Volume 50 September 2014

Israel-Palestine Conflict
Campus Shuttles Hit the Road
Foreign Language Theater
Urban Mythology
Trivialdemo on Razors & Bras
The Seoul National University English-Language Journal
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Editor'sLetter andStaff List
Feature
MiddleeasternCrisis: HistoryRepeatsItself
Israel andPalestineConflict intheFifthDomain
SouthKoreaon Gaza
SNUSociety
ForeignLanguageTheater: BehindtheCurtains
What MovesYou?
ABurningSummer Night inSNU
A&C
TheExpatsHomeinKorea
LibertyfromRazorsandBras
SuperheroesandWhyTheyStill Matter
SoutthKoreaExportsCellphones, CarsandProstitutes?
Cultural Calendar (September)
Volume 50
September 2014
CONTENTS
IPHONESONTHERUNWAY
FOREIGNLANGUAGETHEATER
SOUTHKOREAONGAZA

THEEXPATSHOMEINKOREA
The sky grows higher day by day, foretelling the arrival of the most bountiful season of
the year. Despite the fact that thanksgiving is just around the corner, the world struggles to
find smile between the ongoing Gaza conflict and the deadly Ebola outbreak. Here at home,
the Popes short but inspiring visit was much appreciated as people continue their struggle to
find peace for the lives lost in the Sewol ferry disaster. For our first issue of this semester, our
feature section decided to look deeper into the brutal incident in Gaza from past to present,
and South Koreas efforts to lend a hand. Meanwhile in our SNU society section we go back
and visit the night of the fire in the dormitories, further investigate the possibility of
extended shuttle bus operations, and the upcoming theater festivals prepared by our very
own colleagues. Our Arts and Culture section is more colorful than ever, introducing our
readers to the international centers in Korea, and the debut of a new movement; while it also
questions the roots of our love for heroism, and unveils the problem with Korean
prostitution overseas.
I would like to express gratitude to the editors and writers who spent substantial amount
of time on their vacation spot all over the globe to bring volume 50 together. Furthermore, I
would like to thank our former Editor-in-Chief Haesol Kim for hisunswerving dedication to
the Quill, and thank him once again for remaining with us as an experienced writer for our
Feature section. I would also like to welcome back our former member Junghyun Baek to
SNU Society section after returning from Europe, who no doubt has much to share from his
experiences.Unfortunately, the Quill members had to say good bye temporarily to Ki-Baek
Kim and Jehoo Lim who have left the Quill to fulfill their national duties. Ki-Baek and Jehoo,
thank you for your wholehearted commitment to the Quill, and I wish you a safe return. As
the new Editor-in-Chief, I hope to further provide our readers with diverse perspectives on
the current issues at hand. Last but not least, I would like to thank our readers for your
energizing support. Happy thanksgiving!
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF,
YOUNG MIN SON
z
September 2014. Vol. 50

THE
SEOUL
NATIONAL
UNIVERSITY
uill Staff
Chief Managing Director Dahyun Diana Cho
EditorinChief Young Min Son
Feature Section
Editor Bora Lee
Annie Ho Jung Hwang
Haesol Kim
SNUSociety Section
Editor Min-Ho Kim
Chae Yeon Park
Junghyun Baek
Arts and Culture Section
Editor Young Min Son
Ashley HarimLee
Tommy Lee
Creative Director
Suzanne Park
Web Director
Ashley HarimLee
EMail snuquill@gmail.com
Website www.snuquill.com
www.facebook.com/snuquill
Advisor Professor Eli Sorensen
Sponsor Samsung
Language Education Institute, SNU
Printing Late Spring (0222698030)
Design Sun Hee Kim

November 2012. Vol. 41

FROM
THE EDITOR
September 2014. Vol. 50
, ,
The Israel-Palestine conflict substantiates
how the international society does not learn
from the past and how history is simply
repeating itself again and again.
I
srael and Palestine are in conflict once more and it has
materialized into one of the most fatal encounters of the
lot. Yet few people seem to know how the crises first
unfolded and what profound history lies between the two
states. Hence The SNU Quill has detailed the history of
conflict between Israel and Palestine to help readers realize
the roots of the conflict and how it has developed over the
years. This should help readers better understand the current
situation and perhaps even help them think of an ultimate
solution to this chronic Middle Eastern crisis.
Palestine was a common name used until 1948 to describe
the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and
the Jordan River. In its history, the Assyrian, Babylonian,
Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empires have all
controlled Palestine.Yet after World War I, Palestine was
administered by the United Kingdom under a Mandate
received in 1922 from the League of Nations. Subsequently,
with the Jews increasingly moving to Palestine due to
persistent persecution in Europe, ethnic tensions began to
mount between the Arabs and the Jews. As a result, after the
British mandate of Palestine ended in 1947, the United
Nations proposed a Partition Plan for Palestine. This
resolution recommended the partition of Palestine into two
states, with the Jerusalem-Bethlehem area protected and
administered by the United Nations (U.N.).It called for the
establishment of the new independent states by October
1948.Jewish leadership accepted the Partition Plan but Arab
leaders rejected it. In fact,the Arab League threatened to take
military action to prevent the partition of Palestine and to
protect the national rights of the Palestinian Arab
population.
Yet one day before the British Mandate expired, Israel
unilaterally declared its independence within the borders of
the Jewish State set out in the Partition Plan. Consequently,
the Arab countries declared war on the newly formed Israel,
which started the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. After the war, the
1949 Armistice Agreements established the separation lines
between the combatants: Israel controlled some areas
designated for the Arab state under the Partition Plan,
Transjordan controlled the West Bank and East Jerusalem,
and Egypt controlled the
Gaza Strip. 20 years later,
the Six Day War was
fought between June 5-
10, 1967, with Israel
victorious and seizing
control of the Gaza Strip
and the Sinai Peninsula
from Egypt, the West
Bank and East Jerusalem
from Jordan as well as the
Golan Heights from
Syria. As a result, the
U.N. Security Council
adopted Resolution 242,
which called for Israeli
withdrawal from the
territories occupied in
1967 and the end of war.
Feature
Middle-Eastern Crisis:
History Repeats Itself
BY HAESOL KIM
Indeed, war was ended within six days and Israel agreed to
give up the territories it had ceased during the short but
deadly confrontation.
In October 1973, war broke out again between Israel and
Egypt in the Sinai and the Syria in the Golan Heights. A
ceasefire was achieved due to a U.N. resolution and the U.N.
deployed peacekeepers on both the fronts. They withdrew
from the Egyptian front after Israel and Egypt concluded a
peace treaty in 1979, but U.N. peacekeepers remained in the
Golan Heights. In 1974, the Arab League recognized the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole
legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and the
very same year, the PLO gained observer status at the U.N.
