LTEA 142 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: United Service Organizations, Sumo, Ethnic Conflict
Lecture 13, 04.30.2018
● Popular entertainment in post-war South Korea
○ Flower in Hell
■ Dieto → ultual elite at the tie, a push etai aaties ad disouses
to shape culture and lifestyle
■ Scene: middle of the movie (little concert they had for the US military base)
■ Begiig of Kpop
● Military bases set up entertainment events in collaboration with the American United Service
Organization Inc. (USO)
● The shows are broadcasted over the radio and introduce new musical styles, dance moves and
fashion trends to Korea
● Audiee of oug hite ales ho ostl epet oes of Aeia sogs ad ee ad
● Dangers of the war/post-war, poor working conditions make it difficult to bring celebrities or
even unknown civilian performers from the states
● The U.S. Army increasingly calls upon Korean performers for its entertainment needs
● High demand from Koreans as US military offers instruments, equipment, venues, payment
● Some performers were highly trained, college educated. They had performed in elite venues in
Japan during the colonial period and felt uncomfortable performing for working class men
and/or in the vicinity of prostitutes
● All performers for the military have to be auditioned and female acts were given strong
preference
● Koea Kittes, Belles of Idiaa, “Wada Sith Coe Gils ad Miss Atlata
● Selection criterias (good looks, dance moves, musical ability, command of English) influence the
stadads fo todas K-pop pefoes (95s = first talent agencies to supply performers to
US military)
● Nationalism, Race and the Birth of Pro-Wrestling
○ Zainichi/Chaeil
■ People who are Korean but live in Japan
● Why pro-wrestling?
○ Sports as ideological discourse
○ The beginnings of sports as mass entertainment in East Asia
○ Rikidozan as a cultural icon in North and South Korea
○ Plasticity of national and ethnic identities
● Pro-wrestling as sport and spectacle
○ The aesthetis of eess ad gadilouet tuth of gestues
○ The truth is not in the outcome/competition but in the discourse articulated through the
spectacle of pain and violence
● American pro wrestling: political values (capitalism vs. communism)
● European pro wrestling: moral values, good vs. evil as expressed through physical features
● Asian pro wrestling?
● Former sumo and Korea native Rikidozan trains in pro wrestling in the US in the early 1950s
● Returns to Japan and creates the Japan Wrestling Alliance (JWA) in 1953
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Document Summary
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