Word: kisaeng
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...work. "No Return" reveals the personal nightmare of the artist in a police state; "Goodbye" captures, as best as a male poet can hope to, the torment of Korean women forced by the government to sell their bodies to visiting Japanese businessmen in the loathsome practice known as kisaeng...
...Park government sells whatever can be sold: babies for adoption; miners and nurses for West Germany; young women as prostitutes and nightclub hostesses in Japan and Korea. Lush travel circulars entice hundreds of thousands of Japanese businessmen to Korea on all-expense kisaeng tours that include the services of young Korean women. As preparation these women are given weekly lectures by government-appointed professors to assure them that their efforts are a patriotic service, providing foreign exchange that will make a better life for all Koreans. Those sent to Japan are issued passports stamped "Artistic Delegation" by the ROK Ministry...
...while they tear down and rebuild, they also live comfortably among the signs and customs of 2,000 years. The grounds of Seoul's Kyongbok Palace in late spring are rich with blossoms. Korean men still like to relax and discuss the business of the day at a Kisaeng party, the Korean equivalent of a geisha soirée. Less contrived and artful than its Japanese counterpart, a Kisaeng party is a time to sing, dance, talk and relax...
...story shops in the downtown district. Construction on the country's first subway nears completion. New hotels and proliferating offices of foreign firms have begun to give the capital a cosmopolitan accent. Thousands of nightclubs, cabarets, beer halls and bars prosper, as do the traditional kisaeng houses where hostesses entertain tired businessmen...
Most Koreans, however, take the invasion in stride. When Correspondent Chang asked three lovely kisaeng, who earn $500 per month, how they felt about the Japanese, one replied: "It's hard for us to accept some-but we must work hard not only for ourselves and our families but for our country's future. Our country needs more money for its economic development...