[KS] Origin of Fan Death?

Thu Sep 14 12:39:49 EDT 2006

Dear all,

Aidan's remark that we can all effectively practice internet-based self-reliance reminds me of a query for which my own attempt at Google juche would still benefit from the assistance of like-minded comrades. As anyone who has spent time in South Korea in the summer knows, there are few things more dangerous than sleeping with the fan on, which can (of course) lead to death. Now, almost everyone from outside Korea, including neighboring countries such as Japan and China, scoffs at this is nonsense, but this urban legend of sorts is remarkably persisent here and is believed by otherwise rational people, including medical professionals; the media run stories every summer that detail incidents of people who have died during the night beside a fan that was left running. 

Can anybody shed light on precisely how and when this story came about? Is it indeed localized to South Korea? Although electric fans may not be especially widespread in North Korea, the story could be present there if it predated division (what about ChosOnjok?...). I've included a few relevant URLs, including a piece that notes such stories appearing in the Joongang Ilbo as early as 1973, but I'm still looking for more exact information.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200609/kt2006091017514911980.htm

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a970912.html <http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a970912.html> 

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200409/22/200409222123324579900091009101.html

http://www.rfa.org/korean/defector_corner/kim_kihyuk/2006/08/15/home_appliances/

Yours, having slept with the fan on just a few nights ago and living to tell the tale,

Stephen

________________________________

From: koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws 이(가) 다음 사람 대신 보냄 Afostercarter at aol.com
Sent: 2006-09-13 (수) 오후 6:34
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Subject: [KS] Is there one full good source in English on Korean Left(s),past and present?

Of course, thanks to Google we can all practise self-reliance now. I swiftly found:

http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/talks/korea.html
http://www.mashada.com/forums/index.php?az=printer_friendly&forum=22&topic_id=32859
(a Kenyan revolutionary learning admiringly from his Korean comrades)

But a full, neutral, authoritative account(s) would be better.
I humbly request enlighenment, or at least guidance.

Fraternally,
Aidan

AIDAN FOSTER-CARTER
Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds University 
Home address: 17 Birklands Road, Shipley, West Yorkshire, BD18 3BY, UK 
tel: +44(0)  1274  588586         (alt) +44(0) 1264 737634          mobile:  +44(0)  7970  741307 
fax: +44(0)  1274  773663         ISDN:   +44(0)   1274 589280
Email: afostercarter at aol.com     (alt) afostercarter at yahoo.com      website: www.aidanfc.net
[Please use @aol; but if any problems, please try @yahoo too - and let me know, so I can chide AOL]

___________________

In a message dated 13/09/2006 01:55:39 GMT Standard Time, frank at koreaweb.ws writes:

	Subj:Re: [KS] About Park Ryol 
	Date:13/09/2006 01:55:39 GMT Standard Time
	From:frank at koreaweb.ws
	Reply-to:koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
	To:koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
	Sent from the Internet 

	Park Rrrrryol, that doesn't exactly conform with 
	the Republican transcription system, does it? You 
	can take the term  t'ujaeng quite literally, 
	meaning combat, fight -- used to refer to fights 
	with military means, or later, in mainland China, 
	also to ideological struggle (e.g. against 
	political enemies within). You will find many 
	Communist leaflets from the 1930s and 1940s with 
	"t'ujaeng" in the title, and there are even a 
	couple of "Bloody Struggle Histories of ..." the 
	anti-Japanese movement that were published in 
	South Korea between 1945 and 1949. After that the 
	term has rarely been used in the South, but 
	continued to be in high regard in the North and 
	in Mao's China. Although I would not associate 
	the term to Hitler's book. "Kampf" may well be 
	translated as "t'ujaeng," that seems a good 
	choice, in this case. Then again, "Kampf" is a 
	much more neutral word in German, not at all as 
	defined as "t'ujaeng," and by no means 
	necessarily referring to military or militant 
	means.

	I doubt that Pak Yol published a text with such 
	title, _Naui t'ujaeng_, at least not in South 
	Korea or during the colonial period. The 
	anarchist journals and publications that the 
	circle around Prof. Ha Ki-rak (I think he passed 
	away) is publishing in T'aegu would sure have 
	reproduced such text, but I never even saw a 
	reference to it. The title would indicate that 
	the text, if it exists, was likely published in 
	North Korea. Am I wrong? Then again, I doubt it 
	is a book -- maybe just a short article. Pak was 
	not an intellectual, not a leader either, he 
	didn't write much. There are others who did, like 
	mentioned Ha Ki-rak or Chong Hwa-am, or Yu 
	Cha-myong from the Korean minority in China. Even 
	Yu Su-in who was once Ba Jin's Esperanto teacher 
	and who returned to North Korea (from China) in 
	the 1950s has left a long trace of publications 
	in both Chinese and Korean from the 1920s to his 
	death. (His grandson once showed me a 5000 pages 
	manuscript about the anarchist movement that he 
	had written.) Pak, on the other hand, had his day 
	of fame when he and his lover Kaneko were picked 
	by the Japanese authorities after the Kanto Earth 
	Quake to go on trial -- as a representative for 
	all Koreans in Japan, and as an indirect 
	justification of the massacres that had happened 
	in the aftermath of the earth quake.

	All there seems to be by Pak Yol himself are 
	poems he wrote in prison, published  in the 
	popular left-wing magazine _Samcholli_ (no. 14, 
	December 1949) [just saw the reference, haven't 
	seen them yet]: "Naui okchung chap'yong" 
	(Miscellaneous poems from my time in jail). The 
	term "chap'yong," by the way, seems to be a 
	neo-Japonism. I could only find it in a Japanese 
	dictionary.

	Since you mention Kaneko Fumiko (1903-1926) -- 
	her autobiography, written in prison, for the 
	trial, as was usual in the Japanese legal system 
	at the time, is a full-fleged book (250 pp. in 
	English translation). It is an absolutely amazing 
	account! Very well written, extremely mature for 
	a twenty year old woman, a woman who grew up 
	under depressingly poor circumstances in Japan 
	and Korea, and as sensitive and politically 
	engaging as an autobiography can possibly be.
	--> _The Prison Memoirs of a Japanese Woman_ (ISBN: 0873328027)

	Best,
	Frank

	>I was interested to see that KBS recently 
	>prepared a documentary drama about Kaneko 
	>Fumiko, the 'lover' of the Korean anarchist Park 
	>Yol. I have heard that Park published an account 
	>of his activities (I assume after being freed 
	>from prison in 1945?) and some give the title as 
	>'na ui tujaeng' (the same Korean as Mein 
	>Kampf!!!) but I am unable (with my meagre 
	>patience) to track this work. Can I ask if 
	>anyone knows of it, and where it mmight be 
	>found? I would be most grateful.
	>
	>Brother Anthony
	>Sogang University, Seoul
	>http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/

	-- 
	--------------------------------------
	Frank Hoffmann
	http://koreaweb.ws