South Korea one of Asia’s for small
dragons now towering on a global stage
in the last 60 years the country has
moved from a space of obscurity to one
of international renown global audiences
soak up Korean culture with the
incessant outpouring of Korean films
kpop and music videos welcome to the
stage 13 year old Anna highly
impressionable completely awkward with
an obsessive compulsive love of boy
bands I was the perfect candidate for
the South Korean craze and it hit me
like a tsunami I was introduced to my
first k-pop boy band by my sister TVXQ
through the music video hug and I was
captivated what wasn’t to love the hair
the clothes the muscles the perfectly
manicured personalities that are insured
there was always someone in the group to
love this was the ideal so by this point
you’re probably asking yourselves why is
it that a Western very tall woman had
such a fascination of Korean culture the
answer was this the film industry today
Park chan-wook has become a household
name his film old boy has gained both
critical international and domestic
acclaim and so I immersed myself into
the world of South Korean culture I went
to an international high school with 60%
of my peers were Korean I spent months
and months on end and soul soaking up
the culture and I taught English to
South Korean students
all of this inspired the next six years
of study at University and what I saw
was a country that was so rigidly and
systematically run in a way that seemed
to work but on the inside
something always felt off so I began to
question how is it that a country that
has existed under so many decades of
oppression has achieved such
international commercial and social
success the answer wasn’t easy nor is it
particularly likeable South Korean
success is predicated on censorship and
control let that sink in’ a nation’s
success is established by the censorship
and control of its society most
importantly it is the censorship and
control of the film industry that has
led to South Korean development but to
understand all of this and understand
why South Korea is such a success story
it’s important to look at a little bit
of history South Korea has existed under
history worth of oppression first from
China then from colonialization by Japan
and finally from America where the end
of the Second World War the country was
split into the key figure to
understanding the success of South Korea
as a man called Park chung-hee
sponsored by the American government
Park chung-hee established a military
government within South Korea and he
noted on the importance of censorship in
conjunction with the Hollywood model for
financial success to direct and develop
society so in 1962 he established motion
picture law which took from previously
established Japanese censorship laws in
combination with the Hollywood model for
financial success and he developed
South Korean society and it worked in 60
years
he went from a space of undeveloped
meant to complete South Korean
development through soft censorship by
sponsoring and promoting the film
industry he was able to develop South
Korean society which leads me to this
weird idea that in the case of South
Korea censorship is good and as unsavory
of an opinion as that may be think about
it
from what I’ve said without censorship
South Korea wouldn’t have developed and
what developed out of the censorship is
a tool a tool that runs South Korean
society and in my work I’ve labeled this
tool the standard of normativity and
it’s a standard to which all South
Korean society aspires to but it’s an
idealized standard which marginalizes
most of society who falter trying to
achieve it picture this students who go
to school from 8:00 till 5:00 p.m. to
then go to external academic Institute’s
for five to six hours I taught one of
them English maths science history to
then come home and doing another
additional two to three hours of study
on their own often until the early hours
of the following morning and this is
their entire lives and most of them are
13 years old and for what purpose to get
to the best high schools to go to the
top three three universities to get the
most desirable positions that’s their
existence and so what you’re probably
asking now is that in a society that
promotes this kind of living how can
censorship
be good I want to take you back again to
think about it without censorship South
Korea would never have developed today
marginalization is being addressed by
the very same thing that first inspired
censorship the film industry through
blockbuster films like the housemaid and
memento mori issues of suicide trauma
repression are all being dealt with but
it’s a gain through the mould of
censorship and the blockbuster film
individuality and expression is finding
a new foothold within South Korean
society and it is the next step for
South Korea and it’s an important and
vital step that must be taken but none
of it would have been possible as
South Korea is the world’s biggest
success story and a story that has been
developed out of censorship and control
thank you [Applause]
dragons now towering on a global stage
in the last 60 years the country has
moved from a space of obscurity to one
of international renown global audiences
soak up Korean culture with the
incessant outpouring of Korean films
kpop and music videos welcome to the
stage 13 year old Anna highly
impressionable completely awkward with
an obsessive compulsive love of boy
bands I was the perfect candidate for
the South Korean craze and it hit me
like a tsunami I was introduced to my
first k-pop boy band by my sister TVXQ
through the music video hug and I was
captivated what wasn’t to love the hair
the clothes the muscles the perfectly
manicured personalities that are insured
there was always someone in the group to
love this was the ideal so by this point
you’re probably asking yourselves why is
it that a Western very tall woman had
such a fascination of Korean culture the
answer was this the film industry today
Park chan-wook has become a household
name his film old boy has gained both
critical international and domestic
acclaim and so I immersed myself into
the world of South Korean culture I went
to an international high school with 60%
of my peers were Korean I spent months
and months on end and soul soaking up
the culture and I taught English to
South Korean students
all of this inspired the next six years
of study at University and what I saw
was a country that was so rigidly and
systematically run in a way that seemed
to work but on the inside
something always felt off so I began to
question how is it that a country that
has existed under so many decades of
oppression has achieved such
international commercial and social
success the answer wasn’t easy nor is it
particularly likeable South Korean
success is predicated on censorship and
control let that sink in’ a nation’s
success is established by the censorship
and control of its society most
importantly it is the censorship and
control of the film industry that has
led to South Korean development but to
understand all of this and understand
why South Korea is such a success story
it’s important to look at a little bit
of history South Korea has existed under
history worth of oppression first from
China then from colonialization by Japan
and finally from America where the end
of the Second World War the country was
split into the key figure to
understanding the success of South Korea
as a man called Park chung-hee
sponsored by the American government
Park chung-hee established a military
government within South Korea and he
noted on the importance of censorship in
conjunction with the Hollywood model for
financial success to direct and develop
society so in 1962 he established motion
picture law which took from previously
established Japanese censorship laws in
combination with the Hollywood model for
financial success and he developed
South Korean society and it worked in 60
years
he went from a space of undeveloped
meant to complete South Korean
development through soft censorship by
sponsoring and promoting the film
industry he was able to develop South
Korean society which leads me to this
weird idea that in the case of South
Korea censorship is good and as unsavory
of an opinion as that may be think about
it
from what I’ve said without censorship
South Korea wouldn’t have developed and
what developed out of the censorship is
a tool a tool that runs South Korean
society and in my work I’ve labeled this
tool the standard of normativity and
it’s a standard to which all South
Korean society aspires to but it’s an
idealized standard which marginalizes
most of society who falter trying to
achieve it picture this students who go
to school from 8:00 till 5:00 p.m. to
then go to external academic Institute’s
for five to six hours I taught one of
them English maths science history to
then come home and doing another
additional two to three hours of study
on their own often until the early hours
of the following morning and this is
their entire lives and most of them are
13 years old and for what purpose to get
to the best high schools to go to the
top three three universities to get the
most desirable positions that’s their
existence and so what you’re probably
asking now is that in a society that
promotes this kind of living how can
censorship
be good I want to take you back again to
think about it without censorship South
Korea would never have developed today
marginalization is being addressed by
the very same thing that first inspired
censorship the film industry through
blockbuster films like the housemaid and
memento mori issues of suicide trauma
repression are all being dealt with but
it’s a gain through the mould of
censorship and the blockbuster film
individuality and expression is finding
a new foothold within South Korean
society and it is the next step for
South Korea and it’s an important and
vital step that must be taken but none
of it would have been possible as
South Korea is the world’s biggest
success story and a story that has been
developed out of censorship and control
thank you [Applause]
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