Sungkyungkwan Scandal - A Confucian Deep Dive

Afternoona Asks

We had so much fun diving deep into one of Grace's top comfort dramas, the 2010 sageuk Sungkyunkwan Scandal. We were excited to have Gavin join us again to discuss the historical backdrop, queer-coded characters, and surprisingly liberal version of Confucianism we find in this "Joseon Coffee Prince." Join us to discuss this gender swap historical drama, in Park Min Young's breakout role. We start with a spoiler free section so you can listen to see if this might be a drama for you!

Note - Sarah mentions JK Rowling upset Taiwanese people over her criticism of a Taiwanese Olympian, Lin Yu Ting, and her eligibilty to compete in Women's sport. However, Sarah referred to her as trans, which is incorrect, as Lin Yu Ting is a cis-gendered woman (which makes it worse!). For more on this story, check out this Focus Taiwan news piece.

If you have not yet listened to the other episodes in our Confucian series, you can find them here:

An Introduction to Confucianism for Asian Drama Fans

And here:

My Dearest Unpacked with a Confucian Lens

For those interested in more from Yoo Ah In, Chicago Typewriter is available to watch free-with-ads on Pluto TV (thank you to our fellow Patreon member who tracked this down!)