Upon watching today's episode of "Mask King"...

"Mask King (복면가왕)" does not fail to surprise. Today's episode was full of so many surprises with a satisfactory range of performers - from Miljenko Matijevic of Steelheart, the first foreign singer on the show, to girl group singers SoJung and Hani.

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Top: SoJung of Ladies Code; Middle Three Pictures: Miljenko Matijevic of Steelheart; Bottom:  Hani of EXID

If you've read my previous blog post you'd know how concerned and skeptical I was of the show hosting a foreign singer. Today's episode, which revealed the "Quiet Lightning Man" to be Miljenko Matijevic, proved me wrong. I don't really know of any other singers from outside of Korea who would be able to make an appearance on this show, seeing as Matijevic is a veteran rocker so popular among Koreans. (But then I'm not that knowledgeable about singers allover the world). It wouldn't be an understatement that his appearance on the show was very captivating, and "Mask King" rightfully snagged #1 on viewer ratings among the shows that aired at the same time. 

But it wasn't Matijevic and then the surprise was over. Before Matijevic, another singer made a surprise appearance: Ladies Code SoJung. I had tears in my eyes when her identity was revealed. If you follow K-pop, you should know about the hardship Ladies Code went through in the year 2014. Honestly speaking, I didn't have any interest in the group until the accident. I am delighted that the group has finally returned on stage with a new album, without the addition of new members. To go back to SoJung, her voice remained echoing in my head even after she ended her performance. I want to hear more of her voice and I plan on listening to Ladies Code's new song (as soon as I'm done studying for midterms, of course). The celebrity audience thought she was a much older, highly-experienced, professional singer but she's none other than another girl group member. It was truly prejudice-breaking.

But that wasn't all! The female singer who beat Matijevic and made it to round 3 was revealed to be a girl group singer as well - and EXID's Hani, too! Again, I haven't really followed K-pop for a long time, but Hani is famous enough for me to know who she is and EXID is famous enough for me to know as well. But Hani is well-known for her beauty and dance skills, even I knew that. Her vocals? She wasn't really known for that until she was on this show. I especially enjoyed her performance of JYP's "Honey". Again, the celebrity audience members guessed her to be an experienced, older singer but they were very wrong. I chime in with the other Korean viewers - prejudice can be a scary thing. You don't expect girl group members to sing so well, it's a stereotype. I think "Mask King" is a wonderful show that gives back hope to so many people in the entertainment industry. 

It's been very amusing how hard-to-guess and unpredictable the singers behind the masks have been. I'm excited to see who else will come on the show and take up the challenge to not only beat the "Mask King" but also to continue breaking the public's prejudice.

Introducing Korea's Hot TV Show: "Mask King"

I mentioned before that along with Gag Concert, I watch "Mask King (복면가왕)". This is a music show where any famous person - comedian, actor, singer, athlete - can come on stage and sing without anyone having prejudice against them because they're wearing a mask! So the performer can showcase their singing skills while the audience comprised of ordinary people and celebrities try to guess who the performer is.

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But this isn't a plain concert. It's a competition. Those who perform compete with another through a series of rounds to reach the "throne". And the competition continues as more performers are recruited for more episodes as they try to take the throne. 

I can't help but think as I watch that this is yet another incredible idea for a television program. Countless numbers of boy group and girl group members prejudiced as incompetent singers have redeemed their reputations, old-time singers could enjoy the stage again, and lots of comedians have surprised the public with their sweet vocals. 

And I just love how "lenient" Korean television is. Can you imagine America having a show like this? Isn't the thought of Zac Efron, Scarlett Johansson, and Anne Hathaway pulling on a mask, coming on stage unidentified except with a nickname they made up, singing on stage (all three of these actors can sing, by the way. You can find out who else in Hollywood can sing here)? But this is the difference in cultures. Also, most Hollywood actors and actresses who can sing do sing in their movies, so I guess it's not too much of a surprise there. But who knows. Maybe Jimmy Fallon can sing too.

