The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 14 | Issue 7 | Number 9 | Article ID 4877 | Apr 01, 2016

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Gendering Multiculturalism: Representation of MigrantWorkers and Foreign Brides in Korean Popular Films

Jooyeon Rhee

Abstract

This article examines images of migrantworkers and brides in recent South Koreanfilms in order to demonstrate how popularm e d i a c a n c o m p l i c a t e t h e i s s u e o fmulticulturalism in Korea, and to problematizethe ethnic and gender hierarchy embedded inmulticultural policies and in the social fabric ofKorean society.

Introduction: Behind Nation Branding

The ways Hallyu is received in other East Asianand Southeast Asian countries show thataudiences' involvement in transnationalcultural productions goes beyond consumption:as Chikako Nagayama, Millie Creighton, andMary J. Ainslie discuss in this issue, Hallyuoften triggers the audiences' interest in activelyengaging with domestic social issues and inter-regional politics. By paying attention to popularculture's capability to create communicativesocial space, this paper seeks to answer whatrole Korean film plays in articulating discourseabout multiculturalism within Korea's borders.

Although Korean films have not enjoyed globalpopularity as widely as Korean TV dramas andK-Pop, they have come into the spotlight inglobal entertainment industries by winningnumerous awards at major internationalfestivals in the last decade. Domesticallyspeaking, there was sharp hike in the marketshare of Korean-made films, jumping fromaround 20 per cent in 2001 to reach 59.1 percent in 2013 (Korean Film Council). Since theearly 2000s, several domestically producedfilms in Korea have attracted audiences of over

ten million into theatres.1

This phenomenal consumption level waspartially spurred by the state's active supportfor cultural industry since the Lee Myŏngbakadministration (2008-2013) though it must benoted that the suppression of culturalproductions that contain social criticism of thestate's domestic policies and practices hasintensified over the last decade as well.2

Nonetheless, it was also during the Leeadministration when multiculturalism gainedcultural currency since the state promotedmany initiatives on multiculturalism throughvarious venues including media. In this essay, Iproblematize both the state's multiculturalpolicy and also media representation offoreigners in Korea through examining recentpopular Korean films that feature migrantworkers and foreign brides. The state'semphasis on migrant brides as "mothers to beassimilated" demonstrates the genderedpolitics in its immigration policy, whichprioritizes the assimilation of migrant brideswhile systematically pushing male migrantworkers to return to their homelands. I willreview the state's assimilationist andpatriarchal multicultural policies and thestereotyping of foreigners in Korean media; andinvestigate the ethnic and gender hierarchyembedded in these films. The films discussed inth i s paper fea ture a l ayered rac ia ldiscrimination that also intersects socialdivisions in Korea-divisions that were creatednot by ethnic and patriarchal nationalism alonebut also by domestic economic conditions.More importantly, these fi lms gainedsignificant popularity, which motivated manyaudiences to actively discuss multiculturalism

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using public communication channels. Despitetheir problematic representation of ethnicallyand culturally different Others, these filmsarticulated issues that advanced themulticultural discourse in ways that engagedboth migrants and Koreans.

The Multicultural Discourse in Korea

In the last twenty years, intra-regionalimmigration to East Asian countries-Japan,Korea, and Taiwan in particular-have increasedsubstantially. Scholars have presented threeattributes that are responsible for the increaseof both migrant workers and migrant brides inthese East Asian countries: the labor shortage,the low fertility rate, and an aging population(Parreñas and Kim 2011). However, theseattributes do not adequately explain the flow ofcapital and commodities into Korea that alsohave been prominent in the last decade (Lie2014, 18), which are due to Korea's attempt toglobalize the tourism and education industries.The numbers of foreign students and touristsare increasing dramatically with the state'sattempts to "internationalize" universitycampuses and boost the domestic economythrough tourism (Chŏng 2014, 447–49; KoreaTourism Organization 2015).3

Less welcome are the migrant workers whocome to Korea mainly from China, SoutheastAsia, South and Central Asia, and SouthAmerica, and most of them are employed inlow-paid and low-skilled jobs in smaller firms(Kim and Oh 2011, 1564), whereas foreignbrides arrive in Korea mainly from China,Vietnam, and the Philippines (Kim and Oh2011, 1571). The approximate number ofmigrant workers and migrant brides in Korea isover 1.5 million in total, comprising almost 3per cent of the whole population in SouthKorea as of 2013 (Korean Stat ist icalInformation Service, hereafter KOSIS). Therate of international marriages has been wellabove 10 per cent of all marriages every yearsince 2005, although it dipped to about 8 per

cent in 2013, the lowest over the last ten years.This is one-sided: while the rate of internationalmarriages between Korean men and non-Korean women has been increas ingsubstantially, the rate of marriages betweenKorean women and non-Korean men has not,compr is ing less than 30 per cent o finternational marriages over the past ten years(KOSIS).4 This pattern has resulted from thedifficulty men in rural farming villages have infinding native Korean women, who tend to seekurban lifestyle and jobs in cities rather thansettling into farming communities.

