[News] Will Sungkyunkwan Scandal change its name?

[News] Will Sungkyunkwan Scandal change its name?
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Just a week and a half from its long-awaited premiere, KBS’s campus sageuk Sungkyunkwan Scandal has received an objection to its title and a demand to change it.

In case you are unfamiliar, Sungkyunkwan is a university that was founded in 1398 and was the highest academic institution of the Joseon era. It is the oldest national university in Korea and all of East Asia.

The current director of Sungkyunkwan University, Choi Geun-deok, asserted on August 20 that as its history is steeped in tradition and honor, it objects to being associated with the disagreeable word “scandal.” He called it a defamation of character and explained, “You can’t even compare the Confucian scholars of Sungkyunkwan to present-day university students. They studied incredibly hard and were morally outstanding classical scholars. Even if we’re in the age of the ‘makjang drama,’ there’s a thing called national identity. How can you attach this negative word ‘scandal’ to the name of Sungkyunkwan, which is all the more odd for being an English word, at that?”


Ten days previous to his statement, KBS had sent over certified materials regarding the drama, to which director Choi had requested a name change. KBS did not respond, and Choi called the broadcaster “arrogant.”

A source with the KBS drama department said, “It appears the title has been taken too seriously and with too much sensitivity. We will discuss this and clear things up soon.”

Part of me wonders why the university is only objecting to the title now, given that this drama has been in the public consciousness for months, and was based on a previously published novel (albeit titled differently: The Lives of Sungkyunkwan’s Scholars). I suppose in Choi’s defense, an academic administrator may not be up on the latest pop-culture happenings — although you’d think someone in the admin offices would have heard before last week.

I can kinda, almost understand the complaint, even if I agree that the title is being taken too seriously, because there’s a lot of pride that goes into being a leading scholarly institution for more than 600 years. I’m going to speculate KBS won’t agree to the change, but who knows.