Man, do I strongly disagree with every phrase of this statement. The only reason that Korea doesn’t earn billions more from international tourism that it already does is that it’s many sites of extreme natural beauty and excellent architectural relics (many of the stone ones over 1000 years old, and quite a few mostly-wooden buildings between 200 to 620 years old) are not nearly as well-known as they should be, mostly due to historical circumstances. South Korea boasts a tourism-site legacy that easily compares with — in most cases supasses — any comparable-sized territory in all the other countries of the world.

Signed,
Professor of Korean Tourism

dogbertt wrote:
Korean nationalism is not harmless in the form practiced in the North, which has led to the death of millions.

The nationalism practised in the North is only one facete of an complex, insane personality cult with ingredients of stalinism, confucian malpractice and paranoid isolationism.

That said, the chance of Korean nationalism transforming into a type of going-abroad-and-killing-other-nationals is far beyond being realistic. If Korean nationalism does damage, than it’s always narrowed to a domestic space.

In case anyone takes the patriotism survey, I should add that general question #2, about shame, is a negative question and should be scored in the reverse with “strongly agree” given the lowest score of 1.

http://www.djspooky.com/articl.....s_mix.html

for a compilation of buddhist hip hop. Just a suggestion

I think Luke Drift counters your point very nicely:

“a powerful sense of both how hard-fought and how fragile Korea’s prosperity is.”

I don’t think not too many Koreans aren’t aware of Korea’s recent rise in prosperity. What they do have though is the recognition that it may not last, that it can all dissappear with a twinkling of an eye. They see with unease, the growing influence of China, compared to Korea - a nation sandwiched between China and Japan.

Thus explains Korean media’s constant obsession with the “Hallyu Wave”. Behind the fascination of seeing Korean pop culture being recognized and admired in Asia, there’s an overwhelming sense of wanting to be reassured - reassured that Korea has indeed arrived, and that it will stay there. To me, it’s a sign of national insecurity. Thus in turn explains why Koreans go ape shit over a scene in a James Bond movie (a scene depicting a poor Korean farmer plowing his field with an old ox). Koreans roll their eyes and say “MASH, here we go again, why do they (Westerners) continue to make fun of us? Can’t they see we are not poor anymore?”

Take the English Spectrum controversy for instance. What is the common denominator complaint that you read from Korean netizens? It’s the old “they’re still treating and disrespecting us like Third World people!”.

I think this type of sensitivity based on insecurity is also one of the major contributing factors to Anti-Americanism amongst the youth.

http://www-news.uchicago.edu/r.....lpride.pdf

Reading the questions asked and the actual results reminded me that little news stories like this one can misrepresent research.

Below are the questions:

GENERAL

strongly agree/agree/neither agree nor disagree/disagree/strongly disagree

1. I would rather be a citizen of (country) than any other country.
2. There are some things about (country) today that make me ashamed. (I corrected a presumed typo in the survey)
3. The world would be a better place if people in other countries were more like (country).
4. Generally speaking, (country) is a better country than most other countries.
5. People should support their country even if their country is in the wrong.

SPECIFIC:
How proud are you of (country) in each of the following?

very proud/somewhat proud/not very proud/ not proud at all

1. the way democracy works
2. its political influence in the world
3. (country’s) economic achievement
4. its social security system
5. its scientific and technological achievements
6. its achievements in sports
7. its achievements in arts and literature
8. its armed forces
9. its history
10. its fair and equal treatment of all groups of society

As the top of p. 2 notes, the two statement groups have a different tone. Group 2, domain specific, is “not overtly nationalistic, imperialistic, or chauvinistic.” Group 1, general, asks respondents to explicitly express their country’s superiority and even put country over morality (Q5).

The scoring explanation is found on the first page. Scoring the general section is easy, a 5-point scale with “strongly agree” the highest and “strongly disagree” the lowest. Scoring the second section seemed complicated. If I understand it correctly, only “very proud” answers are counted, so with ten questions, the lowest score is 0 and the highest 10.

