Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Difference between Chinese and Korean 2


  • Intermarriage: though Koreans tend to be more insular and ethnocentric, the #1 ethnicity they will marry (outside of their own race) is Chinese. I chalk this up more to Christianity than cultural similarity—though there is that too.  The culture most similar to Korean is Japanese, but that will never take off in terms of intermarriage, because of two reasons: 1) history (the Japanese attacked and occupied and oppressed Korea during WWII, and the Koreans will never forget it), 2) Christianity (Japanese are the second-most resistant people to Christianity in this world after Muslims). Think about it: how many Japanese-Korean marriages do you know? I know two couples who fit that description. In contrast, I know quite a few Chinese-Korean couples.
  • Hierarchy: Japanese and Koreans are very hierarchical—this comes from Confucianism. They respect elders and speak in honorifics. Chinese, despite the fact that Confucius came from China, are much more egalitarian (I’m not using this with reference to gender but rather to class) due to Communism. A Korean teacher or pastor should be obeyed, no questions. With the Chinese, house churches spring up everywhere because it is largely classless nowadays, and thus it breeds the “priesthood of all believers.” Malcolm Gladwell controversially wrote in his book Outliers about Korean hierarchical communication.


Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Difference between Chinese and Korean 2

  •           Immigration: Part of the reason for the previous characteristic is because Chinese have been around a lot longer in the USA. Chinese started immigrating here in the 19th century whereas Koreans have only started coming over in the last couple of decades or so. Therefore you will meet Chinese who are first, second, third, fourth, and even fifth generation. Koreans are almost always first or second generation. I wonder, given a few more decades, if Koreans will start being a lot more open to intermarriage with non-Koreans, and will be more OK with attending non-Korean churches. Is it an immigrant/generational thing, or is it a cultural thing which will keep their exclusivity intact even decades from now? We shall see. (Here’s an interesting contrast: Chinese & Koreans usually come to the U.S. to stay; Japanese often move back to Japan).
  •       Language: Chinese is a tonal language. Korean (and Japanese) are not. Chinese write in pictograms, making it one of the hardest languages in the world to learn. Koreans have an alphabet—which is very easy to learn (in fact you could probably learn it in 15 minutes). So, Korean and Chinese look and sound almost nothing alike! It’s hard to believe they’re related. The relative ease of learning Korean, however, means that there are more Koreans who still speak Korean than Chinese who still speak Chinese. One thing the two languages do share in common, though, is monosyllabic words. Japanese, on the other hand, is multisyllabic. Just look at the surnames: while Chang, Lin, Wu, Lee, Kim, and Park are popular amongst Chinese and Koreans, Japanese is a dead giveaway with names like Takahashi, Kaneshiro, and Yoshimura (the only surnames in Asia which are longer are Thai names—e.g. Thanasukolwit, Pibulsongkram, Suramongkol).



Difference between Chinese and Korean

  • Looks: How do you tell the difference? These are just generalizations (in other words, there are always exceptions to these rules), but one way to tell is that Chinese usually have bigger eyes and bigger noses, and Koreans generally have smaller eyes and smaller noses. Koreans also have rounder faces. But, as a Chinese, I have definitely seen Koreans that look Chinese, and Chinese that look Korean. Still, I think about 75% of the time I can guess correctly.
  •  Ethnic diversity: China is WAY bigger than Korea. I mean, we’re talking like the size of the United States compared to just one of the states (interestingly, a lot of Koreans live in New Jersey which has made me speculate if they do so because the shape of the state is similar to the shape of the Korean peninsula… haha). What follows is that Koreans are mainly of one ethnic stock whereas Chinese are of a multiplicity of ethnic groups. This means that Koreans are rather homogeneous in their looks and genes (the fact that most Koreans have the surname of Kim, Park, or Lee, is evidence of this), whereas Chinese are much more ethnically diverse and their looks can vary widely. Chinese in the north are more fair-skinned while Chinese in the south are more dark-skinned.
  •  Cultural diversity: this is a corollary to the above. Every region of China speaks a different dialect and has different food. Chinese can speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese, Shanghainese, etc., and the food can range from extremely spicy (like Szechuan) to mild, from wheat-based (in the north) to rice-based (in the south), from seafood (on the coasts) to beef and pork (inland). Koreans generally have the same language and food throughout the country because it’s a tiny area.
  •  Cultural pride: Koreans bond when they meet each other. Chinese generally don’t. I mean, Chinese are 1/5 of the world’s population! So it’s nothing special to meet another Chinese person. When Chinese hang out together, it’s because of cultural similarity. When Koreans hang out together, it’s because of cultural pride. Koreans will grant favors to each other because they are Korean. Chinese will never do that for another Chinese person—they would rather make money off the other person! Or fight amongst themselves over politics and nationality. This is not to suggest that Koreans don’t fight amongst themselves. Koreans fight like siblings. Chinese fight like social Darwinists (survival of the fittest).
  •  Insularity: Because of the previous characteristic, Koreans are a lot more insular and ethnocentric than Chinese. Chinese generally don’t have a problem marrying outside their race or attending the church where the majority of the people are a different race/ethnicity. Koreans, on the other hand, do.


