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| Panelists pose before the start of The Korea Times Roundtable to discover who Koreans are at the newspaper's conference room last week. From left are the Times' chief editorial writer Oh Young-jin; peace movement leader Lakhvinder Singh; columnist Deauwand Myers; recent university graduate Michael Jun Lee; Michael Breen, author of "The Koreans" and "The New Koreans"; long-term resident of Brazil Chyung Eun-ju; culture editor Bae Eun-joo and columnist Andrew Salmon. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
About Koreans
When the topic of discussion is about peoples ― Koreans, Americans, Chinese, Japanese or Russians, one way or another, it leads to stereotypes. While having the roundtable debate on Koreans last week, we brought in people from diverse backgrounds to go beyond the typesetting and really figure out what Koreans are all about. But we stumbled upon that wall of over-generalizations and oversimplifications, but whether we were conscious of it or not, the wall helped us realize the stereotypes are sometimes true and false other times. But this much we have achieved at the roundtable, meaning we will have more rounds to go in an effort to discover who Koreans are. ― ED
By Oh Young-jin
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Two reasons made me choose this subject.
Our columnist Michael Breen's latest book, "The New Koreans," was one.
The second was my confidence about the subject _ being Korean all my life should make me an expert or so I thought.
I started the discussion by directing my beef about Breen's book title: Does he mean Koreans have been on a turbocharged evolution path making quantum leap from Neanderthals to Homo sapiens? Or is the book the belated confession of the author's failure to see what Koreans were all about in his previous book published 20 years ago? Or did he see what I failed to see _ an emerging new breed of Koreans?
I would keep Breen's answer a secret because I don't want to spoil those who want to buy and read his book. I think his explanation suffices as an answer to the original question.
But the rest of the panel _ seven _ also had their own answers. One participant talked about Koreans' group mentality that is revealed by their eagerness to have plastic surgery. As a result, they ended up all looking alike. Another spoke to Koreans' tendency to underestimate themselves, declaring that they should be proud. The third talked about technology strengthening Koreans' army-like culture. The fourth talked about Korea playing a key role of bringing about Asian renaissance. The fifth pushed for Korea's nationalistic tendencies. The sixth talked about Koreans' streak of defiance.
To each observation, I made or could have made a counterargument. About the plastic surgery craze, I would say that none of my family of four has had it done. About Koreans' observed lack of confidence, I would say that they may be shy outside but at their core they prove to be a hard nut to crack. About the collective thinking-boosting technology, I would object by saying that being the most wired country in the world means a greater connectivity and that it is liberating rather than constricting. I would say that Indians or Chinese are in better position than Koreans to bring about an Asian resurrection. I am ready to say that everybody in Korean politics, both progressive and conservative, is nationalistic. I could also reject the notion of Korean defiance by highlighting their docility _ shown in their collective submission to a series of dictatorships. Perhaps, the North Korean Kim dynasty is based on this collective submissiveness.
The seventh participant well captured the drift when she said that we are trapped by oversimplification.
I would say that making it complicated wouldn't give a better answer.
Rather, those definitions should be taken to be right and wrong at the same time.
It is comparable to the drawing at the start of "The Little Prince" by Santoine de Saint Exupery that looks like a hat but is a boa constrictor that swallowed an elephant. That was a discriminatory surmise that determines one's ineptitude about becoming an artist.
Different from the Frenchman, I would take both a hat and a boa with an elephant as an answer. And whether it is a right answer or not is rather irrelevant. The job of defining Koreans comes down to inviting more observations. Only when the amount of observation reaches critical mass, would who we are be revealed. In other words, we Koreans are evolving, defying attempts to confine us to one stereotype or two. That is an exhilarating experience.
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