The sick mask phenomenon explained...

Since I came to Korea, I have been absolutely fascinated with Asian people's seeming obsession with wearing sick masks. It is so pervasive that it's practically a trend. You can buy sick masks in every color and design, from polka dots, to animal faces, to all of the colors of the rainbow. When I first got here, I was very turned off by them, thinking that under that sick mask there was a contageous person. But, I quickly realized that people wear them for many different reasons. They wear them to prevent becoming sick, when they are already sick, to filter air pollution, to cover a nose job (for real!) and even to warm the brisk air in the winter when they take walks. The thing I've found the funniest is that Koreans are so careful to wear sick masks any time they think they could be exposed to germs, yet when they're not wearing them and they sneeze in public, they don't even cover their mouths! It's been fascinating to me to try to understand when and why people wear them, but this week, I finally understood. I can sum up my understanding of the origin of and obsession with sick masks in two words: yellow dust.

Yellow dust occurs each spring, when torential winds form in the Mongolian desert, picking up sand and carrying it South East towards Korea and Japan. It has been happening for centuries, and usually comes in the early spring with the changing of seasons. Well, sure enough, on March 16 we got our first Yellow Dust storm of the year. Viewed from space, it literally is a cloud of yellow sand moving from China, and settling right over Korea and Japan. While it doesn't exactly looking like a yellow rain cloud here, there is just a very dirty haze in the air. When its really bad, the dust actually collects on everything and you can see evidence of it if you were to swipe your finger across the hood of a white car.

So, all of last week I was sick, which is why I didn't update my blog. I didn't think I would be affected by the Yellow dust, but I definitely was. When I came to school on Monday morning, a teacher told me to keep the windows closed and make sure the children stayed inside at recess. Around town, many Koreans can be seen wearing facemasks. I certainly took the Yellow Dust seriously when I was told about it, but didn't much think that I would be effected as a young, healthy person. Boy, was I wrong! Within a day, I had a cold and allergies like I've never had before. My nose was constantly tickling with the oncoming of a sneeze.

Though I had my first experience last week, Koreans have been dealing with this for hundreds, probably thousands, of years and they've learned to adapt. Hence, the sick mask. I'm sure there are other reasons that they wear them so frequently (eek, remember SARS?), but I would bet that this is the original reason. I've been told we may have a few more dust storms this spring, but I'm not worried about it. I've had my eye on a pretty purple polka-dotted sick mask at the local market, and I think it's about time I invest.

Yellow dust storm over Korea and Japan

(picture from wikipedia.org)