Top 10 Most Beautiful Korean Female Celebrities

Yet again, Hollywood lied to me when I was growing up. It told me that all beautiful women looked like Jennifer Love Hewitt or Cindy Crawford or Charlize Theron. If one wanted to go "exotic", there was perhaps Tyra Banks, Jennifer Lopez, or Lucy Liu, but they were exceptions. Nice little ornaments that added variety to the dominant centerpiece.

Well, I didn't like Lucy Liu all that much, so I was never able to hold idealized images of Asian women in the same way I was able to do with White women. That is, until I moved to Korea and was able to see all these gorgeous Korean women who were the stars of their own movies, shows, commercials, etc. I was shocked by the diversity, not just in looks but also in personalities. There were cute ones, weird ones, sexy ones, funny ones, shy ones, loud ones, and so forth. It wasn't like Hollywood, where there could only be one Ethnic Actor/Actress at any given time, kind of like the firebird or Highlander.

Without further ado, the following list is a ranking of the Korean female celebrities whom I think are the most beautiful. My criteria was extremely shallow and subjective, so I won't bother to explain myself or try to intellectually justify myself or anything. Just enjoy the pictures.

Also, in the name of gender equality, if anybody would like to see a similar list of best-looking male celebrities, I will be happy to offer that up as well. You don't have to be gay in order to appreciate a dude's handsomeness. That's my life philosophy anyway. So just make a request, and I'll do it.

And now, in descending order for the sake of preserving suspense, the list:



10) Shin Min Ah

9) Go Ara

8) Su Ae

7) Ga In

6) Sulli

5) Im Soo Jung

4) Sandara Park

3) Lee Yeon Hee

2) Park Shin Hye

1) Kim Yuna

And there it is. Did I make any flagrant mistakes or omissions? Let me know!

Making great instant ramen every time

Shin ramen: Accept no substitutes

Instant ramen is the one food item that even the most untalented cooks can make. But like everything in life, you can still easily and massively screw it up.

Being able to make my own little pot of instant ramen was my first big step into the culinary world. But still, it was a hit-or-miss affair somehow. There'd be times when it'd turn out too watery and diluted. And other times, it would be too concentrated and salty.

Thankfully, a few years ago, I stumbled upon a pretty ideal and foolproof way to ensure quality noodles every time. I used the glass seen in the picture below and filled it to near the top with water. I poured that amount into the pot twice before starting to boil it.

For those of you who don't own this particular glassware, use about 400ml of water.

Thank god for this glass

Once the water starts to boil, put the soup base in. You need to put the soup base in before the noodles because the powder lowers the water temperature momentarily, so it'll take a few seconds before resuming a rolling boil. Those seemingly insignificant seconds are precious, and you don't want your noodles cooking in less-than-boiling water in case they become soggy. Remember, you want the noodles to be in there just long enough to become saturated with flavour, but not a millisecond more.

If you like to drop an egg into your ramen, I also like to do it before putting the noodles in because it's a tricky balance between the egg and noodles. You want the egg in there long enough so that the yolk hardens somewhat, because I despise runny yolk (especially if it spills into the soup). But you also don't want to overcook the noodles by waiting for the egg. So you need to maximize the time the egg spends in the boiling water with the soup base, and that time is right after you put the soup base in.

Lastly, the noodles. I usually just break them in half because I like my noodles long and stringy. I like slightly undercooked noodles, so I'm usually turning off the heat within 3 minutes or so after I put the noodles in. It's all about feel at this point, so I can't tell you exactly how many minutes and seconds to wait every single time.

But if you go longer than 3 minutes, you'll probably overcook it. Pay attention.

Noodles are still visibly rigid and uncooked at this point

After that, just carry over the pot to the table and rest it atop a little pot cushion. There's no need to put the ramen into a bowl because that just means extra dishes for you to do. But you do absolutely need a little plate for you to cool off the noodles before eating. Otherwise, your tastebuds will just become overwhelmed by the heat. And if you wait for the dish to cool down, then the noodles will become overcooked.

Careful not to poke the egg as well, in case the yolk is still runny and bursts out and ruins everything. Or maybe you like that, in which case you're wrong and should be ashamed of yourself.

Perfection

PS There are lots of variations to classic instant ramen. Some people like to put cheese into their ramen. I'm usually never judgmental about what other people eat, but that is something I just can't do. It sounds revolting. Other people put veggies and meats into it. I'm always open to try new things (just not cheese ramen), but fancying up instant ramen kind of goes against my instincts. But if anybody has a killer recipe for mushroom-and-beef infused Shin ramen or something, then I'm all ears.

