By I recently took a trip to Disney World and noticed something interesting about the “it’s a small world” ride.
Can anyone point out what might irk the Korean community in the above photos?
Korea wasn’t represented very well at Disney World but I did manage to snap a few more photos.
This coke machine seemed out of place in the African Pavilion at Epcot Center.
I did see a few Korean Employees that were recruited by Disney World from their Universities in Korea.
There were a lot of Korean tourist at Disney World, so I am a little suprised that Korea wasn’t represented with more than a few dolls dressed in Hanbok and a misplaced coke machine. The Korean employees I talked to all said they wanted to stay longer than the maximum one year but were denied.
She hasn’t seen...
8:46 pm on July 28th, 2010 1
" I talked to all said they wanted to stay longer than the maximum one year but were denied."
Just kick them all out. They're all illegal immigrants and criminals ripping off US tax payers anyways.
9:09 pm on July 28th, 2010 2
Well, the Koreans were mighty pissed off at the depiction of water buffalo being used as farm animals- beasts of burden- in the 007 Bond film that had the Norks as bad guys.
I can't imagine they would be too happy about this.
It seems a but different for the guys, but pretty much all of the girls I have spoken with after they spent time overseas wanted to stay much longer or ever permanently.
I'm not making a judgement on Korea/Koreans with this statement. It's just an observation. There are plenty who want to stay here forever, but there are quite a few who want out badly.
I can relate as all I could think of when growing up in a small town was getting out.
11:04 pm on July 28th, 2010 3
^ illusion of self grandeur. It kinda explains why so many Americans lie about their military records and blow their own self worth by the nth degree.
12:13 am on July 29th, 2010 4
Well it's kinda clear to me why Korean girls start to like abroad more than they like Korea once they tasted some of it. Cutting long story short, Korean women believe that they don't get enough social respect and benefit from the Korean society compared to their productivity. Korea's still visibly one of the most male-centered countries in the world among functionally democratic countries. Women discover that they are more privileged and less pressured in most countries that they turn into their new homes (which also happen to be prosperous, democratic countries).
But that patriarchal personality of the Korean society is quite inevitable given how women and men grow up differently in their crucial period of transformation from children to adult. Role and privilege discrimination of women and men in Korea start right from biased Constitutional duty. Most Korean girls of the current generation grew up like – for lack of a better word – princesses, whose lives have mostly been molded into embodiments of hedonism, with most of their 'productive' behaviors and activities merely being secondary attachments to that sole objective… Ok, maybe that's being too unfairly accusatory. I know Korean men want to attain the same purpose in life too, as do most human beings elsewhere. But really, there's little doubt that most men of Korea undergo several years of both physical and psychological hardship as young adults the kind of which is almost unimaginable by most women whose main business in life unbrokenly remain pleasure seeking (Korean men do seek for pleasure as much as the women do, yes, but in their case their line of endeavor becomes noticeably broken for a life-changing period of time). Military service is not an easy job, and a kinda unhappy one when you don't get compensated for it, particularly when it aggravates your social woes even more by delaying all your career plans. Men subconsciously think that they must be rewarded for what they are doing one way or another, because that kind of aspiration is one of the best reciprocal ways to while your daydreams away in between your hard works, and they slowly begin to think that those who didn't 'suffer' as they did should be the first ones to deliver them their due. Of course most men will deny such subconscious selfish feelings when asked about it, especially when in front of women. But the nurtured social 'instinct' is there, the instinct to get eventually even with the rest of the society, and it takes stronger hold the older they get as their own stations and ambitions in the social hierarchy slowly rise.
At this time and age, if America itself suddenly reimplemented years of compulsory Spartan conscription among 99% of American men, but not among American women, I could expect there will be cold wars sparking up all over there too. Then we'll more easily know that longstanding social rift between men and women is not very unexpected under those circumstances of clear gender discrimination.
3:05 am on July 29th, 2010 5
Haha,
I think I took that "it’s a small world” ride more than a decade ago. Yes, it's a gross misrepresentation of Koreans, but this is Disney.
I think it's not getting any attention because those dolls are in a dark cave where people are quickly whisked through on a boat. Koreans are (understandably) sensitive about things that seem to misrepresent Korea/Koreans.
I read an article in Korean newspaper that talked about some American kids from a small town in US visiting Korea on an exchange program. His reaction after seeing Korea was (printed in the news) that he had no idea ROK was such a developed country. All he knew about Korea was the Korean war, which basically leads one to believe ROK is a poor wretched country.
What was really interesting was the comments posted by other Korean news readers… I won't repeat it here but that made me laugh.
Btw, misrepresentation of a foreign country can happen anywhere. Do you know how US is depicted in ROK? Happens everywhere.
6:47 am on July 29th, 2010 6
How's it a misrepresentation of Korea? Looks like Disney hit the nail on the head. How was Japan represented on the ride?
7:28 am on July 29th, 2010 7
raketbaler #6
Trust me, as someone who's quite familiar with Korea/Koreans, that's a misrepresentation, with a strong influence of China and little of Japan.
You don't see that kind of 'bull' with the horns like that in ROK.
Considering the Disney ride's been there 2 or 3 decades, and probably not refreshed for a long time, I'm not surprised in a way.
9:00 am on July 29th, 2010 8
Ever go through the one at Everland? It's creepy.
9:22 am on July 29th, 2010 9
Easy…
1. Mount Fuji pictured on one of the fans under what appears to be a rising sun.
2. Being wedged between what looks like a Chinese farmer on an ox and a Japanese guy tying up a woman
9:50 am on July 29th, 2010 10
I am with #9, it looks to me like Japan surrounds the Korean exhibit.
How many korean Women are going to call themselves SUNNY before it goes out of style?
11:05 am on July 29th, 2010 11
So typical.
Expats sitting around in circles, discussing ways to diss and put down Korea, over a trivial matter that nobody in SOuth korea even knows about nor cares. It's more of a expat wishful thinking that Koreans take to the streets to hang foreigners over a depiction at at a expensive tourist trap dump.
11:10 am on July 29th, 2010 12
This is my depiction of the display of western nation kids in the Everland's "it's a small world" exhibition:
blonde hair kids surrounded by gun toting maniacs, smoking weeds and shooting up drug needles, being molested by child pedophiles.
Now that's an accurate representation.
12:41 pm on July 29th, 2010 13
But the "expats" are wondering if South Korea was underrepresented (or misrepresented)in the small world ride. Cool down your inferiority complex.
Save some of your anger for the country of Mexico. Their illegals receive all kinds of support while Korean Disneyland workers are denied extensions on their stay – apparently.
4:27 pm on July 29th, 2010 14
My memory of It's a Small World is much brighter than these pictures.
It looks thrown together by a 6th grade art class.
I guess people were less sophisticated back in 1966 (when it opened according to Wikipedia)… and I guess it has never really been changed.
8:39 pm on July 29th, 2010 15
Back in early 70's, there were no Korean dolls in the "small world" ride until Korean diplomats who visited park and complainted to State Dept. and Disney company.
4:16 am on July 30th, 2010 16
#15
Haha, I guess it's time to complain again.