The Yanbian Connection (with a little spoil)

[Teresa]

For those of you, like myself, who are curious about Yanbian, here is an interesting link: www.eabc.co.uk/yanbian.htm


I found this paragraph very curious concerning the historical connection between illegal pharmaeutical trade between Yanbian & Seoul -- a hint to the trouble our Gukhwa gets into:

"When South Korea and China exchanged diplomatic recognition in 1992, Koreans could travel to Yanbian and establish links with the Korean community. Many South Korean firms thought that Yanbian could be a natural base for them. At the same time Chinese-Koreans began to travel to South Korea to earn wages which seemed unimaginable in China. The first sign of this were the illegal pharmaceutical traders who spread throughout central Seoul in 1992-3 selling traditional Chinese medicines."

[Lucy]

Gukhwa in trouble? We're only on episode 5 or so. Is this a spoiler?

[mikey]

lucy said:

Gukhwa in trouble? We're only on episode 5 or so. Is this a spoiler?

Could be. It's not that significant, I'd say, but it does give a hint of something to come. I'll leave it up to the mods, if they think this post should be edited a tad.

As for the topic above, well, you'll know it when it happens (and it's coming very soon). It's actually a pretty good plot twist involving our little Gukhwa.

[Soju]

We did see a bit of this in the teaser at the end of last night's ep, so I don't think it's a problem.

[Teresa]

Whew! Good, I didn't think (that's why I said, "a little spoil") that it was an authentic spoiler, given where you are, but I did think you'd actually enjoy being armed with that interesting information... given where you are in the series.

I'd actually like to know a little bit more about the relationship between Yanbianese and South Koreans. There isn't much I've found on the web concerning it, but it seems fascinating to me that there is a major group of Koreans in China and they basically have to leap over North Korea to mingle with South Koreans. I think we're going to learn a lot about the cultural differences, but I always have a bit of skepticism since this is a drama, not a documentary.

[Lucy]

I keep missing the ends of episodes because I think our station has been delaying the start. Stated start time is 6 p.m., actual start time is usually 6:10-6:15, but my VCR keeps missing the end even if I time the taping to go until about 7:00. So I haven't seen any teasers or the last part for a few days. Last thing I saw last night was the lady walking up to Gukhwa and saying, "Have you been selling drugs [that diet tea]?" You can imagine how little I know what will happen in upcoming eps if I keep missing the "kickers". I'm like a wide-eyed child: "OH! I didn't see THAT coming!" LOL.