One notable trend in the influx of foreignersinto Korea is the large number of ethnicKoreans (a.k.a. chosŏnjok) from China whomove to Korea to settle or work. As ofDecember 31, 2011, there were about 470,000chosŏnjok living in Korea (Kang 2012, 109).The media exposure of their presence is oftendirected towards creating a nostalgicimagination of the "shared bloodline" betweenthe chosŏnjok in China and South Koreans. Forexample, when a young man from Yanbian,Paek Ch'ǒnggang, won a national singingcompetition, Widaehan t'ansaeng (A greatbirth) in 2011, the hosting broadcastingcompany, MBC, actively produced an image ofhim as a third-generation Korean whose"Korean dream" had come true. Paek'sexperience of poverty was emphasized,portraying his dream of living with his parents,whom he had been separated from at the age ofnine. His parents, who went to Korea to makemoney, were also invited to the audition studioto stage a dramatic family reunion-a reunionthat symbolically extends to a reunion of oncedisplaced ethnic Koreans with the Korean soil.

However, this romantic image of reunion canvanish quickly when chosŏnjok commit crimes,to be replaced by charges of disloyalty towardKorea. A chosŏnjok worker, O Wŏnch'un, issuch a case. O murdered and mutilated thebody of a young South Korean woman in April2012. Media reported that he killed the woman

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after an attempted rape, yet the mutilation ofher body generated numerous unfoundedconspiracy theories tying the murder to theillegal sale of human organs and the existenceof an underground human meat market.Although the ratio of crimes committed byforeigners is significantly lower than the crimescommitted by Koreans, only accounting forabout 0.7 per cent of the crimes committed in2010 (Korean Statistical Information Service),the media's sensationalizing of migrant workersas a potential criminal group has given rise toxenophobia based on fear of crime.

As many ethnic Korean women from China whoare married to Korean men testify, thediscrimination against them by their Koreanfamily and spouses is based on the economicdisparity between Korea and China and thedeeply entrenched patriarchal family relationsin Korea (M. Kim 2014; Freeman 2011). Thiscontrasts with Korea's eager attempts toengage ethnic Koreans in advanced countries,especially those who have prominent positionsin their own societies. A South Korean adopteeto the US, Toby Dawson, is just one example:this medal-winning skier from the 2002 WinterOlympics was welcomed by the Koreangovernment and was offered the role ofhonorary ambassador for Korea's bid to hostthe winter Olympics.5

The influx of migrant workers and foreignbrides has earned great attention fromacademics and policy-makers in Korea since theearly 2000s. The Korean government reacted tothe country's changing demographics byadopting immigration and multicultural policiesfrom other countries such as the US, Canada,and Australia. (Lim 2014, 38–42). The policies,h o w e v e r , a r e c o n c e n t r a t e d o n t h eaccommodation of foreign brides while noserious consideration is given to migrantworkers. The state's multicultural policy isassimilationist (Lim 2014; M. Kim 2014; Kimand Oh 2011) and patriarchal (Lim 2014; M.Kim 2014; H. Kim 2014), which resulted in a

series of problems for interracial families aswell as migrant workers. The government'simmigration policy is concentrated on the"multicultural family," accommodating theirneeds in education, settlement, and jobtraining, whereas its policies on migrantworkers are lacking to the point of beingdreadful. It seems clear that the main object ofthe government's multicultural policiesexcludes migrant workers and domesticKoreans: the term "multiculturalism," in otherwords, is mainly used for "multiculturalfamilies," who will learn how to integrate intothe Korean society through acquiring languageand job skills. Migrant workers are ratheradministered separately by labor law, whichgenerates serious constraints on these workers.As I will describe in the later section of thispaper, the law turns many workers to beexposed to employers' exploitation; and itmakes them extremely difficult to obtainimmigrant status. Furthermore, thegovernment's education program for"multicultural families" is uniform across thecountry: mainly geared towards multiculturalfamilies in rural areas, it lacks curriculumsuitable for multicultural families and migrantworkers in cities (S. Kim 2011, 184-7).

The exclusive focus on interracial families inmulticultural and immigration policies revealsthat the term tamunhwa (multicultural) isproblematic: it is used in a narrow sense,failing to embrace those who do not belong tothe category of "tamunhwa families," such asmigrant workers and foreign students. Theresult of this failure is a public misconceptionof migrant workers and foreign students asunwelcome additions to society and aneconomic burden on taxpayers. What is alsofundamentally missing in the state policies isan attempt to connect these tamunhwa familieswith Korean communities, which could build af o u n d a t i o n t o e n h a n c e t h e m u t u a lunderstanding between them (S. Kim 2011).The absence of this connection in turn affectsthe lives of mixed-race children significantly.

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Besides the unaccommodating governmentpolicy, discrimination against migrant workersand foreign brides on an everyday life level isalarmingly widespread. Foreign brides oftenface verbal and physical abuse from theirspouses and in-laws (Freeman 2011; M. Kim2014). It has been reported that most of thesechildren experience bullying at schools becausethey are different, and due to this bullying,these children are discouraged from obtaininghigher education, limiting their choices forfuture careers (Kim, Chǒng, and Yi 2012).

And it is extremely challenging for migrantworkers to find long-term employment or anopportunity to change their status to immigrantdue to the draconian labor laws. Media havealso played a significant role in producingbiased views on migrant workers and foreignbrides though right-wing media are taking aleading role in producing such views. The right-wing newspapers, for example, tend to focus onviolations of labor law and crimes committed bymigrant workers, while foreign women andwives are represented as an object ofassimilation. Progressive newspapers, on theother hand, focus on violations of human rightscommitted by native Koreans against foreigners(Im 2012).

