Korea Deconstructed David Tizzard
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- Society & Culture
Korea Deconstructed is a show that talks to Korean people about Korean issues. It seeks that which is real, authentic, and experienced, often taking place beyond the reach of headline news and geopolitics.
It is hosted by David Tizzard who has lived and worked in Korea for nearly two decades and has a PhD in Korean Studies
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The Korean War, Memory, and Human Nature
Andrew Salmon, MBE, is the Seoul-based Asia editor of Washington Times, where he specializes in regional security, geopolitics and macro. He is the author of five books, including the award-winning Korean War combat histories, "To the Last Round" and "Scorched Earth, Black Snow." Those works have won awards from the ROK and UK governments, and have been translated into both Korean and Chinese.
Andrew's Books
To The Last Round: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Round-British-Stand-Imjin/dp/1845135334
Scorched Earth, Black Snow: https://www.amazon.com/Scorched-Earth-Black-Snow-Australia/dp/1845136195
The Washington Times: https://www.washingtontimes.com/staff/andrew-salmon/
Discussion Outline
0:00 Introduction
2:25 The Psychological Effects of War on Individuals
15:00 The Forgotten War
19:30 Soldiers' First Impressions of Korea
26:40 Difficult Questions
30:45 The North Korean Offensive
38:10 General Douglas MacArthur
47:20 The Chinese Dragon Awakes
1:00:00 An Ideological War?
1:10:00 Prisoners of War
1:14:55 Derek Kinne: Churchill's Bulldog
1:20:50 The End of the War
1:28:00 Current Military Capabilities
1:36:25 China in the 21st Century
1:44:20 Vladimir Putin
1:49:35 Lessons on War and Human Nature
1:57:35 Recommendations
Korea Deconstructed
▶ Get in touch: datizzard@swu.ac.kr
▶ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62047873
▶ Watch us on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@UCXcdboOUCnCFnrAOF5dV1sg
▶ Find us on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/koreadeconstructed
▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128
▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE
▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com/
Music: Stranger Danger - Francis Preve Pictures:
A selection of photos and videos have been used in the YouTube version for educational purposes. If any of them are yours and you would like to be credited in the notes here, please let me know. -
Korean Dating, Culture, and Music with David Kim
David Kim is many things but is perhaps best known for his Korean content on Youtube. He has been a huge part of three popular programs over the last seven years: DKDKTV, Ramyun and Chill, and, now, Korean Pizza Club. His content has reached millions and is driven by his positive and generous outlook on life, something even more evident when meeting him in person.
We spoke about how hallyu has changed, whether K-pop is still cool, Korean dating culture, and life here in Seoul. We even got political at the end, exploring the challenges of democracy and communism and what hope young people have for the future.
Check out David's work online
Korean Pizza Club: https://www.youtube.com/@UCVqkbppiAXuI4Kp3AQmauTw
DKDKTV: https://www.youtube.com/c/dkdktv
Biroso: https://biroso.net/
We are also joined by Seoul Women's University student Soyoon Kim
Insta: @celinesoyoon
Discussion Outline
0:00 Introduction
10:24 Positivity in the Korean Space
15:42 Culture and Korea
27:47 Is Hallyu Still Popular?
37:20 Streaming Culture and Manipulation
46:48 Dating Culture
52:04 Being Cancelled
1:03:00 Misperceptions of Korea
1:14:20 Education and Competition in Korea
1:23:00 Korean democracy
1:35:20 Recommendations
Korea Deconstructed by David Tizzard
▶ Get in touch: datizzard@swu.ac.kr
▶ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62047873
▶ Watch us on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@UCXcdboOUCnCFnrAOF5dV1sg
▶ Find us on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/koreadeconstructed
▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128
▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE
▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com/
▶ Music: Still Something So Beautiful by David Tizzard (Radical Gary) -
Park Nohae: Revolutionary Politics and Poetry in South Korea
Park Nohae emerged as a powerful literary voice in South Korea during the tumultuous 1980s, though at the time few knew who he actually was. He was the faceless poet. The voice of the many. Working various manual labor jobs which exposed him to the harsh realities faced by the working class, he became a champion of labor rights and social justice. His collection of poems "노동의 새벽( Dawn of Labor)" published in 1984 sold over a million copies. However, his call for change and a new sky over the South Korean people brought him into conflict with the military dictatorship. He was arrested and sentenced to life in prison, though many called for the death penalty. Eventually, after seven long years, much of which was solitary confinement, he was released.