There's something that has concerned me, however. I read an article informing that "Mask King" will now recruit singers of foreign countries on the show as well. The comments were unkind as people complained that it's because there's a limit to singers in Korea. But I doubt that. This show allows more than just singers to come on the show. Plus I think this Korean show should be limited to Korea, just because, how are Korean viewers supposed to guess who's behind the mask? One of the people who commented on the article also said, "I don't even think Adele knows where Korea is". Then another commented that the article didn't say the show will invite singers from America, necessarily. Whichever country the singer may be from, why do they want to make themselves known in Korea? I think that's a valid question. Sometimes change can be hard and I don't want this show that I've come to like to change its structure so much.

The Korean-American Dilemmas - The College Student's Edition

I've written a post with the topic of the Korean-American dilemma before and today I bring to the world an updated, lengthier version - The College Student's Edition! I have to put up the disclaimer though that this is highly personal and subjective.

In fundamental terms, there's not much of a difference between the dilemmas as a Korean-American in high school and a Korean-American in college. But there are a few specifics I'd like to share (or ramble) about.

The Food. For this one, you don't even have to be Korean-American. You can just be a student raised in a 100% American family and still disdain college cafeteria food. I personally have grown up eating Korean food for all three meals a day - except for when school was in session, I ate the school lunches, but that was about it. If you dig around my blog enough, you'll find that I like food a lot. Especially Korean food. Back when I was in high school, I heard of a Korean-American college student who came home during break with a list of Korean dishes he wants to eat. I've become that student myself.

Television. I really don't watch a lot of Korean television compared to a lot of other Koreans and Korean-Americans, but I watch a fair amount myself (which you could probably tell from my blog posts). But being a college student means not having enough time to even do your homework and get enough sleep. My family and I watch "Gag Concert", "What Should We Eat Today? (오늘 뭐 먹지?)", and recently "Masked Singer (복면가왕)" on Sundays. It's been hard to take that time to watch these shows with the family, as the tradition goes, with all the schoolwork I've got. Though now that I think about it, this is probably a dilemma for any college student who watches TV enough.

The Language. This is also the personal part. I understand the majority of Korean-Americans aren't fluent in Korean. But even if you're not fluent in Korean (I can testify to this looking at another Korean-American student on campus), you just have those few Korean words you want to use but can't. How is this different from when you're in high school? Well, in college, you're surrounded by non-Koreans. You don't live with your Korean family anymore, which means you don't have anyone to speak Korean to after a day of classes. This is also subjective in that my collge has very few Koreans, which is the situation I'm in. Oh the frustrations. I'm paranoid that I'm forgetting the Korean language increasingly as I do life with Americans.

Leaving the House. American culture and society emphasizes individuality much more than Korea does. Koreans are all about relying on each other and helping each other out, not that Americans are unhelpful. Nor does this mean Koreans are needy people. To explain further, it's neither strange nor uncommon for the newly-turned-18-year-old child to leave the house and move into a nearby apartment in America. The typical Korean parents look at that and say, "Why should my child go out and waste money like that? My child can just live with me and save money." And I think it's just harder for us Asians to say goodbye to our parents. Again, not because we're needy, but it's because of the way our parents raise us. I don't know how to explain further without causing misunderstandings, but there's something about us Asian families.

I live on campus myself, and I go to a college in the city I've grown up in for the past decade. Still, my parents are always worried about me. Of course, American parents worry for their child too. In the beginning of the year, my parents frequently messaged me asking if I've eaten. My parents actually calculated and compared the cost of living on campus and commuting. So leaving the house can be a dilemma for the Korean-American college student for the parents and the student (but this includes any college students, not just Korean-Americans).

Korean Exchange Students. My school has an extensive exchange program so we have a lot of international students. In fact, we are sister schools with two colleges in Korea! Here's the personal part again: I just haven't interacted with many Korean-Koreans in my lifetime because I've always lived in smaller cities with a small Korean population. I've rambled sufficiently on this blog about how Korean-Koreans and Korean-Americans are so different. Koreans and Americans think so differently (refer to the previous paragraph for an example). The Korean-American? We don't even know if the way we think is Korean or American half the time. We apply the Korean mindset when we should be applying the American one and vice versa. To go back to language, although I'm fluent in Korean, I find that my mind tends to turn blank when I talk to these Korean-Koreans (think of it as you being unable to speak Spanish to your Spanish teacher when you can speak it well with your classmates otherwise). And along with the language, it's that difference of mindset and culture again. Interacting with these Korean-Koreans in college have been quite an experience for me. So I'm declaring this one a dilemma of Korean-Americans as well.

