Neuf vies à Séoul: Seoul Findings

In July, I visited

Malaysia

and

Singapore

for the first time in my life. I have been amazed by the high levels of cultural diversity and integration in both countries to the point that I am seriously considering to relocate there. Needless to say, coming back to Korea sobered me up and made me think about the often abusive use of the words 'international' and 'global' in a country where foreigners hardly represent 3% of the total population.

Malaysia

, I enjoyed visiting Melaka (aka Malacca or Malaka, Melaka State) and Georgetown (Penang State), both historic cities of the Straits of Malacca and UNESCO world heritage sites. I had a wonderful experience wandering around (and getting lost in) Chinatown and Little India districts and indulging in the beauty of those preserved, renovated or sometimes not-so-well maintained traditional houses, doors, colonial buildings and other heritage treasures such as the culinary delights of the Peranakan culture and the addictive Hainanese chicken rice and other street food delicacies. I actually think that street food from Malaysia and any other ASEAN countries should be listed as UNESCO intangible cultural world heritage as it has been done for the Mediterranean Diet or the French Gastronomic meal.

Getting lost in George Town

Chicken rice in Melaka

Melaka Chinatown

George Town House

Though Korea has 10 sites listed in the UNESCO’s World Heritage list (3 for

Malaysia

), only Jeju island and Gyeongju city seem to be actively and properly promoted. Problably because Jeju is currently campaigning to be elected as the Seven New Natural Wonders of the World and Gyeongju has been selected to host the 19^th Session of the UNWTO General Assembly.

I was therefore shocked to discover that there was a UNESCO street in Myeong-dong district where only street food should be qualified as a genuine feature of the Korean heritage. On the other hand, K-Pop and Korean dramas (the most prominent emanations of Hallyu, or the popular Korean Wave) seem to get all the attention from the government and the tourists as well. The Korean wave has even hit the European coasts and some fans around the world are learning Korean language in order to understand what their idols bawl. I don’t want to be sarcastic but once they understand the lyrics, fans may be disappointed by their lack of deepness. In case they expect some kind of spiritual enlightenment, they’d rather follow in David Mason's footsteps and hike the Korea’s sacred mountain sites.

Myeong-dong UNESCO Street

In August, I participated in a survey of the Seoul Metropolitan Government ‘on the attractiveness of Seoul in order to develop tourism resources and to promote the city to the rest of the world by discovering and utilizing the city’s most attractive features as observed from various perspectives’. Since I could select only three features that I found attractive, I chose ‘personal safety’, ‘public transports’ and something I don’t really remember, probably related to ‘new technologies’. Bold yet safe answers …

A few months ago, I would have selected the fact that most people in Seoul look pretty and well-dressed (between 20 to 40 years old) but nowadays, I tend to find those clones of K-Pop singers quite boring and not so inspiring. They all look the same as if they were produced in numbers by the same factory: skinny with stunned eyes and pouting lips, always striking a pose, constantly looking for a reflecting surface so that they can spot any invisible flaw they will have to cover with tons of foundation, BB cream or magic powder.

New Asian role models

As for Korean teenagers, they are usually not so good-looking whenever puberty points its hormonal gun on them. Most of them are therefore plagued with uniforms, glasses, lousy and greasy haircuts, acne-prone skins and cravings for junk food. Until they are allowed and even encouraged by their mothers to turn to more drastic solutions such as plastic surgery (usually for the double-eyelid operation), they will have to cope with their lack of attractiveness and therefore happiness. However, they may compensate through the use of cosmetics, hair dyes and tricks to get bigger eyes (glue and stickers on their lids for example). The result is even more spots, damaged hair and sore eyes. When they get old enough (which means at younger and younger age), they may lose their baby fat as quickly as they gained it, therefore developing stretch marks mostly visible on their calves. To solve the problem, they visit another skin clinic in order to erase their scars.

Then they may discover the masochist joy of bone massage.

A friend of mine recently invited me to try a 'Korean traditional style massage' at Yakson House. I should have checked their website before accepting her offer because when I found out that I would be treated with a bone massage aimed to reduce the size of my skull and my pelvis, it was too late to run away. I usually love strong massages but strong does not mean horribly excruciating. On the other hand, Yakson House attracts a lot of celebrities and stars and the main reason why they are so in love with the (mad)house place lies on the fact that most Koreans think their heads are too big ... according to the Western standards. So what do you do when your face is too big? You get 20 bone massage sessions that will take out all useless spaces between your bones and reduce you face drastically. This science-based therapy is supposed to be good for your health too. Apparently, the limits of suffering are far from being reached in

Korea

where people are starving themselves, torturing their flesh and breaking their bones just to be … cute? .

I have no lessons to give but I think genetic heritage cannot be erased with a scalpel and even less with a massage. Funny to think that all Korean girls now look alike and therefore need to find new competitive advantages to get the best job, best husband and hopefully the best life.

Now let's talk about my few findings in August since July was dedicated to vacation outside Korea.

In August, I was invited to attend two international events:

International Conference on Nation Branding 2011 ‘soft power: competitiveness on nation branding Despite of its highly interesting subject, the event has not attracted many foreigners as reported by one of my American friends who attended this not so international event. I was not aware of that event until he called me and made me notice some advertising flags in the streets. My advice to event planners: if you want to prevent any complaints about the lack of promotion, translation and/or interpretation, just take out the word ‘international’ from the titles of events and then your life will be much easier.

Seoul International Drama Awards 2011 I was invited to attend this truly international event: about 10 competing nations from nearly all continents. Due to expected problems affecting the registration process, we have queued for 1 hour at the VIP desk (in that case, VIP meant Very Insignificant Person). Finally, we have been invited to join the teenage crowd on the 2nd floor and even if all drama stars looked like ants, I could identify the famous ones thanks to the hysterical screams of their fans.
Among the foreign guests, there was a group of French drama fans led by Mr. Maxime Paquet, the President of Korean Connection association who also attended the (International) Conference on Nation Branding 2011. Check The Korea Herald article Nation Branding Convention to discuss hallyu.

In August, I started a lemon juice diet and I realized I was not the only one since it becomes very difficult to get lemons in Seoul. I also tried the snail slime cream and I survived and even thrived. Snail slime products have been very popular in Korea and many other countries, just read this CNN Go article Snail cream: Korea's newest skin-care phenomenon.

The product I have tried is Korean is called Crema Caracol (‘snail cream’ in Spanish due to the origin of the snail slime craze in Latin America). I really do not like the idea of putting slime on my face but I have to admit that I could notice a small before-after improvement after one month of treatment. The product is cheap (9.900 KW for a cream jar), it does not smell so bad and it is not so slimy. My problem is ... the package, name and brand seem so ... fake. Am I the only thinking that Nutree sounds like Nuxe? Even the logo of the French brand has been massively copied. Now I understand why there have been massive promotions on that Crema Caracol over the last few weeks. Everything needs to disappear !

Hamo Hamo Aqua Peeling

I really don't know where to buy Hamo Hamo Aqua Peeling in Seoul. Many people ask me information about the company so let me give you the phone numbers indicated on the bottle. 02 558 8252 (or 070-8243-5959 but not sure it is a phone number). You may also want to call Jang Won Intl Trading Inc Trading company in the US : or check website in Korean or chech the Korean website here.

In the meantime, I have tried the detoxifying peeling gel Missha. It is more expensive but it is rather effective and I can find it everywhere in Seoul.