{"id":5107,"date":"2024-01-24T01:05:25","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T06:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/?p=5107"},"modified":"2024-01-24T01:10:31","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T06:10:31","slug":"korea-traditional-meets-western","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/2024\/01\/24\/korea-traditional-meets-western\/","title":{"rendered":"Korea: Traditional Meets Western"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Korea is a beautiful country, filled with an ancient heritage that predates many of the cultural influences in the United States. After the 19th century, the peninsula of Korea was inundated with war, making them hold tight to their national identity even more to survive colonization and warring political ideologies. After the Korean War, South Korea leaned on its allies in Western countries like the United States to help it rebuild its war-ravaged country. Due to this, they experienced an upheaval in cultural norms, going from a mostly agricultural community to one focused on industrialization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the perspective of someone who was born and raised in the United States, something has struck me about this unique country. It possesses a juxtaposition between what it means to be ‘modern’ or ‘Westernized’, and what remains of tradition. The two identities are constantly battling each other, creating a contrast that can be both interesting and a bit confounding to an outsider of the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cSaturday 3\/8ths Market\u201d by Dakotah and Liam Shelton is licensed under CC BY 4.0 DEED<\/a>. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In this case, we take a traditional market setting. This market occurs just off of Camp Humphreys, in what locals consider to be a rural town of Pyeongtaek. While at a glance it seems that the traditional market is much like one that would be found several decades ago, there is a twist of modernity to this image. Reds, greens, and the subtle purple from the dog\u2019s fur play up this lively picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When cropped down, the busy image is focused on two subjects, a dog and its owner. The dog takes up one third of the picture, while the owner is on the other, bringing balance to the photo. We are able to give our subjects better focus with the reduction of distractions. We see the dog’s fur has been lovingly cut and dyed. It wears a sweater to help it fend off the bitterness of a chilled winter afternoon. The owner loves her pet like it is her child. Just beyond the pet and its owner is a business advertising, ‘Dog Meat Stew’, known as \u2018Bosintang\u2019 (\ubcf4\uc2e0\ud0d5) in Korean. This is a traditional dish in Korea thought to be invigorating during hot summer months. For hundreds of years, Koreans ate this dish as part of their traditions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cYesterday and Today\u201d by Dakotah Shelton is licensed under CC BY 4.0 DEED<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

This stew is a now dying tradition within South Korea, heavily due to Western influence. While Pyeongtaek is the main producer of dog in the country, it is rare to see a store still selling bosintang. In this past month, Korea decided to pass a law to ban the consumption of dogs, as seen in this article by the BBC<\/a>. By 2027, this practice will be fully phased out. Whether morally ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, this cropped image is an excellent example of the past and present residing within the same instant, a flash of what has been and what will be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Korea is a beautiful country, filled with an ancient heritage that predates many of the cultural influences in the United States. After the 19th century, the peninsula of Korea was inundated with war, making them hold tight to their...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-5107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-student","tag-compositions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5107"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5134,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5107\/revisions\/5134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}