Given the chauvinistic nature of some of the questions in the general section, a high score is not desirable, in my opinion. Below are some general scores:

Venezuela - 18.4
USA - 17.7
Australia - 17.5
Canada - 17.0
Russia - 16.7
South Korea - 16.0
Japan - 15.9
Britain - 15.1
West Germany - 14.5

I took the survey myself for my own country (the US), Korea, and China. My results:

US - Korea - China

GENERAL:

1. D - D - SD
2. SA - A - SA
3. D - D - SD
4. A - A - A
5. SD - SD - SD

SPECIFIC:
1. SP - SP - NAP
2. SP - SP - SP
3. SP - VP - SP
4. SP - SP - NVP
5. VP - SP - VP
6. VP - VP - VP
7. VP - VP - VP
8. NVP - SP - NVP
9. SP - SP - SP
10. SP - SP - SP

RESULTS:
US - KOREA - CHINA
GENERAL: 10 - 11 - 5
SPECIFIC: 3 - 2 - 3

According to these results, I am as proud of Korea as I am of my native country and significantly less proud of China. Hope Jing doesn’t read this!

..like 1) a denser, more sophisticated civil society, with more NGOs focussed on a broader expanse of issues, and not just Korea-based issues at that; and 2) a decent Korean government that’ll finally accept that Korea is a rich nation, and should start seriously thinking about what the hell it wants to achieve with the money it gives, now that Korea’s a money-lending nation.

..

That I wanted to add…

I mean, yeah, the above is true. Koreans do want to do better, no matter what. And Korea is rich, and with that wealth comes an inevitable complacency: Koreans care a lot less about ‘big ideas’ these days, and much more about their washers, dryers, toy dogs, funny blue visors…

I do get CM’s point tho. There IS a sense of anxiety, or at least of fragility when it comes to Korea’s new-found wealth. It’s based on sweat and hard work, after all: Korea doesn’t earn easy billions off of tourism since there isn’t too much left by way of natural beauty, and architecturally speaking there isn’t a great deal of history left on the peninsula, aside from garishly bright reproductions of structures razed to the ground many times over the centuries.
THe IMF crisis exposed a number of things, but the strongest impression it left behind I’d say is a powerful sense of both how hard-fought and how fragile Korea’s prosperity is.

And if Korea’s refusal to be a kinder, gentler Korea is based on a lingering sense of victimhood, well yeah…damn that’s tedious. But Koreans aren’t JUST a bunch of crass, heartless nouveau-riche arrivistes. (Tho they certainly are that.) You’d be surprised, for instance, if you actually asked some of the blue haired and Burberry-bedecked ajimmas on the street for their opinions on a few subjects. Take development and poverty, for instance. Now, the typical visored and permed ajimma I’m propping up for argument’s sake might not be Amartya Sen on the topic, and Allah only knows where she gets her information from, but even if it’s based on wrong/no information, I’d take a chance and bet that what would emerge would be a sense of empathy with the difficulties faced by (insert poverty stricken nation here.)

I took my aunt and uncle to Hanoi 4 years ago, for instance, and they loved it: the energy, the bustle, the squalor. I hadn’t seen them for years but my uncle in particular surprised me with the thoughtfulness of his observations on all things big and small down there. Naturally, he also was greatly smitten with the vigor with which the Vietnamese set about doing things. More impressively, and surprisingly, he expressed a kind of wistful, head-shaking remorse over the fact that the origins of Korea’s economic miracle lie (in his opinion) in Vietnam: according to him Hyundai and other chaebols initially stayed afloat and grew through US military contracts to build infrastructure in South Vietnam. Then there’s the ugly fact that the few Korean marines fighting along side the Americans were even more vicious than their Yanqui counterparts….again tho I was impressed that he showed such a fine appreciation for the nastiness–and cost–of Korea’s economic success…

I’m on my 4th beer now, and am no longer sure if this is even coherent. Cutting to the chase:

Granted, one big reason for that response would be the fact that Koreans, especially of his generation, are full of maudlin sentiment…and especially when it comes to suffering. Still, that’s infinitely preferable to a boorish reaction along the lines of “where’s that country?! And don’t they eat people there?” one would expect from other quarters.

That said, I’m still waiting for the sorts of insightful and empathetic things I hear from many Koreans, not just my uncle, to manifest itself into more substantial phenomena: like 1) a denser, more sophisticated civil society, with more NGOs focussed on a broader expanse of issues, and not just Korea-based issues at that; and 2) a decent Korean government that’ll finally accept that Korea is a rich nation, and should start seriously thinking about what the hell it wants to achieve with the money it gives, now that Korea’s a money-lending nation.

I remember that I started my elementary with “Can do” campaign on Sae Ma Eul WoondDong in 70s, and I witnessed how previous régimes love to use “We DID, We can do just like all developed nations” theme to the people. My generation taught and learn by teachers and older generation that “We could only survive or catch up when we *only* work hard, study hard”, Social welfare, living conditions…not even on agenda until 80s.