Saturday, September 5, 2015

A little talk about plastic surgery in Korea --based on a classmates research

Most Koreans between 18 and 36 beginning 2005 had plastic surgery. Koreans are among the highest in no eyelid creases due to them not having enough gene flow into their people. They isolated themselves in the peninsula for a long time. This is very they are the most unique looking people among Asian population. Check out Miss Korea 2013. It is not due to makeup but all had a lot of plastic surgery:
All have large eyes with double eyes that require several surgeries to accomplish this look.
All have tall pointy noses which is several nose jobs with reshaping the nose and putting in a silicon stick.
Some had cheek bone reduction making their flat faces less flat
all that “v” Chin is fake too. It is major surgery to reconstruct the jawbone and cutting the chin bone.
Now don’t they all look like an American version of Barbie doll without the blonde hair and blue eyes? Genes cannot be altered so they will have offspring’s that look like themselves and the lies will be reviewed rather they want o admit it or not. Check out Korean beauty contestants in the 70’s and before. Some had plastic surgery but then they didn’t go over board with altering their faces so much. Miss Korea in the 70’s is pretty, but she didn’t have the tall narrow nose, “v” chin and I think she is natural. Nowadays it is all-fake in South Korea.
In large cities you see almost all Korean girls have double eyelids and they keep looking at themselves in the mirror . Too bad Korean men are too much into European looks making females to go with that standard. I think Korean men should stop criticize Korean women’s faces cuz they need plastic surgery more.
South Koreans is very vain beginning after they recovered from their last economic crisis and with the country standard of living rising and them getting richer. Most Koreans endorse plastic surgery and also the aging wants to remain looking young.
Most Japanese celebrities also get plastic surgery and Japan used to have the highest per capita of fake faces among Asia. China didn’t allow for plastic surgery due to religious reasons and they don’t want criminals escape from being caught by altering their faces. China didn’t open up to plastic surgery until 2001 . China also have high population rate causing many birth defect. Most of the plastic surgery cases in China is due to accidents such as: vehicle collision, and natural disasters. China has kids that need to fix cleft pallets, etc. But of course the rich people get it to remain looking young. China is big so you get a lot of people from all over Asia mixing in . China has intuit genes, southeast Asian genes, etc. Northern Chinese people can look like Korean people. There is a mongoloid gene in China.
Overall what I am saying is if you don’t have gene mixing you will get a population of odd looking people which = people that want to look less odd by getting tons of plastic surgery.
Korea, China and Japan all have shared ancestries. Not everyone have the same among of mixture in them.



Friday, September 4, 2015

Busan Trip

At the end of my first blog i mentioned that I will visiting Busan, and Yes!! I made it!

To be honest, I knew nothing about Busan, except the fact that it’s the second largest city of a country that I enjoyed travelling to. Equipped with one outdated Busan travel guide book, I invited my friends for a 3 days around this port city and I have to say, it was one of our best trip ever! We were initially wary that 3 days would be too long to stay in a city that’s not as happening as Seoul, but at the end of our trip, one week was definitely not enough and we’re already planning the second visit next time! And here is the introduction of Busan to you in my point of view.

1. Economical

Though Busan is South Korea’s second largest metropolis after Seoul, the pricing for food and goods is much lower as compared to the capital city. Take a bowl of Samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup) for example, it cost me RM45 (15,000W) in Seoul, while I enjoyed  it at RM20 (7,000W) in Busan. While it’s pretty hard to enjoy a meal (not street food) within RM15 (5,000W) in Seoul, the options are aplenty in Busan. For avid shoppers, the price tag in Busan is very budget-friendly too! We managed to find a shop that sells shoes at RM30, shoes for both men and women! And I even managed to buy a pair of handmade leather shoes for only RM150 for my mum!

2. Less crowds

My friends has never really liked crowded places and we’ve always tried to avoid those with too many tourists. Since Busan is still an emerging tourist destination, we enjoyed the quiet streets and lesser crowds at iconic landmarks such as the Yongdusan Park, Busan Tower and the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple. Thanks to the small crowds, we had ample time to pose for multiple group shots and even managed to capture a few pleasant shots of these places! For heavy posers, you will have a lot of time to perfect those jump shots! 

3. Beautiful temples and landscape

While in Busan, we visited two temples, the Beomeosa Temple and the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple. We’re all free thinkers but what blew us away were the details of the temples and the surrounding landscape. Since Beomosa Temple is situated in the middle of a mountain, we were rewarded with a stunning vista of the distant mountains and surrounding greenery. It really felt like we could stay there forever. On the other hand, Haedong Yonggungsa Temple sits on a cliff of a mountain facing the ocean, we took quite some time walking towards the temple and it was all worthwhile when we were rewarded with a great view of both mountain and sea as we ascended the last flight of stairs. We also quenched our thirsts with mountain spring that’s available at the temple! 

4. Cultural experience

It is not uncommon to find a street full of non-Koreans around Seoul’s prime area such as Myeongdong, Dongdaemun and Gangnam. In Seoul, we didn’t really get to see how the locals go on with their everyday lives, what they eat for breakfast (since bakery and coffee shops are at every corner) and how they spend their free time. Whereas in Busan, we had rice early in the morning just like locals and played ddakji with other kids in the park. I found this trip to Busan more culturally eye-opening than my prior visits to Seoul!
Though Busan may not be as happening as Seoul, it is worth visiting for those who would like to experience the Korean culture without having to look too far. Even though not everything is as tourist-friendly as Seoul, it definitely felt more ‘Korean’ than Seoul and best of all, everything is very affordable! We’re already planning our second trip there!