Defectors Train to Aid Others from North Korea

The Los Angeles Times has a very interesting report about a North Korean defector, Choi Hui-suk, who has been trained as a life counsellor to assist fellow defectors adjust to life in South Korea. Many readers may be unaware of the multitude of problems that North Korean defectors face in their everyday lives in South Korea, which range from fairly trivial matters, such as difficulties operating an ATM machine, to mental health issues and “survivor’s guilt”, especially amongst those who have left family members behind in the totalitarian north.

Here is a short excerpt of the report :

When North Korean defector Choi Hui-suk arrived in Seoul in 2002, she was miserably lonely and could not escape the feeling of being an outsider.

Sure, these South Koreans looked like her and even spoke her language, but she might as well have landed on the moon.

She had little feel for the culture. She had never used a cellphone or even a TV remote control, and she was so suspicious of strangers that she refused at first to give anyone her real name.

Choi had reason to be cautious: At her first job at an electronics factory here, a South Korean colleague stole $10,000 from her and disappeared.

But the sociable 46-year-old survived and now feels at home in this new land. And she has received training to help others feel the same way — as a life counselor for North Korean defectors.

You can continue reading the report here.

East Asia Blog Roundup : 28/2/2010

Here is this week’s East Asia blog roundup :

• Aeri’s Kitchen – Aeri shares a recipe for kimchi jeon (김치전), pancakes made from Korea’s staple food, kimchi.
• Asian Ramblings – Stevo talks about the traditions and possible origins of the Chinese lantern festival (元宵节).
• Danwei - The first part of a series which looks at some of China’s lesser-known cities and the life of a soy sauce salesman named Li.
• Fukuoka Dreaming – Asawa shares a recipe for potato and beef stew, or niku-jaga (肉じゃが).
• Just Hungry – Maki takes a tour of the food hall at Yokohama’s Takashimaya Department Store (高島屋).
• Kimono Box – The author makes preparations for the Hina Matsuri (雛祭り), otherwise known as Japan’s Doll Festival or Girl’s Day.
• Lost in Transition – Gail visits Kumamoto Castle (熊本城) and tries some basashi (馬刺し), raw horse meat.
• On My Way to Korea – Matt spends the day with some child refugees from North Korea.
• Roboseyo – Rob writes about South Korea’s Olympic ice skating gold medallist Kim Yuna (김연아).
• Shizuoka Gourmet – Dragonlife talks about yama imo (山芋), a type of Japanese yam, and the various ways it can be served.
• Sinosplice – John lists some of the advantages and disadvantages of studying for a master’s degree in China.
• Speaking of China – Jocelyn talks about the differences between Western and Chinese attitudes towards health and medicine.
• Tsukublog – Avi finds out how home-made soba noodles (そば) are made and shares a recipe for tsuyu dipping sauce.
• Wandering Taiwan – Micki and Kristen watch the changing of the guards at Taipei’s National Revolutionary Martyrs Shrine (國民革命忠烈祠).
• Webs of Significance – YTSL visits Hong Kong’s Clear Water Bay Peninsula (清水灣半島).

That’s all for this week. The next blog roundup will be on March 7, 2010.

Shinya Shokudo

Fans of Japanese drama and comedy might be interested to know that Abe Yaro’s (安倍夜郎) manga series Shinya Shokudo (深夜食堂) has been adapted for TV and is currently airing on various Japanese networks.

The series is set in a small restaurant in Tokyo, one which is open from midnight to the early hours of the morning and whose owner will prepare anything that his customers desire. The chef and owner, known only as Master, is played by Kobayashi Kaoru (小林薫) and plays a small, but central, role in the series. The main stars of the show are his customers, which include a stripper, a group of office ladies (or OLs), a yakuza, and a male porn star. As they dine on Master’s food, they share their stories of love and loss with their fellow diners and give us little insights into their lives.

The series is only a few episodes old but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every minute so far. The language used is fairly straightforward and is perfect for anyone who’s looking for a fun way to improve their Japanese listening comprehension skills. A word of caution : there are some scenes which are unsuitable for a young audience. The series has a late night slot on Japanese television so this series is strictly for adults, though I have to say it’s still quite tame in comparison to some of the other shows on TV right now..

