Comments on: Western actors becoming more visible on Korean TV

By: Kim Jade

Kim Jade — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 15:05:40 +0000

I always enjoy watching foreigners in Korean drama. Though many do lack acting skills they are still a part of intergrating diffrent cultures together on one screen. I am always thrilled to see Korean actors on the big screen here in America as well. I always wish for their popularity to grow because I have come to love Korea through Dramas and music. The culture is multi-fasited and lovely, though still a tad prejudice against bi-ratial relationships. It is alway fun to speak to Korean people in their native language. It surprises them, I’ve found. I went up to one man in the hospital and he had a child who was crying for her mother while she was beeing seen. I walked up and said hello and tried to interact with the child a bit and the whole time he wasn’t even aware I was speaking Korean to him until they were leaving. He was so startled, it was funny. It was also the first time I got to speak Korean to another person who understood it so it was quite the experiance.

By: MeeisLee

MeeisLee — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:07:36 +0000

Omfg, why is it SOOOOOOO long ?! Ugh, rambling gets me no where.

By: MeeisLee

MeeisLee — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:06:26 +0000

I’m a bit late on the bandwagon here, but even though I might be years late, and after reading ALL these comments in the wee hours, I want to add two cents. Or maybe one, since I’m hoping this will be short. Heh, I hear some people or more like fewer people, saying we (I’m American) aren’t as open-minded and accepting as we say. I don’t entirely disagree with that. But I find it that a lot of the time, the ones doing the discriminated are immigrants (minorities) themselves. Seeing that I’m biracial (yes, I am another one on here), I’ll comment on my two sides (Asian and Black). Although, as of now I don’t remember it happening to me, I’ve seen store workers (they were Middle-Eastern every time) follow my friends in the store as they were shopping. Another time, two Chinese women (I’m aware we are talking about Korea, but this a valid point since, theres a assumed language barrier) were badmouthing a friend of mine (she’s Black). However, little did they know shes completely fluent in Mandarin. She didn’t say anything disrespectful, but kindly greeted them and told them thank you when leaving in Mandarin. They were so baffled. So the point I’m getting is that minorities are discriminating minorities here in the US. Even in this so called open-minded community, I don’t blame Hollywood entirely for the bad image. We are the same ones showing how much we believe in stereotypes just by our actions and words. If you do not want to be discriminated, then you shouldn’t discriminate. I’m not saying that if you discriminate against others you deserve to have the same done onto you, I’m saying that you should be mindful and put yourself in the others position.

*** Quick add: I was dating this Korean-American boy just a couple years back, and no, I was not motivated by my love
of kdramas or kactors or anything, this was before my drama and kpop addiction, and his mother hated me when she found out I was Black (the other half of me was tainted I guess). He didn’t break up with me even to that. I was so afraid of his mom >>. I remember she picked him up one day from school, I made sure I kept my distance (I’ve watched too many kdramas not to know, joke). We didn’t even speak for her to hate me. We didn’t even meet. I think she thinks I corrupted her son and made him go against her (which I didn’t, not forcibly, that was all him). I felt bad for him. But anyway, this goes to back to the point I was making about minorites discriminating minorities and not neccesraliy trying to clear the air first. I mean, really, I would have prefered 100% for her to not like me for her son for shallow reasons, like if I wasn’t pretty enough, than be characterized by my ethnicity (and not even all of it !). Well, on a GOOD note, my step-dad is Korean-American (it’s mere coincidence) and there’s not discrimination with his family. Though, his mom died at the begining of my ‘rents relationship, so I didn’t get to meet her. Though, I’m sure she was accepting and nice (actually, she remarried to a white man, maybe that’s why my step dad is so white-washed to be frank, and that’s not a bad thing necessarily). So yes, my family is a mixture of cultures. Arg, I have veered off course. Anyway, not so quick point end***

Now, on the other hand, I also understand how this bad image and stereotyping for black people come from in Asian countries, a of course that includes Korea. Actually, just yesterday I saw a video of two black women fighting on a city train, one of them was a mother and didn’t even realize her baby in her stroller rolled out the subway door until super long after. It’s things like this that make me personally, and I’m damn sure other people in the Black community, embarrassed. And honestly, sometimes a bit ashamed. Here I am saying that all of us aren’t like that, we don’t all rob places, we don’t all drink kool-aid and love fried chicken (there’s so many non-Black people who do), we don’t all have our pants on the ground, we don’t all have sour attitudes, all while not speaking proper English. And let me be one of those that don’t fall in that group. I’m not college age yet but as a youngin’ I’m sure my English is proper (I used commas, though, I didn’t capitalize all my proper nouns, I apologize, cut me some slack, I’m super tired). And you know what, sometimes I feel the need to set myself apart and let people know we are not all like that. But then I feel like my point isn’t being taken entirely, yes, maybe they do agree that I don’t follow the stereotype. But then they might say, “Oh, she’s just the exception.” Sigh. You can’t win right?

And to reply to the Brillian Legacy comment about episode one where Lee Seung Gi’s character made an ignorant comment about black people, I was turned off by it too. But honestly, I’ve heard the same type of remarks and in some cases, saw the remarks of the same nature in action, in past dramas. I didn’t let it get to me, I really didn’t want it to.

