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."

Comments

I'm pretty sure...

[contra_mundi]

Nobody actually thought they were using unicorns to make DVDs.

Re:I'm pretty sure...

[Nidi62]

Of course not. Everyone knows unicorns are really used. They're killed, their horns ground up, and the powder made into the elixir that keeps Larry King alive.

Modern South Korea

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Modern South Korea

[mangamuscle]

A job maybe? Oh, you still have yours, do not worry, we will ship it to asia befeore you know it.

Re:Modern South Korea

[hedwards]

I wish I could mod you up. That's precisely the problem. We're engaging in a race to the bottom, and ultimately only the upper classes benefit from it. It doesn't matter that Americans work harder and are more productive as a whole than any of the Asian nations. Because corporate interests are OK shipping shoddy products which may include toxic substances and the high casualty rate the jobs are shipped over seas anyways.

Re:Modern South Korea

[schon]

That's the thing about the corporate system that many people fail to realize. It's very easy to get a corporation to change what they're doing if there's a coordinated effort by consumers to choose not to buy from a certain manufacturer until practices are changed.

That's the thing about the corporate system that corporate apologists people fail to realize. It's almost impossible to get a coordinated effort by consumers because the corporations have so more damn money than individuals, and can drown out any opposition to their pracices.

Re:Modern South Korea

[jamesh]

It's very easy to get a corporation to change what they're doing if there's a coordinated effort by consumers to choose not to buy from a certain manufacturer until practices are changed.

It's not so easy to get consumers to not buy from certain manufacturers though. People buy the cheapest goods they can find that will do the job without giving a thought to the fact that they are robbing from themselves.

Re:Modern South Korea

[Froomb]

As a expat resident of Seoul who has been coming to Korea since 1976, I'll second this. The ROK has made huge strides over the past generations, from desperate poverty to relative wealth. South Korea is a member of the OECD and will host the G20 summit next month. There is a large and vibrant middle class, the economy is growing at a nice clip (~6%) and Korean companies are kicking Japan's corporate ass. Americans largely aren't tuned into Korean popular culture, but much of the rest of Asia is, with 1000s of Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Taiwanese, HKer, etc. arriving daily to shop and hang out in places made famous in Korean TV soaps and films. Essentially life is very good here (as a university professor) and a welcome relief from the insane political rhetoric in the U.S. There is universal literacy here, with a majority of South Korean high school grads going to university, although admittedly unemployment post-graduation can be daunting. The big problem in South Korea is the high cost of real estate, with an average 2-bedroom apartment in Seoul going for between $500K - $750K and 3-bedrooms, often over $1m in nicer neighborhood. For those not already in the real estate market, it's almost impossible to buy in without support from relatives.

North Korea is another story, but even there a nascent market economy has arisen in the past decade, joint ventures with the South, show long-term promise, new universities have been founded with foreign support, and likely gains substantial economic support from NK refugees abroad. The NK workers lucky enough to work on animation likely enjoy a privileged status and consider themselves fortunate. It's the famers who have the hardest lot, as the north has never been all that productive given the harsh climate, and the small scale of production together with lack of advanced machinery and fertilizer put them at a major disadvantage.

Re:Modern South Korea

[kiddygrinder]

i'm pretty sure they're not "stealing jobs" most down home america mom and pop loving business entities are quite happy to hand them over.

Re:Modern South Korea

[Froomb]

if korea (et al) are successful, fine; but its not successful on honorable reasons. it has been stealing jobs and there's no way to compete when you NEED healthcare in the US and that, alone, is enough to disbalance things unfairly.

