I Hate Korea!

By Deauwand Myers

That's what it sounds like to me. My, my, my, some foreigners in Korea/abroad have been busy in their bitter banter about the Republic.

``I hate Korea" is an easy thing to say. It rolls off the tongue, like ``them Jews," or ``blacks" or other, less palatable nomenclatures too foul to write here, in a national newspaper. But the gist, I'm sorry, is no less sinister.

Koreans: fill in the blank. Korean society: fill in the blank. Never once, in some people's minds, do they think or write ``some Koreans," or ``a portion of" Korean society when they riff off on Korea's problems.

I've extensively written on what I view are some serious social problems plaguing Korean society: suicide, mental health, classism, racism, sexism, patriarchy, androcentrism, homophobia, discrimination and Korean-Japanese political interaction, to name a few.

And in each column, I take pains, somewhere within my writing, to always point out that these are problems which do not include or indict all members within Korea, Korean or otherwise. To act as if all Koreans think the same thing or act the same way on any subject utilizes the same tropes and presuppositions of racism, exclusivity and narrow-mindedness we seek to expose or dismantle.

For some foreigners who call all Koreans only and utterly afflicted with an inferiority/superiority complex, self-absorbed, racially/culturally unsophisticated, and myopic, and, gasp, ``tribal," I say doctor, cure thyself.

I've read columnists from this esteemed paper bemoan a lack of Westerness, whatever that means, of Korea; that McDonalds and TGI Fridays juxtaposed with Korean behavior shows that Koreans are not sufficiently Western, god-forbid. What does, exactly, ``sufficiently Western" mean? What is so evil, dark, and undesirable about Koreans, according to some people, not displaying ``Western" coolness?

This idea, of Korea not being ``Western" enough, is such a rank statement of racism and cultural smugness as to border on the absurd, if not surpass inanity altogether.

Let's get a few things straight.

To equate and qualify Westernization (the word itself is loaded with racial undertones) by how many McDonalds litter the city is ridiculous to begin with. Further, being open-minded, racially tolerant and egalitarian is not a uniquely Western ideal, nor has it been practiced entirely or consistently in Western societies. The Greeks, we've been taught, believed in a proto-democratic institution. Indigenous populations in the Americas did so centuries earlier.

And Anglo-American/European societies have not exactly produced the best examples of an enlightened society. Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, The Republican Party, Rev. Falwell, Jesse Helms, and from my home state, the oldest man in the Senate before the devil wished to take him back, the late, inimitable Strom Thurmond, who valiantly fought civil rights legislation with the longest filibuster in Senate history, all the while carrying on a hot sexual tryst with his black maid, producing a child no less. His white power/white purity ideology inexplicably stopped at his bedroom's threshold. Seems we're all black when the lights go out.

Please. Sure America has a lot to be proud of. Democracy, big economy, big army, great music, rich culture, big … oh you get my point. But we, and Western societies at large, have a great and many things to improve, and some things we can learn from Asian cultures, Korea included.

You and I can walk most anywhere in all of Korea any time of day or night and live to tell about it, even Seoul. Someone may even buy us a beer (Cass, unfortunately) along the way. Walk through Chicago, NYC, Toronto, London, Paris at 3 a.m. and see how far you get. I hope you wrote your will.

In industrialized Asia (particularly Korea and Japan), there is low crime, better wealth distribution, high literacy and better health outcomes, that outshine some other industrialized nations. Now someone, at this juncture, will say, ``America is too complex to make this comparison. We have huge illegal immigration issues, a racially diverse population, and guns."

Exactly my point. Korea, like any nation, is far too complex and dynamic to marginalize and relegate it into one category. Especially when making generalizations, gross ones at that, we need to first, read, and study up on some socioeconomic/sociopolitical information, like statistics and trends, historical context, and a host of other factors.

Korea is more racially homogenous than America or Canada. Well that's obvious. What's not obvious is that the lack of ethnic/racial diversity does not and will not preclude a propensity of differing ideas and perspectives within Korea.

There are vigorous, sometimes violent, disagreements amongst the political parties. There are two major religions in this country and a great many denominations thereof. There are unmarried women who work, women who smoke, gays, lesbians, Koreans who love Japanese culture, priests, nuns, Mormons (unfortunately), farmers, doctors, billionaires … Need I go on?

The sometimes corny slogan about Korea is actually true ― that is my point. ``Dynamic Korea" is apropos. Koreans don't think like some kind of hive mind in a massive Taegukgi Monolith. If they did, all of the democratic movements, in the 1970s and `80s, for example, would not have had an environment in which to grow. We'd have one radio station and one music genre.

Regarding Korea, the insane, unproductive comments of some foreign people in the blogosphere and columnist world, where we make a living off of our thoughts, would be enriched by some education and perspective. There are things I dislike about any country. I don't think the elderly should get on the subway for free in Korea. A reduced senior citizens' rate is fine … but for free? I wish we had clean and more subways in America. I wish I could get good cheesecake in Japan. I don't like public drunkenness in Korea. America: ditto.

We can constructively critique one another's cultures and societies in a manner that can produce intelligent debate and, maybe, positive change. Making broad, sweeping, often unsubstantiated and false generalizations about any culture is stupid, frankly, and can be dangerous, at worst.

If you're going to dislike a country, fine. Leave it. If you loathe Korea, OK, defend your position with something other than anecdotal claims or preconceptions. Further, if you plan to stay, have something other to say rather than ``I hate Korea." It's mean-spirited. It's intellectually dishonest, and lazy.

The writer has a master's degree in English literature and literary theory and is currently an English professor at Shingu University. He has written novels and poetry and can be reached at deauwand@gmail.com.