50 Most Influential K-Pop Artists: 19. Kim Wan-Seon

[Series Index]

19. Kim Wan-Seon [김완선]

Also romanized as:  Kim Wan Sun

Years of Activity: 1986-present? (Last regular album in 2005, a single released in 2011)

Discography:

Korea:  Regular Albums

Kim Wan-Seon 1 [김완선 1집] (1986)

Kim Wan Sun 2 (1987)

88 Kim Wan-Seon: Too Lonely to Dance Alone [88 김완선: 나홀로 춤을 추긴 너무 외로워] (1988)

Kim Wan Sun Vol. 4 (1989)

Kim Wan-Seon 5 [김완선 5집] (1990)

Kim Wan-Seon 6 [김완선 6] (1992)

Talent [탤런트] (1996)

S & Remake (2002)

Return (2005)

Taiwan

The First Touch (1994)

Sayonara (1995)

迷迷糊糊 (1996)

Representative Song:  The Pierrot Laughs at Us [삐에로는 우릴 보고 웃지] from Kim Wan-Seon 5

삐에로는 우릴 보고 웃지
The Pierrot Laughs at Us

빨간 모자를 눌러 쓴
A red hat pushed down on my head
난 항상 웃음 간직한 삐에로
I am a Pierrot with a constant smile
파란 웃음 뒤에는
Behind the blue smile
아무도 모르는 눈물
A tear that no one knows
초라한 날 보며 웃어도
They may laugh at my sad little sight
난 내 모습이 너무 아름다워
But to me I am so beautiful
모두들 검은 넥타이
A black tie on everyone
아무 말도 못하는 걸
Unable to say anything

사람들은 모두 춤추며 웃지만
People all dance and laugh
나는 그런 웃음 싫어
But I don't like that kind of laugh
술 마시며 사랑 찾는 시간 속에
In the time spent drinking and finding love
우리는 진실을 잊고 살잖아
We live forgetting the truth

난 차라리 웃고 있는 삐에로가 좋아
I'd rather like the Pierrot, who is smiling
난 차라리 슬픔 아는 삐에로가 좋아
I'd rather like the Pierrot, who knows sorrow

Translation note:  난 차라리 웃고 있는 삐에로가 좋아 is deceptively difficult to translate. Not happy with the current version, but can't think of anything better. As always, suggestions are welcome.

In 15 words or less:  The developmental template for future mainstream K-pop artists.

Maybe she should be ranked higher because...  she totally owned the scene for five-plus years, a rarity for female artists.

Maybe she should be ranked lower because...  can it really be said that she influenced what came after her? Isn't it her producers who influenced that?

Why is this artist important?
Kim Wan-Seon is the only solo female pop artist who sold over a million copies of a single album in Korea. That number alone makes her very important in K-pop history. Like Lee Hyo-Ri after her, she completely owned the scene by redefining how women are to be presented in pop culture. When you watch the video above, look for the signs of suggestive sexuality, which may not be obvious to the contemporary eyes ruined by crass exposures of skin. (More examples here and here. In the first video, Kim -- then a 17-year-old -- sings a song called "Tonight", with the lyrics that say "Tonight, I am scared of the dark." It is about as blatant as a sexual advance can get from a woman in mid-1980s.) Kim's smooth and sinewy dance was nothing like Korea had ever seen at that point. Calling her "Korea's Madonna" (as her fans like to do) might be an overstatement, but like Madonna, Kim defined how female sexuality is to be packaged and sold through mass media for a good decade.

(Trivia question: without clicking the link, can you guess which female K-pop artist released the second best selling album? Hint -- she is already ranked on this list. Answer is below.)

But Kim's importance goes much farther beyond being a sexy pop star. Her career is a prototype of a mainstream K-pop star today. The process of training Kim, as well as the career paths that Kim took, served as a model for the K-pop stars that will go on to sweep the world.

