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South Korean Cartoonists Cry Foul Over Edgy Simpsons Intro
theodp writes "When asked to animate a dark commentary about labor practices in Asia's cartoon industry — the edgy title sequence for the Simpsons' episode 'MoneyBART' — staff from the South Korean production company Akom raised a rare protest. Even after being toned down, the sequence created by British graffiti artist Banksy depicted a dungeon-like complex where droning Asian animators worked in sweatshops, rats scurried around with human bones, kittens were spliced up into Bart Simpson dolls, and a gaunt unicorn punched holes into DVDs. The satire, Akom founder and president Nelson Shin argued, gave the impression that Asian artists slave away in subpar sweatshops when they actually animate much of The Simpsons every week in high-tech workshops in downtown Seoul. Still, South Korean animators make one-third the salaries of their American counterparts, and Shin declined to comment on the full extent of the work his company has outsourced to SEK, a state-run animation studio of North Korea. Some argue that the Banksy sequence's gray and forlorn atmosphere more accurately depicts the sweatshop-like conditions in North Korea."
Nobody actually thought they were using unicorns to make DVDs.
South Korea often gets downplayed, and I'm not sure why. After having lived in Korea for three years, I've got to say that Seoul is just as advanced as any other city I've visited, and in some ways, more so. (And in some ways, less so. But, well. You win some, you lose some.) I'll admit that the minimum wage here is pretty ridiculously tiny compared to back home, but even so, the standard of living is pretty damned decent.
I'd love to live in Seoul. It's so vibrant, and the newest apartment complexes are ridiculously nice. Too bad they're also ridiculously expensive, even by North American standards.
I didn't think the intro was specifically directed at Korea, but just sweat shops in general. Although I'm sure North Korea is nothing short of horrible.
Actually, this is a rare occasion where I think outrage is warranted. As satire, the intro falls utterly flat on its arse. South Korea is among the most technologically advanced and progressive countries on earth, so to portray it as if it were China is a gross insult. A real low point for Banksy, whose work I usually admire. He really should just stick to what he knows, because he's clearly demonstrated his massive ignorance of the South Korean labour market.
and Shin declined to comment on the full extent of the work his company has outsourced to SEK, a state-run animation studio of North Korea
The hallmark of outsourcing, dishonesty. Shin needs to come clean first.
That's what you get for Third World offshoring. Yes, that means South Korea too.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Shin was disappointed. The satire, he and other animators have since argued, gave the impression that Asian artists slave away in subpar sweatshops when, in fact, they animate much of The Simpsons every week in high-tech workshops in downtown Seoul. "Most of the content was about degrading people from Korea, China, Mexico and Vietnam," Shin fumed. "If Banksy wants to criticize these things ... I suggest that he learn more about it first."
Perhaps Shin should learn more about the First World, and what it knows about those countries. It isn't good.
Besides, if Banksy went to do his research, he'd get endless varieties of the same Potemkin Village. Not the actual conditions that Shin is wrong about on the large scale..
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
The problem is that they're "among, not "are". More people in the US/UK get what those countries reserve for the few and well connected.
In the US, we don't need Potemkin Villages, but those countries sure do.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Sounds to me less insult and more comedic hyperbole. Not an attempt to depict
How would you like it if your job, country and culture was stereotyped into the guilt-ridden nonsense that The Simpsons aired? There's really something wrong when people feel proud about how much guilt they have or how much they can hate their own society/culture. This same idiocy even made it into TFS:
Where exactly is the requirement that everyone in the world makes the same as their "American counterparts"? Is it because everywhere in the world is the same as America, with the same taxes, costs and currency value? Utter rubbish.
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Can we stop comparing wages based on actual dollar figures, and compare based on standard of living (or something else)?
I make 25% less as a System Administrator in a small remote town than were I working in downtown Toronto.
But my house costs $200,000 as opposed to $1,000,000 for a house or condo in Toronto. Do I bitch that I don't make the same wage? No, because overall I I have the same standard of living / quality of life as everyone else (even better, I have a place to park!).
Yes, food costs about the same (maybe 3% less), cars cost the same, etc, but when a good 40% of what I spent my income on (house, property taxes) is far less, it works.
I agree with the second part completely.
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yeah but cost of living has to be factored in.
I wouldn't be surprised if animators from South *Dakota* made 1/3 the salaries of the Simpsons animators in california.
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Even if North Korea reunited under South Korean rule, like German reunification, it would make the economic woes of German reunification seem insignificant. We're talking about a broke country, a complete basket case of an economy, a country that has lived under six decades of centralized tyranny. I wonder how many South Koreans would want to take on that burden. I know there are lot of West Germans who were, within a few years, a lot less enthusiastic about Reunification.
But I have my doubts that we'll see the two Koreas joined any time soon. North Korea has mastered a pretty good strategy using its on-again-off-again nuclear program to extort needed aid from South Korea and other nations, and as long as everyone keeps throwing it life lines, it basically underwrites the Kim Dynasty and the Generals that support it.