For those of you who don’t have access to Japanese television, you can watch some of the episodes here.**

** You will need to register in order to access these videos. Registration is free and will grant you access to a wide selection of Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean TV series.

Originally posted on the Blogger edition of Eye on East Asia.

Archaeology in the News : 22/2/2010

Ancient Armour Fragments Unearthed (Asahi Shimbun)

Twenty seven fragments of iron armour have been unearthed at the site of an eighth-century palace near modern day Mukō (向日) in Kyōto Prefecture. The fragments are believed to be made from iron cast between the sixth and eighth centuries and may have been part of the suits of armour passed down from king to king as imperial heirlooms.

Over 3,000 New Cultural Relic Sites Found (People’s Daily)

A general cultural relics survey conducted in Tibet in late 2009 has revealed over 3,ooo cultural relic sites. These include rock paintings on Tashi Island on the banks of Namtso Lake and three stone sarcophagus tombs in Pome County.

Archaeological Discovery Adds Up to 2,000Years onto Chinese Brick-making History (People’s Daily)

Bricks unearthed at a Yangshao Culture site in Shaanxi Province would seem to suggest that Chinese brick-making may be up to 2,000 years older than previously thought. The bricks are believed to be between 5,000 and 7,000 years old and were excavated at the Lantian New Street site, which was discovered during road works in 2009.

East Asia News Digest : 21/2/2010

Closed Schools Serve as Homes for Businesses, Local Culture (Asahi Shimbun)

Schools closed due to Japan’s shrinking school-age population are being put to use as office buildings, art studios and cultural centres. It is believed that over 300 Tokyo schools have been closed between 1992 and 2008, while a staggering 584 schools were closed in Hokkaido during that same period as a result of internal migration.

Chinese Censors Tormented by Mythical Animal (The Times Online)

Chinese censors are racing against time to stop the advance of a new “mythical animal”, the “yakexi” (亚克蜥) or Yake lizard. “Yakexi” is a phonetic approximation of the Uyghur word for “good” and one of the songs sung at this year’s CCTV Spring Festival Gala saw a group of performers dressed up in Uyghur national costume praising the government’s policies as “yakexi”. Since the Chinese language is rife with homonyms, cynical netizens have coined the term “yake lizard” (“xi” can mean “lizard”) as a way of hitting out at the government’s attitude towards the Uyghur people and Xinjiang.

China Keeps a Watchful Eye on Officials with Family Members Living Abroad (People’s Daily)

The Chinese government is keeping a close eye on those party officials whose families have moved abroad in an effort to curb corruption within the party ranks. These so-called “naked officials” are regarded as suspicious and some local governments have gone so far as to ban them from assuming positions of responsibility within government departments. If the current proposal is brought into effect, officials with family members abroad will be made to report the reasons why their families moved abroad and will be asked to share details of their financial sources.

High Number of Newborns Predicted in Year of the Tiger (China.Org.CN)

Hospitals across the country predict that they will see a sharp rise in births this year as couples try for a “tiger baby”. According to traditional beliefs, children born in the Year of the Tiger will grow up to be strong, healthy and courageous adults, so tiger years are considered to be particularly auspicious years to start a family.

Taiwanese Movie Wins Best Asian Film Award in Berlin (Taiwan News)

The Taiwanese romantic comedy “Au revoir, Taipei” was awarded the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema prize at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. The film was directed by Asian-American director Arvin Chen and stars actors Jack Yao, Lawrence Ko, Joseph Chang and singer Amber Kuo.

Author’s note : This will be the last daily news digest for the time being. It takes me between 1 and 2 hours to put together these digests, which is more time than I can afford to spend on any one task. I would rather do away with the digests and concentrate on writing original content than continue spending so much time browsing 30+ news sites for interesting news stories. I will be compiling a list of news sites and blogs over the next few weeks for those who would like to keep up to date with all the latest East Asia news.

