This journey begins with a young woman named Regret. Born in Korea around the turn of the century to a culture that had little value in their girls beyond their ability to eventually marry and produce sons. Regret yearns for another life, one filled with freedom, education, and value. She longs to feel pride for her life. In 1914 Regret begins her journey toward this end as a picture bride heading to Hawaii. But this is just the beginning for Regret. It soon becomes apparent that the man she agreed to marry sight-unseen is not her happy ending. She’ll travel from cane fields, to Hawaii’s red-light district, to owning her own business. Regret will find her worth, she’ll find love, and happiness…You’ll watch as she and her fellow picture brides navigate the world of Hawaii’s Golden Days and make more of their lives than anyone in Korea would expect a group of girls to do.

Review

I can’t help it. I didn’t love this book as much as I liked my first foray with Brennert in Moloka’i. In Honolulu we follow Regret who later changes her name to Jin (empowering choice if I don’t say so myself). One of the most affecting parts of the novel is the beginning of the story where the reader spends some time in Korea. You watch as Jin learns to read from one of the last Korean Geishas. As a first breakthrough in the book this is pretty out there. Brennert makes it all work in a serendipitous fashion but for me it was just the beginning of a tale that didn’t quite touch my heart.

I never felt like I connected to Jin. She does spend parts of the novel narrating about how Koreans as a people are very controlled with their emotions. She looks for cues in eye-shifts and muscles tensing and loosening in others to read their emotions. While the whole thing seemed very valid to the culture of a Korean woman of the time. We’re also talking about a woman who learned to read from a well-trained and paid mistress. I think had Brennert gone out on a limb and allowed more real emotion to show in his character’s words and actions I would have connected to them more. As it was I felt a little adrift among the people of the book. I wanted to like them, to feel their pain and joy…but I just couldn’t. It’s what kept this title from hitting home for me.

Brennert is meticulous in his ability to show the history of a time and place. Hawaii shines for him. The lives his characters lead are full and interesting. I just didn’t care for them the way I thought I was going to. If you’re looking to try a historical fiction book centered on Hawaii, this is a good choice, one many readers loved…but I’d steer you in the direction of Moloka’i instead.

Rating 5/10

In Asian Studies class, I was assigned to write about four diary entries about a girl who lived in Korea during 1937. At that time, Korean women, from ages 12 to even 40 were sent to places like Singapore, China, Japan, Taiwan and etc. as comfort women by the Japanese. It was a great experience to learn in details about the lives that two hundred thousand Korean women faced.

I was actually shocked to learn about this subject. Later I learned that one of student, who was assigned the same topic, refused to do this. Well, I did not know that I had the option to change topics or anything like that. I read through quite a lot of testimonies of actual former-comfort women during that time. To even read about the tortures they went through was just disgusting. The Japanese soldiers

Not only the tortures they went through in foreign nations suffered them. Even after they could come back to their own country, they were humiliated by Koreans and sometimes had no where to go. For most of them, by the time they got home, their homes were destroyed and their families were missing, or dead.

They, despite their pain, they kept their pasts deep inside and did not even try to let others know it; they thought it was a disgrace to tell others about that they were raped. But about few decades later, about in the 1990s, they began to speak out. They formed organizations and websites that told about what they had to go through during the Japanese invasion.

Image Source:

http://koreasparkling.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/kp1_070427056000.jpg

Single Korean women and men should ask themselves some questions whether they should use the Internet dating services to find their second half. If you can find a life mate in a bar or club, then you should do that. Statistics showed that the chance to meet a soul mate at the bars or nightclubs is rare. In fact, most of guys at these places are looking for short term dates, one or two nights only. So, most of dates singles met at these places last a few weeks or months. If you are single and looking for a life mate, then online dating services are the best solution. Single Korean women and men who live in Korea or other Western countries know that they don’t want to marry a person they met at a bar or club. I don’t know why? But most of them don’t want to.

Korean dating sites are the solution to meet your other half. Is the internet dating online safe? Online dating is the same as you meet a person in public. The Korean dating service is just a way to find your other half. You have a chance to view and browse all Korean singles online and contact any person you want. You can read their personal information to learn about their personality before you can contact them. This is the advantage to see the differences or similarities between you and them. After you chat online, talk on phone, you are on your own. This is the same thing happen when you date a person in public. It is recommended that you really feel comfortable before you can meet someone special in public. Just keep chatting until you are comfortable to meet face to face.