General Assembly. In addition, to aid the advance of the
cause of the Palestinians, in 1988, the Palestinian National
Council of the PLO approved a Palestinian Declaration of
Independence in Algeria and Tunisia. The declaration
proclaimed a State of Palestine on our Palestinian territory
with its capital Jerusalem, asserting that the U.N.
Resolution 181 supported the rights of Palestinians and
Palestine. After the declaration, PLO demanded negotiations
with the Israelis on the fundamentals of the U.N. Resolution
242.
The situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, having
experienced 20 years of military occupation and repression,
gave rise to a Palestinian uprising called the intifada in
December 1987. Between 1987 and 1993, over 1,000
Palestinians were killed and thousands injured. Others were
imprisoned in Israel or deported from Palestine.Yet on a
more positive note, in 1993, the Oslo Accords, the first face-
to-face agreement between Israel and the PLO, were signed
to provide a framework for the future relations between the
two. The Accords created the Palestinian National
Authority (PNA), who became responsiblefor the
administration of the territory. The Accords also demanded
the withdrawal of Israeli forces from parts of the Gaza Strip
and West Bank. Unfortunately, implementation of the Oslo
Accords suffered a serious blow with the assassination of
Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister, in November
1995. Since 1995, a myriad of peace negotiations such as the
Camp David Summit (2000), Taba Summit (2001), the Road
Map for Peace (2002), and the Arab Peace Initiative (2002
and 2007), have attempted to create a solution, with no
success.
In a speech on September 16, 2011, Mahmoud Abbas,
President of the Palestinian National Authority, declared his
intention to accept the request for recognition of statehood
from both the United Nations General Assembly and
Security Council. However, numerous complex issues still
need to be solved in order for both countries to find peace
and as the current US Foreign Secretary John Kerry
remarked, a solution seems hardly likely in the near future
with the eruption of the latest conflict that has seen
thousands of innocent civilians lose their lives. As the UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon implored, an urgent
solution to this chronic crisis is required not merely to save
the lives of innocent civilians but to give freedom to a state
that has craved it for so long. Unilateral, multilateral and
international attention is required to solve this crisis as soon
as possible.
Source: Reuters UNPartitionPlanin1947. Source: Reuters Leaders of the3parties shakehands at theOsloAccords in1993. Source: Reuters
Israel and Palestine Conflict
in the Fifth Domain
Abetted by social media, Israel and Palestine forces engage in
cyber-propaganda war to win international opinion
BY BORA LEE
September 2014. Vol. 50
;
Feature
W
hen the Israel-Palestine conflict broke anew this
June, triggered by the abduction and killing of
three Israeli teenagers, the consequent news of
tension and tragedy had a familiar echo to it. Rockets
launched. Children misplaced. Futile ceasefires. The endless
debate over self-protection versus self-determination. The
Israel-Palestine conflict is decades old, with no clear solution
in sight. The latest escalation was just another remainder.
Yet, in the fifth domain, the conflict took a new form,
with both Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip, engaging in
an intense cyber-propaganda battle. Abetted by the new
surge in social media, the two sides inundated Twitter,
Facebook and YouTube with cartoons and real-time updates
of events from their point of view. Their objective was to
incline the hearts and conscience of the world to their cause.
The social network sites (SNS) propaganda battle was for
both sides an attempt to claim the narrative and portray
themselves as the victims on the defensive. For example, the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used its Twitter account to
provide the total number of rockets fired by Hamas and to
update the activity of its Iron Dome missile defense system.
Through this, the IDF tried to stress that it was Israel that
was under attack and that all its subsequent actions were
justified as acts of self-protection. By contrast, the Izz al-Din
al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, used its
own Twitter account to provide update on the number of
casualties resulting from Israeli air strikes. It tried to portray
the conflict as un-proportional, with Israel using its
unmatched military technology to harm innocent Palestinian
citizens. To reach a wider audience, the Qassam Brigades
operated a number of different Twitter accounts, all in
different languages includig Arabic and Hebrew.
The techniques and methods used by the Israeli military
and the Hamas, the Islamist movement in Gaza, became
increasingly sophisticated as the conflict stretched out over
the summer. Graphics were used to appeal to the general
public and special applications were developed to help people
visualize the threat. The IDF, for instance, created an app in
its blog that challenges people to imagine having a Hamas
in their own country. The app creates hypothetical situations
in which the Gaza Strip is placed in an alternative city of the
users choice; the user is made to imagine how it would be
like to have rockets shot at his/her home.
Hamas, in turn, has relied on graphic images of
destruction and death to appeal its case. Hamas popularized
the hastags #GazaUnderAttack and #Pray4Gaza which it
used while posting pictures of corpses children and injured
civilians on its Twitter feed. The hashtag has been adopted
by bystanders in other countries who have rallied to the
Palestinian cause. While some of the images shared under the
hashtag were an accurate depiction of the current conflict,
others were found to be old pictures pertaining to past
instances of escalation or pictures related to a different
conflict in Syria or Iraq. The situation demonstrates that as
powerful as SNS can be, it is also less reliable and can become
a source of rumors and misapprehensions. In cyberspace,
content and accuracy matters much less compared to graphic
image and impact.
The propaganda war is a clash of conflicting narratives, as
both Israel and Hamas fight for world opinion. In a video
posted online, Hamas officials offer a guideline on social
media use. The video advices supporters to not publish
images of rockets or missiles and always add an innocent
citizen when talking about the dead. Meanwhile, the same
people are referred to as human shields sacrificed by
terrorists in videos posted by the IDF in its own YouTube
account. It has come to the point where both sides engage
with each other actively to disapprove a claim. Hamas has
twisted graphics made by Israel to claim that the IDF is
spreading lies.
Propaganda wars are nothing new in the history of
conflict. However infused with social media, it has soared
new heights as the scale and reach becomes broader and
ordinary people are goaded to join. However, subsequently,
dehumanizing, hateful language and the barrage of unreliable
information have also intensified. Anger and frustration,
hatred and empathy have all exploded in the internet as
videos, photos, hashtages, memes and infographics. With
SNS, extremists have been given a megaphone to voice their
radical thoughts. Israeli teenagers cam now demand death to
all Arabs and Palestinians can compare Benjamin Netanyahu,
the Israeli Prime Minister, to Hitler and have the message
reach millions worldwide.
Backed by powerful institutions, Israel has managed a
more coherent and organized campaign. In the interactive
unit of IDF, there are 40 people including videograhers,
graphic artists and programmers who have been employed to
create catchy graphics and videos to upload in Twitter and
Youtube. Student volunteers from universities have also
joined in the effort, gathering under projects called Israel
Under Fire and The Advocacy Room.
