The problem with branding Korea... (warning: devolves into a rant)

Bliss-out soundtrack: Cymbals Eat Guitars (pretty solid CD: Why There are Mountains - best played loud) - the song is Share. Let it build, play it loud.

A commentator in The Korea Times contributes an excellent, level-headed piece in response to a Japanese journalist talking smack about Bibimbap, and the huge, snitty reaction it drew. It reiterates some of the points I made in my post "In Which Roboseyo Advises Seoul City Not to Get in a Snit About Lonely Planet", and it discusses nationalism, patriotism, and the way that to many Koreans, those two words are one and the same. He zeroes in on one comment made by the Japanese journalist, even as he backed off, that Koreans "lacked the spirit of tolerating criticism" - now I talked about this before on my old "Why Are Koreans Hyper-sensitive to Criticsms from Non-Koreans? superpost (The Korean's take on it's worth a read, too). However, that's all retreads, and I don't like going there too often anymore, lest I become the "complaining expat guy"

However, he then looks at Korea's branding through the lens of Korean hyper-sensitivity, and that's interesting to me.

You see, something's been bugging me about all this branding talk, and it's been bubbling up for a while.

It is obvious to any observer that over the last few years, Korea has become increasingly concerned about the way the world views them. This is not limited to the country nationally, but also in other areas:


When the world university rankings come out, there's a great deal of celebration or hair-pulling on where Korea's top university lands -- now that Seoul National's cracked the top fifty, some people in important places are really, really happy, and it was commemorated by news articles and stuff. (Congrats, by the way, I guess)...

But it's starting to bug me, this focus on what other people say... there are these gaps, see, and they're starting to niggle. There are gaps between what is true about Korea, what the Kimcheerleaders say about Korea, what foreigners say about Korea, and, most distressingly to Korea, what Korea would have foreigners say about Korea.

Now, for the rest of this post, I'm going to use "Korea" as a noun meaning "Korean tourism and branding decision-makers, and those who wish Korea to be well thought-of worldwide" - here I would include the people I call Kimcheerleaders, VANK and the like-minded, and Korean tourism. I certainly don't mean all Koreans, or you, specifically, my dear Korean reader. Bear with me. So... back to these gaps.

Asadal Thought wrote something about improving Korea as a tourist destination that touches on this, and basically points out that any time people are told what to think, human nature being the contrary thing it is, we resist. Being told kimchi is good and healthy predisposes me to look for faults, like being told before a blind date, "You're gonna love this girl: she's PERFECT for you!" by someone who doesn't really know me. There are about three people on the planet I'd trust to make that judgement. The point Lee makes is this: the way that Koreans don't notice they come across as hyper-nationalists, is very off-putting to outsiders, and it undermines whatever good they're trying to do for Korea's image.

I got a link to a blog from an e-mail from VANK - they send me e-mails ever since I won that nifty MP3 player. Now I don't want to pick on VANK too much (one reason why I'm not linking the blog where I got this screenshot)... but the way they use the word "correctly" is a perfect example of the way Koreans don't realize their approach to national promotion (clumsy, heavy-handed, and worst of all: humorless) undermines what they're trying to accomplish.

Humorless. I said it. Would a Korean tourism ad ever make fun of its own image? (warning: this video has bad language and bikinis)

So that's the first thing about this whole branding mess. We don't like to be told. We just don't. If Korea wants to be known as a hub of something, the way to do it is to quietly go about becoming a hub of it, until people start noticing, and telling others about it. If Seoul proclaims itself the fashion hub of Asia, I immediately object: "What about Tokyo and Hong Kong?" in the same way I look for the bulges when somebody asks "does this skirt make my butt look fat?"

Instead, to be a world fashion hub, if Korea quietly goes about cultivating a more interesting fashion scene than Tokyo or Hong Kong, they won't NEED to tell people: other people will be saying it for them.

The next problem:

This is the thing that gets me. See, the inherent problem with the idea of branding is that it's superficial. It's a surface thing -- it's even more superficial than that, in fact -- it's not just the surface, it's what people say about the surface. If Korea really wants to be a world class country, I wish they'd STOP worrying about branding, and work on the systematic flaws that branding is attempting to cover up. Yah seriously. Branding is a short cut - a flashy substitute for real progress, like painting over cracks in a foundation.

Dear my family: bad language ahead. Skip this paragraph if it offends your sensibilities. I'm feeling crappy today.

Does Korea really want to be a world class country? Who gives a good goddamn if it's "Korea Sparkling" "Korea, Be Inspired" or "Korea Plese Coming Here Spend Tourist Dolla Buddy OK?" or "Korea... Aww just fuck it." If Korea really wants to be a world class country, work on the people and the institutions that form the foundation of the society; the rest will follow, naturally enough. Take that branding money and give it to a taskforce dedicated to getting Korea out of the world's bottom twenty-five in the Gender Gap Index... I bet some of the women being held down in secretarial positions, or forced to quit their jobs after having a baby, have some great ideas about promoting Korea! Build a social safety net that takes care of seniors, rather than just shuffling around garbage collectors and street food vendors from place to place, so that they're out of tourists' way. Korea focusing on branding and foreigners' image of it is EXACTLY the same as the student who can't hold a conversation, but regularly tops 900 on his TOEIC test. EXACTLY the same problem. Brand Korea is the kid whose SAT got him a spot at Harvard University, but who dropped out because his education never prepared him to do anything EXCEPT nail the shit out of that SAT test. And it doesn't matter if Korea hosts the next three world cups, the next six olympics, the next twelve years of OECD, G-7, G-20 and whatever else summits, and relocates the UN Headquarters to Sejong City, if the people of Korea still work like ants through joyless workdays, and say nothing while foreigners and women and countryfolk and the poor and seniors and single mothers are systematically shat on, and big businesses go hand in pocket with the government to keep everyone feeling dehumanized, so that we think a new cellphone will fix that dull ache in our stomachs that we hate living as ants.

Build lifelong learners, not test aces! Build conversant English speakers, not TOEIC champions! Develop a great university with an awesome educational atmosphere, don't just pour money into the areas that are measured for the annual university rankings, Seoul National University! Take care of corruption, racism, gender discrimination, injustice, foster civic mindedness, and human dignity and respect, and enjoyment of life for KOREA's OWN PEOPLE, and the rest of that stuff will follow. THAT'S what this country needs.

Stupid.

I wrote more about the idea of metrics and measures as validation, to the expense of intrinsic qualities, in the "Five things I'd change" piece I wrote back when I was in a kinder mood, and nobody read my blog.

Don't like what I said? That's fine. I don't even agree with everything I said. Disagree with my points, but don't tell me I'm not allowed to have an opinion. Or go read this article, if you'd rather have your Roboseyo topped with sugar. Today, I can't be bothered. I'm tired and cranky and hungry. And think about this, the conclusion of Lee's original article:

Here, avoiding criticism is not an option. Joining globalization means Koreans now live in a goldfish bowl. People who live in a goldfish bowl cannot escape publicity, both good and bad. Bibimbap was on the spot because it gained publicity as well.

After all, Koreans don't have to view the ability of foreigners to criticize some aspects of Korea itself as inherently antithetical to the national interest.

and on that note, have a great weekend. :)

that was cathartic.