Negative views of migrant workers have alsogrown as jobs have become less well-paid orsecure, due to the neoliberal economy. Theprocess of neoliberalization has acceleratedsince the Myung Bak Lee administration,widening the gap between the rich and thepoor. The unemployment rate increased from3.2 per cent to 4.5 per cent between 2007 and2011; there was a massive replacement ofregular workers with temporary employees andday laborers; the relative poverty rate jumpedfrom 7.8 per cent in 1990 to 14.9 per cent in2010; and 8.4 per cent of the whole populationlived below the poverty line in 2010 (Suh, Park,and Kim 2012, 842). As Harvey argues,neoliberalism "has proven a huge andunqualified success" for creating an enormous

gap between the haves and have-nots (2009,67), yet it has done very little for those whohave been proletarianized during the process.

This is the context for the films analyzed here.They are noteworthy for the following reasons.First, they provide a critical perspective onboth state policies and social discriminationagainst migrant workers and foreign brides byrealistically rendering the struggle to adjust inKorea. Second, the films reflect current socialand economic issues that concern bothforeigners and Koreans, such as the worseninglabor market. Third, film viewers, both Koreansand international migrants in Korea, reallyresponded to these films. Despite the biasedrepresentations of foreigners in some of thesefilms, they deserve our attention because theygenerated so much popular response from theaudiences regarding multiculturalism.

Hypermasculinity and SuppressedManhood: Representations of MigrantWorkers

Until Korea and the People's Republic of China(PRC) normalized their diplomatic relationshipin 1992-thus encouraging many chosŏnjokliving there, especially those in Jilin Province,to migrate to Korea in search of work-the livesof chosŏnjok in Yanbian, in Jilin was virtuallyunknown to Koreans. But since the early 1990s,chosŏnjok from the PRC have been providinglow-wage/low-skill labor in Korea, and culturalmisunderstandings about these ethnic Koreanshave generated very biased views about them.More than a half-century of separation betweentheir ancestral homeland and their livingexperience in the PRC has created a wide gapbetween Korea and Yanbian. The main sourceof the discrimination, however, is the economicdisparity between Korea and the PRC: Koreans'view of chosŏnjok is condescending, treatingthem as poor neighbours who are just takingadvantage of the economic system of Korea.

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Figure 1. "Chǒnghak" in The Yellow Sea

Two of the recent blockbuster films thatportray chosŏnjok from Yanbian Prefecture areThe Yellow Sea (Hwanghae, dir. Na Hongjin,2010) and New World (Sin segye, dir. PakHunjung, 2013). Both are gangster films, andfeature a hopelessly dark side of the lives ofethnic Koreans in the PRC who are involved incriminal activities such as human trafficking,human organ trafficking, and smuggling drugsinto South Korea. In The Yellow Sea, a poor taxidriver in Yanbian, Kunam, becomes a hit manin order to pay his debts. However, because hisulterior motive is to find his wife-with whom helost contact when she went to Korea to makemoney-Kunam accepts an offer from a fellowethnic Korean man, Chǒnghak, to kill a man inKorea. Kunam cannot accomplish his doublemission; he can neither kill the man nor find hiswife. As a consequence, he is chased byChǒnghak (fig. 1), whose personality isportrayed as almost demonic. Chǒnghakdoesn't flinch when he swings his ax at people,creating gruesome scenes throughout the film.Even when he is fatally wounded, he doesn'tgive up his pursuit of money.

Major newspapers published ambivalentreviews of The Yellow Sea. While film criticsfocused mostly on the director's contribution tothe Korean thriller genre with his well-constructed action cuts, newspapers criticizedthe valorized violence (O, December 23, 2010).The film was quite successful; it drew 2.4million viewers to the theatres (Korean FilmCouncil). Thanks to this popularity, the image

of dangerous and violent ethnic Koreanscommitting crimes is often invoked whenever areport of ethnic Koreans' criminal activitiesappears.6 It is rare to find reviews that discussthe representation of ethnic Koreans in anyother way in the Korean mainstream media.

However, the film created a big stir inchosŏnjok communities both in Korea andChina, who criticized the misrepresentation ofethnic Koreans and their lives. An ethnicKorean graduate student at Korea Universityexpressed concern over the film's exaggerationof poverty and its description of the life ofethnic Koreans in both China and Korea. As heexplained, "we are not poor, we just come toKorea because we can make more money…andwe are not discriminated against in China asdescribed in the film since the Chinesegovernment's multicultural policy ensures ourright to preserve language and culture" (No2011). Other chosŏnjok also expressed theirdiscomfort over seeing their image fictionalizedfor the sake of commercial profits.

In the film, the chosŏnjok are far more violentthan the native Korean gangsters in the film,resonating with a rhetoric that often surfaces innewspapers and social media when describingchosǒnjok. Furthermore, in contrast to theshabbily dressed chosŏnjok characters in darkspaces, such as basements and constructionsites, their South Korean partners appear instylish dress and drive top-notch cars in agentrified urban landscape. Korean gangstersin New World are part icu lar ly ch ic ,accentuating the contrast with chosŏnjokcharacters, who have a country-bumpkin-likeappearance and exhibit impulsiveness in bothspeech and behavior.

