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‘Shocking reality’ of Korea’s foreigners

Last update - Friday, June 15, 2012, 02:06 By Andrew Farrell

Four months after singer-songwriter Jenny Hyun’s much-published broadside, South Korea is embroiled in yet another racism row following MBC’s decision to broadcast a hugely inflammatory report titled ‘The Shocking Reality About Relationships With Foreigners’.

For those unfamiliar with the Hyun story, back in February she went on a Twitter rampage in response to outspoken boxer Floyd Mayweather’s comments on Asian basketball star Jeremy Lin. Hyun called Mayweather a “subhuman, ungrateful ape” before claiming that the only way “black people are able to advance in any way is through white people.” She was eventually admitted to hospital for mental issues.
The latest incident to shame Korean TV is likely to leave a permanent feeling of resentment, because it is aimed at all foreigners living in the country – especially men – irrespective of race, religion or colour.
In May, MBC shocked TV viewers with a short magazine-style report about how foreign men living in Korea were stealing from their Korean girlfriends, abandoning them when pregnant and infecting them with HIV. Unsurprisingly, the response was an angry one.
Estimates vary, but there are over 100,000 foreign-born people living in South Korea, many of whom are permanent residents married to Koreans with mixed-race children.
A Facebook page dedicated to taking action against MBC had reached 9,000 members at the time of writing, and an online petition, looking for 25,000 signatures to demand an apology from MBC, was attracting one signee every 20 seconds.
The five-minute report questioning the morals of foreign men living in Korea was apparently inspired by a scandal involving a foreign man on reality TV who was having multiple secret relationships with local Korean women.
Hidden cameras were taken to the notorious party district of Itaewon in Seoul, where some loosely dressed Korean girls hang out in this otherwise very conservative country. The report heavily scrutinised the actions of foreign men caught on tape following these girls, before cutting to interviews with both foreign and local people.
Overall, the foreign men are poorly portrayed in the report, as one young man seems to be answering a very simple and direct question about what he thinks of Korean girls.
Another aspect of the report that dismayed foreigners is the story about a young woman contracting HIV from her boyfriend. There is a misconception among some Koreans that foreign people are carriers of STDs, and the report appears to encourage this inaccurate view.
What the report fails to point out is that every foreign person living in South Korea on a working visa is subject to a stringent medical exam upon arrival, and then must retake the exam before extending their visa every year. So the chances of foreign men infecting girls with HIV are incredibly low.
The lead writer for the show that broadcast the report told the Korea Herald that it was “based on the facts that we found as we were covering the story and it strictly reported on the present situation.” MBC, for their part, said no broadcasting laws were broken but that there are no compulsory guidelines for race and nationality.
Meanwhile, the unprovoked attack has also mystified foreigners given that South Korea is known for its sometimes shady ‘business clubs’ and singing rooms where huge money is paid to have a beautiful girl sit with a group of men.
Elsewhere in Itaewon, ‘Hooker Hill’ is infamous for its one-storey buildings with prostitutes standing outside, and in most towns and cities thousands of ‘coffee girl’ cards are tossed across the pavements for people to pick up, even outside schools and churches.
It remains to be seen whether anyone in the Korean media will pick up on this double standard.

Andrew Farrell works as an English language teacher in Korea.


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