One of the pillars of Korean society has been health (along with education, wealth, and status). Health was a virtue and requirement for productivity in the historical context of a poverty level agricultural society. People with poor health were not productive and shunned in society. This virtue carried over into the quickly modernized culture of current Seoul. But times are slowly changing, for one strange but logical reason.

Nearly half of the youth population residing in Seoul now live in poverty, with many seeking financial support from their parents, according to a new study released by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Seoul Institute.

According to the 2022 Seoul Young Adult Panel Study, 55.6 percent of the youth population in Seoul faced asset poverty, meaning that they lack sufficient liquid assets to cover their basic needs for three months. If you connect the dots, it makes sense that this week South Korea rolled out a comprehensive plan to offer mental health checkups every two years for young Koreans aged 20 to 34 and other counseling services tailored to all age groups to detect warning signs early on, in the first-ever detailed state policy aimed at tackling the country’s consistently high suicide rates and mental health issues.

Korea has recorded the highest suicide rate among member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development for almost 20 years, with 25.2 deaths per 100,000 people in 2022, more than double the OECD average of 10.6 deaths per 100,000 people.
Nearly 40,000 South Koreans took their own lives over the past three years, with the suicide rate increasing among younger people, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported.

President Yoon stressed the significance of having good mental health for the country’s future growth, reflecting on the swiftly declining national birth rate. SK government is clearly panicking over the prospect of the birth rate continuing to fall. That is the real reason for the new health program: poor, depressed, underemployed, lacking self-esteem or self-work youth are not likely to marry and have children to replace the aging population (which for the first time has the most workers in their 50s).

Does anyone have a clear idea about who have died in “The Matchmakers”, what stories we have been told about those deaths, and what we up till now have found out is (probably) the truth?
If it is visualised – even better!

weather - from April to October it was and now November is too with others - recording making month - woah - haha - months are together.

Autumn - was hot - record - november expected more than usual and it gave the outcome as expected.

Cold - yeah it's cold - the thing is if it gets to your body then it's cold - it really is cold - but more you feel because your body can't handle it and it shows up in data when november joined the summer n autumn.

Storm - this is what you wait for - That's howw december goes - that is blooming cold season.

Rain - hard to handle - strong air - oh oh

spring to high cold to stormy - quite an interesting upcoming two weeks.

Popcorn time.

Among the tropes used in Kdramas, one is when someone gets sick, say a female character, a male character takes care of her, which in itself is as sappy as it is likeable. But the ailments Kdrama writers choose for their characters, in my opinion, are usually not good choices. Like in Perfect Marriage Revenge, there’s a scene when right after the female lead puked, the male lead proceeded to kiss her. That’s a hard one to stomach for me as a viewer. At least give her some water to drink first, isn’t that what we do when we see someone puking? Give them water and facial tissue.

Another common ailment in Kdramas is indigestion. I always wonder if the writers know how uncomfortable one can be if they had indigestion or other digestive issues, and it can get ugly, and there’s nothing romantic about that?

If they have to choose an ailment for their characters, I think migraine is a good choice :-) It’s quite common in reality and can be triggered by a lot of factors. But I’ve never encountered migraine in Kdramas :-)

Happy Hanukkah to everyone who celebrates!

I just wanted to say that I'm loving the #2023RoundUp and sad that tags don't work :(
Also loving this thing where we follow each other, it's nice to build a community of virtual but real friends. I need friends. Is there a way to see your followed peeps, without using the *Beanies* link up top? I think I still don't know how to properly navigate this site.
AND WHY BEANS? I need to know! :D

THE RANDOM CONTENTS OF 9TAILEDVIXEN'S BRAIN ON A RAINY FRIDAY:

1. I was so excited to watch WELCOME TO SAMDAL-RI but somehow haven't got round to it because it's been a pretty brutal week at work and there's only MORE being piled on me in the coming weeks. Yep - goodbye having an uninterrupted holiday break sad vixen face

But I am determined to catch up with Ji Chang-Wook Shii over whatever paltry time off I have this December.

2. Who knew JungKook is the gateway drug to BTS? I have gone from listening to GOLDEN (which is a bloody awesome pop album) to being hooked on the BTS song DYNAMITE to the point where it is a constant earworm and I have been bouncing around to it during mini work breaks.

My neighbours probably hate me at this point LOL!

3. Speaking of BTS - I knew that South Korean feminists were unhappy with them because of misogynistic lyrics and so I went digging and found out about their evolution from doing that to becoming a band that supports women and their leader RM becoming a major male ally in the space of about 3 years. And I have to admit that I'm impressed - they defied their culture and upbringing to do this.