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Figure 2. The "Yanbian beggars" in NewWorld

What is also disturbing is the erasure of thechosŏnjok characters' individuality: in NewWorld, they are referred to as "Yanbianbeggars" (fig. 2) who will do virtually anythingfor money. Further, the "number two" of aKorean crime organization in the film is anethnic Korean from the PRC, a man with theambit ion to become the leader of theorganization. Despite the series of violent actshe commits, he does not show any affinity withChina until he awaits his own death on ahospital bed. This is the first and last time hespeaks Mandarin in the film, which is rarelyseen in Korean films or TV shows. This is astrange reversal of the character's identity. Hehas performed his Korean identity all along,while the impression of him as ethnic Koreanhas loomed around him because of theexaggeration of his dowdy clothes and accent.And yet, when the character speaks inMandarin the viewers realize a boundary thatthey did not recognize before. In turn, the maincharacter, an undercover policeman, wholistens to the dying man's Mandarin words,turns out to be ethnic Chinese in Korea:although their ethnic identity differs, theirstrong bond is affirmed through the samelanguage. The vague notion of the "sameness,but not quite the same" is shattered at thismoment: the familiar Other becomes unfamiliar

and the previously held perception of theiridentities is seriously challenged. Althoughthese characters do not display theirconsciousness of being ethnic Others in theKorean society, this single scene highlights howthey "betray" the audience's previously formedknowledge about their identity: the Koreannessboth these characters have performed up tothis scene suddenly becomes questionable.

It is basically impossible to distinguish ethnicKoreans born in China from ethnic Koreansborn in South Korea by their looks because oftheir similar physiognomy, and ethnic Koreansfrom China and Koreans from North Koreadeliberately attempt to follow South Koreanconsumption trends to pass as middle-classKoreans (Chung 2008, 18). And yet, as thesepeople testify, Koreans' unwillingness torecognize their cultural difference contributesto the continuing construction of the image ofethnic Koreans as dangerous Others.7 Maleethnic Koreans hardly appear in any othercinematic genres beyond gangster films, andmedia often inflate their criminal activities inKorea, linking social unrest to the presence ofthese "criminals."

The representation of migrant workers fromother parts of Asia in film is no better. Unlikechosŏnjok, who can pass as Koreans at least atfirst glance, Southeast Asian and South Asianworkers are visually noticeable. This visibilitydraws a cultural boundary between them andnative Koreans, and Koreans respond poorly tothe relatively distant cultures they carry withthem. This gap creates multiple barriers thatdeter Koreans from communicating with them.Migrant workers are often exposed to physicalabuse from their employers, violations of theiremployment contracts, and sexual harassment,among other things (Amnesty InternationalKorea 2015). Abuse from employers oftenderives from the labor regulations on migrantworkers, especially the training system thatexisted between 1993 and 2004. This systemdefined migrant workers as trainees, justifying

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the low wages, the lack of health insurance,and the lack of payment for overtime work.This system was revised in 2004 in order toimprove the work and living conditions formigrant workers. However, the regulations stilll imit the workers' freedom to transferworkplaces, and upon the completion of thethree-year maximum visa period, they are givenonly two months to obtain a new employmentcontract. These conditions have resulted inworkers losing their legal status when theycont inue to seek employment in theunderground economy (Chŏn 2010).

Unlike the violent image of chosŏnjok ingangster films, Southeast Asian and SouthAsian migrant workers are represented asillegal aliens who are physically weak,innocent, comical, and emotional. Given theseattributes, it is not surprising that comedydrama is the main cinematic genre wheremigrant workers' lives in Korea and theirconnection to their home countries areportrayed. However, unlike the gangster films,these comedy films often contain critical viewso f the Korean l abor marke t , r ac ia ldiscrimination, and mono-ethnic nationalism,all of which are imbued with humor and satire.

The general public and media in Korea tend torespond sensitively to issues surrounding thelabor market since the job shortage hasbecome a serious social issue, especially afterthe financial crisis in 1997. In 2011, althoughthe total unemployment rate was 4.5 per cent,as noted above, among young people it wasmuch higher, reaching almost 10 per cent(Korean Statistical Information Service). Thecomedy, Banga Banga (He's on Duty, dir. YukSanghyo, 2010) is worth mentioning for itshandling of the cut-throat competition in thejob market and its portrayal of the lives ofmigrant workers in Korea. In the film, a youngKorean man is employed in a furniture factorydespite his wish to get a white-collar job. He isnot able to get a job in any other sector due tohis "not-so-impressive resume."

A bigger obstacle in the way of employment,however, is his appearance. He is described as"unattractive" because of his "short height" and"dark-skinned, ugly face." In South Koreansociety, performing one's social status throughone's looks has been considered important-andpeople's obsession with obtaining such lookshas resulted in widespread cosmetic surgeriesamong young women and men there (Elfving-Hwang 2013). While a tall man with white andsmooth skin has become a "standard ofbeauty," this young man in the film stands onthe opposite end of that "standard," and so failsto give a "good impression" to job interviewers.

