CREATIVE BLOGGER AWARD

Well looky here, I was tagged by 我的朋友 nakedstreetkid to take part in the ‘CREATIVE BLOGGER AWARD’ tag 谢啦🐼

The official rules are that you must: Nominate your top 10 blogs; 
Notify them by WordPress, Social Media and their links; 
List 5 facts about yourself
; List the rules. I invite anyone who is reading this and is interested to participate themselves! 😉

首先我是一个独生女。First fact, I am an only child. I think having no siblings was compensated by the fact that I had a lot of cousins and close friends who I grew up with. Being an only child has its pros and cons, as does everything else. On one hand it definitely made me quite self-reliant, and explains my unique personality. However when I was younger and I wanted someone to play with, I did imagine inventing a toddler sibling that I could play with and then “turn off” and store away in my cupboard once I got bored.

Second fact is about music (其次我跟音乐有特别的关系). I could probably talk about ‘music’ for a while, but I won’t get into a deep answer. In terms of my religion, I recognise that many Muslims may say that it’s sinful to listen to music, but as Islam advocates that sins are derived from intentions (to keep it short),  I’m hoping that I should be in the clear zone. When I was younger I gained the skill of memorising song lyrics from a couple of listens (gift or curse?), and now singing is still a hobby of mine. 我喜欢的音乐是形形色色的 I listen to a variety of types of music and I can rely them in tough times 💪

For the third fact I should probably tell you a bit about my personality. I find it awkward to describe myself so I asked a friend to tell me some of my personality traits etc, but I still feel a bit awkward about sharing what she said😅. I know that I get excited easily, but can also become bored easily. I’m usually introverted, clumsy (真的跟一部电影一样), thoughtful, ‘weird’/different, and 98% of the time I believe that ‘the glass is half full’ 杯子是半满–an optimist.

4: I have a deep interest in art. I’ve always been quite creative so I enjoy crafting from random resources, painting, scultpting etc. But I think even simple things can be seen as art. Such as words or Chinese characters because they each have their own stories. If this sounds strange 对不起 it’s in my nature.

Hmm what about number five? Something I am certain that you know by now from reading this post alone, and if you know me personally, is that I’m very enthusiastic about languages. I went into a mini back story in one of my first posts, but languages interest me because they all somehow link, everything has its own story (I did a lot of creative writing in the past but it sort of stopped when I started college), and of course languages are integral to communication. Perhaps it’s related to my ability to learn song lyrics, but I also tend to pick up on vocabulary and nuances fairly easily.

If you read all of my facts I hope you enjoyed getting to know me a bit better and please tell me some of your own facts. 根据我的经验 it’s surprisingly difficult to list facts about oneself on the spot, but nonetheless this was a fun tag.

If you need to list five facts about yourself, good luck 世界~

从欣妍 – From Xinyan.

愚人节 – 만우절 – April Fool’s Day

你们好吗？今天四月一日就是“愚人节”，也是我十八岁的生日! (请祝我成功) Today is April Fool’s day, and it’s also my 18th birthday! [not a prank哈哈!] So I didn’t want to miss the opportunity for a special post.

Originally I wrote a short introduction about today’s post and planned to complete the post after returning from my birthday celebrations (I will leave it below if you would like to read it). However after a two-day pause, I can now continue to explain a bit about April Fool’s day and how it is celebrated in Korea.

Something that has always confused me was how today got its name, so I guess it makes sense to clear that up. As expected, there are varying accounts regarding the origin of this infamous holiday, some associating it with the New Year festivities of Roman, Hindu and Pagan traditions. April Fool’s day has featured in entertainment and literature which dates back as early as 1392 with its reference in Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’ (coincidentally we analysed sections of this text last year). The most common story behind April Fools is that April 1^st was declared by Pagans as the start of the new year due to the beginning of Spring (which brings new life to nature), however this was ridiculed by Christians and non-pagans who called them ‘fools’. This version is usually alluded to in contemporary media (such as the ever factual ‘The Simpsons’) and has been accepted as the truth. Now the holiday has become a day where people get pranked and called ‘fools’. I don’t usually get pranked myself, but when I was younger I did question whether the nurse was joking about my date of birth…as I’m sure you would too😋

When I started this blog I noted that my general interests span from across East Asia (fashion, entertainment, culture etc), which is why today’s post will be focused on Korea instead of China. Moreover when I was reading up on how ‘April Fool’s day’ (愚人节 ‘yu ren jie’ in Chinese) is celebrated, I noticed that Korean students were getting the most recognition for their pranking efforts in comparison to other East Asian countries like Japan and China. You may agree that this is quite fair after you read what they’ve gotten up to…

April Fool’s day has become increasingly popular with young people in Korea. If anyone is familiar with the rigorous schooling students receive in East Asia, it makes sense why students will take April Fools as an excuse to de-stress. For instance in gender-segregated classes in South Korea, boys and girls have swapped classrooms to confuse teachers and have even swapped uniforms. However Westerners may see some of their pranks as a bit extreme. Like the prank where students fake their death as they pretend that exam stress has driven them to suicide. Bear in mind that the following photos are just pranks:

As already mentioned, education in countries like China and of course Korea is particularly strenuous, and so students use this to their advantage by planning many classroom based pranks. A prominent example is when Korean students transport their classrooms to a different location to confuse their teachers. They also rearrange classroom furniture, wear their uniform backwards, or even model ‘invisible students’ in front of their desks…to freak people out:

Not only do the students celebrate April Fools day, but the teachers have also been known to prank students! In the first picture below you will see a teacher casually laying on his side on his desk as he reads the class textbook, as if to match the efforts of his students who are sitting on the floor with their desks faced sideways. The second shows a teacher writing sideways on the chalkboard.

All in all I’d say that the Korean students deserve an A+ for creativity, but don’t think such pranks would be as well received in the West.

I thought I’d also show you a few videos of April Fools day being celebrated in Korea by non-students (not sure if that’s a word yet). In the first video a Korean teacher explains popular celebrations and explains how the Korean name for ‘April Fools’ is taken from Chinese characters! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PuBZrMkGdM The second is a light-hearted interview of the American/Korean singer ‘Eric Nam’ interviewing himself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUwV_NUMBeM Lastly, heres a short clip of a group of Korean second graders getting pranked by their teacher (cute but evil) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Py48smOPI0 .

Have you been pranked, or pranked anyone for April Fools day? I’m quite good at prank phone-calls and have even pranked someone using Mandarin…but this isn’t restricted to April 1^st 

If you decide to prank someone on April 1^st, good luck 世界。

从欣妍 – From Xinyan.

P.s. The Korean prank pictures are taken from “Drama Fever” and ‘’Soompi” 🙂

Original post: Today’s post is going to be in a slightly different format because I plan to, in effect write it later in the evening when I return home. My plans for today do involve some orientalism (not an actual word btw) so I could perhaps share some photos later on or write a mini review of the restaurant we’ll be going to. However if anyone still remembers, I originally noted that my general interests span from across East Asia, so if you check back later I can tell you a bit about how ‘April Fool’s day’ is celebrated in Korea. April Fool’s day is a typically Western holiday/festival, which is why it is not largely celebrated by the Chinese. 如今在亚洲大多数的年轻人喜欢愚人节! Most of the young people in Asia enjoy April Fool’s day but it isn’t really celebrated by the older generation (unless that’s a prank in itself). When I was reading up on how pranks are enacted by these ‘young people’, I must say that Korean students take the prize for putting in the most effort! As I said, I will hopefully have more for you to read about later in the evening, but till then good luck avoiding/planning pranks! 从欣妍 – From Xinyan.

Exhale.