Reading CITT as cultural trip

I love this webtoon. I came across Japanese manga printed here in Germany about a year ago which is rather a side phenomenon here, soon after I discovered scanlation sites on the internet. And since then I have been inhaling all kinds of well composed drawn stories. CITT is my current favourite, I am very grateful that I can read it, thank you guys for all your efforts. For me it is both: a good piece of literature and a peak into Asian culture which I find enthralling.

citt is also one of my favourite asian comics of the moment (the favourite I think) ^^

Well composed story indeed, however I'm not really able to sense the asian touch very much. Maybe because I'm too used to japanese manga, and I think the contrast between japanese society and mine (belgium) is way higher than with South-Korea. Which asian characteristics do you find enthralling?

Differences I pondered a bit were the military service done by young men, and the uni system (the optional class system, where you can attend same classes than a junior, apparently?). It wasn't the same thing for me at all, and I have no idea what to think about that.

I was thinking more about how people deal with each other and how relationships are described. It's not a politically correct thing to lump together all the individuals in a nation or even a whole continent. However, the feeling I get of how the characters deal with each other in the comics and how they watch each other, how they help each other improving themselves and on what kind of values they judge each other and how they see themselves and continously improove themselves and how they acknowledge each others efforts openly in the manhwas, manhwas and so on seems far less individualistic than in my surrounding. Even though the competitive spirit brought across seems harsh. Can you agree to that?

I get the impression I could feel less lonely if I grew up in Korea or Japan instead of Western Germany. Deducing that from reading fiction surely does not mirror reality unbiased. But still, it does reflect some aspects people are concerned with who write it and stuff which is found attractive by masses of people who buy the manwas. And for sure, it does give me some impulses I really can use.
Which is to expected by fiction produced by a really lively contemporary literature szene from a far away region on the planet. I love the medium, too. In a comic you let the readers have their own tempo reading- other than while watching movies -, but yout still are able to display facial expressions and other visual details. Issues expressed by one panel would need many, many words in a book which makes the medium more direct.
In Cheese In The Trap, it really sucks me in how detailed and refined 순끼, Song Kki , describes the social status of the main character, Hong sul, among the college students. And all the assumptions people have about each other, expressed in various kinds of situations. And how in tiny, tiny, slow, detailed, but very concious steps her relationship with Yo Jung changes. I would like to write prose in that style.

I don't know much about Korean or Japanese school-, military system, social conflict and so on of if the webtoon is from South or North Korea.
But I might spend some years travelling and working to find out the base of my enthrallment.

It's not your burden to be politically correct.

I'm not sure about the competitive aspect, it doesn't strike me much. Seems to me there's only Sul who's brought to be competitive, because of financial and, to my stupor, patriarchal reasons (I don't think I can find 50 years old people thinking like Sul's father around me). There are hints though, like the career counselor thing (and that sort of thing wouldn't have bothered me much), but overall student seem quite free and sortof careless about the exams and results. Scores do not seem to be a matter of conversation amongst friends (except maybe Sul who feels more concerned than the average).

I love the medium too, I don't know about the quality of expressions (I love the art, but it is sometimes irregular quality-wise, the author seems hard pressed to release something every weeks), but I totally agree about the assumptions thing. Soon Ki, to my impression, crafted some nice scenes where assumptions play a great role depending on whose eyes it is portayed with.
It's true drawed stories, and filmed, hit faster at the emotion level.

The story is set in South Korea and not in North Korea. If you are not aware of the political situation there, I'd suggest you to get informed a little about it, because the similarity with (past) Germany could be stunning for you. There isn't technically a wall between the two countries, but a big "Demilitarized" zone, and some North Korean people want to flee out of their country very badly. The difference in living between those two neighbour countries is incredible. I don't even think there are north korean webtoons (I'd suppose almost no North Korean has access to internet).

n October 2010, the website of the Korean Central News Agency went live from a web server hosted in North Korea and accessible globally on a North Korean IP address, marking the country's first known direct connection to the Internet.

(omg)


Beware about fictionnals characters and your loneliness. First, fictionnal character are fictionnals. Even if Cheese in the Trap attempt to be somewhat "realistic" (it's just an assumption though), it is far from being completely so. Just look at Jung. Don't have unrealistic expectations xD (there's a joke about it with Disney princes for girls and pornos for boys). The pace is also very important. A webcomic is a story in which you only see some parts of life the author chooses and crystallizes. Life is longer. Spice of life is diluted in a lot of time. Loneliness pops up in every corners, every day. But we forget it (why would we remember it?). Why are you drooling at assumed South Korea community ^^? It's sooo far away, aren't there closer solutions? What prevent you from not feeling "too much" lonely^^?

Hi Doonge, thank you for worrying, but there's no need. I might still write a more thorough answer when I find the time. It might take severeal days, though. Later!

Owkeedowkee ^^