Koreana Summer 1990 (English)

A quarterly on Korean culture

Of Women In Korea Today & Yesterday

Editor's Note

Social Consciousness & Participation Lee Young-ja 2 Rise in the Legal Rights of Korean Women Choi Kum-suk 13 Economic Status and Labor Conditions Kim Ae-sil 24 A History of Korean Women Pak Yong-ok 34 46 Shin Saimdang: Perfect Woman and Artist Kim Huran Pak Yong-ok 50 Kim Maria: Symbol of Patriotism for Korea 53 Profiles in Excellence: Women Who Have Made It Kim Yu-kyong The Greatest in Korea Today & Yesterday 65 Changing- For better or Worse?

Barbara R. Mintz 69 In Their Declining Years: A Gerontological Study Rhee Seon-ja 74 Hyonwon 79 A Buddhist Nun's View on Return My Social Responsibility as a Woman and My Plans Lee Se-won 82 Interview with Kim Yun-duk, President of Korean Women 's Development Institute 84 Review/Traditional Arts Preserving Traditional Performing Arts Yi Bo-hyung 87 Review/Art Art Galleries in Two Seouls Lee Yil 89 92 Review/Music Mozart in New Limelight Han Sang-woo Review/Dance New Vista for Dance Kim Chae-hyun 94 Reviewffheater A Drama Company Fetes 40th Anniversary Song Aei-kyung 96 Views from Korea I Surmounting the Past: A Korean View of Japan and Germany Choe Chungho Tidings from International Cultural Society of Korea

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Editor's Note

IKOREANA A <j'.slllltrll;oll KDttil~ cuflurt

Vol. 4 No.2 1990 KOREANA is published quarterly by INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL SOCIETY OF KOREA 526, 5-ga. Namdaemunno. Chung-gu, Seoul KOREANA was registered as a quarterly magazine with the Ministry of Information, Republic of Korea, on August 8. 198 7.

Registration No. Ba-1 03 3 ©International Cultural Society of Korea 1990 All rights reserved. No part of tftis publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior permissiott of tfte lntemational Cultural Society of Korea .

So Chong-min Miss Korea 1990

PUBLIStfER/EDITOR: Kim Seong-jin

OF WOMEN IN KOREA Today & Yesterday

EDITORIAL BOARD: Choe Chungho. Hahn Man-young. Rhee Sang-woo. Yoo Young-ik EDITOR IN CHIEF: S. Chang MANAGING EDITOR: Lee Kyong-hee ART DIRECTOR: Kim Shi-joong ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Song Jung-sok (text) Cho Sang-in (design) CIRCULATION: Overseas/C. P.0. Box 2 14 7, Seoul. Korea Tel : (02) 753-6464 Fax: (02) 757-2049 Domestic/C.P.O. Box 7852. Seoul. Korea Tel: (02) 274-5443, 269-2209 U.S. Subscriber Service: KOREANA P.O. Box 312 Hartsdale. New York 10530 Tel: (914) 472-4587 Fax: (914) 472-1195 Advertising inquires should be addressed to: AD Seoul. RM 60 I, Lions Bldg .. 5Q-2ga.

Chungmuro. Chung-gu, Seoul. Korea Tel: (02) 274-8336 Fax: (02) 274-8337 LAYOUT: Yong Ahn Graphics TYPESETTING: World Compugraphic PRINTING: Dong-a Publishing & Printing Co. (Kim Hyun-shikl Printed in Korea, July 20, 1990 Price per copy: US$5 (W3 .500)

s there anything particularly noteworthy about Korean women? Gucci-shod or Chanel-clad, many of them are about as elegant as the most sophisticated of socialites overseas. The rest of them are as well-fed. well-built and welleducated as any of the women in the rest of Asia. Hardworking too is the bulk of them. Then again there could be even more hard-working members of the sex in the vast Asiatic portion of the world.

And so was the answer to the question taken up at an editorial conference no? Wrong. A deafening yes, as it turned out, was the invariable reply given by the best of sources in and out of Seoul.

Why yes? Dear readers, the present issue of KOREANA is dedicated to specifying some of the most telling reasons behind that answer. Backing it up is a solid succesion of penetrating analyses contributed by a parade of top experts.

Most of these contributors surely know what they are talking about: they themselves are Korean women.

No studies could be definitive when it comes to such a weighty topic as the womanhood in Korea . Even so, the KOREAN A staffers would consider it gratifying if the current issue ended up helping our readership to gain a fresh insight into this altogether absorbing subject.

I

SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS & PARTICIPATION Hopes, angsts & dilemmas of Korean women Lee Young-ja

n dealing with the subject of social consciousness and participation of Korean women, three questions could be raised.

First, it has been said that the social consciousness of Korean women is on a lower level than that of men. The basic reason for such an observation needs to be explained.

Second, an increase in social participation of Korean women has been noticed in recent years.

There comes a question whether such an increase corresponds to the rise in the general social consciousness of Korean women.

Third, apart from the occupational employment for women, there have been varying social activities of women , and this raises a need for a study of the major areas and the characteristics of such social activities of Korean women.

I

I. Traditional Gender Roles Hinder Social Consciousness of Women Traditionally Korean women have been taught that their role is one of playing the loyal servant to their husband and family. It has been generally accepted throughout Korean society that the "inside person" (anjuin, a common expression referring to the wife) never interferes in the external affairs of the "outside person" (pakkat juin , her husband). This tradition is firmly based in the gender roles defined by the patriarchal structure which has dominated Korean life since before the Choson dynasty (1392-1910). That is to "say, the man's role as.an active participant in society and the woman's role as a source of labor within the home are firmly grounded in the traditional patriarchal structure. The biological distinction between the sexes has thus been translated into the form of gender roles in a social and cultural sense.

