보신탕

보신탕 (Bo shin tang) is dog meat stew.  When the topic comes up, it elicits visceral responses, from Koreans and foreigners alike.  I have heard, directly from 3 Korean men in their 30's (age will come up later on this topic), and indirectly from my girlfriend about her coworker, the opinion that dog meat is delicious.  More delicious than cow or pig meat, they said emphatically.  Miming a scale with their hands pig was low, then cow middle and dog was the best.  Delicious.

I don't really care what people eat.  Let me rephrase that, I don't think it's right to criticize another person or another culture's attitudes about nutrition, agriculture, and health.  Without a doubt, the U.S. has the least healthy, most destructive, most repulsive and unsustainable food system on the planet.  We are destroying the world for convenience, for sweets, for caffeine, for hamburgers.  

We in the USA also have a great many white vegan know-nothings who hold self-righteous attitudes about ethical consumption but have absolutely no concern for the migrant labor who make their organic kale possible.  People who buy organic lettuce mix and don't know that the plastic container it came in cannot be recycled by an average local recycling plant.   People who constantly harass the choices of the poor, the choices of people of color, the choices of anyone not like them because they don't approve of it.  

But I'll get back to dog meat.  

You have to really come to terms with the cashing in on the term organic.  Think about what organic (which is often ambiguous across borders and from one food to another, and not an end in itself) means in a capitalist mega-lucrative agribusiness context.  Here organic means nothing, ethically.  Sure, the planet may be a tiny bit better off.  But local living and not eating meat and buying organic are not going to save us.  I am a pessimist.



I also love animals and I always have.  I have dabbled in vegeterianisn for almost ten years.  Before coming to Korea I was a somewhat strict vegetarian, but now I eat meat.  I wish I didn't but I do, sometimes.  It's just easier to take what I am offered at the school lunch.  The amount of meat Koreans consume can be astonishing.  It is often combined with a lot of vegetables so it's not like Americans with their Steak and Fries.

When it comes to dog meat I have no interest to try, but I also have no revulsion to the idea.  Meat is meat.  Pigs are as intelligent as dogs, perhaps smarter.  The longest walk that a pig takes in its entire life is to be slaughtered.  There are more chickens than human beings.  The energy it takes to feed and provide for a cow could probably power an entire village in a subaltern economy, probably.  I only made up that last one.  

Do Koreans eat dog? 

Yes. And No.  I have asked quite a few people.  Most expressed indifference (the pretty widespread indifference to political issues is perpetually puzzling to me, but I don't have a right to know as an outsider).  Some expressed a love for dog meat, some were disgusted.  It seems to be a more rural, older generational thing.  I read another white guy who blogs on TEFL in Korea, whose opinions I don't agree with, saying that the eating of dog will go away as the older generation starts to leave us.  I have no idea where he was getting that concept and my evidence points to the opposite conclusion.  It probably will never go away. 

[[ TANGENT, RANT WARNING There is a vast amount of misinformation on Asian culture.  It's part of what helped the West dominate the East for so long.  Asian countries are admirable for how much they don't give a fuck about Westerners.  The opinions of Westerners.  See, it's a racial issue because white culture likes to perceive itself as on top, as relevant, as the moral barometer for the world AND IT'S JUST NOT.  People can pursue their cultural traditions in any way they want. 

For example, Islam does not oppress women.  If you want to claim it does, then you have to start with speaking to Muslim women.  That should be step 101, asking women about their own experiences.  Instead, white feminists come into the picture with the idea that they are correct and right.  White feminists oppress women in the Islamic community by telling Muslim women how not to dress, not hearing the common idea that their devotion is usually the main reason for their clothing, it's not necessarily an expression of injustice.

Cultural criticism is only right to do about, within, in regard to your own cultural community.  Sorry, colorblind white dudes.  I know you love to pretend you dole out equal criticism across cultures BUT YA DON'T.  Every culture has good and bad DUH, the point is to criticize your own culture to make it better.  Anything else is brazen nay-saying- external, elitist, removed from context, and very often- racist hating.]]

Back to animal meat.

This is the real thing that hurts me, though.  After centuries of domestication, it seems like we've been getting closer and closer to animals.  Remember the "swine flu" hysteria? Guess what, that's just regular flu.  Flu comes from swine.  We've been domesticating them by selectively breeding out the aggressive ones and rewarding the docile ones.  So the pigs, goats, sheep, cows, cats and horses we find today are basically our pals.  They have a deep, ancestral connection to us and know how mutually benefiting works.  If only in a trans-species sense.  