Lazy blogging day

So here's just a bunch of cool pictures on the internet that I found:

Heroines of Miyazaki riding the Catbus

Source: animetrip.net/wallpapers/c0/d8/Whisper-of-the-Heart-Muska-Chihiro-Ogino-Sen-Satsuki-Kusakabe-Mei-Kusakabe-Kiki-Sheeta-Shizuku-Tsukishima-Jiji-Susuwatari-Bou-Moon-Muta-Cat_bae64.jpg

OUCH

Source: whatwhitemaleauthorshavetaughtme.tumblr.com/image/54346091462

Remember what bunnies did to Australia...

Source: imagemacros.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/fuck_da_police_rabbits.jpg?w=720

I want to see more female protagonists in the movies

Am I getting smarter, or are movies just getting dumber? Probably the latter, but either way, this summer has been pretty disastrous in terms of Hollywood movies. The two that I've seen recently, Man of Steel and World War Z, were damn stupid. And not in that fun Independence Day sort of way. I mean stooopid in a way that severely limits your ability to enjoy yourself.

For example, *SPOILERS*, in Man of Steel, General Zod seems like a 10-year old's idea of what a villain should be. All he needed was a "KNEEL BEFORE ZOD, MWAHAHAHAHA!" to put the cherry on top. And that female Kryptonian baddie delivered one of the most shockingly bad lines I've ever heard when she said to Superman in the middle of a fight, "Your need to empathize gives me an evolutionary advantage!"

Wow, seriously? That's the kind of stuff you'd expect from a poorly dubbed kung fu movie.

And in World War Z, the brilliant doctor whom Brad Pitt is supposed to accompany on his cure-finding mission dies in such a ridiculous way that I couldn't take the movie seriously afterwards. Actually, when we were first introduced to the doctor, who happened to be South Asian, I was thinking, 'Finally! We're gonna see a brown heroic character in a big blockbuster. This is kind of amazing.'

Silly me for forgetting the "Brown people can only be villains" rule

But of course, he dies before the mission even starts when he slips and falls on his gun, shooting himself. Time for Brad Pitt to reluctantly save the world!

It's no secret that Hollywood just sucks these days, and it's a widely accepted fact that TV has long surpassed movies in terms of artistic credibility and prestige. What's on the horizon anyway? The Wolverine? Thor 2? The Smurfs 2? Ho hum.

Hey Hollywood, since this whole schtick of yours isn't working that hot anymore, how about we switch things up? I, for one, would love to see more female-centered movies. A 2011 study found that women only made up 11% of main characters in the movies (msmagazine.com/blog/2012/05/15/hollywoods-war-on-women/). ELEVEN PERCENT? That's ridiculous.

Some of the best film storytellers today like James Cameron and Hayao Miyazaki often choose to center their works around female protagonists because they believe that girls and women make for more interesting characters.



Shizuku, the heroine of "Whisper of the Heart", one of my favourite
movies of all time



I think it's a little patronizing and exotifying to say that females in all their mystical ooh-la-la femininity are just inherently more fascinating than men. But from the sheer fact that there just aren't that many heroines in our media, a female protagonist is indeed more interesting due to scarcity.

And I am not just saying all this because I had huge crushes on Pippi Longstocking and Anne of Green Gables when I was young. Okay, maybe that has something to do with it.


My first love

I just want to see some good and interesting movies for a change. And right now, you know what's boring as hell? Watching a bunch of generic brodudes fight superhumans in "climactic" battles with incredibly low stakes since they're both practically invincible. Or watching a bunch of sensitive generic brodudes have their self-pitying lives turned around by girls who fall in love with them for some reason.

Also, this is a relevant topic for this blog because people often rationalize the dumbing down of movies by pointing to the ever-increasing international market. Korea happens to be an important international market, and it's normal now for Hollywood stars to make the long trans-Pacific journey all the way here to promote their films.

So in essence, they're saying it's Asia and Latin America's fault that Hollywood movies have become so formulaic and tired. Well, you know how those people are. All they want to do is gawk at explosions and boobs. They don't know how to appreciate cultural nuance or well-written characters.

Well, I went to see Before Midnight a few weeks ago, and the theatre was pretty packed.

It reminds me of how Hollywood also uses the international market to justify not casting minorities in lead roles. You see, it's EUROPE's fault because Europeans are so nasty and racist that they simply won't tolerate seeing a Black man or woman in a lead role. Unlike enlightened Hollywood, who's just dying to inject some diversity into its movies but can't because Europe/Asia/Latin America.


Hollywood would be so open-minded if it weren't for those damn
international movie-goers!

I understand that the film industry is in very tough times now with the collapse of the DVD market. But it pisses me off when they essentially blame the rest of the world for the sexism and racism in their movies. Because Hollywood doesn't already have a long and proud domestic history of that, right?