However the general consensus is that, while Israel is
winning the military campaign, Hamas is winning the
propaganda war. The hashtag #GazaUnderAttack has been
used in almost four million Twitter posts; by contrast, the
hashtag #IsraelUnderFire, has been used only 170,000
times. The overall media coverage also seems to hint that the
international opinion has inclined more towards empathy for
Palestinians. Television cameras have been busy picking up
sights of hospitals and young Palestinian children. The story
of airstrikes to a United Nations school sheltering
Palestinians received one of the heaviest coverage among all
stories of the conflict. The stakes in cyber-propaganda war
are high as its legacy is expected to last longer than on-
ground combat and it can lead to donation and petitions
from around the world. There is a reason both sides are
engaging with such fervor.
The battlefields in war are shifting as human civilization
develops and technology becomes more advanced. Yet, then
and today, war remains destructive and tragic, dehumanizing
and deadly. Also, then and today, the majority of the victims
are innocent civilians who have no claim in the conflict, but
have the most to lose.
6
What if terrorists couldshoot this rocket at your country appontheIDF blog
Hamas postinggraphicimages withthehashtag#Pray4Gaza Rocket Counter managedbyIDFonTwitter
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September 2014. Vol. 50
j
Feature
South Korea on Gaza
Koreas involvement and awareness
in the Gaza conflict
BY ANNIE HWANG
8
T
he physically distant Gaza strip conflict still involves
South Korea for Koreans living abroad, Palestinians
living in Korea, and for Koreans who are aware that
the South Korean government has been arming Israel.
Amnesty International reported that South Korea has sold
nearly 22.7 billion won worth of conventional weapons
including guns, bullets, and missiles to the Middle Eastern
state since 2008. With the report from the U.N. estimating
that, of the hundreds killed in Gaza, 78 percent have been
civilians, the Seoul city office has launched a campaign to
suspend the arms trade. The petition, which must gather a
large amount of signatures, specifies the desire to stop a clear
source from aiding the civilian massacre in Gaza. It points
out Israels abuse of the reason for defending itself against
Hamas, citing the defense as a war crime instead.
A non-profit organization called NanumMunhwa has
worked with members of a Palestinian solidary group in
order to also actively voice their opinions on the Gaza war in
the streets of central Seoul. The pro-Palestinian activists are
chanting Free Free Palestine, Free Free Gaza holding up
signs and banners urging Israel to stop forces in Gaza and for
the Korean government to stop selling arms to Israel.
South Koreas cooperation with the Israeli arms industry
began in 1995 when both countries signed a memorandum
in hopes of advancing military technology. In no direct
relation, the South Korean governments position on Israels
occupation of Palestine has always been vague. By abstaining
from using the term occupation and using words like
situation or conflict instead when answering questions
about Palestine, the Korean government has thus far taken a
safe route by urging peaceful talks by the sidelines.
Because of the strong economic and diplomatic ties South
Korea has with Israel, dating back to 1962, it is difficult for
the government to openly embrace the pro-Palestinians who
are passionately calling out Israels civilian attacks. The
government has also yet to make a statement about the
current status of the trade of arms.
In this effort to halt arms sales to Israel, director of an
internationally acclaimed Korean film Oldboy, Park Chan
Wook, has also signed the petition. The petition was sent to the
Israeli embassy in Seoul, the United Nations Human Rights
Council, and the South Korean ministry of foreign affairs.
The awareness of the war in Gaza has not been widely
spread, nor has Koreas relationship with Israel. What most
people know about the Middle East is its abundant supply of
oil, but economic relations cannot always remain purely
economic. Recognizing the governments involvement in
major breakouts is important and requires attention from
citizens all over the globe, especially in a world where all
strings are attached.
Palestine-supporters protest inthestreets of Seoul
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H
ow do students spend their summer? Among the
group of the students who decided to stay on
campus, there are participants of this years Foreign
Language Theater. They spend their summers preparing for
theater performances for this coming September.
Foreign Language Theater is an annual event hosted by
foreign language departments in the College of Humanities.
Though one or more departments were absent in some of
the years, Foreign Language Theater has been up and
running for 18 years. This year six of the departments in
College of Humanities will be participating, performing a
theater piece in their departments respective languages, as
listed in alphabetical order: Chinese, English, French,
German, Russian and Spanish. It is supported by the hosting
college, participating departments and Language Education
Institute, while some particular departments receive
additional financial support from outside sources, such as
embassies, language institutes, student union, etc.
Each department participating in Foreign Language
Theater is largely independent. They recruit their members
through separate processes and almost all steps, from
preparation to the final performance, are decided by each
group. However, all the departments do interact and
cooperate in several ways by securing performance spaces,
obtaining shareable materials for the set and publishing an
event pamphlet to name a few. In addition, there is at least
one occasion, called Eoulmadang (literal translation being
socializing place or socializing yard), where participants across
the departments gather to introduce each departments piece
and engage in various activities such as short improvisational
theater or quizzes.
The production team is usually recruited by the members
of the previous years production at the end of the spring
semester and all the departments productions are organized
in a similar manner. First, there are two production mangers
who handle various aspects of theater ranging from finances
to securing practice spaces. Then there are some staff
members who design sets, costumes, etc., depending on their
specific job description. Last but not least, there are actors
and actresses as well as a director and an assistant director
who look over the details of the entire performance.
Among the production managers from all the
departments, one head production manager is elected. This
years head production manager is Ko Jeong-woo (Dept. of
Korean Language and Literature 10), who works for the
German department. This is his second time as a head
production manager for the event and third time
participating in the German departments production. He
keeps coming back for the love toward the members of
German department and all the affection that grew from his
first year and onward. When asked about some of the
difficulties in the job, he pointed to the hardship in finding
and securing performance spaces. Although the support for
the event has increased greatly after the appointment of
Professor Kim Hyeon Kyun as the vice dean of the college,
he says, securing enough performance spaces for all the
departments remains extremely difficult due to excess
demand for stage spaces in the beginning of fall semester.
Since the entire performance is in a foreign language,
proper pronunciation is a big issue. To help improve the
pronunciation of the actors and actresses, each department
usually appoints an international student or professor. This
year German department has recruited a German exchange
student from Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University of
Bonn for pronunciation support. Mayu Amelie Tshiaba
came to Korea to participate in the theater program of
Department of German Language and Literature through a
department-level partnership agreement between two
universities. Though teaching some of the phonetic details is
difficult, she says that the differences between languages that
she learns from the job actually helps [her] realize cultural
differences.
Some of the audience members might find it difficult to
understand as the entire performance is in a foreign language.
To solve this problem, each department provides Korean
subtitles in all of their performances. Though it may seem
easy, producing good subtitles is a complicated procedure.
Kim Jeongwoo (Dept. of English Language and Literature
11), who worked on subtitles last year, points to the
differences between two languages and making and
operating the subtitle as some of the difficulties of the job.