Today he still writes poetry and takes photos, sharing his wisdom and insights with a new generation. You can also visit his photo exhibitions in Seoul, with images captured in Iraq and Palestine. However, Park shuns the limelight, rarely giving interviews and not wanting fame or publicity.
This conversation with Cheehyung Harrison Kim celebrates the first English publication of Dawn of Labor, a book which he worked on with Brother Anthony (An Sonjae). Harrison is an associate professor of Korean history at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. We are also joined by Seoul Women's University student Kim Jiwon.
Dawn of Labor: https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/dawn-of-labor/
Park Nohae (twitter): https://x.com/parknohae
Park Nohae (insta): https://www.instagram.com/park_nohae/
Park's latest book (Korean): https://gift.kakao.com/product/9251669?input_channel_id=2630
Nanum Munhwa: https://www.nanum.com/site/
Discussion Outline
0:00 Introduction
7:30 The context:
1980s Korea
20:27 Politics and leftist ideas
28:15 Gender and feminism in Park's work
48:55 Dawn of Labor
53:40 Love by Park Nohae
58:55 How Much? by Park Nohae
1:07:50 Mother by Park Nohae
1:18:15 Arrest and imprisonment
1:24:10 The artwork of Oh Yoon
1:27:10 The color blue
1:31:25 Park Nohae and the world
1:37:50 Reading and translating Park Nohae
2:00:15 Recommendations
Korea Deconstructed by David Tizzard
▶ Get in touch: datizzard@swu.ac.kr
▶ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62047873
▶ Watch us on Youtube: /davidtizzard
▶ Find us on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/koreadeconstructed
▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128
▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE
▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com/
▶ Music: Still Something So Beautiful by David Tizzard (Radical Gary) -
BR Myers: Korea's Ethnonationalism and the Unloved Republic
사랑받지 못하는 공화국 (2024) was written by Professor Bryan Myers, a professor of international studies at Dongseo University in Busan. Anyone familiar with North Korean studies will be keenly aware of Myers and his work as he has written some excellent books on that subject, including The Cleanest Race and North Korea's Juche Myth. His latest book reveals two firsts: It’s his first written in Korean and it's his first that deals with South Korean politics. Myers has said that "the book's original thrust is the argument that the right neglected / still neglects the work of state-building, but most young people, being centrist or progressive, are just not interested in that issue." We’ll try and see if he achieved that or not.
The book: https://product.kyobobook.co.kr/detail/S000212218893
Myers' Blog: https://sthelepress.com/
In this conversation we are joined by Jacco Zwetsloot, host of the NK News Podcast, Park Kyunghoon (Charlie) for the third time, and Ko Eunbi from Seoul Women's University.
NK News podcast: https://www.nknews.org/category/north-korea-news-podcast/latest
Jacco's Twitter: https://twitter.com/JaccoZed
Discussion Outline
0:00 Introductions
3:10 Do Koreans know when their republic began?
12:15 Is South Korea a republic or a nation?
29:30 The sinking of the ROKS Cheonan
35:15 Who are North Korea?
44:45 Korea as Anti-Japanese
1:05:35 Park Chung-hee as a benevolent dictator?
1:18:10 The American hegemony of Korean Studies
1:21:23 Reading Korean history written by a foreigner
1:30:05 Personal narratives
1:35:35 Does the SK left love North Korea?
1:43:05 Closing thoughts
1:57:15 Tattoos
Korea Deconstructed by David Tizzard
▶ Get in touch: datizzard@swu.ac.kr
▶ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62047873
▶ Watch us on Youtube: /davidtizzard
▶ Find us on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/koreadeconstructed
▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128
▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE
▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com/
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Park Chan Wook: Genius of Korean Cinema
Park Chan-wook is a master of movie making. And he's seemingly getting better with age. Leaving the sex and violence of previous hits such as Oldboy, JSA, and The Handmaiden behind him, Decision to Leave / 헤어질 결심 (2022) explores the relationship between a Korean man and a Chinese woman, completely incompatible, seemingly madly in love, and destined to destroy each other. These two roles are played expertly by Tang Wei and Park Hae-il.
