♪♪
Have you ever gotten a slimming facial before?
No.
Because if you want to be a celebrity in Korea,
you have to have a face the size of your fist.
Could I be a celebrity in Korea with this face?
Wait, they get slimmed every week?
This is terrible!
I don't want to have a slim face.
Slim life is tough.
Did my face get fatter?
This is... crazy.
Yo, what up? It's your boy, Eddie Huang.
You're watching "Huang's World," and we in Korea.
Mm-hmm.
♪♪
♪ Y'all in the wrong world ♪
♪ So look here, man ♪
♪ Welcome to "Huang's World" ♪
♪ World traveler ♪
♪ The food, whoo, good and delicious ♪
♪ Shanghai, Moscow, check out the pictures ♪
♪ L.A., New York, M-I-A, oh, London ♪
♪ The schedule's vicious ♪
♪ Welcome to "Huang's World"! ♪
♪♪
As an Asian American, the Asian foods that I saw in my neighborhoods growing up
were primarily Chinese, Japanese, and in the late '90s, early 2000s,
you saw Vietnamese and Thai restaurants start to pop up.
But towards the middle of the 2000s,
Korean restaurants started to open in every city.
But in East Asia, it's been more than just food.
If you live in East Asia,
the number-one producer of cultural content is South Korea.
- From K-Pop... - ♪ Ooh, ooh! ♪
To films to fashion.
They've been ravaged by war, and you look now,
these people picked themselves up and built a first-world city
in what was a developing country 25 years ago.
And that's why we're in Seoul today.
♪♪
So, we're here at Seodaemun Prison to meet Quincy,
who's the son of a Korean diplomat, born in Korea,
and also known for having the crispiest Air Force Ones in all of Seoul.
- What's up, man? - How's it going, Eddie?
Good, good. Thanks for the time.
We wanted to meet you here at Seodaemun Prison because throughout history,
Korea's the most invaded country in the world.
Yes, it is.
900 and somewhat times historically, you know, recorded,
and Seodaemun Prison is one of those prisons that was built in the early 1900s,
and the Japanese people used to torture a lot of Koreans
that were fighting for independence.
A lot of tyrants sold this country out
to the Japanese people because it was a very strategic point
for the Japanese army to conquer.
- To the north of China? - Right, right, through China.
♪♪
So, this is basically the history of imperialism in Korea?
Right. And over here, in 1910, the forcible annexation took place,
and Japan ruled Korea up until 1945.
In the Western culture, you don't really
get to learn about how Asia was dominated by Japan
and conquered, and all the war crimes or whatnot isn't really spotlighted.
This is where people got hung.
They got dropped right here.
Yeah, if you came into this prison, you weren't going out.
♪♪
After 1945, General MacArthur pardons the Japanese emperor for all its war crimes
and leaves the Japanese jurisdiction to stay in Korea to play a role of police.
While the election was taking place, there were three president runner-ups...
Kim Gu, Rhee Syngman, and Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of Kim Jong Un right now.
Rhee Syngman became the first president, and Kim Il Sung didn't like that at all.
He declared war in 1950, June 25th, and started the Korean War.
Sooner or later, they had to call it quits and they drew the line.
And this tree that you see up here,
very symbolic because this was the final chapter of many independent fighters'
lives.
The prisoners hugged this tree before stepping into the execution room.
And they actually planted two trees at the same time,
one on the outside and one on the inside.
The one on the inside's dying out, and the one on the outside still lives.
So, on the outside, there's life.
On the inside, there's death.
I would love to see more prison, but I would prefer to get lunch, bro.
You want to have some North Korean noodles - on top of that? - Yeah, let's do it.
- Right? Yeah. - Some Korean noodles.
♪♪
So, we're eating at a Pyongyang naengmyeon, right?
Right. Which literally means "Pyongyang noodles."
Yeah.
This is the traditional form of noodles, how it was in Korea.