Kim's maternal aunt was a woman named Han Baek-Hee, who sang  for the U.S. troops stationed in Korea during the 1960s. (America's influence over Korean pop culture is again evident here.) Han recognized Kim's talent early, and persuaded Kim's parents to have Kim live with her. Kim moved in with her aunt at age 14 -- thereafter, she would not be able to visit her parents for the next three years. Instead, she underwent a Spartan training of ballet and gymnastics at Han's dance studio. Han opened up her studio for any dancer to use for free, as long as the dancer taught his/her best move to Kim. Kim recalls that she was not allowed to sit down during her waking hours. She did not attend any more school, and had no friend.

In the meantime, Han used her connection in Korea's nascent entertainment industry to collect the best songs from the best composers available. The venerability of the composers for Kim's songs is shocking to those who regard Kim only as a vacuous dance musician. Her debut song "Tonight" was composed by Kim Chang-Hoon, member of Sanullim -- unquestionably one of the greatest rock bands in K-pop history. One of her greatest hits, "That Dance in the Rhythm," was composed by the legendary Shin Joong-Hyeon.

After Kim's debut, Han controlled every last aspect of Kim's career. Han chose everything for her niece -- not only the songs and the dances, but also clothes, shoes, hairdo and makeup. At the end of each performance, Han stood Kim in a corner and berated her errors regardless of who was around. (The scolding was so intense that many people around them were convinced that Han was not Kim's real aunt.) Han even did Kim's interviews on her behalf. She also strictly forbade her niece from speaking with any fellow pop musician, men or women. In 1992, at the absolute height of Kim's popularity, she suddenly announced retirement -- again at the direction of her aunt and against her will. Kim then was shuttled to Taiwan and Hong Kong, releasing three albums there and enjoying a relatively successful career. (Here is a clip of Kim Wan-Seon appearing on Taiwanese television. Considering she must have learned Chinese in her late teens, her Chinese language skill is pretty ridiculous.)

Most incredibly, Han never paid a penny to Kim for 13 years, until the two finally had a falling-out in 1998. (Reportedly, Han used nearly all of that money into a failed business venture.) Freed from her aunt, Kim moved alone to Hawaii to study design at University of Hawaii. In 2002, Kim returned to Korea to resume her musical career on her own, in a world that now holds hundreds of other beautiful, talented young girls who were trained just like her.

As arguably the first manufactured "idol" of Korean pop music, Kim's career foreshadowed both the best and the worst of what was to come in Korean pop music industry. Kim Wan-Seon would dominate the public consciousness through the sheer force of looks, sexiness and dancing, backed by catchy tunes composed by talented musicians. As early as 1994, Kim took her career outside of Korea and found success. Considering that the first outbreak of "Korean Wave" began in Taiwan -- indeed, the word "hallyu" was first coined by Taiwanese media -- Kim's successful foray into Taiwan is doubly significant. Yet, like other "idols" that would follow her footsteps, Kim hardly saw the fruit of her labor and essentially worked as an indentured servant. This pattern would repeat itself in Korean pop music industry, long after Kim faded out of the scene.

Trivia answer:  Lee Sora.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

50 Most Influential K-Pop Artists: 20. Crying Nut

[Series Index]

20.  Crying Nut [크라잉넛]

Years of Activity: 1998-present

Members:
Park Yoon-Sik [박윤식] - Vocal, Guitar
Lee Sang-Myeon [이상면] - Guitar
Han Gyeong-Rok [한경록] - Bass, Guitar
Lee Sang-Hyeok [이상혁] - Drum
Kim In-Su [김인수] - Accordion, Keyboard

Discography:
Run the Horse [말달리자] (1998)
Circus Magic Traveling Troupe [서커스매직유랑단] (1999)
Love Song Under the Water [하수연가] (2001)
Old Radio [고물라디오] (2002)
Cow at the OK Corral [OK 목장의 젖소] (2006)
The Uncomfortable Party [불편한 파티] (2009)

Representative Song:  Circus Magic Traveling Troupe [서커스매직유랑단] from Circus Magic Traveling Troupe.

서커스매직유랑단
Circus Magic Traveling Troupe

[Intro]

안녕하세요 오늘은 김선생이랑 같이 나왔어요
Hello! I came out with Dr. Kim today
아이고 김씨 아저씨도 나오셨네요
Oh my, Mr. Kim came out too
아랫마을에 장이서서 서커스가 왔데요
The village is holding a market and a circus came
아~ 그럼 우리한번 가볼까요
Ah -- then should we go take a look?