The Confucian ideology of the Choson period contributed to the intensification of this rigid delineation of gender roles. The custom of isolating the sexes (naewoepop: code for gender dis-

After graduating from the Department of French Literature at Songshim College for Women in 1971, Lee Young-ia went on to receive a B.A. in sociology at the Paris X (Nanterre) University, an M.A. in sociology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en. Sciences Sociales in I 976, and a Ph.D. in political sociology from the same institute in I 98 I . She has been an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Songshim College for Women since I 982 , focusing her research on political sociology and women's studies. Her major dissertations include: The National Question, State and Ideology; A Study of German Nationalism; Alienation in a Consumer Society; Gender Role and Wage Labor of Women in Korea; Sexual Deviance and Women; and The Family of the Future in France.

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SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS & PARTICIPATION

tinction) was particularly influential in promoting the extreme differentiation of male and fe-male roles. and as a result. women were little more than a fixture within the home. It was generally understood that there was no need for women to be active in society and that they lacked the ability to play a social role. The only option for a woman was to dedicate herself to her family and housework, and they were raised to think that such dedication was the only way to cultivate their femininity.

This tradition served to hinder seriously the development of any social consciousness or desire to play an active role in society on the part of women. and such a tradition remains an undeniable force in Korean society today.

2. Rise in the Social Participation of Women and Its Background In our modern society today, women can no longer afford to play the traditional role of the "inside person." First of all, Korea's industrialization has resulted in an increase in the de-mand for female laborers whose contribution to the remarkable competitiveness of Korean exports is well-known. Industrial growth has stimulated economic participation by women outside the home and thus has provided an opportunity for the expansion of the woman's role in our society.

Desires and needs for social participation by Korean women have grown in tandem with the rise in their educational level. Over the last 20 years. the educational level of the average Korean woman has doubled (from 3.97 years in I 966 to 7.58 years in I 985), and in I 986 nearly one half (47.4 percent) of the nation's high school students were female. Nevertheless, the average education of women remains behind that of men by approximately two years. and we must not ignore the fact that a significant gap remains in the area of university education where 49.4 percent of Korean men attended university compared to only 22.0 percent of their female counterparts (I 986).

The general increase in educational levels of women has contributed to the diversification of their work opportunities from simple low-wage labor to clerical work and professional and technical employment. As of I 988, worrien made up 45 percent of the economical_ly active population and 40. I percent of the employed population.

However, this rise in educational levels and the corresponding increase in demands for employment opportunities for women have resulted in a serious social problem as job opportunities for these highly educated women fall far short of desired levels. In recent years, 99 percent of all female university students have expressed a desire to work after their graduation. Traditionally education for women focused on their roles as wise mothers and good wives. But in recent years, there has been a growing trend toward the education of women for developing their ability to play active roles in society.

Only 30 percent of college--educated women participated in economic activities, according to statistics in I 983, and only 4.4 percent of all employed women have been educated at the university level or above. (In the case of male workers, I 3.2 percent are university graduates.)

This waste of high-quality female labor is a great loss for society and reminds us once again of the urgency for providing opportunities for social participation by Korean women.

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Rigid attitudes regarding gender roles have promoted systemic and rultural conditions which serve to restrict opportunities for female employment. That is to say, the traditional division of labor along gender lines between household work and employment outside the home has severely limited possibility of female employment in our society.

On the other hand, when considering the increasing demand for social participation by women. we must keep two facts in mind. First of all. there has been a growing importance attached to the economic capability of the modern woman.

It is evident that as consumer expectations rise. the need for additional income increases. and as a result the percentage of working wives also increases. In the case of low-income families. the role of the wife in supporting the family is essential. Even in middle class households. a growing number of housewives are attempting to boost the family income through various side jobs.

Employment opportunities open to housewives are, however. even more limited than those available to the unmarried female population. Our society still expects women to choose between marriage or a career. Most employers avoid hiring married women.

As a result a small minority of Korean women turn to quick-fix measures to boost their household incomes. The stronger the demand for earning power, the greater the possibility for outrageous "get-rich-quick" schemes. One example of this phenomenon is the recent wave of real estate speculation by housewives. Of course. this craving to reap windfall profits can be justly criticized as an example of the spread of the "get-rich-quick" mentality which pervades some sectors of our society. But a more fundamental problem lies in the fact that housewives are gradually demanding greater opportunities to earn money to supplement their husbands' salaries. no matter what the method.

Social participation by self-supporting women is another area worthy of our consideration as the number of women forced to fend for themselves financially is growing day by day. Women in this type are multiplying in number such as single women, widows. and divorced or abandoned wives. At the present time, 8.9 percent of all Korean households are headed by single mothers raising children under the age of 18, and this percentage is increasing every year.

The urgent need for expanded social participation by women is obvious when we consider the growing recognition that women need independent earning power in this rapidly changing society of ours.

Second, in considering demand for social participation by women. we must realize that while most contemporary women remain faithful to their role within the home, a growing number yearn for an opportunity to demonstrate their aptitude and abilities outside the home in the form of work or some kind of social participation. That is to say, many women experience a feeling of despondency and helplessness about their role as a housewife bound to the home and unable to find works for their self-fulfillment outside the home. This phenomenon is particularly severe in the case of middle-class housewives with a relative strong educational background who have been freed to a certain extent from housework and so have more time, money and intellectual energy to spare. Women with a strong desire for "self-realization" are also prone to this sense of melancholy and powerlessness.

