Entertainment recommendtions

My wife was laid up with a broken patella and came across a Dae Jang Geum ("The Jewel in the Palace") marathon on the Asian channel. This is a Korean Drama (AKA "soap opera") of more than 50 episodes, so it's lengthy. You can stream it here. If you do get a chance to see it, I'll also warn you it is slow starting. It takes about eight episodes before things really heat up.

Partly as a joke, I suggested my family buy the DVDs for my wife. They did, and we ended up watching them (three times!). I lent them to my brother. He and his girlfriend would visit Korea after they saw it. He started learning Korean.

It appeared in Hong Kong, and the Philipines, and was number one in both places, as well its country of origin, Korea. 

The story itself is has a historical basis--although it's obviously fictionalized--and is set in medieval Chosun (Korea). In it, a young Korean woman who started out in the King's kitchen, ultimately becomes the accupuncturist to the king, when only males were eligible for that role. 

Spunky women are popular in Korea!

If you'd like a less-demanding sample of K-drama, here are some recommendations, often with better production values. All are modern, and about 16 episodes except for Yanxi Palace:

Netflix:

Because this is my first life (nerd rom-com)

Crash Landing on You (Romeo & Juliet with a better ending. North & South Korea are the Montagues and Capulets)

Extraordinary Attorney Woo (Autistic attorney succeeds!)

Amazon Prime Video ... Also YouTube (free!)

The Story of Yanxi Palace (Chinese, and like the palace intrigue of Dae Jang Geum, lengthy. The heroine rises from humble beginnings as an embroidery maid, avenges her sister's death, and more. Another spunky woman!)

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These asian shows demonstrate lived Confucian philosophy, so offer a genuine alternative example to the Marvel Comics' / might-makes-right way of conducting one's life. The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life is a nice introduction to that philosophy, if you're interested.

As an illustration of what the alternative might mean a tweet from Arnaud Bertrand suggests the Chinese had a problem in their province just east of Afghanistan, Xinjiang. Islamic Jihadists among the muslim population (Uyghers) were disturbing the peace. 

In Afghanistan, the US employed its standard remedies to deal with their Jihadists--bombs and bullets--but in Xinjiang, the Chinese had "re-education" and some forced labor. It probably wasn't pleasant for the Uyghers, but they eventually got jobs. Xinjiang is now a tourist destination. 

The US lost Afghanistan to the Taliban. Larry Wilkerson, Colin Powell's retired chief of staff, says he doesn't believe the US foreign policy establishment has an operating brain. The asian dramas demonstrate repeatedly that there are thoughtful solutions to problems, although there are certainly threats and force in them as well.

Which reminds me: according to Twitter user William Huo, 90% of Chinese own their own home. They used to have beggars in their cities (i.e. homeless people), but they gave them jobs, and now homelessness isn't a problem. So...not just threats and force.

In the US, the government built affordable housing until Nixon put a stop to that, and Reagan, as he was cutting taxes on the wealthy roughly in half, cut HUD's affordable housing budget by 75%. The "Loaves and Fishes" organization serving the homeless began in the Reagan era. Make no mistake, homelessness in the US is the result of public policy, not the addiction or bad behavior by the people themselves.

One Key Chinese innovation: Banks are nationalized, fund long-term / infrastructure projects, and don't manage currency issuance around short-term profit for billionaires. Economic note: banks issue "credit money," they do not lend the deposits they have on hand. In the US, we've privatized that function.