The Pyongyang naengmyeon restaurants that have opened
is through people that have fled south and they wanted to keep the tradition.
This is what this restaurant has been doing for the last couple of decades.
All right. Naengmyeon.
♪♪
Wow. Wow.
Very intense.
Deep, clear beef bone stock.
Excellent.
Look at these nice pieces.
Looks like brisket or chuck flap here.
Really good.
Oh.
Nice.
Oh, that's good.
How do you feel with the switch that South Korea's made from,
like, defense and militaristic, like, outlook to a soft power
where the primary power in South Korea is cultural?
What happened in Korea is after the 1980s,
there was this change from dictatorship towards democracy.
Through that, Koreans started to get exposed to the Western world.
This is the fastest trend-absorbing country in the world.
Korean people absorb things and then they change it in their own style.
The entertainment's emulating hip-hop in America.
Right.
Or emulating pop music.
Exactly.
Creativity was not priority.
What was priority was being educated
and learning the ropes by memorizing things at school.
And because of the Confucius philosophy that Koreans still maintain and have,
we see many side effects coming out of it.
It's about the nation, not about the individual.
That's why the creativity part is now kicking in with this new generation,
and, you know, it might be something very new to many people in the world.
Yeah.
Hmm.
♪♪
The thing that I love about Korean food
is it's the one food that I could eat seven days a week.
Everybody thinks South Korea's big on street food,
but it's more about market food culture.
Yeah. Hey, what's up with this building?
So, I think it's actually from the old Japanese occupation.
That's why you always see, like, the domes
when you go to Japan, like Osaka or Tokyo.
We just like to point out any time we can, Japanese occupied a lot of people.
- Where are we? - So, this is Mangwon Market in kind of the Hongdae area,
and it's one of my favorite markets.
I live in this neighborhood. It's a good place for families
and it's an up-and-coming area with some good restaurants, too.
Aaron is our fixer, but also his food knowledge is, like, out of here.
One of the things, like, you can't get in a lot
of Korean restaurants in America is deok boki.
This is a spicy rice cake with fish cake inside.
Yeah.
I've had it sometimes at Bonchon, or some fried chicken restaurants
will have it as a side dish, but they charge $12, $15 for it.
Like, it's an expensive appetizer.
But here, it's a real street food.
It's something on the go.
It's kind of like our macaroni and cheese, like... - Yeah. - All the kids eat it.
Mmm.
It's al dente, but very silky on the outside, but tender,
and then the spicy sauce isn't just dry heat.
It's a rounded spiciness.
Right.
Very, very good.
♪♪
Oh, they got hand-cut noodles?
Yeah.
They have one with perilla seed powder - that's really good. - Oh, okay.
Yeah, it's almost like an Alfredo consistency.
This is derived from, like, northern Chinese knife-cut noodles, right?
- Exactly. - Yeah.
All the best Korean food has Chinese origins, I think.
So, this is anchovy, perilla powder, which is sesame leaf, nori, and green onions.
Yeah.
Very, very good.
And you're totally right. It has the consistency of,
like, a cream sauce, but it's coming from the powder.
It's not dairy at all.
It's almost like a bottarga Alfredo.
Yeah. That's exactly right.
Very good.
Wow, that was incredible.
And then over on the side, they do, like, kind of General Tso's chicken.
Oh, I need that.
They have all the generals.
This is Colonel Mustard, that's General Cocktail Fruit, General Little Pepper.
Just tastes like excellence.
Come on.
♪♪
Like, every market has a designated, like, "famous dish."
Yeah.
Here's fried chicken and stuffed peppers.
Oh.
This market.
- Wow, this is delicious. - Yeah.
She makes a good pepper.
So, this is, like, a pepper filled with scrambled eggs fried with spicy sauce.
Too bad there's none for you guys to try.
Let's go to the next place.
Okay.
Oh, here's the fried chicken.
