blackinasia:

(Image description: A promotional shot for the “Bubble Sisters” four Korean women depicted in dark black-face all wearing pajamas with exaggerated, shocked expressions. Far left figure wearing braids. Second from left with short straight hair and wearing a latex glove. Second from right with curlers. Far right with an afro and pursed lips)

An incredibly informative piece which documents a good number of incidents of blackface in the Korean media over the last 3 decades. Disgusting in how widespread and damaging the anti-blackness has been and continues to be in the media there.

The one part that especially gave me pause was the fact that an incredibly popular black-face routine called “Sikeomeonseu’  was in production between 1987 and 1988, but then was cancelled by producers just in time for the 1988 Seoul Olympics because they didn’t “want to denigrate black people” publicly who were coming for the Olympics. 

Yeah, because denigrating us behind our backs is that much better. 

When it was revealed in 2010 that those concerns were the actual reason for the cancelation of the show, several Korean netizens responded by saying: 

“‘Sikeomeonseu’ was really fun, but that it was discontinued due to the Olympics is too bad, and surprising.” “Comedy in those days was really fun, and I want to see it again.” “I hope to see the resurrection of authentic comedy.” 

The post is incredibly informative (and also disheartening) for anyone interested in antiblackness in Korea and looking at some of the history of blackface there.