Hello and welcome to Episode Thirty Seven of Page Turn: the Largo Public Library Podcast. I'm your host, Hannah!
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The English Language Transcript can be found below
But as always we start with Reader's Advisory!
The Reader's Advisory for Episode Thirty Seven is Valley of Terror by Haohui Zhou. If you like Valley of Terror you should also check out: Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror by Junji Ito, The Day the Sun Died by Yan Lianke, and The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher.
My personal favorite Goodreads list Valley of Terror is on is Up Next.
Happy Reading Everyone
Today’s Library Tidbit is on the History of K-Pop!
If you’re a teen or know a teen who’s a fan of K-Pop check out our Virtual K-Pop Club, meeting on May 12th. Registration is required!
K-Pop, for those that do not know, stands for Korean Pop music and it a sub-genre of Pop music that comes from South Korea. While it has become globally loved within the last decade, the popularity of K-Pop has been steadily growing since the 1990s.
To understand a little bit where K-Pop came from and why this specific style of music arose in South Korea it’s important to know a little bit of the history of Korea. Prior to WWII the Korean peninsula was fought over by the Japanese, the Chinese, and the Russians, sometimes, but rarely the Koreans had control over their own land and cultures. I won’t go into all of these wars and their outcomes today. In 1910 the Japanese annexed Korea and tried to replace the Korean language and culture with Japanese language and culture. The Japanese Empire of the time exploited the Korea people and their land for Japanese gain up until WWII.
In 1945 following the end of WWII the Korean peninsula was split into two by the US government and the Soviet government. Initially the plan was to re-combine the two halves and give control of the peninsula back over to the Koreans as a single county. However, due to the conflict between the US and the Soviets, and mismanagement this did not happen. Instead, the Soviet government occupied the landmass for Korea under the leadership of Kim Il-Sung as the People’s Republic of Korea and the United States occupied the landmass for Korea and in 1948 after 3 years of occupation South Korea held a Presidential election electing Rhee Syngman as the first president of South Korea. Tensions remained as neither North Korea or South Korea would adopt the other leadership or government style of the other. This lead to the Korean War in 1950 just 5 years.
After the Korean War the South Korean economy was in shambles due to the exploitation of Japan and the mismanagement of the US. The government, which started as democratic but became increasingly autocratic was replaced by military rule. The next 3 governments after the strict military rule have been nominally democratic but functionally were continuations of military rule. The most recent government of South Korea is a liberal democracy.
Why was it necessary to explain this background of South Korean history? Well, partially because it explains some why the South Korean government pushed for the international exportation of South Korean culture, called hallyu, but also to explain the Kim Sisters.
The Kim Sisters was the first international South Korean girl group. Compromised of Kim Sook-Ja (also known as Sue), Kim Ai-ja and Kim Min-ja (also known as Mia), these sisters were put together as a group by their mother Lee Nan-young to support the family after Sue and Ai-ja’s father Kim Hae-song was kidnapped and murdered by North Korea in the 1950s during the Korean War. Mia was adopted by Lee Nan-young before the group was formed. The Kim Sisters learned American popular music and performed for the American troops. They became so popular that an American producer flew to South Korea to hear them perform and then helped to get the group to America where th...
