While spending a few nights with the cousins, helping them out at the store, I ran across an interesting little tidbit. It was very hot and humid, and the cousins were complaining. I told them to use the fan, as that would be the logical thing to do. Only they couldn't, their mother wouldn't allow it. You see, she/they still believe in Fan Death. In case you don't know what Fan Death is, it is a uniquely South Korean urban myth that holds that using the fan while in a closed room will cause death. As a myth, there are no rigid rules, some people believe the room must be sealed, others that air conditioning is also to be feared, while even others suggest that a breeze over your face, irregardless of source, while you sleep is cause for ill health and death. But for the most part the hysteria centers around the simple electric fan, sleep, and the resultant death Why South Koreans believe this myth so strongly, even the educated and urbane, is simple enough: The media tells them that it's true. If you say a lie often enough, it becomes the truth (ex: Saddam/Osama connection, cold weather = catching a cold, Boston won the 2004 World Series). As for why the media would perpetuate this ridiculous myth, only the profits that accompany sensationalizing the news can tell. But where did this myth originate? There must have been some root cause, some tiny tiny kernal of truth that got twisted in the telling. I am fascinated by these archeological/anthropological mysteries, and the hunt to find the rare truth that spawns the collective delusion (ex: sugar = bad, lowfat = good, the collapse in aerobic excersize among the youth is not relevent to the issue). gumbi has an interesting theory on the origin of the Fan Death myth. Namely Carbon Dioxide poisoning. However, I think he has the wrong culprit. His familiarity with Korean traditional construction techniques sends him on a very logical path, but at the last minute he is seduced by zebras when the sound of hoof beats should have him sequestering horses. Or, in plain English, I think he has one too many oxygens. Not too long ago (and in some cases, still currently) wintertime heating was performed with charcoal cylinders that would heat air, which was then ducted beneath the living quarters, heating the floors. The problem is that charcoal doesn't burn 100% efficiently. Which is a fancy way of saying that you get carbon monoxide. If the floors are leaky, and the rooms lack proper ventilation, you get classic carbon monoxide poisoning. This is not an exotic occurence, and in fact occurs with heartbreaking frequency to this day. Every winter you can still expect to hear public warnings not to heat your apartment with a charcoal grill for this very reason. But what about the summers? You have to remember that construction strives to be efficient. You put the bathrooms close to the kitchen so that you don't have to run much piping. Victorian era cast iron stoves doubled as boilers for the hot water. If you're going to build houses heated with a charcoal brick furnace, why make a seperate facility to heat water when you can just adapt the heating system to do both? And that's what the classic wood framed Korean house does. The "furnace" is nothing more then a brick or stone pit in the ground next to the house. Charcoal bricks are made in tubular form to perfectly fit into the pit. As the brick burns, the pit is covered with a door, and hot air is forced into open ducts under the house, heating the floors. People sleep on the floors, and thus make maximum use of the heat (you don't have to heat the air, just the floor). To heat water, you just open the furnace and place a large metal pot filled with water right on top of the burning brick. Excess heat is vented to the ducts, so in the winter you can still heat the house and heat water at the same time. When I was in Korea in 1985, my grandmother still did this, and this was in the smack dab middle of Seoul. Many people did this, as hot indoor plumbing was still a luxury. She would burn charcoal to heat the water for the bath. The only facility in the house to burn charcoal was the winter heating system, and thus the floors would get very hot, which was bad in the summertime heat, and so you had to use an electric fan to keep cool. And now you can see all the pieces coming together. Imagine a typical household, goes to sleep at night. Everybody retires to their room, closes the doors, closes the windows (to keep out the bugs), and drifts off to sleep. The mother of the household, up late doing chores, decides to take a bath, and thus heats up a pot of water using a charcoal brick. The adult child nearest the furnace gets hot, and turns on a fan. As the charcoal burns, carbon monoxide drifts into the sealed room, and sufficates the adult child. Mother takes her bath, and lets the charcoal brick burn out 1 hour later. Over the night the carbon monoxide slowly disappates. In the morning, the family discovers, to their horror, that one their number has died. All they know is that the room was sealed and the fan was on. Therefor the fan must have caused death. And thus the myth begins.
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