"The moment you said you loved me, your love ended. And the moment your love ended, my love began.”
The movie is a piece of art: a poem. It encourages you to watch it multiple times, with each viewing providing greater insight into the layers constructed: through sound, language, visuals, and mis-en-scene.
I sat down with two Korean women, Jimin and Yunsuh, and a Chinese woman, Jessie, to explore this movie from a variety of perspectives: art, beauty, gender, love, and morality. Each of them provided views and insights I would never have found myself. And yet, it still feels like there is so much that went unsaid.
Discussion Outline
0:00 First Impressions
13:40 Park Chan-wook and Gender
18:46 Park Chan-wook’s Style
25:45 Is Decision to Leave Romantic?
34:58 Asian Vibes: The Mountains and the Sea
43:06 Tang Wei
1:08:25 Poetry, Yeokbek, and McGuffins
1:19:30 The Ending of the Movie
1:38:50 Haejoon: The Male Lead
1:59:52 Park Chan Wook and the Oscars
2:08:00 A movie, a Book, a Song
Korea Deconstructed by David Tizzard
▶ Get in touch: datizzard@swu.ac.kr
▶ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62047873
▶ Watch us on Youtube: /davidtizzard
▶ Find us on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/koreadeconstructed
▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128
▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE
▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com/
▶ Music: Rail Gun by Disorientalz -
Bernardo Kastrup and The Search for Meaning
Bernardo Kastrup is the executive director of Essentia Foundation. His work has been leading the modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism, the notion that reality is essentially mental. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy and another Ph.D. in computer engineering. As a scientist, Bernardo has worked for CERN and Philips Research Laboratories. Bernardo's 11th book, coming in 2024, is 'Analytic Idealism in a Nutshell: A straightforward summary of the 21st-century's only plausible metaphysics.'
This is me listening to Bernardo and asking him questions so as to better understand the world as mind. To do this, we explored what it means to be human. Bernardo explained the work of Nietzsche, Frankl, Schopenhauer, and Jung to me as well as how a bourgeoise has sought to wrest control of our culture away from the church and ultimately leave us stranded, meaningless, and seeking solutions elsewhere.
Bernardo taught me that we should not seek answers or solutions. These will never appear to us and we simply don't have the capability to understand what is going on. Instead, like the apple blossom in his garden, we should just be. We should listen to the noumena, the will inside us. We can describe it as duty, as calling, as fate, or as many other things. But ultimately, we are a violin and we should allow ourselves to be played by nature rather than seeking to force ourselves on the world. We should seek service instead of personal happiness. These ideas will stay with me for a while.
At the end, I asked him to recommend a movie, a book, and a song. The movie he suggested was The Double Life of Véronique (1991) by Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski. The song was Song to the Siren by Cocteau Twins vocalist Elizabeth Fraser. The book was Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation.
Bernardo's Website: https://www.bernardokastrup.com/
The Essentia Foundation: https://www.youtube.com/@UCHKZdDf09_8vVHm102fu0sg
Bernardo's upcoming book: https://www.amazon.com/Analytic-Idealism-Nutshell-straightforward-metaphysics/dp/1803416696
Discussion Outline:
0:00 The importance of service
7:40 The bourgeoisie capture of culture
12:33 Immanent meaning
25:35 Spiritual but not religious
31:00 Carl Jung and our two stages of life
41:58 Introspection as the royal path to knowledge
48:15 Schopenhauer and the will inside us
54:52 Synchronicity 1:05:03 Religion and science
1:16:58 The world as mind
1:26:10 A book, a movie, and a song
1:31:10 The apple blossom
Korea Deconstructed by David Tizzard
▶ Get in touch: datizzard@swu.ac.kr
▶ Yunseo Jeon: https://www.instagram.com/y_jeon_s/
▶ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62047873
▶ Watch us on Youtube: /davidtizzard
▶ Find us on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/koreadeconstructed
▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128
▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE
▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com/
▶ Music: Rail Gun by Disorientalz