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"Where exactly is the requirement that everyone in the world makes the same as their "American counterparts"?"
Say what you will but the bottom line is that this an American show created by American talent but the American animators are going hungry while South Koreans work their jobs.
Apparently Americans have been liking it for the past 20+ years.
How would you like it if your job, country and culture was stereotyped into the guilt-ridden nonsense that The Simpsons aired?
I'm an American. I read about how I'm fat, arrogant, ignorant, overworked, and lazy every day. I don't even get the benefit of any of those stereotypes being that I use an old haggard unicorn to bring me my beer. I'm not very sympathetic on this one.
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As an Australian I thought the satire in Bart vs Australia fell on its arse as well but we can see that The Simpsons does this to everybody so it would be wrong for us to be left out.
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You're right. I mean they get every single detail of American society exactly right, from the fat, lazy balding guy who loses his job every week and spends every night in a bar, to the town that has the tallest mountain in the world, a gorge comparable to the grand canyon, frozen winters, a vast desert, picturesque beaches, is landlocked, and so forth. Yet somehow, they manage to get the state of Korean technology wrong. Go figure.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
PFFFFT.
"You are welcome"?
Fuck off. USA didn't fight in Korea for Korea's benefit. They fought for their own. Now South Korea is being used as an US military base and South Korea is paying for it.
Now stop spreading false sentiments. It was USA who divided the country in half in the first place.
Many people in this thread are quick to decry the intro. But have they actually watched it? Take a look.
The conditions depicted are atrocious. Ridiculously so. It's clearly a joke. I mean, a unicorn being used to punch holes in DVDs? Kittens tossed into a wood chipper to make filler for toys? The terrible conditions are so over-the-top that it's pretty clearly not meant to represent reality. One could view it as social commentary regarding poor working conditions in Asian sweat-shots. Or, one could view it as commentary on the ridiculous notions that well-meaning, but ultimately uninformed, westerners develop in their heads about working conditions in Asian.
It seems to me that the satire is meant to insult at many levels (this is typical for The Simpsons, which tries to make fun of as many different people as possible). The intro is making fun of FOX for using cheap overseas labor. It's drawing attention to the comparatively worse working conditions in those outsourced labor markets. And it's making fun of people's erroneous/exaggerated notions of how bad those labor conditions actually are. And it's just trying to be silly with ridiculous depictions of misery. It's comedy, after all.
You may not think it's particularly funny. But after watching it, it should be pretty clear how absurd they were intentionally being.
The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny - Aesop
You know what?
You wouldn't have batted an eyelash if he had used the same exact depictions but it was supposed to be taking place at a Walmart in Lubbock, not somewhere in Asia.
Why? The difference is that if placed in Walmart in Lubbock, it would have clearly been meant to have been judged as satire and not as a depiction of reality.
Whereas when placed in Asia, it is clearly meant to be judged as satire and not an actual depiction of reality - but the satire is missed by those blinded by a defensive reflex to whine about anything related to a place they have feelings of insecurity, self-consciousness, nationalism or racial pride in.
(Actually in the Lubbock example there would be a few whining idiots from TX complaining that "Lubbock isn't really like that!" but we've learned not give people like that the time of day.
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I think in the Australia episode (somewhere in the first couple of seasons?) the subject of ridicule wasn't so much Australia as it was stereotypical American views of Australia.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
How would you like it if your job, country, and culture was stereotyped into the guilt-ridden nonsense that The Simpsons aired?
Isn't that what they air every week?
Banksy got a high profile forum, and he used it to spur discussions about how we treat emerging labor markets. Considering he had a sickly unicorn punching DVD holes, do you really think he was saying "this is the way that it is?" It seems to me like his point was that we take for granted the objects around us, but have a profound ignorance about their origins. And he managed to do this in a way that A: got into a mainstream production, B: got people talking, and C: actually educated people, albeit indirectly. I know far more about the actual conditions in animation shops of South Korea than I had before this intro was released.
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It is, every week...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
(I searched for small (under 700 sqft) 1 bedroom, in high rise)
Of course, then there's the matter of deciding what's "small"... 700 square feet = 65 square metres. I currently live in a 1 bedroom apartment with my girlfriend here in Hannover, Germany, and we've got about 60 square metres (645 square feet) which is quite comfortable for the both of us. Living alone before I met her, I had a 45 square metre place (485 square feet) that was more than adequate.
We're expecting our first child in April though, so are now looking for somewhere significantly larger.
I'm aware that people in some other places are used to MUCH larger places. I myself grew up in southern NZ, where the concept of renting anything less than a complete 3 bedroom house never would have crossed my mind - even as a single guy who couldn't possibly have used all that space. It's just a matter of adjusting, and now I really don't know what I'd do with somewhere larger if we weren't having this child.
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How would you like it if your job, country and culture was stereotyped into the guilt-ridden nonsense that The Simpsons aired?
I'm Russian. I think it would be hilarious.
That survey is based on costs for American expatriates. Completely irrelevant for a local cost-of-living comparison.