Realizing that he has a "South Asian look," hedisguises himself as a Bhutanese in order to getemployed in a factory that hires mainly migrantworkers. He names himself Banga, since thename has a "South Asian flavor"-the term isalso an abbreviated form of bangawŏyo,meaning "nice to meet you" in Korean: asatirical twist that implies the unwelcomingatmosphere of Korea towards migrant workers.He works with fellow migrant workers in thefactory, where, luckily, Banga is the onlyworker "from Bhutan," thus securing his fakeidentity.

Figure 3. Banga disguised as Bhutanese

The Korean man's mimicry to pass as

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Bhutanese, with his "South Asian–like" dressand the strangely exotic Korean accent that heputs on, is painfully depressing. Throughout thefilm, Banga adopts a Muslim-like fashion codewith his clothes and skullcap despite the factthat Buddhism is the state religion in Bhutan(fig. 3). This incorrect dress code could betranslated as a derogatory representation ofthe Bhutanese, especially considering the factthat the main character chose this disguisebecause virtually no one in the movie isinformed about the Bhutanese people and theirculture. While such ignorance of the culture ofOthers points to the general public's disinterestin Others in their society, it also tells theaudiences about the reality of the job marketwhere such an extreme measure has to betaken in order to advance oneself in the society.

Banga slowly builds friendships with otherworkers who express to him their discontentwith Koreans and Korean society. Finally,Banga becomes one of them as a fellow worker,yet he is not one of them: he crosses his doubleidentities, first in order to make living, andlater in order to fight for them. One of thehighlights of the film is the coarse language thecharacters use in their daily lives. Banga'sfellow co-workers, thanks to their exposure toverbal abuse at work, have "studied" manyoffensive and derogatory terms in Korean.Banga in turn teaches Korean foul language tonewcomers to prepare them to "communicate"with Koreans in their workplaces.8

Even though it was a low-budget film, BangaBanga was quite popular, drawing about800,000 viewers (Korean Film Council). Majornewspapers , both conservat ive andprogressive, published favorable reviews of thefilm, and many audiences expressed shame atthe racial discrimination against migrantworkers as well as the serious human rightsviolations they face. Some of the reviews fromprogressive newspapers and responses fromaudiences also are noteworthy for theircriticism of the orientalist gaze on the workers.

They expressed d iscontent wi th themisrepresentation of the workers' culturalidentity, starting with the presentation ofethnic food that does not match the workers'culture of origin, and moving to the ways thatthe main character's sympathetic gaze onworkers dilutes their political agency.9 It doesso by reinforcing the cultural hierarchyembedded in the gaze, predetermining thesocial position of the workers as lower thanthat of Koreans.

Figure 4. Ttuhin and Inho in Where isRonnie…

Another comedy that deals with illegal migrantworkers is Where is Ronnie… (Roni rŭlch'ajasŏ, dir. Sim Sangguk, 2009), whichportrays a transformation of hatred tofriendship between a Bangladeshi worker,

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Ttuhin, and a Korean man, Inho. It is set inAnsan City, a suburb of Seoul, which has beenan industrial area since the mid-1970s. It isnow also known for its large population ofmigrant workers. Inho is a Taekwondo masterwhose studio is in Ansan. In front of manypeople, including his young pupils, however, heloses a match to a Bangladeshi man calledRonnie. In order to recover his damaged ego,Inho searches for revenge, but instead hebefriends Ttuhin on the way.10

Inho's defeat in the Taekwondo matchdeconstructs the chauvinistic nature of ethnicnationalism. Although Taekwondo is associatedwith the ancient history, legends, and myths ofKorea (Moenig 2015, 189), it is a relativelymodern form of martial art that developed fromkarate techniques in the 1940s. The vestiges ofthe Japanese martial art, however, have beenthorough ly re jec ted by Taekwondopractitioners (Moenig 2015, 187–89). Instead,Taekwondo has become a symbol of Koreannational pride for its indigenousness andinternational recognition.

Inho's plan to defeat Ronnie in front of aKorean audience is shattered, leaving with himan intense feeling of shame and anger. Inho isemasculated not only by the shameful eventthat destroyed his reputation but also by hisconstrained economic condition. His obsessionwith locating Ronnie in order to compensate hisdamaged ego grows. However, as he searchesfor Ronnie, he discovers the changed landscapeof the city he has not noticed before. The kindof community he had in mind has neverincluded migrant workers and their families:the Korean community considers people likeRonnie "temporary dwellers." Through Ttuhin'shelp, Inho begins to see the reality of the livesof these workers in his community.

