Cultural gestures

The internet blocking is melting away. Last I heard by email a couple of days ago, TypePad is accessible some places but not all, and LiveJournal still isn't accessible even by proxy. Blogspot and others are back to normal. This despite the fact that the offending material is still out there and as easy to get hold of as ever. Perhaps it's just that the critical moment has passed. Public passions have turned to other things - the outrage over China's rewriting of Korean history, perhaps.

Meanwhile, a very interesting article by Andrew Ward in the weekend's Financial Times about the Korean pop star BoA, whose popularity in Japan is perhaps playing a part in healing the rift between the two nations.

Nowhere is the success of Korean culture more surprising than in Japan. The two countries are separated at the narrowest point by just 200km of ocean but relations remain tormented by centuries of conflict and rivalry. Most recently, Japan invaded Korea in 1910 and brutally occupied the peninsula until its defeat in the second world war. Dissenters were tortured in prison camps and thousands of women were forced into sex slavery for Japanese soldiers. In perhaps the most bizarre act of oppression, stakes were driven into the summits of sacred Korean mountains to destroy the country's spirit. Nearly 60 years later, many Koreans maintain a bitter hatred for their former colonial master.

During the occupation, Japan did all it could to suppress Korean culture. Koreans were forbidden to speak or write their own language and were even required to take Japanese names. The damage has been incalculable. It is only since the beginning of this year that it has been legal to sell Japanese music, films, computer games and comics in Korea. A bit of internet censorship that inconveniences a few expat bloggers seems mere bureaucratic routine by comparison. Especially when compared with other parts of the world, China and Iran, for example.