Bernard Rowan, professor of political science at Chicago State University weights in on the question after hearing of the death of Park Yong-Ha, the 33 year old actor found dead in his home last week in an apparent suicide. Links on his death in the BBC, Wall Street Journal and The Chosun Ilbo. Given Park’s role in Winter Sonata, there were a number of Japanese fans that mourned his death as well.
Former and current Korean entertainment stars commit suicide with disturbing regularity, but rarely does it attract attention from American professors. Bernard appears knowledgeable enough about Korea to say a few interesting things, including suicide’s possible link to the concept of “haan”:
I am not an expert about haan. And I think many of these same problems are true in America and elsewhere. I think the concept is not the same as Western equivalents such as depression or angst or repression, though there must be some parallels….
But haan is a perennial possibility. The Korean War is long over, but the division of the Korean peoples is still very real, very dangerous, and very saddening. Korea’s standard of living has improved, but many of the elderly live in isolation, without adequate pensions or healthcare or family supports. The Korean family structure has changed, but it has consequences. Korean entertainment, including its historical dramas and music, are mass consumption products and processes of choice, but the young adults and pre-adults who are its subjects participate in a chaos of marketing and promotion that has its share of corruptions (not unlike the entertainment industry elsewhere). The competition of Korean youth to enter the best universities or to obtain a salaried position is objectively difficult. Just as in many places in our world, the best and brightest “do it all,” only to find even more barriers to success in the job world. Korean culture is not static, and change is not easy for those who are different, who choose to live their difference, and who suffer because of prejudice and malice.
The rest in is a Huffington Post link.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Stifling conformity, and spirit-sucking competition for Uni slots that lead to dreary , high pressure careers are deeply depressing.
‘weights in on’
So he’s been lifting with Sperwer?
I agree with #1. The suiciders lead lives which their parents think they shouldn’t live.
The professor appears to define “han” as a product of contemporary Korean society: high-pressure, highly-competitive, highly-rigid, and without a social safety net. Anybody know of any references to the concept in earlier Korean history (prior to the 20th Century)? Or is this one of those pseudo-historical concepts—like that of the “minjok”—invented by nationalist revisionist historians as a way of peculiarizing Korean culture?
He also forgets to mention the strong stigma against mental health counseling in South Korea. This is probably a more immediate explanation for Korean suicides, though I certainly don’t discount the pressure, etc. I do, however, strongly doubt that the division of the country plays any role, except for perhaps in the minds of the most insipid, chest-thumping ethno-nationalists.
I think this problem exists not only in Korea, but in America also. The way a person decides to handle the problem is the only thing that is culturally different.
Depression or other psychological problems in Asia or America is considered a weakness, and a shame rather than a disease. The problem is rarely discussed openly.
In America people who suffer from depression are prescribed pills or therapy. However, there are still many Americans who would rather self medicate themselves with illegal or pharmaceutical drugs rather than seeking professional help.
Whether a person decides to kill them self quickly and violently through suicide, or suffer a slow and drawn out death through drug abuse. Psychological problems need to be addressed as a problem rather than a weakness in both Asian and American societies.
(Apologies in advance for the long post.)
I actually did a bit of research on suicide when I was a graduate student, testing to see whether Durkheim’s theories of social integration had any explanatory power in the Korean case. For those who don’t know, Emile Durkheim basically argued that a society’s suicide rate was related to its degree of social integration, which he measured by such factors as the divorce rate, level of education and religiosity (specifically Catholicism).
I found that in some ways, Durkheim’s theories were actually very persuasive in Korea. Until sometimes in the ’80s, Korea actually had a very low suicide rate, but as divorce started to sky-rocket (thereby, so Durkheim would have it, loosening social integration) so did suicide rates.
Education was particularly interesting. According to (my increasingly hazy memories of) Durkheim, lower levels of education produced higher levels of social integration, because as people learned more, they became more individualistic and less tethered to society as a whole. In Korea, though, level of education was inversely proportional to educational attainment; so, the less educated the Korean, the more likely he is to commit suicide. (Given the differences between Durkheim’s times and our own, and given the enormous pressure for educational achievement in Korea, this should perhaps be no surprise.) However, the leap in suicide rates has also coincided with a growing improvement in education levels among Koreans, so the importance of educational attainment as a variable seemed questionable.
Regarding religiosity, religious affiliation isn’t recorded on death certificates in Korea, so it was difficult to measure. As an attempt, I compared the number of temples and churches with the number of suicides in gun throughout Korea, and the result was actually the complete opposite of what Durkheim would have predicted — ie, places with more religious buildings had more suicides. This seemed like a pretty flawed methodology for measuring religiosity, though, so I didn’t read too much into it.
Finally, though Durkheim didn’t deal too specifically with age as a measure of social integration, it seemed a very fitting one in the Korean context — especially given the historical veneration accorded the elderly in Korean society. So, the theory went, because oldies in Korea were becoming less integrated due to the gradual weakening of the extended family, they should be particularly susceptible to suicide. That was emphatically borne out by the the statistics, which showed an astronomical growth in suicides in people aged over (as I recall) 60. That was five years ago, but at the time, and despite the high-profile celebrity suicides even then, the problem was statistically much worse among the elderly than the young.
Overall, from my fairly low-level research, it seemed that the theory of social integration could be very useful in explaining Korea’s soaring suicide rate at the time. Given Korea’s history as a particularly hierarchical society, where most people’s roles were clearly defined, even in terms of the language they used with one another, I certainly found it quite plausible. And with the breakdown of families and traditional groupings and hierarchies happening so quickly here, it still seems like a convincing explanation to me.
Just on focusing on the celeb suicides issue, they don’t often go to counselling or get psychiatric help. There is still a bit of a taboo subject, mental health. Maybe this is good in a way because it is harder to get into more trouble with misuse of chemicals and pills, but still. Also traditionally there is not much pride or integrity associated with being a celeb or an actor in the entertainment industry. so when the going gets tough and they don’t land any roles or when they are out of sorts they really feel the burn.
level of education was inversely proportional to educational attainment
-> level of education was inversely proportional to the suicide rate
Re: #5,
Above Criticism, thanks for posting that.
Re: #4,
“Depression or other psychological problems in Asia or America is considered a weakness, and a shame rather than a disease.”
I’d like people to be able to seek the help they need, but I hope that Korea doesn’t lose the concept of “shame”. North Americans lost that concept a long time ago.
I second that. Excellent post, AC.
I might also add, that children raised, coddled and deluded into believing there are everything they are not, crash pretty hard when the stark realization that they “ain’t all that” slaps them in the face.
Korea has a hostile culture. And it has a glaring acceptance of lying, cheating, and physically abuse. That people (public figures or not) facing a fading of success in life kill themselves isn’t a surprise.
Of course suicide is high. With Korea’s acceptance of hostility (and the aggrieved victims that creates), the surprise is that the murder rate is as low as it is.
The suicide rate here is truly shocking to me, especially concerning students. In a four month period one of my students tried to kill herself and a friend’s student did kill herself.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to be raised in Korea.
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