Koreans are great lovers of beauty. A couple weeks ago I was flipping through the channels on Korean television and came across an arts channel featuring traditional Korean dance. Dance after dance came on and I was glued to the screen, impressed with the dancers’ strength, grace, and commitment to each physical moment. Folk dances were woven seamlessly into the performance so that the dance took on a life of its own, neither folk dance nor classical dance (I’m thinking of ballet).
One dance in particular blew me away. The set was a cool summer night: dark blue background, bare stage, a bright moon projected onto the upper corner of the backdrop. The dancers came on stage, a young man and woman, dressed in traditional Korean clothes. The man and woman were lovers and spent the entire dance innocently flirting with each other, sometimes doing modest dances for each other, building to moments when the lovers would flash secret smiles to the audience and innocently kiss behind a paper hand fan. There was no plot to this story, but there was a story nonetheless, the story of two lovers sharing their love for each other and how they perform this for the audience, using cool passion and well placed moments (such as the kiss behind the fan) where you could swear to see a twinkle in their eyes, as if the lovers are pleased with how subtle they can be in front of an audience. My favorite moments were when the couple broke the fourth wall.
While visiting a palace in Seoul, I observed that Western palaces are decorated with art that copies nature, through statues, paintings, fountains, highly organized and planned out gardens, etc (I’m thinking of my visit to Versailles). But here in Korea nature seems to stand for itself. So I wonder what place beauty, art, and nature have in Korean culture.
I’m tremendously interested in the concept of beauty in Korean culture. I think Koreans are in love with beauty. Looking young and being healthy are very important things to this culture and you see this played out from TV commercials and boardwalk ads down to ordinary routines (I constantly see women applying make-up in even the smallest of moments).
When I first arrived in Korea, I condemned this all as fake. The barrage of advertisements, the importance of being well dressed at all time, the obsession with health and beauty products – I wonder if this was how I dealt with the culture shock, by condemning it in order to distance myself from it. I was most shocked upon my first day of teaching when upon meeting the director’s wife she pronounced “O good, he’s very handsome!” I thought, clearly they don’t get for my teaching abilities, as long as I’m good looking that’s good enough. I had a very negative reaction to this initial encounter with the Asian obsession with the outer.
Even today I was treated like a rock star by girls working at a McDonalds. After teaching for seven hours straight today I wanted to reward myself with a good meal of fast food. The moment I stepped up to the counter to place my order, all the workers, even the men, stopped what they were doing to stare at me. The girls all became very giggly, clumsy, giving me furtive, quick glances. I took it all very quietly, giving them a modest performance, smiling a lot, wondering what on earth I have done to deserve rock star treatment??? Meanwhile, I could hear the girls behind the counter calling for my order: “Where are burger and fries for handsome guy?” “Order for handsome guy!”
I think over time I’ve grown to accept this attitude. I get stared at everyday on the streets and once or twice random Koreans come up to my, shake my hand, and rant on and on about how handsome I am. Actually, back in September, an older man chased after me on my way to work just so he could stop me and tell me how handsome I was!
I think I’ve learned there’s nothing wrong with being healthy and looking your best. Only a year ago I was in college, where I could walk into a dining hall unshaven, messy hair, and in sweat clothes, and no one would care. I focused an awful lot on work, especially during my first two years at Hamilton, so my physical health and appearance took a back seat. Living here in Korea has reminded me to live a more balanced life.
Back to the idea of beauty -- What occurs to me is that America and Korea have different ideas of beauty. I’m curious to know what Korean women would think if shown a picture of Marlon Brando as Stanley in “Street Car named Desire.” Are sweaty muscley dark tanned-skin men beautiful? Are they sexy? Or do they prefer a clean cut, simple, innocent, fair skinned young man, as often portrayed in the media (and in the dance performance discussed above). Perhaps, in America we put beauty and sex together, whereas in Korea they are separate. Thoughts?
