By Deauwand Myers
When asked to speak at "The Korea Times" Forum, I was taken aback by the topic. I told my editor as much: it sounds Western-centric, and maybe even racist. For one, it works on the illogic of generalities and presumptions. Koreans are: fill in the blank. As an expat myself, I dislike being stereotyped. A bit of that's being perpetrated in entertaining this question.
To be fair, I understood that the topic was meant to be loaded, even controversial. Further, my editor said he and other Koreans care about what outsiders think of Korea, a kind of intellectual "voyeurism."
The august panel at this forum included fellow columnists at the Times, professors, scholars, a young Oxford-educated Korean man, as well as the author of "The New Koreans," a Korean woman who speaks fluent English and Portuguese, and our fearless leader, Editor Oh. It's important to note that Koreans were present at the roundtable. It wasn't a panel of Westerners only.
Let's go back to the forum's topic. "What do you think about Koreans?" Well, like a lot of countries that aren't America, Koreans are too concerned with what others think about them. It's far more productive for Koreans, specifically policymakers, to access what they think about themselves. Introspection is one of the most patriotic things a countryman or woman can do.
If I had to make a list of admirable qualities and critiques about Korea, my list would go as follows:
Koreans are hyper-obsessed with beauty. Recently, a good friend of mine, a male, college student, secretly had plastic eye surgery, a lesser-known procedure called epicanthoplasty. I was shocked because he is so young, and I explained to him: the human, male body doesn't even stop growing until around the age of 26. Why the need? Why the rush? I knew the answer before asking it. Steeped in Korean culture, this young, Korean man, even after being raised in America for seven years, couldn't resist the peer pressure and siren's call to look, even if it were just in his own mind, "better." This toxic fetish with superficiality permeates all levels of Korean society and crosses gender lines and socioeconomic strata; it needs to be thoroughly dismantled.
Some Koreans are racist and ethnocentric and xenophobic. This insular fear can be partially explained by Korea's past. As I've written before, Korea's history, having been a vassal state, invaded, and/or conquered by the Chinese, the Mongolians, the Japanese, and the North Koreans, may have left too many Koreans with the notion of "us versus them." The enemy is always at the proverbial gate, looking to annex Korea as part of a larger empire. This is changing for the better, however. Korea wants to be and is slowly becoming more cosmopolitan in its views on multiculturalism. Further, the longer I live abroad, the more I realize that tribalism and racism are present in almost all societies, to varying degrees.
Korea is still deeply homophobic, patriarchal, sexist, misogynist, and its brutal educational competitiveness and work/life balance are horribly skewed toward work. These are some of the main reasons why Korea has the longest working hours and the highest suicide rate of all OECD countries.
Yet, Koreans are innovative, and they are highly educated, enjoy a clean, gleaming infrastructure, low crime, and universal healthcare. They achieved all of this in less than thirty years after a devastating war and a bevy of brutal presidential dictatorships.
Koreans ought to be proud, but not because I think so.
Deauwand Myers holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside Seoul. He can be reached at deauwand@hotmail.com.
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To be fair, I understood that the topic was meant to be loaded, even controversial. Further, my editor said he and other Koreans care about what outsiders think of Korea, a kind of intellectual "voyeurism."
The august panel at this forum included fellow columnists at the Times, professors, scholars, a young Oxford-educated Korean man, as well as the author of "The New Koreans," a Korean woman who speaks fluent English and Portuguese, and our fearless leader, Editor Oh. It's important to note that Koreans were present at the roundtable. It wasn't a panel of Westerners only.
Let's go back to the forum's topic. "What do you think about Koreans?" Well, like a lot of countries that aren't America, Koreans are too concerned with what others think about them. It's far more productive for Koreans, specifically policymakers, to access what they think about themselves. Introspection is one of the most patriotic things a countryman or woman can do.
If I had to make a list of admirable qualities and critiques about Korea, my list would go as follows:
Koreans are hyper-obsessed with beauty. Recently, a good friend of mine, a male, college student, secretly had plastic eye surgery, a lesser-known procedure called epicanthoplasty. I was shocked because he is so young, and I explained to him: the human, male body doesn't even stop growing until around the age of 26. Why the need? Why the rush? I knew the answer before asking it. Steeped in Korean culture, this young, Korean man, even after being raised in America for seven years, couldn't resist the peer pressure and siren's call to look, even if it were just in his own mind, "better." This toxic fetish with superficiality permeates all levels of Korean society and crosses gender lines and socioeconomic strata; it needs to be thoroughly dismantled.
Some Koreans are racist and ethnocentric and xenophobic. This insular fear can be partially explained by Korea's past. As I've written before, Korea's history, having been a vassal state, invaded, and/or conquered by the Chinese, the Mongolians, the Japanese, and the North Koreans, may have left too many Koreans with the notion of "us versus them." The enemy is always at the proverbial gate, looking to annex Korea as part of a larger empire. This is changing for the better, however. Korea wants to be and is slowly becoming more cosmopolitan in its views on multiculturalism. Further, the longer I live abroad, the more I realize that tribalism and racism are present in almost all societies, to varying degrees.
Korea is still deeply homophobic, patriarchal, sexist, misogynist, and its brutal educational competitiveness and work/life balance are horribly skewed toward work. These are some of the main reasons why Korea has the longest working hours and the highest suicide rate of all OECD countries.
Yet, Koreans are innovative, and they are highly educated, enjoy a clean, gleaming infrastructure, low crime, and universal healthcare. They achieved all of this in less than thirty years after a devastating war and a bevy of brutal presidential dictatorships.
Koreans ought to be proud, but not because I think so.
Deauwand Myers holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside Seoul. He can be reached at deauwand@hotmail.com.
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