Ttuhin refuses to be seen as a victim. He is anintelligent young man with a good education inhis native country. But he knows that hisbackground will be useless in Korea, where he

will be employed in a low-skilled/low-paidindustry. But he is optimistic about the future,that is, going back to his country with enoughmoney to support his family there. Nonetheless,his handling of various challenges is notrendered in a sympathetic way; rather, Ttuhin'soptimism and humor inspire Inho, who is alsohaving a hard time looking after his family.Inho's friendship with Ttuhin continues to growto the point where he tries to stop Ttuhin frombeing deported, but to no avail. This buddy-movie-like comedy focuses on the friendshipthat is being built between the two men. Thisfilm received favorable reviews from critics andaudiences and it became popular amongmigrant workers themselves when it wasscreened in their communities and at theMigrant World Film Festival in Korea.11

The impact of these two comedy dramas ismeaningful, first because they presented formsof racial discrimination in a straightforwardmanner, but humorously, so that the audiencesrecognized them without resistance. Second,they created a communicative space where theaudiences engaged with the issue ofdiscrimination in the public media network.Unlike the hypermasculine representation ofchosŏnjok violence, which reinforces theforeignness of the familiar Others in gangsterfilms, the two comedies show the emasculatedKorean men discovering some common groundfor bu i ld ing a deep and meaningfu lcommunication with Others. Albeit with thedanger of affirming the stereotypes, these filmsopened up a new window for critiquing Korea'sreception of foreigners on a deeper level.

Representation of Female Immigrants

Naturalized "white Koreans" of European andAmerican origin can perform their citizenry in asafer social environment than can non-whitemigrants to Korea. It is rare to find negativeresponses from the general public to whitemigrants' performances as naturalizedKoreans. A German-born Korean citizen,

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Bernhard Quandt, who was the CEO of theKorea Tourism Organization from 2009 to2013, is a good example. He changed hisGerman name to a Korean one, Lee Ch'am,which successfully publicized his love forKorean culture and dedication to improving theimage of Korea in international communities.

However, non-white Korean citizens, likemigrant workers, are often positioned indifficult situations, constantly being looked atwith suspicion. In particular, Koreans'suspicion of people of East Asian and SoutheastAsian origin can easily turn to xenophobia, asseen in the case of Yi Jasŭmin, a woman fromthe Philippines who became a Korean citizenthrough her marriage to a Korean man. Yi waslater elected as the first non-ethnic Koreanproportional representative member of theNational Assembly in South Korea. When shewas running for a seat in parliament in 2012 asa candidate of the ruling party, Saenuri, shereceived numerous threats and discriminatorynotes from Koreans. She believes that she andher children would have faced much lessdiscrimination if she were a white woman (Yi2013). Figure 5. Yi Jasŭmin in Wandǔgi

A year before her entry into Korean politics, YiJasŭmin played the role of a Filipina mother ofa biracial youth in the film Wandǔgi (2011, dir.Yi Han), based on a bestselling novel with thesame title by Kim Ryŏryŏng. In the film, a youthnamed Wandǔgi is delinquent and seems tohave no prospects for his life. Wandǔgi, hishumpbacked father, and his adopted uncle,who has a developmental disability, live in apoverty-stricken neighborhood inhabited bymany migrant workers from Southeast Asia andSouth Asia. Wandǔgi has no memory of hisFilipina mother since she left him when he wasstill an infant. The disappearance of Wandǔgi'smother has to do with his father's decision to"let her go" because he couldn't tolerate thediscrimination his wife faced. Wandǔgi,however, is able to meet her through histeacher's help. After spending some difficult

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time coming to terms with her sudden re-appearance, Wandǔgi and his family decide tolive together again.

Desp i te the government ' s focus onmulticultural families, it is rare to find popularfilms that deal with them. Wandǔgi is the onlyKorean feature f i lm that portrays amulticultural family I have found so far. Itbecame hugely popular, drawing almost fivemillion viewers to theatres (Korean FilmCouncil). Responses to the film were mainlypositive, and many viewers stated that the filmmade them think more seriously about thesocial problems facing migrant workers andtamunhwa families. The film draws its strengthby showing the similar economic conditionsfaced by these workers, tamunhwa families,and Korean families. Wandǔgi's Korea-bornneighbors, for example, do not seem to havebetter prospects for the future; they too aresocially marginalized by poverty and disability,enabling viewers to identify with the figures inthe film. Wandǔgi displayed a potential tobridge the distance between visible minoritiesand Koreans through the audience'srecognition of their own underprivileged status,just like Wandǔgi and his family. In this regard,class plays a crucial role, l inking theunderprivileged races or ethnic groups withunderprivileged classes, which in turn couldencourage a coalition of these groups fordemanding equality (Higham 1993, 196).

Nonetheless, Wandǔgi does not get along withothers in school and often gets into trouble forhis rebellious nature. This problem alsoresonates with real-world conditions. In fact, asurvey shows that a significant number ofbiracial children have difficulty in their schoolenvironment. For example, 37 per cent ofyoung biracial children in Korea haveexperienced bullying in school, and at timeseven teachers contributed to the bullying byopenly discriminating against them inclassroom situations (Y. Kim 2012). Further,only 85 per cent of these children finish high

school and 49% enter college, whereas the rateis about 10 per cent higher in each categoryamong native Korean students (KOSIS). Thedivorce rate for international marriages isabout three times higher than that of nativeKoreans. Female migrants' cultural differencesare often ignored and their different culturalpractices are not encouraged in theirhouseholds (M. Kim 2014). This kind of livingenvironment at home and at school becomes abarrier for these children, keeping them fromdeveloping a sense of membership in Korea.