So, this is the traditional way of frying fried chicken.
You see they'll add, like, rice flour.
So, the modern innovation is the double frying of chicken
with the thicker batter and then the sauce?
- And marinade, too, sometimes. - Yeah.
This is cool, though. They cut it open, spatchcock it,
and really, when you fry it this way, the chicken can get fried
and cooked through at the same time.
Everything's gonna cook pretty evenly this way.
Excellent piece.
I think the trademark of this chicken is very light, crispy, delicate skin.
Not seasoned very heavily, and you can taste the essence of this chicken.
All the flavor comes out.
Wow.
Mm.
In rap, you have to talk about what you live...
- Yeah. - ...and so we're not out here gangbanging
Or selling drugs or nothing like that,
so we're talking about stuff like, you know, caters to Korea.
♪♪
So, after centuries of war and strife and poverty,
South Korea started to see how much America was making
and how influential it was through the distribution of cultural product.
And they decided to create their own entertainment industry.
And ever since that decision, K-pop, Korean soap operas...
and Korean films are recognized worldwide.
So, we're gonna meet with Albert from Yonsei University
here at Seo-Seo Galbi to talk about film and its rise in South Korea.
♪♪
- How's it going, Albert? - Hey.
Nice to meet you.
Definitely, man.
I heard this place is one of the best barbecue spots.
They only have one item on the menu, I think, here.
It's just kalbi and the one marinade.
Yeah, and you can bring in some stuff,
like you bring in your own rice, you bring your own kimchi.
That's dope. So, you lecture at Yonsei University?
Yeah, I teach film, filmmaking, film studies,
and screenwriting over at Yonsei University.
Word. What was it in the, like, mid '90s
that got South Korea to spend so much money in entertainment, and specifically film?
When they saw "Jurassic Park,"
they realized that the earnings for "Jurassic Park"
for just one year was basically equivalent to 1.5 million Hyundai Sonatas, right?
- Oh, wow. - About that time, They were making about 640,000 cars in the country,
so basically one film, "Jurassic Park,"
was worth 2 1/2 years worth of Korean exports of their cars.
- Right? - Yeah.
♪♪
Very good. Really good.
Sugar, soy, a little bit of wine.
Here's their dipping sauce.
A lot of sugar, soy, garlic, scallions.
Sesame seeds.
MSG.
The secret ingredient, yep.
Yeah. I love it.
I think with East Asian cinema, towards the, like, end of the '90s and early 2000s,
it becomes a very strong presence from Korea,
and at least in my feeling, "Oldboy" is the movie
that I think takes it over the top, and that's, like, the big East Asian film
that crosses over, I feel.
If there's a Korean national brand for film,
that's pretty much it. You know, "Oldboy"...
have you seen any films of Kim Jee-Woon?
"I Saw the Devil."
Like, halfway through the film, I thought I was gonna poop my pants
out of just pure emotional discomfort.
- Yeah. - You know?
Overall, the sentiment I get when I watch Korean films,
it almost feels like it's from the mind of a middle brother.
Raaaaaaaaaah!
Yeah, 'cause Korea has been... traditionally seen itself
as kind of squeezed among the big powers.
Hermit country, and squeezed, yeah.
Yeah, after liberation from Japan in 1945, you had the Korean war, obviously,
setting brother against brother from north and south.
- Yeah. - And even in the south, Because of the authoritarian regime,
people felt really abused and really frustrated,
and as part of this rapid economic growth that Korea experienced,
a lot of people also felt they were really exploited.
But, Korea, you start to see the films, and it's like,
"We are gonna stand up, we are gonna fight,
and we are going to go through our pain."
That's why you see this current government
pushing what they call the creative economy
after seeing how much Korean films, Korean music,
and other aspects of Korean culture have sort of spread
around the world and captivated the interest of people.