I sympathize with your frustration, but have felt this for America likely long before you. The small Kansas town in which I grew up (pop. 150) flourished in my father's lifetime with a bank, hotel, drug store, barber, etc. But by my youth in the 1960s, only two repair garages and a tavern remained; essentially it was a ghost town, and even lost its high school. Thanks to the automobile and better roads (an ICBM station nearby got us asphalt roads), almost all the jobs were "outsourced" to the big city, Tokpeka. Then in my late adolescence the same happened to Topeka, when the Goodyear tire plant (once the largest in the world) scaled back its production, putting Topeka on the skids and the economic energy went to Kansas City, Chicago, and the coasts. And this was the 1970s. This hollowing out process due to changing technology, mobility of capital and labor has continued in the U.S. for the past century and likely will continue apace globally, as borders become less relevant. Some companies, such as Apple and Catepillar have been able have been able to adapt and create products desired around the world, others such Zenith and RCA have fallen into senescence.

I'm not sure what you mean by "honorable reasons", but the meme that Asians cheat at trade hasn't really been a fair observation since even the GATT says in the 1980s and certainly not since the WTO began in 1995. Basically the reason South Koreans got ahead was because even though they have few resources they worked harder than everyone in the world, saved as much as they could, and sacrificed for higher education. Among other things they created world-class steelmaking, shipbuilding, and semiconductor industries out of nothing, using mostly Japanese capital and technology, since the U.S. viewed them as foolish to have such ambitions from the 1960s.

At present, South Korea does more trade with China than the U.S., and they are one of the few countries that manage a balance of payments surplus with China because they produce goods that the Chinese want to buy. Moreover, the largest group of foreign students in China are South Koreans and the largest group of foreign students in South Korea are Chinese. South Korea remains firmly in the U.S. camp militarily and is grateful for the troops stationed here (though they get almost no credit in the U.S. for the sizable contingent of troops they sent to Vietnam and Iraq), but over time, the U.S. is gradually becoming much less important to the nation's future, as evidenced by the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) they recently signed with the European Union, while the prospective one with the U.S. is stalled, largely due to protectionist sentiments.

South Korea is by no means perfect and they go overboard at time on anti-American issues such as fears of beef BSE contamination, but on the whole they are a hard-working, highly educated people who deserve the success they have achieved by dint of great efforts over decades.

I didn't think..

[JPalms]

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.

Why not in America?

[OrangeTide]

We need to take a stand and start producing cartoons in sweatshops here in America!

Re:Why not in America?

[antifoidulus]

Actually South Park is pretty much totally made in the USA. They basically do everything in CG(Simpsons is still done with cel animation, but the color is now done digitally). Thats how South Park can actually parody fairly recent events, a show can be created within a week, for the Simpsons it usually takes about a year to go from script to finished product, a huge chunk of that is the time it takes to do the animation.

Truth hurts.

[sethstorm]

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.

Re:Truth hurts.

[hedwards]

That's an insult to the third world. North Korea is worse than most third world nations in pretty much every way.

Re:Truth hurts.

[TheClarkster]

Um, wow. He was talking about South Korea outsourcing to North Korea, calling North Korea 3rd world.

Sorry, you deserve all the flak you get and more

[sethstorm]

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..

Re:Asians

[Fieryphoenix]

Sounds to me less insult and more comedic hyperbole. Not an attempt to depict

Re:Asians

[jaymzter]

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:

...still, South Korean animators make one-third the salaries of their American counterparts...

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.

Can we stop...

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Youtube link

[Tapewolf]

For those who don't get to see anything on Hulu, this appears to be the intro in question:

Moneybart intro

Re:Youtube link

[meuhlavache]

Or this more prettier one

Re:Asians

[hedwards]

I haven't seen it, but I'm curious as to why virtually all cartoons these days are colored in South Korea. Strikes me that depicting it in such an allegorical way is somewhat appropriate.

Being a colorist is not easy, but it's hardly in the same league creatively with the folks that do the writing and modeling for the series. It sounds like it's away of pointing out that it's like working in the salt mines of the cartoon industry.

Re:Satire.

[WrongSizeGlass]

Does anyone in Korea understand what SATIRE fucking is?

Isn't that when you get screwed by a comedian?