Online dating in Korea or other countries have become a phenomenon in the last few years when thousands of relationships generated online. As seen on national TVs, thousands of successful stories are posted online and TVs. Online dating really works these days. It is simple and convenient to find love online. Especially, if you have a busy life, online dating is the best solution. Even though when you try to find a date online, precaution is a must. You should use your own intuition to meet someone online. I understand that you may have some gut feeling but it really works. You know exactly who you are seeking and what type of personality he or she is.

Are you a single Korean women or men? Come on, take action to sign up on Korean dating sites and meet your other half today. Good luck!

• Her blood type is a B.
• She stands at 175 centimeters tall.
• She weighs about 52 kilograms.
• She also has the special talents of swimming and dancing.
• In her spare time, Kim enjoys shopping and singing.
• Her favorite cars are a Ferrari and Lamborghinis.

The Haenyeo of Jeju Island, Korea proves Sarah Pezdek-Smith’s quotation true: ”The strength of a woman can carry the weight of the world.” Their toilsome job as sea divers put men to shame as three days after a Haenyeo gives birth, she’s back again as a sea diver.

Continuing to be a Haenyeo at the present time is not just about putting food in the table, it’s also about preserving one’s tradition.  With this, I salute the Haenyeo. Hail, hail, Haenyeo!

Korea’s Women of the Sea (Haenyeo)*

The no. 1 search word related to Jeju Island of Korea is hands down the “Ollegil (Olle Road).” Just thinking about taking a walk on Ollegil, especially in the autumn with all this beautiful foliage, lifts one’s mood.

Some while ago, though, before Ollegil came to be such a hot tourist spot, the first thing that came to one’s head thinking about Jeju used to be the “haenyeo,” the sea women; they are female divers in the Korean province of Jeju.

The women born in Jeju had to earn a living either by farming crops or picking sea products. The haenyeo often represents a harsh and strenuous life.

What used to amount to as many as 15,000 haenyeo in 1970 has now plummeted down to a mere third of that number; and most of them are over seventy years of age at that, meaning that haenyeo are fast disappearing.

In light of this sad reality, The LA Times published a feature article on Korean haenyeo, their traditions and current situations.

An article on haenyeo published in The LA Times

Haenyeo, Epitome of Toughness

The haenyeo is assumed to have first appeared in the primeval! era when people started turning to the sea for food. It goes similar for the haenyeo of Jeju as well, based upon the age of the shrines on the island built for the safety of fishermen and haenyeo. There are several ancient proverbs and old sayings as well that describe Jeju haenyeo’s physical strength and their tough lifestyle.

A little (okay, a LOT of) research later, the piece took shape, and was published in the July issue alongside a photo of the “Carl the Plastic Baby” billboard by Toronto street artist Dan Bergeron (a.k.a. Fauxreel).

(View article below.)

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No Sex in the City

By Courtney Tait

Published in Eloquence Magazine, July 2010

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Shoulder your way through a sweaty rush-hour mob on any subway ride in Seoul, and likely the last thing to cross your mind is concern for South Korea’s shrinking population. 

But the country’s total fertility rate—the number of children expected to be born per woman during her childbearing years—currently sits at 1.22.  It’s the 6^th lowest in the world, according to the CIA World Factbook, just one slot ahead of Japan and two behind Lithuania.  (Highest rate goes to Africa’s Republic of Niger, at a whopping 7.68.) 

If more women don’t start having more babies soon, the government predicts South Korea’s population will begin to nosedive by 2018.  Combine that with a rapidly-aging society, and you’ve got what Health Minister Jeon Jae-Hee called in January “the most urgent issue the country is facing.”

So why the baby boycott?

If you’re a South Korean woman between the ages of 25 and 34, chances are high you’ve spent the bulk of your childhood with your head tilted over a notebook in the classrooms of public and private schools, edged your way through university, and now, wanting to put the sleep-deprived years of education to use, are pursuing a career. You might have a boyfriend or a husband, a nice guy who works in business and likes sharing a couple after-hours mekjus with his co-workers, and some nights as you drift to sleep you may dream of starting a family with him, having a little agi that you nurse and whisper stories to and carry in a sling as you stroll along the Cheongyecheon River or wander through Insadong on a Sunday afternoon. 

