I just had an eye-opening experience.

I was reading a typical Korean shoujo manhwa (Korean comic  aimed at teenage girls – usually featuring one ordinary but pretty girl caught in a love triangle between two guys. Best-known example would probably be Goong/Gung/Princess Hours.) In this case, the manhwa My Girl was about a sports-loving girl who has a secret life as a teenage model, who loved her classmate, but got caught in a media scandal with a national tennis player. Pretty standard teenage girl love-triangle romance. I’ve read at least half a dozen other stories with the same or similar plotlines – these are like the comic equivalents of Harlequin novels for teenage girls.

However, there was a difference in my reading of this story and the rest. The difference was that I’ve been avidly following the Korean media and celebrity scene now for the last year or so, whereas previously I did not. As a result, my readings of the relative importance and significance of events portrayed in the story has dramatically changed. Case in point: the rumours of the scandal between the main character and the tennis player appearing on the Internet. It’s one of those big no-no’s for teenage celebrities in Korea – they mustn’t date anyone while they’re popular with the public. When I had encountered similar scenes before my exposure to the Korean media industry, I didn’t think too much about it. Maybe my thoughts went something like, “Okay, so she did a bad thing. What’s all the fuss about? Can’t they just go out anyway? Ignore the public.”

Then, I dived into the world of Korean idol worship on the Net. It’s scary. Korean culture really – and I mean really – glamourises the teenage celebrity idols they have. Fan groups go absolutely crazy over them. In fact, fan groups can even go to war with each other if their idols are perceived to clash or be disrespectful to each other. (Example: The 2008 Dream Concert) Similarly, I’ve seen death threats and other stuff when fans take a dislike to someone who’s rumoured to be dating their favourite celebrity idol. It may sound ridiculous and overblown to you and me, but they take it absolutely seriously. Remember, the root word of “fan” is “fanatic”.

Because of this, the Korean media industry, and Korean celebrities, take the Internet rumour and gossip mill very seriously. A hint of a scandal among these fan groups can spread like wildfire and mean life or death to a celebrity’s career and popularity. It’s a fairly unique phenomenon, only in Korea where hi-speed Internet broadband capability is integrated almost seamlessly into everyday life and used throughout the entertainment world. In other countries like the U.S., Internet rumours are taken with a pinch of salt, especially since fan culture doesn’t really go online. But in Korea, the Internet is where all the fans hang out and where you can get the latest news about your favourite celebrity idol.

Coming back to my main point: Now that I’ve been exposed to the way the Korean media industry interacts with its’ fans and internet culture, it completely changed my interpretation of the significance of the event. A teenage model getting into a rumoured Internet scandal with a national tennis player is a BIG THING in Korea. It could lead to stalkers, death threats, constant harassment, the death of her career, etc. What I had once dismissed as trivial (as it would be in any other country except Korea) becomes a very significant and dramatic moment. Mmy exposure to Korean Internet fan culture has radically altered my interpretation of a media artifact (the comic) produced by that culture.

In the bigger picture, what importance does this have?

What this has shown me is that exposure to different cultures and ways of thinking is actually a good idea after all. I tend to be reclusive, averse to travel and quite happy with my own world. Unlike many, I don’t really seek out new experiences by travelling or wanting to converse with strangers. But to genuinely understand how people think, and to perceive the reason for why they react in the way they do… that’s something worthwhile. It took me 1 year to understand Korean fan culture to the point where I can put myself in their shoes (even though I don’t really get involved in their activities). It took me an equally long time to understand MMORPG gamers, back in the Eternal Lands days, when I was playing online games heavily. And even until today, I have only gotten past the surface layer of anime/manga fandom.

Fan culture. What an interesting thing it is. Time to go read Prof. Henry Jenkins’ books on the subject again.

Anime/Manga: The new anime season is starting from this week. A bunch of interesting shows that I’m thinking about watching…  Cross Game (the latest story by my favourite mangaka, Adachi Mitsuru), K-on (another KyoAni product, in a similar vein to Lucky Star), Tears to Tiara (fantasy adventure), and Winter Sonata (yes, the classic Korean drama is being turned into an anime. Goodness knows what it’s going to be like). I’ll probably post more in-depth thoughts on these another day.

Books: I’m kind of oscillating between a couple of books at the moment – David Drake’s When the Tide Rises (the 6th book in the RCN series that I’ve been buying regularly from Webscriptions), and Rhys Bowen’s series of Constable Evans Mysteries, which are a bunch of mystery novels set in rural Wales around the early 1990s. Kinda light reading.

Christianity: The search for a Senior Pastor for our church (since the last one left to become a missonary a year ago) has finally borne some results – a Rev. George Butron was unanimously recommended by the committee to be the top candidate for Senior Pastor. He’s scheduled to preach for 3 Sundays before a vote will be taken by the congregation whether to accept him or not. So far, he seems like a nice guy and an engaging speaker, based on his sermon today. Lots of anecdotes and managed to share his own testimony while putting out an altar call. As a speaker and preacher, I think he might be okay, though there were a few careless errors here and there with regards to Scripture referencing. I haven’t had a chance to see how well he operates as a teacher or pastor yet, but there’s still two more Sundays (and Easter) to go.