She says that it is difficult to translate the jokes and the
terms of endearment without losing their original sense.
Also, deciding on which speech level or which honorific to
use is quite confusing at first. Since all the performances are
live, subtitles have to be managed manually. As a result, the
subtitle managers have to concentrate throughout the entire
performance. She adds that it would be providing spoilers
for the show if the subtitle manager accidentally switches to
the next slide at the wrong time.
This year, English department has recruited a director
from outside, which is unique for the event. Park Hyung
Bum, who has studied acting in the UK and at Korea
National University of Arts, was introduced to the event by
a lecturer in the English department and gladly took the job
as a director. He believes that theater is an enjoyable work
where each person awakens their sense of life using it as a
medium and hopes that this opportunity be a help,
however small it may be, to the students involved in the
process. At the end of the interview, he asked to add a
quote by Toulouse-Lautrec, a French artist, which seems to
neatly sum up his own perspective toward theater: I pay
absolutely no attention to how the performance is. Even if
the performance is dreadful, a theater is a pleasant place.
Under the guidance of directors, actors and actresses
come to practice almost every day of the week. An actor
from the French department, Sohn Hanmin (Dept. of
French Language and Literature 11), points to this as the
most difficult part, comparing it to exercising for six hours
every day. He has recently transferred to Department of
French Language and Literature from Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering. In an effort to
smoothly assimilate into the new department, he has
decided to join the theater production. Although getting
along with other members was difficult in the beginning, he
says that it is now one of the best things. Since the
performance is in its original language, familiarity with the
language is a benefit he gains from the experience, along
with frequent laughter during practices thanks to the
performance piece being a comedy.
Although all the productions mostly consist of amateurs,
the time and effort they put into their work seems equal to
those of professionals. Come and see the outcome of all
their untiring efforts. If you can speak one of the six
languages, go see a play in its original language. If you can
speak Korean, then you will be able to understand all the
performances since all of them come with Korean subtitles.
If you dont speak the original language or Korean, dont
worry and join in. After all, a theater is a pleasant place
regardless of the performance, well, at least according to
Toulouse-Lautrec. For more information, here are some of
the details for the event:
September 2014. Vol. 50
o o
SNU Society
Foreign Language Theater:
Behind the Curtains
BY JUNGHYUN BAEK
Date Title (inEnglish) Playwright Language Venue
Sep. 3-4 The Italian StrawHat Eugene Labiche French University Cultural Center - Grand Hall
Sep. 4-5 The Good Person of Szechwan Bertolt Brecht German Dure Cultural Center
Sep. 11-12 Anyone for Breakfast? Derek Benfield English University Cultural Center - Grand Hall
Sep. 15-16 To Die or Not Sergi Belbel Spanish Student Center - Lounge
Sep. 22-23 Someone Must Leave Valentin Krasnogorov Russian Student Center - Lounge
Sep. 29-30 The Butterfly Lovers Unknown Chinese Student Center - Lounge
* Exact time of each performance is to be confirmed later. Please keep an eye out for posters and pamphlets that will be available throughout the
campus at the beginning of the fall semester.
Schedule and details of 2014 Foreign Language Theater
z
The SNU Quill had the opportunity to interview Kim
Young Shin in charge of campus management to know more
about this vacations summer shuttle operation.
1
This summer shuttles are running on extended
schedules. Has the school ever tried this
before?
No, not at all. We did run shuttles for the summer and
winter sessions, but this is the first time we are running
shuttles full-time during the vacation. Its a trial session to
estimate the demand for vacation shuttle bus services.
2
If results are positive for the trial session, is
the school envisioning the introduction of a
regular vacation shuttle?
Well, we cannot simply say that things are just so. We
acknowledge that many graduate students come to school
even during the vacation to continue with their research and
studies. I assume that undergraduates should also have the
same issues. Graduate or not we thought that it would be
our duty to offer such convenience to students if there is a
considerable demand. For the past few months there were
indeed many student requests regarding the shuttle bus, so
we decided to continue with the current operation.
3
How many students ride the vacation shuttle
bus every day?
It has been about a week since weve started counting, but I
don't think we have anything to call statistics. We should
wait a little more. We were also on Gwangbokjeol holiday the
past week so we dont have any meaningful data right now.
4
How many shuttle buses are running during
the vacation?
During the academic year we have 26 buses running. For the
summer and winter sessions it is inevitable to run the shuttle
so we have about 20. During the vacation the number
fluctuates quite often, but in general we run about 16 to 20
shuttles.
When asked about the extended operation, You know, it
does say that we dont operate during the vacation, said a
bus driver, But actually, we do! In the morning we work
like we did before. We dont run in the afternoon, thats
all.After chuckling a few times he added, Were doing it for
the students. Since theyve been asking for it, we decided to
help them out. Indeed, much was hidden behind the simple
notice that shuttles would run even during the vacation.
Think again, what really moves you?
September 2014. Vol. 50

SNU Society
BY CHAE YEON PARK
What Moves You?
Campus shuttles hit the road
Before looking through the schools new idea to extend
bus services, we could probably skim through a short fact
sheet of our school shuttle bus. There are a total of fifteen
different shuttle bus routes that regularly run on weekdays.
Three routes are on-campus shuttles, and the other twelve
connect the school with landmarks off-campus. Although
most users are students, faculty, and staff of Seoul National
University, virtually anyone can take the shuttle bus at
absolutely no cost. From seven oclock in the morning to
even past midnight, the bus runs day and night. However one
would have noticed that at each bus stop, it is marked that
buses do not run during the vacation. Then again, the school
announced this summer that they would continue with the
shuttle services. What could truly be happening?
Clockwise
Academic year 08:00~19:00
On-campus Counterclockwise
Night shuttle Academic year 24:00, 01:00, 02:00
Administration Building (Bldg. 60) SNU Station
Academic year 07:00~19:00
Administration Building (Bldg. 60) SNU Station
Off-campus
SNU Station College of Engineering (Bldg. 302) Academic year 08:00~10:00
Naksungdae College of Engineering (Bldg. 301) Year-round 08:00~11:00
Administration Building (Bldg. 60) SNU Station Year-round
Library Administration Building (Bldg. 60) Shillim-dong 21:10, 21:40, 22:10, 22:40, 23:10
Administration Buliding (Bldg. 60) SNU Station (via Shillim-dong) Year-round 21:10
Suwon Administration Building (Bldg. 60) Year-round 06:55~08:30
Naksungdae Station Administration Building (Bldg. 60) Year-round 08:15, 08:40
Faculty University Cultural Center (Bldg. 73) Shillim Station
University Cultural Center (Bldg. 73) SNU Station Year-round 18:20
University Cultural Center (Bldg. 73) Sadang Station
The big bus with the beige and dark blue stripes. Anyone
would feel relieved to see the school shuttle bus approaching
the bus stop. Whether you are late for class, hurrying home,
or just casually seeking a shift of site, the shuttle bus is a well
welcomed means of transport. With short intervals,
comfortable seats, and charming bus drivers, it has all you
need. Not to mention that every ride is free. The only
problem may be that it has not run during the vacation.
