Seoul, the capital of South Korea, is the country’s largest metropolis, boasting huge skyscrapers, high-speed public transportation and the latest in trends that will soon circle the globe. But this city also holds hundreds of years of history, culture and religion, which have shaped its growth and continue to impact how it functions today and thus how it will work in the future. The geography of the Seoul area is just as varied as its history; director Brandon Li explores the different aspects of the city through captivating shots of the landscape that are juxtaposed with similar-looking modern features. Above all, this video focuses on the residents of Seoul—their daily lives, journeys, work and commutes—to tell a story about the city.
Consider the Tofu: A (Tasty) History
This seemingly tasteless ingredient packs a punch in iconic dishes across Asia.
As a relatively tasteless food, tofu is a versatile ingredient that is present in many dishes across Asia. Tofu is centuries old. While the exact date is not known, historians believe that tofu was first used over 2,000 years ago in China. This humble dish made its debut in Japan, Korea, parts of Southeast Asia and eventually in Europe after 19th-century colonialism. In Buddhist societies, the production of tofu increased as it served as a convenient meat alternative. Molded from crushed soybeans, tofu is a flexible food that goes with nearly anything. Given its absorbent nature, tofu often tastes like the spices and flavors it has marinated in. Here are a few popular tofu dishes from across Asia:
Mapo Tofu
This classic dish has roots in China’s Sichuan region. Mapo tofu is made with soft tofu and stir-fried with various chile peppers, black bean paste and ginger. If cooked properly, the sauce itself is a bright-red color laced with thin bubbles of oil. The dish can be topped off with scallions or minced meat if so desired.
Crispy Shrimp Stuffed Tofu
In this Cantonese dish, tofu is stuffed with minced shrimp and deep-fried to crispiness. The tofu is first sliced and coated in cornstarch, then hollowed out to hold the filling. The dish is often paired with classic ingredients like Shaoxing wine, white pepper and sesame oil. These golden, bite-sized bricks can be garnished with scallions and can be dipped in a slightly sweet soy sauce.
Stinky Tofu
Tofu, when stinky, can also be a delectable treat. This smelly favorite can be found along the streets of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Stinky tofu is made from the fermented brine in which it has soaked for a few months. The mixture is usually made from fermented milk, vegetables or meat, but can also include other ingredients like dried shrimp and mustard greens. When ready, stinky tofu is commonly served deep-fried. Its bitter and salty flavor is best paired with garlic, soy sauce or chile sauce.
Miso Soup
Miso is a fermented paste with origins in Japanese cuisine. This concoction is produced by pickling soybeans with salt and other ingredients such as barley or seaweed. Miso is usually consumed as soup, and one of the main condiments is tofu. The tofu’s porous texture absorbs the umami saltiness of the miso and makes for a hearty, satisfying meal. It can be paired with clean white rice, mushrooms and even eggplants.
Inari Sushi
Tofu can even be incorporated into sushi. Inari sushi was first introduced to Japan during the 18th century. It first started off as offering food for fox-god temples scattered about the islands. Over time, Inari sushi became a staple option on kitchen tables. Inari sushi is a simpler style of sushi made with sweetened rice packed in tofu pouches. The tofu skin itself is pre-seasoned and deep-fried. The side can be topped off with sesame seeds and paired with vinegar and soy sauce for a uniquely sweet finish.
Sundubu-jjigae
Also written as “soondubu,” this Korean dish is a soft tofu stew made with silken, curdled tofu served in a piping hot pot. Sundubu-jjigae is usually prepared spicy and can be cooked in seafood or meat broth. As the dish is bubbling, a whole egg is cracked into the mix and served almost immediately. Sundubu-jjigae is a popular Korean staple and is usually complemented with a bowl of rice and various “banchan” like kimchi, gamja jorim (sweetened braised potatoes) and salted cucumbers.
Tofu Pudding
Dau hu nuoc duong. Taho. Douhua. However it’s called, tofu can also be consumed as a dessert. Tofu pudding can be found in countries like Vietnam, the Philippines, and China and takes on regional preferences. It is often paired with sweeteners like ginger syrup and brown sugar. Depending on the location, tofu pudding can also be served with peanut and strawberry.
The Future of Tofu
While tofu has a stronghold in Asian cuisines, this humble ingredient continues to change and evolve across the world. As consumers look for more sustainable alternatives, tofu stands as a ready-made, centuries-old option. Not only is it healthier, but tofu is also a flexible and equally tasty substitute for meats and other high-cholesterol foods. Despite its unassuming nature, tofu has proven its timelessness.
