Well, not all people in the past were stuffy like the Victorians. This woman from 1916 (it depicts a "Miss Hinman Bird") was doing a quite sexy dance as "Goddess of Dawn" in some weird artsy dance production. Wild!
To really understand a country and a way a country is presented it is good to look back at the stereotypical and historical record. Even back in 1907 (waaay before north korea and all that) the Western press was referring to Korea as the "hermit kingdom" and the stereotype of an isolated odd country prevailed. So here is a look back, which reflects where we are now.
So this family is so classically Japanese. Mum pays attention to Son, and Dad is off in his own world ignoring them. But I guess he has something important on the mind. Like he is trying to think of a new sandal to buy or something.
This image was donated by Pearson Scott Foresman, an educational publisher, to Wikimedia Commons, and is thereby in the Public Domain. --- See http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Pearson_Scott_Foresman_publisher
This image was donated by Pearson Scott Foresman, an educational publisher, to Wikimedia Commons, and is thereby in the Public Domain.
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See http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Pearson_Scott_Foresman_publisher