Games: Playing Baldur’s Gate a lot this week. Actually, I’ve been playing a lot of games this week – Hourglass of Summer (the other visual novel that I went to great effort to get), Baldur’s Gate, and dabbling in a bunch of other games. But mostly Baldur’s Gate. I had bought the entire set (Baldur’s Gate, BG II, and both expansions) some time ago for a really bargain price, but never got around to playing them seriously until now. Now I’m planning to finish them before I lose interest again.

K-Pop: Nothing much. Watching a little bit of everything – following SNSD in variety shows, a little bit of Family Outing, a little bit of We Got Married, and a little bit of Coffee Prince.

Shows: Have decided not to go for Cats. Must save money. However, my cell and I are planning to watch a movie this Good Friday holiday. Finally, I can use that free movie ticket that I’ve been hoarding up for  nearly a year now. It expires this month, so I’d better use it fast. There’s supposedly a new Jackie Chan movie coming out…

Anime/Manga: Toradora anime has officially ended! (Well, the first season, at least…) And it was a good, well-executed ending, too. Being based on a light novel, the issues that were dealt with in the penultimate and final episodes were a lot more serious than I had expected out of a romantic comedy, and yet it pulled it off well. This ending sort of makes me want to read the light novels now. Also, it looks like the Natsu arc of the Skip Beat! manga has finally come to a successful close. Natsu-sama FTW… but man, she’s harsh. And yet another member joins the Love Me section! Interesting times ahead…

But the biggest highlight of this week has been the manga known as Liar Game. I just read it out of the blue when it was featured on one of the sites I visit often, but boy is it engaging! Essentially, a naive and honest girl gets sucked into a very weird game where participants are each given a lump sum of money and pitted against each other to con, trick or steal each other’s cash. Whoever loses ends up owing the company the amount they lost, and whoever wins gets to keep the extra prize money for themselves. So how’s a poor, innocent, totally-honest girl supposed to survive in this game? By hiring one of the best swindlers in town, of course! A very interesting psychological drama, full of mental battles, tricks and calculation of odds. Plus some philosophical issues raised about greed, fair play, and the natural inclinations of humanity towards either of these. The third round of the Liar Game just ended, and the stakes just keep getting higher and higher…

Books: The best times for reading are when I’m taking public transport on the way to and from work. I can usually get through a couple of chapters each trip. After finishing The Phoenix Guards last week, I’m now naturally going through all the books written by the same author, Steven Brust. His style really is a copy of Alexander Dumas. Except that he knows it. What I find really interesting is the narrator’s voice in his stories. Brust pretends to be a translator of a history academic, Paarfi of Roundwood, who himself is an author of historical romance, writing novelizations of the life major characters in the history of Paarfi’s world. Really interesting when Paarfi’s pompous and loquacious style is poked fun at by the “translator”, Steve Brust. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to write in a similar manner?

Christianity: Sometimes, I wonder what the role of a cell leader is supposed to be. How far should I go in caring for my cell members? I’m naturally introverted and reserved, so I don’t expect much contact with them outside of church activities. And yet, should I make efforts to meet up with them more often, and encourage them to do so as well? How far do we take the concept that the Church is a family? Should we be integrated into each other’s lives fully? How can I find the reserves to care for each one of my cell members, when I don’t have that much depth of feeling in me? I know that the world will recognise us by the love we have for each other, but I really wonder – can I love this way?

Games: I tried playing Piece of Wonder this week. It’s one of the English-translated Japanese visual novels that I went to so much trouble to get. Really like it, but for some reason it doesn’t work too well on my machine. The novel parts are fine, but the battle gameplay (which plays like a console turn-based tactical RPG) doesn’t seem to respond well to mouse controls. It got stuck on Windows XP, and is totally unplayable in Windows Vista. Eh… I should find a way out of this. I really want to know what happens next.

K-Pop: So, I’m moving to tracking another musical group now… it’s amazing how interconnected the Korean entertainment industry is. By just tracking music artistes to variety shows, and then investigating variety shows to find new music artistes, you can get to recognise quite a number of celebrities. This time, I followed YoonA from SNSD to Family Outing, then watched several episodes of Family Outing until I got interested in Big Bang, and now I’m tracking Big Bang. Big Bang is a 5-member boy band specializing in a fusion of hip hop, rap and pop music. What I really like about them is their music video choreography. Three of their biggest hits: Lies, Last Farewell, and Haru Haru (This Day) all have a surprise twist at the end which makes you reinterpret the meaning of the song and the scenes that occured during the MV. Really good. And the themes expressed in these songs are pretty good too. Plus they actually compose and produce their own songs, too, which speaks well of their passion and talent.

Shows: The Cats musical is coming to Singapore! I’m so tempted to get a ticket and go to watch it… How often will I get a chance to see a world-famous musical like this being performed without going overseas? But the cheapest tickets I can get are $70, whereas the good seats cost $140, double the price. Still… it’s Cats. It’s really worth it, especially with an international cast. *sigh* Still have 10 more days to decide before it opens…