East Asia Blog Roundup : 21/2/2010

Here is this week’s East Asia blog roundup :

• Aeri’s Kitchen – Aeri shares a recipe for a delicious beef side-dish, tteok galbi (떡갈비).
• Daily Onigiri – ROK writes about an amazing cat-friendly house in Japan.
• Fukuoka Dreaming – Kaeru attends the Oniyo Fire Festival in Kurume City (久留米市).
• Letters from Taiwan – Ben spends his Chinese New Year holiday in Huwei (虎尾) in Taiwan’s Yunlin County (雲林縣).
• Maangchi – Maangchi shares a recipe for ground soybean stew, or kongbiji jjigae (콩비지찌개).
• Muza-chan’s Gate to Japan – Muza-chan posts 15 photos of cute Japanese manhole covers (マンホール).
• Rainbowhill Language Lab – Brett lists 5 useful online tools for those wishing to learn Japanese through reading manga.
• Shizuoka Gourmet – Dragonlife explores the use of seaweed in Japanese cuisine.
• Speaking of China – Jocelyn gives her female readers some tips on how they can improve their chances of finding a Chinese boyfriend.
• The Daily Bubble Tea – Todd visits the 2010 Nantou Sand Sculpture Festival (南投市貓羅溪畔沙雕藝術節).
• The View from Over Here - The author learns about some of the traditions and customs of the Korean Lunar New Year or Seollal (설날).
• Tianjin Shannon – Shannon talks about her pre-wedding banquet in her fiancé’s hometown in Hunan Province (湖南省).
• Tsukublog – Avi takes a brief look at the tiger in Japanese history and culture.

That’s all for this week. The next blog roundup will be on February 28, 2010.

Chinese Buzzwords & Slang

Language is constantly evolving. New words are coined on a regular basis, new expressions come into common use and Mandarin is by no means an exception. Language students and translators are often confronted with unknown terms and buzzwords and those living outside of the Sinosphere will be at a certain disadvantage. While it is generally accepted that immersion in a foreign language environment is one of the best ways to develop and maintain one’s language skills, the Internet can offer a helping hand to those who wish to learn a new language or expand their vocabulary.

As a volunteer translator and Sinophile, living outside of a Mandarin-speaking environment has had a detrimental impact on my spoken Mandarin. The Internet has been a valuable source of information and has allowed me to continue to expand my vocabulary and keep up with the latest news and trends in Mainland China. When I embarked on my quest to learn Mandarin, I was taught using textbooks which were quite blatantly out of date. The Practical Chinese Reader series that I relied on in my first year at university gave me a good introduction to Chinese grammar and hanzi but it was clear that the recommended form of address, “comrade” (同志), wasn’t going to cut it in 21st Century China.**

Likewise, many of the buzzwords and slang I learnt during my university days have fallen out of common use. New technologies and trends have sparked a new generation of idiomatic expressions and jargon, so to avoid being left behind in linguistic limbo, I have sought out a few blogs which focus partly, if not solely, on contemporary buzzwords and slang so that I can keep myself abreast of all the latest lingo.

Language learning is a never-ending process and only a fool would claim to know it all. Even after 10 years of Mandarin study, I feel like I have merely scratched the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Fellow Mandarin learners who feel the urge to keep up with all the latest trends and buzzwords should consider checking out the links below :

• ChinaHopeLive’s Chinese Take-Out - Learn some slang and expressions to impress your Chinese friends.
• ForeignerCN.Com : Practical Chinese - An excellent source for learning colloquial expressions and figurative slang.
• Shanghai Daily’s Buzzwords Blog – One of the best resources for learning about current political and social trends in China. Highly recommended!

If anyone knows of a blog, website or online dictionary that should be on this list, please feel free to let me know.

** It’s interesting to note that the term 同志 is now used primarily within the gay and lesbian community.

Originally posted on the Blogger edition of Eye on East Asia.

Transferring Posts to WordPress..

Over the next few days, I will be transferring some of the blog posts I originally posted on the old Blogger site over to this blog.

Watch this space..

50 Lectures on the Past, Present and Future of China

Image from Wikimedia Commons

OnlineCollege recently compiled a list of 50 lectures on the past, present and future of China which cover a wide range of topics related to modern and ancient Chinese history. These includes lectures on Marco Polo’s expedition into China, Sino-Japanese relations in the 1700s, the role of tea in traditional Chinese culture, and China’s present and future plans for space exploration.

I haven’t had a chance to listen to most of these lectures so I cannot recommend any in particular. Some of the lectures are available in video format but the vast majority of the lectures will only open in iTunes, so you will need to install iTunes on your PC or laptop if you haven’t done so already.

