Like the characters of the Comedy “the diamond arm”, us diplomats may wonder “Why Harry had shaved off his mustache?” after vegetation on the upper lip parted, the U.S. Ambassador to South Korea. And to do this he had not of his own will.
U.S. Ambassador to South Korea has ditched his “controversial” moustache, explaining that it was too uncomfortable to wear a mask as a measure to combat coronavirus.
according to CNN, Ambassador Harry Harris asked the Seoul Barber to remove from his face the thick vegetation, carrying well-known inconveniences amid the hot and humid summer in the South Korean capital. The us Embassy posted on Twitter a video with the story of how Ambassador Harris called for a classic local Barber to give yourself a little coolness in the hot summer months.
posted to Twitter by video us Ambassador complains about the weather in Seoul, before sitting down in the chair to Mr Barber About completely shaved off his mustache.
“I am Glad that I did it, – reported the head of the American diplomatic mission on Twitter. For me, it was either keep his mustache or lose the mask. Summer in Seoul is too hot and humid for both”.
Wearing masks, testing, and contact tracing have become important components of the response to the spread of the coronavirus in South Korea, recalled to CNN. And this policy has paid off: to date in the country, according to the Johns Hopkins University, was a little more than 14 thousand cases of infection and 299 deaths.
However, it seems, a trip to the Barber was not only caused by hot weather in Seoul and discomfort while wearing the mask. A former U.S. Navy Admiral Harry Harris binkle became the U.S. Ambassador to South Korea in July 2018, and his mustache even before the pandemic coronavirus caused a strange criticism from a certain part of the local society. Interestingly, as noted by Bi-bi-si, during his service in the U.S. Navy, Harris went clean-shaven, and once you are in the diplomatic service, had just decided to get a mustache. Maybe in another country it wouldn’t matter, but in the Republic of Korea, the Ambassador met with a clear lack of understanding.
In January, Harris confronted with criticism online, told reporters that his mustache “somehow became the subject of some charm here in the media”. Essence of the criticism was with the whiskers Harris reminded the Japanese rulers, hosted on the Korean Peninsula during the Japanese occupation from 1910 to 1945. In particular, mustache were Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who after the Second World war were executed by the sentence of the Tribunal as a war criminal.
In Korea Japanese sovereignty remains a major historical nationaltional trauma. And it is not surprising that the South Korean society and the media found the Embassy mustache a sign of disrespect to the country and its citizens.
Another problem, according to CNN, is that South Korea is a mostly homogeneous society where xenophobia remains common, and mixed racial marriages are quite rare.
meanwhile, Harry Harris was born in Japan from a Japanese mother and American father, an officer of the Navy. So it is not surprising that some online commentators in their criticism pointed not only at the mustache of the American Ambassador, but also partly on the Japanese origin of Harris.
“I understand the historical enmity that exists between the two countries, but I’m not Japanese, the American Ambassador to Korea, and American Ambassador to Korea,” said Harris in an interview with the Korea Times in December.
