Hugh headed down to Busan last Thursday for the Busan International Motor Show, where he was invited as press to the unveiling of the Genesis Essentia concept car. This is a vlog of his time there, as well as parts of the livestream he did at the unveiling and some shots of what else he did in Busan (and of course what he ate!).
Category: In Korea (Page 2 of 25)
Hugh is competitive in general so I’m so used to saying “It’s not a competition!” that it was out of my mouth before I realised… oh yeah… it is literally a competition!
Also, Happy Lunar New Year!
People tend to comment more on social media these days so join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram!
New video! Another podcast video where we chat about some topics. These are the easiest videos to edit at the moment and luckily Yul is happy enough to be in our arms quietly while we talk.
Just Hugh trolling me to make it seem like I was being offensive. Thanks Hugh.
Random fact of the day from Wikipedia: Uzbekistan has an ethnic Korean population that was forcibly relocated to the region by Stalin from the Soviet Far East in 1937–1938.
Actually the Wikipedia page for Uzbekistan is really interesting. Uzbekistan is Central Asia’s most populous country. The demographic section is fascinating.
I went down the Wikipedia wormhole because I was suddenly curious about Uzbekistan while making this comic.
In this video we talk about these types of messages that we get where women are asking us to help them find a Korean husband. People sometimes assume that it must be Kpop fangirls, but there is something much more serious going on. We talk about the arranged marriage industry in Korea and all the problems that have stemmed from it.
There are so many aspects of this topic that we can’t cover in one video, so please understand that if we miss something important it’s not that we aren’t aware of it, it’s just hard to cover everything. We are also aware of our own privilege, of Hugh being a Korean man and me being a western woman in Korea. We want to be as sympathetic and understanding as possible and realise this is a really complicated issue. If we offend, it’s completely unintended. We do also have more exposure to these types of situations than those living in cities. Even within Hugh’s own family there were foreign wives that ran away, some of our neighbors were those abusive families, but also some positive stories from our area as well. We know things are getting better, but still more needs to be done for multiculturalism in Korea and for families like this.
Have you been watching the Olympics? I saw one swimming race that Australia won but besides from that I haven’t seen much. Hugh has been watching more than me.
Do you know the Korean name for your own country?
We visited this museum a few years ago but wanted to show my mum while she is visited because it’s so interesting to get a glimpse into Korea’s recent past, especially while in modern Seoul.
Korea’s modern history of development is actually pretty amazing. It is one of the only countries in the world to go from a war-torn, poverty stricken country, to a developed, technologically driven, modern country in such a short amount of time. South Korea had to receive foreign aid after the Korean war, it was poorer than North Korea at one point, but is now a country that gives aid to countries in need. It’s a pretty big deal that they were able to change and develop so quickly. This is one of the reasons why looking back into recent history is so fascinating. Hugh’s childhood differs a lot to mine. My mother is visiting and came with us and we talked about how Hugh’s childhood is actually more similar to hers in the 1960’s in Australia, than mine in the 1980’s/1990’s in Australia (because Korea was behind in so many developments compared to Australia). Many of the things from the 1960’s and 1970’s were still like that, especially in the rural areas, during a lot of Hugh’s childhood, so he could reminisce while in the museum. When people are interested in South Korea now, they see the Kpop and the Kdramas and the glamour and technology, but not that long ago things were very different. While this museum focuses mostly on how people lived, there are displays about Korea’s traumatic history last century: of course Japanese occupation and the Korean war. It’s worth the trip up to Paju to see this museum. Tourist brochures explain how to get there and their website is here.
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