Some people might criticize me for being too hung up on gender and race, and that the bigot here is ME because I'm the one seeing race and gender when we should all live in a post-everything world.

All right, so if all that doesn't matter, how about we make almost every movie about women and their concerns? And most roles for men will be as one-dimensional love interests or plot devices to further the development of these female protagonists. And all of these men will be Black, Latino, or Asian. And the only time we'll ever see White men are as repugnant and negatively stereotypical comic relief.

I wonder if the same people will continue to insist to let movies just be movies, and to stop "overthinking" everything.

The Places That Matter

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

One of my favourite things ever is when I discover a shared article on Facebook that I likely would not have ever found on my own. It happened to me a few days ago when someone I knew from college shared this: waltermignolo.com/decolonial-aesthesis-from-singapore-to-cambridge-to-duke-university/

Everyone should go read that article and the amazing letter that it contains, but for those of you who really don't have the time or attention span, I'll just quickly summarize it. It's a letter written by a young Singaporean woman to her 18-year old self, an age when she was just getting ready to depart for Cambridge University. Without being condescending or preachy, she coolly informs her younger self of the inevitable sense of cultural inferiority she will feel, a feeling that's so pervasive and consuming that it's practically indetectable. Almost as natural and reflexive as breathing air.

Oh my god, they live in electric trees in Singapore! Take me there now.

There are those who may appreciate the letter from an intellectual point of view. Even the overarching branch of study sounds so deliciously dense: "Decolonial Aesthesis". Others will connect with the letter on a much more personal level upon seeing their own experiences reflected in the writings of this Michelle K.

Count me among the latter, though I certainly am impressed by the level of self-awareness and reflection in the letter. From my own experience, I remember what it was like to be young and wanting to learn about all the Places That Matter, and the People Who Mattered. When I was a high school student, I read Dickens, Thackeray, Hardy, Forster, and Waugh. I even tried to wade through writers like Fielding before giving up, getting frustrated at the fact that they apparently didn't speak English in 18th century England.

Books like this obviously made me the
coolest kid in high school

This was all done out of my own free will and not dictated to me by some English class syllabus. Why? Why exactly was I reading Dombey and Son instead of hanging out in parking lots or drinking wine coolers at 10th grade "parties"?

Because these were writers who mattered, who wrote stories that mattered about people who mattered because they lived in cultures and countries that mattered. I wanted to matter too.

And how might I NOT matter? Well, I could probably become too much like my parents, who appeared to be from a country that didn't seem to factor in on anything at all. At least to my knowledge at the time, there were no great Korean writers or literature. There wasn't much Korean culture except for what came over from China, which, based on what I learned in my 8th grade "World Civilizations" social studies unit, was mostly just foot-binding and wacky Confucianism anyway. There wasn't much to see in Korea, either modern or historical.

So why be Korean when you could be English instead?

Oh yeah, because you can't be. Not with the way you look. You will eventually, and inevitably, learn this. They won't ever let you play Peter Pan or Winston Churchill, whether it's for Masterpiece Theatre or low-rent dinner theatre. Not unless the whole thing is an ironic joke. The only part even remotely available for you in Harry Potter is as Cho Chang, and once again, you get the oft-repeated message that the only way people from your group will get to be included is if you happen to be a cute girl who's willing to be the love interest of the white hero.

A couple of weeks ago, my friends and I went to Busan and we ended up visiting this picturesque Buddhist temple called Haedong Yong-Gung-Sa, which stands on these rocks that are right by the ocean. It was first built sometime in the 1300s, though most of what stands today has been carefully rebuilt. But hey, so is Dresden, and that place is still gorgeous as fuck and nobody's complaining.

Haedong Yong-Gung-Sa in Busan

The thing is that I hardly knew of this place before we actually went there. I even asked some native Koreans about it, and some people didn't know that much about it. Why doesn't this place matter?

It reminds me of the time when I went backpacking in Europe and I got to see the Alps. I was so happy that I was finally seeing these famous mountains that the likes of Hannibal and Heidi walked over. But then, I realized that I grew up right by the Rockies. And I was then living in Korea, a very mountainous country. I had been around gigantic pointy rocks my entire life, but only now I found them breathtaking?

Oh right, but these are mountains that matter though.

This mound of rocks and dirt are way more special than all those other mounds of rocks and dirt

So where am I going with this? Not terribly sure, but I think it's important for all of us to be aware of the one-sided narratives we're bombarded with from the very first nursery rhymes and fairy tales we're told. These narratives attach lopsided values of significance to certain places and peoples. At the least, they lead people like Michelle K. and me to aspire to be something we're not, leaving us confused and deflated when we find out that we just weren't born into the right caste.

