Chapter 20 Four Seasons at the Dinner Table
Chapter 21 Cinema: Boom, Bust, and Brilliance
Chapter 23 Work All Day, Stay Out All Nigh
Part V: More of “Us,” Less of “Them”
Chapter 24 Defensive Nationalism
Chapter 25 Multicultural Korea?
Chapter 27 “We Are Not Aliens, From Another Cosmos”
Chapter 28 A Woman’s Place Is in the Office
Epilogue: Where Is the Champagne?
To my parents, with love
Acknowledgments, Caveats, and a Note on Names
The following people provided interviews, helped me in some way over the past year, or are simply friends I wish to express my appreciation to. There are a few others I would have liked to mention here, but their help has to remain secret:
In alphabetical order: Ahn Seong-hee, Alex Travelli, Andrew Barbour, Angela Yoon, Andrew Salmon, Antti Hellgren, ‘Ask the Korean’, Bae Yeong-jin, Cal Barksdale, Choi Min-sik, Chris Kelly, Chun Su-jin, Cynthia Yoo, Darcy Paquet, Darren Long, David Maltby, Dominic Ziegler, Don O’Brien, Eric Oey, Gady Epstein, Han Sun-Kyung, Han Young-yong and Lee Jun-ho, Henry Tricks, Hong Joo-hee, Hong Myung-bo, Hong Seok-chon, Hwang Doo-jin, ‘Hyun-ju’, Jason Lee, Ji Bae and family, Jooch Nam, Jung Eun-sung, Jung Yoon-sun, Jung Young-sun, Kang Hye-ran, Kang Jeong-im, Kang Se-ree, Kang Ye-won, Kate English, Kim Bo-yeon, Kim Ou-joon, Kim Hye-jeong, Kim Kkobbi, Ko Un and Lee Sang-hwa, Krys Lee, Kwon Yong-ho, Kwon Young-se, Lee Hye-ryeong, Lee Ji-eun, Lee Seong-hee, Lee Seul, Lee Yoo-jin and family, Lee Yun-hee, Lin Lin, Marcus Haggers, Marisa Muscari, Mary Jane Liddicoat, Michael Breen, Michael Freeman, Moon Jung-hee and Lee Young-joon, Nam Sang-ah and Third Line Butterfly, Naomi Rovnick, Nick Watney, Oh Kwan-soo, Park So-young and family, Park Won-soon, Patrick Lee, Peter Underwood, Prof. Chang Ha-joon, Prof. Chung Duk-ae, Prof. Jang Hoon, Prof. Jin Y. Park, Prof. Kim Ui-cheol, Prof. Michael Shin, Prof. Park Jung-sook, Pyo Chul-min, Rob Dickinson, Rob York, Seo Ji-hye, Shin Joong-hyun, Simon Long, Song Ji-hye, Song Yae-ri, TBS eFM (Ahn Jung-hyun, Ahn Jung-mi, Mike Weisbart, and friends), The LFG Family, Will Ennett, Yang Ik-jun, Yi Soyeon, Yoo Jae-hoon, Yoon Sun-oo, Zachi Schor, and Zander Lanfried.
Caveats: Many people were generous enough to share their knowledge and insight with me during the making of this book. However, all opinions—and mistakes—are my own. The presence of an interviewee in a particular chapter does not mean that he or she will necessarily agree with my conclusions, or indeed anything else I write. If anyone feels I have been unfair about of any aspect of their country or culture, then I can only say that it was absolutely not my intention to offend anyone. I wrote this book with sincerity and love for the subject, and I hope that shows.
A note on names: Korean names are ordered family name first, and given name (which is usually composed of two syllables and hyphenated when written in English) second. In this way, Manchester United’s Korean player would be referred to as Park Ji-sung. I follow this convention, unless specifically asked to do otherwise by the person in question. Also, I try to follow generally accepted Romanization of Korean characters, but in cases where a famous person is known by a different spelling (Kim Jong-il, for instance), I defer to the general consensus.
Introduction
Though Hyundais and Kias are commonplace on Western streets and Korean technology is found in products from smart phones to the Dreamliner, South Korea remains something of an unknown quantity. Even those with an interest in Asian cultures tend to overlook this nation of fifty million in favor of its more powerful and populous neighbors. To its west, China, a nation that exacted tribute from Korea for centuries, is a reemerging regional hegemon. To its east lies Japan, the former colonizer and cultural powerhouse that has been exciting Western imaginations for decades. And directly to the north looms the so-called Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which, thanks to its nuclear weapons program and bizarre, monarchical leadership, utterly overshadows South Korea in the world’s media.
What ideas do exist about South Korea tend to be heavily stereotypical. When this author visits any non-Asian country, one of the first questions people ask is, “Do all Koreans really eat dog?” The idea that no pet Alsatian would be safe wandering the streets of Seoul is surprisingly common. And though South Korean per-capita GDP (by purchasing power parity) has reached US$30,000, many in the West assume that South Koreans are still the poor third-world citizens depicted in the TV sitcom M*A*S*H.
Other misplaced assumptions include: Koreans are socially conservative; Koreans are shy and reserved, and do not know how to have fun; Koreans are excessively proud, and believe their country to be the best in the world; all Koreans want North-South reunification; all Koreans hate (or all Koreans love) the United States; Koreans lack creativity; and Koreans are untrustworthy and difficult to deal with in business. There is also one very important misunderstanding about the state of South Korea itself: many believe that this country has always been a bastion of free markets and democracy, which is not the case.
Existing English-language literature about Korea has done little to dispel these ideas. Western writers tend to focus on the old and the traditional, on the Korean War, or on North Korea. There are very few books that show modern South Korea as it is. This is unfortunate, because South Korea is already an important country in the community of nations and in this modern world—not just economically but also culturally and politically. It is time for us all to learn something more about this unique, vibrant, rising country. This book is intended as a way in—a starting point for those who wish to get to know South Korea.
The book is divided into five parts. The first concerns fundamental influences on human behavior in Korea, such as the Buddhist religion, Confucianism, millennia-old shamanism, capitalism, and Christianity. The second part discusses well-studied cultural codes such as jeong and han but also the less frequently discussed heung (a kind of pure joy) and South Koreans’ obsession with anything new. The third section, Hyun-shil: Cold Reality, covers how Koreans do business and politics, work, date, and obsess over education, particularly the study of English. The fourth concerns Korean films, popular music, cuisine, and nightlife; and finally, the fifth part shows how South Korea is no longer an insular, conservative country but rather one that is opening up to the rest of the world and starting to shake off its Confucian-influenced, sexist past. The book begins with a brief synopsis of Korean history in order to give historical context to the chapters that follow.
Why “The Impossible Country”?
Fifty years ago, South Korea was an impoverished, war-torn country that lurched from brutal dictatorship to chaotic democracy and then dictatorship again. Few expected it to survive as a state, let alone graduate to becoming a prosperous and stable model for developing countries the world over—and one with an impressive list of achievements in popular culture, to boot. Quite simply, South Koreans have written the most unlikely and impressive story of nation building of the last century. For