And finally, The Boy (or Girl). This was the only dilemma of the Korean-American I talked about in my previous blog post. What I mean is the issue of that cute boy on campus not being Korean. And this is the subjective part again: I go to a college where there's like one other Korean and a considerable amount of exchange students from Korea. And exchange students kind of don't count. They're here for a semester or two then leave. I personally want to marry a Korean-American (though I don't think this was really solid a couple of years ago) and my dad said I need to move to a bigger city for that. I took his word of concern(?) lightly but being in a college with very few Koreans, the reality hits me: it's going to be mighty difficult for my wish to come true. I think this has been on my mind more now that I'm in college and people around my age actually get married now.

There's so much more to this subject that I'm going to elaborate more, because I can. There's so much more to it, which is probably why I wrote a whole blog post on it those couple of years ago. Aside from actually finding my Korean-American future husband (which again is highly personal and subjective), what if I fall in love with someone who's not Korean-American? I don't mean to close any doors. I'm not the only one who's changed, my dad is now open to me marrying a man of any ethnicity/race, as long as he's a faithful Christian (my mom on the other hand won't accept a non-Korean son-in-law). So what if I get a non-Korean boyfriend? It's not simple as, "Just get married then". Will his parents like me, an Asian? Will they be okay with that fusion of two cultures in their family? Will they be okay with half-Asian grandchildren? With Americans who live in America, finding your partner is easy. It would be for me too, if I were to have grown up in Korea. Most of you readers (who are of this "majority race") probably don't think about this stuff. I could go on more, but I think this does it.

If you know a Korean-American college student - give them a hug. (To be fair, any college student deserves hugs. I use a lot of parenthesis in this post).

The Playground between the North and South Koreas that is the Borderline

As I read New York Times' article on this mini battle going on at the borderline of North and South Koreas, I couldn't help but think, "Is this a children's game?"

South Korea's sketch-comedy TV show, Gag Concert, has been pumping out new corners with veteran comedians back on the stage, and one corner's name can be translated in English into "Tinderbox Situation" or "Volatile Situation" (일촉즉발). This corner's setting is on the borderline of the two Koreas and the so-tense-that-it's-funny-situation is the foundation of the corner's jokes. Although this new corner was broadcast on television two weeks ago, I've only seen the recent broadcast this past Sunday. I heartily laughed as I watched and thought to myself that this was a genius idea for a Gag Concert corner. Then today, the New York Times article reminded me of the sound-wars going on at the Armistice Line that I read about weeks before, and then it dawned on me how the comedians may have come up with the idea for their corner.

I laughed watching "Tinderbox/Volatile Situation" not because I think the situation of the two Koreas is humorous, but because the idea of the South Korean guards taunting the North Koreans with chocolate and talks of popular South Korean TV shows is funny and I think it's funny because I wonder if this actually happens in real life. And I think a part of me wants it to because I want at least those few North Korean guards at the border to realize that South Korea is well-off enough to have chocolate and quality entertainment without their beloved leader Kim Jong-Un. So this corner raises questions about how likely it is for the staged situations to occur in real life and what the implications would be. And all of this is highly amusing.

But now that I think about it, the reality is that those guards standing at the Armistice Line dare not even twitch, let alone chat among themselves about Korean girl groups. So what do they do instead? One side blasts girl group music while the other parachutes trash, apparently.

I think this reality may actually be more entertaining than the jokes by "Tinderbox/Volatile Situation". It's really inspiring enough for a group of five comedians to make a comic segment out of it. Even so, I personally prefer these comedians' version because the reality that we're all stuck with is this children's game of throwing balloons at each other, while the North tests missiles and the South deploys an American defense system and ticks off China (you can read more about this here). At least on Gag Concert, we can see pseudo-North Koreans show envy for South Korea and dream about the day when they won't have to be envious anymore.    

TV Shows of Children and Food Shows in Korea

A couple of years ago, when I was blogging here regularly, I posted a couple times about children and television in Korea (one of which you can check out here, this should lead you to the other post as well). Back then there was an influx of shows with little children in it - mostly those of celebrities. Today, while we still have such shows such as Superman is Back (슈퍼맨이 돌아왔다), they have certainly gone down in number.

