Eatyourkimchi
Simon Stawski (left) and Martina Sazunic (right) at a fan meeting during KCON 2012
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2008–present
Genres
Subscribers1.37 million[1]
Total views486 million[1]
NetworkBreaker (2016–2020)
100,000 subscribers
1,000,000 subscribers
Last updated: June 6, 2021

Eatyourkimchi (Eat Your Kimchi, also titled Simon and Martina from 2016–2020) is a YouTube video blog channel created by Canadian expatriates Simon Stawski and Martina Sazunic in 2008. The channel featured videos about their lives in South Korea, including food, cultural differences, and popular media. In 2012, they registered Eatyourkimchi as a company in South Korea and opened their own studio in Seoul, which remained operational until 2015.

In 2016, Stawski and Sazunic moved to Tokyo, Japan and produced a video series on Japanese food and culture titled Eatyoursushi. Their channel was rebranded as Simon and Martina to reflect the change. In May 2018, the channel had 1.3 million subscribers.[2]

In 2021, the two had renamed their YouTube channel back to Eatyourkimchi and announced they had divorced, with Sazunic eventually leaving the channel in 2022.

Background

Simon Stawski and Martina Sazunic met in 2005 during a poetry class at the University of Toronto, and both earned a bachelor's degree in Education and Art.[3] After marrying, the two moved to Bucheon, South Korea, in 2008 to teach English abroad.[4][5] At the time of their arrival, there had been threats of violence between North and South Korea.[5][6] As a result, they uploaded their first video on YouTube as an attempt to show their parents that they were safe, which was a video of them eating sundubu-jjigae at Incheon International Airport.[4][6][7] Originally, the video blogs were made for their friends and family, but it later expanded to documenting "fun and quirky things" about Korea, and they later titled their channel Eatyourkimchi.[8][6] Soon, they experienced a rise in viewership in 2009.[4] They were several of the first non-Korean bloggers whose content was centered on Korea,[7] particularly on YouTube.[6]

In 2011, after quitting their jobs as teachers, Stawski and Sazunic became full-time bloggers living off the ad revenue from their YouTube videos and website.[4][7][9] The popularity of Eatyourkimchi has led them to be invited on South Korean television programs such as Heart to Heart,[10] Quilt Your Korean Map,[11] Star King,[12] and Running Man. On September 5, 2012, Stawski and Sazunic launched a fundraiser on Indiegogo for setting up a business and for a studio in Seoul to film.[13] The fundraiser met its goal of $40,000 in less than seven hours and raised more than $100,000.[13][14] By 2013, Stawski and Sazunic registered Eatyourkimchi as a business and relocated from Bucheon to Seoul.[14] Video producers Soo Zee Kim and Leigh Cooper were hired as Eatyourkimchi's interns and later appeared in their videos.[15] On August 9, 2014, in collaboration with the YouTube channel Talk to Me in Korean, Stawski and Sazunic opened You Are Here Cafe, a cafe situated in Hongdae for language exchange and Korean language classes.[16]

Stawski and Sazunic met Adam Swarts, the CEO of Japanese media company Breaker, at a video industry event in the United States, who offered to sign them onto his company and bring them over to Japan.[2][17] They accepted, having decided to expedite their travel plans due to the increasing severity of Sazunic's Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.[18] In 2015, Stawski and Sazunic closed down Eatyourkimchi's studio to move to Kichijōji in Tokyo, Japan the following year.[19][20][21] Their video series was renamed Eatyoursushi ("Eat Your Sushi"),[22] and the channel itself was also renamed Simon and Martina during the rebranding.[23] In 2020, they moved back to Canada, and on February 11, 2021, they announced on Instagram that they had divorced but will continue to post new content.[24] The YouTube channel also reverted to the Eatyourkimchi name. On October 13, 2022, Sazunic announced that she would no longer be posting to Eatyourkimchi's YouTube channel to focus on her own YouTube channel, King Kogi.[25]

Video series

Eatyourkimchi highlights cuisine, lifestyle, and recommended locations from abroad.[6] When Stawski and Sazunic were living in South Korea, their content also featured Korean popular media, such as K-pop and Korean dramas.[6][26]

  • Music Mondays: This segment features music reviews to the latest K-pop song releases and was originally uploaded on Mondays.[4][9]
  • TL;DR: Too Long; Didn't Read:[27] This segment features fan questions about life and culture in South Korea answered by Stawski and Sazunic, originally uploaded on Wednesdays.
  • WANK: Wonderful Adventure Now Korea: This segment highlights locations in South Korea,[27] originally uploaded on Thursdays.
  • WTF: Wonderful Treasure Find: This segment features an unusual item that Stawski and Sazunic buy and test,[27] originally uploaded on Thursdays.[4]
  • K-Crunch Indie: Beginning in 2013, this segment promotes independent bands in South Korea and was originally uploaded on Sundays.[14]
  • Eatyoursushi: After moving to Japan in 2016, Stawski and Sazunic produced a video series documenting Japanese cuisine and culture.[22]

Reception

In 2011, Eatyourkimchi was the 18th most popular YouTube channel in South Korea.[4] The Korea Herald included Eatyourkimchi in a list of 21 of "the nation's most useful websites."[28] On the website Hiexpat.com, it was also voted the best expat blog in South Korea in 2011.[29] Elysabeth Hahm from Yonhap News noted that Stawski and Sazunic allowed tourists to gain information from a local's perspective that was not present in guidebooks.[9] On the other hand, David Oh and Chuyun Oh, through the periodical Communication, Culture & Critique, criticized Eatyourkimchi, describing Stawski and Sazunic's approach towards Korean culture as ethnocentric and orientalist.[27]

