Hair washing, published in The Korea Times June 18, 2007.
Korea Times Archive Editor’s note “Laughing through History” is a column that explores the roots of Korean humor through the joke book “Kkalkkal Useum,” originally published in 1916.
The joke I’m translating today is short and simple, but it’s interesting for the way it uses humor to parody and attack Western racism and arrogance.
Although the joke was included in a Korean humor collection, the two figures here are identified only as a Westerner and a man from China's Qing Dynasty.
(Qing was the last Chinese dynasty and ended in 1911, five years before “Kkalkkal Useum” was published.) Since the joke features a Chinese rather than a Korean protagonist, it’s a reasonable guess that the editor took this joke from an earlier Chinese source.
