The Koreanization of our Society

 

Note: This article is not an offense towards Koreans. I even have a holy cards of the Korean Catholic martyrs like Andrew Kim Taegon, the first Korean priest in my altar. It is just like a conservative American Christian criticizing the degeneracy and immorality of American Hollywood stars.

By Antonio Jose Rubi, Cebu City, PH

During my toddlerhood in the late 2000s and early 2010s, my mom and grandmother trained me up in the Traditional Catholic ways, even if we were still Novus Ordo at the time (Grandmother became a home aloner after the Latin Mass was suppressed in Cebu in 1971). I was exposed to all classical stuff, like Catholic devotions like Santo Nino, classical fairy tales of the past, classical music like Mozart, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, and my favorites at the time, Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Snow White (1937).

As I started to slowly grow up, I realized the Koreanization of our society was imminent, like Korean tourists here, K-Pop and K-Dramas becoming popular. Even if I watched K-Dramas in late 2010s, I only watched them occasionally and I even hated it. I even saw one of my Grade 6 classmates falling in love with the BTS member Jungkook. Even Filipino music has been Koreanized into P-pop, like SB19 and BINI.

By 2020, my distaste for Hallyu was slowly radicalizing. During the lockdown, even if I was Novus Ordo, I thought to myself, why are those Filipino youth into those worldly K-pop stars, while their grandparents are praying the novena to the saints? I remember I called out K-pop fans for their worldliness and told them to focus on Andrew Kim Taegon. It only solidified in 2022 when I became a traditionalist Catholic and rediscovered my lost childhood. Even the Novus Ordo has been affected by the Koreanization, in this case, Novus Ordo Korean priests dancing to K-pop songs

Dancing Korean priests

In 2024, I opposed Korean tourists here in my country and compared them to 18th century historical Moro pirate invaders in my country. However, I learned that Koreans also were fighting foreign imperialism historically against Western Powers in the late 19th century, and that Joseon era Koreans do not look like the effeminate ''heroes'' of today, but more like Filipinos. You could even see this in the North Koreans who were untainted by western imperialism. The true villain is not the Koreans, but Western cultural imperialism which has brainwashed us. While we are immune to Koreanization, It seems that the Americans are more attractive.

I remember when I watched those Korean religious groups in South Korea, like the Protestant, Buddhist and Catholic groups, I saw the congregations were composed of elderly people. I thought to myself, ''Where are the youth?'' I learned that most of them are into the Hallyu nonsense.

This traditionalist Catholic group in South Korea

is composed mostly of older people rather

than youths.

I disagree with the wickedness of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but his quote calling K-Pop a ''vicious cancer'' is absolutely true. Hallyu culture is really a vicious cancer that is tainting our youth, especially in the Philippines. While many of our youth are listening to the ugly K-Pop like BTS and P-pop like SB19 and BINI, I listen to religious songs like Gregorian chant and Byzantine chants, folk and historical songs. Those youth should focus reading on the lives of saints instead of worldly fleeting Korean stars.

Holy Korean Martyrs, Pray for us!