‘I am...’ meme latest to go viral in South Korea’s bizarre saga surrounding fencing star

SEOUL – The saga surrounding former fencing champion

Nam Hyun-hee’s brief engagement to a con artist

is sizing up to be a collective loss, ranging from money lost to fraudulent investments to public shaming of the sports star.

But from the ashes of Ms Nam’s reputation came an Internet meme based on one of her former fiance’s text messages, mixing English and Korean.

In the message to a potential extortion target, Jeon Cheong-jo – whom police reported has a woman’s national identification number but who formerly swindled money as both a man and woman – pretended to be lacking in Korean vocabulary as someone born in New York.

“I am,” Jeon wrote in English, followed by the Korean word for trust or belief, “sillae”, possibly to mean “I trust you.”

Jeon’s nonsensical mixture of English and Korean, which was consistent throughout the conversation, blossomed into a meme that went viral in South Korea.

E-commerce company WeMakePrice launched a promotional event with the phrase “I am ‘teukga (special price)’,” while brokerage firm Korea Investment & Securities used the phrase “I am sillae” in its online reports for top stock market picks.

“I am ‘mayak hyeomui (drug allegations)’,” was the headline for a Sports Donga news article about actor Lee Sun-kyun, who starred in the Oscar-winning film Parasite, and K-pop star G-Dragon facing allegations of illegal drug use.

Internet users are calling the type of phrasing “Cheong-jo-speak” after the name of the con artist, and wondering when its parody will make an appearance on the comedy programme Saturday Night Live Korea.

Popular SBS variety show Running Man has already used the phrase.

This is not the first time a serious social issue has transformed into a meme.

Then Korean Air vice-president Cho Seung-yeon, formerly known as Cho Hyun-ah, made headlines in 2014 for illegally ordering her company’s plane to return to the gate at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, claiming that she had received sub-standard service from flight attendants serving her macadamia nuts.

What came to be dubbed Ms Cho’s “nut rage” sparked a nationwide furore as a prime example of the type of South Korean workplace abuse called “gapjil”, referring to when people of superior social status use their authority to abuse or take advantage of those with relatively inferior status.

Ms Cho, the daughter of the airline’s then chief, was widely condemned for her behaviour. She subsequently resigned from her post while receiving a suspended jail sentence for abusing the flight attendants.

Sociology professor emeritus Kim Jun-ho of Korea University analysed the public’s reactions as coming from their disdain of gapjil.

According to Prof Kim, the South Korean public tends to feel sympathy towards people who are insulted by their superiors, and to question the validity of the power structure in such situations.

As Ms Cho’s reputation as a young executive went up in flames, her unsought notoriety as an Internet celebrity emerged. “Nut return” became a meme widely adopted by e-commerce companies and Internet users in South Korea. It was used in various marketing campaigns, including a Gmarket promotional phrase, “Yes, this is that very nut”, and a slogan to promote the 2014 Liam Neeson film Non-Stop, “We don’t have ‘nut return’! The worst hijacking occurs!”

A similar kind of meme was born during popular female volleyball player Lee Da-yeong’s 2021 public feud with her much more accomplished teammate, Kim Yeon-kyoung, in which Lee wrote on her social media account that “This will soon blow up! I’ll blow it all up!” hinting at a shocking revelation about Kim.

While it was never revealed what the alleged secret was, Lee’s rant became a meme that was parodied by sports fans.

Parodies of crimes, however, have sparked debate about whether making jokes about them is disrespectful to the victims.

Comedian Eom Ji-yun on Monday posted a photo of herself surrounded by bodyguards, with the phrase “I am Eom Cheong-jo”, poking fun at a similar photo Jeon used while pretending to be a wealthy man.

But she took the photo down just hours later, after being bombarded by criticism that she was being inconsiderate toward Jeon’s victims.

Cultural critic and journalist We Geun-woo recently raised concerns about the Jeon meme.

“Perhaps the companies should refrain from using it for their marketing, since it was something a con artist said to fool his victims. It may not just be the sloppy crook that is being mocked, but also the people who were fooled by such sloppy deception,” Mr We wrote on his Instagram account. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK