Adam Morris of Brainysmurf gives us more food for thought, commenting on a piece by ExpatsAgainstBush in which it it written:
[U]nless you live in a walled off compound (Bahrain anyone?) surrounded by other Yanks, you’re going to be influenced a bit by the natives, especially if you like them and respect them. I’m definitely more liberal than I was when I moved to London. This is not an impressionable college student here. I’ve just found that you get exposed to a much larger range of opinions and facts than you would back home.
Adam discuses his own political transformation as an expat:
It’s true though that there are not too many pro-America citizens living as expats in my community, nor are they any expats from countries other than America who are America fans either. Probably because it just isn’t a part of the game. As expats, expecially those in third-world countries, we probably all feel some affinity for rooting for the small guy. When you see MacDonald’s (according to the British pronunciation) upstaged only by KFCs, a picture that repeats itself several times within a five mile radius of where you live, followed by the dreaded Wal-Mart closing in soon, you look at the little guy in the stand down the street and see misfortune coming upon him. Although everyone knows this intellectually, it makes a difference to know that he’s my neighbor.
Most of us would like to see our host country be successful in whatever limited capacity they set out to do, or get their digs in on America, for example, because hell it’s stimulating to see how the country in which you live and the one in which you originate interact, and seeing the other guy win for once is fascinating. I can’t see myself possibly wanting to continue living here if I didn’t want to root at least that much for my host country.
This is quite an interesting response. It’s also at odds with those of a great many American expats in Korea. Before I discuss this further, a caveat - the American expat community in Korea is quite large (and includes 37,000 American stationed in this country), and in any community of this size, there is going to be a wide range of opinions on this issue. I don’t pretend to speak authoritatively for the American expat community as a whole, and I sincerely hope that the expats that read this humble blog will leave their own comments and observations in the comments section below. I only wish to relay some of my personal observations.
Anyway, on to my point. Support levels for Bush, outside the military and business community, are probably no higher or lesser than those found among young, middle-class, college educated white males in the United States (the English teacher crowd composed mostly of that socio-economic group). Here at Kwangju University, I know of only one American instructor - me - who is openly a Bush supporter. This does NOT, however, translate into greater sympathy for the local community. Particularly since the “burning season” of last winter, during which virulently anti-American protests were the norm throughout the country, American expats have taken a decidedly more negative view of Korea, if op-ed pieces to the English language media, blogs, and my own personal conversations with other expats are anything to go by. Even among more “liberal” expats, there appears to have been a rise in patriotism, in many ways a backlash against the anti-Americanism and hyper-nationalism that accompanied the World Cup and the Korean presidential election. Yes, even registered Democrats can get sick of college students blaming all the ills of the nation on the current American head of state. Right wingers like myself are generally turned off by the shrill anti-Americanism and not-so-concealed admiration of North Korea exhibited by younger South Koreans, while left wing expats often abhor Korean xenophobia, extreme nationalism, and social intolerance. What you often see now, among American expats, is barely concealed satisfaction when they watch the South Korean government squirm every time Rummy hints at American troops reductions on the Peninsula, or the same satisfaction when the South Korean football team gets its ass kicked in the post-World Cup era. I can’t say I don’t share these feelings - the wounds from last winter do heal slowly, after all - but as a seven year veteran of Korea and a man who has chosen to make this country his home, I really do want to see this country succeed.
Allow me to make some other observation, ones that are perhaps applicable only to myself. South Korea is considered by many to be the most Confucian country in the world, and generally speaking, its society is culturally, socially, and politically quite conservative. I spent my formative period in Korea residing in its Confucian heartland - that bastion of Confucian orthodoxy that centers on the small town of Andong in North Kyeongsang Province. In terms of social conservatism and right wing politics, it puts to shame the American Bible Belt - it’s a place that hasn’t experienced fundamental changes in attitude since the foundation of the Chosun Dynasty (1392). Has having lived in such an environment affected my political thinking at all? Damn straight it has, and you’ll realize it when I start talking about how American schools should start re-teaching Greek and Latin and how Americans need to get “more in touch” with their Western cultural roots. Multiculturalism? Bah, humbug. English-only laws? Heck, I’ve been busting my ass learning Korean, so why can’t Jose learn English? If I sound remarkably similar to Koreans discussing the Japanese as I wax on nostalgically about the Battle of Tours and bitch like the Ottoman seige of Vienna was only yesterday (those damn Muslims - they just don’t respect us), it’s no coincidence. Spend three years in a place where old men spend their retirements teaching the Confucian classics to little kids during their school vacations, and ones liberal pretensions go right out the window.