Re:Asians

[MoonBuggy]

The summary says that the South Korean animators are re-outsourcing an unspecified amount (could be a majority for all we know) of the workload to North Korea; for all you know it was this practise that was being commented on, not the South Korean studios themselves.

Or maybe...

[Black Parrot]

...it's just another Simpson's Halloween "horror" story.

Re:Asians

[AnonymousClown]

I'm not sure what your point was in the beginning, but doesn't the whole Simpsons show stereotype the US and Americans? The whole show is about making fun of Americans and our society.

I agree with the second part completely.

It wasn't South Korea

[readin]

It wasn't South Korea in the cartoon, it was China. South Korea doesn't have pandas. (They do have unicorns, but that's a state secret.)

Re:Satire.

[readin]

Does anyone in Korea understand what SATIRE fucking is?

Isn't that when you get screwed by a comedian?

No, its when you get screwed by a half-man half-goat. It's illegal in most countries.

Re:Send in the subs

[MightyMartian]

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.

Re:Satire.

[wierd_w]

No, thats a Satyr. Honest mistake, really. I can totally see how that might happen-- wait, not I cant. Nevermind.

Even cheaper

[phorm]

Actually, I moved from Toronto to a rather small town too. One thing I've found about the big city is that you really get *screwed* if you're working on salary (which is pretty much the norm). So while you may be making less per-annum, you may actually be making more overall depending on how much extra-time you put in.

As for the costs. Food seems a bit more where I am (no local Chinese market), but not incredibly much. A car may cost the same or a bit more, gas is a little higher, but the cost of insurance is nearly *HALF* that of a bigger city. Houses are obviously cheaper, and parking is free, but that does come as a trade-off for crappy transit. Not that I consider the TTC to be overly great, but at least it took me under an hour to get to work downtown by transit (despite being almost in Scarborough, at the edge of Toronto).

Another big factor is the people. In many big cities the overall attitude seems to be "everyone for himself" followed by that others are fair game. In a smaller city, choices are less, but those who actively screw over the customers tend fare less well. Customer-friendly businesses also tend to get good word-of-mouth.

There are some things I miss about the bigger city, but there's a lot to be said for smaller places too.

Re:Banksy is right and you know it.

[TheVelvetFlamebait]

I am genuinely sorry that I read your post.

Come on now - we don't know either

[dbIII]

WE genuinely have no idea what goes on in North Korea and can only rely on little bits of information. Even the Chinese mother of a friend of mine that originally came from the place and lived on the other side of the river from North Korea didn't know much more than rumour and a few stories from refugees after it became impossible to contact relatives and unsafe to travel back. The refugees don't seem to know a lot beyond what happens in their own towns - information and movement is tightly controlled and they are flooded with disinformation. North Korea used to export food to China but now survival of many seems to have been dependant on food aid for many years now.
While the older generations know that Kim is not a God the penalties for saying so appear to be severe, so it looks like we've got a couple of generations of highly xenophobic worshippers of Kim the God King that blame all problems on the USA, Japan etc.
So to sum up we don't really know either so even the above is thrown together from what journalists tried to find out on escorted visits or from refugees that only got to see a small portion of the picture (which is very scary on it's own - not being permitted to talk to relatives in other parts of the country etc.). We can only guess at what is inside from what effects it has on the outside, so we know something horrible is within but we really don't know how bad.

Re:Asians

[shaitand]

"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.

Re:Asians

[mybecq]

How would you like it if your job, country and culture was stereotyped into the guilt-ridden nonsense that The Simpsons aired?

Apparently Americans have been liking it for the past 20+ years.

Re:Asians

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

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.

I rather think this targets China

[erroneus]

Without knowing much of the detail provided here, I would have assumed the depiction was China. But the general impression I get is that much of Asia's mass-labor forces are more or less like this... well not exactly like this, but the impression is about the same when compared to any remaining mass-labor forces in the U.S. I happen to work for a Japanese company at present and I have to say, they are a LOT less fun. In fact, my boss is Korean and he seems to feel very strongly against the notion of "convenience" when working as he has said quite specifically that the company is not here for our convenience, that we are here for the company's convenience. That philosophy speaks volumes to me.