Furthermore, as modern society becomes more complicated and affluent and correspondingly the domestic life is reduced in its function and importance. the incidence of alienation

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SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS & PARTICIPATION

among housewives confined to the home increases. It is not uncommon for housewives who felt that they were as capable as their husbands when they first got married to complain that they feel they have grown stupid after a few years of married life. The modern housewife's sense of inferiority and low self-worth is aggravated by her inability to take an active role in society and her lack of any perception of their identity in the society.

As a result. the number of women who are actively pursuing hobbies or leisure ac.tivities or who participate in social service and group activities is increasing rapidly. This is a reflection of the modern woman 's desire to cultivate interests outside the confines of her traditional role in the home despite insufficient opportunities for social participation available to them.

In some cases. the hobbies and leisure activities of Korean housewives seem to be wasteful and overly consumption-oriented. and their social service activities could be little more than time-killing diversions or leisurely activities of social clubs. This phenomenon is related to both the general underdevelopment of the Korean housewife's social consciousness and our society's lack of interest in stimulating a greater sense of social consciousnesS among its female population.

The average housewife is inclined to believe that her role and abilities can not compare to those of men or career women who work outside the home and that she can not cope with life in the outside world. As a result. instead of deciding to invest her time and potential in productive social participation. she tends to focus her energies on dealing with issues within the boundaries of her own personal life.

Our society also does not recognize the fact that the task of curing the despondency and is<=!lation experienced by many full-time housewives is not simply the problem of a specific group of women but rather is a social problem arising from the demand of changing nature of female roles. There is a critical lack of understanding of the need for both a systematic effort to create opportunities for housewives to participate in the greater society and for programs which actively utilize the idle labor capacity of the average housewife. The fundamental source of this lack of understanding is Koreans' traditional disregard for the social role of the housewife.

Thus. while there is a growing demand for greater opportunities for employment and social participation on the part of Korean women today, changes in the social system and culture have not been sufficient enough to accommodate these demands.

3. The Gap between Social Participation and Social Consciousness As social participation increases. how has the social consciousness of Korean women changed?

First of all. it is clear that Korean women's level of interest in society as a whole and their consciousness of participation has increased to a certain degree. For example. there is not a severe gap between the voting turnout for women and that for men. In the National Assembly elections of 1985. 85.4 percent of the eligible male votes cast ballots compared to 83.8 percent of the female electorate. According to a 1985 survey conducted by the Korean Women's Development Institute. 50.8 percent of the adult female population read a daily newspaper compared to 74.9 percent for their male counterparts.

This survey indicated that 43.2 percent of the female readers preferred the soda! section

LEE YOUNG-JA

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of the newspaper (compared to 20.9 percent for men). 12 .3 percent preferred the economic section (19 percent for men) , 9.7 percent preferred the political section (compared to 33 .5 for men) and 23.5 percent turned to the cultural section first (compared to 2.9 percent of the male readers). While there is a considerable gap between the sexes in this case. the level of women's interests outside the home is by no means low.

In 1985, approximately 6.3 million women were members of some 60 women's organiza'tions in Korea.o l When we include in this number the women who are involved in other social organizations. we realize just how great the extent of women's social partidpation truly is. Approximately 32 .1 percent of all women living in urban areas have participated in some kind of social organization (40. 7 percent of all urban men) compared to 27.5 percent of all women living in rural areas (50.2 percent of rural men).!2l A majority of Korean women (90.9 percent of urban women and 86.2 percent of rural women) believe that women should take an interest in political issues.13l This ratio is almost identical to that of men. Fully 87.8 percent of all urban women (compared to urban men at 87.7 percent) and 77.9 percent of rural women (compared to 86.5 percent of rural men) surveyed believed that a woman should vote based on her own judgment regardless of her husband's political views. This statistic indicates just how much social consciousness has changed in contrast to the traditional belief that a wife should always be submissive to her husband.

On the issue of whether women should also join political parties and assert their rights as women. 83.3 percent of all urban women (compared to 74 .6 percent of urban men) and 77.7 percent of rural women (compared to 70.1 percent of rural men) agreed. 141 Recognition of the need for active political participation by women is clearly very high.

Indeed. these figures indicate a general consciousness that women as well as men must take an individual stand on political issues and, if possible. partidpate directly in the political arena.

On the other hand, however, the traditional conception that women's role and interests must remain inside the home endures throughout our society, stifling the development of a solid social consciousness on the part of Korean women.

First of all, the general interests of women remain focused around personal issues related to their marriages and families. Because of the preconception that the "outside world" or society as a whole is the realm of the male sex. the Korean woman's view of her own role as an independent constituent in society is weak. Women lack both a firmness in their sense of responsibility and a critical attitude regarding social change or historical development and thus tend to take a passive attitude by force of habit.

This is, of course, the result of the education which women have received within their families. at school and throughout society, all of which emphasizes the traditional concept of women 's place in society. Despite recent changes, such as increasing participation in social and economic activities by women, our educational system remains rigid in teaching the role model of the traditional woman.

Thus, while many modern women are actively participating in social activities outside the home, these activities are generally viewed as secondary to their role in the family or even as something hindering their performance of their basic role as a homemaker. That is to say, the significance of soda! activities outside the home is either underestimated or a woman's consciousness of active participation in society and her will to participate are suppressed. This

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SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS & PARTICIPATION

is one important reason why even women who are active outside the home are unable to develop a firm sense of social consciousness.

The professional consciousness of the Korean working woman is often criticized as weak.

This is because marriage and family life are generally considered more important than a woman 's job which is usually treated as a short term measure. It is only natural that when a female worker lacks a lifetime commitment to her work. her interest in professional life and attitude will be lacking. Such a worker lacks a consciousness of her contribution and responsibilities as a social being realized through her work.

