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soch

@qsyami.eurosky.social

900 followers 786 following 6.7K posts

Close to 40. OT7 ARMY. Studying Korean. Chronic overexplainer.

Posts Replies Media

Reposted by soch

amy⁷ @samsaekgoyangi7.bsky.social · 17/10/2026

don’t mind me I’ve started collecting heartbeat fancams like pcs

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 16h

He's so absurdly attractive

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 22h

..have led to deaths that have gotten some high profile media coverage. In general, it's really safe, but that doesn't mean there aren't bad people out there

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 22h

Claim to be Christian, but according to Korean Christians that I've talked to, they say the cult interpretations of theology don't hold up to scrutiny Many of them run scams preying on foreigners not being able to understand things to extort money or put them in bad situations, and some +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 22h

My sense of the cult thing from talking to language exchange partners, random people while hiking, and reading stuff on the internet, is that SK seems to have A LOT of kind of aggressive cults that have been associated with various nefarious activities Apparently, some of the biggest ones.. +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 22h

Sorry! Just realized I missed your question! This Gallup poll says that 40% of people surveyed in SK report actively attending religious services of some sort: www.gallup.co.kr/gallupdb/rep... Which indicates that SK is a majority secular society at this point with some generational divide +

한국갤럽조사연구소

Reposted by soch

morikoa @morikoa3.bsky.social · 22h

Dongjeolyangchae: Winter Greenhouses of the Joseon Dynasty

Reposted by soch

Get To Know Nature @gettoknownature.bsky.social · 18/10/2026

This is just to say I have eaten The butterfly That was in The garden And which You were probably Saving to Pollinate the flowers Forgive me It was delicious So sweet And so fluttery #SpookyNature #invertebrates 🌿 #BugSky #SpookySeason

A large green insect looks towards the camera, holding the wing of a black and yellow butterfly in its long arms and looking a bit guilty.

Reposted by soch

샤한 @khali-shahan.bsky.social · 18/10/2026

배트맨이 도시를 구한다 이런 레고 사진이 있는데 너무 귀엽다

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

which has a figurine of Jesus and a Buddha head. Purely my own speculation, but I think he's visually giving a nod to religious history in Gwangju and maybe Korea in general with the clearly intentional placement of those two objects next to each other

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

Around 1:48 of Ego's mv, Hobi raps: 문득 스쳐가는 j-hope이 아닌 정호석의 삶 The life of Jung Hoseok who is not J-Hope flashes across my mind This is the part where there are pictures of Hobi as a child in his thought bubble, and as the camera pans out, you see him in front of what looks like a shrine +

Screenshot from doolset of lyrics from BTS J-Hope's Ego

Transcript:
문득 스쳐가는 j-hope이 아닌 정호석의 삶
The life of Jung Hoseok who is not J-Hope flashes across my mind

희망이란 없고 후회만 가득했겠지 till I die
It must have been full of regret with no hope till I die,

내 춤은 뜬구름을 잡을 뿐
with my dance only chasing ghosts,
= with my dance only catching drifting clouds, translated literally.

나의 꿈을 탓하고
with me blaming my dream

살아 숨쉬는 거에 의문을
and casting doubt on why I live and breathe

Oh my God God God God

A screenshot from 1:52 of BTS J-Hope's Ego mv. He has his hands together in a prayer gesture with some kind of small indoor shrine set up in the background. On the left side of the background is a figurine of Jesus with his arms open as well as a gold Buddha head

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

There was so much social change happening at that time with the Silhak social movement which allowed for this unusual non-colonial entry. I think it's super cool to learn some of these stories!

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

I sometimes blabber too much about esoteric stuff that I find interesting in real life, and then it's weird and awkward..haha, and was kind of afraid this became that, but I think this is interesting, too It even shows up in Hobi's Ego mv!

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

I find its origins and how it's viewed super interesting because of its decoupling from colonialism, too. Such a rare case

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

I found it super interesting, too! It made me really think about my assumptions and associations around religious institutions and how places with different histories might perceive even something as huge as a major world religion differently as a result

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

Also, I apologize for that terrible use of tense. Yikes. I am not Englishing well

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

Here's a way better Al Jazeera account of the history of Catholicism in Korea compared to whatever I said above www.aljazeera.com/opinions/201...

Why is Catholicism important in South Korea?

A history of scientific pursuit and democratic activism has set a special place for Catholicism in K

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

Canonized? Beatified? I think saints get canonized...Martyrs get beatified? Sorry, I'm not Catholic so I don't know the terminology for this

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

Uhh, that got very long. I dunno who will find this interesting, but I hope it was interesting to someone?

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

If you were ever curious about what the heck Yoo Yeon-seok's character Ahn Jeong-won/Andrea's whole "I want to be a Catholic priest, but my mom wants me to go have children" thing was about, it was actually kind of about the conflicts between Catholicism and Confucianism that still persist to today.

