So when the gangnam thing started a month or two ago, I told myself to investigate K-Pop songs. Finally listened to a few today, and it seems to me, and I can’t really find a non offensive way of putting this, that the girls very often try to sound like babies, at least to my western ears.
What’s up with that?
They’re obviously doing it deliberately, by the way. It can’t be their accents cause I watch a lot of documentaries about North Korea so I know what a normal korean woman sounds like.
In Asian cultures, cute = innocent = honest = pretty.
The worst part is that “cute” often also equates to “infantile” by western standards. The “Cult of Cute” extends across all Asian cultures, not just Korea.
:dubious: Saudi Arabia? Afghanistan? Bangladesh? Siberia?
I’ve been listening to KPop for a few years now, and I’m not sure what you’re referring to.
The songs themselves? Can you give some examples? The only one I can think of at the moment is Hyuna’s version of Gangnam Style, which was meant to be silly.
Outside of that, there’s the whole Aegyo (http://www.eatyourkimchi.com/aegyo-in-korea/ ) thing, which usually isn’t present in the music itself.
Here are some KPop suggestions if you haven’t given up on the genre yet.
miss A - I don’t need a man
Gain - Bloom
Ailee - I will show you
Normal US usage of “Asian” generally does not include those countries, and refers mostly to East Asia. As best I can tell, this is nearly reversed in the UK, and is more likely to refer to residents of the Indian subcontinent than, say, a Chinese person.
This phenomenon is seen (to a degree) in some American women. See uptalk or high rising terminal.
Not really. It’s more complex than that. If someone says “asian” to me, then I think “chinesey” (for want of a better way of putting it - I mean slanty eyed)
But yeah, depending upon how things are phrased asian can totally refer to almost anyone east of Iran.
I lasted about 25 seconds into that one, which is better than most J-Pop songs.
Japan Resident – decidedly NOT a J-Pop fan.
No doubt that it’s very context-dependent. But in the US at least, no one would ever colloquially call an Indian, Middle-Eastern, etc. person an “Asian”. Basically it has all the connotation of Oriental without the racist baggage. Whereas njtt and plenty of others I’ve encountered will happily call a Pakistani an Asian.
I don’t think either of us will call a Russian an Asian, despite geography.
I’m not sure “baby” is the right word. Maybe “girly”? And I mean extremely “girly girly.” I’ve seen it with Thai and Japanese performers and even some everyday ladies too.
Ever been to Korea? Somehow the wrong memo got sent to what seems to be a rather large ercentage of the population. The right memo would’ve been the one that says a full-grown woman using a tween girl’s whining voice affectation is definitely not cute.
When I lived in Japan, the wrong memo sent out must’ve been the one that said full-grown women using a cartoon voice is sexy.
In my experience, Taiwanese girls do this the most - speaking with an artificial high-pitched voice on TV shows. Here’s a music video that demonstrates what I mean: Guo Shu Yao (Yao Yao) 郭書瑤 (瑤瑤) - Free Love (愛的抱抱) - YouTube
Agreed. I studied Korean for 2 years and lived there for 1. Anyone who has even a passing familiarity with Korea will instantly understand what you mean by the “Korean whine.”
Most eye-opening set of cites I have read in a long while.
This study, cited in the Wiki article, is breathtaking, from the OPs query explored from its graphical-technological to it’s conclusions regarding adult concepts of Japanese culture.
A secondary cite from there to open: “[Kawaii is] estimated to be the most widely used, widely loved, habitual word in modern living Japanese.”
Even today with media and travel, we know only shards about other societies.
Oh, it wasn’t the prevalence of the word kawaii that was grating to me while I lived in Japan. It was the run-up on the last syllable until it shamed the classic Memorex commercial.
So perhaps both American and British participants in international message boards should stop saying “Asian” when they mean “East Asian” or “South Asian.”
Then there’s U-pop. Which could stand for either Uyghur or Uzbek; these girls is both (ethnically Uyghur from Uzbekistan).
That was creepy. Young (adult) women dressed up and sounding like six year old girls, with obvious sexual overtones.
We used to use the word “oriental” to refer to Chinese/Japanese/Korean, but that seems to have become offensive for some reason that I can’t figure out. Too bad - it was a useful descriptor.
I watched some of those documentaries too and, last month, I went to North Korea myself. No baby-talking women that I recall. If there is anything like a pop culture there I (unfortunately) did not get a chance to sample it.
Good God, that’s awful. Cute girls, but that singing…ugh.