Cultural appropriation: Inside and out

Courtesy of USAG Humphreys

By David A. Tizzard

2021-11-05(코리아타임스)

Last week I sat down with Yu Jung-ahn (Daisy), a former member of the K-pop group Momoland, for a chat about life inside one of the world's most talked about industries. When our conversation was eventually released as a podcast, two things immediately became clear. First, the adoration fans around the world have for these idols is tangible and genuine. Second, these idols, despite the amazing choreography, curated existence, and incredible looks, are humans just like us.

Despite our talk covering a wide range of subjects, from fancams (appreciated, useful, but sometimes weird), mental health (not enough focus on it), training (hard), and creativity (little), the K-pop media outlets that picked up on our chat seemed to focus on one aspect of it: cultural appropriation.

And it was perhaps easy to see why. The topic generated a huge response and provoked really strong reactions. Fans were attacking each other online, each accusing the other's bias of having fallen foul of a costume, hairstyle, or video that used a cultural symbol insensitively. And, of course, having done that, the idol was then seen as inferior to all the other idols. It was a mark of shame to have committed cultural appropriation and a signifier of virtue to point out someone else's faux pas.

I'm not going to add anything here to the thousands of pages on cultural appropriation or how it is viewed by international fans in the K-pop industry. You can all hold your own position on it and I won't tell you that you're wrong or right. But I would like to make the following observation about life here in Korea.

One of the biggest tourist attractions in downtown Seoul is Gyeongbok Palace. Located in the heart of the city, and standing dramatically at the end of a road that features the regal presence of King Sejong and Admiral Yi Sun-sin, the palace casts an imposing figure: a symbol of history, tradition, culture, and people amid an electronic whirl of individual metaverses with everyone plugged into a 5G smartphone.

The palace still carries the scars and memories of a brutal foreign colonization which sought to eradicate local Korean culture and language. It was the physical site of the repression of memory and people. So you would think that a great deal of serenity and respect would be required when visiting the palace: to respect and honor the culture in which you find yourself a visitor.

But, not for the first time, Korea asks you to do it differently. Entrance to the palace is 3,000 won; however, if you rent a hanbok, the traditional piece of Korean clothing seen in all the popular period dramas and films, you can enter the palace for free. A culture may not be your prom dress in other parts of the world, but in Korea it can be a social media post. Many Korean people actually encourage you to wear their traditional clothes, stroll around their historic sites, and take Insta selfies and film Tik Toks in your new outfit of the day.

It is not for me to say whether this is right or wrong, but many Koreans take a great deal of pleasure in seeing tourists, visitors, and international students wearing the vibrant yellow, pink, blue, and red hues of the hanbok. If you mangle a few simple phrases of Korean, you'll often be looked at admiringly. Given half the chance they will also encourage you to attempt to sing one of their traditional songs over a metal bowl of rice wine.

Of course, every Korean person will have a different attitude toward this. Some will view it negatively. Many Korean people have rightly pushed back hard on outlandish Chinese claims from the internet about the origins of its own cultural items and raised an eyebrow at the puzzling and troubling antics of Ollie London. But providing you are respectful and courteous, to wear, speak, live, eat, and dance Korean culture is rarely seen as cultural appropriation here in Korea. It would be more accurate to see it as cultural recognition. The lady in the hanbok rental shop will not talk about Foucauldian power dynamics, Gramscian hegemony, Said's Orientalism, or Wallerstein's core and periphery. She will just smile and then take your money and then your picture.

Maybe Korea will start taking a different attitude toward cultural appropriation in the next few years; maybe it won't. While the world is becoming more culturally aware of itself and communication is helping to share ideas, it remains fascinating to see that one of the hottest topics for people looking in at Korea and its hallyu phenomenon is cultural appropriation in the local music industry. Yet here in Seoul, the hottest thing is actually getting around the place in the baking sun wearing a piece of traditional clothing the lady in the shop carefully and happily helped you wear for a day in the palace.

Dr. David A. Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) has a Ph.D. in Korean Studies. He is a social/cultural commentator and musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He is also the host of the Korea Deconstructed podcast, which can be found online. The views expressed in the article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.