A culture critic, also called culture gun-dal, King Beaksu and an anarchist, J.Scott Burgeson

(At GIG talk; "Is Cultural Revolution Still Possible in South Korea?" - Saturday, July 7)

Q: Do you have any thoughts on the lecture you gave at GIC just now?

A: There are different types of revolutions and I want a cultural revolution in Korea. I like anarchy. The point of my lecture is to spread anarchy. This society is too controlled so anarchy is a way of redistributing power to ordinary people. Right now, the power is controlled at the top of the society. Anarchy is the giving of power to ordinary people




Q: You’ve lived in Korea for more than 10 years. What is your favorite and worst thing about Korea?

A: My favorite thing is Korean and foreign friends I’ve made here. That’s the main reason I stayed, because of my friends. I don’t like the Korean society, because it’s too materialistic and shallow. What I hate is that if I shop and speak Korean, people answer in English so I’m tired of being treated like a tourist having stayed in Korean for 11 years. Many Korean people just see international residents as outsiders or tourists, so I’m tired of feeling like outsiders. That’s what I don’t like now. Because if you go to China, they always speak Chinese, It’s very refreshing. In Japan, they always speak Japanese. But in Korea, everyone wants to practice English.




Q: You’ve visited Gwangju 5 times. What’s your impression of Gwangju?

A: Most foreigners, the first time they hear of Gwangju, they hear of May 18th, the uprising, so it has the image as the birthplace of Korean democratization. My image is it has good restaurants and Jeolla province has many farms so they have good side dishes. There are friendlier and outgoing people, I know some friends in Seoul who are from Gwangju and they seem to be more friendly and outgoing compared to Seoul people.  The last thing is the Gwangju Biennale. Gwangju is famous for art.




Q: You lived both in Japan and Korea. What’s the main difference between Korea and Japan?

A: Basically, Japan is open to external culture for at least 100 years longer than Korea. Japan is definitely more cosmopolitan and international, and has become very westernized and modernized. Korea is quite closed in many ways. When you compare the Korean society and Japanese society, many of these problems were experienced in Japan at a much earlier stage than Korea. That’s the main difference.


The Japanese society also offers a diversity of entertainment and culture, especially pop music and underground music. Korean pop music sounds very similar to me. Japan is much bigger than Korea, the population is around 130million.That’s a lot of people and there are huge cities such as Tokyo and Osaka that offers differing cultures and creativity. In Korea, Seoul is a big city, but everything is so similar, also the population of Korea is about 50million, that’s much smaller than Japan.

Moreover, Japan experienced capitalism for a couple of 100 years and the economic development of Japan goes way back in the early 19th century. Korea did not adopt capitalism until much later, and even when it did, the nature of capitalism was not as dynamic as Japan’s.


Q: What are you most interested in?

A: I’m interested in everything. Especially, I’m interested in books, magazines and writing. I’m interested in reading books, but I read many different kinds of books like philosophy and history. I don’t watch many movies. In Korea, I’m interested in street culture; I’m not interested in the high-profile culture or events. I’m interested in walking around the city, observing the way people behave, street fashion…just street culture. 


Q: You talked about American globalization, is Korea becoming more like the USA?

A: I’m American so it means that it becomes boring to me if other countries imitate my culture. Does it sound interesting to you if Americans want to imitate Korean culture? The originality in Korean culture is gradually dying.

For instance, I don’t like the movies shown at Korean cinemas, it’s too materialistic and mainstream. I guess it’s okay to see a Bruce Wills show sometimes, but there are a lot of independent and good movies from the US that is never imported because they don’t make money. I find it very hard to buy good books as they import only popular and bestselling authors. I would prefer it if there was a wider variety of entertainment and the arts.


Q: Who’s the most impressive person you’ve met in Korea?

I interviewed a ‘gisaeng.’(*A gisaeng is a Korean woman who is specially trained in music, dancing, and the art of conversation. Her job is to entertain men.) . She died in 1998 or 1999. She was a famous gisaeng. I interviewed her just before she died. At that time she was eighty-two years old. I felt she was the last one of gisaeng. After she died, I feel like gisaeng, a part of Korean traditional culture, was gone.












 



Q: What’s your next plan?

A:I want to write a novel next year. But I have one more semester teach at Hongik University on contract. I think I might do ‘Balch'ikhan Han'guk-hak ("Nasty Korean Studies") Vol.2’. 


Q: (I’m a university student majoring in English Literature.) Would you recommend some books for me?

A:  ‘Lord Jim’, ‘Heart of darkness’ by Joseph Conrad

      ‘On the road’ by Jack Kerouac


Interviewed by Jeong Jayeon

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