I think it's very important for the world to listen
and pay attention to what Korea has to say, because this is a group of people,
this is a country that is unwilling to just be, like, the whipping boy any longer.
♪♪
While a lot of South Korea's culture is just repurposing Western pop culture,
there are a lot of individuals in Seoul that are creating new movements
and contributing their voice and singular identities,
even if they're working with Western materials.
Yo, so we about to meet the pride of the 206
in Seoul, Jay Park.
♪ If they say that they know me, then you know they lyin' ♪
♪ Call me your highness ♪
- Good to see you, man. - Looking fly. Damn.
- This the studio? - Yeah.
Yeah, it's cold as... out here.
- Hi. - That's Ugly Duck right there.
- I don't know if you met him. - Ugly Duck? Yeah.
Our little office or studio or whatever. It's not big.
Yeah, 'cause you got, like, a label now, too, right?
Yeah, yeah.
It's very different than the States, you know?
Out here in Korea, it's like the studio environment is very, like, stiff.
- Yeah. - Well, you're one of the dudes That's kind of changing it, right,
because you had your foot in K-pop, kind of, - like, at its peak. - They casted me.
They're like, "Yo, we want you to be part of this boy group, da, da, da."
I wasn't the one striving for fame or for, you know, the celebrity lifestyle.
I was just trying to take care of my family.
It almost kind of killed my creativity
and it kind of, like, sort of took away my motivation.
Is it time, in your opinion, that Korea starts to create things in their own vision?
Korean rappers, you know, they have their own twist to it.
In rap, you have to talk about what you live.
- Yeah. - So, we're not out here gangbanging or selling drugs or nothing like that.
So we're talking about stuff, like, you know, caters to Korea.
Yeah, so Ugly Duck, one of your artists.
Yeah, yeah.
He collabed with this Japanese rapper.
His name is JJJ, uh, and he went to Japan to shoot this music video with them.
It's just, like, this run-and-gun type film.
Word.
Experience.
It's not often that you see a Japanese rapper
and a Korean rapper on the same track.
Just 'cause of the beef over all the years?
That, and also the language barrier, but now it's like with the Internet
and everything like that, I think the Internet really killed those barriers.
♪ Eddie rockin' the spot ♪
I ordered some Chinese food.
- Dope. - Jajangmyeon.
And the sweet and sour pork, and the spicy fried chicken.
- How is it? - It's good.
This like Korean General Tso's.
It's a little bit sharper, it's a little bit more minimalist.
It has fewer ingredients, but maybe you taste a little bit more
'cause it's less complicated.
You gonna go out tonight?
I'm probably gonna go to Henz, dude, yeah.
♪♪
Ooh. Yeah, we cold, but we at Henz.
We about to get litty again.
This is a Korean delicacy here?
Yes.
Let's go.
♪♪
I feel hydrated as... - Yeah? -Yeah.
♪♪
Since Korea's made the shift to soft power and entertainment,
it's really taken off and it's become successful.
But then new problems arise because now there's the stress
of living up to, like, this look and this face.
This guy's everywhere! What?
Get out of here. That lady saw.
We're gonna meet Charlotte, who's a beauty blogger at Olive Young,
the biggest cosmetic store in South Korea.
♪♪
- Hey. How's it going? - Hi!
- Eddie. - Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, too.
Definitely. Thanks for bringing us
- to Olive Young. - Yeah. Have you heard of the store before?
No, but it looks like Duane Reade, like the wife of Duane Reade opened it in Korea.
It's kind of like a health and beauty concept,
and there's literally 800 Olive Youngs in Korea.
You guys are very into beauty, cosmetics.
They have, like, over 10,000 brands here.
Why is it that you think Koreans got so into skin care?
That's how they were able to become a powerhouse in Asia.
It's a small-ass country. No natural resources, so they got to... work hard
and look their best.
Do you feel pressure a lot of the time to, like, get cosmetic surgery
or, like, maintain this face?
