Copyright by Lisa Marie Longenecker 2019 The Thesis committee for Lisa Marie Longenecker Certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: Suicide, Precarity, and Korean Media: A Sociocultural Analysis of the Adolescent Suicide Epidemic in South Korea SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Robert M. Oppenheim, Supervisor Youjeong Oh Suicide, Precarity, and Korean Media: A Sociocultural Analysis of the Adolescent Suicide Epidemic in South Korea By Lisa Marie Longenecker Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin May 2019 Acknowledgements I would like to personally thank Dr. Robert Oppenheim, my professor and thesis advisor, for all the excellent advice and assistance he has provided during my journey to become a Korean Studies scholar. Without his specialized knowledge and helpful guidance, the completion of this thesis would have been a much rougher path. I would also like to think Dr. Youjeong Oh, the second reader for this thesis, and the professor of several courses I took while obtaining my degree at the University of Texas at Austin. In particular, her course Political Economy of Development in Postwar Korea provided a solid foundation on modern Korean history, which was of great value to me in writing this thesis. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to my friends from Korea, especially Lee Jaenam, Hwang Jinha, Lee Yerin, and Kim Kyungjoo. Throughout the time I have known them, they have provided me with valuable insight into Korean culture, helped me when I struggled with Korean language translations, and showed me around Seoul when I went to perform my fieldwork. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the extreme generosity of the Korea Foundation/POSCO Korean Studies endowment for providing me with the POSCO Korean Studies Fellowship in the summer of 2018 to assist with completing my fieldwork at the Mapo Bridge. This fellowship allowed me to travel to Korea for the first time and perform an invaluable on-site ethnography, which I utilized to write chapter four of this thesis. IV Abstract Suicide, Precarity, and Korean Media: A Sociocultural Analysis of the Adolescent Suicide Epidemic in South Korea Lisa Marie Longenecker, M.A. The University of Texas at Austin, 2019 Supervisor: Robert M. Oppenheim This thesis provides a sociocultural analysis on South Korea’s suicide epidemic, particularly focusing on the vulnerability of Korean youth. A discussion on the relevant psychosocial theories of suicide is presented, as well as an explanation of how the rise of precariousness in Korean society has caused Korea to have one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Some of the major issues causing suicidality in young Koreans, including the competitive education system, bullying, job placement, and socioeconomic inequality, are discussed in detail. In addition, the impact of sensationalized reporting of celebrity suicides in Korean news media, as well as the pervasiveness of suicide narratives in Korean television shows is explored. As demonstrated by a textual analysis on two recent Korean dramas, Korean television both reflects and perpetuates Korea’s public suicide culture. Finally, an international comparison to the Netherlands and Switzerland is provided, in addition to a discussion on ways to lower the suicide rate among adolescents in South Korea. V Contents Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………………...……. IV Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………… V List of Figures ………………………………………………………………………………. VIII Chapter 1: Suicide in Korea …………………………………………………………………… 1 Theories on Suicide …………………………………………………………………….. 4 Vulnerable Populations ………………………………………………………………. 11 Chapter 2: The Youth Suicide Epidemic …………………………………………………… 20 Korea’s Competitive Education System …………………………………………….. 22 Interpersonal Relationship (Socialization & Bullying) …………………………….. 25 Job Placement & Socioeconomic Inequality ………………………………………… 28 Chapter 3: Suicide in Korean News Media………………………………………………….. 32 Celebrity Suicide in Korean News Media …………………………………………… 32 A String of Celebrity Suicides, 2008 …………………………………………………. 35 Idol Suicide and Conversations on Mental Health …………………………………. 39 Chapter 4: Suicide in Korean Dramas ………………………………………………………. 45 The Deathly Toll of the Korean Education System ………………………………… 47 Reflections of Bridge Suicide in Korean Dramas …………………………………… 50 Modern Korea and High-Rise Suicide ………………………………………………. 56 Chapter 5: Addressing the Suicide Epidemic ……………………………………………….. 59 International Comparisons ………………………………………………………...… 60 Government Action in Response to the Suicide Epidemic …………………………. 66 Lowering Adolescent Suicide Rates …………………………………………………. 68 VI Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………….. 