Psy to Speak at Harvard University – DramaFever Blog.
So this is happening… Can’t wait to hear the interaction between Psy and the academics (historian of Korea and Japan, Carter Eckert and East Asian film scholar Alexander Zahlten).
There will be a live stream of the talk, which takes place May 9, 630-8pm. http://www.harvard.edu/live-stream
Now he can finally tell his parents to leave him alone — he’s a distinguished speaker at Habadŭ!
I’ve TA’d courses in East Asian history where I worried that the students came in with this idea that everything could be neatly packaged in a fortune cookie line that starts, “Confucius says…,” and then I saw that many of them left the course after 13 weeks, 3,000 years of history, and 4 countries later with the idea that everything could be neatly packaged in a fortune cookie as “Confucius STILL says…”. This new video from the French band Phoenix pretty much does the same.
It’s a Chinese-ish musical refrain inserted into a typical Phoenix pop song, set to scenes that mimic Korean dramas, generic Asian period dramas, K-pop concerts, new wave action films, and North Korean mass performances, blending past, present and an entire region in one upbeat mashup. What’s not to like?
The point is taken about mass media, patriarchy, etc. etc., but it seems a bit much when to flatten all of contemporary East Asian popular and mass culture into one undifferentiated mass of “entertainment.”
Professor, translator, filmmaker, and friend of SOV Stephen Epstein is giving a talk at the Royal Asiatic Society – Korea Branch on Tuesday, October 25, at 730: Girls’ Generation? Gender, (Dis)Empowerment and K-pop | Royal Asiatic Society – Korea Branch.
“Your soul’s been cravin’ for that sound and flavor
and the satisfaction’s only kimchibilly.”
Keep going for some random thoughts on globalization…
