Gangnam Style, Dokdo Style

Raphael Rashid

Two very different stories have been making the headlines this week in Korea. One about two bickering neighbors, and another about an aging Korean pop star’s music video going viral worldwide. But what have the two got in common? Can we draw parallels? No. Some might say that’s ludicrous. Because it is. But maybe they’ve never heard of “Dokdo Style.”

Korean pop star PSY’s “Gangnam Style,” a catchy but heavily irritating ballad about the perfect girlfriend, took the Internet by storm shortly after its launch last month. Clocking almost 50 million hits on YouTube, the song is second only to KONY 2012 in its immense virality and confusing appeal. Western news outlets, celebrities and other unimportant people have branded the so-called “horse-riding” dance as some kind of new sensation, even if Monty Python did get there first.

James Pearson

Some Koreans (and indeed many others) were left scratching their heads as to why “Gangnam Style” has been so well received. Some might even argue the song has become more popular abroad than at home ― the video certainly seemed to be more viral outside Korea than within. But others conclude this is Korea’s time to shine, Korea’s time to showcase one of their finest, albeit a little chubby and with a bizarre equestrian past time, to the world. Has the “Korean wave” entered into new territory with PSY leading the charge from atop his noble imaginary steed?

Sift among the thousands of comments on the video’s official YouTube copy and you might notice a slightly different image emerging. While many praise the song for its “fresh” take on Korean pop, others are up-voting the video with another love in their sights: “Japan is a country that makes amazing pop,” “A really cool Japanese song.”

Another post elaborates: “This is exactly why I love Japanese music, it’s really unique and unconventional,” obviously delighting many Korean netizens, and trolling them in the process.

Some complement these comments with “There are no excellent singers like this one in Korea, they’re just jealous. This is a Japanese song. And that’s the end of it,” and “I’ve lived in Seoul my whole life and I can guarantee that this is a Japanese song; they don’t have the money to make a song like this in Korea.”

This online warfare (or obvious trolling) is leading some Koreans to dub this as “cyber-aggression from Japan,” perpetrated by “Japanese kids who are strategically leaving comments like ‘This is a Japanese song’ so that Western kids just recognize it as a Japanese song without thinking, as part of the anti-Korean sentiment on YouTube” and “not only do they want to steal Dokdo from us, they also want to grab ‘Gangnam Style,’ when will those monkeys (endearingly referring to the Japanese) stop?”

One recent article in the Korea Herald Business proudly stated that “Gangnam Style” had “received attention on CNN, in the Wall Street Journal and the LA Times, and has even been praised on French TV.” But this is most likely because the song sounds like a wacky Asian take on LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” ― an equally annoying sugar-coated pop song from the U.S. PSY is (thankfully) not this century’s Mozart.

Like Dokdo, what seems to be the real “prize” here is Western recognition of something Korean. The government has invested huge amounts in hiring Tuvel, a New York City-based communications company to try and persuade Western media outlets (including koreaBANG) to always refer to “Dokdo” in the “East Sea” when discussing the disputed territories. An equally large chunk of the state-funded budget has been allocated to run full-page adverts in Western newspapers to argue the same points ― a measure that looks to be stepped up following this week’s announcement that the campaign would be bolstered to “counter Japan’s claims.”

But what’s the point? These disputes are of little interest to the rest of the world and the almost militant persistence of the Korean government to remind everyone of their territorial claims tends to raise more suspicion than support. Like “Gangnam Style,” rather than recognize the integrity of the situation by its individual merit and strength, the perception of the fight seems to matter more than the fight itself, especially when that perception is the “West’s.”

The “Korean wave” is indeed massive. But it’s only truly massive in Asia, among millions of Vietnamese, Indonesian, Malaysian and even Japanese teenagers. There are a comparative handful of fans in Europe yet it is the spread of the “Korean wave” in Europe that wins the prize for the most disproportionately reported event in Korean papers.

Some attribute this constant seeking of approval as a hangover from the Joseon-Chinese tributary relationship that saw Korea play as “second best” to its Chinese big brother. But that was the Joseon period. Perhaps it’s time to rethink and celebrate Korean achievements as Korean, rather than engage in some kind of “pop envy” or strive desperately for international recognition of the ownership of a few islets when the fight is perhaps better communicated as a desire to oppose what is perceived (in Korea) as the last inch of land that was never returned after Japanese colonialism. Korea is a wonderful place, time to celebrate it as such. Gas and fish? A beautiful island in the East Sea? You’re doing it, confusing Dokdo Style. <The Korea Times/James Pearson and Raphael Rashid>

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