But speaking for myself, I personally didn't "stumble into town, just like a sacred cow," with "visions of swastikas in my head." And besides, swastikas mean something very different in primarily Buddhist Asia. But I'll bet Bowie knows that. Surely.
Nor do I have "plans for every one." I mean, speak for yourself, will ya? And the whites of my eyes are pretty much the same as they are in the eyes of absolutely every human being everywhere, regardless of what natural eye color/colour they may happen to have been born with.
Ah, skip it. I have long loved your music, Sir Bowie. You're awesome, even after all these years. But in this particular instance, she's right, you know. "Just you shut your mouth." Or at least, "hush."
Great classic video though. Bowie at his usual best. Note: He tosses the rice casually in the air in the video because of the fact that, as western tradition dictates, we toss rice at weddings, where as in Asia, rice has traditionally been the main food stuff for the overwhelmingly high percentage of the desperately poor population, who (in the past) tended not to waste it. Okay. Point taken.
This nice Korean video by K-Pop group Apink may say it better in some ways though. Well, not really, I guess. Bowie, as usual, has the more cerebral approach. But if you're not already a fan (or even if you run the other direction completely when encountering yet another Korean girl or boy group with the more or less usual, tired old, sexually suggestive dance moves and dumbed down lyrics), then do give the cute video below a look see. But whatever you do, when in Korea, don't say, "just you shut your mouth," or ANY variation thereof, but rather,"hush."
The introduction of the English term, "hush," is almost revolutionary in Korea though, you know! Because if you live in Korea as a foreign westerner for any appreciable length of time, you may very well eventually be socially blackmailed if you do accidentally utter the phrase, "shut up!"
Or any other common English phrase that most Koreans would prefer not to hear, for that matter. For just one other example, I was forbidden to say the English word, "bad," during my first two years teaching at a kindergarten here. And yes, folks, "shut up," even when uttered harmlessly, in your own native tongue, with the proper voice inflection, OR EVEN WITH A HUGE SMILE ON YOUR FACE, is a very, very, VERY BAD THING TO SAY IN KOREA! Regardless of the circumstances, it often seems.
Why, you might ask? Well, my Korean wife says that every time a western movie is given Korean subtitles, when the characters in the movie tell each other to shut up, the Korean translation is always something so incredibly BAD that all Koreans think that telling someone to "can it," "shut your trap," "zip your lip" or... whatever... is tantamount to dropping the F bomb! Go figure.
I'll have to explain later why I'm pretty darned sure that not being able to even so much as tell someone who's really annoying you that they need to "pipe down," is really just another classical excuse to control almost everything everyone in Korea does, says and even thinks. What can ya say? Old imperial habits and deeply ingrained medieval and blatantly unequal societal habits from a slave trading past die especially hard.
Above, is an image from my Flickr Collection, dated 09192013, entitled, "Relax! It's Apparently an Ancient Peace Symbol." Yes, the casual, everyday use of an ancient peace symbol in Asia (that was once briefly hijacked by a bunch of goose stepping Germanic assholes) is all just part of the stuff that daily twists your western brain in all sorts of uncomfortable directions, while attempting to live and work in Asia.
http://www.gadling.com/2010/05/08/the-swastika-symbol-of-peace-and-harmony/ http://koreabridge.net/post/manja-or-swastika-%EB%A7%8C%EC%9E%90-dostoevsky2181
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