My company is most certainly "less fun" because of the asian notion of what a workplace should be like. And yes, "overtime" is expected and nearly everyone is exempt.

Re:Asians

[MichaelSmith]

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.

Re:Asians

[tompaulco]

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.

Re:Asians

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Asians

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Par for the course?

[Have Brain Will Rent]

Shin argued, gave the impression that Asian artists slave away in subpar sweatshops when they actually animate

... in par sweat-shops? Subpar sweatshops not having all the amenities of an average sweatshop?

Groening's real message... don't watch!

[Have Brain Will Rent]

It seems to me that Matt Groening was trying to tell us that the Simpsons and other Fox products are produced using slave labour and that we should therefore stop watching all such products since the existence of those products depend on other human beings suffering. I'm with ya Matt! No more 20th Century Fox products for me!!!

Re:Asians

[Jafafa Hots]

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.

Re:Asians

[DDLKermit007]

Ummm ok...lets factor in COL. In the list of top 50 most expensive cities, Seoul ranks 14! To give you some perspective, New York is 27 with Los Angeles bringing up 55. Please do a little research before talking about COL.

http://www.citymayors.com/features/cost_survey.html

I really wish we could have seen the full unbridled version of the opening. Maybe some storyboards will surface eventually. I'll bet you almost anything that the North Korean animation operations are pretty substantial given they didn't want to talk about it for good reason, and their conditions I'd bet are pretty horrid. Watch the Simpsons? Support North Korea! Wooooooo what a publicity campaign!

Re:Asians

[gmhowell]

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.

Isn't it a little late to be getting pissy?

[OnePumpChump]

So who animated the edgy Simpsons intro?

Re:Asians

[cgenman]

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.

Re:Asians

[korean.ian]

That cost of living index is for American Expatriates. Additionally, the most expensive city is in Angola. From the article's intro:
"29 June 2010: Angola's capital city Luanda has replaced Tokyo as the most expensive city in the world for US expatriates according to the latest Cost of Living Survey from Mercer." I mean, they even have Shanghai ranked higher than NYC.

Having lived in Seoul for 10 years very comfortably on what can be described as a typical salary for the Korean middle class, I will tell you that the cost of living for people who aren't gouging their companies' expense accounts is much cheaper than comparable cities in North America.

Re:Banksy is right and you know it.

[MoellerPlesset2]

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.

WTF? Are you seriously lumping together North and South Korea in terms of living standards?
Did I miss something? When did South Korea cease to be a first-world democracy?
You don't need to be 'well-connected' to buy something in South Korea. You go to the store, and you buy it. It's a friggin market-economy.

Making 1/3 of a US wage does not mean you're a developing nation. People in Portugal make 1/3 of the average US salary,
if you make a raw dollar comparsion, and they aren't starving. They have homes, cars, computers, phones, etc. Same in South Korea.
Maybe not two cars, and maybe not the latest computer, and maybe a smaller home, etc. But they're by no means poor.

By all means, speak up on behalf of the North Koreans, who have no say in their government or situation, but talking that way about South Korea is just condescending.
They're one of the richest nations in the world, and the second-richest nation in Asia.

Re:Asians

[Greyfox]

How would you like it if your job, country and culture was stereotyped into the guilt-ridden nonsense that The Simpsons aired?

It is, every week...

Re:Asians

[YttriumOxide]

(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.

Re:Asians

[jcl-xen0n]

I haven't seen it, but I'm curious as to why virtually all cartoons these days are colored in South Korea. Strikes me that depicting it in such an allegorical way is somewhat appropriate. Being a colorist is not easy, but it's hardly in the same league creatively with the folks that do the writing and modeling for the series. It sounds like it's away of pointing out that it's like working in the salt mines of the cartoon industry.