Generally. the topics of interest to working women in Korea are not those of society in general. but rather are those of the average woman. e.g. marriage. family, boy friends, and other issues arising in their personal lives. This tendency stands in stark contrast to men's tendency to discuss their jobs, politics or the economy whenever they get together.

In addition, the conditions under which women work when they do participate in the work force tend to cultivate a negative social consciousness among those women. Generally speaking. the important responsibilities in every work place and social organization are handled by men while women are invariably placed in auxiliary roles. The fact that women have very little real influence because they stand on the sidelines of most areas of social activity ultimately causes them to adopt a negative or passive social consciousness. Indeed, many of the incidents of discrimination against women in the work place generate a feeling of helplessness and passivity among women workers and prevent these women from realizing a sense of independence in society. Even women who deliberately make an effort to achieve a sense of independence and autonomy are frustrated.

This seems to indicate that as long as social conditions and concepts preventing the treatment of women as independent sodal beings exist no matter how much women's actual participation in the work force and in social organizations increases, the true advancement of women 's social consciousness will be difficult. Society must not be permitted to demand that women become simple objects which passively supply labor force alone. Nor should women's exercise of their right to vote or political partidpation be treated as mere formalities in the world of politics which until now has been monopolized by men.

The failure to recognize women as independent-minded citizens is ultimately a vi9lation of the principles of democratic society. Women's inability to play their role as autonomous members of a democratic society (of which they make up one-half the population) that respects the prindples of equal rights and responsibilities for all is a threat to the very system of democratic government for which we are all striving. Thus the establishment of social consciousness of Korean woman as an independent citizen is prerequisite for the development of a healthy democratic society in Korea. We must eradicate our society's preconception of women as nonsocial beings and improve our sodal system from the bottom up.

The gap between the degree of progress achieved in women's social consciousness and that achieved in the expansion of opportunities and improvement of conditions for sodal participation by women has given rise to much discord. Similarly, women experience a great deal of confusion and anguish when they are unable to translate their newly-found social consciousness or demands into action.

In recent years, women's attempts to overcome this gap between expectations and realities

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have been relatively active. and the means by which women have approached social participation have expanded.

4. The Main Areas and Characteristics of Korean Women's Social Activities Aside from employment outside the home. there are three basic areas of social participation

by Korean women today: volunteer activities. citizens' movements. and the women's movement. In the past. women tended to gravitate toward volunteer activities. but there has been a growing trend toward participation in citizens' movements and the women's movement especially since the 1980s as the democratization movement gained momentum.

A. Volunteer Activities Volunteer activities have generally been viewed as a female domain. At present. over 80 percent of all volunteers are women. most of whom are students or housewives. Clearly there is a close correlation between the lack of employment opportunities for women and the feminization of voluntarism in Korea. Women tend to believe that volunteer activities is the next best thing to employment considering the difficulties of finding a job outSide the home. On the other hand. the relative ease in which idle female labor force can be mobilized for volunteer activities may pose a danger of bringing about the reduction of employment opportunities for women and the wages paid to female employees.

Volunteer service is a new area of interest for Korean women who generally lack opportunities for social participation.

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SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS & PARTICIPATION

Nevertheless, volunteer activities provide a much needed mechanism for the development of women's potential for social partidpation by altering preconceptions about the role of women in our society as well as women's own negative attitudes about themselves. In addition, voluntarism prevents the burial of female labor resources and promotes social development in general.

It must be reminded that voluntarism per se demands that all citizens, both male and female, take on the responsibility for participating in volunteer activities in order to improve social welfare conditions in regional society. However. the spirit of voluntarism is not yet firmly rooted in the consciousness of contemporary Koreans, and volunteer activities are not yet every man's civic activities in Korea. Moreover, voluntarism is regarded as the exclusive domain of women with extra time on their hands.

In recent years, volunteer activities by women have focused on providing aid and services to various groups alienated from our society. The targets for volunteer services administered through welfare facilities or various social or women's organizations indude the provision and management of daycare centers, nursery schools and study rooms for children from low-income households as well as social welfare facilities for impoverished elderly people, financial support for families headed by orphaned juveniles, the supply of lunch money or scholarships to the children of low-income families, and financial aid to impoverished families. All of these volunteer services are part of the growing awareness of the problems afflicting those sectors of society which have fallen victim to the vicious circle of poverty, unable to reap the benefits of Korea¡ s economic development.

Volunteers also provide both spiritual and material support to social groups isolated from the mainstream of life such as orphanages. rest homes for the elderly, prisons. and homes for the physically handicapped. As the problems of underprivileged youth and unwed mothers become more serious, volunteer activities at counseling centers and social welfare facilities have intensified.

In addition, in the interest of promoting female employment. volunteers are also managing and staffing employment agencies providing job counseling free of charge, job guidance centers, and training programs for job skills.

The significance of these volunteer activities lies in the fact that the volunteers are working to solve problems which are afflicting oi..tr whole society and which the society itself and the government have been derelict in handling. More importantly, these female volunteers are developing an active interest in the problems of our society as well as a thorough social consciousness. Unlike female voluntarism in the past which was distinguished by a passive attitude of contentment at providing charity and help to the less fortunate, voluntarism is changing today, now providing the Korean woman with an opportunity to participate actively as an autonomous individual in society.

Nevertheless. there is a clear need for a soda) movement for the volunteer work to become more organized and specialized so as to provide more effective services, and the scope of voluntarism must broaden to serve more sectors of our society.

