LuiginaKorea: April 2012

Monday, April 30, 2012

Dating outside the Square.

In 2004 (long long time ago...)...

...I studied at the University of South Florida, Tampa Bay, as an Exchange student.

It was pretty different to studying in Sydney, Australia...

...and I tried to assimilate into campus life by joining about 50,000,000 on-campus clubs...

... such as the Pre-Law Society, a sorority for black students (I swear I was invited...), and the Jewish Women's Society...

One particular event that was very memorable for me was when the Jewish Women's Society hosted a famous female Jewish writer...

... for a guest lecture...

This writer was Cindy Chupack... one of the chief script writers and Executive Producer of Sex and the City ...

Although Cindy was 39 and unmarried at the time...

...I felt that the series was not directly written from Cindy's personal perspective (of course, it is loosely based on the newspaper columns written by Candice Bushnell)...

...but regardless of this, she mentioned that a number of scenarios were written about her own personal experiences...

I have always felt excluded by the dialogue of Sex and the City...

Somehow, personally, I have more difficulty relating to this series than other women...

...I have been to New York City (also in 2004...) but I don't feel that the lifestyle of the Samantha, Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda truly reflects New York...

When I visited New York City...

... I stayed with a Philippino family... and my filipina friend's boyfriend (now husband) was African American...

...I met their friends... all of whom were Asian-American, Latino, or African-American...

Walking around the streets of New York...

...I felt that there were so many kinds of people, from so many places...

...there was definitely a huge variety of people... (even compared with Florida... which is also very mixed...)

So with that in mind... during Cindy Chupack's lecture...

... I had a burning question that I desperately needed to ask...

So during the question time...

...I put up my hand... and bravely stated;

"Why are 99% of the men in Sex and the City WHITE?"

Cindy Chupack smirked and looked suitably pissed off...

Then she paused.

Then she started to get uber-defensive and stated bluntly;

"Our writers received a DIVERSITY AWARD for introducing the inter-racial romance between Miranda and the black doctor Robert in Season 6..."

..and then she turned her head and said; "Next question!"

I am turning 28 soon... (korean age; 29)

...and during my 13 years of dating (since age 15)...

...I think that 87% of the guys I have dated have been Asian (or of Asian descent)...

(a small percentage have also been Arab...or Latino...)

That might be because I live in Asia... or because my university in Sydney was made up of roughly 50% asian students...

...But I honestly cannot understand the homogenization of Sex and the City...

...the main characters are WHITE WOMEN dating predominantly WHITE MEN...

Does that represent New York City? ... am I being too idealistic...?

Sex and the City has always failed on the racial front...

...even though it is perceived as being progressive for women...

Culture Theft.

I noticed something familiar when I was looking through the F/W collections from New York Fashion Week...

I came across some of the show snaps from Rodarte...

...and the patterns looked vaguely like designs from Central Australia...

After some googling...

...I discovered that Rodarte had tried to use Indigenous Australian art in their designs...

However,

...this unfortunately caused quite a scandal...

...as a number of Australians (Indigenous, and non-Indigenous) were very offended by this....

...because some believed that Rodarte (an American label) was exploiting the art of the Indigenous people...

Firstly,

...Rodarte (from California) admitted that they have never visited Australia...

I think some people may have been a bit irritated by that...

...because it doesn't appear as though they interacted with any indigenous Australian tribes...while borrowing indigenous art to design their collection...

(Photo Source: www.dailymail.co.uk)

...but..

...Rodarte stated that even though they have not visited Australia and they are not familiar with the spiritual meaning of Indigenous Australian art...

...they have a licensing agreement with an Aboriginal artist in the Northern Territory...

... to reproduce these Indigenous patterns in their collection...

In opposition to this...

...an Indigenous Australian spokesperson stated that she was shocked to see women parading around in ready-to-wear...

... when the people from whom this art is derived are living in extreme poverty in isolated parts of Australia (such as in my hometown, Broken Hill)...

I understand that Indigenous Australian groups require privacy and respect...

...and it is true that the standard of living for Indigenous Australians is in crisis in the year 2012...

...however, I am not sure about whether we should prosecute everyone who references certain cultures in their designs...

(...or whether it is even possible to separate CULTURE and DESIGN...)

For example...

...Orientalism (in all its stereotypical glory...) is a very common theme in fashion these days...

Carolina Herrera used Korean traditional dress as an inspiration for her Spring/Summer 2011 collection...

...here is her interpretation of the male Korean traditional hat... known as the Gat 갓... ;

Did Koreans get angry with Carolina Herrera?

...I'm not sure... perhaps not...

...and then, as an extension of cultural referencing...

... I also have to consider whether I am being offensive when I personally wear Korean traditional dress;

Of course, I can understand both sides...

...the designer is trying to reference certain cultural images, and the cultural group is trying to protect their unique spiritually-valuable art from American designers...

... it makes us more cautious, but it is something we should consider in greater depth...

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Censorship 101.

I arrived at the Lady Gaga concert last Friday night...

... along with around 60,000 other Seoul residents at Jamsil Olympic Stadium...

I drew a Gaga logo t-shirt ... so expected...

...but it is nearly impossible to keep up with all of those nutty die-hard Gaga fans...

At the last moment I picked up some hair extensions... from 동대문...

(...I felt like it was 1999...and I was 15 all over again...)

...but I am still not really clear about the best way to insert them... (*help*)

I was slightly surprised that 60,000 people arrived to see a foreign artist in Seoul...

...as K-pop is the most popular music in South Korea...

...and there was a lot of controversy and negative publicity leading up to Lady Gaga's performance...

The Korean government was pressured by the various Christian groups in Seoul, and as a result of this...

... the government decided to place an age-limit of 18 years and over for the show...

This meant that everyone attending the show had to line up at an 'Adult certification' booth... *felt like I was lining up for an exam...*

...where you had to prove that we were over 18, and then get an armband for entry...

This was quite ridiculous...

...some people were clearly over 45 and had to show their ID...

...to enter a pop concert ?!? ....

...It suddenly felt like we were North of the Border...

The banning of Lady Gaga's concert for minors was a big issue for a whole month leading up to the event...

... this music censorship issue makes South Korea look more like China...

The KOREA TIMES front page last week;

Even Singapore (usually tight on foreign content) has let Gaga organize her tour without any age limits on attendees...

So after we arrived,

...we had to wait 4 WHOLE HOURS for the show to start...

... it was like we were waiting in the airport for our flight...

...so we ate Bento boxes for dinner...

I noticed across from us that there are female-only parking spaces arround Olympic stadium... *unique*

...I don't think I've ever seen that before...

While waiting for the show to start...

...I sat and stared at all the interesting kinds of people that were entering the stadium for the concert...

The costumes for Lady Gaga's Born this Way tour were designed by Giorgio Armani...

(here are some early sketches of the tour costumes...);

I felt like the costumes were channelling the Alien movie franchise...

...am I being too literal here?

...The opening head dress (after the horse-entry) looked exactly like *that alien* from the 80s...

I thought that Armani seemed like an odd choice for a Lady Gaga tour...

...I associate Armani with old-man-suits...

...but I thought overall the costumes were pretty varied...

Here are a few instagram photos I took...

(they are blurry! Apologies!!)

(...we were told by security that we were not supposed to take photos) ...I think I am breaking every intellectual property law by posting these right now...please don't sue, Gaga...

Computer generated Gaga-futuristic-hologram- face;