Chase ([info]angryhaiku) wrote,
@ 2008-08-15 22:12:00
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Current mood:Oh, Korea.
Current music:This American Life

Korean Fashion
You know how sometimes idiots get tattoos of Chinese characters without quite knowing what they mean? And the urban legend of the girl who got the character for "chlamydia" on her lower back?

The must-have item clothing for Koreans at the moment is a black Polham t-shirt that says:
It's just Boston
traditional style, which
is the heartfelt
casual expression.
POLHAM the JUSTIFIABLE.
There is so much I do not understand about this shirt! Boston traditional style = pink Sox hats and open collars with gold chains? (Sorry, Boston.) Is that what the heartfelt casual expression is? Also, the justifiable? Do they mean it's justifiable to pay w40,000 for a Polham shirt made of crappy, scratchy cotton?

In June, the must-have shirt said "JOHN PAUL GEORGE RINGO," which I thought was pretty cool.

But more often, it's people running around with laughably obscene things written on their clothes. One sweet kid regularly wears a shirt that says "Fuck the police." Half my girl students own shirts that say "I'm a TOSSER for DESIGN UNITED," which is just upsetting on a ten-year-old! Today I saw an ajumma wearing a shirt that said "Preteen Lolita," which would have been really upsetting on an actual preteen, but on an alien-visored 60-year-old was pretty funny. There's a legendary photo on the internet of a nine-year-old boy in a shirt reading "Too Drunk To Fuck."

The shirt that prompted me to write this? A woman in her 30s was wearing a shirt on the subway that said "Can't hold back -- I'm gonna COME."


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[info]paper_jam11
2008-08-15 11:40 pm UTC (link)
I'm laughing too hard to think of a real response to this entry. I'll let Jason Sudeikis do the work for me.

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[info]bebitched
2008-08-16 04:18 am UTC (link)
That Polham shirt makes my brain hurt.

Is this kind of like the t-shirts they make wholesale in America of Che Guevara and "Viva La Revolucion!", but half the people who wear them have no idea what he did?

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[info]madonnadellatte
2008-08-17 01:41 pm UTC (link)
Or who that stylized face is even meant to represent. I always feel vaguely like looking him up more intensely so I can go up to people in those shirts and say YEAAH. GUERILLA MARXISM. ISN'T HIS MEMOIR THE BEST? AWESOMMME. /other in-references that are likely to sound vaguely concerning to the average person, just so they go "oh fuck this shirt actually means something crap crap crap".

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[info]bebitched
2008-08-18 02:04 am UTC (link)
I think you should. I don't know much about him personally besides generals... hence why I've never bought a shirt with his face on it. Seems like common sense to me.

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[info]madonnadellatte
2008-08-18 01:59 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, I don't know a whole lot about him either - ditto on the 'not owning a che guevara' shirt. I think i might go instead with this tactic:

"Oh, hey, one of those shirts! I've been wondering - who is it?"

"Uhh, Che Guevara."

"Oh, cool! So what did he do to be on a t-shirt?"

"He was a rebel?"

"Hey, rebellion, cool. What against?"

"Uhhh..."



(In my head, the second person is slightly more knowledgeable of Che and says:

"Consumerism!"

so I can just laugh and laugh.)

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[info]bebitched
2008-08-22 05:41 am UTC (link)
lol, if they even knew that much. I think with most people I've seen it would go more like:

"Hey, cool t-shirt. Who is it?"

"...Che Guevara."

"Hmmm, and what did he do?"

"He did... rebellious... things."

"Like Patrick Henry?"

"Exactly like Patrick Henry."

In my head they don't know much about history, I guess.

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[info]madonnadellatte
2008-08-17 01:38 pm UTC (link)
I'm pretty sure every culture does it (and yes, my friend's older sister has a tattoo which she was assured meant 'strong woman' in chinese but apparently actually means something a little... stronger). but yeah. Hi-larious in many cases!

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[info]greenfish
2008-08-18 04:29 am UTC (link)
Ah, Engrish = WIN.

I mean, it's got to be kind of unsettling for you to see these little kids wearing obscene messages (and probably having no idea), but, eh. What can you say?

It's sort of like the uproar over "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me," in Britain. As an anglophile, I found this quite amusing, because Americans would have had a cow if the title had been "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Fucked Me." Right??

Funny stuff. I would probably buy one of these t-shirts as a souvenir if I ever visited there, haha.

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