User blog comment:General tiu/Korea: who was he, and can he still be saved?/@comment-2004850-20100605012346

Yeah, currently Korea doesn't have much of a stereotype. Or, should I say South Korea, which the character represents. North Korea is viewed as the isolationist country that makes little contact with the outside world unless it involves weapons (which, well, isn't that far off from the situation). However, when I think about it, North Koreans themselves aren't part of the stereotype. We see them as being hidden, oppressed people living in poor conditions, but nothing in terms of personality. That might be attributed both to the isolation and that it's a bit of a touchy subject. People can claim that Americans are "egotistical" or French people are all "snobbish" and that Germans are "loud, stern, and angry", even if none are true. However, with North Korea...We just don't know anything. North does takes a lot of focus off South, though. People either know the South is industrialized or think it's like the North from my understanding. Either way, they know that one ain't the threat.

On that note, I always assumed that if a N. Korea were to be created there would be some new naming scheme or S. Korea would be referred to as just South Korea. Guess we might never know.

Middle East is huge right now, though I imagine it's also big in some other countries as well. Isn't France having some debate over this because of the high amount of Middle Eastern immigrants/descendants? Yeah, Mexico is big. Africa sorta-kinda is. It only involves a select few nations, and even then we don't have a stereotype for most of them. I think it partly comes down to industrialization; many of them aren't that well off as a whole, which might affect the stereotypes people create.

P.S. - I love manhwa art! I wish we got more here! I don't read much romance, so I've pretty much been screwed with what I can actually buy. But there are a few titles I love. In fact, I was just reading Laon on the couch. Which I will shamelessly promote and say people should read. The releases are nice, too--color pages, translator notes. Yum.