It really bugged me that a student had decided it was OK to erase what I had written on the board. I felt it was my personal conversation with myself. It wasn't for their use. It wasn't part of a lesson. And it was written small enough so that one needed to be right up close to even read what it said. So I doubted they found the subject matter offensive. It just continued to fester overnight to the point that I decided to confront the class the next day.
Instead of jumping right into the scheduled lesson about Mr. Bascomb and his lorry, I asked the class at large why someone would erase what I had written on the blackboard. Silence. I encouraged them to speak out and practice their English. Silence.
At long last one female college student opened up. She was a little cutie who had chosen the Western name of "Maggie" for herself. Go figure on that choice. At any rate, instead of answering my question, she asked me if I knew the band "Pet Shop Boys." Secretly, it was a bit lucky she didn't ask me about Modern Talking or Murray Head (two of the most oft played bands in Korea at the time). I might not have been able to answer politely.
I told her I knew the Pet Shop Boys. She wanted to know if I knew their song called "West End Girls."
"Of course," I said.
"That song is banned in Korea," she said.
At first I wasn't sure if I understood her correctly. Her English was not strong, and I couldn't process the fact that a government would ban a song. Nothing better to do? I tried to run through the lyrics in my head and figure what could be so objectionable. Maybe it was the idea of East end boys and West end girls together in the same sentence. Who knows? I still don't know. All I know is the song was banned.
At least somebody learned something in class that day.
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3 comments:
I was a teenager in Korea in the late 1980s. There were lots of banned songs. "Revolution" by the Beatles, even though it made fun of the people that the government feared would try to foment revolution (though I didn't know that at the time).
"Russians" by Sting on Dream of the Blue Turtles was also "not approved," perhaps because it tried to depict the Communist enemy as also being humans who loved their children, too, or maybe just because it had the word "Russians" in it.
Though I have no idea if "West End Girls" was really banned in 1987, I know that the Pet Shop Boys snuck a lot of political subtext into their lyrics, often dealing with East-West relations that may have made the former military junta that ruled South Korea in 1987 quite uncomfortable.
Songs were essentially banned if they didn't get approval by the Ministry of Culture and Information, an Orwellian name if ever there was one. Often you'd get albums that were a bit incomplete, missing one or two songs that would be disseminated in North America or Western Europe without incident.
Of course, it was an open secret that anyone could go and get the illicit songs from shops selling the LPs themselves, or unauthorized copies of the albums on audio cassette. I admit that I had at least a few such tapes from a shop in Itaewon, across the street from where the McDonald's now stands.
It's funny how much Korea has changed. I think one reason I get so annoyed with the commentary of places like the Marmots Hole whine cellar is that the Korean newbies, and even those who have been here for a few years, don't see any kind of big picture.
To them, "Koreans" are a monolithic and uniform entity that is inveterately possessing whatever bad thing they see happening right this minute. On the other hand, the old hands like Oranckay, Sanshinseon, etc., have seen plenty of things change, with change for the better beating out for the worse by about ten to one.
(I turned this comment of mine into a mini-post.)
I was a teenager in Korea in the late 1980s. There were lots of banned songs. "Revolution" by the Beatles, even though it made fun of the people that the government feared would try to foment revolution (though I didn't know that at the time).
"Russians" by Sting on Dream of the Blue Turtles was also "not approved," perhaps because it tried to depict the Communist enemy as also being humans who loved their children, too, or maybe just because it had the word "Russians" in it.
Though I have no idea if "West End Girls" was really banned in 1987, I know that the Pet Shop Boys snuck a lot of political subtext into their lyrics, often dealing with East-West relations that may have made the former military junta that ruled South Korea in 1987 quite uncomfortable.
Songs were essentially banned if they didn't get approval by the Ministry of Culture and Information, an Orwellian name if ever there was one. Often you'd get albums that were a bit incomplete, missing one or two songs that would be disseminated in North America or Western Europe without incident.
Of course, it was an open secret that anyone could go and get the illicit songs from shops selling the LPs themselves, or unauthorized copies of the albums on audio cassette. I admit that I had at least a few such tapes from a shop in Itaewon, across the street from where the McDonald's now stands.
It's funny how much Korea has changed. I think one reason I get so annoyed with the commentary of places like the Marmots Hole whine cellar is that the Korean newbies, and even those who have been here for a few years, don't see any kind of big picture.
To them, "Koreans" are a monolithic and uniform entity that is inveterately possessing whatever bad thing they see happening right this minute. On the other hand, the old hands like Oranckay, Sanshinseon, etc., have seen plenty of things change, with change for the better beating out for the worse by about ten to one.
(I turned this comment of mine into a mini-post.)
Interesting. I had no idea. But "One night in Bangkok"? Curious choice that one.
In Pusan at the time it was a bit more difficult to get music by some bands. But I did find a Tea House/Bar near the university that had a huge collection of LPs I couldn't find in any store. I used to go there by myself and sit and listen to Heaven 17, OMD, and others. The owner kept pulling out hidden gems and spinning them put for me. Like a personal and live version of Pandora.com. He had videos of many of them too. It was awesome.
Thanks for reading and commenting. And congrats for being the first ever commenter on this blog.
Cheers!
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