아이구 장에 나오니 사람 참 겁나게 많네요
Oh my, the market is so crowded
글쎄 써커스단 이름이 뭐래요
What's the name of the circus by the way?
서커스 매직 유랑단 이래요
They call themselves Circus Magic Traveling Troupe.

[Song]

헤이! 헤이! 요기조기 모여보세요 요것조것 골라보세요
Hey! Hey! Come one, come all. Pick one, pick all
우리들은 서커스 매직 유랑단
We are Circus Magic Traveling Troupe

안녕하세요 안녕하세요 우린 매직 서커스 유랑단
Hello hello we are Magic Circus Traveling Troupe
님 찾아 꿈을 찾아 떠나간다우
We travel to find our honey and our dreams
동네집 계집아이 함께 간다면
If a girl from the town will come with us
천리만길 발자욱에 꽃이 피리라
Flowers will bloom at her footsteps for ten thousand miles

우리는 크라잉넛 떠돌이 신사
We are Crying Nut, traveling gentlemen
한 많은 팔도강산 유랑해보세
Let's wander around the sorrow-filled Eight Provinces
마음대로 춤을 추며 떠들어보세요
Dance and talk as loud as you want
어차피 우리에겐 내일은 없다
For us there is no tomorrow anyway

오늘도 아슬아슬 재주 넘지만
Again today performing the thrilling stunts
곰곰히 생각하니 내가 곰이네
But to think and think, and I am the bear
난장이 광대의 외줄타기는
The midget clown's tightrope walking is
아름답다 슬프도다 나비로구나
Beautiful, sorrowful, a butterfly

우리는 크라잉넛 떠돌이 신사
We are Crying Nut, traveling gentlemen
한 많은 팔도강산 유랑해보세
Let's all wander around the Eight Provinces filled with sorrow
마음대로 춤을 추며 떠들어보세요
Dance and talk as loud as you want
어차피 우리에겐 내일은 없다
For us there is no tomorrow anyway

커다란 무대위에 막이 내리면
When the curtain falls on the big stage
따뜻한 별빛이 나를 감싸네
The warm starlight shrouds me
자줏빛 저 하늘은 무얼 말할까
What does that violet sky say
고요한 달 그림자 나를 부르네
The silent shadow of the moon calls me

떠돌이 인생역정 같이 가보세
Let's go together on the vagabond life journey
외로운 당신의 친구 되겠소
We will be friends for you who are lonely
흥청망청 비틀비틀 요지경 세상
Extravagant, stumbling, kaleidoscopic world
발걸음도 가벼웁다 서커스 유랑단
The steps are light for the traveling circus

오늘도 아슬아슬 재주 넘지만
Again today performing the thrilling stunts
곰곰히 생각하니 내가 곰이네
But think and think, and I am the bear
난장이 광대의 외줄타기는
The midget clown's tightrope dancing is
아름답다 슬프도다 나비로구나
Beautiful, sorrowful, a butterfly

우리는 크라잉넛 떠돌이 신사
We are Crying Nut, traveling gentlemen
한 많은 팔도강산 유랑해보세
Let's all wander around the Eight Provinces filled with sorrow
마음대로 춤을 추며 떠들어보세요
Dance and talk as loud as you want
어차피 우리에겐 내일은 없다
For us there is no tomorrow anyway
떠돌이 인생역정 같이 가보세
Let's go together on the vagabond life journey
외로운 당신의 친구 되겠소
We will be friends for you who are lonely
흥청망청 비틀비틀 요지경 세상
Extravagant, stumbling, kaleidoscopic world
발걸음도 가벼웁다 서커스 유랑단 헤이
The steps are light for the traveling circus. Hey!

Translation note 1:  The song contains a lot of cultural allusions that need full background to understand.

