Pen/Insular_Notes

Hankyoreh on the projected disparity in the gender ratio in the South Korean population:

The number of females per 100 males aged 25-34 was 95 in 2000, but the figure will draw toward a downward curve, with 94 in 2010, 91 in 2015 and 88 in 2020, according to the NSO data. This ratio will hit its nadir in 2020 and start to grow, but still will not climb above 90 until 2030. It is highly possible that a problem of so-called “single wild goose males” will be a serious social problem for some time.

Obviously there is a very clear solution to this problem that is already being practised on a large scale throughout rural Korea - import women from poorer countries. However, I have some more radical solutions which may be of use if things get really bad:

1. Full acceptance of homosexuality as a legitimate and natural life choice in Korean society, thus alleviating the need for many men to find girlfriends and marry when they don’t really want to.

2. More sex changes. Obviously this could be self-defeating if there were as many or more women who wanted to change into biological men as there were men wanting to become women.

3. Clone women. So South Korea is a world leader in the field of cloning and er… alright that’s a crap idea.

There, at the top of the slope, the basilica of Sacré Coeur de Jésus was slothfully nearing completion, in a sort of fake-Hindu, monumentally bourgeois style. Hard by the stone-yards here, young radical thinkers had put up a statue of the young Chavalier de la Barre who had been burnt by the inquisition. (Victor Serge, Memoirs of a Revolutionary, p. 22)

A souvenir from my recent visit to France for the AKSE conference - the first time I actually made it into Paris (shameful really, being Londoner). Typically, my lovely digital camera decided to die on me and left me relying on my cameraphone. That would have been ok were it not for the fact that said camphone seems to have had a life-changing experience a few months ago and has been on acid ever since. Somehow though, Sacre Coeur just looks better this, maybe because it is a hallucinatory fantasy in the first place.

This has no relevance to East Asia at all, but having just read Mike Davis’ fascinating analysis of the US mid-term elections of last November, I was struck by the American liking for mammalian metaphors in political life (the two parties have a donkey and an elephant as their symbols for god’s sake). Thus the rabidly rightwing faction of the Democrats are the ‘blue dogs‘ while the Washington lobbyists become ‘winged monkeys‘ (a reference to The Wizard of Oz).

Actually, I sometimes think Mike Davis would be worth reading solely for his colourful way with words. Some choice phrases: Kissinger is the “chief mummy”; John Kerry is the “Brahmin Rambo”; while the “winged monkeys are reputedly rejoicing at their recent liberation from DeLay, the wicked witch of Texas”.

Just a note to say that I’ve updated the links on the righthand side a bit. Like spring cleaning some cobwebs are gone, some new things have arrived in their place. Have a rummage around if you feel like it.

I have a confession to make dear readers. I went to see Korea v Greece at Craven Cottage (home of Fulham FC) last night. To be honest it wasn’t a great game and neither team looked up to much, but it was fun nonetheless and I managed to retain a suitably internationalist distance and not start singing 필승 코리아! ^^

Actually, after a very chilly and lacklustre 60 minutes or so, things did warm up a bit halfway through the second half, first with the crowd and then with the Korean team. And then came Yi Ch’onsu’s superb free kick, straight in the back of the net from a wicked angle.

The most exciting moment of the evening came in injury time when there was a pitch invasion by what looked like two Greek anarchists, complete with black hoodies. Of course they could have been absolutely anyone as I couldn’t read the banner they held up in Greek. Shamefully, I didn’t get any pictures of that, but I did spot this time-traveling Korean soldier in the crowd.

UPDATE: I just noticed that the Korea Times had a reporter on the scene.

A great photo story in Hankyoreh showing a rare example of Korea’s native wildcat on the prowl up near the DMZ. Also an opportunity to learn a new Korean word: 삵 (sak), which seems to be a shortening of 살쾡이 (salk’waengi), which in turn is variation on the standard word for cat 고양이 (koyangi), although I’m not sure what the ’sal’ prefix means. Sadly, 삵 is a word that may not be needed much longer considering that this animal is under threat of going where its peninsular cousins the lynx, leopard and tiger have already gone: extinction.

Things will remain quiet here for a while, although I’m posting some things with a historical flavour over at Frog in a Well. In the mean time, this is what the Secret Santa brought me this Christmas:

FM3

Apologies for recent dormancy, forecast to continue for a while due to the small matter of a thesis to finish. In the meantime, here’s a nice picture to look at: a memento of my recent assault on Hallasan.

K-Punk turns an analysis of England’s defeat on Saturday into an attack on empiricism. Excellent.

In an attempt to bring some seasonal cheer (something often in particularly short supply at this time of year) I offer a few virtual Christmas presents. Actually the first two are a little out of date and I should have linked them a good while ago, but I suppose it’s the thought that counts. First up, the Second Asian History Carnival Hosted by Muninn, who did an excellent job of rounding up recent posts on Asian history from around the blogoverse. This was shortly followed by Jonathan Dresner’s History Carnival #22 hosted at the Frog in a Well blog. Between the two of them, these should give you enough reading matter for the whole of the holiday period.

Next up, it has been brought to my attention that historians of premodern Korea have a very special Christmas treat in the form of the Veritable Records of the Chosŏn Dynasty (Chosŏn Wangjo Sillok) now available on the internet, in its entirety. This must be one of the largest ‘books’ in human history and it is now available online in both original hanmun and modern Korean translation, and it’s searchable.

Finally, some good news from Jamie at the Two Koreas blog. He reports that the union of migrant workers in Korea, having suffered continually from government attempts to suppress it, has actually achieved something of a result for once.