Pyeongchang is a small ski town outside of Seoul that is spelled in Korean hangul like above but also has the hanjak (Korean version of Kanji, or Chinese letters) as 平昌郡. Never having cared too much about the Winter Olympics in my lifetime and not even knowing which cities they had been in ( I didn't know the Turin Games were in Italy in 2006!), it was an incredible experience for me to watch the Olympics with MJ in her home country of Korea and root for someone other than the U.S. or China for an event.
Highlights of the event were when MJ and I saw the Opening Ceremony together, where we saw North Korea and South Korea walk in together as the same country (historic!), the Olympic torch being lit by Yuna Kim, a famous figure skater in Korea (iconic!), U.S. vice president Mike Pence not standing for N. Korea and S. Korea dual entry (political!) and NBC broadcasters getting some wrong information about Korea (frustrating for MJ!). There were several times MJ and I noticed the U.S. broadcast had certain biases or focused on certain things like Katie Couric remarking that Korea had a large video game addiction problem in order to promote her new show on addiction on NBC, and wondered instead what the Korean broadcast would have focused on, showing the power of media. I realized that I've always watched the Olympics from the U.S. perspective of rooting for U.S. athletes, and not necessarily considered the rooting interests of other countries and that Apollo Anton Ohno (a known U.S. speed skating hero!) is actually not appreciated at all in South Korea because he infamously caused a Korean skater to get a penalty by exaggerating a move. The power of media, someone can either be a hero or pariah depending on how they are portrayed (especially true of the Amazing Race and all reality TV as well)
Events I really loved:
1.) Curling and the Korean "garlic girls" who were a really tight-knit group
2.) Speed skating- it's like indy car racing except much faster! And people slip on the ice risking serious injury!
3.) Chloe Kim- the story of Chloe Kim might be the story of the Olympics, but maybe also of her dad taking her to Big Bear every weekend- that's a dedicated dad!
4.) Figure skating- the first winter olympic event I focused on, wasn't exactly the Michelle Kwan/Christy Yamaguchi days but still really fun to watch! Elegance.
These games also signified a change in perspective for me of how I considered Korea. When I was growing up in a Chinese household living in America, it was mostly about pride for China, and seeing the world in terms of how it related to China. When in school, I would read U.S. textbooks and consume U.S. media, portraying U.S. and other countries in a way to fit the media's agenda and they way they deemed fit. Other countries seemed small and insignificant, like I didn't know that "Kim" was a typical Korean name until I became an adult, I had always associated it with Japan! Even in the 2002 World Cup, a huge international event, I didn't know much about Japan or Korea and where the games were being played, only that they were far away countries in different time zones, thus I had to wake up in the middle of the night to watch any World Cup games live. I didn't care much about their politics or their leadership or their culture or anything about them, which I should have. Foreign relations is much more important and pressing than who wins the Game of Thrones on HBO's hit show, but I certainly have spent more time with Game of Thrones due to......dragons. It's amazing how getting to know someone who is from that country, who is passionate about their country and have different views than you, can provide a different perspective and drastically change my thinking about the way people think. I now know that Korea isn't just some place the U.S. fought in during the Korean War, I understand that Korea has a tense relationship with other Asian countries, China with ASAD missiles, with Japan due to Japanese occupation of Korea in the early 1900's and the "comfort women" issue, own internal unification issues with North Korea, actually improved relations with U.S. now that Trump is president (Trump is a little friendlier to Korea than Obama was, apparently, not an endorsement of Trump as a leader but still should be noted), but also so much Korea culture with their holidays, food they eat, religion, ajumma, impeachment of their last president, attitude of men towards women, so many more.
It's a reminder for me that a lot of times we should step away from our "In" group and learn about other cultures more intimately and listen to other peoples' perspectives. I feel that's missing in internal politics, most countries and leaders have to listen to their own peoples' citizens (that's their job) whose opinions are very nationalistic and unaccepting of other countries without fully understanding other countries and where they come from. Hopefully more Olympics and World Cups but also global awareness and acceptance will help improve those relations.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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