Interestingly, a lot of Japanese animation (which, in the past, was traditionally outsourced to Korea) is now being outsourced to places like Vietnam. Not sure if that indicated the Koreans have their hands full doing American animation, or if the other countries are simply cheaper.

Re:Asians

[kiddygrinder]

i'm pretty sure making cheap crap by hiring the cheapest workers is the american culture atm, maybe you're thinking of the 50's?

Re:Banksy is right and you know it.

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

More people in the US/UK get what those countries reserve for the few and well connected.

South Korea is actually a more advanced country both technologically and economically than either the UK or the US. Given the unemployment rate in the latter countries, I think it's places like London and New York that are the Potemkin Villages. Take a trip to Glasgow or Detroit the next time you're in these places and see the Banksky intro behind the screen.

Re:Asians

[shutdown -p now]

It was USA who divided the country in half in the first place.

No, it was USA and USSR. And the alternative would be having the Korean War several years earlier.

Re:Asians

[shutdown -p now]

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.

Re:Satire.

[trytoguess]

Poking fun at animation sweat shops may or may not be funny, but it isn't satire. The whole point of that is to mock or exaggerate negative things to educate and/or cause change. When has Korean/Asian animation studio practices needed to be scrutinized for controversy and corruption? It'll need to be pretty blatant if folks in the West know about it.

So if it aint satire what exactly is it? I'd go for needless negative portrayal of Korean/Asian animation studios analogous to criticizing American labor issues by portraying us as slaves. Too over the top to be taken seriously perhaps, but not a good thing either.

Re:Asians

[aaarrrgggh]

That survey is based on costs for American expatriates. Completely irrelevant for a local cost-of-living comparison.

Re:Asians

[trytoguess]

Meh, even in that sense I say it's a fail. For some useful info on North Korean animation studios something like "Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea" (where the author actually lived and worked with N. Korean animators) exists.

Re:Asians

[blackest_k]

Banksy is quite well travelled e.g the West Bank. He has a great talent for producing funny and thought provoking work. Tongue in cheek, yes he does that, Do you really think he was aiming at south Korea with that intro or at Fox or Rupert Murdoch?

http://www.hmss.com/films/carver/ you might like to read this, in tomorrow never dies Elliot Carver , is often viewed as being based on Rupert Murdoch taken to an extreme. Banksy has started with the premise if Rupert Murdoch was an evil megalomaniac, determined to be as evil as possible how would he produce the Simpsons (if he could get away with it)?

The whole situation is actually pretty funny. Murdoch paid for Banksy to produce the intro , Fox executives thought great we are being cool and trendy having banksy do this intro, obviously no one really thinks the simpsons is produced like that.

The show gets broadcast and there is a bit of a panic as the realisation comes that people do think Murdochs evil empire works that way. Clips get pulled from youtube according to http://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/819130/Banksy-produces-seething-social-commentary-on-The-Simpsons

and now we get the story well the show is outsourced but the Korean animators do live quite well by Korean standards and its not made in a sweatshop. Damage control?

Now as for Korean history, why would people in other countries be taught about that? You probably know nothing of British, Irish or Icelandic history either, no reason for you to know either. Even in the UK for example there is limited teaching of British history and the bad bits are hardly mentioned.

There is a massive disconnect between reality and how actual people live their lives. There are rich and poor all over the world. Come to any western country in any city and you will see that there are people getting by, people making millions, and people begging in the streets.

Apparently there are less homeless people on the streets in the centre of London these days due to the use of Asbo's - Londons getting cleaned up ready for the 2012 Olympics, my source a Lawyer representing some of these people.

You see just to live our own lives we have to largely ignore the plight of people in our own countries, let alone worry about people on the other side of the planet.

You know even the guys who go serve in places like Afghanistan and Iraq most had a choice of unemployment and poverty or joining up.

It's a messed up world we live in, and most of us are just doing the best we can.

