the whole kb scene has this weird love of exoticism of asia and it's stereotypical associations. same with the way there's this obsession with sakuras and mount fuji

"If you're from the Reddit keyboard community, you might not like what I'm about to say." Oh this is going to be a great video.

BRUH flying eagles, ranch dressing, doritos 😂 as a Canadian this killed me.

as a korean, if i bought this set in korea... i would be flagged as a nationalist.

I swear I absolutely lost it at the cable with the sesame oil on it. Like imagine creating a Canadian themed cable and just throwing gravy and cheese curds on it

24:32 wtf who sprinkles green onions on a keyboard cable wtf

this is basically calling something gmk china and then making a panda express themed keycap set

Lmao gmk usa: hamburger, french fries, condiments, hotdogs

The chopsticks are laid in a Japanese way lol. A Korean meal usually consists of metal, not wood, chopsticks and spoon laid out vertically.

As a Japanese individual, Hiragana legends and sub legends are tacky. Hiragana looks great in semi-cursive, not so much on fonts. But I can't really criticize them 'cause I do feel that Cyrillic legends are pretty cool. So in some way, I'm also kinda guilty lol. I haven't felt offended by most sets tho. Sometimes a bit of cringe, but that's it. I guess it's mostly because they are 99% anime-themed stuff and not based on Japanese culture. But I do feel you. Asian cultures often get mistaken and wrongly executed. I feel sorry our Korean and Korea related friend had to go through that kind of a feeling.

GMK These Colors Don't Run when? I need my crying eagle artisan keycap and Statue of Liberty / Liberty Bell deskmat.

GMK Bepis

I think my favourite part for me is just how they slapped the Taegeuk onto the grill which is not only horrifically tacky, but they've inadvertently made it look like the kind of split dual-both pot you have for Japanese shabu shabu. It's a symphony of failure on so many levels and I'm astonished.

For posterity, the keycap set has now seen changes in response to several of the criticisms in the video. Names, marketing pictures and novelties have been altered to revolve around a theme of the South Korean flag specifically, instead of South Korea as a whole.

Gmk bibimbap would have been neater with the parts being the ingredients that make up bibimbap 😅😂

That chopsticks in the rice thing is so true (also in japanese culture, very rude, symbolizes death) ... really shows that the creator doesn't truly understand what they are creating.

As a fellow korean american I completely agree with every point you brought up.

Your Korean pronunciation is very good! Serving someone a bowl of rice with chopsticks stuck in the rice basically means you want that person to die.

The colour scheme reminds me more of the Czech flag than anything else. The desk-mat with the _taegeuk_ on the right and having the fields separated looks very much like an older Pepsi Cola logo.

Not Korean, just asian. Initially saw this set and thought it was incredibly tacky with 0 to no knowledge of the Korean culture. Knowing a little more leaves a worse taste in my mouth about the whole thing.

Alternative title: Korean American gives lecture on Korean culture better than most native Koreans would be able to while renting about some plastic or something

Subscribed. As an older (i don't know how old you are, but I'm probably much older) Korean, you're accurate on almost everything you said. Sticking chopsticks in the rice is not only rude, it's taboo. Only allowed during Jesa, which is the commemorative ceremony for dead ancestors. 100% agreed and well said.

I myself as a Korean got very uncomfortable with this set... referencing KBBQ with a country.

32:10 got me hollering lmao.

The world famous GMK Pepsi.

Most of the sets with Kana (hiragana or sometimes katakana for some fucking reason) are a complete embarrassment and nobody seems to talk about it, mostly because nobody buying them knows a lick of Japanese. Nobody in Japan uses Kana to type, it's all romaji with qwerty there. If you're using a Japanese IME you can't even switch between fullwidth and halfwidth, or between English and Japanese, there's no zenkaku key. The layout makes no sense since the layout is different between ANSI and JIS (meaning things like quotations and apostrophe are meant to be in completely different places so if you're using Japanese IME and typing in English none of the legends for those keys would match). They're presented in non-JIS, ANSI layouts for some reason and serve no purpose. I actually used the JIS layout for over 6 years so seeing so many ANSI layouts with Japanese legends makes no sense. The only custom set I've seen that has proper JIS support is ai03's SimpleJA, but even then, it's katakana, even things like Shift in English are in katakana, which is just weird (look at a Topre Realforce JIS keyboard for instance). Judging from what I've seen from Japanese keyboard enthusiasts on twitter, they don't really seem to care because availability in Japan is virtually non-existent apart from some importers and most of them prefer ANSI. Someone made a thread about this whole thing on geekhack and the bottom line was basically "you won't get enough people to hit MOQ" and it's mostly because most Japanese enthusiasts simply will never use websites like geekhack/deskthority/reddit/etc.