B. Citizens' Movements

The term "citizens' movement" refers to cooperative associations which support the basic

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Consumer movement has been championed by women in Korea.

rights and interests of local citizens while at the same time working to contribute to the public interest and development of their local community. These movements gather opinions and act as a collective body to solve the various problems which they face in their own communities and everyday life.

In recent years, a broad range of citizens' groups have been established thanks to the growing activism of the democratization movement. The number of women participating in these citizens' groups is gradually increasing. Two of the best examples of these contemporary citizens' movements are the consumer movement and the anti-pollution movement.

The role of women has been particularly significant in the consumer movement. The Korean consumer movement was initiated in the I 960s mainly by women's organizations. In 1977, the women's organizations involved in the consumer movement agreed to form a unified organization. In I 98I , the Consumer Protection Law was enacted, and in I987, the Korean Consumer Protection Institute was established as the government organ responsible for consumer issues. At present many of Korea's major women's organizations consider the consumer protection issue as one of their most urgent issues, reflecting the importance of this issue to the Korean society at the present time.

In the past the consumer movement focused on handling complaints about faulty goods, but in recent years, the scope of the movement has expanded to include public services. advertisements, health services and insurance. Some specific objectives of the movemen~ include: the boycott and accusation of sub-standard and harmful products; compensation for damages caused by bad products or services: prosecution of false advertisers: price surveys and the prosecution of unfair pricing: the revision of laws and systems disadvantageous to the consumer. and educational programs aimed at boosting consumer awareness.

These activities have served to heighten community awareness of the consumer movement and have been effective in achieving their goals. The recent furor over the pesticides used on imported grapefruits, harmful impurities in instant noodles, and fraudulent bargain sales at local department stores have all served to accentuate the importance of the consumer movement in Korea.

Nevertheless. the problem with the Korean consumer movement is that it is not uncommon for organizers to move on to new issues before a particular problem has been completely solved or for a one-shot campaign to end without establishing an effective system of follow-up. In addition, a need for consumer movement is particularly urgent for the rural consumers who

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lack reliable information on consumer goods and organizations for such movement.

The consumer movement also attempts to promote not only the rights of consumers but also their sound consumption habits. In recent years. the consumer movement has sponsored boycotts of foreign goods. anti-drinking and anti-smoking campaigns. and campaigns to crackdown on decadent entertainment businesses. It is unfortunate. however. that these campaigns tend to be short-term efforts that do little more than arouse public outrage.

The anti-pollution movement began to take life in the 1970s and generated increased attention throughout the 1980s. The role of the movement was important in the 1978 government abolition of the ineffectual Anti-Pollution Public Nuisance Act and its replacement with the Environmental Preservation Law. as well as in the establishment in 1980 of the Office of the Environment which oversees all government policy related to the environment. It was during this period that the pollution problems. which had accumulated as a result of Korea's rapid industrialization and urbanization. exploded in the open to cause the government's real concern and public debates.

Women's involvement in the anti-pollution movement has focused on the contamination of foodstuffs and drinking water. the use of synthetic detergents which pollute the environment. the pollution of residential areas. and similar issues. Most recently a special housewives' environmental watchdog group has been set up to monitor environmental pollution. and campaigns have been launched to distribute garbage bags to areas designated for trial implementation of a system for the separation of trash into recyclable and combustible items. to reduce the use of synthetic detergents. and to prosecute contaminated foodstuffs.

Given the relatively narrow scope of these campaigns. it is clear that the anti-pollution movement must make an effort to expand and become a more systematic and widespread movement. The experience and strategy of the movement itself have up until now been somewhat amateurish. and housewives' perception on the pollution issue is still in the elementary level.

In addition. a growing incidence of health concerns plaguing our modernizing economy has led to a number of health-oriented campaigns. For example. the discovery of leakage from nuclear power plants and the burgeoning construction of these plants has given rise to a nascent anti-nudear movement in Korea. Increasing health problems experienced by farmers suffering from an overexposure to agricultural pesticides has inspired a rural resistance movement. and the shocking story of the deformed baby born to a female golf caddie has stimulated the formation of the "Committee Against Water Pollution" by a number of social organizations and women's groups.

Women's participation in the anti-pollution movement encourages the development of a critical attitude toward the modern industrial civilization among women and at the same time provides women with an important sense of responsibility regarding the solution of the issues with which they are confronted in our deteriorating environment. The environmental movement will only take hold when women are seized with rage against the menace threatening human life. their families and the society in which they live.

C. The Feminist Movement

As Korean women's social consciousness and determination to play more active roles in our

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society matures. we come to realize just how severe the problem of sexual discrimination is in our society. The conventional gender roles so rigidly defined by Korea's patriarchal tradition are inconsistent with the changing role of women now emerging as a result of our nation's development and. as a result. are serving as an impetus for modern women to unite in their struggle to overcome this cont~adiction which is causing hardships for women throughout our society.

The women 's movement has become particularly dynamic since the beginning of the 1980s.

Participants' commitment to the movement has solidified. and the movement's organization has been strengthened. Of particular note have been the smaller feminist organizations which have made essential inroads on a number of important women's issues. These small organizations have tended to focus their energies on the problems of specific classes or groups alienated from the rest of society such as women in rural communities. female factory workers. women in clerical positions. impoverished urban women. prostitutes. middle-class housewives. battered wives. unwed mothers and the like. These organizations also provide counseling. education. and legal advice and assistance to victims of many types of sexual discrimination.

In addition. the feminist organizations have successfully lobbied for the revision of the Family Law and the enactment of the Equal Employment Act. and at present is actively pursuing the revision of laws related to childcare for working women. In a number of cases. the women's movement has also been successful in awakening society to the ills of discrimination against women. For example. feminist organizations have established a system providing active support and protection to the victims of discrimination in the work place such as dismissal at the time of marriage. mandatory early retirement. maternity leave problems. and sexual harassment. rape and sexual violence. These services have given the movement a sense of mobility and ambience.