- In traditional Korea, the market was consisted of traveling merchants who would appear every five or seven days to set up shop. Very rudimentary circus troupe sometimes travels with the merchants. This persisted in rural Korea through 1960s and early 1970s, and still continues to a very small degree to this day.

- The "Eight Provinces" is an idiom that refers to Korea, as traditional Korea was made up of eight provinces.

- The reference to "bear" is designed to evoke Korean old saying, "The bear dances and the owner takes the money," which is used in a situation when someone went through a lot of effort that ended up benefiting someone else.

Translation note 2:  There was no good way to translate 흥청망청 비틀비틀 요지경 세상. As always, suggestions are welcome.

In 15 words or less:  The reigning kings of rock in Korea.

Maybe they should be ranked higher because. . .  Greatest rock band of Korea in the 2000s. Doesn't that count for more?

Maybe they should be ranked lower because . . .  Has rocked mattered that much in Korea in the past decade?

Why is this artist important?
Seeing today's K-pop scene, it is difficult to believe that only 25 years ago, rock was the king of Korean pop music. But it was true -- through late 1980s, legendary rock bands like Deulgukhwa were dominating the charts, radio waves and TV times. Starting from early 1990s, however, Korea's rock began to cede the public stage to dance, hiphop, and general corporatization of pop music. By early 2000s, Korean rock was at a nadir. It appeared that, against the depressed consumer market following the East Asian Financial Crisis, the album market ravaged by the introduction of Internet downloads, and the swarm of manufactured idols backed with massive capital, Korean rock was gasping for its last breath in the self-segregated enclaves of Hongdae and Daehakro.

However, as its adherents have reminded the world for decades, rock will never die. Korean rock came back in a huge way in the early 2000s, and Crying Nut was the band that led the charge. How? Arguably, Crying Nut is the best translator of Korean sensibility into rock format since Deulgukhwa of the mid-1980s. The band's best songs consistently invoke the slightly retro, nostalgia-inducing images of Korea (well represented in Circus Magic Traveling Troupe) and marry them sometimes with manic energy, at other times with deep sentimentality.

Crying Nut has been building momentum in the underground indie scene, but it truly exploded into the scene during the 2002 FIFA World Cup, for which the band composed the official supporters' anthem for Korea's national soccer team. This opportunity for an outpouring of passion once again proved that there was no better music than rock to express overwhelming energy; rock bands like Crying Nut and Yoon Do-Hyun Band would lead the rebirth of rock by holding massive outdoor concerts that doubled as a viewing party for the World Cup. The renewed appreciation for rock reverberates in Korean music to this day, as more talented indie bands are marking their territory even as the manufactured idol groups march on their path toward world domination.

Interesting trivia 1: The two Lees of the band are twins.

Interesting trivia 2: Apparently, the band was formed after the members, who were high school classmates, went out on a field trip and saw a guy with a guitar attracting many girls. Therefore, initially the band was made up of five guitarists. The owner of the club in which the band was set to perform had to forcibly allocate the appropriate instruments for Crying Nut to be a legitimate band.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Ask a Korean! News: Dr. Jim Yong Kim Nominated to Lead World Bank

This is exciting. President Barack Obama nominated Dr. Jim Yong Kim, president of Dartmouth College, to lead the World Bank. To be sure, Dr. Kim is not the only nominee for the post. Angola, South Africa and Nigeria put forward Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian finance minister and former World Bank official. José Antonio Ocampo, a former finance minister of Colombia and a professor at Columbia University in New York, has also been mentioned. But given the World Bank's structure and history, Kim is overwhelmingly likely to head the organization.

Kim's nomination was generally unexpected, but is being praised as "an inspired pick" for the World Bank, which provides loans to developing countries. He was a former director of World Health Organization's AIDS/HIV department. Prior to working for WHO, Kim spent 16 years founding and operating Partners in Health, a non-profit healthcare provider which now employs more than 13,000 people in 12 developing countries. Given the importance of health issues in the developing world, Kim is expected to bring valuable new perspective to the World Bank, whose goal is to reduce global poverty.

This blog has long been a fan of Dr. Kim. Here is an excellent short video of Dr. Kim discussing leadership.

