Appealing To Tradition Is Bullshit: Part 1

It's no big secret that the working conditions actors endure are inhumane: twenty-two-hour workdays are very common once a drama enters live shooting. For an apparent "first-world country," South Korea still uses third-world labor laws in sectors of their economy, for example there are many instances of actors not getting paid. In one example (of many), the cast of "The Great Seer" walked out after not getting paid for 18 episodes of filming. That's three months minimum of filming. Most employers pay bi-weekly in America, so there's no way that I would work two-and-a-half months for free. I would have walked off much earlier, because as workers we exchange our commitment to work to an employer for pay. If one side of the agreement is broken, further service should not be required from the party receiving the short end of the stick. The industry is broken if someone doesn't know whether he or she will get paid.

In addition to the ambiguity of receiving a paycheck, the actors and staff are worked to the bone. Han Ye Seul's "Spy Myung Wol" incident happened in August 2011. That should have been impetus for change, right? On the contrary. The following month, actress Song Ji Hyo fainted during the filming of "Gye Baek" and a couple days later was readmitted to the hospital due to dyspnoea. Did Song Ji Hyo receive ample time to recover? No - she was filming later that week. This is a common occurrence, as Gong Hyo Jin was involved in a car accident this summer and delayed physical therapy to continue filming her drama "It's Okay, It's Love." Koreans see it as noble when someone works through an injury, ignoring the welfare of the individual, for the "greater good". It's mindboggling how actors are essentially required to sacrifice their health for the sake of filming.

Why do dramas not pay people and force people to work through injuries? The live shooting system is the number one culprit. The common arguments for the live shooting system are that costs are reduced (as less days for filming are required) and the scripts can be changed at whim to respond to ratings. However, this is a flawed premise to start with as Japan's big-budget dramas have small budgets compared to the average Korean drama and are pre-produced. If Japan can do it, why can't Korea?

Although one Korean actor can make more than the entire budget of a Japanese drama, which some see as problematic, Korean dramas can afford the higher salaries as Korea exports its dramas, which leads to profit coming in the form of a larger audience. Production companies attain large sums of money from TV stations abroad to air dramas. However, the working conditions for Korean actors continue to be poor and detrimental to their health. Which is ironic, as Japan is able to provide good working conditions for its actors by having an insular system in which they ignore the fact that the rest of the world exists (like they do for just about everything). Neighboring countries to Korea also have better filming conditions - there's definitely room for improvement when it comes to the K-drama industry.

If a better way to do something currently exists, shouldn't one adopt that method? According to Korean netizens, the answer is "no" because of their obsession with tradition. Korean netizens have acknowledged over and over how bad the conditions are, always mentioning that "the conditions for the crew are worse." But, if the conditions are bad and there are alternative ways to improve the process, why continue shaming one person who wanted to go against conventional wisdom? Why appeal to tradition when the current way of doing something is wrong?

A common answer to the previously mentioned question is that "everyone has to go through some hardship in their profession". That is true - to an extent. Take my field of accounting as an example: currently I am preparing to enter graduate school, so I have to take the GMAT exam to get into the master's program. I am studying for that exam while taking four upper level accounting courses and doing additional training for my internship which starts in January. After that, I will work the internship and take one class in the spring. At the moment, I am attempting to get a second internship and will be trying to get an officer position in my fraternity. Then there's the summer in which I will be trying to secure another internship, and if not, I will start studying for the CPA exam, which is essentially a requirement to be a public accountant. Starting next fall, I will be doing a master's program in one year (the majority of master's programs are two years), while studying for the CPA exam, doing my duties as a graduate assistant (if I get this position, which requires a high score on the GMAT), attending fraternity meetings (and possibly more responsibilities if I obtain an officer position), networking with professionals, all the while trying to secure a job upon graduation. The most common route is to start off in public accounting: an industry known for its high turnover as accountants will typically work 70-90 hours a week during busy season. Everyone has obstacles and less-than-ideal conditions to overcome.

While it is true that conditions aren't ideal in every field, it doesn't mean that the way things have always been are done is correct. For public accountants, most stay three-to-five years and bolt to private accounting, in which the workload is 50 hours a week. Public accounting is what accountants "calmly accept" as a stepping stone to a more lucrative position in private accounting. We know public accounting isn't the ideal job for life, but the hours are long to give us more training. It's similar to why medical interns work so many hours in a couple of years so that they can receive as much experience as possible. However, for most of us, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and we know that if we put up with our conditions for a short period of time, then conditions improve in the future. In accounting, public accounting firms know that the current conditions aren't ideal, which is why these firms offer flex hours and reduced hours during the slower season. They are doing whatever is possible to improve the situation for public accountants. That is why we put up with the system, as it is improving and the benefits exceed the hardships in the end. Ideally, that's how every industry should be working.

However, we don't see the Korean drama industry improving when the means are available to do so. Now that we have debunked that appeal to tradition logical fallacy in this article, the next one will investigate why netizens are so adamant to adhere to poor logic.