The Korean feminist movement has now reached the stage where it can move from quantitative expansion to qualitative progress. The movement has a firm grasp on the issues concerning Korean women. and its vitalization will most certainly play an important role in the promotion of social consciousness and participation on the part of Korean women.

While Korean women remain. to a certain extent. fettered to the chains of traditional gender roles. they have already begun their struggle to play an active role in every sector of modern society. This is not only a great step for all Korean womanhood but is also an essenti.al breakthrough for all Koreans struggling to achieve the qualitative improvement of their society.ÂŽ

(The original text was written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREANA. This is a translation .)

Footnotes I. 2.

3.

4.

Korean Women's Development Institute. Social Statistics and Indires Related to Women . 1986.

Korean Women's Development Institute. National Public Opinion Survey on Women's Issues. 1985.

Ibid. lbld.

12

SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS & PARTICIPATION

RISE IN THE LEGAL RIGHTS OF KOREAN WOMEN Pace is agonizingly slow for improvement Choi Kum·suk

I. Introduction In recent years. courses in women's studies and women-related law have been gaining in popularity on Korean university campuses. It was amidst this new wave of interest in women 's issues and women's rights that part of civil laws relating to the rights of women (For con· venience's sake we will refer to it as "Family Law") was revised in December of last year. bringing new hope for the improvement of the legal status of Korean women.

The Korean government's recognition of the importance of women's issues was reflected in the establishment in April I983 of the Korean Women's Development Institute, an indepen· dent institution dealing with the problems of the Korean woman. The growing acknowledgment of women's issues by political leaders was also made clear by the four major political parties' campaign promises during the most recent National Assembly elections in I988. and by the present government's establishment in February I988 of a new cabinet-level position. the Second State Minister of Political Affairs. to deal exclusively with women's issues.

Equal rights for men and women have been guaranteed under the Constitution since the founding of the Republic of Korea in 1948 (Article I I . Clause I of the present Constitution proclaimed on October 26, I987), and as a result. there is no constitutional basis for sexual discrimination related to suffrage or the right to run for public office. In December I987, the Equal Employment Act was passed guaranteeing men and women equal rights in the area of employment including both job opportunities and compensation. as well as promoting the status and welfare of working women by guaranteeing their rights as mothers. The Equal Em· ployment Act also provides for penalties against employers who fail to abide by the law.

Despite these revisions. however. examples of sexual inequality can be found in many arti· des of the Family Law. and discrimination remains rampant throughout our society. Women are still almost completely unrepresented in elective office and remain victims of persistent job discrimination in the areas of wages. promotion. and retirement benefits.

Choi Kum-suk was born in Seoul in I950 and graduated from the Law College of Ewha Womans University in 1973. Professor Choi received a master's degree in civil law in I983 and obtained her LL.D from Ewha Womans University in I987 with the completion of her dissertation . A Study of Excess Profits. From I975 to I977 . she served as a counselor at the Korean Legal Aid Center for Family Relations in Seoul and its branch in Pusan. and since I983, she has lectured law at Ewha Womans University , Inchon University and other institutions in the Seoul area. Among her ma;or theses is An Examination of Contracts in Roman Law. CHOI KUM·SUK

13

In the home. while it is true that a growing number of Korean husbands (espedally of the younger generation) share in the household chores. the reoccurring stories of housewives subjected to harassment or abuse from husbands dissatisfied with the dowry provided by the wife's family at the time of the marriage provide us with a more accurate indicator of the present plight of the Korean woman.

In this article. I will consider the changing status of Korean women through an analysis of a number of current issues: wife abuse; laws applying to abortion and adultery; the revision of the Family law; and politics and the status of Korean women.

2. The Battered Wife Not long ago, Korean newspapers reported the case of three children who murdered their drunken father because he was beating their mother with a baseball bat. While this story stirred up a number of psychological and moral issues about the children themselves. I was most affected by the seriousness of the problem of spouse abuse reflected in the case.

Koreans first became acutely aware of the problem of wife abuse in I 983 when "The Women's Hotline," a telephone counseling service. was first established. According to a report issued by "The Women's Hotline" in June I 984. 42 .2 percent (299 women) of the 708 women surveyed in early I 983 had experienced physical abuse at the hands of their husbands. Fourteen percent (99 women) had been physically abused during the previous year. and one out of I 00 were beaten more than once a month.

According to this survey. 30. I percent of the respondents (2 I 3) were abused for undermining their husbands' self-respect. I 9.4 percent (137) for speaking to their husbands in a disrespectful manner. and 9.6 percent (68) were beaten whenever their husbands drank. This survey helps us realize just how many Korean women are subject to physical abuse by their husbands. and we can see how deeply rooted men's intense selfishness and authoritarian attitudes are.

For victims of spouse abuse. the constitutional guarantees of "the preservation of human dignity and worth." "the right to pursue happiness." and "equality between the sexes".are completely meaningless. These victims' only recourse is to file for divorce through the legal system. According to the Civil Code. extreme maltreatment of one spouse by the other is grounds for divorce. !II However. until the I 990 revision of the Civil Code. a divorced wife lost her parental rights to the offspring of that marriage. and as a result. most women were forced to leave their children. In addition. in Korean society today, a divorced woman has few opportunities for remarriage, and so most women are forced to remain in an abusive relationship.l 21 In fact. it is not uncommon to see physical abuse working in the husband's favor when he wants a divorce. This is a function of the Korean Civil Code which recognizes not only judicial divorce but also divorce by consent. As a result. if a wife does not consent to her husband's request for a divorce. he uses physical abuse to bully her into signing the divorce papers.

