Asian Culture, Lifestyle and Entertainment
A host of teenage K-pop idols have graduated from high school and middle school recently, including 2AM’s Jinwoon, Girls’ Generation’s Seohyun, SHINee’s Minho, UKISS’ Dongho and 4minute’s Sohyun. Arirang reports…
Right or wrong, debuting at young age is the new trend in K-pop. It’s worth noting though, that most of these teenage idols would stick to their education, and some would pursue their study in college while being a busy pop star.
Japanese singer Ai Kawashima has an ambitious goal to build 100 schools for the poor across the world.
The 23-year-old star, who was orphaned twice in her early life, has built a school each in Burkina Faso and Cambodia. Her third school is currently under construction in Liberia, and she’s planning to build her fourth in East Timor…
I’m impressed, and inspired. Kudos for the young lady and her helping fans.
Remember the Japanese comedy skit of “getting to work in 5-minutes?” Here’s another similar piece from the same show, of “getting your kid ready to school in five minutes,” featuring comedian Tomoko Murakami.
Not as brilliant imo, but quite funny nonetheless… [again, via Japanprobe]
Korea’s major school uniform makers have agreed to end all celebrity endorsements indefinitely before the new school term begins in March. The cost cutting decision was made following government’s demand to halt the rising prices of school uniforms.
It’s a good call from the government and manufacturers, but some fans might mourn that they won’t be seeing their favourite idols in cute uniforms in near future lol.
Image from Elite’s photoshoot, featuring pop group SNSD and 2PM.
Japanese gravure idol Chinatsu Wakatsuki is selling T-shirts with her semi-nude image for fund-raising to build a school in India.
The 24-year-old idol was hoping to sell at least 3000 T-shirts at 2000 yen each to raise 6 million yen (USD67k) for the cause… and her goal was easily achieved just days after her intention was made public.
There are criticism that it’s a publicity stunt, which might be true. Regardless, she is contributing to the society in her own way, which is probably more than most average persons will ever do… kudos for that.
~590,000 Korean students took their College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT, 수능 Suneung) on Thursday (Nov 13) – a day where the students had to endure a gruelling nine-hour tests that would significantly influence their future career prospect.
It’s a day where stock market and offices were opened an hour late to ease the morning traffic; where flights had to be rescheduled during the listening test to avoid the slightest disturbance; and it’s a day where temples and churches were packed with parents praying for good performances from their kids.
The CSAT would determine which university/college the Korean students would be enrolled to, and the reputation of the universities will make a huge impact on their career path, which is true in most nations but far more definite for Koreans.
The larger-than-life exam culture is not entirely unique to Korea. Most of the East Asian countries are adopting similar ideology, presumably originated from the Chinese civil servants’ exams in ancient Chinese dynasty thousand of years ago. The Koreans however seem to be taking the idea to its extremity.
Many quarters have criticised that the high pressure of preparing for the CSAT attributes to the high suicide rates of Korean teenagers. Some others are also criticising that the system are undermining the students’ creativity and other talents.
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