The Reesors in Korea: Public Humiliation

So we went to Family Land (Gwangju's personal amusement park) last week with our friends from Kansas. It was really fun because we went on a Monday morning so it was only the four of us and about 800 elementary school students (who were too short for most of the good rides).

As a result, many of the rides were started for us specifically and we rarely had to wait in line. It wasn't overly spectacular, but it was a good day. There was a roller coaster, a spinning-type ride, a 3-D thing (that made me sick, by the way) and the usual other attractions.

There was, however, one unique ride that I have never seen before. It was a giant circle with seats around the edges. There were no seatbelts and not even specific seats. It was slanted with the front towards the audience and spun (relatively) slowly and bounced back and forth. Rather tame, we thought, so we lined up and got on. A timid looking man took our tickets and let us board.

Turns out it was the ride of public humiliation. "Timid little man" was only the mask of "sadistic, sarcastic, let-me-make fun of you" man. The ride was controlled solely by him, so he decided how you spun and how you bounced. That wasn't the big deal, though. He had a mean streak in him. If he wanted to make fun of you or make you do something, he would put you at the "top" of the circle and bounce you, making fun of you over the loudspeaker until you did what he wanted.

When we were on the ride, he put the four of us at the top and started saying "Dance, America, Dance! Come on, America, Dance!" Fortunately, his English was limited (he was saying that in Korean) and so he couldn't pick on us for too long. Every time he got frustrated with us, he spun another fellow to the top and made fun of him.

Essentially, the ride could last for 15 mintues or longer, depending on his mood. The audience was bigger than the lineup. For the people before us, the operator played a really funny (only in Korea) joke. It was "the ride is finished, it's okay to stand up, just kidding, ha-ha you all fell over" joke.

Anyway, it was a good time. Not that we'll do that ride again, but we can say we did it.