So, I lived in Korea for five years and I was working at Samsung,
and I would be bombarded with those, like,
advertisements on the subway encouraging people to,
like, get it done before their job interview, but, like, there was some pressure,
and you would start to think, like, "Oh, do I need this?
All my co-workers at Samsung are getting it done."
I think because I have my roots in the U.S.,
I stayed a little bit grounded, and so I wasn't...
- I mean, I didn't have to go that far. - Yeah.
But definitely I picked up the skin care routine.
Yeah.
So, I might as well go through a beauty routine for you.
Uh-huh.
First... cleansing, super important.
This has real green tea leaves at the base.
A lot of antioxidants.
And then?
Exfoliating pads. Does it smell good?
It's like grape soda exfoliated on your face.
Oh.
- We got to do a mask. - Mm-hmm.
They're, like, all obsessed about hydration
- 'cause it gets rid - Of your fine lines and wrinkles.
I feel hydrated as... - Yeah? -Yeah.
Again, it's all about layering all those products and just cocooning your skin
in all these, like, hydrating products.
So, it kind of builds a shell or layers... Yeah, exactly.
Between yourself and the world.
Yes.
Dave, you would like this regiment.
Building layers between yourself and the world, protecting your sensitive self.
Who's the Gosling of Korea?
Like, kind of awkward strength guy.
- Like, you know, Gosling's - A little awkward, but then... Yeah.
You can tell he's, like, got a lot of strength
and depth and complexity and you would love to hang out with him.
There's actually this VR Oculus animation at this store called Industry, and...
This makes sense.
Gosling is so dope that Korea had to create him in virtual reality.
There's not actually a man that is like Gosling.
They had to virtually create him.
Oh, that's cool.
I don't know how we got to Ryan Gosling from here.
No one ever knows where they get to on this show from where.
I don't know how we ended up in a Duane Reade in Korea.
We still get lunch with you, right?
Yeah.
♪♪
We're gonna go check out a Jokbal restaurant.
- Uh-huh. - And it's, like, - basically pig trotters, pig feet. - Word.
It's gonna be good for your skin, so... - Oh, yeah? - Yeah.
Okay. I need this.
♪♪
So, we're doing Soju.
Oh, good, yeah. Soju, good.
I mix my Soju with my beer.
Is that trashy or is that, like, a pro move?
No, that's actually... This is, like, a typical, like... This is what you guys do.
Yeah, typical.
Oh, good.
It's called a poktan.
So that's, like, "bomb" in Korea.
Oh, okay.
And the first... first drink is always one shot.
♪♪
Best meal I've had yet.
Oh, wow.
This is a jokbal.
Mm.
So, this is braised, huh?
- Yes. - That looks pretty good.
So, the reason why I brought you here is that this...
the pig trotters, pig feet... Yeah.
Has lots of collagen, and so people in Korea,
they're really into drinking and eating things that make their skin look better.
Even though that's just kind of a wives' tale.
- A myth, yeah. - A myth.
This is really good.
Hi.
Hello.
Yo, I came back here. She's from Dongbei.
She's Chinese, and they're making this pig trotter.
Oh.
Ohh.
All right, you can't leave shot glasses empty in Korea,
and I can't pour my own shot.
That's why you guys can't make phones.
That's, like, the national shame right now.
Yeah.
All right, cool. Thank you.
♪♪
What was it like working at Samsung, though?
To me, like, it was the best experience of my life,
and I'm also... I just really am proud of Korea.
One of the things I want to highlight through my work
is, look, Korea has amazing skin care, cosmetics.
They're doing amazing shit that everyone in the U.S.
and everyone in the West is, like, looking at, and so that's my passion.
Yeah. There are definitely industries Korea is dominating,
and, like, it's really cool to hear you talk.
- Even when you say, - Like, Samsung, you're like,
"It's a source of shame for the whole country."
