one of my supervisors, michael keane, has published a new book recently.
it’s called created in china: the great new leap forward.
i must admit that i haven’t read the book yet. however, as a student, colleague, and respectful fan of michael and his work, i have no doubt this book will masterfully guide us through the mysterious and massive land of contemporary chinese culture and industries relative to the idea of creativity, something many of us are still finding hard to even draw a rough sketch of in our heads.
re-adjusting to my ‘home culture’ has been quite fun.
it’s strange to be socially, racially, and immediately accepted.
using my australian mobile phone’s proving to be exorbitant, and i’m going to be here for a while, so i’ve decided to get a korean mobile phone… yes! very excited. currently it’s very cheap to get a phone if one’s prepared to subscribe to KTF or LGT. SKT, once the most popular, has been losing popularity for a while, especially since the launch of KTF’s new 3G+ service, Show (but largely because of the concurrent ‘free phone offers’ for those who’s bringing their numbers over to KTF; LGT offer the same kind of deals, but people don’t seem to have much respect for this company that started with PCS phone services). i’ve previously talked - briefly - about how video call was painted to be the next big thing in Korea, and yes, Show’s mainly about that. however, as i’ve found out by talking to my friends here, it’s still considered to be ‘too expensive’ and thus ‘not worth it’ - as a video phone user (of a few years), i’m not surprised. i never really liked and rarely used the feature. let us be private multitaskers as we are and desire to be, perhaps ;)
anyway, STK’s keen to claim the emperor(ess)’s seat again in the over-saturated Korean mobile world, and they’re ambitiously going to release 7 new samsung phones in a few weeks. not sure if it’s worth waiting. i know that i would like SKT - my roaming phone’s with KTF and the connection’s been very unsatisfactory. besides, i would really like to try the RFID ordering system at the Shinchon McDonald’s. i don’t go to mcdonald’s pretty much ever (except when my niece wants an oreo mcflurry), but i would really like to try this service. if unable, i think i’ll just grab anyone there and ask if i could use their phone :)
SKT has also done some very interesting tv ads about video calls - ‘mastering video calling’ (but interestingly, it’s really about how to look beautiful for it); there have been four lessons so far:
more interestingness when considered in relation to:
some of Larissa Hjorth’s work on gendered use of the mobile phone in Korea
Hjorth, Larissa. “Snapshots of Almost Contact: Gendered Camera Phone Practices and a Case Study in Seoul, Korea.” Cultural Space and Public Sphere in Asia. Ed. Shin Dong Kim. Seoul, Korea, 2006: 211-32.
Hjorth, Larissa, and Heewon Kim. “Being There and Being Here: Gendered Customising of Mobile 3g Practices through a Case Study in Seoul.” Convergence 11.2 (2005): 49-55.
This popular teen boy band known as Dong Bang Shin Gi (DBSG or DBSK - in Chinese cultures, TVXO) officially became the public ambassador for the Korean e-government last week.
They’re very popular in Korea, and in many Asian countries; they’re probably one of the strongest forces behind the Korean Wave at the moment, music-wise anyway. And no, I don’t know who did their hair.
Korea’s been doing alright in the area of e-governance, regardless of what’s happening in the realm of actual governance and politics. So more accurately, Korea’s been doing alright in terms of e-government readiness. It ranked 5th in the UN’s Global E-government Readiness Report 2005, following USA, Denmark, Sweden, and UK.
South Korea remains one of the world leaders in e-government. Its central services portal, egov.go.kr, continues to offer citizens the opportunity to complete a vast array of government related transactions through several payment options, including digital currency. It also provides a “service cart” similar to the shopping cart feature on e-commerce sites, allowing the user to select, apply for, and pay for several services in one transaction. The site also features the ability for users to register in order to personalize services.
The Republic of Korea is also home to one of the most impressive e-procurement implementations through its continued development of the Government e-Procurement System (GePS) as a single window for public procurement, which provides full integration (www.g2b.go.kr)
– original article here
Having a popular boy band as the public ambassador would definitely have a positive effect on attracting young (in their teens) citizens. I personally think that it would’ve been great if more focus had been placed on senior citizens or even people in ther 40+. These are the people who have to deal with citizenry issues right now, but without much needed education or training to use what’a already there. Young ones, for sure, will naturally learn to use these services when they need to, because it’s simply easier and more convenient for them to go online and ’sort things out’ than going to little and big offices scattered all around the city.
I don’t know. Perhaps this is the government’s attempt at meeting the demand in one of the most desired career sector in Korea right now: public servant. According to the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Korea is currently the 11th largest economy in the world. However, the element of “stability” in career has been probably “the most important” element of consideration ever since the Asian Financial Crisis, when many people suddenly lost their jobs (and their lives, for some). There are people - many older people, including my parents - who are still suffering from the loss/es occurred during that time. And they are suffering without any support - or intention to support - from the government, not only financially but also welfare-wise… well in any way, really. So it really does annoy me that these people are ignored yet again when they are really in need of consideration. Foolishness.
Jeon Do-yeon won the Best Actress award at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, which ended on Sunday, for her role in Lee Chang-song’s “Secret Sunshine.” Jeon is the first Korean and second Asian actress to win the award for best actress at the prestigious international film festival.
– original article here
I haven’t seen the film “Secret Sunshine” - or Miryang in Korean - but I’m pleased to hear that Do-eyon Jeon’s won this thing. She’s been consistently good.
