The Korea Times

Game of empires and its legacy

By Andrei LankovSome 10 years ago I published a column which then led to some controversy. I stated that, contrary to the oft-repeated cliché, widely believed by Koreans themselves, the history of Korea prior to the mid-19th century was not a history of never-ending foreign invasions and ever-present external threat. To the contrary, if compared to other countries outside East Asia, until the mid-19th century Korea had an unusually peaceful and non-violent history. Indeed, in no European or Middle Eastern country of comparable size one can find centuries-long periods of completely unbroken peace.If so, where does this perception of “eternal victimhood,” nearly universal in Korea, come from? One of the sources seems to be a sour experience of the last 150 years when Korea indeed was an area where imperialist ambitions of collided empires. The traumatic period of 1860-1910, as well as following periods of colonial modernization and national division, produced a huge impact on the Korean psyche.Who was fighting over Korea between 1860 and 1910? To start with, in

Oct 15, 2017By Andrei Lankov

Andrei Lankov

Hardworking mermaids

By Andrei LankovFew longtime residents of Korea would not have heard of haenyeo, the female divers of Jeju Island. Usually presented as beautiful mermaids living in harmony with nature, these women are featured prominently on tourist promotion posters.Well, the reality is quite different from this glossy and sexy image. To start with, most of the haenyeo are older aunties, in their 50s and 60s, and their occupation nowadays seems doomed.We do not know exactly when the women of Jeju Island began to dive for shellfish and seaweed, but it is clear the haenyeo already existed in the 17th century as a specialized group. It seems that until the 1800s the women were considered government slaves, and this contributed towards discrimination against haenyeo and their families.Colonialism and capitalism came to Korea more or less simultaneously, in the 1910s, and haenyeo discovered their diving skills and their products were in high demand. Most of them began to earn wages which exceeded the incomes of their husbands. The number of divers increased, and in the 1930s 10,000 women, or 10 per

Oct 1, 2017By Andrei Lankov

Andrei Lankov

Era of too many babies

By Andrei LankovRecently Statistics Korea published preliminary estimates for the birthrate in 2017. These estimates were worrisome: the estimated Total Fertility Rate (TFR), the number of births per woman of reproductive age, is expected to fall to the unprecedented level of 1.03. This is the lowest level in Korea’s history.So, a demographical disaster is looming, and many experts worry about the future. Their worries are well-founded, but one should remember that within the living memories of roughly half of the Koreans alive, the same words “demographical disaster” were employed to describe a completely different situation. When we now talk about ‘disaster,’ we mean that Koreans have too few babies. Half a century ago, the same words implied that they were having too many babies.Until the industrial revolution began to change our world in the 1800s, nearly all women had as many children as they physically could have. Contraception was often illegal, and widely seen as immoral and, frankly, irrational. Indeed, in a world where normally one third o

Sep 17, 2017By Andrei Lankov

Andrei Lankov

International marriages

By Andrei LankovWriting a piece on the marriage habits of Koreans some years ago, I argued rather matter-of-factly: “Korean mainstream opinion does not look upon marriages with foreigners favorably.” This was not mere extrapolation. Opinion polls administered regularly since at least the 1990s reveal that of all East Asian countries, including Japan, South Koreans were most reluctant to accept a foreigner as a son- or daughter-in-law.However, Korea is a land of brisk change and transformation, where once-entrenched idiosyncrasies and impressions are prone to rapidly evolve or disappear entirely from decade to decade. Attitudes towards marriage with non-ethnic Koreans ― so-called “international marriages,” in the local vernacular ― are no exception. In less than a generation, South Koreans have become much more open and likely to tie the knot with foreigners.Beginning around 2000, the number of international marriages began to rise significantly. Three quarters of these marriages today (14,800 out of 20,600, to be precise) are between Korean grooms and for

Sep 3, 2017By Andrei Lankov

Andrei Lankov

No such thing as free lunch

By Andrei Lankov If one were asked to describe the Moon Jae-in administration’s political and ideological leanings in a few words, perhaps the best description would be “left-leaning and modestly nationalist.” Indeed, when it comes to social policy, Moon and his cadre might be compared to the “New Labour” of Tony Blair, and more broadly speaking, the moderate social democrats of modern Europe. They believe in free-market capitalism but want to manage it and reduce social inequities, commonly associated with the free market.Moon promised just that on the campaign trail: A dramatic increase in social welfare spending. However, many have noted that his goals were much less ambitious when compared to commitments made during his previous presidential run in 2012, and on-the-record statements throughout his long political career.His retreat from more radical action reflects a difficult reality-check. While social welfare in Korea is indeed underdeveloped and in dire need of reform and expansion, significant adjustments are politically difficult, and perha

Aug 20, 2017By Andrei Lankov

Andrei Lankov

Brilliant future with hefty price tag?