I get it. We wear all the pride and the shame of our countries,
and I think realizing that every single thing that happens is now on our faces,
it's a lot of pressure. It's gonna be good.
Cheers.
♪♪
♪ Sea, sea, sea ♪
She's too fast for me.
♪♪
While the current generation of South Koreans
has fully bought into the idea of cultural soft power,
we want to visit some women from the generation before
that remembers the Japanese occupation, that perhaps saw the Korean War,
and see how they're keeping up with the cultural changes today.
♪♪
Good morning.
We are at Gangseo English Library, and we're gonna learn some fire English.
Hi, Ms. Choi?
- Yes. - Cool. Cool.
Hi.
♪ A sailor went to sea, sea, sea ♪
♪ To see what he could see, see, see ♪
We're good. Okay.
Good.
♪ Sea, sea, sea ♪
1, 2, 3.
She's too fast for me.
♪♪
It's important, 'cause Halloween, you know, you give out candy,
and when people grow up, you know... Halloween sometimes becomes a sexy holiday.
So you tell people with a costume... "You can show two out of three."
Face, chest, or butt. Two out of three.
Ahh.
You can show two out of three.
Happy Halloween.
Don't be too sexy.
Lunch time.
What's the age of the people in the class?
About 60.
Is it... Do you notice a lot of people of this generation wants to learn English?
- Yes. - Yeah?
Because kids are very good at English, so... They want to speak English to them?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, with them.
So, their kids are good at English, so they want to learn?
Yes.
So, you like the... the... the new big business?
You like big business Korea?
Thank you, thank you.
She gives you hugs.
This is two hugs?
Oh! Okay.
Korean pizza.
That's good.
Kimbap is basically Korean California maki with dope radishes.
Korea maki.
This class is fun.
Yes.
South Korea has everything to be proud of, but one byproduct and one issue
they're really facing is suicide.
♪♪
South Korea actually has the highest rate of suicide in the world.
When you go through South Korea, you start to see so much pressure.
It's been a phenomenal rise, and there's a lot to be proud of in this country,
but one byproduct and one issue they're really facing is suicide.
They have the highest rate of suicide in the world,
and there's a lot of factors... social, economic.
A lot of pressure in this country.
What they do here is they allow people
to walk through a funeral as a form of therapy.
Ah.
This is good. I'm gonna live a long time according to him.
I had a big smile.
I think death, to me and to a lot of the people that were here today,
is about appreciating the life that you have.
It felt like I was around a group of people
that had not been able to contemplate life.
They definitely contemplated death, they'd definitely been fearful of death,
and it definitely had driven them to be very accomplished, very ambitious,
and as an outsider, I would just say to be proud of yourselves.
You've inspired a lot of people around the world,
and I think it's your time to enjoy it.
♪♪
The general image is that all adoptees, we were saved from something horrible.
If I had the choice, I would've chosen to stay in Korea.
♪♪
A lot of developing countries fall victim to the resource curse.
And in at least one way, South Korea has, as well.
But in place of oil or gold coasts,
what people wanted from Korea were its children.
It's an irreversible tragedy, but people like Pastor Kim and Ko Root
are trying to reconnect adoptees with their native culture and land.
- Good morning. - Good morning.
- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
Thanks for having us.
Oh. Welcome.
Why is it that so many Korean children were put up for adoption the last 50 years?
Is it just because of poverty and... and war and economic hardship?
'70s, we have to solve the problem, but the Korean government need more money...
hard currency, dollars.
One child brings $20,000 to $30,000 per children.
- That's a lot of money in Korea. - A lot of money.
It is almost one person's yearly salary,
and that money was meaningful one for Korean government,
and the reason why... slowly beginning of '70s, the adoption agencies
are becoming strong and strong, and nation-wide,
they systematized the whole structure.
Encouraging adoption.
- You know? - That's what it is.
So the agencies were making money by encouraging adoption?
Yes, yes. That is the key point.