In 80s as a college student, I start hear about GwangJu and working condition of blue collars and all other harsh conditions. My generation had college life with tear gas but we also experience and learn that “We can - change”

Starting 90s, Gov lift up the restriction on media that we could easily access different views of current affairs. There was Liberals, Lefty over conservatives…they all could make voices. Even more College students afford travel to abroad with backpack experiencing a bit more outside of well.

Also, Korean Gov. pushed information Highway that could show the world that “We can do it”. Internet connected Korean to the world.

Ironically, the Internet also accelerated Korean to share all the shadows that forgotten for decades under the name of development. I, just like other millions of Koreans, realized that how far we are behind to develop countries in terms of standards of living conditions. And realized how much we are ignored in the main stream of world.

And another bomb, IMF woke up most 30s and 40s that there’s no more life-time job and “hard work” does not guaranteed job and realized how weak was Korean economy….

My younger brothers, the Young Generation in 20s or teens (majority of Naver.com), grow up with more disposable incomes, overflow of information with internet and mobile.
They grow up as more N.I.M.B.Y and far more exposed to western culture. They grew up to believe that “information via internet” are mostly true and depends on it.
They share all the information via Internet and mobile. They also experienced “We can do or We can beat” other developed countries over 2002 World cup even if it could happen with lots of help from ref. and experienced that how powerful was 2002 candle lights demonstration. World cup 2002, They were not afraid of “Red” and started to were “TagGukGi” that my generation or older didn’t even try.

These bla bla influenced so much on Korean main stream generation, in their 20’s 30’s 40s or early 50s including myself thru the experiences and Internet.

So..
No surprise for me that Korean’s National pride ranked 31st out of 34 countries.
Why?
Korean rated political influence, economic success, sports and history by comparing developed countries. I would rate same level on the survey by comparing other developed countries.

And as cm wrote clearly “Koreans themselves are some of the harshest critics of Korea”, I would not compare with less developed countries. Simply that’s not the way of “We can” sprit.

The other side of coin on these “We can” is , powered by Internet, that these experiences lead the Korean public to be more nationalistic towards domestic issues such as USFK, Dokdo, World cup since it involves other country that we could show them “We can”. Even if the issues were dangerously manipulated by media and internet.

I don’t know how my Konglish provided a Korean view on these issue. Just that there would be less rant and criticism over the issues if you do start accept as we are.

I participate in a weekly Buddhist meditation/study group. Our prayer chant includes this oft repeated phrase:

To see things as they really are.

Koreans need to ditch that “yaksoguk” mentality NOW. Economically speaking, Koreans haven’t been a small, weak country since the 80s. Maybe Koreans don’t recognize their global economic power, but most of the rest of Asia does. Qingdao, China, my home for four years, boasts an expat population that is 90% Korean. The city government kissed Korean butt to win a 40 million dollar LG petrolchemical processing plant two years ago, and our school was pressured by the Qingdao Education Commission to let in the kids of LG executives regardless of their English. Korean-owned businesses large and small have boosted the local economy, and the Chinese respect Koreans for their economic achievements and close economic ties. Korea is one of only two countries honored with a week-long festival sponsored by the Qingdao Municipal Government.

Throughout Asia, billboards with Korean names like Samsung and Hyundai can be seen in cities and small towns. Korean-made appliances fill prime floor space in department stores in China, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Korean-made products are prestigious in Asia outside of Japan. Chinese women splurge on Korean-made cosmetics and learn the secrets of Korean beauty in fashion magazines. My custom tailor in Qingdao stitched Korean labels into her clothes.

Korean expats are all over East Asia and moving into Europe and South America, CM, mostly working for Korean-based multinationals or as small business owners. Who do you think is buying all those Samsung phones, Hyundai cars, and LG TV sets? The world, that’s who.

Koreans badly want to see their nation take its place and be recognized as a highly industrialized economic power. Wishful dream? Maybe

Koreans already ARE!!!

Their per capital GDP was over $22,000 in 2005, and they are ranked 12th in the world in terms of total GDP. That’s 12th out of 200!

Here’s the crux of the matter, CM. Koreans are never ones to rest on their laurels, always trying to do better. That’s great. But sometimes this strength can be a weakness when it becomes competitive. Look the “il-deung” madness in schools. Even the kid who’s #1 can’t feel too satisfied because #s 2, 3, 4, and 5 are gunning for him.

If Koreans feel they still “haven’t made it,” it’s because they see only the handful of nations that enjoy a higher standard of living than Korea. They do not see all those countries, the entire continents of Africa and South America, whose economies are behind Korea’s.

To see things as they really are