Another thing is my experience in the Korean educational system. There is a tendency in Korea to approach the subject of international relations from the perspective of systems theories that are ultimately grounded on concepts of power. Neo-cons aside, Americans academics often hesitate to confront the realities of power in international relations - it leaves professors and students alike feeling rather uncomfortable. Not so here in Korea, a nation that has spent the last 5,000 years becoming intimately aquainted with power-politics and its myriads of forms. If there is something left wing and right wing academics can agree upon in Korea, it’s the prerogatives of power. Well, anyway, to make a long story short, I eventually came to “stop worrying and love the bomb,” so to speak. If you are wondering why my discussions of international politics often appear devoid of questions of morality, now you know why.
Anyway, these are just a couple of thoughts I’ve decided to jot down for your reading pleasure. As I said in the beginning, I hope some of the expats who visit this blog take the time to comment on how their politics may or may not have changed as a result of their stay in Korea.
5 Comments
Fascinating. I too was changed by staring into the abyss. Actually, as a member of that “other” class of expat, the Peace Corps Volunteer, it was interesting to see the difference between us and the traditional expats. As far as I know, we had no converts to Islam, but I can guarantee you that every single PCV in Uzbekistan has a much deeper respect of it than most of the expat community there.
We actually spent a lot of time making fun of expats who waxed romantic about “experiencing” Uzbekistan (second favorite target: Backpackers, then the French) because they didn’t know shit. They might know a couple words of Russian, and no Uzbek. I could go on and on, but I think this point, that Robert touched on by mentioning his experiences living among Koreans rather than just in Korea, is an important distinction.
In my opinion, most expats lived a hilarious life (that I wouldn’t mind living, mind you). The unmarried ones were drinking and sexing it up like it was a non-stop frat party while the married ones lived in sheltered compounds where they never had to be confronted with the unpleasantries of learning a new language or having to go shopping. These folks were fairly liberal; the development arena attracts those types. Anyplace I’ve ever been that has a narrow political community seems to realign everyone into a new political bell-curve. Politics is easy when you don’t have to deal with the real world. Our attitudes were very different in the Peace Corps. Of course we should learn the language, it’s courteous and helpful. Our students should show us the respect due a guest, an adult, and their teacher. A lot of this stuff still sticks with me–I don’t offer to shake hands with women and have a strong urge to hold my heart over my hand and slightly bow when greeting or thanking someone.
I would have expected that satisfaction at railing against America among expats, but never amongst the PCVs–a group that has one of the deepest appreciations of America that I’ve ever met.
I agree with the poster about the tendancy to lean toward certain feelings when in Korea — like the dreaded “Wal-Mart opening” — because you have chosen to live in another country — and even more so in a place like Korea where the vast majority of expats are short timers — people who know they will leave after a year or a few so it feels more like an extended vaction to a “foreign” land.
But, why do we really hate McDonalds? Besides the fact that it isn’t “Korean”?
I worked with a 50 year old Canadian I would walk around town with for exercise, and when he saw one of those big red neon crosses hanging above a church he’d say, “Bah….look at that…..it’s so pathetic…”
I could think enough even at that time during my first year in Korea to wonder, “What about those Buddist swastika looking signs? Wasn’t Buddhism transported into Korea? I thought it kind of origniated in India? And where did Confucianism come from?”
Then later, when I studied about the late Choson nationalist reaction to Confucianism, when some people like Shin Choe Ho rabidly attacked Confucianism and what he described as “the enslavement of Korea to China for centuries” I further realized how over stating the “cultural imperialism” angle can distort reality — for both the culture and nation you are attacking and the native culture you are trying to “protect”…..Korea was weak in the late 19th Century, but seeking to destroy the cultural heritage of Neo-Confucianism in Korean society would have destoryed many positive aspects Korean society had developed through its relationship with Chinese culture.
So, what I’m trying to get at is — yes —- when you travel half-way around the world to see an Asian culture, you don’t want to go out with your adult students and eat McDonalds or buy your kimchi from a super Wal-Mart - but why not avoid an E-Mart as well?
McDonalds and Walmart gain some profit from franchise name, but aren’t these businesses owned by Koreans? Don’t they employ Korean workers? Don’t they provide the same kind of products sold in E-Mart or Carfoure (sp?) or smaller Korean stores?
and what makes a soju bar better than McDonalds?
For that matter, do the Canadians and Brits begrudge seeing an Irish pub? in the streets in Korea? Not from my experience…
I agree with the poster that it is a natural tendancy to empathize with Korean society - especially when teaching Korean adults — but how much of it is our desire to make Korean society what we want it to be in our relativly short period of stay there?
If you go much far beyond that, then you have to start arguing the political points finding where you believe Koreans are correct in their criticism of the US relationship with Korea when the shallow dislike of McDonalds starts becoming a full-fledged Edward Said-ish exploration into “cultural imperialism”….
Anyway, to close, I found myself reflecting during my first year and half in Korea much like the poster did, but after me second year and definately by the end of my 4th or 5th year, once I had integrated inton Korean society to by a fair amount and had gotten used to the “otherness” of it, that original critique seemed a good bit off the mark….
For starters, I love Walmart. It a country where prices have become insane for the products delivered Walmart is a bastion, especially when one has a family.
