South Korea Is One of the World’s Most Collectivist Societies

A year ago in winter, I was interviewed by a GEO magazine reporter on the topic of “Korean collectivism.” That interview was used in a feature article in the March 2019 French edition titled “An In-Depth Dissection of a Society Steeped in Confucianism – Korea,” and below I reproduce the interview I had with reporter Sébastien Falletti about two months before the article was published. It was a written interview conducted in English, in a question-and-answer format, with the reporter asking questions and me responding.

Before that, I ask for your understanding in posting my awkward English sentences as they are rather than translating them. That is because I feel it would be difficult even now to properly render, with my translation skills even more awkward than my English composition, the perspective from which I tried at the time to view Korean society as objectively as possible while writing in English. For reference, GEO is a monthly magazine published in Europe in French and other languages, and is very similar in character to National Geographic among English-language magazines. The March issue of last year, in which the article appeared, was a special edition commemorating GEO’s 40th anniversary, and Korea was the featured subject.

(Article link:

https://www.geo.fr/voyage/coree-du-sud-immersion-dans-une-societe-petrie-de-confucianisme-195436

)

1. Would you say that Korea is one of the most collective society in the World? (Do you think the Republic of Korea is one of the most collectivist countries among the world’s cultures?)

Although the concept of collectivism has been confusingly used, I think that South Korea is certainly one of the most collectivist societies. I think that individuals of individualist society are more responsible for their own decisions, whereas individuals of collectivist society tend to care more about the eyes of other members in their groups.

2. What are the key factors behind this? (Which factors play the biggest role behind this popular culture?)

South Korea, despite its advanced technologies with fast online networks, is still fundamentally exclusive society, and its exclusivity has an emotional, rather than physical, form. So, political rhetoric and cultural identification have special meanings, and media plays powerful roles in Korean society.

This collectivist feature based on its exclusivity appears most clearly today as a form of blind nationalism or unrealistic expectation on democracy. Indeed, regarding democracy, many South Koreans tend to heroicise the direct voices of the mass in collective protests. They believe that their emotional voices should be urgently taken care of by their president, as they were by their kings in the past. In comparison, institutions and processes, such as parliament and election, often play secondary roles.

3. What are the historical roots of this phenomenon? What about the role of confucianism? (What historical roots lie behind this culture? And what role does Confucian thought play?)

Many South Koreans regard North Korea as abnormal or ridiculous society, but few of them realise that it is rather North Korea that inherited the spiritual and philosophical identity of the nation in Korean history. Particularly, the striking similarities between North Korea and Joseon dynasty come mainly from their strong collectivism.

Koreans have obeyed the totalitarian dictatorship of a single dynasty for about five hundred years until the late 19th century. The social control which enabled the obedience was based on not only physical threats or abuses but also the manipulation of language and thinking. Confucianism, which was aimed at maintaining self-sufficient agricultural economy, was used by the learned elites to suppress any individualistic economic motivations in markets.

Koreans, who had lived hundreds of years under such collectivistic social confinement, internalised the social strategy of collectivism. In both societies (Joseon and North Korea), peoples' minds were completely controlled not only by the central elite groups who set up the collectivist social frames, but also by the support from people themselves. For instance, people during the Joseon era learned and followed the elites' paternalistic language, such as

民本主義

, which is conceptually not much different from

民主主義

(translated as democracy). In such a situation, any attempts for social reform and efforts for individual self-improvement were hardly institutionalised to a meaningful extent.

4. How important has been the Japanese occupation in this respect? (Was Japanese rule over Korea an important factor? How important was it?)

During the Japanese occupation, the concepts of civil right and civil law were introduced to Korean society. Through such a process, Koreans could have learned the core of the civil right concept, which is self-responsibility of an individual person. Western history shows that the civil right concept was developed from the recognition of defective human nature as part of human interaction and it was used to protect individuals as well as stop such defective humans from harming one another.

But, most Korean independence activists and elite intellectuals under the Japanese rule were socialists or nationalists and were so strongly against any Japanese systems that they ignored such a philosophical essence of individualism. This hostility among Koreans against the Japanese political and social influences continued after the liberation from Japan, as a result, the concept of individualism, in South Korea, is severely retarded and distorted, often being regarded as self-centered immorality.

5. Do you see any fundamental change from the new generation of Koreans? (Do you see any noticeable, fundamental changes among the younger generation?)

It seems obvious that the era is gone in South Korea when the government directly took the initiative in leading collectivist projects, such as the promotion of three behavioural virtues of “diligence, self-help and collaboration” during the 1960s to 80s. Considering the weak individualism in Korea, it seems natural that young people today feel more comfortable within the collectivist social atmosphere. They tend to expect governmental efforts or complain about social systems rather than introspecting their own efforts and decisions. Particularly during the past few decades, they have been substantially influenced by the predominant nationalist and socialist views among academia and media, both of which are closely related to collectivist social strategies.

History Teacher, Soongeui Girls’ High School

Min Bae

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Original title: South Korea is one of the most collectivist societies in the world

Author: Bae Min

Date: 2020-03-09

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=free_opinion&pn=15&idx=22457