A great quote for those of you who want to help people:

I find myself giving that advice to my students today. You know, it's great to have all those great ideals. But when you go to Haiti, when you go to Africa, they don't ask you, "How much do you feel for my people? How much have you studied my people?" They say, "Have you brought anything?"

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Shame on You, Yale School of Management

The Korean usually steers clear from discussing too much Korean politics in this blog, because Korean politics requires too much advanced knowledge to fully understand. But this particular issue does not, and it actually involves an American entity as well -- specifically, Yale University School of Management.

First of all, a short history lesson is in order for those who are unfamiliar with the main subject of this story -- former South Korean president Chun Doo-Hwan. A concise description of Chun would be: a dictator who killed a lot of people. Because Korea emerged into the world's consciousness relatively recently as a prosperous democracy, this part of modern Korean history involving Chun Doo-Hwan and other dictators tends to be generally ignored. But until late 1980s (and arguably until early 1990s,) South Korea was a fascist dictatorship sponsored by the United States, just like the way U.S. has sponsored other dictatorships in the Middle East and Latin America during the Cold War. (Generally, that part of the U.S. history has also been blissfully ignored.)

Chun Doo-Hwan
(source)

Chun came to power illegitimately, through a good old-fashioned military coup d'etat. The previous dictator Park Chung-Hee was assassinated in October 1979, and there was a small hope that South Korea could transition into a true democracy. However, within two months after the assassination, Chun stormed Seoul's military bases and essentially held the interim president, Choi Kyu-Ha, as hostage. 

In May 1980, Chun declared martial law, on the fabricated pretext that North Korea was preparing to attack South Korea. The martial law prompted nationwide protests demanding democracy, the largest of which was in the city of Gwangju with 200,000 protesters. On May 18, 1980, the massacre began in Gwangju. The paratroopers fired at the citizens of Gwangju indiscriminately, killing not only protesters but also women and children. In response, the citizens of Gwangju raided the local armory, armed themselves and barricaded the provincial capitol building. For a little more than a week, Gwangju became a war zone, as the paratroopers cut off access to the city and lay siege to it. Finally, on May 27, the paratroopers re-captured the capitol, killed the resisting civilian militia, and quelled the protest. Over 600 people died as a result of this violent suppression.

Streets of Gwangju in May 1980
(source)

In August 1980, Chun ran for the president unopposed, in a sham election held in a gymnasium in which only the small "electoral college" could vote. (The "electoral college" voted by applauding rather than casting ballots.) In the same time period, to suppress any potential dissidence, Chun opened up a North Korea-style gulag in which nearly 40,000 people, arrested without a warrant, were sent to hard labor. 57 of those prisoners would die from disease and beating.

Chun's reign would end in 1987, when another massive wave of democratization protests, sparked by the death of a student protester who died while being tortured by the police. After Korea democratized, Chun was put on trial in 1997 and was sentenced to life in prison. During the trial, Chun was found to have amassed 1 trillion won (i.e. approximately $1.2 billion, in 1987 dollars) -- which was nearly 1% of the entire South Korean GDP in 1987 -- in his private slush fund during his reign. (Chun claimed that he could not pay back the slush fund because his total worth was a checking account with 290,000 won in it. This claim would be funny if it was not so disgusting.) Chun was released from prison in 1998, based on a historic pardon in the spirit of national reconciliation, granted by then-president Kim Dae-Jung.

Chun Doo-Hwan is unquestionably the worst president/ruler that South Korea has ever had. Even the former Korean dictators who sought lifetime presidency -- Rhee Syngman and Park Chung-Hee -- did not order the soldiers to fire indiscriminately into peacefully protesting citizens, nor did they operate a gulag. Under Chun, with respect to political freedom, South Korea came the closest to being indistinguishable with North Korea.

So what did the students of Yale School of Management do with Chun Doo-Hwan? Did they make him a case study of dictatorship? Did they denounce Chun's massacre of democracy-demanding citizens? No -- they visited Chun and took a group photo, grinning like idiots.