The genre of TV shows which have replaced the children shows is the genre of Food Shows. Some are cooking shows, but others are just plain food shows. You watch people eat food deliciously. Delicious food, I may add. The trend of "muck-bang" (먹방) is still around, but in a more subtle way. But it's still there. In fact, there are a couple of webtoons devoted to this trend where food is drawn and presented very appetizingly. Even shows where they teach you how to cook will often have the cooks eat their finished dish scrumptiously in front of the camera.

In fact, I doubt that viewers watch cooking shows to improve their testing skills. They most certainly can learn to cook through these plethora of shows yet it appears that the goal of these cook shows are for entertainment. My personal favorite, and really the only one I watch, is called "오늘 뭐먹지?" (translated to roughly, "What Should We Eat Today?") and you can learn how to cook by watching it but it's more entertaining with the hosts funny and witty remarks. They've jokingly complained how people watch their show for entertainment and not for the serious goal of learning to cook. I don't cook myself and I watch it!

There are more shows that involve food and cooking: "냉장고를 부탁해" ("Please Take Care of My Refrigerator" - celebrities bring in the food in their 'fridge and cook something with them), "Tasty Road" (based on what I've watched - it's two pretty girls eating pretty food), 한식대첩 ("The Grand Battle of Korean Food" - cooks from all over the nation come and compete by making only Korean food and professional judges root out the final pair of winners), and more.

The change in this trend of TV shows in Korea is very interesting. Shows featuring little children are still on television but they are few in number compared to just a couple of years ago and today, there are numerous food shows in a wide variety which have replaced shows featuring children.

Changes in the Korean Entertainment Industry (Grace is back!)

Hello, everyone! I know it's been almost a year and a half, and I'm not even sure if I've ever had unofficial subscribers/followers on my blog, but I am back to blogging regularly! I'm grateful to find that people still visit my blog even though I haven't posted in so long.

A lot has changed in South Korea in the year and the half that I wasn't blogging. A lot has changed in my personal life too. I am no longer a high school student, I'm a college student now! As I skim through my last few blog posts, I see how lacking I was in my writing skills back then, and I'm determined to post better polished blog posts. I am excited to be back blogging again!

To start off my series of blog posts anew, I want to go back to how there have been many changes in Korea, I want to expand on particular the Korean entertainment scene and its changes as of this year, 2016. First off, as I was looking back on my previous blog posts I noticed how upset I was about Dongho leaving the boy group U-KISS. Now this previous-youngest-member of the group is married.

I also talked about the departure of members Nicole and Ji Young from the girl group KARA. Now the group has officially disbanded.

Asia's girl group who shine the best when all nine members are present together now has eight members.

These are just "mildly" sad news in comparison to the shocking news of other Korean celebrities. To generally describe the shocking news, I will just say that they involve lawsuits and I won't mention the names but will drop some hints. One singer is popular enough to have been in the first episode of the K-drama Dream High, playing the role of a popular singer. As I watch that episode again, after the scandal has been released, I'm saddened to think that he will no longer be invited to make such appearances in shows again. He's not a role model for rookie singers anymore. Then there's an actor who is so prominent that he's made himself known in Hollywood. I even used him as an example for celebrity endorsements in Korea and I don't think he's worthy for such considerations anymore. I had good images of these two celebrities and I can't look at them the same after these scandalous news about them.

To shift the unhappy mood, the K-pop industry didn't cave but continues to thrive even after a year and a half. In my previous "ancient" blog posts you can see how concerned I was over the future of the K-pop industry. I thought there were just too many boy and girl groups all the time. That hasn't changed, but an impressive number of boy groups and girl groups have pressed their way through all the competition and gained fame. To name just a few, there's BTS, AOA, EXID, and VIXX, Honestly, I haven't been keeping up with K-pop in so long, I just hear the really "big news" of K-pop. So the fact that those four groups popped up in my mind implies they're prominent enough. Like I said, I haven't been keeping up with K-pop so the level of fame of these groups are over my head, but I came to the point where I realized these newer groups are slowly replacing the older, kings and queens of K-pop. This saddens me too, although it's not the same as what I talk about in the previous paragraph. Maybe this just shows me how old I am.

So there's my very broad overview of the changes in the Korean entertainment industry. Famous names have been disgraced, older K-pop groups seem to be resigning their thrones to the rookie groups. Time flies.