By Sah Dong-seok
Deputy Managing Editor
They each spend more than 10 million won a month in pocket money, own two imported cars of the highest quality and enjoy golfing abroad in their leisure time.
They eat 400,000 won lunches at posh restaurants, rent hotel clubs for luxury parties and buy goods worth 200 million won in a lump sum. And one of them boasts that he drinks nothing but 30-year-old Ballantine's.
They're four youngsters in their 20s with rich fathers ― the owner of a noted hospital, a top financier and two entrepreneurs.
On Media, an entertainment media group, recently completed the production of a reality program that peeks into their luxurious daily lives and was planning to air the program under the title ``Papa Rich'' on its ``On Style'' cable channel earlier this month. But the company shelved the plan at the last minute due to the possibility of backlash at a time of deepening social disharmony. On Media will reconsider the matter next month but it's unclear whether the show will ever be aired.
The public reaction to ``Papa Rich'' was negative in general. According to a survey conducted by Frienmily, a matchmaking service, more than half of women reacted positively to the scenario of the show, saying the program would satisfy their curiosity about high society life. However, most men showed a negative response, with nearly 82 percent saying that the program will only aggravate the already serious conflict between haves and have-nots.
In acute contrast, a period drama that draws attention in a different way is now airing on KBS TV. The drama, entitled ``Myeongga" (Noble Family), deals with the history of a family in the southeastern city of Gyeongju that amassed a fortune over 12 generations through legitimate means and realized true ``noblesse oblige.'' The accumulation of wealth by the Choi family continued for some 300 years up to Japan's colonial period here.
Interestingly enough, actor Cha In-pyo, who has been active in volunteering and charity with his wife, actress Shin Ae-ra, is starring in the drama. The couple recently donated 100 million won to the victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti.
The family had its own rules and disciplines in place to ensure that its sons and daughters lived modest and unselfish lives. First of all, the offspring were ordered not to increase their wealth when famine hit the nation and encouraged to pay attention to their neighbors, so that none within the radius of 40 kilometers of where they lived would die from starvation. They were also told not to vie for high government posts or store more than 10,000 rice bags. Despite being rich, the ancestors of the Choi family gave their posterity harsh lessons.
There are a number of anecdotes about the family. Gen. Shin Dol-seok took refuge in the family's home to avoid pursuit by Japanese soldiers during the later period of the Joseon Kingdom. Prince Uichin, the fifth son of King Gojong, stayed there for six days during Japan's occupation of the Korean Peninsula. During Japan's colonial rule, some of the family members joined forces to collect money for the independence movement.
The family is often compared to the House of Medici that gained prominence by accumulating wealth through trade, finance and commerce in Florence between the 13th and 17th centuries. The family, which produced four Popes of the Catholic Church, used its wealth and influence to create an environment where arts and humanism could flourish and played a key role in the birth of the Italian Renaissance.
How would the stars of ``Papa Rich'' react if emergency fell upon the country? Would they volunteer to defend the country with the spirit of noblesse oblige? Given their extravagant lifestyles, they must have come from the families of ``overnight millionaires.'' A good family wouldn't let its children grow up like that.
Antipathy toward the rich is strong in Korea because the country's rapid economic development has produced a number of people who became rich suddenly. Many of them engaged in tax fraud, corruption, evasion of military service and other anti-social crimes in the belief that they could do anything with money. They also have been stingy about contribution and other philanthropic activity.
Many foreign soldiers died during the 1950-53 Korean War. Among them were the only son of James A. Van Fleet, commanding general of the U.S. Army and United Nations Forces, and a son of Mao Tse-tung, China's former supreme leader. Meanwhile, many sons of Korean leaders and rich families were busy fleeing the country and avoiding military conscription while those from poor families were losing their lives in the battlefield.
This lack of responsibility has bred distrust and shamelessness in Korean society, which has been split along regions and political and ideological lines. To be sure, the key to uprooting these negative factors that hamper the cohesion of the society lies in enhancing the spirit of noblesse oblige.