BTS and their collective evolution:
https://thetvwatchtower.org/2021/05/07/the-future-is-female-the-surprising-convergence-of-bts-and-feminism-equal-rights-for-women/

A Timeline of RM (Kim Nam-Joon)'s journey towards becoming a feminist ally who is the only K-Pop idol on the hit list of incels and MRAs
https://leepacey.tumblr.com/post/722599357746216960/bts-member-namjoons-history-with-misogyny-and?

And look - BTS now runs their lyrics past women's studies professors to ensure they aren't accidentally writing anything misogynistic
https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/rm-bts-lyrics-looked-over-womens-studies-professor.html/

4. And now my BTS-loving friends are slyly informing me that "RM is 6 feet tall and gorgeous and feminist so what more could you want?"

ME: Why is everyone trying to be Rowoon aka doing The Matchmakers gig thing to me?

5. The Great Baking Supplies Stocking-Up has begun. Lugged home bags of flour today and now I need jars for bottling Christmas Marmalade, more butter (butter is GOD in baking!), more sugar, more eggs, more spices...

6. The K-Beauty skincare routine is working like gangbusters - my panda eyes are gone, my eye bags are almost gone, and someone remarked that I'm getting the "glass skin" look now - glowy glowy GLOWY!

7. Off to buy fabric soon to get a billowy-sleeved blouse a la Do Do-Hee from MY DEMON made. Because that blouse design ROCKS!

Something is clearly not working between me and DB today - first my long comment I'm SURE I posted never appeared (no *awaiting moderation* notification, no ERROR page, simply nothing, to the point of me questioning my sanity) and now someone wrote an answer to me in THIS very thread, but I've never posted anything here before and don't see anyone mentioning me either. WTF, it's not even a weekend yet but weekend lag is already here - working overtime, this one(((

While watching Tell Me You Love Me this week, Mr. Drunk Guy told Jin-woo something : "Sometimes I envy you. You can just say you didn't know. Then and now. You have a place to hide". I can relate a bit to that.

I could relate a bit to that statement. While it isn't something I do intentionally. Since I'm short-sighted, I tend to focus my vision on what's ahead of me. So I consciously blur out any other any information on the edges and keep my ears open to sounds around me. Even when I focus on what's ahead of me, it doesn't mean that I'm seeing the people ahead of me. While I know that I'm walking along the path and people are doing same at the same time, I also blur out people's faces. So we can be coming from opposite sides and I do not see you at all and we just pass each other by.
Sometimes the faces click in moments after we've past each other by. Each time I was confronted, I simply told them I was not with my glasses so I couldn't see beyond my range of vision. But I also ask if they made a maximal effort to get my attention or distract me, ranging from waving into my face, blocking my path, or keeping their gaze trained on me cause I easily sense that.

Do I hide behind this? Not too often but then it is a lot. For one thing, it has helped me to not have to confront some particular situations and felicitations, and also not interact with some people when I'm not in the frame of mind to do so. I recognize a lot of people so my initial reaction is to freeze and wave or nod when I see a familiar face. It is so embarrassing sometimes though cause others are wondering why is he nodding or waving especially when no one is waving or nodding back. So in moments when my sight is blurring out virtually everyone and every face around me, moments I am always thankful for, I do not have to mentally freeze and stand on ceremony for every face I see in these moments. If you don't distract me, that's not on me.

However mixed the thoughts of people are about this, I like the fact that I have a place to hide.

