Korean/Studied abroad MORE than 2 years and speak English very well
80	1. Generation- Korean Adult Emigrants to Foreign country.
70	1.5 Generation-2 Korean Parents Emigrated to another country when under 18 yrs. old.
60	2.0 Generation-2 Korean Parents but BORN a CITIZEN of Foreign Country. (‘Korean-American’) Speak and write Korean at low level. Does not know Culture/history/practices very well.
50	Bi-Racial/Bi-Cultural- One parent Korean other is NOT; Lives in Korea. Culture/language/history knowledge high level.
40	Bi-Racial/Bi-Cultural- One parent Korean other is NOT; Lives in foreign country with low to moderate levels of Cultural/language/history ability.
30	Full-Blooded Korean Adoptee-Older child 3 and up, remembers some of Korean life: has lost most language/cultural understanding/etc. Baby or Very young Adoptee- has None or only ‘learned knowledge’ of being Korean. Culture Camps, self study, trips to motherland, etc. Some Full-Blooded Korean Adoptees are also Bi-Cultural as they are adopted by Korean living abroad as Residents or Citizens. Some are adopted by Korean Adoptees married to foreigners. Level of understanding is based on learned or experienced culture.
20	Mixed-Blood Korean Adoptee- From 25 to 50% Korean genetic ancestry; adopted into Foreign family (usually Caucasian); only learned knowledge of being Korean, or now living in motherland to continue ‘turning Korean’.
10	Low Level of Blood Quantum- Person with one Great- Grandparent or 12.5% Korean Ancestry. Very low level of understanding of Korean Culture/language/history/etc.

WHEW, did he miss anyone? Send your thoughts or comments, links, articles, etc. to the koreanwarbaby@gmail.com
 
The terms dongpo (동포) or gyopo (교포) in Korean refers to people of ethnic Korean ancestry who have lived the majority of their lives outside Korea. It can also mean simply any Korean who lives outside Korea. Korean DongPo or Gyopo

Gender Imbalance to Reach Crisis Point in 2014'

ChoSun Ilbo newspaper link
The Korean War Baby notes that these facts are the results of aggressive policy of using ABORTION as a form of Sex Selection for many years. As the birth ratio became more pronounced more Korean men began to seek wives from outside the country. MultiCultural marriages and Mixed-Race children are changing the Demographics of the once “homogenic society”. This is a good thing, maybe the Xenophobia will start to fade when reality hits home and Korean society wakes up to discover, “Look at all these Hoh Hyol Ah children! Oh, my Buddha, homogenic AnNi Oh! (NOT)”. The KWB rejoices as a Half-Breed who is IN THE FACES of some prejudice and ignorant people. CHANGE is coming to Korea!!!


“One in every five men is likely to have trouble finding a spouse by 2014, a study suggests, when the ratio of men to women at the ideal marriage age will reach a record high.

The study by the Gyeonggi Province Family and Women's Research Institute …attributed the imbalance to the country's traditional preference for boys. It was the most conspicuous among the third and fourth child in a family. The overall gender ratio stood at 106.4 boys to 100 girls last year, within the normal range of between 103 and 107.

But for the third and fourth child, the institute said it was an "open secret" that couples have pre-natal sex screening and sex-selective abortions. "In addition, a continued growth in the number of single women over the proper age for marriage is making the situation worse," it added.

The KWB notes that “the proper age for marriage” has gone up and poor single women are being blamed for few births. Many factors are indeed involved causing the government’s policies to reverse course. Watch for ‘drastic measures’ to be announced soon by the Korean authorities! Laws must be made to Force women to get married and have more babies! Maybe enforcing laws on abortion might help? The KWB just shakes his head in dismay!

Beyond Culture Camp-Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute

"Beyond Culture Camp"

The Korean War Baby is currently reading the entire 112 page report, whew! This is from the “Beyond Culture Camp” report from November 2009 that just came out. I highly recommend all members of “This Thing of Ours-Adoption” to look at Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute’s website and download a FREE copy of the PDF Adobe file and read the 8 page summary. Here is a Overview and “Principal Recommendations”:


“This study, released in November, is the broadest, most extensive examination of adult adoptive identity to date, based on input from the primary experts on the subject: adults who were adopted as children.
The principal recommendations of the 112 page study include:

• Expand parental preparation and post-placement support for those adopting across race and culture. Such preparation should include educating parents about the salience of race across the developmental course, instruction about racial identity development and the tasks inherent in such development, and assistance in understanding racial discrimination and how best to arm their children to combat the prejudice and stereotypes they will face. Preparation also should include the understanding that seeking services and supports is a positive part of parenting - i.e., it is a sign of strength, not failure.

