Revelation
My mom and I recently caught up with the 진짜 사나이 fever that's all the rage in Korea these days. (Apparently, it even won over 1박 2일 in ratings.) The show features male celebrities that enroll in the Korean army for a few days. They participate in all the activities that ordinary soldiers-in-training engage in, and go through the similar process that all Korean men have to through sometime in their lives.
Along with a lot of popularity among viewers (especially men over the age of 30), Korean ahjummas have been raving over the three golden men in the show (aka the currently most-wanted son-in-laws): Jang Hyuk, Ryu Soo Young, and Park Hyung Shik.
Jang Hyuk is the actor that can out-perform almost every 조교, or leading officer, in all the training routines. Ryu Soo Young is the most positive guy you could ever meet, sharing all of his good energy with the other soldiers. The two are currently in a heated contest over the title of "perfect guy" in the team.
Finally, we have Park Hyung Shik, the ZE:A member with such the baby face. He is 21 going on 22 this year, which makes him older than the average age of most male citizens of Korea that go off to do their service for the country. In other words, if he wasn't a celebrity, he would've already been to the army, maybe even finished his term by now. He is called the "아기 병사" in the team, which just perfectly describes him. He literally makes me constantly doubt his real age, he looks like such a baby! (This is coming from someone who has always been called out for my own baby face.)
When my mom first saw him on the show, she was so surprised. She'd never seen a celebrity that looks so pure and without all the dirt that working in showbiz brings, at least not in a long time. I immediately recognized him, as I'm good with faces. I saw him for the first time (I think) on Gurupop, when ZE:A was invited for its 7th episode. As I usually do, I picked him as my favorite out of the group, just appearance-wise. All I remember about him is that one of the other members picked him as someone they'd want to be for a day, because he's so tall.
I was particularly surprised at her reaction, as I couldn't see anything besides his very cute, baby face. However, my mom, 28 years my senior in life, could see something that I couldn't. And I guess that every other Korean ahjumma could see it too, because ever since he came on the show, they've been complimenting and talking about him on the Internet.
There's a thing in Korea called 인상, which loosely translates to a sort of facial impression or facial reading. As a part of Korea's Confucian culture, a majority of Korean elders (40 or older) and a lot of Korean people in general participate in this kind of facial reading as part of tradition. Although there's the Western saying, "do not judge a book by its cover," the way a book looks is considered very important in a lot of Asian cultures. I think that while people should not judge solely on appearance, it should be taken into account when looking at the overall person, especially if you only have the first impression of them.
My mom is particularly good at reading faces, which comes from her older age and individual wiseness. At 17, I have to admit that I don't have her kind of wisdom, and as a long-time fan of Korean media, I've gotten the often habit of looking at looks, or how good-looking someone is (usually of the male gender). However, I still don't know how to accurately read faces (only know if a guy is my type or not) or actually see people (cause that's what it essentially is). Although no one can always perfectly read people, I want to become at least half as wise as my mom, and become a better seer of people. Just an unexpected insight I got from (gasp) Korean media, (somewhat refreshingly) different from what I usually post in this blog. ; )
Along with a lot of popularity among viewers (especially men over the age of 30), Korean ahjummas have been raving over the three golden men in the show (aka the currently most-wanted son-in-laws): Jang Hyuk, Ryu Soo Young, and Park Hyung Shik.
Jang Hyuk is the actor that can out-perform almost every 조교, or leading officer, in all the training routines. Ryu Soo Young is the most positive guy you could ever meet, sharing all of his good energy with the other soldiers. The two are currently in a heated contest over the title of "perfect guy" in the team.
Finally, we have Park Hyung Shik, the ZE:A member with such the baby face. He is 21 going on 22 this year, which makes him older than the average age of most male citizens of Korea that go off to do their service for the country. In other words, if he wasn't a celebrity, he would've already been to the army, maybe even finished his term by now. He is called the "아기 병사" in the team, which just perfectly describes him. He literally makes me constantly doubt his real age, he looks like such a baby! (This is coming from someone who has always been called out for my own baby face.)
When my mom first saw him on the show, she was so surprised. She'd never seen a celebrity that looks so pure and without all the dirt that working in showbiz brings, at least not in a long time. I immediately recognized him, as I'm good with faces. I saw him for the first time (I think) on Gurupop, when ZE:A was invited for its 7th episode. As I usually do, I picked him as my favorite out of the group, just appearance-wise. All I remember about him is that one of the other members picked him as someone they'd want to be for a day, because he's so tall.
I was particularly surprised at her reaction, as I couldn't see anything besides his very cute, baby face. However, my mom, 28 years my senior in life, could see something that I couldn't. And I guess that every other Korean ahjumma could see it too, because ever since he came on the show, they've been complimenting and talking about him on the Internet.
There's a thing in Korea called 인상, which loosely translates to a sort of facial impression or facial reading. As a part of Korea's Confucian culture, a majority of Korean elders (40 or older) and a lot of Korean people in general participate in this kind of facial reading as part of tradition. Although there's the Western saying, "do not judge a book by its cover," the way a book looks is considered very important in a lot of Asian cultures. I think that while people should not judge solely on appearance, it should be taken into account when looking at the overall person, especially if you only have the first impression of them.
My mom is particularly good at reading faces, which comes from her older age and individual wiseness. At 17, I have to admit that I don't have her kind of wisdom, and as a long-time fan of Korean media, I've gotten the often habit of looking at looks, or how good-looking someone is (usually of the male gender). However, I still don't know how to accurately read faces (only know if a guy is my type or not) or actually see people (cause that's what it essentially is). Although no one can always perfectly read people, I want to become at least half as wise as my mom, and become a better seer of people. Just an unexpected insight I got from (gasp) Korean media, (somewhat refreshingly) different from what I usually post in this blog. ; )