According to the I 963 revision of the Family Registration law. when a couple filed for divorce. both the husband and wife had to appear before a civil servant handling Family Registration administration. The purpose of this requirement was to prevent one party from forcing the

14

RISE IN THE LEGAL RIGHTS OF KOREAN WOMEN

other into signing the divorce papers under duress. This confirmation by a civil servant did not. however, provide women with sufficient protection against an unwanted divorce, so when the Family Law was revised in 1977, a clause requiring confirmation by the Family Court was added.l31 While this does not constitute divorce by trial. it does provide a modicum of protection by requiring a judge to dearly confirm both parties' consent to the divorce. However. such protection is of little use to the wife of an abusive husband who has requested a divorce.

In fact, there is a limit to the extent which legal means can be used to resolve the problems of the battered wife. Our first priority must be the elimination of the violent attitude of men who believe that they can satisfy their demands through the physical abuse of their wives.

3. Laws Applying to Abortion and Adultery A. Abortion

Is abortion a crime? Last summer the American Supreme Court ruled in favor of the pro-life movement in an important abortion rights case, and in West Germany, abortion remains a volatile issue. How is the issue of abortion handled in Korea?

Article 269, Clause I of the Criminal Code states: A woman who procures (her own) miscarriage through the use of drugs or other means shall be punished by penal servitude for not more than one year or by a fine not exceeding ten thousand hwan (now four hundred thousand won). Article 270 provides for harsh penalties for doctors and other medical practitioners who perform abortions.

Nevertheless, the prevalence of abortion in our society is only too clear. For example, while discussing the medical problems related to abortion on a recent talk show, a prominent obstetrician noted that approximately 20 abortions were performed every day at his hospital.

It was obvious that the doctors and broadcasters appearing on the program were oblivious to the fact that abortion is a crime under the Korean Criminal Code. Although abortion is legally subject to criminal punishment. the procedure is performed freely without any fear .of prosecution. In fact, this ambiguity makes it much easier to obtain an abortion in Korea than in the United States or West Germany for example.

The Korean government's family planning program is generally recognized as a great success. and in fact. administrators from countries plagued by severe population problems often come to Korea to learn from local health administrators. In the 1960s. the Planned Parenthood Federation of Korea launched a campaign under the slogan "Don't distinguish between a girl or a boy. Have just two children and raise them well." Remarkably, that slogan has switched to "Have one child and raise it well" in a very short span of time, and throughout Korea, one can find many couples who have chosen to have only one child. The success of the family planning program is clearly the result of the widespread use of both birth control and abortion.

The Korean government has given its tacit approval to the performance of abortions in order to achieve its family planning ends, thus rendering the articles of the Criminal Code pertaining to abortion a dead letter. It is only a matter of time before criminal penalties on abortions

CHOI KUM¡SUK

I5

will be abolished. Over the years. Korean women have been the unsuspecting beneficiaries of this laissez-faire attitude toward abortion, and as a result. we see an increasing level of independence among middle-aged women who have been freed from the burdens of multiple childbirth and child-rearing.

B. Adultery

Today there is a rising call for the abolition to laws prohibiting adultery in Korea. and at the present time. there is a case pending in the Constitutional Court challenging the constitutionality of the adultery laws.

According to Article 241, Clause I of the present Criminal Code, a married person who commits adultery shall be punished by penal servitude for not more than two years. The same shall apply to the other participant. This law applies to men and women equally, although prior to its enactment in 1953, only a wife's adultery was a crime and grounds for divorce, clearly indicating just how much the legal status of women under the criminal code has improved since that time.

The existence of the laws pertaining to adultery serves as a tool to prevent adultery, particularly by men. and provides women with a weapon with which to threaten their husbands if they do not give up their philandering. The debate revolving around the issue of criminal penalties for adultery is caused, however. by the use of the charge of adultery as a tool to increase the alimony paid to the wife in the case of divorce.

When a woman files for divorce because of her husband's extramarital affairs, she first sues for adultery, and then after his arrest. the couple enters into negotiations on alimony. Thus it is more common for a wife to sue for adultery in order to boost her alimony payments than to actually punish her husband for his extramarital intrigues. It is precisely because the adultery laws are not performing their function as regulations to enforce penalties on adulterers that many criminal law experts are demanding their abolition. In addition, one man found guilty of adultery in the lower courts has taken his case to the Constitutional Court claiming the criminal laws pertaining to adultery are unconstitutional. The basis of this defendant's argument is that the adultery laws run counter to Article I 0 of the Constitution which guarantees the right to human dignity and worth, Article 12 which guarantees physical freedom a~d Article 36, Clause I which stipulates that marriage and family life must preserve the dignity of the individual and the basis for equality between the sexes.

In April of this year. the Constitutional Court held a public forum on adultery in which the arguments for and against abolition of the adultery laws were thoroughly discussed. The proponents of the repeal of adultery laws argued that the whole issue of adultery is a moral and personal problem in which the law should not interfere. Those promoting the preservation of adultery laws asserted that the laws serve as a last-ditch control mechanism for women trying to prevent their husbands' extramarital affairs. and that punishment of these crimes is necessary to protect the institution of marriage within the traditional Korean moral context.

A survey of I ,000 adults over the age of 20 (487 men. 513 women) conducted by the Korean Gallup Research Institute in 1986 revealed that 77.2 percent opposed the abolition of adultery laws. The percentage of men favoring the abolition of these laws was greater than that of women.