Rhiannon earned her B.A. in Urban Studies & Planning from UC San Diego. Her honors thesis was a speculative fiction piece exploring the aspects of surveillance technology, climate change, and the future of urbanized humanity. She is committed to expanding the stories we tell.
East Asia Braces Itself as the 2020 Typhoon Season Begins
Southeast Asia is known for its tropical climate and distinct rainy, or monsoon, season. This sort of climate brings about an annual typhoon season. Typhoons are mature, tropical cyclones that mostly occur in the Pacific Ocean. They carry with them heavy winds, rain and tornadoes that rip through villages and beaches. These storms have the potential to be devastating, a fact confirmed by history several times over.
Thailand
While Thailand is not hit with as much force as its southern neighbors, the typhoon season is still clear. From September through November, the country is prone to typhoons with the potential to change the country’s landscape and infrastructure.
In 2006, Typhoon Xangsane made landfall in the Philippines and devastated its way across Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. It wiped out 810 square miles of farmland across Thailand and caused 47 deaths. The storm brought with it strong winds, landslides and torrential rain that wiped out villages and caused hundreds of families to become homeless.
Fortunately for Thailand, most storms are not nearly as devastating as Xangsane. Monsoons can be counted on, though, to bring about tropical storms each year.
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
These three Southeast Asian countries feel the brunt of two different sets of cyclones. Typhoons move in from the northern Pacific, while tropical cyclones make landfall from the south. While safety measures are in place, such as shelters, help lines and emergency services, ultimately their geographic location leaves them vulnerable to Mother Nature’s worst.
In 2017, Vietnam experienced its deadliest typhoon since 2001. Dubbed Typhoon Damrey, the storm originated in the Philippines’ Visayan archipelago toward the end of the rainy season and killed at least 123 people and over 600 injured. The severe flooding and winds swept away anything that was not secured to the ground and left an estimated $1 billion in damages across Vietnam. Since then, the country has taken measures to ensure that it has a better communication system for its citizens to learn about the threat of storms as they arise.
Korea
Farther north, the Korean Peninsula sits in a spot not nearly as impacted by typhoon season as countries in Southeast Asia. While the peninsula experiences jangma, or the rainy season, its normal extent is heavy rains that inconvenience residents. This shows just how quickly tropical storms lose power as they move inland; they dissipate soon after doing so.
A recent exception was Typhoon Hagupit, which made landfall in August. The Category 1 typhoon traveled north from the Philippines to China before impacting Korea as a subtropical storm. South Korea reported 15 deaths along with considerable property damage from the storm.
The western Pacific typically sees more tropical storms than anywhere else in the world. About one-third of the world’s natural disasters occur in the region, and the numbers only seem to increase each year. These storms have caused countries to increase safety measures, focus on disaster communication, develop evacuation measures and create safe spots in public areas. The countries are well-known among visitors, but during the rainy season, the more experienced traveler might count these locations out.
Elizabeth is a Professional Writing and Rhetoric major at Baylor University. She grew up in a military family and lived in Europe for almost half her life, traveling and living in different countries. She hopes to continue writing professionally throughout her career and publish her writing in the future.
#MeToo Movement Reaches South Korea, Shaking the Foundations of a Society in Flux
In a deeply patriarchal culture, feminist activists face constant setbacks and scrutiny.
In 2017, TIME Magazine named “The Silence Breakers” as its Person of the Year, marking the influence of the #MeToo movement and commending the women who have shattered decades of complacency regarding sexual harassment. Yet despite the movement’s place at the forefront of the American cultural zeitgeist, the effects of #MeToo are far from confined to the United States. On the other side of the globe, in South Korea, generations of women—long oppressed by the sexism that has proliferated in Korean society—are now uniting to push back against gender discrimination and question the influence of the patriarchy.
A glance at the numbers reveals the gender bias deeply embedded in Korean culture. On average, women earn 37 percent less than their male colleagues, creating the most severe gap among the 35 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Countrywide, women account for only 11 percent of managerial positions and 2.1 percent of corporate boards, in comparison to the OECD averages of 31 percent and 19 percent, respectively. In its glass ceiling index, The Economist ranks South Korea as the worst developed nation for working women.
The problem is a self-perpetuating one, as female role models in positions of power are few. In 2013, Park Geun-hye became Korea’s first female president—but far from sharing in her victory, women’s rights organizations strongly opposed her candidacy, recalling her father’s 18-year dictatorship. Only two of Park’s 19 ministers were women, and the aspects of her platform that did promote women’s rights and access were not much more progressive than those of the male presidential hopefuls she defeated. More important, Park lost all credibility when she became embroiled in an extortion scandal in 2016. In April 2018, she was found guilty of 16 out of 18 charges relating to abuse of power and coercion and sentenced to 24 years in jail.