 But your job is important to you. 

You faced a lot of competition getting hired in the first place.  And even though you make 38% less money than a man (the largest gap in the developed world), and you have no guarantee of advancement no matter how long you stay with the company, you spent a lot of late nights studying to get there, and you want to hang on to your position. The government allows up to one year off after childbirth—with 60 days paid–but from what you’ve heard, most women don’t take it, as employers don’t look kindly to time off.  In fact, some women have reported losing their jobs following maternity leave, even though this is illegal.     

Career woes aside, you’re also wondering how you and your partner will afford the tyke.  Private school—which, like most of your peers, you believe is essential to a child’s future success—can tack on an extra 700,000 won to the monthly tab, not to mention groceries, taekwondo, and piano lessons. One child might be a possibility—if you’re able to keep your job and juggle raising it with working—but two or more?  It’s a stretch, despite the tax breaks the government offers to larger families.

On top of the financial burden, you’ve noticed your partner doesn’t like to pick up his socks.  Or wash the dishes.  Come to think of it, neither did your father.  Turns out working Korean wives spend an average of three hours and 20 minutes a day doing housework and family tasks, while husbands pitch in a mere 37 minutes.  In fact, according to a Korea Times article published in May of 2010, only 1.6 percent of husbands in double income homes say they help children with meals or getting dressed, though 81.5% want their wives to work.  (No wonder only six out of ten females surveyed said marriage was a “must.”)

Tackling the challenge of boosting South Korea’s birth rate, the health ministry has started flicking off the lights in their offices one evening per month, encouraging staff to go home early and “get dedicated to childbirth and upbringing.”

If only they’d add to the incentive a maternity-leave guarantee, job security, and a raise for the ladies.  For the guys, a memo, handwritten in hangul: folding laundry is the most effective form of foreplay.

"OPPA! Buy me that handbag!"

I call this the “Oppa cock-sucker” face. Like she’ll jump on the next guy with a tricked-out Honda Civic. Look at those lips. She’s hungry for it!

This one, too.

Dirty girl

Should I disrespect these girls? No. The problem is that Korean women allow themselves to be objectified and pushed into situations. They don’t respect themselves.

60% of Korean actresses have been pressured to provide sexual services.

Prostitution is illegal but very tolerated in South Korea.

Korea is one of the only developed nations that women are trafficked into sex slavery.

How is that Korea’s women are still living like they’re in a developing country?

Roughly 1 of 250 Korean births are adopted by American families

Korea must stop overseas adoption is an article published earlier this year in The Korean Herald.

” from the 1980s and even more since the 1990s, the absolute majority of children who are nowadays sent to foreign countries are born by young and unwed girls attending high school or college. These young girls in their teenage of early 20s, often from a middle-class background, are locked in secretly at maternity homes belonging to the adoption agencies as soon as they get to know that they are pregnant. At the maternity homes, they are persuaded to relinquish their children to save the honor of their families and in reality to feed the adoption agencies’ need of a steady supply of children for overseas adoption. In other words, a combination of patriarchal attitudes and economic greed lies behind today’s overseas adoption from Korea, and thus the rights of both women and children are completely ignored. “

The status of women in a society is partially determined by the percentage of women who have their babies adopted-out.

Historically, inter-country adoption began as a humanitarian response to the immediate plight of children in the aftermath of armed conflicts, political and economic crises, and social upheavals. The Korean War is long over! Korea is not a third world country. There’s no reason to abandon so many children. With all the wealth in Korea, selling these children is a shame.

That's a pity. How will you survive?

Dude, I think you got yourself a blow-up doll, not a girl.

Taken from cyworld.com

Korean women use the word ‘oppa’ not only to address their older brother, but any older male. Including their boyfriend or husband.

Apparently, ‘oppa’ is known to act like a kryptonite on Korean men. They want to be called ‘oppa’ more than anything else!

Gross, right?

What the hell is wrong with Korean culture!