North Korean Designer

I agree with much of the assessment, though I might disagree with OP on some of the aesthetic components (e.g. I like the 2nd deskpad). This set is cringe, at best. If anything, one of the main redeemable things from it was the artisan collab with ArtKey (but that's probably just bias from collecting artisans).

I don’t want to offend nobody, but the first thing that come immediately to my mind when I think about Korea is Starcraft.

As an Asian-American, I also found it tacky but it also doesn't take itself too seriously. I can completely understand your problems with it Specifically about the non latin only kits, I like them. The whole point of custom keyboards is to get something you won't find in a normal board.

There was more kbbq theme in the set than the Korean flag lmao With the idea of it being "problematic," the designers were obviously trying to represent Korean culture, but they ended up just reducing it to food. If it was just trying to be a fun set with a kbbq theme, that would be fine, but its trying to do something its not qualified to do, so it becomes tacky and reductive

Yikes this is definitely some exoticism going on here. I'm mexican-american and I couldn't imagine someone making a "GMK Mexico" with a taco looking keyboard and a mariachi band playing and some sombrero novelties. I don't think the guy who made this had any I'll intent. This is a reminder that even people that have no I'll will and have no idea of other cultures can have some very negative stereotypes towards others.

23:19 The japanese based sets dont reffer to the country tho. they are based off of japanese foods like dangos, bentos or history (Samurai,bushido) and dont advertise as culture of japan. In my opinion the japanese sets are not offending in any way. There is also never mnentioned that it represents Japan in any way neither are they called GMK Jappan or Nippon or stuff like that. But this set is insane. To say that this set revolvoles COMPLETLY about ALL things korean is kinda sassy.

I mean...if they just said it's a "Korean flag inspired" design, then it's completely fine. But they added KBBQ, Bibimbap, and other stuff in the advertisement that can't even find a trace of on the set itself. But what can I say...it still sold out lol (even though I also think it's quite ugly)

This is an illustrated example of cultural appropriation at it's finest.

Damn this IS super tacky. Jeez man I would have a hard time believing a korean person did this unironically

As another Korean American having lived in Korea, I totally agree with your opinions. Those were pretty much my what I thought as well.

As a korean american i've been looking for korean sets I like, came across this and was not interested at all. You point out a lot of the reasons I also felt. Wish I could see more Korean sets and themes.

I was really deciding between this set and GMK Hallyu and eventually ended up going with Hallyu. Glad I did after watching your video. Won't lie, I was going through a heavy Koreaboo phase when I ordered it, but I'll be keeping your points in mind if I ever join another "culture" themed keycap set.

That American set sounds amazing! Just need to replace doritos with a burger, and add fireworks and you would be set.

i dont really hate the color scheme ?? just that the whole concept is cringe af

Kudos for talking about problems with country- and culture-themed sets, especially from those designers who have practically no understanding of what they're basing their sets on. Here in Russia, we've been cringing at some sets made around Russia- and USSR-related themes, but they aren't even close to being bad representations as this set. Although IIRC in many cases it wasn't due to designers' ill intent - they simply didn't know enough about the topic, so, hopefully, people will put more effort into this kind of work in the future (which I highly doubt considering how well kana and Cyrillic only sets with edgy mod legends and novelties sell - nobody seems to care)

I agree. IF I made it, I would've taken Dancheong (단청) or Obangsaeok (오방색) which is only used in the Korean castle. I understand that if this kit was themed as Taegukgi (태극기). but why naming them in Korean foods lol.

I missed this video originally. You are way more polite in your "review" of this than I would have been. Let's just call it what it is. Inappropriate and disrespectful cultural appropriation. Why would a non-Korean ever even want to come up with a Korean set? Even if they loved Korean culture, I have a problem with that. This is borderline racist beyond its ignorance.

I’m half Japanese and I feel this way about A LOT of stuff.

Wait, this is themed after a country, I thought it was themed after classic Pepsi?!?!

