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The Koreans
The Koreans - Who They Are, What They Want, Where Their Future Lies (1999)
TOC
Part 1: Society and Values
Part 2: History
Part 3: Economy
Part 4: Politics
Fun facts / favorite quotes & anecdotes
Koreans were the first to use metal movable type for printing books.
on Korean communication, contradictions, and media:
The local media can be extremely misleading as a source of information. They generally do not see their role as a check on government and business, with the result that government intentions are frequently reported as facts. A huge proportion of news stories, when you follow them up, turn out to be speculation, trial balloons, rumour and deliberate distortion.
For the person trying to nail down information and make sense of it, these difficulties make Korea one of the harder places to deal with. As one foreign journalist put it, "You need a high-level bullshit indicator to figure out what's going on."
The stereotypical Korean is a materialistic shaman-Confucian-Buddhist-Christian (p.5).
pansori singing (p.6) - was introduced to the younger generation in 1993 by Im Kwon-taek in the movie Supyonje.
on comparisons to the Irish and being called the "Irish of the East" (p.6):
like the Irish, the Koreans are also a lyrical people, inclined to the spiritual, and exhibiting a warmth and hospitality that belies their violent image. The can be unrestrained in their passions, quick to cry and to laugh.
South Korea is the 5th most densely populated country in the world (p.21).
on how Koreans view their country's history (p.22):
Koreans have bought into a negative view of their own history in this century. They do not have a regard for their past, not just because it is painful, but more significantly because they do not know how to look at it.
on how Koreans are trained in school to think (p.23):
But Koreans are not taught political theories, as such. They learn facts. Historical facts are important from the point of view of a nationalistic, semi-political pride. Questioning and analyzing them is not seen as valid. In fact, questioning in class, even at university, is seen as a challenge and an insult to the teacher.
So much tourism potential is ignored. For example, Sungkyun-kwan University in Seoul is the oldest university in the world in terms of a set of standing buildings. The classrooms, offices and library built in the fourteenth century are still there (p.24).
Education reform has always been on the cards, but there is still much conservatism. The fact is, though, that the current system fails to meet the needs of modern Korea because it does not train people to think in a sufficiently rational and legalistic way (p.25).
Koreans are more gregarious than we are. They're so into other people that they don't read books much and they tend to fall asleep when they're by themselves (p.29).
Although we consider east Asians generally to be conservative and westerners to be liberal, it is my subjective experience that Koreans are much more accepting and embracing of differences. I imagine that this is because, as Confucians, they display an instinct for harmonious relationships with people, whereas the Christian and law-based culture of the West is more concerned with issues of right and wrong and good and evil. We tend to be more critical (p.31).
Koreans are very fractious and argumentative. One reason concerns the importantce of status. People can get very angry if they are not treated according to their own idea of their social standing (p.32).
a Korean journalist, on the Korean language:
Korean is not a good language to argue in because there are so many shades of meaning. It is so easy to be misunderstood. English is a language for clarity and logic. It's a beautiful language to argue in. My wife and I switch to English when we want to resolve a disagreement (p.33).
On Korea's collective (suppressed) pain, otherwise known as han:
Han is a kind of rage and helplessness that is sublimated, and lingers like an inactive resentment. Han first emegered as a topic of literary criticism in the 1940s and '50s. Its expression was seen in songs and tales of unrequited love in old Korean literature, as well as from colonial-period writers, like the poet Kim Sowol (p.36).
on kibun:
With kibun being an important factor, there is a lot of talk about 'timing' and 'feeling right' by Koreans when they are making decisions. At its best, this tendency can indicate a great intuitive sense. At its worst, it is timidity over common sense (p.38).
The Full Gospel Church, which claims over half a million members and has the single largest congregation in the history of Christendom, has a very simple appeal. Accept Jesus and guarantee your health and wealth, the two items which always figure on top in opinion polls about what Koreans most worry about. The founder, Cho Young-gi, had a beautifully simple strategy for growth. The congregation burgeoned, with the massive influx of people from the villages into the cities in the 1970s, around home groups, mostly of women, who met once a week to study a Bible text and pray for sick members and for their husbands' promotions (p.40).
Confucian precepts, with their emphasis on vertically ordered human relationships, have informed Korean thinking and social organisation for centuries. However, as we have seen, the Koreans are not what you would expect pure Confucians to be. They are not restrained, mannered, thoughtful moral engineers, seeking through self-cultivation to change both themselves and their society. There is a contradictory passion and earthy sensuousness to Koreans. These sage-like gentlemen stamp their feet and belch and fart in public. You would think this kind of behaviour would have been outlawed by Confucians and relegated to the unwashed masses, but not so. This is because of the existence of a deeper sediment in the Korean psyche - shamanism (p.41).
A contemporary messianic couple called the Two Incarnations teaches that Korea has a providential mission to heal mankind's spirit and revive its original vitality or ki. Korea was chosen for this mission because the country is located 'in the best place on earth' from the point of view of global geomancy. They teach that the shape of Korea is also extremely significant. It is like a rabbit with large ears - 'to listen to the voice of the creator' - and also like a penis hanging out of Asia. It's female equivalent is rabbit-shaped Paraguay, which lies snuggled between its Latin neighbours 'like the pubic region of a woman'. The couple have visited Paraguay and held healing sessions there. They teach that the Korean people have kept their blood pure by not marrying foreigners (p.43).