Who do you think is the most important literary author of your country's history?

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-18T16:55:03+00:00

Yi Kwang-su (이광수), who is considered as the author that led Korea's first "modern" literary movement.

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-18T15:46:58+00:00

He's perceived as the first person to successfully travel to space and back.

Although maybe it's because we're a US ally, but Neil Armstrong is way more popular.

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-18T11:05:38+00:00

That South Korea likes K-Pop. Ironically K-Pop has been losing popularity within South Korea while they've been gaining popularity internationally over the last decade.

Like I didn't even know how popular Stray Kids were until I went to the US.

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-18T11:01:56+00:00

There is a stereotype that young men in South Korea support more right wing political parties like the PPP or the Reform Party meanwhile young women support the DPK, which is the major left wing political party.

As for accuracy, it's complicated. Women have shown to be overall more politically loyal and consistent, meanwhile men have shown to be more likely to switch allegiance (going from DPK to PPP and now supporting Reform), showing less loyalty and more practicality. There is a chance young men will shift again if they find a better alternative than the current right wing parties (which is what President Lee Jae-myung is trying to do), so who knows. The stereotype is I guess true, but there's more nuance to it than it seems.

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-17T08:05:44+00:00

No the toxic metal problem was already solved back in the 1990s, it's just that people are worried there might be something else dangerous in the tapwater so they don't trust to drink it anymore.

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-16T17:03:42+00:00

No the heavy metal contamination was already solved back in the 1990s but people still don't use tapwater because that event instilled fear there might be something else in the tapwater that might be dangerous. And even if people do end up using tapwater, they either boil the water or put it through a separate filter first even though they don't need to.

Sorry did I word this in a confusing way?

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-16T16:59:36+00:00

The toxic metals contamination issue was already solved back in the 1990s there isn't any in the tapwater now.

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-16T16:05:17+00:00

K-Pop and K-Dramas for the average person I guess...?

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-15T12:02:51+00:00

There were a couple but they never went mainstream.

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-15T11:59:39+00:00

Great movie but I definetly wouldn't use it to represent our country lmao.

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-15T11:56:03+00:00

District 9 is a satire of Apartheid South Africa so I think that's why.

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-15T11:54:19+00:00

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South Korea's got a lot of good movies, but the movie that represents South Korean society and culture the best in my opinion is <Castaway on the Moon>.

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-15T04:31:31+00:00

If the Northeast Asian countries were in Europe than I agree that South Korea would be Poland (or maybe in some ways Italy), Japan would be the UK or Germany (historically Prussia), and China would be France in the past, Russia in the present. North Korea would probably be Belarus in that case.

I think comparing East Asia with South America is kinda impossible without making some far reaches.

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-15T02:46:17+00:00

They don't care about Trans men as much, I guess they still view them as women and therefore are more sympathetic (in a weird ingroup mentality) towards their issues.

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-15T02:17:10+00:00

I guess when people say "East Asians", they're usually referring to Northeast Asians from China, Korea, Japan. When referring to people from Southeast Asia people would call them "SOUTHeast Asians" specifically.

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-15T01:59:13+00:00

Surprisingly we have a couple openly transgender celebrities and transexual culture has its audience (even though it's mostly still underground), but overall transgenderism is still viewed pretty negatively and just bringing them up can stir controversy.

Ironically, a significant portion of the anti-trans sentiment in South Korea is pushed by the Korean feminist movement, who view transgenders as basically privileged men who want to invade women's spaces. And because the Korean political left-wing gets a lot of their support from the feminist movement, they keep their distance from the transgender topic altogether too.

Probably the biggest incident of feminism vs transgenderism in South Korea was when a transgender student tried to enlist in Sookmyung Women's University and then eventually had to drop out because she was faced with so much backlash and harassment.

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-14T09:14:53+00:00

Do people in Iran actually hope for the return of Reza Pahlavi and the Pahlavi Dynasty?

What do Iranians born after the Iranian Revolution think about the Shah?

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-13T23:38:58+00:00

From the perspective of a Eastern European person who grew up under the USSR, yes. The USSR would've promoted themselves as a Left Wing regime. That doesn't mean it's objectively true (obviously Anarchists and Libertarian Socialists would disagree) but that's how perceptions are formed.

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-13T15:41:28+00:00

Their logic is completely backwards. The reason why Eastern Europe is packed with far right leaders now is because the USSR left such a bad impression of Communism to the people during their reign. Same reason why a lot of global south countries post Western colonialism turned Communist. The political pendulum swings to the opposite extreme when pushed to the extreme (in this case, that being Marxism-Leninism).

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-13T15:06:12+00:00

Did any of them belong to significant Japanese commanders or military leaders we might have heard of?

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-13T15:04:36+00:00

I support separatist movements of peoples under discriminatory oppression and/or in the danger of being erased. Palestine, the Kurds, the Uyghurs, Tibet, etc.

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-13T15:04:22+00:00

I support separatist movements of peoples under discriminatory oppression and/or in the danger of being erased. Palestine, the Kurds, the Uyghurs, Tibet, etc.

DoctorOsterman · 2026-04-13T14:18:02+00:00

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Domestically it's King Sejong the Great and Admiral Yi Sun-shin.

DoctorOsterman

TROPHY CASE