If there was a Canada set I would totally buy that. Maple syrup, hockey, and more maple syrup would be bomb

I am half korean and completely agree with everything you said

Did you by chance have any constructive critisism or is this just a tear down of someones hard work? All of this anger could be spoken about with the artist to actually reflect what you are up in arms about or even better, this is just a keyboard set, if you feel this doesnt reflect your views dont buy it and dont endorse it... you are also free to make a Korean set that reflects Korea more accuratley yourself. People having an appreciation for a culture without knowing everything about it and wanting to point out things they enjoy about said culture is not problematic. On the other hand assuming a persons intentions through their keyboard design because it doesnt reflect Korea to you and being the most pretentios person ive watched in general just reflects the type of person that you are.

Very interesting to learn more about the set and your opinions. Am just curious did you fill out the initial IC form? Or provide any feedback or (reasonable) requests on the geekhack thread when the IC first came out? The designer is very appreciative of feedback. I’m not sure how presenting your feedback two weeks prior to the GB stage will go... Also, what changes would you make? Or just a name change to GMK KBBQ? I personally love this set.

I'm honestly surprised they didn't shoehorn some k-pop thing in.

"I have lot of issues with it" *takes out block notes*

dont let the dislikes fool you, this entire video is facts. although im a keyboard enthusiast, i have so many complaints about the custom mech keyboard community that people don't really talk about, and the exoticism present in keycap and deskmat designs is one of them. thanks for speaking out about it

I mean, some dudes made the swiss, which is a yellow board and is basically cheese, as someone from switzerland, it is extremely ugly, but well, some people might wanna type on some cheesy board I guess

Idk, I don't think an American-themed keyset would ever be seen as tacky here.

Someone somewhere is prepping GMK 'Murrica GB featuring ranch dressing texture dye sub and dorito stain theme modifiers

GMK AUSTRALIA: KANGAROOS, WOMBATS, KOALAS AND SHRIMP ON THE BARIBIE 5 Artisans keycaps that would be perfect. (also Australian don't say shrimp, we say prawns :D)

This set aside, I would buy a meme set with pronunciations of letters and the spellings of the numbers in english as sub legends I think it would be pretty funny as a meme set.

gmk poland when

Im not Korean but I don’t like how there isnt a lot of Hangul Keycaps. Like I like studying Korean and sometimes I wish I had Hangul legends so I don’t guess/look up legends. It would help but there isn’t a lot of options.

personally i'm not really too bothered by the set but i do find the chopstick rice bowl, bbq deskmat, and the tossed in food names a little off-putting though the green onion + chopstick + sesame oil cable photo... haaa... a little bit ridiculous lol

the downvotes are from the 73 people who bought this set lol. jokes aside, as a korean, the keycap set is pure cringe actually. the whole premise is just downright awful.

Wow the more I look at this set, the more it ticks me off. I haven't kept up with the keeb community much in the past couple years, and tbh I'm glad I missed this bs lmfao

I really tried convincing myself to buying this kit since rarely there are Korean sets when there are like 20 weeb set interest checks a day, but I just couldn't haha. Cultural appropriation/misrepresentation aside, at the end of the day this set just looks meh. PBT Modern Hangul by Malvix Studio looks a lot nicer in my opinion, so I might wait for that set if it ever makes it to the GB. Great video as always, I love your content!

I would have made it triple shot JTK All White and have subtle blue legends and red sub legends.

curious, this set finidhes gb, what do you think of the minimal changes they made?

Im interested in hearing your opinion on GMK Hallyu, after seeing how you feel about this one. Is that set any different in how it portrays what its trying to do? Question from a guy who admittedly knows nothing about South Korea

can you give us an update on this?

Thanks KZfaq recommendation function, and thank you. This is really weird!

Lil bit late but just to add on to the point about the chopsticks in the rice bowl, in Chinese culture, it's not just rude, it's straight up a bad omen, because the chopsticks resemble how you would put joss sticks for offerings to the dead

Kim Jong-un got this on group buy.

i watched the initial upload. great as always

did someone really say in chat that if you eat rice with chopsticks it's because you watch too much anime???

