Korean Hairdressers

I have great respect for Koreans. Wherever they go, they quickly form communities, organise and group themselves and help each other out. They are also very quick to start businesses where they see an opportunity.

Since the Korean community is so strong here in Chatswood (the suburb of Sydney I am residing in), opportunities to sell Korea-related products and services are numerous.

Hairdressers are perhaps a field where Koreans are not expected to become so active. However here in Chatswood, I saw only one non-Korean hairdresser shop and about eight Korean ones.

Shops selling products and services owned by immigrants often target a specific community, mostly the home country of the immigrants. There are Thai grocery shops mostly frequented by Thai people. There is a Filipino Sari-Sari (variety) shop here in Chatswood where the local community meets and exchanges the latest gossip.

Korean hairdressers however do not fit into this category. They are not only targeted at and frequented by the Korean community, but also by other people. They are relatively cheap, abundant and usually offer good and reliable cuts.

The workers in these shops however sometimes hardly speak English and probably just come to Australia to earn some money for a few months.

The fact that Korean shops are far more frequent than other Asian shops not just regarding to hairdressers but also in beauty, skin care and partly also in fashion might be reflecting wider trends in Asia.

Recently, Korea has been dominating in terms of pop-culture in nearly the whole of Asia. Teenagers in Jakarta, Bangkok and even in China aspire to Korean boy- and girl groups and watch Korean TV drama series. In wishing to look like their idols, boys and girls across Asia emanate their idol's styles and generally become very receptive towards everything from Korea.

The Korean government, wary of the positive side-effects of a domination in pop-culture smartly uses this situation as a way to increase its reputation and influence across the wider Asia-Pacific. Riding on this wave of popularity, Korea has also turned into an Asian powerhouse in fashion and beauty.

It might then actually be that this Korean dominance is also reaching Australian shores. Far from suggesting that the "average white Australian" might suddenly become infatuated with Korean pop-culture, it is however likely that Korea is also dominating the large Asian communities within Australia's urban centres in these industries precisely due to the "Korean wave" of pop-culture.

Korean hairdressers are therefore, I believe, a sign of the integration of urban Australia in Asia. Australian towns may often have Chinatowns, Korea- or Thai-towns but really, the urban centres of Australia are little Asia-towns in their entirety, where the adoption of Asia-wide phenomena can be observed almost immediately.

Chinese New Year 2

Even though Chinese New Year was last weekend, yesterday was the highlight of the CNY celebrations in Sydney - the parade.

The CNY parade must be one of the highlights in Sydney's annual calendar, judging by the thousands of people lining the streets and by the political figures taking part.

The parade features dozens of groups, mainly locally based Chinese organisations. More impressive than the groups' spectacularly colourful displays was the depth of Chinese community groups taking part.

There were geographically based groups (Sydney-Shanghai and Sydney-Guangzhou organisations), educational and youth groups (school talents, parents of disabled children, Chinese Youth Organisation), media groups (TV's, newspapers, radios), cultural groups (dance etc) and also business groups.

This breadth of organisations and social groups is indicative of a few interesting facts.

-Chinese groups seem to be very well organised among themselves and quite engaged in social activities.

-The Chinese population however doesnt just seem to be active among themselves, but there are also quite a number of Australia-Chinese societies and groups.

-It would be interesting to know whether the more active groups are linking Australia with Mainland China or other countries/regions such as Taiwan, Malaysia or Singapore.

- the sheer size of the parade was astonishing and is indicative of the societal, cultural and geographical ties of Australia and the wider Chinese communities.

This year, the parade enjoyed the presence of the guest city, Chongqing, the largest, and mostly unknown city in the centre of China. Their representatives presented colourful displays with lanterns and the much-loved dragon shows (above to the left).



For the first time, the Chinese communities were also joined by the Vietnamese and the Korean communities, who also celebrate (lunar) new year at the same time. This was a significant move, as it gives the parade a more pan-Asian flavour and includes other important Asian communities.

Not only did the festival show that the Asian communities in Sydney are active and show enthusiastic presence, but it also demonstrated the general curiousness of Sydneysiders towards this festival. They have somewhat adopted it as their own, judging from the amount of Caucasian Australian families, coming out to show their children the parade.

Perhaps one of the most striking symbols of the interconnectedness of Australia and Asia was the presence of the Chinese Australian war veteran organisation with a handful of elderly men, who fought in the many wars of the last century, proudly displaying their medals and waving Australian flags.