Fish can work together.  Crows can pass on information to their friends.  Monkeys make war.  Mites live in your eyelashes.

Really, dogs are like the best thing on earth.  I just fucking love dogs and that's why I don't want to eat them.  Cows can be loving too.  So can pigs.  Pigs are adorable.  The sad part is that we've gotten so close to them all with the intent to one day kill cook and eat them.  


So when it comes to dog meat, the line between food and pet is entirely arbitrary.  It just makes me sad that all of these creatures are trapped, and we're trapped, in a sense too.  Our outmoded thinking is perfectly illustrated by the massive toxic ponds of cow and pig feces and urine.  These ponds are basically unregulated and flood our watersheds.  And they are all over the Midwest.  

We can't pretend the revolution, the menu, and the environment are distinct issues.  We have to liberate farm workers, democratize food access across every community, raise the minimum wage for service workers, stop shaming thin/fat people, get rid of food deserts, stop buying single use plastics because they are destroying the ocean, stop wasting huge amounts of food because it's not good looking.  These are interrelated. 

Buying local is not enough, but it can't hurt to buy local.  baby steps, baby.

Let us also think about food in a way that is both culturally sensitive and radically humanitarian.  

What Freedom Means Here

I have lived in Korea for four months and I feel like I have so much to learn.  I got past the honeymoon, all is new phase pretty quick- this is probably the biggest learning period.  After that, it's more interesting, and perhaps more difficult.  This blog, particularly this post, is a mix of things I find important for an American audience, things I learned in college, misconceptions I had, and misinformation I hope to correct.   

I am not attempting to be comprehensive or to speak for Koreans.  None of this is a substitute for a Korean person's perspective.   I only want to offer insight to people like me who may have interest but have trouble finding non-wikipedia information.  

Basically, as always, I will discuss American Imperialism and social justice- which have extremely complicated, brutal, and if nothing else, globally unique history in Korea.  I gladly welcome any criticism or input from Koreans, fellow expats, or anyone.

Geography is low on the list of American interests.  Unfortunately for the world, American corporations and military might have immense impact in literally every country.  We have a positive influence in a few places, but overall, our hegemony is not welcome.  Of course you have to separate the people from the empire, which people around the world have no trouble doing.  When Rick Steves went to Iran he said the same thing, they say Death to America because we overthrew their elected leader and try to destroy their country, not because they hate individual Americans.

This is just down the road from my home in Dongsong.  Another 5 km down and you're at the DMZ.

Needless to say the majority of American soldiers represent our country respectfully, needless to say our military helped fight an oppressor in Korea, the Northern communists.  But when Koreans are polled on who the biggest threat to their peace is the majority say the USA, not North Korea.

To be clear I am not anti-military, I am anti-foreign domination.  I am anti-imperialist.

Every nation has the right to self-autonomy, this is not basic proper policy but a statement on human rights.  From the West Bank and Gaza, to Ukraine, to the indigenous Australian peoples, powerful countries abuse their position- going from helper to oppressor whenever there is money to be made, "interests" to secure.   

And we as Americans talk a big game about democracy but simply can't back it up in the real world.  

We occupy the world, our soldiers are in over 100 countries.  One reason has been to insure the fragile peace the US plays a role in.  But the main reason is to ensure the ongoing perpetuation of imperialist capitalism: exploiting value and resources from the periphery to the core in a way that furthers US interests.  This takes many shapes and forms, and the winner and loser is not always totally clear.

The American military presence in Korea is somewhat (sometimes, very) unwelcome by Koreans because of ongoing sexual assault of Korean women by US soldiers, brazen attitudes by US policy makers, and the prime-real-estate-grabbing US bases on Korean soil.  The best example of this I saw in Itaewon, Seoul.  

This part of Seoul is the main foreigner district, with a lot of cultural history.  Also with a massive hideous US base smack in the middle.  It is cinder block and barbed wire with placards every few yards reading DO NOT ENTER PROPERTY OF US GOVERNMENT.  In the middle of a culturally rich area, museums, art galleries, shops, is this base, and it is huge, covering block after block, I lost count.  

Odd juxtaposition.  But it is life for Koreans.  If America had a Korean or Chinese military base like this on our land... well I can't even speculate "if."  We would never let that would never happen, to us.  

Here it is on the map- that large dark gray area is all US military base.  That small green park is the National Museum of Korea, which is a glorious, free museum full of amazing history and artifacts that I want to visit again for an entire day.  For now, look at our impact:

I think Americans need to know this is not just a base but a presence of our soldiers.  There has been a recent spike in the number of sexual assaults of Korean women and US soldier misconduct, in which Americans typically receive full impunity from Korean law.  I know this might be risky to show, but this is not falsity.  It's not libelous, it is the reality.