I say it belongs with a lot of the sets that go for a japanese aesthetic and anime and designed by someone who doesn't know much and just thinks it is pretty. Like there are more cultures to design from, but you got to get it right on all points. It is like someone from Russia designing a set based off the US and associating it with burgers, guns, and diabetes. Like, there is more to it than that.

this is such a breath of fresh air. I feel like the mk community is really behind with it's exoticization of east asian ""aesthetic."" I brought up the same comment about chopsticks on ebt ramenstop and the designer literally said "don't think too hard about it" ??

As for the point on chopstick with rice, I'm from Thailand but my family is Chinese, but we do use chipstick for rice most of the time especially when using a bowl, do Korean use spoon for rice?

Hmmm GMK Masterpiece 😂

As soon as I saw the title I grabbed a bag of popcorn and clicked play.

I feel like the GMK Sumi was the best handled set for a Japanese themed set, considering that it wasn't conducted by a Japanese designer. Idk about this. But similar thing could be said about GMK bento, but then again, that was well handled compared to this too.

man the amount of times I cringe as a Japanese American from all the cultural appropriation towards Japan in this community... thank you for speaking up.

I am curious one your stance on GMK Red Devils, especially after this video.

Totally agree. I won't say that I hate it but I feel very much the same about most of what you said, I don't mind the colors but considering what they're used for kinda does make it weird.

Not only the tacky pictures with onions on cables, but also the cable colors are the worst and most low effort way they could have gone about it. Since their intention was to recreate the flag I'm surprised they didn't make the cable white with only the connectors colored red & blue. That may have still been tacky, but atleast it would have matched the thing they were trying to recreate.

Looking at the kbbq deskmat reminds me of the in authentic kbbq places I go to.. i'm getting hungry now.

It's a set that revolves around the things the designer thinks represents SK

Ngl I want gmk USA LMAOO

opinion of korean - that keycap is just symbol of korean flag, not any culture so, don't think bad for that colors

I could never buy a set based off of the US or Japanese flag (I'm japanese American), it's pretty much the same as buying a hat with the American flag and a bald eagle on it. I could never, so tacky. Now, if it's based off of aesthetics, with an original, inspired colorway, than that makes sense.

did they atleast use the right colors instead of a random red and blue

chile: we made it

can we make GMK america with novelties called childhood obesity pls

At the end of the day, it's just a very weakly themed, unfocused and poorly designed set for something that is "supposed" to represent an entire country's culture. I think it's okay to like it for aesthetics (preference blah blah), but there's other red, white and blue colorway sets out there, and wanting exotic legends for the sake of having them on a board is a pretty weak reason to support a set, in my opinion.

GMK Canada would have the alphas just spell our sorry over and over again - a canadian.

I get not liking the colorway, but why do you take such great offense to the idea behind it/design choices? I'm from the Netherlands, and if someone would make a GMK Holland with tulips, windmills and weed I'd find it a little tacky and lazy perhaps, but I wouldn't hate the set and hyperanalyze everything wrong with it. If there's no malicious intent, what's the big deal? Edit: also, later on in your video you're shaming Koreans for not ''standing up'' to the injustice of misrepresenting the essence of Korean-ness. Are you some kind of authority on all of this? If they're fine with it, then it's obviously not as egregious as you're making it out to be. Up until that point this video came across as a little rant-y and baseless, but that rubbed me the wrong way. Stick with stating your own opinion, don't try and shame others into getting on your side.

GMK Moomin is one that springs to mind that didn't originally run with a Norde kit when the whole premise is that Moomin is from Finland. I think that might have been more of an issue of the designer not doing enough homework. Having said that it's ok for others to design and set from another country but make sure you do your homework. People will help you out if you have questions.

Jeez that is a very ugly set. The set would've looked a lot better if it had been a primarily white set IMO. The blue 3U wide section including arrow keys is extremely out of place. Large blocks of red and blue are not super iconic parts of the South Korean flag. I'm not too offended by the cultural appropriation but the keyset really seems tacky and on the edge of cultural fetishization. Having a Yi Sun Shin/Turtle Ship themed keyset would've shown off Korean pride and history much better. Not to mention it would have been visually unique from an atypical blue and red themed keyset. Completely random but how are you gonna have a Korean BBQ deskmat and not have Mu on it lmao.

jymv speakin the truth, as a canadian, totally agree with the tackiness.

Such a good video, thank you

lol the bowl of rice is like putting a hamburger on an American based set, so stereotypical lol

i think its cool to make sets after cultures, its just hypocritical that theyt expect everyone to love theirs and will probably not take well a different culture like usa doing it