One reporter from the Maeil Shinmun recently took a long look at why so many students have been participating in the movement against the importation of American beef, chalking it up as much to the swirl of bizarre rumors as to their desire to simply make themselves heard on something, and speculates about what this all may mean for the future.

It seems like “the revolt of the teenagers”. Teens are gathering in public spaces. Previously unconcerned with political and social issues they are now in an uproar over the importation of American beef. They have circulated petitions on the internet to impeach President Lee Myung-bak and taken the lead in candlelight vigils against the beef importation. Most of the participants in the candlelight vigil held in downtown Daegu on the 3rd were students there of their own volition. There is another planned for the 10th. They are planning it, and freely expressing their opposition. Why are teenagers shouting out “no” to the world? Who is pushing them down this road?

The biggest reason these teens are doing so is that they believe they could be the first “victim” of mad cow disease brought in by imported beef. They look at their poor-quality school lunches and hear rumors that “cheap American beef will go first into school lunches and military rations,” and from that their strongly opposed feelings spring. Their recognition of a direct link between the food they eat, American beef, and their own lives creates these group actions. Ahn Mi-hyang, executive director of the “Our World” (우리세상) program at the 청소년교육문화센터, said, “the importation of American beef has been a real stimulus to action for teens who want to live in good health. Because of their low-quality school meals, teens are considerably worried over mad cow disease.”

Teenagers are looking at mad cow disease in horror. They say, “my friends in school and I always talk about mad cow disease.” And in various media they are warned about the dangers of mad cow disease, and on the internet they see all kinds of false rumors, and the horror grows and spreads. 18-year old Kim Chae-won stated her opposition. “Even if you don’t eat beef you can get mad cow disease so why in the hell are they importing it? What’s the meaning of working hard to get into school and graduate and work if you’re just going to die in your 20s or 30s?” 19-year old Son, a male high school senior, said, “I can’t tell if beef is 30 months old just by my eyes, so I don’t see how I can trust it. My parents also tell me never to eat it but what am I going to do when it turns up in my school lunch?”

All kinds of stories are growing and spreading. If you eat beef infected with mad cow disease you die instantly, mad cow disease can be spread by air and water, you can get it from a kiss — every sort of false rumor exists. 18-year old girl Jang Hae-jin said, “I saw on the internet that American beef is being imported to start a controversy that distracts people from the secret building of the grand canal project. I’m scared of being forced to eat American beef in my school lunch.” Woo Sang-hui, an 18-year old female student at D high school, worries, “I don’t want to die from eating my school lunch. Even if we have these candlelight vigils we can’t force the goverment to change, can we?”

Is the American beef issue the reason for calls to impeach President Lee? Experts say that the American beef issue has caused a number of accumulated criticisms of the “pro-unlimited competition” Lee Myung-bak administration to boil over. Various policies and controversies including English immersion education, the O teacher scandal, 촌지 합법화, and school liberalization, have been slaps in the face for teenagers who “want to cry”.

18-year old Byeon explained her support for impeachment. “There are rumors that President Lee will rescind the 5-day week and abolish college testing recruitment. It seemed to me that group action is good so I thought if I had time I would go to a candlelight vigil.” Criticism of the Lee administration is spreads among students through text messages and the internet. Students receive from 1 to over 10 messages. Organizations which host the vigils, including Anti-MB (안티MB), Our Korea (정책반대시위연대), and Crazy Cow Dot Net (미친소닷넷), ask them to join the vigils.

Teenagers focus on the social issues they learn about in school as well as hairstyle freedom. Lee Yeong-tae, a 19-year old in his final year of high school, said, “I study social issues in school so when the mad cow disease issue came up it was easy for me understand the problem. My parents told me I was definitely not allowed to go to the vigil but I think if they saw objective and fair information they would change their minds.”

The character of these vigils is different from those in the past. Almost all of today’s teens were born after 1990. They have no memory of the culture of the June 1987 uprising. Their archetypes instead are the cheering in the streets during the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup and the candlelight vigils after the deaths of Hyo-sun and Mi-seon. Because of this they see little reason to be opposed to attending the vigils and think of them as positive. Accordingly, the recent string of candlelight vigils has not seen strident political demogagy, and has been accompanied by various kinds of parody and satire.

The sight of popular celebrities raising their voices in protest also seems to have an effect on the teens. At “Cassopeia”, the home page of Dongbangshingi, a message was put up saying, “let’s gather 800,000 people to show the power of our Dongbangshingi against mad cow disease,” asking for fans to attend a candlelight vigil. The fan clubs of Super Junior, SS51, and Shinhwa have also asked fans to put up “mad cow disease UCC” — user-created content.

Additionally, as there is no device which can show the collective intent of teenagers, the adult generation is creating their discontent so without any solution or alternative plan being presented they are working together in anger as brothers and sisters. Kim Gyu-won, professor of sociology at Kyungpook National University, offered his analysis. “Teens are making public their thoughts on problems related to them. It isn’t simply about mad cow disease, but also their unhappiness with various social realities, politics and the media, and they feel that there is a possibility for social change right now.”

There are conflicting opinions about teenagers. The government and certain political organizations see no benefit in teen activism. From their perspective they see that the teens attending candlelight vigils are being systematically influenced by hidden actors, andon the internet there is some wrong, agitatative information. Police and prosecutors have opened investigationgs into who is behind the cellphone text messages, and educational authorities say they will stop middle and high school students from attending the demonstrations. On the 7th Gong Jeong-taek, superintendant of educatyion in Seoul, strongly criticized the candlelight vigils against American beef, saying that, “hidden forces are quietly getting students to attend them.”

But many teen and experts say of this perspective that, “it’s hard to agree”. 17-year old Lee, who attended a candlelight vigil, said, “some things that people say are exaggerated, but anyway, it’s still true that there is a danger of mad cow disease. Teenagers aren’t idiots that are just being manipulated by other people.” Ahn Mi-yeong, executive director of Our World, said, “no matter who strongly kids are stirred up by someone, if they can’t understand what it’s about then they won’t do anything. Without a way to understand it kids will just see it as a special case and look at it objectively.”

There is also the opinion that active participation in this kind of social action will help bring teens to a new level of social engagement. In current education, they can become conscious of the importance of active engagement with social issues directly related to skin. But there is also the worry that there will be negative side effects from frequent expressions of their opinions. If they see effects from expressing their opinions they may start to try doing so on other issues, and start expressing individualist complaints. Professor Kim said, “social activism should be conducted simultaneously with inner self-reflection, but it is not a good idea to just superficially criticize the press and so on and get into blindly following things.”