Ironically, foreign-born women in tamunhwafamilies whose looks are not distinctive facetheir own special challenges, and are rarelyportrayed in public media, despite the fact thatthe majority of these women are Chinesenationals (H. Kim 2006, 57); TV dramas andvariety shows predominantly deal with womenfrom Southeast Asian countries, such asVietnam and the Philippines. This patternbecame prominent around the time when thegovernment began to implement multiculturalpo l ic ies . As Kim Hyesun points out ,multiculturalism did not become a public issueuntil the number of individuals belonging toracially different groups began to increase,thus making the foreigners "visible" (2006, 52).

Popular media has played a significant role invisualizing foreign wives as uneducated andpoor women who become an object ofassimilation. As Wandǔgi's father tells his son,Wandǔgi's mother obtained high education inher country, contradicting the widespreadstereotype about these women. Yet, despite hereducational background and her long-term stayin Korea, the mother's appearance in the film isnot any different from the stereotype of womenfrom Southeast Asian countries. Several TVdramas, such as In Namcn'on Across aMountain (2007–present), The Golden Bride(2007–8), and Likeable or Not (2007–8) inparticular, feature the assimilation process ofVietnamese women, typifying them as lovingmothers, good daughters-in-law, and supportive

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wives. The Vietnamese woman in the filmBanga Banga f i t s in to th i s t yp i f i edrepresentation of women from Southeast Asia:she is an "good mother" whose "innocence" isprotected by the Korean man, Banga.

The ulterior motive to make these women look"innocent" is not innocent at all: the image isan imposition of the socially and institutionallyconstructed desire to make them comply withthe patriarchal social order.

Conclusion

As I have tried to demonstrate, the state'simmigration policy is patriarchal and exclusivethat accommodates multicultural families whileignoring migrant workers. Those women whosettled into rural areas through marryingKorean men are the main targets of the Koreangovernment's multicultural policies. As one ofthe country's bestselling writers, Pak Pǒmsin,portrays in his recent novel, Namasŭt'e (2005),male migrant workers have far more difficultyobtaining immigrant status through marriagethan do female migrant workers. Thepatriarchal bent of the state's assimilationistmulticultural policy in turn eliminates thepossibility for migrant brides and their childrento maintain their cultural and political ties totheir home countries.

The South Korean government has beenactively seeking the transnational political,cultural, and economic involvement of overseasKoreans in their homeland-by giving themvoting rights in 2012, for example-while themulticultural policy is oriented around thepatriarchal nationalism that exclusivelydemands migrant women's full assimilation intoKorean society through obtaining culturalknowledge about Korea and adaptingthemselves into the patriarchal family relations.This double standard will produce negativesocial effects in the long run, discouragingmembers of multicultural families fromperforming active citizenship in Korea.

I examined films that concern the multiculturaldiscourse in Korea as a way to problematize thedeeply seated notion of monoethnic andpatriarchal nationalism that is manifest in therepresentation of hypermasculine andemasculated male migrants and domesticatedfemale migrants. Some of these films play aconstructive role, by providing an opportunityfor Koreans and migrants to respond to theproblematic representations of culturally andethnically different Others; and to enhancemutual understanding between them. Indeed,these films are often discussed and critiqued byKorean cit izens and migrants. Whilegovernment policy lacks inclusive measures, itis noteworthy that the films are expanding thecommunication space for critiquing thechanging social landscape of Korea.

Dr. Jooyeon Rhee is Lecturer at The HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem. Her main researchexamines gender representation in modernKorean literature. Her research interestsinclude Korean film, Korean diaspora andKorea-Japan cultural interactions.

Recommended citation: Jooyeon Rhee,"Gendering Multiculturalism: Representation ofMigrant Workers and Foreign Brides in KoreanPopular Films", The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol.14, Issue 7, No. 9, April 1, 2016.

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Wandŭgi. 2011. dir. Lee Han.

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---. 2014. "Kyŏrhon imin yŏsŏng ŭi ihon kwatamunhwa chŏngch'aek [Divorce of marriedmigrant women and multicultural policy]."Han'guk sahoehak 48 (1): 299–444.

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Kim, Yŏngŭn, Chŏng Ch'ŏryŏng, and YiKŏnnam. 2012. "Tamunhwa kajŏng chanyŏŭi chigŏp insik, chillo taean yŏngyŏk mit chigŏpp'obu [Occupational perceptions and zone ofaccessible alternatives, occupation aspirationof children from multicultural families]."Han'guk silkwakyoyukhoe, 25(4): 169–94.

Kim, Yŏnju. 2012. "Tamunhwa kajŏng chanyŏ37% ga wangtta [37% of ch i ldren inmult icultural famil ies are bul l ied] ."(http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/01/10/2012011000131.html) Chosŏn ilbo,January 10. Accessed May 15, 2015.

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Discourse, and the Politics of Multiculturalismin South Korea: A Comparative Perspective." InMultiethnic Korea? ed. John Lie, 31–57.Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Moenig, Udo. 2015. Taekwondo: From aMartial Art to a Martial Sport. New York:Routledge.

No, Sŏnghwa. 2011. "Yŏnghwa 'Hwanghaepip'an' [Criticizing The Yellow Sea]."(http://bbs.moyiza.com/crcn_debate/1183911) Moyiza. Accessed July 10, 2015.

Parreñas, Rhacel Salazar, and Joon K. Kim.2 0 1 1 . " M u l t i c u l t u r a l E a s t - A s i a :An Introduction." Journal of Ethnic andMigration Studies 37(10): 1555–61.

