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'Hell Joseon' Is More Like It As Economy Flounders

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'Hell Joseon' Is More Like It As Economy Flounders LUND UNIVERSITY • CENTRE FOR EAST AND SOUTH-EAST ASIAN STUDIES ‘Hell Joseon’ - Tales from a South Korean Youth Trapped Between Past and Present Author: Johan Cornelis Schoonhoven Supervisor: Erik Mobrand Master’s Programme in Asian Studies Spring semester 2017 Abstract This thesis takes its outset in the newly coined expression ‘Hell Joseon’ used by the youth in South Korea. ‘Hell Joseon’ is a comparison between today’s society and the pre-modern Joseon Dynasty. By asking “what are the main characteristics of life in ‘Hell Joseon’ from a youth perspective?”, I arrive at the following conclusion. Life in ‘Hell Joseon’ is highly characterized by discrepancies between rich and poor, old and young, men and women, global and local. This is a peculiar result of Korea’s double-compressed modernity which derives from a colonial legacy, top-down modernization in the post-war era and condensed transition to a neoliberal world economy, also known as the second modernity. Therefore, traditional and (post)modern elements coexist in Korea’s society, and is partly the reason why the youth are now drawing references to the pre-modern Joseon Dynasty. Life in ‘Hell Joseon’ thus implies frustrations over high unemployment rates, a new ‘spoon class’ class division, lack of social mobility, an education fever and a downright “gender war”. More than that, it shows traces of apathy in the fact that the young generation is giving up marriage, children, jobs, hope, housing etc., but also traces of transformation since the ‘Hell Joseon’ discourse have made the youth take it to the streets, last seen in the mass demonstrations against now impeached President Park Geun-hye. Furthermore, ‘Hell Joseon’ rejects the conventional paradigm of development through nationalism and economic growth, in favour of more liberal modernization giving space for life-work balance and self-realization. Keywords: Compressed modernity, Hell Joseon, Youth, South Korea, Modernization, Inequality, Gender 2 Acknowledgements On a sunny November day at campus, just before noon, a young male student jumps out the window on 7th floor of the business department building at Konkuk University. In his bag, he leaves a brief note saying “I want to take a deep sleep now”. – Seoul, 2013. I dedicate my thesis to this young man, and the many other young South Koreans who every year end their lives too soon, to find peace from stress, despair and confusion. 3 Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ 2 Keywords: ..................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... 3 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 6 1.1 Aim and research question: ................................................................................................ 6 1.2 Statement of purpose: ......................................................................................................... 7 2. Research design ........................................................................................................................ 7 2.1 Epistemological considerations: .......................................................................................... 8 2.2 Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 9 2.2.1 Semi structured qualitative interviews ............................................................................... 10 2.2.2 Ethical considerations ........................................................................................................ 11 2.2.3 Limitations ......................................................................................................................... 11 3. BACKGROUND ..................................................................................................................... 12 3.1 From a “hell-hole of foreign assistance” to “miraculous” development ........................... 12 3.2 An ontology of multiple modernities ................................................................................. 13 4. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .......................................................................................... 14 4.1 Compressed modernity in Korea ...................................................................................... 14 4.2 Compressed modernity in the making - Eastern spirit, Western body ............................. 16 4.2.1 Colonial modernity? ........................................................................................................... 16 4.2.2 Modernization as a nationalistic project? ........................................................................... 17 4.3 From hopes of a liberal subject to the birth of the neoliberal subject .............................. 18 4.4 Second modernity and reflexive cosmopolitization ........................................................... 18 4.5 A double-compressed modernity in Korea? ...................................................................... 19 5. ANALYSIS OF A LIFE IN ‘HELL JOSEON’ FROM A YOUTH PERSPECTIVE ............. 21 5.1 Chapter 1: The many faces of ‘Hell Joseon’ ..................................................................... 21 5.2 Chapter 2: Inequality in Korea – The ‘one shot society’ they call ‘Hell Joseon’ .............. 23 4 5.3 Chapter 3: Education fever – choosing the right track in ‘Hell Joseon’ ........................... 24 5.4 Chapter 4: ‘Gold spoons’ and ‘dirt spoons’ - a class theory in the making ...................... 28 5.5 Chapter 5: Instrumental and Confucian familism ............................................................ 31 5.6 Chapter 6: An ongoing ‘gender war’ on the battlefield of ‘Hell Joseon’ .......................... 33 5.7 Chapter 7: Giving up or escaping ‘Hell Joseon’? ............................................................. 37 5.8 Chapter 8: From diamond spoons to prison spoons ........................................................ 40 5.9 Chapter 9: ‘Hell Joseon’ - paving the way for an alternative development? .................... 41 6. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................... 44 7. LITERATURE LIST: ............................................................................................................. 45 7.1 Articles and books: ........................................................................................................... 45 7.2 Websites: ........................................................................................................................... 49 8. Appendix ................................................................................................................................. 52 8.1 Appendix 1: Interview guide ............................................................................................. 52 8.2 Appendix 2: Interview with Yong-ju ................................................................................ 53 8.3 Appendix 3: Interview with Si-won .................................................................................. 87 8.4 Appendix 4: Interview with Hyo-jung (Without recording) ............................................ 117 8.5 Appendix 5: Interview with Dan-oh ................................................................................. 120 8.6 Appendix 6: Interview with Chang-ho (Without recording) ........................................... 136 8.7 Appendix 7: Interview with Hyun-woo ............................................................................ 138 8.8 Appendix 8: Interview with Kyung-jin ............................................................................ 158 8.9 Appendix 9: Interview with Jung-hee (Without recording) ............................................. 186 5 1. Introduction This is a story about two words, the making of an “impossible country” and a young generation feeling trapped between past and present. It takes its beginning a couple of years back when the South Korean1 youth comes up with a short, poetic and value-laden expression that sums up the many feelings they have accumulated towards their country. ‘Hell Joseon’, they say, arguing that today’s Korea is a living hell resembling the life conditions under the Joseon Dynasty - a feudal kingdom where social hierarchies ruled over people’s fate (Park 2016; Park 2015; Koo 2015, Kim 2016, 39; Kirk 2016, Chang 2015). I heard the expression for the first time a while back, in 2015, when I was driving home a late night in Seoul with my brother in law. He was telling me about a new prognosis showing that in order to buy a small apartment in Seoul as a young person, you would have to save up your entire salary for more than 20 years. He sighed, laughed a little and exclaimed - this is ‘Hell Joseon’. From an increasing number of articles using the term, ‘Hell Joseon’ appears to be a reaction against the rising economic inequality in Korea, prospects of record-high youth unemployment, an overheated education system and working hours longer than in most other countries in the world. (Jin 2015; Kong 2016; Kim 2016a; Fifield 2016).
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