East Asia News Digest : 19/2/2010

China Lodges Solemn Representations Over Obama-Dalai Lama Meeting (Xinhua)

In the latest diplomatic spat between China and the US, the Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai (崔天凯) has summoned the US Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, to discuss China’s concern over President Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama. Obama’s decision to meet with the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people has been decried as a gross interference in China’s internal affairs and the Foreign Ministry claims that the meeting had “seriously damaged Sino-US ties”. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the Dalai Lama in Washington on February 18th.

Takahashi Wins Japan’s First Men’s Figure Skating Olympic Medal (Mainichi Daily News)

Japanese figure skater Takahashi Daisuke (高橋大輔) won an Olympic bronze medal in the men’s figure skating competition on February 18th. Takahashi is the first ever male Japanese skater to win a medal in an Olympic figure skating event and is the third Japanese athlete to win an Olympic medal in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Speed skaters Nagashima Keiichiro (長島圭一郎) and Kato Joji (加藤条治) won silver and bronze medals in the 500 metre speed skating event earlier this week.

Japanese Astronaut Soichi Noguchi Shares His View Through Twitter (Times Online)

Noguchi Soichi (野口聡一), a Japanese astronaut currently serving on the International Space Station, has been using Twitter to share his thoughts with readers and post photos that he’s taken of the Earth from orbit. Mr Noguchi’s Twitter and TwitPics accounts have attracted the attention of over 80,000 followers. Readers can click here to view Mr Noguchi’s photos, which include photos of Beijing, the frozen Aral Sea, Mount Fuji, and Haiti’s devastated capital, Port-au-Prince.

Mainland Tourists Spend US$1 Billion in Taiwan (China.Org.CN)

Taiwanese authorities reveal that around 650,000 mainland Chinese tourists visited the island in 2009 and they estimate that they spent more than 1.13 billion US dollars. Mainland China and Taiwan are set to open tourism representative offices later this year.

Taiwanese Movies Earn Praise at Berlin Festival (Taipei Times)

A number of Taiwanese movies have been screened as part of this year’s Berlin Film Festival, including the blockbuster Monga (艋舺) and the features One Day (有一天) and Au Revoir Taipei (一頁台北). Monga (艋舺), a gangster movie directed by Doze Niu (鈕承澤), grossed more than $6.2 million during its first two weeks of release and has had favourable reviews both at home and abroad.

Child Soldiers to Be Honored 60 Years After Korean War (The Chosun Ilbo)

The South Korean Defence Ministry will be marking the sixtieth anniversary of the Korean War by honouring the sacrifices made by child soldiers during the war. The Ministry believes that around there were around 14,400 child soldiers in service and that around 4,700 of them are still alive today. A complete record of their service will be published later this year.

School-Age Population to Fall Below 10 Million (The Korea Times)

There is no sign of an end to South Korea’s population crisis as Korea’s statistics office reveal that Korea’s school-age population is likely to drop below 10 million in 2010. Korea’s birthrate was a mere 1.19 in 2008 and the Korean government has repeatedly made efforts to try and encourage couples to have children in order to alleviate the economic and social pressures of a greying population.

Australia sets Nov deadline for Japan to end whaling in Antarctic waters (Japan Today)

The Australian government have threatened legal action against Japan if Japan refuses to ceases its whaling activities in Antarctic waters by November 2010. Japanese whaling activities claim the lives of around 1,000 whales every year under the guise of scientific research. The whalers have faced enormous pressure by the international community and have recently been the target of activists working for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Attacks Against Koreans Spark Message to Russia (JoongAng Daily)

The Korean government has voiced its concern over hate crimes committed against Korean nationals in Russia following the death of a Korean student in Irkutsk earlier this week. The deceased, a student named only as “Kang”, and a fellow female student were attacked by a group of local youths in what is believed to have been a racially motivated crime. 18 other Korean students who were participating in the same exchange program as Kang and the female victim will be repatriated next week.

Mongolia Welcomes New Year of Tiger (The UB Post)

Thousands of people across Mongolia celebrated the Lunar New Year on February 14th despite the fact that the country is suffering through one of its most bitter winters in recent history, which has claimed the lives of over 2 million animals. The President of Mongolia, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj (Цахиагийн Элбэгдорж), took the opportunity to visit the country’s oldest resident on New Year’s Day. During his visit, he offered his seasons greetings and presented the 108-year old woman with a key to a new apartment.