(source)

More after the jump.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Seriously, this actually happened. 27 Yale MBA students, led by Yale School of Management professor Jiwoong Shin, met with former president Chun Doo-Hwan at Chun’s house for two hours on March 14. The entire meeting was recorded and televised. Reportedly, the meeting happened because Shin is good friends with Chun’s son.

And sure enough, Chun used the rare public appearance as a chance to rewrite history. Probably the most amazing thing that Chun said was in response to question that asked the greatest regret during his presidency: ”I just happened to become the president while I was investigating the sudden death of the previous president. If I had a plan to become the president, I would have done a better job.”

If you were listening, the man was saying he never wanted to be the president. He took over the military,  promoted himself to a four star general, shut down the National Assembly, had the soldiers review the next day's newspapers before they were printed, killed 600 people, and held a sham election by a joke of an electoral college, by accident.

It gets better. Chun noted that he was the president for seven years, and originally planned to have two seven-year terms as the president. But a desire to serve as an example for his successors (and not, say, the overwhelming public demonstrations) compelled Chun to serve only a single term. Chun also said there was a risk that he would run a “military-style democracy” because of his military background, but was able to run an “American-style democracy” thanks to his America-educated advisors.

The Korean is not even mad at Chun anymore. It is absurd to expect that a mass murderer would not lie. Those graduate students from Yale School of Management, however -- that's a different story. I cannot mince words here: what they did was moronic. By visiting Chun, they validated a mass murdering dictator and gave him a chance to rewrite history. They approved the typically fascist justification to dictatorship, that economic development and external threats excused the destruction of civil liberties. This is deeply insulting to all those who fought and died for South Korea's democracy.

Think, people. Please, think. You are supposed to be the smart ones.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Thank You for Volunteering!

Big, huge thanks to dozens of people who volunteered to teach English to North Korean defectors. Thank you all so much. The Korean passed your contact information to the person who would be coordinating this.

A few things to note. So far, all the charter schools that the Korean knows of are in Seoul. For those of you living outside of Seoul who volunteered (and kindly included your location,) the Korean asked if there are any opportunities in your area also. Stay tuned for more details.

For those of you who still wish to volunteer -- please include your contact information (email and cell phone number, if you have a cell phone) and your location. If you are not in Korea right now or in the very near future, the Korean is afraid to say that it is very unlikely that there will be anything you could do. These charter schools and organizations are very small, and for most of them this is their first time dealing with a group of non-Koreans.  Please be patient if there are any bumps in the road. The Korean will continue to pass along contact information as it comes along.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Volunteer to Teach English to North Korean Defectors

Thanks to the raised awareness of the North Korean defectors issue, several ESL teachers in Korea emailed the Korean to ask for the ways that they can help.

The Korean asked around, and discovered some volunteer opportunities. For most North Korean defectors, one of the most difficult parts of adjusting to the South Korean society is South Korea's pervasive use of English.   Not only are English words liberally used in everyday conversation, English skill is essential to obtain a well-paying job in an export-oriented economy like South Korea. Most North Korean defectors have a difficult time adjusting to this, and require continuous tutoring in English to be fully functional as they live in South Korea.

If you are an ESL teacher in Korea, you can volunteer as an English tutor. There are several charter schools in Seoul specifically designed for North Korea defectors. Most notable among them is the Yeomyung School, whose graduates led the protest in front of the Chinese embassy in Seoul. You can volunteer at these schools as English tutors for those who escaped from North Korea.

If you are interested, email the Korean with your name and contact information. He will pass your information along to those schools through his contacts. The schools will reach out to you, and go from there. Thank you very much for your support.

-EDIT- Thank you for your support. As of December 2012, all the schools that the Korean knows of are completely full.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Ask a Korean! Wiki: Beautiful Korean Words?

Dear Korean,

I recently learned of the word "마음". 마음 is a very interesting and beautiful word; it's often heard in K-pop songs. Are there other interesting words like it? My wife thinks 달콤 is a word with many meanings, too (though Google only offers one meaning: sweet).

Ralph

Very interesting question, but a difficult one for the Korean to answer with his dried-up sentimentality. So he will give this one to the readers. What are some Korean words you think are interesting and/or beautiful?

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.