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

Here's an interesting account from a historian of some of what happened in Gwangju in 1980 podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t...

podcasts.apple.com

The History of Catholicism in Korea, Martyrdom, Persecution, and Resilience: A Conversation with Dr. Don Baker

Podcast Episode · What Matters Most · February 12, 2025 · 1h 8m

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

So Catholicism has an important association with SK's democratization movement in Gwangju. Many politicians in the newly democratic SK of the late 1980's and into the 2000's were products of this time and identify/ied as Catholic so you still see a lot of Catholics in the upper echelons of politics

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

Catholic priests and nuns also later famously harbored resistance fighters putting their bodies between soldiers and the doors to their church in Gwangju, for which many of them were imprisoned. This was in contrast to the Protestant clergy at the time which tended to want to capitulate +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

..organized the collection of about 4,500 of the weapons and stashed them in the headquarters of the resistance instead of handing them over to the government that was about to invade Gwangju. Catholic clergy took to the side of the resistance. +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

..and demanded that that all the fire arms be returned to the government, which was essentially impossible. A Catholic Priest named 조철현, or Father Jo Bi-o (Pius, his baptismal name attached to his secular name), +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

..intermediaries between citizens and the government. When government soldiers fired into crowds and started murdering people, the crowd ended up responding by seizing about 5000 fire arms from reserve armories and the police. Eventually, the government was ready to deploy a full scale invasion, +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

There were some Protestant priests who were part of the resistance, but they had largely been arrested or driven out before the May 18 Democratization Movement. Buddhist temples were outside the city so the remaining clergy in the city were Catholic priests who were called to try to act as.. +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

Another interesting bit of cultural significance: Catholicism is associated with the democratization movement specifically in Gwangju. Nobel Laureate Han Kang's 소년이 온다 (Human Acts) talks about the brutal massacre of citizens - many as young as middle schoolers - who were protesting dictatorship +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

Missionaries are also associated with education for underclass citizens like women and the poor so Christianity becomes a signifier of people interested in modernity as opposed to Buddhism which came to Korea in about the 4th or 5th century and Shamanism which was around for even longer +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

Ideas like, God loves everyone equally, and everyone, even peasants are able to go to Heaven if they are good fits with a lack of caste and get pretty popular. +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

So yeah..Catholicism gets an earlier start by about a hundred years compared to other forms of Christianity. It takes root and becomes culturally significant. The Silhak social movement mentioned above is associated with modernization and the abolishing of the traditional caste system in Korea. +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

That's tantamount to sacrilege in Confusion society so that leads to the first of several rounds of martyrs in Korea. Pope Francis canonized a bunch of them when he visited SK in 2014. +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

So (kinda) cute story that ends sad. He gets martyred eventually because the government of Joseon gets really upset that these new Catholics are refusing to perform ancestral rites because the Church says bowing to the shrine is considered idolatry. +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

And one of the things he confesses in those letters is immense guilt that he converted to Catholicism not for love of God and Jesus Christ, but rather because he wanted to learn more math. +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

This is a Big No in Catholicism so when the bishop in China hears about this, they get sent a cease and desist letter in 1789. Eventually, an actual priest named Zhu Wenmiao from China arrives in Joseon in 1795. In the meantime Yi Sŭnghun wrote to the clergy in Beijing with his confessions.. +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

..the religious teachings and extensive religious practices of Catholicism using these translated Chinese texts. Yi Sŭnghun baptizes all these people including Yi Pyŏk, and they're all taking confession from each other and acting as clerics..as not-priests. +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

..also get really into Catholicism, and the numbers vary based on who's telling the story, but he and Yi Pyŏk convert between 2,000-4,000 people. Mind you, Yi Sŭnghun's just a guy that's been baptized. He's not a priest. But he and Yi Pyŏk and other guys basically try to reconstruct and follow.. +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

In 1784, Yi Sŭnghun goes to Beijing, demonstrates catechesis and gets baptized as Peter. He's thought to be the first Korean Catholic convert to be baptized. He returns to Korea, bringing more Christian texts, and a group of Confucian scholars (who are also nobility).. +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

..they encounter ideas among the Christian texts talking about how humans are morally imperfect, and the way to moral perfection is through adoration of the Christian God. So at least some of them..appear to have converted to Catholicism in an effort to become better Confucians. +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

..cultivating their intellectual abilities and pursuing moral perfection. The math and the religion fit right in. Funny enough, at some point, while these scholars were looking for people who had achieved moral perfection and theorizing about how to get there, +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

..is way more advanced than what they had in Joseon at the time. Yi Pyŏk and his fellow scholars were very, very excited. Among those books were also some translated Christian religious texts that they also ended up studying. Since they're Silhak Confucians, they spend A LOT of time.. +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

One of these diplomats is a Confucian scholar/nobleman named 이벽 (Yi Pyŏk). In these envoy missions, Yi Pyŏk receives a bunch of Western texts that've been translated into Chinese by Jesuit missionaries. He discovers that the math in these texts +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

The late Joseon Dynasty was largely characterized by isolationism from the rest of the world due to some invasions by Manchuria and Japan. Korea basically wanted to be left alone. But, China, is unavoidably right next door so Joseon would send envoys of nobles to China to do diplomacy. +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 18/10/2026

So disclaimer: I am not a historian, I'm not Christian let alone Catholic, and I'm not Korean. I just fell down a rabbit hole about this for like two weeks...so here's some interesting (and tragic) stuff that I found out reading and watching videos about Catholicism in Korea +

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 17/10/2026

Considering writing a thread on this, but it's so nerdy, haha

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 17/10/2026

Fun thread. Did y'all know that Catholicism made it into Korea not because of mission or evangelism but because the guy that brought it there (a noble scholar) was obsessed with math?

Reposted by soch

Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 17/10/2026

And I speak of spiritual suffering! Of people seeing their talent, their work, their lives wasted. Of good minds submitting to stupid ones. Of strength and courage strangled by envy, greed for power, fear of change.

soch @qsyami.eurosky.social · 17/10/2026

But no, you cannot have my 5000 won gift card and rice cooker that I lied, cheated, and stole for on a Run episode

Reposted by soch

Pantsirang @pantsawe.borasky.com · 15/10/2026

Fake SFMOMA account just blocked me before I could report them, please go report them for impersonation when you can 😊

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がんぼるぞい®︎ 💪🐶✨borzoiボルゾイ @ganborzoi.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

さつまいも大好き！がんぼるぞい！ translation: I love sweet potatoes! Photo from October 2023