Okay, so, a friend of mine is half of Korean descent (her mom grew up in Korea and immigrated to the US as an adult when she married my friend’s dad; my friend has visited South Korea on several occasions, but she’s spent her whole life until now in Los Angeles), and today we got in a long (but friendly) debate about US/North Korea/South Korea/China relations. She basically said that I don’t understand the North Korean desire to isolate themselves because I don’t know enough about Korean history and culture. So I asked her why South Korea doesn’t isolate themselves to the same extent, and it was her assertion that it’s because of the US influence in the country, and that if they could, they would do the same thing. According to her, the Japanese colonization and threat of invasions of China have made Koreans particularly unlikely to want to communicate with or deal with people outside of the country.
I was absolutely flabbergasted by this statement. She’s right that I don’t know a huge amount about Korea, though, so I turn to the Dope. Do you think she’s correct?
In the past Korea was very isolated, similar to both China and Japan, with a policy of closed borders. They had barely started modernizing when Japan annexed them. Japan had an industrialization program (combined with war crimes and the suppression of the Korean culture), but still kept Korea isolated. It wasn’t until the Allies liberated Korea that it was opened up to the world, the North to the communist bloc and the South to the US-aligned world.
I don’t know how open North Korea actually became in the interim years, but it has become extremely closed now.
While South Korea was “open” in the nominal sense, there were tight restrictions on the import of goods and culture into it. Movie theaters had restrictions against playing more than token amounts of foreign films. Consumer goods had high tariffs. And there was tight control on democratic movements.
Eventually, the democratic movements succeeded in 1988. Since then, South Korea has become much more open. It’s easier to import goods and culture into it. There is a certain coolness factor in American culture. (You know how some Americans use random Chinese characters to be cool. Koreans do the same thing with American words. I tease my in-laws sometimes. ) It’s much easier for Koreans to express political views.
I would call South Korea a truly open country now. Some parts of its culture and economy are still insular, but the same can be said about the US.
So to answer your question succinctly: I think your friend was right, as of about 10-20 years ago, but not so much anymore.
Koreans have always been suspicious of outsiders. They didn’t call us the Hermit Kingdom for nothing. But I agree with Pleonast that those days are gone, to a certain extent. Xenophobia is still alive and well here, but things have changed a lot in the past 20 years. We have Starbucks and foreigners coming out of our ears. Many young Koreans nowadays are eager to be exposed to US and/or Japanese culture.
Some Koreans are worried that our culture is being taken over by Westernization, but I think your friend is way off base by saying that South Koreans would isolate themselves if they could. Some individuals might think that way, but the country as a whole has been eager to import foreign stuff for quite some time.
As an aside, the Korean LA community is stuck in the past, as is the case with many Korean American communities. Many of the adults immigrated to the US in the 70s and 80s and they tend to forget that Korea has moved on since then.
) It’s much easier for Koreans to express political views.