Suh, Jae-Jung, Sunwon Park, and Hahn Y. Kim.2012. "Democratic Consolidation and Its Limitsin Korea: Dilemmas of Cooptation," AsianSurvey, 52 (5): 822-844.

Y i , J asŭmin . 2013 . "Taehanmingukoch'ŏnmyongi ta tamunhwada [All fifty millionK o r e a n s a r e m u l t i c u l t u r a l ] . "(http://www.dailian.co.kr/news) Dailian,February 10. Accessed April 1, 2014.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Professor Elyssa Faison,Professor Tessa Morris-Suzuki, and ProfessorLaura Hein for their constructive commentsand suggestions that contributed to improvethe article. And I would like to thank theDirector of The Harry S. Truman Institute forthe Advancement for Peace, ProfessorMenahem Blondheim, for his great support forKorean studies at The Hebrew University ofJerusalem.

SPECIAL FEATURE

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Hallyu: The Korean Wave and Asia (6 of 6)

Jooyeon Rhee and Nissim Otmazgin, "Expanding Transnational Dialogue in Asia throughHallyu." (https://apjjf.org/2016/07/Rhee-1.html)

Nissim Otmazgin, "A New Cultural Geography of East Asia: Imagining A 'Region' throughPopular Culture." (https://apjjf.org/2016/07/Otmazgin.html)

Mary J. Ainslie, "K-dramas across Thailand: Constructions of Koreanness and Thainess bycontemporary Thai consumers." (https://apjjf.org/2016/07/Ainslie.html)

Millie Creighton, "Through the Korean Wave Looking Glass: Gender, Consumerism,Transnationalism, Tourism Reflecting Japan-Korea Relations in Global East Asia."(https://apjjf.org/2016/07/Creighton.html)

Chikako Nagayama, "Women's Desire, Heterosexual Norms and Transnational Feminism:(https://apjjf.org/2016/07/Nagayama.html)Kitahara Minori's Good-bye Hallyu." (https://apjjf.org/2016/07/Nagayama.html)

Dr. Jooyeon Rhee is Lecturer at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her main researchexamines gender representation in modern Korean literature. Her research interests includeKorean film, Korean diaspora and Korea-Japan cultural interactions.

Notes1 The recent blockbuster was Myŏngnayng (The Admiral: Roaring Currents), a film aboutGeneral Yi Sunsin and his leadership in naval battles during the Imjin War, which drew morethan 1.6 million viewers (Korean Film Council).2 Not only was Korea's free press ranking downgraded from "free" to "partly free" in 2011(Fattig 2013), but criminal defamation cases have also increased significantly since the arrivalof the Lee administration, reaching almost 10,000 cases in 2011 from 4,000 in 2007 (Haggard2013).3 The Korean government initiated its "Study in Korea" project in 2001, and the number offoreign students increased from about 1,600 in 2001 to almost 100,000 in 2012, of whichstudents from China comprise almost half of the total number (Chŏng 2014, 447–66). Thetotal number of foreign visitors to Korea reached almost 1.35 million, out of which two thirdsof the visitors were tourists. Tourists from East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia compriseabout 84 per cent of the total number of visitors as of May 2015 (Korea Tourism Organization(http://kto.visitkorea.or.kr/kor/notice/data/statis/profit/board/view.kto?id=424589&isNotice=false&instanceId=294&rnum=7), accessed August 6, 2015).4 A further explanation of this pattern is that many men in rural areas have difficulty findingmarriage partners, since young Korean women are reluctant to settle into farminghouseholds. Due to the shortage of marriageable women, the state and private marriage

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agencies have provided opportunities for these men to seek foreign wives.5 Korea will be hosting the Winter Olympics in 2018.6 This kind of comparison appears prominently in right-wing newspapers such as Chosŏn ilbo,DongA ilbo, and Kyŏnghyang sinmun.7 Koreans and ethnic Koreans share their opinions on this identity issue through a few onlinecommunities, such as Moyiza (www.moyiza.com).8 The trailer for Banga Banga can be viewed here(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VvNt3fUU38).9 Since there are quite a few responses, I will introduce only some of them that discuss thesepoints. Pak Hoyŏl, "Ya han'guk sahoe! Onjekkaji bangabanga halkkonya? [You, Koreansociety, until when will you say bangabanga?]," Ohmynews, October 1, 2010. Pŏdŭnamukŭnŭl, "Yŏnghwa Banga Banga ga chunŭn ssŭpssŭlhan mesiji [A bitter message that comesfrom the film Banga Banga]" (http://naya7931.tistory.com/298). Some of the film critics'reviews can be found in Cine 21 (http://www.cine21.com/movie/info/movie_id/29083).10 The trailer for Where is Ronnie… can be viewed here(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWsi26WFyas).11 This festival was established in 2006 by native Koreans and foreigners in Korea, includingmigrant workers and multicultural families. The festival is held annually and it encouragesthe participation of anyone who is interested in making films about the living and workingconditions of foreigners in Korea and enhancing communication between migrants and nativeKoreans. Mahbub Alam, who plays Ronnie in the film, is one of the most representative mediaactivists in trying to improve human rights condition for foreigners in Korea(http://www.mwff.org/introduction).