Despite the somehow inconvenient truth that even during
the break it is quite common for students to go to school for
classes or extracurricular activities, such services are not
being offered. Could it be that the school finally recognized
this mounting demand? It is an ambitious attempt to run the
shuttle bus year-round and this truly is a curious shot.
Admin. Bldg.
Bus stops for routes headingoff-campus
Timescheduleof campus shuttleroutes
3
What were the reactions of the other residents
in the building?
My roommate was actually taking a shower when I told him
to rush out. Thinking back on that day, everyone was in such
a hurry that some students, like my roommate, only ran out
with a towel.
4
Did you contact anyone during the incident?
My foreigner friends all came out in a hurry and caught
on with the situation when they heard the fire alarm, but
they were not fully aware because they couldnt speak
Korean very well.
One of my friends an exchange student from the US
was also taking a shower at the time and he came out clueless
because he didnt understand Korean. I felt bad for him
because he was drenched from head to toe. Some of my
foreigner friends rushed out so quickly that they forgot one
of their shoes. Several of them also forgot to bring their
phones along with them.
5
As a foreigner, were there any difficulties or
uncomfortable things that you encountered
during the incident?
There werent any problems and the dormitory staff were
able to explain the situation to them effectively. As the GIA,
I was responsible for the foreigners. They were shocked but
they didnt face any big problems; maybe just a few
inconveniences with having to rush out and wait in the
chaos. I was just concerned about some of my personal
belongings. I was in such a hurry that I left behind many of
my important stuff. But still, I was content with just being
safe because thats the most important thing.
6
How was the evacuation conducted?
Especially since you yourself are an RA, how
did you feel during the process?
We evacuated to the Sarangchae building nearby. The RAs
from the dormitory building and the other neighboring
buildings were in charge. Luckily, the fire happened during
their duty time so they were quick to the scene. To make
sure everyone escaped safely, they allocated a phone number
of every resident in the building for the evacuated members
to call and to check for once more.
Throughout the incident, I felt safe overall because the RAs
immediately came to the scene. Furthermore, the firefighters
and ambulances arrived very quickly in about five minutes.
7
How has the school or Gwanak acted in order
to address the issue?
Nothing special happened after the incident which is good
because I think it has calmed the situation down. A few
weeks following the incident, they started to repaint the
walls that were damaged by the fire. There were some
meetings with the students and they provided care for those
who felt dizzy, ill or uneasy. In addition, they changed the
original smoking zone so that smoking is prohibited
anywhere close to the dormitory building.
8
Do you think there should be any other
measures put into place to improve or
reinforce the current system?
There were some fire drills that many students participated
in. I think that they were really helpful for when the real fire
happened. Frankly, I believe that the current system was well
established. Perhaps more training and awareness might help,
such as fire drills and fire-fighting training.
9
Do you have any last thoughts as a foreign
student living in SNU?
I was scared, but as a man, I kept my cool. I was just in such
a hurry that I hastily put on some shorts, grabbed my phone
and rushed out. But thinking back, I think I should have
taken my laptop with me as well. I was in the middle of a
LOL game with three of my friends, but left in the middle of
it. They were probably mad at me for leaving without a
word. Oh, and maybe my passport too.
The living quarters were not damaged because the fire
started from the basement. While there were several students
who felt dizzy and were sent to the hospital, fortunately, no
one was found to be severely hurt or ill. However, the
buildings walls and ceilings were begrimed with sheets of
black soot, and there still lingers an irritating stench from the
remains of the fire ? particularly strong near the basement.
As for the origin of the fire, the autopsy report suggest that a
carelessly disposed cigarette stub was responsible.

September 2014. Vol. 50

,
SNU Society
A Burning
Summer Night
in SNU
,
BY MINHO KIM
O
n July 27
th
at around nine in the evening, the fire
started from the buildings basement suffocating the
students living up to the fourth floor due to the
rising smoke, thus forcing all the residents to abandon the
building immediately. Fortunately, the RAs (Resident
Assistants) were well-prepared to combat the fire. Even
before the authorities arrived at the scene, the dormitory
staff members were able to extinguish the major part of the
fire in an surprisingly short amount of time.
In the summer, for college students, a fire would not likely
be atop their list concerns. This may be why Danny
Mallick(Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
12) was so shocked by the unexpected incident. Being the
GIA (Global International Ambassador) an RA
designated for the international students of the scorched
dormitory building, he provided his insight for The SNU
Quill in an interview of that eventful evening.
1
What were you doing when you realized that
there was a fire?
I was resting in my room and was playing a game of
LOL(League of Legends) with my friends.
2
How did you react when you realized what was
happening?
I was wearing earphones so I couldnt hear the fire alarm.
Also, I was just dressed comfortably. So when one of my
homemates banged on my door and yelled at me to hurry
out in Korean, I was really confused and shocked. I didnt
know what was going on at first.
Theroaringfireinthebasement of thedormitorybuildingonSundayevening Thedormitorybuildings appearanceabout four weeks followingthefire
The group of RAs were reassuring
and facilitated a fluid evacuation.
They even provided juice boxes
and helped to calm us down.

; 6
A&C
The Expats Home
in Korea
A glimpse of international centers in Korea
K
orean media has hit its peak
throughout the years hauling in
tourists into the great big
Seoul. As a once deemed foreigner
myself, I have seen how the city has
grown to accommodate the non-
Korean population. Almost all signs
and names are printed in English as
well as Korean, and the subway
stations call out names in Korean,
English, Chinese and even Japanese. It
is in a sense a tourist friendly
metropolitan. However, its tourist
accommodation is only the tip of the
iceberg in terms of foreigners in Korea.
The expat community is by and large
growing continuously as Korea is
opening its gates to multiculturalism
and services are falling sparse outside
of the city.
The most blatantly obvious expat
community in Seoul would be the
English teachers who work in the
hakwonsall around Gangnam and
other uptown areas. However, I had
the opportunity to learn of another
major group of expats who are
provided the accommodation that if
not equals, is considerably more than
that of Seoul.
Geoje Island, located belowBusan
City, is commonly known to the
average Korean as the historical
landmark close to where the General
Yi Sun-sin victoriously protected the
nation during the Japanese Invasions
in the 16th century (also known as the
man on the face of the 100KRW
coin!). The island itself holds rich
history and has now transformed itself
swiftly developing into South Korea s
second and third largest shipyards.
With such great industry the tiny
island proves itself as indeed
multicultural with various expats
travelling in and out due to the ship
building and oil and gas companies.