I mean, that's the worst natural resource extraction I've ever heard of, you know?
People, they take oil from places, they take steel from places, they...
And children from Korea.
- I know I got to let you cook. - Yeah, yeah.
Got to do the cooking now.
Thank you so much.
Yeah. Okay.
- Hi. A.K. - Nice to meet you.
- Eddie. - Matt.
Nice to meet you.
How long did you stay here?
About three months.
When I was transitioning to Seoul, I didn't have a place to stay,
so I was here for about a few months, and I grew up in Truckee, California.
- Truckee? - Yeah. Lake Tahoe.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know Lake Tahoe.
So, these are the dorms, I guess.
How many people stay here?
It really depends. There's high seasons.
So, in the summer, a lot of people come here on, like, reunion searches
looking for their birth parents, and so at that time,
you see kind of an influx of people,
but then in offseason like now, it's usually pretty calm.
There was, like, a first generation kind of wave,
and then now, I would say, like, my age,
it's more kind of the second generation that... that's kind of come back, and...
You know, you grow up and I think you have these...
for myself, I had these feelings of, you know, wanting to reject everything Korean
and wanting to, you know, assimilate as much as I could,
and I think... and in college, I got politicized a little bit
and started to understand what it meant to be adoptee in a sort of racial lens
and in an immigration lens, and then, so, yeah, I think that...
that sort of interest was... was slow growing.
Number-one audio.
Should we go downstairs?
- Yep. - Yeah.
- The oven wasn't working. - Yeah.
So now he's doing the dish in the campfire stove.
That's even more Korean.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
The general image is that all adoptees got happy families
and had happy childhoods and that we were saved
from something horrible in the countries we came from.
- It's almost like a missionary - Mentality in a way?
- Yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Definitely. I think if I had the choice as a child,
I would've chosen to stay in Korea.
Why?
I did not have a very good adoption.
I didn't have a very good relationship with my adopted parents.
My experience in Denmark as a child wasn't good.
My experience growing up in Korea would probably not have been good either,
but at least I would have felt rooted in a culture that matched my appearance.
I'm not for, like, inter-country adoption as it exists today.
I think there's not enough being done in terms of family preservation in Korea.
There's not enough resources spent on single mothers
trying to raise their children here in Korea.
There have been a lot of emergency cases,
like with earthquakes or hurricanes or whatever,
where children are just being air lifted
out of those countries and then placed for adoption somewhere.
- Yeah. - But, like, nothing has been done to actually figure out
did these children actually lose their families?
Did they not have extended families?
And there's too much motivation with people
from first-world countries and money taking children... Exactly.
As a resource for their own benefit.
- Yeah. Yeah. - Eating?
- Oh, time to eat? - Eating?
- Okay, yeah, eating. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Everybody, lunchtime.
Lunchtime for everybody then, I guess, yeah?
♪♪
Sorry I'm too late cooking.
- No, thank you. - Yeah, no problem, no problem.
From here... you have to bring your dishes from here.
When they were adopting overseas adoptees,
it was a time where they were borrowing huge amounts of foreign cash to pay for,
you know, economic development projects
and things like that, and so all the foreign currency was, like,
really tightly controlled by the government, and a big source of foreign currency
was inter-country adoptions.
If you look into the history and the social structures,
we were very much a big part of the country becoming what it is today.
Yeah. It is very powerful to meet you guys and hear about what you went through
and see you still do really well.
That's inspiring, even though you don't want to perpetuate it.
Yeah.
Pastor Kim, you have anything else you want to say, or you feel good?
♪♪
Over the last 15 to 20 years, we've seen South Koreans sacrifice,
pool their resources, and prove that anything you can do,
they can do as well if not better.
But I think what South Koreans want to do is stop playing catch-up
and start creating things in their own vision, in their own identities,
in line with their own values and histories.
Because everyone we've met here has shown us that it's possible.
♪♪