By Andrei Lankov South Korean politicians have one peculiarity not frequently found in other states: they take their electoral campaign pledges quite seriously. Newly-elected president Moon Jae-in seems to be no exception. On the trail he promised that he would reduce the country’s dependence on nuclear energy and shift resources to clean energy. True to his word, just weeks in to his new administration Moon halted the construction of all nuclear reactors and introduced a number of measures that more-or-less ensure nuclear energy’s limited role in South Korea’s future.The decision reflects the rather curious anti-nuclear bias of the international left often in conjunction with environmental protection groups. Thus, Moon’s decision may not be particularly surprising, given that Korean decision makers tend to embrace trendy ideological fashions of Western campuses. However, is an aversion to all-things nuclear sustainable in the long-term?South Korea has a remarkable history of nuclear energy development. As the country was divided in the late 1940s, upward

Aug 6, 2017By Andrei Lankov

Andrei Lankov

Democracy in name, democracy in essence

By Andrei LankovAs the summer comes, so too arises the opportunity for the Republic of Korea to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its democratic transformation. While officially the ROK always portrayed itself as a liberal democracy, for all practical intents and purposes it became such only as the culmination of several events reached critical mass in the summer of 1987, an event most often described as a revolution in the minds and imaginations of nearly all Koreans.When the ROK was officially founded in August 1948, it professed an allegiance to the principles of liberal democracy as understood at the time. However, this commitment was to a large extent theoretical. The first ROK President, Syngman Rhee, a life-long independence activist, was certain that any Korean democracy should include him as an unchallengeable and, essentially, irreplaceable head of state and powerful ruler.Lasting twelve years, from 1948 to 1960, Rhee’s administration was a time of relatively soft authoritarian policy somewhat similar with what is commonly observed in many states of the Middle East. W

Jul 23, 2017By Andrei Lankov

Andrei Lankov

Nationalism, East Asian style

By Andrei LankovIn the last decades of the twentieth century, particularly after the Cold War, it was widely believed that nationalism was retreating from international politics ― at least among the most developed nations. The election of Donald Trump in the United States, Brexit, and the strong support of the once-fringe National Front party in France reverses this trend as an apparent backlash against globalization and liberalism has become an important feature of political discourse. Though these developments are recent manifestations, nationalism has been a constant in one part of the world. This area is East Asia.Nationalism in a form recognizable to us today first emerged in the late nineteenth century. Earlier eras had similar conceptions but identities were largely centered on states and monarchies. It is telling that in Korea, for over thousands of years and extending in some form well into the twentieth century, all official communications were conducted in Classical Chinese, the lingua franca of East Asia, until the 1890s; and Koreans did not bother to develop a script for

Jul 9, 2017By Andrei Lankov

Andrei Lankov

More equal than others?

By Andrei LankovThe fallout from U.S. President Donald Trump’s off-hand statement that “Korea was once part of China,” made after his first summit meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, is another reminder that all history in East Asia is political.In many other parts of the world such an observation, irrespective of whether it is factually correct, would generate little public outcry. Indeed, it would be difficult to find an outraged Londoner harboring contempt for Italy when reminded that the United Kingdom used to be part of the Roman Empire  (“part of Italy,” if you like). Similarly, Russia once was part of the Mongolian Empire, and the United States is a former British colony. These are objective historical observations.But East Asia is a region where people become enraged over whether a particular type of drum from the early Bronze Age was produced by the Chinese or Vietnamese (this “drum controversy” is hotly debated by patriotic Chinese and Vietnamese scholars). So, the remarks allegedly made by Xi during his Florida summit w

Jun 11, 2017By Andrei Lankov

Andrei Lankov

Conservatives vs. progressives

By Andrei LankovThe South Korean presidential elections are over. To the surprise of few, the country emerged deeply and sharply divided between two camps ― self-described as “progressives” and ‘conservatives’. It was the former that claimed victory, though with far below the majority of votes cast.These political titles are misleading for many Westerners eager to connect Korean politics to similar Western ideology and agendas. In actuality, however, the agenda and worldview of Korean “conservatives” are quite different from that of, say, the American GOP, and Korean ‘progressives’ ignore many issues which the British Labour or American Democrats would consider as core values.So, what are the issues that are, essentially, non-issues in present-day Korean politics? Perhaps, one should start with the usual American duo of abortion and immigration.Abortion is technically banned in South Korea, but this is largely ignored. With the exception of a small number of religious devotees, most Koreans simply do not see much problem with abortion,

May 28, 2017By Andrei Lankov

Andrei Lankov

Game of empires and its legacy

Hardworking mermaids

Era of too many babies

International marriages

No such thing as free lunch

Brilliant future with hefty price tag?

Democracy in name, democracy in essence

Nationalism, East Asian style

More equal than others?

Conservatives vs. progressives

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