I was very privileged to work over
on Geoje s Geoje International
Center (GIC) this summer and
learned of how the several
international centers around some of
Korea s cities provide for the
foreigners, particularly the GIC.
Little did I know of the foreign
population on such a seemingly
mundane island, but I was surprised by
how the town Okpo, where the
majority of the foreigners were, felt like
a giant Itaewon town. It certainly did
not feel like I was in Korea anymore.
BY DAHYUN DIANA CHO
A&CSeptember 2014. Vol. 50
International Fair hostedbytheGICrecentlyheldthis May.
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F
or young Korean females, shaving
has become almost a rite of
passage into womanhood. In
Korea, females seen in public with
unshaved hair (usually referring to
arms, legs, and underarm)often find
themselves stung by abrasive glances in
the subway. Meanwhile, many men
openly criticize women with unshaved
body hair as being lazy and
unkempt; and a surprising number of
women agree. Unlike men, women
often find themselves on the brink of
their comfort zone when it comes to
their body hair. The now-ideal hairless
beauty in Korea only caught on in the
late 1970s and early 80s with the
assimilation of Western culture. This is
why shaving in our parents
generation in Korea is virtually
unheard of. If it wasnt for Gillettes
earnest efforts including numerous
advertisements of top celebrities with
naked underarms, this new beauty
norm might be less compelling for our
young females today. In fact, shaving
has become a stressful chore for
todays young women. While many
ladies complain about the
inconvenience, merely the idea of
public humiliation is traumatizing
enough for women to groom
themselves into a silky complexion.
In the survey conducted in mid-
August by the Quill on 70 female
students (in their twenties) on their
shaving routines, everyone of the
respondents replied having undergone
some form of hair removal treatment.
Most of the respondents (96 percent)
replied as using some form of epilation
and depilation while the remaining
4percent said they got permanent hair
removal. The reason for getting a
permanent (laser) hair removal
treatment was to enjoy light summer
clothing without distress; and to
actively participate in water sports
without the constant need to shave.
While 58 percent of the respondents
considered shaving as a form of self
management. 78 percent of the
September 2014. Vol. 50
j 8
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8
Working at the GIC, a non-profit
organization, created by Youngseung
Jo only a year ago, the goals were
simple: to provide information and
services to expats, promote
intercultural understanding and
cooperate between foreign and local
residents in Geoje City. The center
itself was an open area for anyone to
come in and participate in the
programs such as Korean class, yoga,
and daycare and even freely use the
library consisting of mainly donated
books from the community. In order
to assist in learning Korean culture, a
culture class along with a GIC tour
where people tour Korea every month
was offered.
The reason to such programs is due
to the fact that the expat community
in Geoje Island is as stated before, is
not the average English teacher, but
made up of families of business men
and engineers. The majority of people
who visit the GIC are mothers and
children who come together and find a
sense of home through the center. The
GIC makes it a goal that the expats in
Geoje leave with a positive image of
Korean culture with the best that it
could offer. It is not the same when
accommodating for expats in the mid-
twenties and early thirties who come
solo to Korea. The situation is very
different once the expat community is
full of children and stay-at-home
mothers. Gatherings are not just for
fun, but have to have a purpose for the
children or for the mothers struggling
to adapt without knowing the
language or culture.
However, the center is not only a
place for where expats come for help; it
is also a place for where foreigners come
to give. They offer their talents such
teaching English, dance or art all in the
name of service. The give and take
relationship the center enables creates
bonds between people that are very
amicable and friendly. The center itself,
being a non-profit organization, requires
members who are graciously willing to
organize the programs and events.
Despite being new, the center has
grown rapidly over the past months
because of the growing number of
expats and the thriving economy of
Geoje. Though the expats come and
go, they are very willing to help
especially since a majority of the
families have stay-at-home wives. This
specific circumstance is why the GIC
is a special case in terms of foreigners
in Korea. The expat community isn t
made up of tourists, but people who
have to stay at least a year and
involuntarily be exposed to a culture
that they are unaccustomed to and it is
the centers like the GIC that help ease
transitional hardships.
The GIC is the youngest of
international centers in Korea so far.
Other international centers in Korea
are currently inIncheon, Busan,
Daejon and Gwangju. All have similar
programs and offers, and in the case of
Busan, Daejon and Incheonthey were
formed by the government unlike
Geoje s and Gwangju s. In the case of
Gwangju s, it started in 1999, a whole
15 years ago by the Gwangju Citizen s
Union and is currently what theGeoje
GIC is very much trying to emulate
from.
These international centers are by
far are the best if not better sources of
information for tourists and expats in
Korea. It is surprising that many
people are not aware of such a place in
the cities beyond Seoul. The prospect
of more of these centers forming in
other cities is not unlikely especially
with Korea s rising economic and
global status. My particular experience
at such a still young yet quickly
growing center was a grateful
opportunity to explore Korea s
attitude towards multiculturalism and
efforts to understanding diversity.
Liberty from
Razors and Bras
A small step for big ideas
BY YOUNG MIN SON
ThenewTrivialdemologo.
Koreanclass, oneof theprograms of theGIC GICparticipants inI loveGoje T-shirts.
Ademonstrator lyingongrass withher arms high.
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September 2014. Vol. 50
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respondents replied that shaing was a
nuisance. Interestingly enough, 86
percent of the respondents said one of
the reasons why they shave is to avoid
uncomfortable glances in public. The
few respondents who have received
bold comments from the public said
they did not feel angry but shamed and
embarrassed. While all of the
respondents went under some form of
hair removal treatment, most
respondents seemed to feel relieved
from their shaving duties during the
colder season. In fact, 96 percent of the
respondents replied that they did not
shave as often during the Winter when
clothing explosed less skin, and
approximately 10 percent of the
respondents replied that they dont
shave in the Winter. So women seem
to be in a love-hate relationship with
the razors. But why are women having
such difficulty freeing themselves from
Gilettes razors despite the
inconvenience? Why do women feel
like they are being forced to shave?
Why should women be appalled by
their own body hair? After all, it is
only a natural part of the body. A few
like-minded people asked the same
question at Gwanghwamoon on July
4
th
. This small group of people
organized a demonstration on the
liberation of underarm hair. The
demonstrators held up posters such as
I have a brush under my arm, taped
fake hair under their armpit, and raised
their arms proud and high for the
photos. While some find the idea of
holding a demonstration about
liberating women from razors
ridiculous, it is a daring move for those
living in a society where being hairless
in public is merely a beauty standard
everyone is enforced to achieve.
The idea all started in April when
people gathered through an online
community called egutdosiyu
(www.facebook.com/trivialdemo),
which literally means protest this
too. This trivialdemo group is
interested in holding small but
frequent demonstrations the cause
often so trivial it manages to raise the
eyebrows of the bystanders.