One to more important observations. What went on in Korea last year is inexcusable. It was racially based untra-nationalism. The whole event was much like the Nazi seizure of power in 1932-33, angry xenphobic scapegoating mob + messiah = redempeption. I do not thing these sentiments are gone. Korea’s so called “reformers” are just as fascist as Mussolini ever was. The xenophobia is only on hold because of the damage to the international reputation and economy of Korea. The only thing that will change attitudes is demographics. As the population ages, it will cool off.
One thing is completely clear to me: that the USA must remove its forces from Korea as quickly as possible. They are obviously not welcome in Korea and at best seen as a necessary evil. I cannot understand how America can allow its people to be treated in such an atrocious manner. Further, when USFK leaves Korea, Korea will be forced to grow-up and act like a mature nation, the kind of nation is claims it wants to be. They are now cozying up to China, a nation which they worship.
I wonder what would happen in 10 years if the students have anti-Chinese riots?
usinkorea: So, what I’m trying to get at is — yes —- when you travel half-way around the world to see an Asian culture, you don’t want to go out with your adult students and eat McDonalds or buy your kimchi from a super Wal-Mart - but why not avoid an E-Mart as well?
This sounds like a combination of the noble savage stereotype and Western guilt. I’m not exactly sure why we should be ashamed of Walmart and McDonald’s - Koreans are proud to see Korean cars on American roads and Korean electronics in Best Buy. This isn’t the first wave of Western ideas to hit Korea - democracy, human rights, rule of law, equality of the sexes - all are foreign imports. And then there are the tangible things, like technology, industrialization, heavy and light industry, architecture, etc. Probably 99% of the things that Koreans see and touch on a day-to-day basis was invented in the West. The only thing truly Korean about Korea is its language and a tiny sliver of the culture that has not been obliterated by Western influences - and even that is mainly imported from China.
I have noticed that my feelings and actions have changed depending where I am living. I have spent the last two summers in Seoul and then the remaining nine months of the year in China. My thoughts about America seem to swing dramatically depending where I am.
While living in Seoul I found myself becoming very patriotic. I would become quite defensive when confronted with what more and more I came to view as ignorance. Initially I thought opposing points of view were good, but the longer I was in Seoul the more I found myself thinking that these opposing points of view were founded on ignorance and were simply the parroting of an anti-American fad. Often in response my own thoughts would also move away from reality and I would find myself thinking very stupid things: “Yeah America has problems but you shouldn’t criticize us until you fix your own country,” or “Koreans are really just Chinese anyway whats 50 years of cultural influence compared to a couple thousand years.” I am normally always in favor of intelligent criticism but if I had to listen once again to speed skating stories I thought I would explode. As much as some of these things really ticked me off I still like Korea alot and plan to return again next summer. I will still probably refuse to go to clubs that charge ‘foriegners’ (non-Asians) extra to get in and I will still probably chuckle to myself when I get angry and just think about the sublime things that make me love Korea: the most Christian missionaries in the world are Koreans going to convert the heathens in America, the most complex brain straining philosophical arguements that go on for 500 years (the four-seven debate), and the incredibly overly dramatic love tragedies (if I have learned anything from Korean cinema it is never give flowers to a Korean girl because although you will experience the greatest love ever you will tragically die in the final act.) At the end of the summer I bid farewell to Korea and head back to China and my politics again change during my time there.
When I first get to China I find myself being very patriotic and much more politically conservative than I normally am. The longer I am in China though the more I seem to swing back towards my normal liberal leanings. I do think that I continue to behave more patriotically than I do back in America but by fall I find that my rose colored view of America has faded and I once again begin to look at it more critically. Interestingly enough I also think that my view of Korea begins to soften and I forget about the annoying groups in the subway stations who were so blinded by their hate of America that they had failed to think logically. Instead I remember all my friends there and my students who were more interested in learning about where I came from and less disposed to knee-jerk hatred. My views on China also undergo a change depending on where I am. As I mentioned earlier sometimes I laugh to myself that Chinese culture is a monolithic giant encompassing all of Asia; this thought changes though and I realize that Chinese culture isn’t even all pervasive inside China. Just like everywhere else I have been people really are individuals. I think it has been said many times that you can prove anything you want to about China because somehwhere in China what you say is true. This fact really reminds of America and I think it is why my fervent patriotism calms while I am in China. I remember that America isn’t singular either.
My final thought is that I the more I pay attention to mass media the more angry I get. This is true in China, Korea and America. The media is so in love with the idea of the “new globalism” that they tend to forget that it is not new at all. I continue to wonder if countries actions can be better understood if we all just give in to cultural hegemony and realize we are all members of derivative cultures even a place as old as China. Just take a look at pre-Buddhist art, probably the most truly Chinese art there is doesn’t even look like what I think of as ‘Chinese.” Maybe I will go to India next and see if it really is the source.