A brief travelogue.
I've been traveling. Yes, the pandemic is the perfect time to stretch out and explore new places, virtually. "The Korean Mind" is a remarkable, and remarkably frank book about the history, culture, and mindset of Korea, built around its most significant and loaded words- so-called code words. While this unique format provides a fascinating hopscotch through Korean culture, it also gets a little repetitive, as many words cover similar territory. Duty and honor, for instance, are staples of the Korean mind-set and come up in countless guises and words.
One major theme is the extreme repression, formality, and strict hierarchy prevalent in Korean culture. Over their two thousand years of history, they have been through many vicissitudes, but retained a heavily hierarchical and duty-bound system, patterned on Chinese Confucianism. Koreans were even more inward-looking and more extremely repressed by their rulers and cultural system, at least till after the Korean War, than the Chinese or other neighbors. They were, as a whole, a true hermit kingdom for most of a millennium, like the North is still today. The author emphasizes repeatedly that the highly repressive nature of the cultural system had wide-ranging psychological effects, severely limiting circles of friendship, requiring elaborate forms of social interaction, including bribery, gift-giving, bowing and other gestures of obedience and respect, a large and mandatory set of honorifics, a curiously liberated drinking culture, and an ethic of incredible durability, hard work and survival. And integral to all this was particularly harsh treatment of women, who were (again, until very recently) on the lowest end of every conceivable hierarchy.
The author reiterates frequently that foreigners working in Korea are prone to many disasters on these accounts, since the surface placidity and formality of Koreans is part of a precise system of interactions and covers very passionate natures, ready to take offense at missteps, and even take revenge for perceived slights and disrespect. He advises an attitude of perpetual humility and the use of an experienced advisor for guidance through the minefield. Also advisable is karaoke and drinking sessions, which are standard in Korean business and life, to relax and form relationships with people otherwise held at arm's length or further. A related point is that no one "becomes" Korean. A Westerner can spend her life in Korea and marry into a Korean family, and sill not be accepted as fully Korean, or have her children accepted as fully Korean.
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| Kim Hee-jung, minister of family and gender equality- a member of the enormous Kim lineage clan, and example of female power in Korea today. |
On the plus side, the release of Korea from Japanese domination after world war 2, and gradually from its own legacy of mindless authoritarianism, has in turn released huge amounts of personal and entrepreneurial energy, channelling some of that authoritarianism into corporate cultures that have taken the world by storm, and created an economic powerhouse. One aspect of Korea's cultural pride is its language, which is, as one can imagine, difficult to master in its deep cultural dimensions. This language can be written in two ways, (leaving aside Romanization as a third). One is a simplified character system called Hangul, which was devised in 1444 as a practical writing system, superseding the Chinese characters that were standard, and remained standard for centuries to come, due to the Confucianist recalcitrance of the scholar / bureaucratic class. Chinese is arduous to learn, with tens of thousands of symbols of ever-diminishing utility and frequency. Hangul has only 24 letters, so functions very much like a Western writing system, is easy to learn, and was emphasized after the liberations of the 20th century as the standard Korean writing system. Yet today, with the increasing influence of China, the study of Chinese is regaining prominence, forcing Koreans to learn three languages (Korean, Chinese, and English, and perhaps Japanese), if they want to function in international business.
The relationship of Korea with Japan is particularly interesting. Korea contributed a great deal to early Japanese culture, being more technologically and culturally advanced one to two millennia ago. Pottery is one outstanding example. Many Japanese have Korean heritage, often unacknowledged. Korea and Japan remain culturally kin. But Japan took a quite martial turn early on, becoming sort of the Vikings of the region, raiding Korea frequently. This culminated in the complete takeover of Korea in 1910, enslaving the population and trying to exterminate Korean culture. Obviously, this led to a great deal of bad blood, motivating Koreans today to beat Japan whenever they can, especially in the commercial sphere. At the same time, Koreans do a great deal of business in Japan and respect the turn that Japan has taken since the war to become a largely pacifist country.
One of the most distinctive aspects of the so-called Korean mind is an ethical stance quite distinct from what Westerners are used to- situational and highly personal ethics. The strong emphasis on correct, rule-based formality is, as natural in Confucian systems, somewhat superficial, hiding roiling emotions and resentments. Morality in this system is likewise relatively superficial, heavily oriented to save face for one's self and people with whom one has specific relationships, not staked on universal principles, truth, equality, etc. Revenge for slights is acceptable, as is complete dismissal of strangers, and lying to save face. Networking is tremendously important, through personal connections, without which a person in Korea has virtually no way to operate at all. Understandably, getting to the bottom of all this can take years of study and acculturation.
Written mostly as a guide to foreign business people, The Korean Mind is perhaps overly pessimistic about their prospects, but is tremendously enlightening for the casual reader and armchair adventurer.
