By Andrei Lankov
Few 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 percent of all female residents of Jeju, were haenyeo. Teams of Jeju haenyeo dived in the coastal waters of Japan, China and Russia, since their skills were unparalleled elsewhere.
Jeju Island has been known as the place where "only three things are plentiful: wind, stone and women." Indeed, the sex ratio was always skewed, since men migrated to Korea proper and to Japan, leaving the women behind. The 1948 communist uprising, part of Pyongyang's campaign to undermine the South Korean elections, resulted in a bloodbath. Both sides committed atrocities, but it seems the government forces were responsible for a much greater number of victims. Some 25,000 people were slaughtered during the fighting. These victims were overwhelmingly young males, so after the massacres of 1948-1949 there were five women per every four men on the island.
Among other things, this imbalance meant women had to somehow earn a living without traditional reliance on male support. Becoming a haenyeo was a logical choice: it was a dangerous and demanding job, but it was paid relatively well and could be done by a woman without any education.
The 1960s became the heyday of the haenyeo industry. Their products were widely exported to Japan and commanded good prices. The number of divers peaked at 23,000 (roughly one-fifth of the island's female population).
However, the boom was followed by a decline which became pronounced in the 1970s. The reasons for the decline were manifold. Around the same time, algae production switched to mariculture: instead of harvesting natural algae, they began to cultivate it. However, algae cultivation developed in other parts of Korea as well, and this undermined Jeju diving.
There was another reason for the decline of the haenyeo: the arrival of the mandarin orchards. The mandarin industry at Jeju began to grow in the 1960s, and grew with amazing speed. The work at the orchards was less difficult and dangerous than diving, and it did not have the social stigma that was attached to diving since the days when haenyeo were lowly slaves. Thus, it comes as no surprise that many women preferred to move to the new industry. In the 1970s the income from trade in mandarins far exceeded the revenues the islanders got from selling shellfish and other products harvested by the haenyeo.
By the 1970s, middle school education became common even in the remote fishing villages, and the younger women seldom wanted to follow their mothers. They wanted white-collar clerical jobs or work in the booming tourist industry or, in the worst-case scenario, a job at the orchard, but they did not want to go diving in the dangerous sea. Frankly, their mothers did not mind. It seems that from around 1980 very few young women joined the dwindling ranks of the haenyeo.
In 1970, there were 14,100 haenyeo on Jeju. Ten years later, in 1980, their number dropped to 7,800. The subsequent period was a slow decline, and in 2013 there were 4,574 female divers.
For a while it looked like the profession was going extinct, but the last decade was a time when younger women showed a renewed interest in the job. Haenyeo have become a powerful symbol of Jeju culture, and for a small but noticeable number of younger women this is a glorious tradition, no longer associated with drudgery and discrimination. It helps that the local authorities also want to keep haenyeo culture alive. So, perhaps, the divers are likely to continue their work in the coastal waters off the island.
Andrei Lankov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and teaches at Kookmin University in Seoul. Reach him at anlankov@yahoo.com.
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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 percent of all female residents of Jeju, were haenyeo. Teams of Jeju haenyeo dived in the coastal waters of Japan, China and Russia, since their skills were unparalleled elsewhere.
Jeju Island has been known as the place where "only three things are plentiful: wind, stone and women." Indeed, the sex ratio was always skewed, since men migrated to Korea proper and to Japan, leaving the women behind. The 1948 communist uprising, part of Pyongyang's campaign to undermine the South Korean elections, resulted in a bloodbath. Both sides committed atrocities, but it seems the government forces were responsible for a much greater number of victims. Some 25,000 people were slaughtered during the fighting. These victims were overwhelmingly young males, so after the massacres of 1948-1949 there were five women per every four men on the island.
Among other things, this imbalance meant women had to somehow earn a living without traditional reliance on male support. Becoming a haenyeo was a logical choice: it was a dangerous and demanding job, but it was paid relatively well and could be done by a woman without any education.
The 1960s became the heyday of the haenyeo industry. Their products were widely exported to Japan and commanded good prices. The number of divers peaked at 23,000 (roughly one-fifth of the island's female population).
However, the boom was followed by a decline which became pronounced in the 1970s. The reasons for the decline were manifold. Around the same time, algae production switched to mariculture: instead of harvesting natural algae, they began to cultivate it. However, algae cultivation developed in other parts of Korea as well, and this undermined Jeju diving.
There was another reason for the decline of the haenyeo: the arrival of the mandarin orchards. The mandarin industry at Jeju began to grow in the 1960s, and grew with amazing speed. The work at the orchards was less difficult and dangerous than diving, and it did not have the social stigma that was attached to diving since the days when haenyeo were lowly slaves. Thus, it comes as no surprise that many women preferred to move to the new industry. In the 1970s the income from trade in mandarins far exceeded the revenues the islanders got from selling shellfish and other products harvested by the haenyeo.
By the 1970s, middle school education became common even in the remote fishing villages, and the younger women seldom wanted to follow their mothers. They wanted white-collar clerical jobs or work in the booming tourist industry or, in the worst-case scenario, a job at the orchard, but they did not want to go diving in the dangerous sea. Frankly, their mothers did not mind. It seems that from around 1980 very few young women joined the dwindling ranks of the haenyeo.
In 1970, there were 14,100 haenyeo on Jeju. Ten years later, in 1980, their number dropped to 7,800. The subsequent period was a slow decline, and in 2013 there were 4,574 female divers.
For a while it looked like the profession was going extinct, but the last decade was a time when younger women showed a renewed interest in the job. Haenyeo have become a powerful symbol of Jeju culture, and for a small but noticeable number of younger women this is a glorious tradition, no longer associated with drudgery and discrimination. It helps that the local authorities also want to keep haenyeo culture alive. So, perhaps, the divers are likely to continue their work in the coastal waters off the island.
Andrei Lankov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and teaches at Kookmin University in Seoul. Reach him at anlankov@yahoo.com.
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