Blog 4 — Mukbang II

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As I mentioned in my past blog, I talked about Mukbang and it’s place in today’s social media trends and what exactly is it and how it got popularised internationally.

I’m going to be talking about my experiences with mukbang. There are several instances where I’ve wanted to try it out myself but I wouldn’t call it Mukbang or wouldn’t think of the idea, instead it would be my cousins and I buying a lot of snacks from those small stores in the Philippines like chips, cookies and soft drinks; then proceeding to have what we call in the Philippines a ‘Food trip’. I guess it is pretty similar to Mukbang the only biggest difference is we don’t have an audience that watches us, it is just ourselves enjoying the variety and semi-large amounts of food. I’ve had these food trips since I was quite young so when I first discovered what Mukbang was, my first initial reaction was surprised because I didn’t expect or even thought about the idea of eating in front of a camera would generate such a large following or large audience — since it is just either one or a couple of people with a bunch of food eating normally or exaggerated in front of an expensive camera or just their computer’s webcam.

Photo taken from tripadvisor.com

Besides food tripping there are other alternatives to ‘Mukbang’ but Filipino style. The photo above shows something called a ‘Budel fight’ — it’s simply a very big dinner. The food is placed on banana leaves and on top of a long table where everyone is facing each other, all the food is mixed within each other and typically in a Budel fight we use our hands to eat — still given the option to use cutlery though. I’ve experienced a Budel fight a couple of times in my life but not enough to truly enjoy it, since I was born in Hong Kong; I didn’t really fully indulge or adapt to the real Filipino lifestyle and the number one etiquette in eating when being a Filipino is usually eating with our hands. I grew up in Hong Kong so when I had my first Budel fight when I went back to the Philippines, I looked like a fool around my family and relatives; but I tried my best to learn their ways for future purposes.

Blog 3 — Mukbang

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Mukbang is a popular streaming facade that originated in South Korea, where people would prepare food and then eat it in front of a camera where a live audience would be watching it through a stream or video. The food that is typically eaten in these Mukbangs are food from the local country such as kimchi or Korean fried chicken.

Although it originated in South Korea, many other countries were influenced by the idea of streaming themselves eating and even added their own renditions and ideas to the original facade.

Screenshot taken from youtube.com

You may think, why mukbang? Why is it so popular? In Korea; food etiquette, societal and gender norms were quite looked up upon since Korea is a country that is a place that maintains their self image both in the country itself and within the people. Once the trend reached out to other countries like America for example, Americans took the facade and added their own twists to it.

Screenshot taken from youtube.com

There is another trend that is common in the YouTube/streaming scene and that is ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) — to put it simply, it is a phenomenon in where hearing certain sounds can generate a tingling feeling within a person. So in this case, some YouTubers and streamers decided to combine both mukbang and ASMR into one — thus creating a new hybrid facade. Soon after, the originators of the facade decided to join in on the new hybrid facade since it created a lot of popularity in the genre of streaming.

I have watched a couple of videos myself of both mukbang and ASMR as well as both combined together, and I can see the on-going trend of why it would be enjoyable to watch/listen. I have the tendency as well to watch these videos/streams whenever I feel a sense of hunger or I want to eat something, so I suppose that out of the millions of other people who watch these videos; there are a couple of them that feel the same as me. The reason why I do this is because I feel a sense of satisfaction while watching the videos, as if I am enjoying the food itself but in reality I’m just watching someone eating.

References:

1. Bernardini, G. (2019, April 12). America Is Fascinated With Mukbangs – Here’s Why They Are So Popular. Retrieved from https://www.distractify.com/p/why-is-mukbang-popular
2. Sacasas, C. (2019, May 22). WTF is Mukbang and Why Should You Watch these Viral Korean Videos? An Explainer. Retrieved from https://www.fluentin3months.com/what-is-mukbang/

Blog 2 — Autoethnography

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Autoethnography is similar to an autobiography, or basically is the same. Autoethnography is just the method in which takes place when writing, the way in which the author write his/her autobiography. It is a way to describe their personal experiences and life journeys in a somewhat systematical order depending on cultural, political and social meanings and understandings. It is both the process and the product of an autobiography.

How an autoethnography works is the author combines the characteristics from an autobiography and an ethnography into one — for example, an autobiography is a memoir of and individual’s life experiences in the past; usually when the author is writing their autobiography, he/she does not necessarily have to go through said life experiences but rather it can portray how they have lived their life in the past. A common feature that authors write about in autobiographies are ‘epiphanies,’ these are the moments in the author’s life that made a certain impact whether positively, negatively, or both.

Ethnography on the other hand is something different, it studies a culture’s practices, common values and beliefs as well as shared experiences with the sole purpose of educating both the people who are from the culture and those who are not part of the culture. Usually, ethnographers indulge themselves within the culture itself to better their knowledge on a personal level thus being able to write and take notes about their experiences like; obstacles they face or practices they did. If not participants of these cultural practices, these ethnographers may seek out those members of the culture and conduct interviews, they would examine their way of life; like how they communicate with one another as well as where and how they live.

Now when you put the two words together it becomes autoethnography, they select specific epiphanies that originated from a culture then organise them chronologically and analyse. Autoethnographers typically use a quantitative and more methodological way of collecting the data although, the use of qualitative research is largely used as well. They use personal experiences to help construct the foundation of a culture, that being — relatable to both those who are members of the culture and even members that are outside of the culture. In a way an autoethnography is both personal and educational on a different kind of level as compared to both an autobiography or an ethnography respectively — it combines both characteristics to create a different product.

References:

1. Ellis, C., Adams, T. E., & Bochner, A. P. (n.d.). Autoethnography: An Overview. Retrieved from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1589/3096

Blog 1 — ゴジラ (1954)

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Image taken from bloody-disgusting.com

Image taken from gfycat.com

As a Filipino, if I were to view this movie from a more cultural approach — it is pretty bizarre. I wouldn’t know why out of all the kinds of creatures there are to create or come up with, the Japanese decide to choose a dinosaur-like figure as their antagonist in the movie. I was really confused as to why Godzilla was wreaking havoc throughout Japan and hurting people. Although from another perspective, I can see that since the film was made a long time ago especially in Japan where technology was always a bit more advanced taking into consideration that Japan is one of the most developed countries especially today; it was visible that the special effects were really good at the time that this film was made. It was mentioned by our lecturer that since this film was made in the 50s, tools for animation were different back then compared to now — so the way that they ‘animated’ Godzilla was through a human dressed in the costume; it was like stop motion but it was called suitmation. So I found that pretty interesting because I rarely see animation made that way, especially in my generation where technology is more developed and the use of CGI and digital effects are more common.