<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
<html><head><style type="text/css"><!--
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { padding-top: 0 ; padding-bottom: 0 }
--></style><title>Re: [KS] multiracialism/some random
statistics</title></head><body>
<div>Dear Balazs (et al.),</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The issue of mixed marriages and mixed-race offspring, as you're
probably aware, has recently been given a great deal of attention in
S. Korea as a result of Hines Ward winning the MVP in the latest Super
Bowl. Ward was born to an African-American GI father and Korean
mother, and the Korean press had a field day with this (for an English
piece see, e.g.,</div>
<div><font size="+2"
color="#000000"
>http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200501/200501260022.html</font
>). It also called forth the requisite hand wringing over the
treatment that mixed children in Korea have received over the years.
Such pieces might be a good place to start for some of the information
you are looking for.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>More interesting to me are the recent spate of articles and stats
that have come out concurrently on int'l marriages in Korea, such as, <a
href=
"http://news.media.daum.net/society/affair/200604/03/joins/v12245774.html"
>http://news.media.daum.net/society/affair/200604/03/joins/v12245774.<span
></span>html</a>,</div>
<div>which reports that an astonishing 40% (82 of 205) of marriages in
Boeun County in Chungcheongbuk-do in 2005 were international.
According to the piece 18.2% of marriages in Seoul itself last year
were international as well. As the article notes, the concept of
the danilminjok is in for a radical challenge. I include some
other pieces that have dealt with this issue below. My apologies,
though, as I read these a few weeks ago and when I just went to
recheck them they were unavailable. Here they are, in case this is a
temporary server problem (I don't know how long joins.com leaves
things up):</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><a
href=
"http://news.joins.com/society/200604/03/200604030415551001300030103011.html"
>http://news.joins.com/society/200604/03/2006040304155510013000301030<span
></span>11.html</a></div>
<div><a
href=
"http://news.joins.com/society/200604/03/200604030414548331300030103011.html"
>http://news.joins.com/society/200604/03/2006040304145483313000301030<span
></span>11.html</a></div>
<div><a
href=
"http://news.joins.com/society/200604/03/200604030416574101300030103011.html"
>http://news.joins.com/society/200604/03/2006040304165741013000301030<span
></span>11.html</a></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>While I'm here, I'd also like to toss out some other very
intriguing stats that have come my way in the last month or so in the
hope of generating discussion similar to our very interesting
conversation on the current disciplinary makeup of AAS. One colleague
in the US just reported to me that in his two upper division courses
in Korean culture and religion (at a large research university, with a
fairly even male/female ratio), he has the following numbers: 54
students total, 52 female 2 male (3 non Koreans total, 1 male 1
female) in one; and 46 students total in the other: 44 female 2 male
(1 non Korean, male). Although I suspect many of us are used to
unbalanced ratios in our classes, this is extraordinary.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Conversely, in our first-year Korean course at my university here
in Wellington, New Zealand we have 41 students, of whom 31 are Chinese
(all from the PRC, as far as I'm aware), with no one of Korean descent
present (gender ratio: 28 F/ 13 M). In case you're wondering, Koreans
actually make up the 3rd largest Asian ethnic group in NZ with some
35,000 out of a population of 4 million (almost 1%), but immigration
from Korea only took off in 1991 and language maintenance in the
community has been high. Our course numbers seem to be a direct
reflection of the hallyu phenomenon and large int'l student
populations. I'm curious if Korean language programs elsewhere are
seeing different demography over the last, say, 3-4 years.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Cheers, Stephen</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Dear Aidan,</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>[snip]</blockquote>
<div><br>
<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>It would be good if some colleagues
provided us with information about the situation in South Korea from
1945 to the 1990s, since I heard several concrete examples about
strong prejudices against mixed marriages, which I have no reason to
doubt.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Best,</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Balazs <br>
<blockquote><br>
<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>