Trivialdemo, shouting for their
shameless body hair may be laughable
but their ideas hold much more value.
Come to think of it, what is more
ridiculous? The protest or our society
that has ended up publicly shaming
women to shave?
A month after their first
demonstration, they held their second
Bravo! No Bra! demonstration on
August 26
th
at Hongdae. Here, they
had a small cutting bra ceremony
and continued to parade through the
street of Hongdae, peaking interests of
many young people. There are women
who prefer to go braless for numerous
reasons such as health and comfort,
only to find it is almost impossible to
maintain a healthy social life without
one. Yes, considering the fact that the
oldest bra was found to date back
between 1390 and 1485, bras have
become part of female undergarment
for a long time. However, Trivialdemo
members state that having to bind and
strain the breast with wires should be a
choice for the individuals to make for
themselves, and not enforced by the
distressed look of coworkers.
These demonstrations are not about
pointing fingers, and it is certainly not
about making new enforcements.
Instead, it is about bringing awareness
to the public about the small things
that we hardly think twice about in our
daily lives. Why should our ladies feel
distressed about their hairs and bras?
Is it right to mold them into our initial
standards of beauty for the sake of
beauty? Like the demonstrators say,
these are all just trivial matters in life
that you simply do because you have
always done so. So if these matters are
so trivial, why cant our society just let
distressed individuals do what they
want to with razors and bras without
giving them a look of amusement?
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H
umanity has always attempted
to fathom the unfathomable,
retreating to imagination and
myth whenever reason failed them.
Unexplainable forces of nature were
explained through stories of Gods,
sentient and powerful beings who
echoed the very men they were said to
govern. Because the truth is that, while
men shrunk in fear whenever the
African thunder spirit Shango sounded
his rippling snare drum, Shango was
but a puppet, his strings indelibly
linked to the mercurial hearts of man.
One fascinating thing about
mythology is that it is never attributed
to a single author. It is a collective of
stories written by a collective of people
and thus a collective of thought, each
story adding to an already established
universe, effectively illustrating mans
worldview macroscopically. This
worldview typically depicted beings
grander than the limits of imagination,
timelessly fighting the battle between
good and evil. However, now with the
development of scientific thought, it is
unsurprising that these myths no
longer hold power over us. Or so we
are led to believe. Currently, no such
collective of storylines that might be
called a mythology exists, except in
comic books, because believe it or not,
superheroes are our modern myths,
representing us as the warring Gods of
Olympus once represented the
Greeks.
Many people might scoff at this
notion exclaiming that people certainly
do not believe in the Avengers or the
Justice League as our ancestors did the
Greek Pantheon, and they are right.
Urban Mythology:
Superheroes and
Why They Still Matter
BY TOMMY LEE
Trivialdemoposter withJuliaRoberts armpit hair. Bravo! NoBra Demonstrationposter. Demonstrators posingat Gwanghwamoon.
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September 2014. Vol. 50
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We live in an age of gritty realism where even foundational
religions are gradually losing steam. There is no room for the
illogical. The nature of our minds has been altered and thus
the nature in which mythology flexes its power over us has
been altered as well. However, this alteration does not render
our myths powerless. How many of the largest box office
hits are superhero movies? How many of us flock to witness
men in tights fight the good fight? How many of our eyes
glimmer in awe at the sight of our urban myths soaring
through the silver screen with wings untamed Millions of us,
but why?
These days, people go crazy over the Marvel guys, but to
answer this question it is necessary to hearken back to the
bread and butter, to where it all began, two of the
foundational superheroes: Superman and Batman. The
introduction of Superman into popular culture was a pretty
big deal to put it mildly. To put it more accurately, it was
revolutionary. Before Superman, most popular crime-
fighters did not possess any central rules to their method of
dishing out vigilante justice. They fought crime and if
someone ended up dead as a consequence, well it was all for
the sake of humanity. Superman was different. Superman
was written to be able to solve any problem. If he wanted to
kill everyone, he simply could. However, unlike anyone else
at the time Superman had this one rule: he did not kill. He
was not a typical hero who exerted all of his power to
overcome the odds, rather he was a hero who used only the
appropriate amount of power to solve problems as morally
as possible. He was a hero of restraint, who tempered
himself, not with bloodlust disguised as justice, but with
compassion.And he hit it huge, with everyone.
The reason why Batman comes into all this is because he
was effectively the opposite of Superman. While Superman
limited his power, Batman was an average man who strove to
be overcome his limits. While Superman was the beacon of
hope, Batman was the herald of vengeance. While Superman
was a God among men who desperately sought the tender
touch of humanity, Batman was a boy broken by humanity,
hardened into a man among Gods. Two of the most iconic
superheroes of our time, and they could not be more
different, except in once aspect: they did not kill. And even
after all these years, this central moral compass has not
changed, despite readers demanding grittier, darker stories.
There has, however, been attempts to make these Gods
more human and now more than ever, superheroes reflect
the common man. They are still grand and god-like but these
days Superman occasionally struggles to pay his rent and
Batman has to deal with the fact that he is a pretty awful
Dad. Our myths evolve to feed the desires of the minds that
created them. They evolve according to us. Because in the
end that is all myths are: people playing Gods. And these
Gods, they represent us at our grandest and at our weakest,
depicting our incredible strength only to highlight how truly
powerless we can be.
Our superheroes, our urban myths are at their most
complex, most human stages. Great modern stories like
Grant Morrisons All-Star Superman or Alan Moores
Watchmen were not about superpowers but about the men
who wielded them and how they were more than anything
else, symbols that inspired humanity to fall and to rise. They
are our hopes, our sufferings, our guides and our downfalls
multiplied to a hundred and set in the grandest stage against
universe-shattering threats. But most of all, they are us. They
are our myths and unlike all the myths that came before it,
they tell us that the true strength of man comes not in grand
power, but in how we choose to exercise it. Our urban
myths inspire us to do good because humanity itself has
changed for the better. Grant Morrison once said, We love
our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can
analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock
them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we
are and what we wish we could be. He is right to an extent.
Our myths do refuse to give up on us, but only because we
refuse to give up on them, only because when these
superheroes, these Gods who seem to wheel above us like
stars look skyward from their comic book panels they see
children and adults alike wanting more than anything else to
be like them. They see their creators.