• Develop empirically based practices and resources to prepare transracially and transculturally adopted youth to cope with racial bias. This study, as well as previous research, indicates that perceived discrimination is linked with greater psychological distress, lower self-esteem, and more discomfort with one's race/ethnicity. Hence, it is essential to arm transracially adopted youth with ways to cope with discrimination in a manner that does not negatively impact their identity.

• Promote laws, policies and practices that facilitate access to information for adopted individuals. For adopted individuals, gaining information about their origins is not just a matter of curiosity, but a matter of gaining the raw materials needed to fill in the missing pieces in their lives and derive an integrated sense of self. Both adoption professionals and the larger society need to recognize this basic human need and right, and to facilitate access to needed information for adopted individuals.

• Educate parents, teacher, practitioners, the media and others about the realities of adoption to erase stigmas and stereotypes, minimize adoption-related discrimination, and provide children with more opportunities for positive development. Generations of secrecy, shame and stereotypes about adoption (and those it affects) have taken a toll, as the respondents in this research make clear. Just as discrimination based on color, gender, sexual orientation and religion - all components of people's identity - are broadly considered to be socially unacceptable, adoption-related discrimination also should be unacceptable. Professionals and parents also need to be better informed about the importance of providing diversity and appropriate role models.

• Increase research on the risk and protective factors that shape the adjustment of adoptees, especially those adopted transracially/culturally in the U.S. or abroad. More longitudinal research that combines quantitative and qualitative methods is needed to better understand the process through which children, teens and young adults progress in confronting transracial adoption identity issues. Additional research is also needed on the identity journey experienced by in-race adoptees - and, pointedly, more of the studies of every kind need to include the perspective of adopted individuals themselves.

The Korean War Baby will make comments in next post.

Orphan- Definitions

It is important for those involved in any way with “This Thing of Ours-Adoption” to really know the meaning of the English word ‘orphan’. Here is the Greek word, followed by the Hebrew word used in the New Testament and Old Testament respectively. Reference from “Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries”.
GREEK: ρφανός
orphanos
or-fan-os'
Of uncertain affinity; bereaved “orphan”, that is, parentless: - comfortless, fatherless.

Strongs Hebrew - H3490
יתום
yâthôm
yaw-thome'
From an unused root meaning to be lonely; a bereaved person: - fatherless (child), orphan.
This is the definition used by the United States Immigration.
Link here

Orphan

“The Immigration and Nationality Act provides a definition of an orphan for the purposes of immigration to the United States.
A child may be considered an orphan because of the death or disappearance of, abandonment or desertion by, or separation or loss from, both parents. The child of an unwed mother or surviving parent may be considered an orphan if that parent is unable to care for the child properly and has, in writing, irrevocably released the child for emigration and adoption. The child of an unwed mother may be considered an orphan, as long as the mother does not marry (which would result in the child’s having a stepfather) and as long as the child’s biological father has not legitimated the child. If the father legitimates the child or the mother marries, the mother is no longer considered a sole parent. The child of a surviving parent may also be an orphan if the surviving parent has not married since the death of the other parent (which would result in the child’s having a stepfather or stepmother).
Note: Prospective adoptive parents should be sure that a child fits the definition of ”orphan” before adopting a child from another country, because not all children adopted abroad meet the definition of “orphan,” and therefore may not be eligible to immigrate to the United States.”
The KWB has heard many complain that the definition of an ‘orphan’ is one who has lost BOTH mother and father. It was considered for 2,500 years that it is first Fatherless then worse to be without both parents. In numerous dictionaries it can be Both or One parent that is ‘lost’.
When a natural/birth mother, for whatever reason, is separated from her baby the child can be considered a ‘double orphan’. We all suffer to various degrees these traumas and wanting to Know what happened can also be a high or low need.
Some adoptees don’t want to search, some fearing the effects on Adoptive Parents/family or are not interested. As children grow into the teens sometimes curiosity grows to ‘discover self-identity. These issues should be discussed if possible and some Adoptive Parents are being helped with these issues. Again, the internet can provide much help but the wise seek answers from many different sources.