A tool : Drinking and Eating
- teodora_xx7
- Oct 31, 2018
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 4, 2018
The topic for this discussion is drinking and food culture in Korean modern Society using the drama Chief Kim as an example. I will focus on how Seo Yul uses food in the drama. I argue that for Seo Yul, food is a delicacy and it is something that is rewarded after an action.
“The drinking culture remains in place as a tool of workplace socialization” (Çakar and Kim, 2015 :291). Generally, in the drama the food scenes are flooded with people which usually bring socialization on the table and bring the characters closer to each other. In episode 13 there is a scene between Gim Seongryong and Bak Myeongseok, there was alcohol involved and of course food too. In this scene, we can see the dynamics between Gim Seongryong and Bak Myeongseok. For Seo Yul, food is something to cherish alone, it brings him an immense satisfaction to eat alone and usually big meals. The other times we see him eating, it is when there is a meeting, but Seo Yul’s emotions are different, and he is not actually enjoying the food
Secondly, food is a delicacy for Seo Yul’s, he is seen alone in the middle of table, eating deliciously almost like in an advertisement. The music that usually accompany these scenes showed me how this character likes food. Not only he likes food, but when Seo Yul is eating, it is usually after he did something, it’s feels more like a reward than a necessity. Food in this context is used to reward Seo Yul’s action whether it was a bad one or a good one. Food does not have only one meaning; only for eating but has multiples facets and each one of them is essential to understand how food can be used in multiples context.
There is a change in Seo Yul’s way of eating, more the drama goes on, less he is eating alone. He is sharing meals with Gim Seongryong and Yun Hagyeong. Seo Yul is happy-ish to be sharing his meal with them. It brings food as a socialization tool back in discussion by allowing Seongryong and Hagyeong to eat with him, it creates a dynamic where there is a need to discuss and share therefore Seo Yul conception of food is changed. Even though, Seo Yul’s uses of food was to be alone and appreciate food, he converts to eat food with “friends” and be social.
Word count: 405
Questions:
1. What do you think it is so special to drink with your colleagues in South Korea?
2. How drinking culture is impacted the society? How are the risks about drinking too much?
3. What do you think about the changes of Seo Yul in regard of food?
Bibliography:
Çakar, Ulaș and Haeeun Kim. “Korea’s Drinking Culture: When an Organizational Socialization Tool Threatens Workplace Well-being”. Turkish Journal of Business Ethics. (2015): 289-309.
Hey everyone,
I’d like to encourage this group to keep in mind the nature of the exercise and the motivations for getting you guys to comment. The questions were a bit general this time, but we’re not looking for you to wax poetic about what food means to you. Try to connect what Teodora started discussing to what we’ve talked about in class, or to what you’ve learned about the ways hierarchy works in socialization, or the way that eating and drinking facilitate social connection within that context, or whatever. Could you have answered this question the same way without taking this class? If that’s the case, you should probably deepen your answer. And the same people are answering deeply…
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