But anyway, I lost my thought on that along the way, now to finally make the “one cent” point I was talking about earlier. Someone above mentioned Korea be more accepting because of some few additions (read up). But I’m going to call those the exceptions. And no, I am not being hypocritical here. Name more than 3 events/ people to convince the rest of us. The supermodel Chanel Iman is Korean and Black. When her mother (Korean) had her in Korea she was exiled iirc. Chanel Iman then ended up being on the cover of Korean Vogue and was “accepted.” And of course we know Hines Ward, “accepted” AFTER he won that NFL thing he won, the superbowl (sorry again, tired mind, bear with me a wee bit longer). OH OH OH. And Tiger JK married Tasha (half-Korean, half-Black, popular female rapper) and she gave birth to a son. The poor innocent child was subject to hateful, racist comments from k-netizens. Now, isn’t that going a little too far? Even Tiger JK posted that he wished things wouldn’t happen this way.

I think Japan might be a little further ahead, even if they haven’t completely or maybe not even half-complete-ly (almost? near there?) accepted other races, I noticed they seem to (partially) accept mixed-races there at least. Crystal Kay (Black and Korean actually, she grew up in Japan though) is a singer and is popular. She has a song with BoA iirc, and correct me if I am wrong, one with Arashi too. And for sure she ha sa song with popular duo Chemistry (love them).

And whoever you bring onto the screen, I hope at least they can act, even if they can’t fluently speak Korean and the Korean actors are then forced to speak (sometimes cringe-worthy) English.

I’ve forgot any other thoughts I had. So tired. But that was by one cent turned into a dollar.
(I’ve been typing for 3-4hours)
I should get a blog :/.

Morning, dramabeans.

By: BigD

BigD — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 20:54:24 +0000

As of now, March 2011. Before, I’d remember that there is a Korean law that forbids many foreigners on Korean TV or media. Not just about foreign residents of Korea, but also entertainers from other countries that can’t promote on TV.
How has this changed from then compared to today?
Why was it that that law to implemented in the first place?
Would someone enlighten me.

By: Yvon

Yvon — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:07:43 +0000

Nice post. One thing to keep in mind is that KBS’s Global Talk Show [aka Misuda, aka Chatting with Beauties] is totally scripted. These women are puppetts and the writers tell them what to say. That is also true of “Reality TV Shows” as well. Strange world welive in.

By: Im Ju Nee@June

Im Ju Nee@June — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 06:36:37 +0000

Phew!! luckily I am from Malaysia. Over here, nobody care if you are Korean, Indian, Chinese or Malay. We are so use living in a multi racial nation. In fact, I am mix product of Chinese, Javanese. Foreigner living in Malaysia are so bless because they are treated equally like the local and if not better.

By: mintrice

mintrice — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 05:17:53 +0000

Given that there (still) aren’t a lot of non-Asians in Korea, the Koreans seem to be more accepting of other races than Americans. Yeah, Americans might act like they’re more open-minded, but in fact they’re not. Asians have been in the U.S. in large numbers for a century now, but in almost all cases Americans of Asian descent, especially Asian males, have been restricted to playing martial artists, villains, or foreigners. Even when they do play regular Americans, they are almost always relegated to minor roles. Asian women’s experience in Hollywood has been marginally better, yet even then they are usually made to play emotionally-challenged, hard-liner types: call to mind Deb Chen of ‘ER’ and Cristina Yang of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’. The most successful Asian male character, Hiro Nakamura on ‘Heroes’, was a Japanese man played by Asian American actor Masi Oka. In other words, Americans studios somehow can’t just portray Asian Americans as regular Americans. That’s just a way of saying that, unfortunately, Americans don’t really accept Asians as Americans. Which is just a way of being racist. Even when they’re not cast as villains, Asians are never allowed to display their full humanity. Sadly, the most prominent roles for Asians have generally been as villains or caricature, even in recent years–think of the Fast and Furious movies, the Hangover, Rush Hour 2, Crash, etc.
So it’s great that Koreans, despite having less experience with foreigners and other races, don’t spend a lot of time stereotyping them like Americans do. While they display a lot of naivety, they don’t dehumanize their non-Korean characters–in fact, they let the male ones get the girl!

By: Alexadubu

Alexadubu — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 04:45:28 +0000

Yes~

My filipino friend used to work in the entertainment industry in the Philippines. She told me (she is just beside me. lol) that Filipinos are very accepting of Foreign actors/actresses. Especially hispanic faces.

By: Alexadubu

Alexadubu — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 04:39:25 +0000

I don’t see why these english teachers are bad examples of foreigners~ they are the ones working their asses of teaching Koreans to speak english properly.

I am a Korean medical student now living in Australia and because of these english teachers that I became who I am now.

Its very sad to see that you just placed Korean people as american hating jerks. I pity you.

Just so you know, we don’t prefer Europeans over anyone. People are people. We based them on their actions and morals.

You are being a hypocrite and these are the people we Koreans hate.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 08:38:46 +0000

This is an interesting topic. I am an older foreigner but speak fluent Korean having lived here for many years. It would be fun to act (I used to stage) but does anyone know who to contact? I have heard all kinds of horror stories about the entertainment industry. Also do you all think there would be roles for an old grandpa?