Obviously, Korea is very developed economically so the story of capitalism and imperialism is different here.  But in fact, Korea is entirely unique in that manner.  After the Korean War and partition into two countries, the US had a vested interest in helping to rebuild the place, not just because of our military involvement, but because we had an opportunity to make an example of the achievements of capitalism, right smack against the near threat of communism.

The Korean struggle for independence and economic development are totally a product of the culture of Korea, which places high value on education.  There was also a unified goal for economic self-sufficiency that would be wrong to attribute totally to American influence.  Nonetheless, America sent millions in aid to the South, and helped establish the KCIA (sound familiar?) to crack down on organized labor.  I really want to avoid giving credit of economic success in Korea to Americans, that is not my point and not the historical truth.  What I want my readers to know is that America helped prop up right wing dictators and spread anti-unionism in Korea, in addition to constant pressuring and back-door dealings with the elite that excluded the Korean poor and working class.

I am not hopeless about the situation, and I am not afraid of North Korea.  But I want to use my frustration to spread more awareness, hopefully to be part of an ongoing change for the better.  I also see an astonishing silence of critical discourse on the military by American expat bloggers in Korea.  American young people, almost all of them ESL teachers, sounds like a small select group in Korea, but google it- there are thousands of us here blogging about literally every aspect of being American in Korea, every aspect except this imperialism one.  This is a serious concern.  I also want to point my readers towards some Korean tumblr bloggers who have a history of anti-imperialist writing, from a Korean perspective: 

beemill.tumblr.com

lostintrafficlights.tumblr.com

thisisnotkorea.tumblr.com

k0234.tumblr.com

ecue.tumblr.com

koreaunderground.tumblr.com

Many of my family members and loved ones are veterans and active service.  I do hear discussions from these loved ones on reigning in our empire, ending the frivolous war budget that pays people to parachute full time to promote the army.  Those discussions give me hope, particularly because change has to come from within institutions.  Outside pressure can only go so far.

One perfect example of change being pushed from the outside was the massive civil unrest and organized protesting by Koreans in 2008 against the forced importation of American beef, a meat Koreans are really into.  The whole unhealthy cows thing was a big problem, but an even bigger problem, really the core issue was the (correct) Korean perception that the US unfairly bullies its way into Korean politics and economics.  In the end, US economic interests won, the market has been flooded with cheap, sickly American cow meat.  At the very least stores are required to display where their meat comes from, but no surprise, people prefer the cheaper US meat.  


Protests are absolutely a part of Korean culture.  There is a warped idea, that I even had myself, that because Korean culture is eastern, confucian, it does not experience or allow for the questioning of authority.  The reality is that (Neo)confucian ethics encourage innovation, and Korean people have always resisted oppression.  Protests are very common here, like after the president Pak Gyeun Hye (whose father was a capitalist dictator) won in questionable circumstances, after the Sewol Ferry accident, in response to union busting.  

The history of Korea, being 5,000 years old and very far away from Western culture, is victim to many misconceptions.  Part of these stem from the very recent, lingering Cold War division that splits one people into two countries.  As I have said before, the division of Korea is not black and white.  "Democracy versus Communism" is an outmoded trope and it falls short in describing the abuse of human rights by both countries and the USA.  Korean people strive for unification, despite the obvious barricades to that fleeting goal.  Still, there is a shared sense of nationality that transcends the North-South division.  Here is another map, this one is from my classroom.  

What else can I say?  A lot, but I will never totally explain or even understand myself.  The best I can do is offer an alternative to the major narrative about Korea, which either doesn't exist in the main or is totally defined by the supposed threat of the North.

Did you know? Maybe you did.

Did you know Korea did not divide itself into North and South?  This was done by the US and Soviet sponsor states, a totally top-down foreign imposition.  

Did you know Korea was occupied and colonized by Japan?  By colonization I mean dehumanizing-exploitative-strip-you-of-your-culture exploitation, by imperialist Japan for 35 years (1910-1945)

Did you know Korea had metal movable type printing a few hundred years before Gutenberg?  

Did you know Korea went from being an international aid recipient to an international aid donor?

These are only a start.  There is a lot I still don't know.  There is a lot I am coming to love about the country that I never could have expected.  I have encountered so many heartwarming people, and had such a warm welcome in smaller acts of kindness.  I am trying to keep in touch and be lost in a new place, at once.  I am scatterbrained but I am trying.