I
ts a balmy, warm Friday night and the IF bar in Duluth,
Georgia is full of excited, young, and mostly Korean
clientele ready to start their long awaited weekends. Most
of the patrons are in their early, mid 20s- spritely college
students, and optimistic new hires make up for more than
eighty percent of the bar. Its almost 12am when new
unusual groups of people start to come in: groups of older
men with young, fashionable women, seemingly in their
early 20s, accompanying them. They are taken to the private
booths where there are curtains to separate them with the
regular customers. The atmosphere of the bar starts to
change as the regular patrons start to leave and more groups
of old men with young women walk in. Within my
peripherals, I see the inside of one booth through a small
opening between the curtains. Inside, I see that every man is
seated next to a girl. The space between every pair is almost
nonexistent, a proximity that would only be comfortable
between intimate lovers. The girls seductively crossing their
legs, pressing the arms together to reveal their cleavages,
pour the men drinks while the men laugh obnoxiously and
put their arms around the girls waist and shoulders. It was
then that I understood that this was an illicit meeting
South Korea Exports
Cellphones,
Cars and Prostitutes?
A Look at the Korean Sex Industry in the United States
BY ASHLEY HARIM LEE
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TheKoreanprostitutionindustryis continues togrow intheUnitedStates.
TheOriginal Avegers byAlexRoss TheJusticeLeaguebyAlexRoss
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between clients and their young prostitutes.
Georgia has one of the fastest growing Korean
populations in the U.S. with over 100,000 Koreans residing
in the southern peach State. Many of these Koreans live
outside Atlanta (the capital of Georgia) and find home in the
suburban counties of Duluth and Gwinnett where the area is
quickly becoming known as the Koreatown of Georgia.
Many Korean-owned businesses have sprung up such as
cafes, restaurants, noraebangs(karaoke bars), jjim jil bangs
(saunas), plastic surgery clinics, mega markets, etc.,
facilitating the assimilation process for many immigrating
Koreans. But many unscrupulous businesses and practices
tarnishing the image of South Korea have seemed to spawn
in Georgia as the Korean demographic continues to grow.
Many Koreans have turned to the pervasive vices of
gambling and alcohol to make a living in their new
homeland; so is it really a surprise that some people,
specifically women, have resorted to prostitution as a source
of income in a place that is so similar to their motherland?
Many Korean girls, girls in their twenties or early thirties,
come to Duluth to work as escorts or prostitutes because
they can make quick easy cash, said Aira Lee, a college
student who have a lot of friends working in the growing
Korean sex industry in Georgia. A lot of (young) girls come
here on their own free will. They work by entertaining older
men, make around one to two hundred dollars per guy, and
if they want something more than getting their drinks
poured, they go somewhere to have sex and she end up
going home with over five hundred dollars.
Once these girls have accumulated enough wealth, often
after one or two years, they fly back to Korea to splurge their
cash on designer goods and/or plastic surgery. One twenty-
one year old Korean girl working as a high-end escort who
agreed to be interviewed without mentioning her name said,
Its not the most honorable job but it pays the rent and
more. I was able to send my parents on a trip to Europe with
the money I made here so I am not completely doing this for
myself..
Many of the meeting places of these illicit engagements are
so hush-hush and underground that it is difficult for non-
Korean speakers to find them. Even Korean Americans
know about the prevalence of Korean prostitution
happening in their neighborhoods but have never explicitly
witnessed the events taking place. Sam Chun, a Korean
American who has lived in Duluth for over twenty years
said, I have heard that Duluth and Gwinnett have one of the
biggest red light districts in Georgia but you can never tell if
these places are actually brothels because they are so well
disguised as normal hofs or karaoke bars. You also cant tell
if these girls wearing heavy make-up or high heels are
prostitutes or regular girls who just want to a few drinks with
their friends.
The covert nature of this business is gaining more
exposure as the police are cracking down on illegal sex
establishments all over the Korean districts. Just a few weeks
back, four Korean women were arrested for operating a
brothel under the disguise as a massage parlor in Macon,
Georgia (KoreaTimesUS). The business was opened in 2008
under the name Soft Hands Massage & Space and changed
to Sedona Tanning Salon in 2010. It was reported that the
police had started an investigation of the business from 2010
after receiving complaints from locals but was never able to
gain clear evidence until a prostitute offered sexual services
to an undercover cop last month.
The problem of prostitution among Koreans is not
exclusive to Georgia; these establishments are stable
wherever there is a notable Korean populace. Cities such as
Los Angeles, San Francisco, Manhattan, etc. where there are
predominantly Korean areas are facing similar concerns.
According to CNN, in January 2014, a high-end drug and
prostitution ring in involving thousands of wealthy clients
and hundreds of prostitutes mainly from Korea was busted
during Super Bowl week in New York City. In 2013, a 25
year-old student was among 25 madams, or sex brokers
arrested for arranging sex tours for Korean men living in Los
Angeles (NewAmericaMedia). Despite the legal sanctions
and police crackdowns, Korean prostitution rings continue
to operate and thrive in these densely populated cities.
In order to stop the influx of prostitutes in the United
States, the problem must first be tackled back at home.
Although prostitution is illegal in South Korea, the sex
industry is still flourishing and accounts for about 4 percent
of South Koreas annual gross domestic product (Ibtimes).
The government should enforce the law that is already
actualized under the Special Law on Sex Trade and
adequately punish those found guilty of breaking the law and
educate the public on the consequences of profiting for sex.
Otherwise South Korea might not only be known as the
hardworking nation that produces superior quality goods
but for exporting money-hungry prostitutes.
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MusicandFantasy
PianoEnsemble-
SejongCenter
~11.3BiennaleMedia
citySeoul- Seoul
Museumof Art
2
~9.3TheItalianStraw
Hat (French)-
UniversityCultural
Center GrandHall
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~9.5TheGoodPerson
of Szechwan(German)
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~11.9Musical Rebecca-
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Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
~10.12Culu
7 8 9
AsiaPhilharmonic
Orchestra-Seoul Arts
Center (SAC)
10 11
Joyof StringConcert-
SAC
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Korea-JapanFestival-
COEX
~9.14BukchonMusic
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KoreaReligiousCulture
Festival- Cheonggye
Plaza
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~9.16ToDieor Not
(Spanish) - Student
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~10.15Eight days
(Koreanfolkdance)-
KoreaCultural House
~9.20Tournament
(Dance)- National
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~10.05TheGift of the
Gorgon- SejongCenter
18
ModernTable
(Contemporary
Dance)- LIGArt Hall
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Romantist- Olympic
Park
Spirit of Beethoven-
Seoul Arts Center
~9.21 SoundCity-
Yonsei University
20
DisneyinConcert-
OlympicPark
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LiberteStringQuartet-
SejongCenter
~9.23SomeoneMust
Leave(Russian) -
Student Center Lounge
22 23 24
MiddayKoreanDance-
National Theater of
Korea
~10.18Seoul
International Dance
Festival
25 26 27
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~9.30TheButterfly
Lovers(Chinese) -
Student Center Lounge
29
~11.16BlueandWhite
Porcelainof theJoseon
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Culture Calendar - September
BY YOUNG MIN SON
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Breakfast?(English)-
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~9.28TheLoveof
ChunhyangBallet-
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~10.05SFMovie
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