Eating!

July 2nd, 2016| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Park Seo-yeon is known as “The Diva.” She’s solved the problem of eating alone—apparently no fun for her.

So she went ahead and decided to eat dinner with a computer for a “guest.” No, this isn’t some weird affliction that has beset the South Korean lady. She is part of a new cultural phenomenon called “muk-bang” (먹방), literally “eating broadcast”!

In South Korea—one of the most wired and connected of nations in the world—Park and other “muk-bangers” form a coterie of several thousand South Korean broadcasters with tens or hundreds of thousands watching. Each of them sitting alone in front of a camera, consuming massive quantities of food, commenting on its provenance, creation, and quality. And interacting with viewers via online chatrooms. AfreecaTV is one of the more popular platforms for muk-bang.

AfreecaTV PR coordinator, Serim An, on the popularity of muk-bang:

We think it’s because of three big reasons—the rise of one-person households in Korea, their ensuing loneliness and finally the huge trend of ‘well-being culture’ and excessive dieting in Korean society right now.”

And so there’s Park. She can easily finish of four large pizzas or 6 lbs of beef in one sitting, though that may take an hour or more to accomplish.

Confesses Park:

A lot of my viewers are on diets and they say they live vicariously through me, or they are hospital patients who only have access to hospital food so they also watch my broadcasts to see me eat.”

And Park’s a pro at it. She has made gluttony (and the exhibition thereof) her full-time job. Her fascinated audience sends her digital currency convertible into cash—about $100,000 a year! Nice! (Though she does spend a third of that on food and tech supplies.)

One of the best comments I ever received from a viewer who said that she had gotten over her anorexia by watching me eat. That really meant a lot to me.”

You can check out AfreecaTV’s muk-bang page here.

Food!

I’m reminded of Jesus’s eating activities after the Resurrection. With a glorified body, I would guess he didn’t (doesn’t) need to eat, but eat, he does, with others.

They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish;
and He took it and ate it before them.
Luke 24:42–43

And in John’s Gospel the resurrected Christ serves his disciples.

So when they [the disciples] got out on the land,
they saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed on it, and bread.
Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and the fish likewise.
John 21:9, 13

But even more interesting was his breaking bread with his two co-travelers headed to Emmaus.

When He had reclined at the table with them,
He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them.
Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight.
Luke 24:30–31

A few verses before, Jesus had explained to these two all about himself from the Old Testament (24:27). But apparently that divine lecture produced no light in his audience. Instead, it was at the instant that they received the broken bread from the Lord—perhaps he even uttered the words, “This is my body” (i.e., “This is I”)—that they recognized the risen Savior!

Food!

Thankfully, there will be food in the afterlife!

“Truly I say to you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine
until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Mark 14:25

Yup, food!