72 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………………... 75 VII List of Figures Figure 1.1: Suicide Rates for Select OECD Countries ………………………………………….. 3 Figure 1.2: Yearly Korean Suicides, 1960-2010 ………………………………………………... 7 Figure 1.3: Korea’s Annual GDP, 1960-2010 …………………………………………………... 7 Figure 1.4: Korean Suicide Rate, per 100,000 deaths, 2017 …………………………………… 16 Figure 2.1: Teenage suicides, 1990, 2000, and 2015 or latest available year ………………….. 21 Figure 2.2: The Socioeconomic Divide in the Korean Education & Job Market ……………… 29 Figure 4.1: Mapo Bridge Suicide Prevention Message………………………………………… 51 Figure 4.2: Mapo Bridge SOS Phone ………………………………………………………….. 55 Figure 5.1: Average scores of 15-year-old students on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 ………………………………………………………...…………….. 60 Figure 5.2: Suicide Rates for Select OECD Countries ……………………..………………….. 64 VIII Chapter 1 Suicide in Korea: An Acute Social Issue in Contemporary Korean Society An epidemic of unhappiness is spreading across the planet, while capital absolutism is asserting its right to unfettered control of our lives. As bio-semiocapitalism infiltrates the nervous cells of conscious sensible organisms, it inoculates in them a thanato-political rationale, a morbid sentiment which is progressively taking hold of the collective unconscious, culture, and sensibility. -- Franco Berardi, Heroes: Mass Murder and Suicide Suicide is a much-discussed issue in contemporary South Korea, hereinafter referred to as Korea. However, suicide itself is not a new problem, nor is it unique to Korea. With the expansion and deepening of global capitalism in the 20th and 21st centuries, suicide has become a major issue for many countries. In fact, over the past five decades, suicide rates have increased 60 percent worldwide, and attempted suicides are up to twenty times more frequent than completed suicides.1 Over the past century or so, many developed nations have experienced the removal of closely-knit family and work units, and many also suffer from severe issues with socioeconomic inequality and fierce competition in the global market. These massive societal changes have resulted in dramatic changes in individuals’ personal lives, leading many people to feel that suicide may be a valid escape from their daily hardships. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 800,000 people commit suicide globally each year, with many more attempts as well.2 Worldwide, suicide has become the second leading cause of death for people between the ages of 15-29, and in Korea, it is the 1 Franco Berardi, Heroes: Mass Murder and Suicide (London, UK: Verso, 2015), 164. 2 World Health Organization, “Suicide,” last modified August 24, 2018, https://www.who.int/news- room/fact-sheets/detail/suicide. 1 first leading cause of death from ages 10-39.3 Since suicide is a pervasive health concern for Korean adolescents, this thesis will discuss the common sociocultural issues surrounding adolescent suicide. Although mental illness is commonly thought of as the precursor to suicide, many suicides are caused by the inability to withstand stress, financial issues, or other hardships influenced by increasing precarity in modern society.4 Korea, for example, has seen a drastic incline in the annual number of citizens committing suicide over the past several decades. With almost 26 deaths per 100,000 people each year, Korea has the second highest suicide rate of all developed nations measured by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which is more than twice the OECD average of 12 suicides per 100,000 people (figure 1.1).5 This equates to almost 44 suicides a day, or nearly 2 suicides per hour.6 Korea’s steady rise in suicide rates coincides with the rapid industrialization of Korean society. 3 통계청[Statistics Korea], “Causes of Death Statistics in 2017,” last modified September 19, 2018, http://kostat.go.kr/portal/eng/pressReleases/8/10/index.board?bmode=read&bSeq=&aSeq=371140&pageNo=1&row Num=10&navCount=10&currPg=&sTarget=title&sTxt=. ; World Health Organization, “Suicide.” 4 World Health Organization, “Suicide.” 5 OECD, “Suicide Rates (Indicator),” OECD Health Statistics: Health Status, last modified 2019, https://data.oecd.org/healthstat/suicide-rates.htm.; OECD, OECD Factbook 2015-2016: Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics (Paris, France: OECD Publishing, 2016), 207, http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/ Oecd-factbook-2015-2016_factbook-2015-en. 6 Nam Ju Ji et al., “The Impact of Indiscriminate Media Coverage of a Celebrity Suicide on a Society with a High Suicide Rate: Epidemiological Findings on Copycat Suicides from South Korea,” Journal of Affective Disorders