(original image from the above article)
The above article says that “Jeon’s achievement suggests the global film industry is paying attention not only to Korean movies but finally to Korean actors.” I don’t agree with this completely, but it’s been pretty hard not to pay attention for the industry to what’s happening in Korean cinema/entertainment scene, particularly with the Korean Wave (otherwise known as Hallyu or Hanryu). At its peak in 2004, the Korean Wave contributed to 0.18% increase in the national GDP of Korea. Pretty impressive, especially when Korea’s been known for long as a heavily, boringly, and undeniably industrial country with the brand of OEM.
The big shake-up came with a government report in mid-90s, urging then the president Young Sam Kim to make ways for the AV industry to flourish as one of the national strategic industry. The report presented a comparison between Jurassic Park and Hyundai cars (proud national symbol of globalisation ;) ) and showed how the film had generated two years’ worth of Hyundai car exports. ALARM BELL RINGING FURIOUSLY IN KOREA AT THIS POINT… “WHAT? HOW IS SUCH A THING POSSIBLE? WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED ENTERTAINMENT (SOME CALL IT CULTURE) BUSINESS??” Subsequently, globalisation or segyehwa became the national agenda. And voila the Korean Wave, money, better diplomatic relations, and growing national pride.
Unfortunately for Korea, recent years have seen a dimishing of the Korean Wave. I, for one, have been critical of the same formulaic stories and sense of humour that have been apparent across different fields of pop cultural production. As many claim - and I agree - a lot of that great success came directly from celebrities, perhaps more so than from the quality of production, promotion etc. (Yon-sama is a living example). Celebrities fade away. Very quickly in the case of Korea (I’ve mentioned a couple of times about the paripari - hurryhurry- mentality in this blog).
And it seems that Korean films are not having a wonderful time at this year’s Cannes, just like their cousins (Korean dramas).
Business was locked in slo-mo for Korean sales companies this week in Cannes. Most confessed to having had a miserable time, despite their high-profile booths and well-backed promotion campaigns … Korean films have had a pretty rotten time at home too. Market share this year has slipped from the 60%-plus enjoyed last year.
– original article here
Ah- trouble. There was a survey done by Cetizen, a mobile community site (in Korean) - about the reasons behind changes in the frequency of cinema going last year. 51.6% of the participants attributed the decrease to the fact that they no longer were getting discounts with their mobile subscription (see this article - in Korean). It used to be the case that once you become a subscriber to a particular provider, then you get a membership card, which gives you discounts at various venues such as cinemas, theme parks, restaurants, and shops. It appears that these big telcos haven’t been diligenly keeping their promises, and as a result, many previously available benefits are disappearing… quickly. The consequences of this disappearance? Appearing quickly.
I just can’t understand why silly things like this are happening in Korea. Once in a (nation’s) life-time opportunity’s going, or perhaps already (almost completely) gone.
KOREA, please let the mobile culture (mobile technologies and all inter-related domains) grow - organically, complexly, and strongly. And please do your best to keep your much-celebrated screen quota in place; please remove those re-introduced download limits on broadband; and multiple pleases for you to take creativity seriously and encourage people to be more free in their creative expressions and interactions - eventually they will generate financial profit, if not immediately (paripari). People, technology, and culture. Please get this amazing connection and do something about it… quickly. Now.
May is the “month of family” or on a more corporeal level, the “month of gifts” in Korea.
There’s the children’s day on May 5, mother’s day on May 8, and teachers’ day on May 15.
With the typical “gift giving culture,” May gets a little crazy for everyone trying to find suitable presents - imagine the life of a 32 year old person. You need to buy presents for your parents and grand parents, your children, your children’s teachers, and your own teachers (past and present if you’re still in contact), your nieces and nephews… perhaps May deserves a title like “the month of hemorrhage.”
KTF is offering a special “txting filial piety” service to “create a space of communication with parents” for many users who are often “too shy” to express their feelings and gratitude (see the original newswire article here - in Korean). This particular service has two sub-categories:
Free filial piety MMS alarm service
The user can subscribe to this free service and receive an MMS on their phone every morning. The content of the message itself is something along the lines of “I love you” and “Thank you.” The user can then send on that message to their parent/s. KTF claims that this will also have a positive effect of allowing the parents to become more familiarised with the technology of txting - something that their demographics don’t normally use.
Txt music and background decoration service
As long as the user includes one of these words - “mother,” “father,” “mum,” or “dad” - in a txt and add * at the end of the receipient’s phone number, suitable music and background image (according to those terms) will be automatically inserted, turning a simple txt message into a more emotive MMS message. I’m assuming that there are other available terms, though I’m having trouble viewing content on the KTF website at the moment (I’m on a Mac using Safari and Firefox).
I kind of like these clever ideas. They’re quite lovely. And it’s very interesting how the free filial piety alarms are sent to the user, not the user’s parents, which means the user will need to pay to forward them on to their parent/s. I guess this prevents the messages from turning into spams; this 2005 article reports that 95.8 per cent of Korean cell phone users have received advertisements on their handsets, and 41.8 per cent of the survey respondents reported that they receive spam messages once or twice a week. The numbers undoubtedly have increased since then.
My mother doesn’t bother at all with smss as she knows that all she’s getting is either spam or some sort of notification that she’s already aware of anyway. So although the first few “I love you; thank you” messages may be lovely and touching, the whole idea might lose its charm within a few days and become absolutely annoying instead. And another interesting aspect of this is that forwarding the MMS everyday will incur financial commitment from the user. So it’s a “legitimate gift” with financial involvement.
I think very soon - probably tomorrow - I should get some of those “legitimate gifts” to send my own parents too, in a manner that’s slightly slower than MMS or 100mb broadband, but with genuine love and thanks :)
