By Andrei Lankov
A 1932 survey indicated that among Koreans with an education above high school level, merely 7.7% did without servants in their households. In the late 1960s, the majority of Korean middle-class families still kept a live-in servant. And then things changed, the full-time live-in servants disappeared: nobody wanted to take up this job, at least for the money employers were willing to pay. In this regard, Korea was not much different from other developed countries where servants nearly disappeared in the 1950s.
However, in the mid-1990s there was a modest revival of this institution: the live-in servants reappeared in the rich neighborhoods. The first were the Filipinas who appeared in Korea in the early 1990s. For a while the Philippine maids were much in vogue. In the early 1990s it made perfect economic sense to hire a Filipina: she would work for a meager 200 dollars or 150,000 won a month, while a visiting Korean domestic worker would cost between 400,000 and 500,000 won a month. Strictly speaking, until 2002 it was illegal to hire a foreign national as a domestic worker, but this ban was routinely ignored.
However, the employers were soon disappointed: even though the Philippine maids worked hard, they did not know much about the specifics of a Korean household and could not cook traditional Korean food. Even the millionaires' families soon discovered that they would not feel comfortable without properly cooked kimch'i or chigye. Thus, nowadays the Philippine domestic workers are employed by the rich ex-pats and diplomats, but not by the Koreans.
However, around the same time another important group made an appearance, the Chinese Koreans. The ethnic Koreans from the Chinese North-East, attracted by the high salaries in their ancestors' land, began to move to South Korea after Beijing and Seoul established diplomatic relations in 1992.
Most of these people came from the Korean villages in Manchuria. The ethnic Korean community in China is unique in being the only significant overseas Korean community whose members regularly speak Korean and maintain a Korean lifestyle. The ethnic Koreans in the former Soviet Union and Japan have become assimilated, and the Koreans in the US seldom manage to keep their traditions for more than one generation.
The arrival of the Chinese-Koreans resulted in a minor revolution in domestic service. Once again, hiring a servant was within the reach of the more affluent middle-class families. Indeed, statistics indicate that from the late 1990s the number of families who use paid domestic labour increased, and it seems that Chinese-Korean aunties are the major force driving this minor expansion. These people spoke Korean, albeit with some accent, they clearly knew how to make real kimch'i, and they shared the cultural assumptions of their employers.
They were also willing to sell their labour cheaply. Nowadays, the normal monthly wage of a Chinese-Korean servant (or domestic helper, as she might be called in our politically correct days) are in the neighbourhood of 1.2 million won. This is not small change, but a double-income family of two well-paid Korean professionals, with each spouse earning between three and five million won can afford it. For an auntie from a Korean village in China, this is a great amount of money. Her living expenses are negligible, and it means she saves 600-700 dollars a month, a small fortune for a Chinese lady of her age. It is not clear how many of these aunties will eventually return to China, but those who do will have no reason to worry about their old age.
Indeed, for many domestic workers age is an issue: gone are days when the typical servant was a teenage girl from the countryside. Nowadays, this is a job for women in their 50s and even 60s, with almost none of maids being younger than 40.
Not many statistics are available, but it seems that in most cases the Chinese-Korean aunties are hired as live-in domestics, and not as visiting domestic helpers. This makes sense for both sides. The employers need somebody to be around all day, but they would have to pay a fortune to a local worker who would agree to a live-in arrangement, since such arrangements have been very unattractive since the late 1970s. The employees in many cases need an accommodation in Seoul, and they would not find it easy, at least on the amount of money they have at their disposal.
Of course, there are frictions and problems. Anecdotal evidence suggests, for example, that the Chinese-Korean domestic workers might have problems with privacy - in other words, they love to chat about their employers between themselves. Other cultural differences, while relatively minor, still exist as well. But in general it seems that the arrival of the Chinese-Koreans has led to a revival of the ages-old institution of a live-in domestic servant.
How long will this revival last? Nobody knows the future, of course, but I would not expect it to last for too long. The worldwide trend seems to be against the continuing employment of servants, at least full-time ones. Fewer people are willing and able to hire servants, and fewer people are willing to take up this occupation. The growth in home automation also plays a major role in the worldwide decline of the serving industry, and few countries can rival Korea in this regard. But that is another story...
Prof. Andrei Lankov was born in St.Petersburg, Russia, and now teaches at Kookmin University in Seoul.