Re:Asians

[crossmr]

Yes do a little research. Those cost of living indexes are garbage. I've lived in Korea for nearly 3 years now, after having spent most of my adult life paying for things in big city Canada, and Korea is ridiculously cheap compared to North American cities.

That last one of these I read claimed a dozen eggs in Seoul cost something like $4. I don't know where they found those eggs, but I can get a dozen, regular price, for about $1.45 USD with exchange at the local megamart, and I've never seen a dozen for $4 anywhere. Even at 7-11.

They also claimed a can of beer was $3, when I can walk to the 7-11 and get a can of domestic for about 90 cents.

The fact of the matter is that the cost of living in South Korea is very low compared to any major city back home.

The only thing that is truly expensive is getting into real-estate, but it works out better. Korea works on a Key money system. Want a western sized apartment,2 bedrooms? Probably cost you 100,000$ in deposit. But you'll likely pay no rent with that, and you'll get that $100,000.
This is where people get confused.

They ignore the fact that a great deal of daily living costs are tiny compared to other cities.

you want to have a quality meal at a sit down restaurant with lots of vegetables, and unlimited side dishes? about $4.50.
Prime time movies are only around $8, with assigned seating and a couple's combo that only costs $5. Internet, cheaper, faster, better.

The utilities on my 1 bedroom place are so cheap it's laughable. $6 a month in water, $8 in gas, $20 in electricity.

Transit?
$0.83 gets you on the subway/bus and unless you're going a really long distance that's it. Over something like 12-15 km, starts to add 9 cents per few kms.

Some local buses are only about 40 cents to get on.

If you buy things that aren't part of the local taste, it's expensive. A local shop might be $5 for a good meal, but you go to Outback steakhouse here, and the prices are high, but that's not a good comparison.

As for computers, since I just bought a new one here, I priced it online to compare the online retailer here and newegg in the US. on a $1600 machine, buying identical parts between the countries, the price difference was only $80.

once you started adding in neweggs high shipping prices, the price differences became almost nothing.

local shipping and even international shipping here is ridiculously cheap. I can send anything anywhere in the country for peanuts.

packages I've sent to Canada have costed like 1/3 of what my parents paid for an equal package there to send here.

inter-city transportation is very cheap here as well. Buses/trains cost 1/2 to 1/3 what you'd pay in Canada for similar distances.

These cost of living indexes are clearly made by people who don't have a clue, and once you've actually lived in some of these places you'll realize how out to lunch they are.

More than likely they're not shopping like a local. If you want to make those kinds of comparisons its 17x more expensive to live in any western city since a bottle of soju is like $17 in any bar there, but you can get it for about 90 cents here.

 

Re:Banksy is right and you know it.

[mjwx]

if you make a raw dollar comparison, and they aren't starving.

Plus things get a lot cheaper being that close to China and SE Asia. Electronics in Korea can easily cost half of what they do in the west.

Paying 1/3 in wages means you cut 2/3 of the cost of keeping someone in store to sell something or to move it. The cost of manpower accounts for quite a bit of prices in the west.

Re:Asians

[yuje]

It was USA who divided the country in half in the first place.

You're welcome yet again. If it wasn't for the US demands for the division in the first place, Korea would already have been united........by the Russians who were invading Japanese territory during the last days of World War 2 and in a rush to occupy as much land as possible. The division saved the southern half of the country from the fate of their grass-and-tree-bark-eating northern neighbors.

Re:Asians

[GiveBenADollar]

The Simpsons has been using absurdity to escape ridicule on political issues for year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cartridge_Family or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Much_Apu_About_Nothing The absurdity is there to avoid a fight not to change the message, the show's commentary is pretty much as you see it minus the unicorn and the kittens. The intro was so horrific I couldn't even chuckle about the absurdity. I think somewhere around season 6 the writers went off the deep end and haven't been back since. I don't mind opposing political viewpoints in my comedy, but I do mind being hammered with politics when I want a laugh.