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Suicide in Korea


Ruan Chun Xian

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This is insane.

Rookie actress Woo Seung-yeon commits suicide

April 27th, 2009

http://www.dramabeans.com/2009/04/rookie-a...ommits-suicide/

It’s a sad day when news like this is no longer shocking. There have been way too many celebrity suicides in the past six months.

Woo Seung-yeon, a 24-year-old rookie actress, was found dead on the morning of April 27 at home from an apparent suicide. She had hanged herself in her closet. The suicide is believed to have been triggered by depression.

A family member said on the 28th that she had recently received treatment at a hospital for her depression, but “she couldn’t handle the pain and made an extreme decision.” The relative requested that the deceased be allowed to rest in peace, given the current turmoil of scandals and accidents within the entertainment industry.

Woo Seung-yeon got her start as an internet uljjang, after which she began to model, and then branched out into acting in the movie Herb and the mobile sitcom Yap. Her most recent role was in the Hwang Jung-min film Private Eye [그림자 살인], which was released earlier this month.

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I used to live in Korea and I remember hearing about so many of them, most of them high school students jumping off their apartment buildings. Parents expect too much of their children. I remember getting our report cards and that most of the Koreans were so nervous. Some who got less than an A or A- were punished or grounded. It was not unusual to see them crying in the hallways. After school they get sent to hagwon and then spend the night studying, only to do it all again the next day. It's ridiculous the amount of pressure they have and suicides are only becoming more and more common. :rofl:

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You guys do know that you can go to jail if you commit suicide according to the law. Its funny if you fail at suicide because then that is the definition of "epic fail".

where?

maybe this is an asian thing? because I mean Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world and a couple of Japanese celebrities have been committing suicide recently too... stress?

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im a korean and i consider that very sad. it is like a problem of the society.

honestly, stress levels and expectancy levels together with getting recognized by the society

has much impact on students, workers, and specially celebrities.

analyzing the case:

Students: in korea, high school year 2-3 students must prepare for the one exam that has their life on

the sooneung or called the college level entrance test. with that, it depends on what kind of uni you can go to

(i think it is similar for us the externals :) ) and if you look at the students there, even elementary students

spend their time studying in academies till 11pm and when they come home, they do their homeworks so they sleep 12-1pm

(they are only elementary!) its like all of the other students are doing the same thing and it is called insulting

if you are not like them (its an exception to some though)

workers: like students, they are in stress too as they try hard to get accepted and recognized by the society.

it has been proven that most workers stay until 2pm in their offices finishing their work

they may be considered hard working but i guess its all society

celebrities: the stress may be similar like other celebrities world wide but its more of the problem in management

groupings. they abuse specially their female stars, sexually harassing them, making them look like prostitutes

and even forcing them to do things that are not their profession

the governement MUST do something about it, but i think they are keeping quiet because they have received some amount

of money and its CELEBRITIES they have some power i think

its sad

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Hello, fellow Koreans!

They say that one of the reasons so many Korean celebrities commit suicide is because of internet. Some people would just go online and basically drive the poor actors, actresses and etc to death by insulting them so much. I wish I could translate some of the stuff they say on the net but, pardon me for not wanting to go back on Korean web and plunge into the sea of insults and all those disgusting things they say. Having experienced it once last year - and I'm not even a celebrity - I can kind of understand why they do that.

Now you gotta wonder why they heck wouldn't the politicians commit suicide.

As for the highschool students and stuff...There are a number of reasons for that. Aside from the enormous amount of stress they put on the students (people, trust me: if you're in Year 12/last year of high school/senior year/etc, you don't have the right to sleep 8 hours a day) or the fact that most high school students are stuck at school till 10~12 at night, being able to get out of the forced "voluntary study time" only if you have another tutoring to attend to (I've asked my Japanese friends and apparently, there's none of this staying-back-at-school-so-late thing in Japan), there's bullying.

It's similar to Japanese Ijime いじめ; those of you who're interested in Japanese culture and movies and stuff would know how horrible it is. I don't think it's as bad in Korea, but it sure is getting worse. Having experienced Korean bullying when I was in Year 6, I gotta say I understand why those people, who'd been bullied for whole three years of their middle school lives, high school lives and etc, would want to commit suicide. Mine went on for 6 months. Was enough to change my personality forever.

Oh yeah, and there's the fact Korea treats the victims of rape like a piece of ****. I don't think this is considered as major an issue as the other two - cyber-bullying and normal bullying - but I'm pretty sure that being a rape victim, not being recognised of the traumatic experience and rather being treated like a ****, would be enough to make them wanna commit suicide.

Edited by Hughie
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Former South Korean president committed suicide today. Probably because of the bribing scandal.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/22/roh.dead/index.html

it is very sad for me cuz though he was in the bribing scandal, it wasnt for sure if he was or not and that if he had taken more time he would have been proven innocent or not. i guess the pressure was on him. i feel very bad for him because it was politics itself which drove him to that. he was one of the best presidents in korea who did not have much vices.

though i feel devastated about his suicide, i think the investigation of his bribe should still go on. whether its bad or not. cuz either way he will be proven honest or guilty, we can understand him. (well this was my opinion :P )

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Former South Korean president committed suicide today. Probably because of the bribing scandal.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/22/roh.dead/index.html

it wasnt for sure if he was or not and that if he had taken more time he would have been proven innocent or not. i guess the pressure was on him.

I myself am very keen on politics and stuffs and i was living in korea over 16 years and I'm pretty sure Roh was clean.

And most of koreans are pretty upset about the government and the police for being guilty of Roh's death.

Personally, I even think this might have been a homicide but i don't really have much clue to prove that.

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  • 2 weeks later...

i would guess it has something to do with the amount of pressure all these people feel

i mean, even when you look at korean students, you can see how much pressure society and their parents put on them to do well

i guess it doesn't simply go away when they become adults, as i suppose there is always someone telling them what they should do or what to aspire to

probably many of them feel like they either cant or dont want to live up to those expectations, and take the easy way out

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