hankyoreh

South Chungcheong Province

By Jin Myeong-seon, staff reporter

To pour a bucket of ice on your head, or not to pour, that is the question.

The ice bucket challenge - a campaign to raise money for Lou Gehrig’s disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS) - has gone viral on social media and become an international phenomenon.

South Korean society has been no exception. Korean celebrities, including entertainers, politicians, and businesspeople, and ordinary people are taking part in the campaign. But not everyone who has dared to take on the challenge is responding in the same way.

Entertainers and politicians, whose careers depend on staying in the public eye, are happy to both make a donation and get doused with frigid water.

In the challenge’s original form, the person who was nominated could avoid being doused with ice water by donating a certain amount of money to an organization supporting patients with ALS (the Korea ALS Association and the Seungil Hope Foundation). Now, though, it is more common to do both donate and get doused. The video of having ice water dumped on one’s head serves as visual proof of one’s donation.

There are some people who give the donation but opt out of the ice shower. “Once you get old, ice water is a little dangerous,” said actress Yun Yeo-jeong, 67, who chose to only donate.

“I’m currently shooting scenes in which I’m wearing a beard. The ice could wipe off my makeup, which would be inconvenient for the film crew,” said Yoo Ah-in in regard to why he chose not to dump ice on his head. Yu is currently filming a historical movie.

Lee Boo-Jin, president of the Shilla Hotel and daughter of Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, who was nominated by professional pool player Cha Yu-ram, also just made a donation.

Public officials, who must pay careful attention to their behavior, have also been hesitant about the challenge. One reason is because the challenge works as a relay, where each challenger nominates three more people. One senior judge who was planning to take part in the challenge backed out because of an internal memo in the court. A notice was posted on the court network asking judges to refrain from taking part in the ice bucket challenge.

Politicians are also putting the challenge to political use. Opposition party figures including lawmakers Park Young-sun, Moon Jae-in, and Won Hye-young gave a donation but declined the ice shower out of consideration for the grief of the families of Sewol victims, they said.

In contrast, ruling Saenuri Party (NFP) lawmakers who are putting pressure on the opposition party before the opening of the regular session of the National Assembly used the challenge to convey a political message. After getting soaked in ice water on Aug. 22, Kim Moo-sung, chief of the Saenuri Party, nominated Park Ji-won, lawmaker with the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD). “I hope that a cold shower will bring him to his senses so that he can win over the hardliners in his party,” Kim added.

Won Yoo-cheol, another Saenuri Party lawmaker, dared Moon Jae-in, who has been on a sympathy hunger strike, to take the challenge for similar reasons.

Others have been taking part in the challenge to send a message about the Sewol tragedy. Along with making a donation, actress Nam Bo-ra took part in the sympathy hunger strike for one day. Film director Kim Kyung-man created a video that alternated scenes from the ice bucket challenge and the Sewol disaster.

People inspired by the ice bucket challenge have also come up with the “Sewol sympathy hunger strike challenge.” Figures in art and culture circles have started a hunger strike relay, where they go on a 24-hour hunger strike and then nominate someone else to do the same.

“There is criticism that the campaign tends to be frivolous, but since it is transforming into various platforms that allow you to effectively express your view on political and social issues, I don’t see it as a bad thing,” said cultural critic Lee Seung-han.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]