References

  1. 1 2 "About Eatyourkimchi Studio". YouTube.
  2. 1 2 Sakakibara, Ken (May 21, 2018). "YouTubers hit the jackpot by sharing Japan with the world". Nikkei Asian Review. Archived from the original on June 1, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  3. ↑ Wilmes, Jessica (June 7, 2011). "Martina & Simon Stawski: KOREA'S BEST GOES ON-LINE THANKS TO COUPLE OF CANADIANS". Eloquence. Archived from the original on March 27, 2012. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Tan, DingXiang (March 25, 2011). "Eating Your Kimchi with Simon and Martina". The UrbanWire. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  5. 1 2 "한국 사는 지구인①'잇유어김치닷컴' 사이먼-마티나 부부…"불판위 계란찜 동영상 대박!". The Dong-a Ilbo (in Korean). February 15, 2011. Archived from the original on June 18, 2013. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Yoon, Ja-young (February 28, 2011). "How YouTube impacts lives of ordinary people". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on November 18, 2015. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  7. 1 2 3 Kim, Noa (March 16, 2011). "Promoting Korea Online". Arirang. Archived from the original on October 6, 2012. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  8. ↑ Flatley, Joseph L. (October 18, 2012). "K-Pop takes America: how South Korea's music machine is conquering the world". The Verge. Archived from the original on October 20, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
  9. 1 2 3 Hahm, Elysabeth (January 19, 2011). "(Yonhap Feature) Bloggers help visitors know true aspects of Korea". Yonhap News. Archived from the original on January 22, 2011. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  10. ↑ "Heart to Heart: Martina & Simon, the sysop of 'Eat your Kimchi'". Arirang. Archived from the original on October 6, 2012. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  11. ↑ "Quilt Your Korean Map: Like a fresh bubbling brook in a cup, Green tea and Makgeolli". Arirang. February 1, 2011. Archived from the original on October 6, 2012. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  12. ↑ "놀라운 대회 스타킹" [Amazing tournament stockings]. SBS (in Korean). July 16, 2011. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  13. 1 2 Ramstad, Evan (September 7, 2012). "Canadians in South Korea Fund Expansion of Popular Web Site: 'Nasties' Fund A Prosperous Future Awfully Pronto". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  14. 1 2 3 Kalka, Emma (January 20, 2013). "A lot more than just K-pop". The Korea Herald. Archived from the original on October 14, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  15. ↑ Lanning, Carly (February 28, 2020). "The #WCW directors of Do Stuff show there's space for filmmaking on YouTube". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on October 17, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  16. ↑ Gutelle, Sam (August 4, 2014). "Korean YouTube Community Teams Up To Create Coffee Shop For Viewers". Tubefilter. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  17. ↑ St. Michel, Patrick (April 17, 2016). "Breaker helps pave a new path to stardom via YouTube". The Japan Times. Archived from the original on October 10, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  18. ↑ Dodgson, Lindsay (April 5, 2020). "Influencers who are open about chronic health conditions". Insider. Archived from the original on October 16, 2022. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  19. ↑ Campbell-Schmitt, Adam (March 5, 2018). "YouTube Stars Simon & Martina's 5 Universal Rules for Exploring a City's Food Scene". Food & Wine. Archived from the original on October 11, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  20. ↑ Abraham, Amelia (March 16, 2020). "YouTube's viral stars on how the platform changed the internet forever". Dazed. Archived from the original on September 23, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  21. ↑ Jordan, Alec. "Gastronauts: Canadian YouTube stars talk food, business and passion". The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Japan. Archived from the original on April 10, 2021. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  22. 1 2 "Vloggers Simon and Martina: 'We feel like we need to whisper in our own house'". The Japan Times. June 25, 2016. Archived from the original on November 2, 2019. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  23. ↑ Liao, Shannon (June 21, 2018). "How YouTube creators are using the platform's Patreon-like channel memberships". The Verge. Archived from the original on September 28, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  24. ↑ @eatyourkimchi (February 11, 2021). "The two of us got married quite young, and were together for 15 exciting years. Those years together were packed with enough adventures to last a lifetime, and a lot of those adventures we shared with you online. The next adventures in our lives, however, are on separate paths" – via Instagram.
  25. ↑ "Hello EYK Community, it's Martina here 👩🏻‍🦳 I won't be posting on the EYK channel anymore, so I hope you get the chance to enjoy some of my latest adventures in Japan on my new YouTube channel King Kogi.'". Eatyourkimchi Studio. October 13, 2022. Archived from the original on October 16, 2022. Retrieved October 15, 2022 – via YouTube.
  26. ↑ Yoon, Min-sik (September 13, 2012). "Unlikely Korean pop star conquers the U.S. -- 'Gangnam Style'". The Korea Herald. Archived from the original on October 12, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  27. 1 2 3 4 Oh, David; Oh, Chuyun (September 5, 2017). "Vlogging White Privilege Abroad: Eat Your Kimchi's Eating and Spitting Out of the Korean Other on YouTube". Communication, Culture & Critique. United States: International Communication Association. 10 (4): 696–711. doi:10.1111/cccr.12180. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  28. ↑ Yang, Seung-jin (February 27, 2011). "Click! Online gateways to Korea: The Korea Herald guide to the nation's most useful websites". The Korea Herald. Archived from the original on March 2, 2011. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  29. ↑ Kerry, Paul (January 25, 2011). "Eat Your Kimchi voted best expat blog". The Korea Herald. Archived from the original on October 12, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
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