2016 4th Essay 30232 Teawoo Lim Gangnam Style, the Icon of Wealth beside Poverty A guy with spread legs bobbing up and down with his hands held in front of him. This is a symbolic movement of Psy’s “Gangnam Style.” Most of the whole planet knows this song and dance. Two billion people viewed his video on YouTube, and so many parodies were uploaded. Likewise, Psy’s “Gangnam Style” did certainly make a great hit. By the way, what is “Gangnam”? Gangnam is an area of the center of culture, business, and especially wealth in Korea. The city’s condition significantly affects the identities of cities. As Chrysler suggests, Detroit is the city of hard working and strength, while Chicago is “Windy City,” and Las Vegas is “Sin City” (Chrysler). Just …show more content…
The great educational opportunity in Gangnam is well illustrated in Gangnam’s 8(pal)-hakkun, a group of eight superior schools in Gangnam. As Sanggon Kim discusses, “8 hakkun high schools dominated the entrance of Seoul University” (Sanggon Kim). Thus, many people move into Gangnam to get into good schools; however, the problem is that some people having lack of budgets move to Gangnam impractically, by lease or loan. Young Hun Kim illustrates, “In Seoul, Seocho-gu (31.2%) and Gangnam-gu (26.4%) had the highest rate of tenants. It is true that many people live in Daechi-dong by lease for their kids’ education” (Young Hun Kim). He shows that many people move to Gangnam above their ability, by lease. Those people, when the house price increases, have no choice but to move worse conditions. "Mrs. Park,” according to Samuel Kim, “says, ‘It is hard to move far away because kids are attending school. Parents like me have to move near semi-basement flats or roof-top houses that are cheap, but those are also scarce.’ (Samuel Kim)". Many parents and students, despite their lack of finance, are stuck in Gangnam because of their schools and private