At worst, they lead to despicable shit like the stuff you see on the internet in the wake of the Asiana plane crash or the acquittal of George Zimmerman, in which people joke about or justify the deaths of certain people because they are judged to be of lesser value (aka Asian, or a young Black kid whose mere appearance gets on the nerves of those folks who yearn for the Good Old Days®).

We saw this same kind of garbage after the Fukushima crisis

It's also why I think stories and narratives are so important. Without them, a house is just a house, or a field is just a field. Salzburg's just another cute little European town, but add in Mozart and The Sound of Music, and it becomes something of a must-see destination. Stories are everywhere around us, but which ones we choose to care about and memorialize are based on our agendas, values, and prejudices. The people whose narratives we prioritize are the same people we hold in the highest regard.

So which stories will imbue our future with meaning? Who will create them, and whom will they be about?

Making subtitles for fun

Yesterday, my girlfriend and I embarked on a pretty ambitious summer project: to make English subtitles for the movie, Architecture 101. I know that I could easily just download an SRT file somewhere, and even if it's out of sync, it wouldn't be too hard to match up the time settings because I understand both languages. But the point is not to actually have the subtitles; it's to make them.

Subs Factory: The program that I use to create subtitles

In the past, I used to try to subtitle various Korean TV shows as an exercise to not only improve my Korean vocabulary, but also to try to explore the almost-inexpressible subtleties between the Korean and English languages. The never-ending struggle in subtitling (and translation in general) is to strike that balance between faithfulness to the original dialogue/text and natural speech in the translated language. If you make too direct a translation, then the result will be awkward, stilted, and possibly comical. But if you take too many liberties, you may actually end up significantly altering the source material.

An example of a Korean word that I find very difficult to translate is "놈", which is pronounced "nom" (with the "o" sounding like "Ohm", except not drawn out). It's kind of a swear word, but it's also not. If you say it to a stranger, you'll probably start a fight. But friends use it with each other to just joke around, as do parents with their children. What's the English equivalent? Maybe "bastard"? But if you put that in subtitles, it can look extremely harsh, especially when you have a father character saying it to his kid.

Our very own artisanal handcrafted subtitles!

In fact, some of the hardest stuff to translate happens when parents talk to their kids. For example, there are lots of half-cute/half-chastizing words in Korean that a parent can use when his/her kid does something stupid. But if you translate that into English, they tend to come out as "Idiot", "Fool", "Dumbass", etc. It ends up sounding very cruel and abusive when it's not.

When I make subtitles, I also realize how much is irretrievably lost in translation. That saddens me because that means no matter how well a French, Chinese, or Turkish movie is subtitled, I am probably losing at least about 50% of what makes the movie good. Even if I were somehow to magically become fluent in the relevant language, I would probably miss out on all the cultural stuff that you can only get from growing up in that culture. I mean, I grew up in a Korean household with immigrant parents who always spoke to me in Korean, and I understand most stuff in TV shows and movies, but I'm still not in tune with the culture-specific stuff because. For example, I never went through the Korean school system, served (or had to think about serving) in the military, etc.

Like when I was watching Answer Me 1997, I wasn't able to directly relate to the epic H.O.T. vs. g.o.d. fanwars that ensued in the 1990s. And I'll never be able to. Sadness.

Anyway, the program I use is called Subs Factory, and it's free to download. The only bothersome thing about it is that it can only play MP4 videos, I think. Therefore, if you have files like AVIs and MKVs, you'll need to download/buy a video file converter to change them to MP4s.

OMG OMG OMG, Koo Ja Cheol, Park Ji Sung, and Patrice Evra are gonna be on Running Man!

Awwww...

So apparently, the next 2 episodes of Running Man (the best Korean variety show ever) will feature Korean soccer players Koo Ja Cheol and Park Ji Sung, as well as Manchester United defender Patrice Evra, who is well-known in Korea for not only being an excellent player but also for being Park's soulmate during his Man United days.

Captain Koo

I'm also excited that Koo Ja Cheol will be on the show. Koo is famous for captaining the 2012 Olympic team to a bronze medal, and scoring the insurance goal against Japan in the bronze medal match. He's spent the last 2 seasons in the Bundesliga, helping little Augsburg miraculously stave off relegation for 2 straight seasons and establishing himself as one of the more promising young midfielders in the league. He was actually on loan from Wolfsburg, so he'll play for that club next season unless he gets transferred.

Unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of time lately to watch any Running Man episodes, but this is definitely one I'll need to catch, especially since the last one with Park Ji Sung was so good.

I'd love to be able to hang out with these guys one day