If you grew up in Korea, or in a Korean household, you may be familiar with a children's show called 뽀뽀뽀 (Popopo). According to its Korean Wikipedia page, it first aired on May 25, 1981 and has been in syndication since. The show was probably most popular in the 1980s; I remember setting aside time every day to watch the educational variety show, full of skits, animations, songs, and dances. A scene from 뽀뽀뽀's 30th Anniversary Special, which aired in 2011 (source) Here's where the story gets interesting. Starting from a very young age, I was able to see that the many puppets featured on the show were NOT human. Nothing special, right? I also believed they were living, breathing creatures. Again, this is not atypical of a...