Reflect upon what you learned from the culture project presentations--both your own and those of your fellow learners.
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Reflect upon what you learned from the culture project presentations--both your own and those of your fellow learners.
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Rhiannon's presentation on Indian traditional music Vs. Contemporary music was awesome. She not only introduced how Indian people viewed music, but also talked about her own experience of music learning. Though my target language is Korean, you can tell how music evolves during past decades.
My presentation was on K-pop culture and Hallyu. Before doing this presentation, I was familiar that Bigbang and its YG Entertainment company. After doing the research on this topic, I knew Korean wave was actually a Korean government project to raise exporting revenue. I learned the origin of K-pop music came from the band Seo Taiji and Boys. They combine American pop music with Korean lyrics. The combination of Western and Eastern music element attracted millions of fans, and that's why entertainment companies painstakingly package music bands.
Sihan mentioned the fashion on Korean: airport fashion and drama fashion. K-pop icons are representative and avanguards for Korean fashion. That's why fashion clothing companies are willing to sponsor icons. Her presentation on traditional Korean fashion-Hanbok was interesting. I learned different social classes would have different clothing fabric and use different color.
Henry's presentation also touched on K-pop theme. His summary on what makes K-pop so popular to its audiences is convincing. The plastic surgery in Korean is still a huge problem. It's unbelievable that parents would give their children plastic surgery as high school graduation gift. As you can see, K-pop music on the TV screen definitely changed how people view towards beauty.
The most interesting thing I learned during the cultural presentations was the scale of influence that celebrities have on everyday Korean culture. The K-Pop stars that Nuannuan presented on were actually a theme throughout all three Korean presentations because they are the "deciders" of Korean fashion, plastic surgeries, music obsessions, TV entertainment, and more. These K-Pop stars were mentioned in Sam's presentation as the main influence for designers because of their "airport fashion" and "drama fashion." Henry also discussed how the "Korean Wave" has brought these trends to other countries such as China and Japan, making the entertainment industry in Korea even more profitable. Henry shed light on an interesting link between fashion designers who pay for their clothes to be featured in Korean dramas or on K-Pop stars, then reaping the benefits when all of the celebrities' fans want to buy those clothes.
I also thought there was a link between Korea's money-making entertainment industry and the Bollywood industry in India. Just as K-Pop bands are "created" by music labels to make money, songs and dances are added to Bollywood movies as promotion for the films before they have been released. People get excited when they hear a new song or learn a new dance, and want to go see the film as a result. Similarly, when Korean teens see a new K-Pop group or actor in a Korean drama, they are compelled to go out and buy the clothes they were wearing.
Another similarity I noticed was between Henry's presentation on plastic surgery and the skin-lightening phenomenon in India (I didn't present on this, but it relates to the cultural effects of Bollywood). Henry said that Korean pageant stars and celebrities are pressured to get plastic surgery to reflect the "perfect woman," and end up all looking very similar. In India, most Bollywood stars are very light-skinned - in fact many of them are actually from countries in the Middle East - which propels the idea that lighter skin is more beautiful. Most Indian women and men have darker skin tones than the average Bollywood star, so skin-lightening creams have become popular, especially among younger people.
I thought that the differences in Indian music and dance were very interesting. I got to hear about how far Bollywood has come. It seemed very modern and is clear how prominent actors are compared to the singers. As a dancer, I know how hard it is to improvise in a performance. That's why I was surprised to see the contemporary performance. He started out slow and then went fast in order to "show off". Also, the method for reading music seemed interesting. It was basically an alphabet with different combinations.
I also liked the other presentations of Korean culture because they complimented my own. Sam talked about Korean fashion and how it is transitioned from a more traditional to more individualistic style. I didn't know that Korean traditional fashion was still being sported to this day as a real fashion trend. I knew about the individualism because Koreans take a lot of pride in being the most fashionable, and also their brands. My male Korean friends are always looking to buy the most gaudy and lavish items of clothing they can find. For example, they love LV belts and then tucking their shirts in because they enjoy showing off their "wealth" even if they are not truly wealthy. Nuannuan also presented on Korean pop-culture as I did. She talked about some of the famous stars and the not so famous stars. She also went on to interpret the lyrics of the song "Love Song" by Big Bang. The video and song was interesting because there was a lot of English in the song. Nuannuan mentioned that this is a key attribute of Korean songs, to incorporate English lyrics in the song to appeal to western cultures. Besides this, the video itself displayed the group chasing after a Caucasian female. This probably was meant to show cultural integration.
My own project pulled things from Sam's and Nuannuan's presentations. I talked about fashion trends such as "kkalchang" which are shoe lifts that are popular among Korean men, plastic surgery, and more about what makes K-pop so appealing to its audiences. I talked about how the female groups try to convey cuteness rather than sexiness. They do this by wearing bright colors, being fully clothed, and having large groups rather than individual singers. The craziest thing I learned was about the popularity of plastic surgery. Surgery is literally given out as gifts. The most common time for a girl to get surgery is when she graduates high school, because mothers want their daughters to look prettier for when they start their new life in college. I see many physical and emotional health issues with this trend; however, one thing is clear. This trend was started because of K-pop stars and their artificial looks.
Rhiannon introduced the traditional Indian music by showing us a concert played by traditional Indian instruments. Also, because she is learning Sitar this semester, she explained the script of the song. Then, she showed us a current popular music Video Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. It's really interesting for meto know that people learn the dance move in the new music videos. She said that it is a mix environment in India because people listen to different kinds of music every day. Also, more western influence is coming in while the traditional Indian music focus on religion.
There are also two presentations for Korean. Nuannuan had her presentation based on K-POP Culture. She introduced some most popular bands and major music themes. "The Korean wave" includes basically everything that is related to the Korean culture. She showed us a music video called "Love Song" performed by her favorite band BIGBANG. I found the lyrics in Love Song intriguing because they are also the most commonly used words in Korean Dramas I saw before. Henry also mentioned many aspects of Korean culture such as the K-POP marketing and plastic surgeries. I was impressed by how he related his learning plan to the cultural project.
My own presentation was about fashion in Korea. I talked about the role that fashion plays in a country's culture, the history and design of Hanbok, the current Korean fashion, and lastly, the reasons for the transformation in Korean fashion and its impact on Korean society. Also, I mentioned some terms like Airport fashion, drama fashion and some Korean vocabularies sounds similar to English words. I focus on how could culture, history and language be related to each other.