My stomach had been hurting off and on for the past two months, I thought it was just me getting older and my digestion slowing down. But one day it kept hurting from 7 am to 2 am with no sign of stopping, so I took a shower and an Uber to the ER. The docs on duty took a look at each other and said, "gallbladder". I was woozy from the pain medication and staying in the hospital for the first time, so I wasn't much of an advocate for myself. Just felt too intimidated and overwhelmed. A few days later my gallbladder was removed. Throughout the wait in the hospital, I don't remember someone sitting down with me to explain what happened to my gallbladder, why I need surgery, and if there are any other options. I feel embarassed that as a grown adult I was so meek. And so I'm just hoping and praying that the surgery was really for the best and that there won't be any complications. They discharged me with minimal info, assuring me that there won't be any complications or increased risk of other conditions. But after googling, I found that there are of course risk of other complications associated with gallbladder removal. Such as increased risk of kidney cancer (?!), bile duct leak (?!), etc. The sobering fact that I won't be able to eat foods like pizza, hamburgers, ice cream, etc as freely as I did before (without risk of watery stools aka explosive diarrhea) doesn't even seem as important as some of the associated complications. I am thankful though that I did have my 20's and 30's to eat whatever I wanted (which may have contributed to this gallbladder condition, who knows?) and the memories of traveling around Asia eating whatever streetfood that caught my fancy will be a cherished memory. This experience made me realize how unfriendly the food world and Instagram is to people without gallbladders unable to digest fat well. I especially am curious how people in Korea deal with eating after surgery. Are they able to continue enjoying kimchi, mandu, garlic chive pancakes, jeon, gamjatang, jajangmyun? I am thinking wistfully about the Korea trip I was planning for next year. I was mainly going to go for the food. I don't know if I can still eat market food like mung bean pancakes? And the jajangmyun and sweet and sour pork that I've been dreaming about ordering delivery for? If anyone has experience and advice for eating Korean foods particularly after gallbladder surgery, I'm all ears. PS the surgery caused me to miss the first book for the book club, which is a shame. I started watching Vigilante but I realized that thrillers made my stomach tense up, which didn't feel great after abdominal surgery. I needed to watch something warm and humorous (laughter is the best medicine after all) but not too funny because laughing too much would make the incisions hurt! So I ended up watching Crash Landing On You. It had just enough humor to make me feel better. PPS I still have a ton to learn about gallbladder surgery and how to prevent it...

I'm missing PMR. Is there really truly no new episode today. Sigh.

I was thinking it's pretty cool and brave for actors, especially those from idol backgrounds, to go against the typical "good guy/good girl" roles.
I thought this after I saw Lee Jun Young's casting in Weak Hero Class 2.

The very first thing I saw him in was Love and Leashes. It's not graphic or anything but it appearently was considered controversial and risque since the premise involved BDSM and the casting involved [former?] idols. And recently he was in a movie where he played an entitled, priviledged bully (which I think he's done before but he seemed even more menacing to me now. Maybe because he's becoming a better, more experienced actor? Maybe cause this time his bully is more hands on and the previous role was more manipulative instigator? I don't know; I've only seen clips of both). I'm not entirely sure which character he's supposed to be in Weak Hero Class 2 but I think he's supposed to be an antagonist.

I miss castaway diva. I kinda wanna continue talking about it but then people move on to other dramas or people complain about it which is such a buzzkill.

It's not the greastest drama in the history of dramas (but what is?)
But it was still a nice one.

I tried to make a 'favorite dramas of 2023' list and I only got so far. There's 'One Day Off', 'Lies Hidden In My Garden', 'Call It Love', and... and... Why am I having such difficulty coming up with a favorites list? Either some of my favorite dramas have entirely escaped my mind or the dramas I watched this year simply didn't rise to the level of 'favorites'. I know I'm forgetting one important drama but I simply cannot recall it.

Any Beanies familiar with the band Goose ?
I will be working their show tonight and tomorrow.
Jam band with happy vibe from what I have seen of their concert videos on YT. Oh and they play for hours 2-4 hour shows
Some say they have followings similar to the Grateful Dead or Phish
Should be intersting.

I don't know who said "yeah, let's make a holiday about playing with every single type of firework that exists" but I hate that person.
In my era it was called "día de las velitas", not "día of destroying tabong's eardrums". I didn't see one single candle on the street, tho (velitas=candles), just the massive smoke from the fireworks.

I totally forgot how loud this month is. Fireworks, music, people. Just so freaking loud. Who's not going to be able to go around without headphones even inside her house?🤚 This gal. Brilliant.

Anyway, I hope all of you are having a lovely day. Happy weekend, beanies! 💚

I got excited by I felt like I'm waiting for this year's Bean Count because any Dramabeans staff members (including the weecapers) got busy collecting this year's beans. Maybe this week, I promise. Also, I can't wait patiently for voting this year's best and worst Dramabeans awards polls and I think it will happen next week.

Wait. What? It's Friday already?!

I didn't watch king the land and I don't watch my demon but I can't help but wonder if their buzz & popularity is due to the visuals and appeal of actors than the actual show.

Every time I see something about it, it's just photoshoots of the actors or talking about the actors' look. I did see something about a dance battle or something

Happy weekend Beanies and keep Beaning On!

In the past I would never dream of posting at this time, but since more Beanies backread here goes:

To those who celebrate Christmas, do you decorate the house, and how?🎄

Dad pleads with mom every year, and every year she begrudgingly agrees, as long as she does not have to help out with the decorating. Of course, she is always the first to get involved from her sofa.😄

So, dad and I just finished decorating and we have a decent Christmas tree with some lights around the nearest wall. This year it was also finally brought to my dad’s attention that he tends to throw broken ornaments back in the boxes, and we finally threw those things out.😉