February of that year witnessed an incident that encapsulated Korea’s suspicious attitude towards women’s liberation: Singer Son Naeun of the all-female group Apink was attacked for posting a photo on Instagram of her holding a phone case with the words “Girls can do anything.” In a culture that responds to even such minor displays of feminism with scorn and shame, sexual abuse toward women often goes unnoticed, and survivors who try to make their claims public are met with mockery.
However, despite these hostile attitudes, #MeToo principles in South Korea are finally gaining traction, and Korean women’s accounts of sexual abuse are beginning to garner at least a modicum of respect in the public eye. In January 2018, attorney Seo Ji-hyun—who had experienced years of sexual harassment at the hands of Ahn Tae-geun, the former chief of the Seoul prosecutors’ office—came forward with her allegations on the nightly news, precipitating Ahn’s two-year prison sentence for abuse of power. (He claimed not to remember the incident.) The next month, Choi Young-mi published a poem effectively accusing 85-year-old poet Ko Un of molestation, coerced sex, and harassment. The piece, titled “Monster,” has since gone viral.
The ensuing wave of sexual abuse allegations reached into the hundreds, with presidential hopeful Ahn Hee-jung and award-winning movie director Kim Ki-duk among the accused. Throughout 2018, both traditional and social media networks grew increasingly saturated with talk of societal change, and issues of gender discrimination entered public discourse. Online profiles owned by male and female Koreans alike sported the English-language hashtags #MeToo and #WithYou.
In March 2018, the burgeoning movement reached a watershed moment: a marathon protest in downtown Seoul, during which nearly 200 women publicly shared their stories of sexual harassment for 2018 consecutive minutes. In May, 15,000 people turned out to Daehangno in central Seoul to attend a rally for government accountability on sex crimes; a follow-up in July brought around 60,000, and continuing protests have earned a nickname that translates as “Uncomfortable Courage.”
Younger generations have been at the forefront of the movement, and some have pushed for change specifically within the culture of schools. Using the hashtag #SchoolMeToo, students at more than 65 Korean schools have come forward with allegations of verbal and physical sexual abuse by teachers. Their stories led to several criminal investigations, and in February of this year, a former middle school teacher was sentenced to a year and a half in prison on charges of repeated assault. In response to the multiple allegations, hundreds of female students turned out for a march in downtown Seoul, which culminated in a gathering outside the presidential palace to protest inadequate responses to abuse.
On the legislative side, there are signs of incremental change. As of September 2018, maintenance staff in Seoul are now required to check public restrooms daily for hidden cameras, which are often used to secretly record footage of women that is later sold to porn websites. The administration of President Moon Jae-in, who was elected following Park’s impeachment, has announced extensions to the statute of limitations in sexual abuse cases, and a process for anonymous reporting of sexual assault crimes.
Despite progress, activists continue to face persecution. For instance, in the city of Gwangju, where 11 teachers and the principal at one school were criminally charged with sexual abuse, a newspaper editorial questioned the value of the movement and accused students of undermining teachers’ authority. Progressive politicians, such as Shin Ji-ye, a 28-year-old Green Party leader who ran for mayor on a feminist platform last June and finished impressively in fourth, may usher in more substantial shifts. For now, isolated policy decisions and grassroots uprisings are chipping away at the inequities entrenched in Korean ways of life—and #MeToo, from one side of the world to another, continues to stake a claim against centuries of injustice.
TALYA PHELPS hails from the wilds of upstate New York, but dreams of exploring the globe. As former editor-in-chief at the student newspaper of her alma mater, Vassar College, and the daughter of a journalist, she hopes to follow her passion for writing and editing for many years to come. Contact her if you're looking for a spirited debate on the merits of the em dash vs. the hyphen.
This Rapper Wants to Challenge Your Asian Stereotypes
Dumbfoundead (real name Jonathan Park) is a Korean American rapper who has never backed down from a battle—rap or otherwise. He sings about the Asian American experience in his work and is vocal about the lack of Asians in popular culture. Once he took the mic, he never looked back.
VIDEO: Investing in Abuse in India
The Korea-based POSCO Corporation is pursuing a project in Odisha, India, that is resulting in the violation of human rights. If the project proceeds as planned, some 22,000 people risk being forcibly evicted from their lands and dispossessed from their means of livelihood. POSCO's investors have responsibilities to ensure that the company respects human rights, and to ensure that abuses to not take place in their name.