16

RISE IN THE LEGAL RIGHTS OF KOREAN WOMEN

A survey of I ,508 men and women over the age of 20 administered by the Korean Applied Statistics Research Laboratory in February 1989 indicated that 5 I. 5 percent were opposed to the repeal of adultery laws. a significant drop from previous surveys. The survey also revealed that 60.5 percent of the female respondents opposed abolition compared to only 42.6 percent of the male respondents.

The fate of the adultery laws, both constitutionally and in the Criminal Code. is the subject of great interest throughout our society. Many Korean women are concerned that the repeal of the laws will threaten familial stability, while others argue that such a repeal is inevitable and only wish to delay it. A compromise seems to be the most reasonable solution to this prickly problem.

4. Revision of the Family law and the Status of the Korean Woman The legal status of women was enhanced in December 1989 when a revision of the Family Law was passed in the National Assembly. The new law went into effect on January I of this year and was the first revision of the Family Law since December 1977 when considerable revisions were made of the Civil Code which was first put into effect in 1960.

The most important changes in the Family Law are the de facto abolition of the patriarchal household head system and the recognition of a wife's right to a portion of a couple's property and to maintain contact with her offspring following a divorce. However, the regulations prohibiting marriage between two people of the same surname and same family origin, a subject of much debate. were not repealed.

A number of significant revisions were made, but I will focus on the areas I believe are most important. namely changes in the household head system, the establishment of regulations governing the allocation of property when a couple divorces, changes in family inheritance laws providing for a more equal distribution of property, and the conspicuous failure to revise laws prohibiting marriage between persons sharing the same surname and family origin.

A. Changes in the Household Head System The household head system (lioiuie) has little to do with the everyday life of the Korean fami~ ly, but instead serves as a formal register of the household head who governs familial affairs and that person's familial relations. This system is not a traditional Korean device but rather was introduced during the Japanese colonialization of the Korean peninsula. Although Koreans have traditionally revered family elders. I believe the father or grandfather was never thought of as the household head or iuin, and while it is quite common to hear the expression ;uinyang~ ban. or household head. to refer to one's husband. this is. in my opinion, a result of Japanese cultural influences and is not a traditional Korean concept.

Following the defeat of Japan in the Second World War, the Japanese-style "Family Inheritance" system was abolished as contrary to the principle of equality established in the new Korean constitution, but despite the strong protests of women's groups, the household head system was not abolished. Only with the recent revision of the Family Law has the household head

CHOI KUM¡SUK

17

system which governs the succession of family duties been revised to limit the authority of the family head.

The household head system has been revised such that the eldest male, the lineal descendent of the household head, may withdraw from the family register and may forfeit his right to succeed the existing family head. In addition. the household head's absolute authority to determine the location of the family residence has been revoked. and his obligation to support his family has been abolished.

Nevertheless, the sequence of the succession of the household headship has not changed.

The primary successor to the legal predecessor (the household head) is his male lineal descendent. Next in line are the female lineal descendents. third is the legal predecessor's wife, fourth is his lineal female ascendent (his mother) and fifth is the wife of his first male lineal descendent.14l More simply, the succession proceeds from the sons to the daughters, then to the wife, the mother, and finally to the daughter(s)-in-law. In the most recent revision of the laws pertaining to the household head, all discriminatory clauses should have been removed, but unfortunately many remain.

B. Failure to Revise Laws Pertaining to the Marriage of Couples with the Same Surname and Same Family Origin

According to Article 809 of the Civil Code pertaining to "the prohibition of marriage between parties whose surname and origin of which are common," "a marriage may not be allowed between the relatives by blood, if both surname and the origin of which are common to the

Forum on revision of laws related to family affairs. sponsored by the Korean Legal Aid Center for Family Relations.

18

RISE IN THE LEGAL RIGHTS OF KOREAN WOMEN

parties. " For example, this law prohibits two people from the Miryang Pak clan or the Chonju Yi clan from marrying within their clan, regardless of the degree of consanguinity. The ban on such marriages is absolute and is not permitted even among men and women with the most remote degrees of consanguinity, such as cousins 20 or 30 times removed, and thus places an extreme restriction on Koreans' basic right to free marriage.

The Korean Legal Aid Center for Family Relations established a special report and counseling facility for victims of the same surname-same origin law, and a total of I ,6 I 7 people filed with the facility between June and November of I 977. When one considers how many other victims probably did not bother to register. it is easy to see just how serious this problem is.

Several years ago when I was a counselor at this center, a young man dressed in crisp army fatigues approached my desk and saluted me briskly before he sat down to tell me about his problem. He was in love with a girl with whom he was engaged and even had fathered a child with, but because they were of the same surname and same family origin, the young man's parents were vehemently opposed to the marriage. Nevertheless, the young couple was able to overcome his parents' resistance only to find that they could not marry legally. I clearly remember the young man saying, "No matter how they try to break us apart. our love will conquer all. " Thus I was amazed several months later when the young man came to me again.

With a resigned expression on his face, he sighed: "There's no way we can get married legally, so I guess we'll just have to break up." Frankly, I was disappointed with his attitude. I asked him to hold on a little longer and try other methods while he waited for progress in the movement calling for the revision of this law, but I never saw him again, so I have no way of knowing.how the young couple resolved their problem. Even if they didn't separate, their children would have been illegitimate because of their common law marriage.

We must remember that the freedom to marry the person of one's choice is a basic human right. Over the years, a number of studies have showed that. except in the case of consanguineous marriage, there is no eugenic problem with unions between persons of the same surname and family origin. In addition, even if Article 809. Clause I of the Civil Code which prohibits marriage between persons of the same surname and family origin is repealed . Article 8 I 5 prohibits marriage between persons who are third cousins or more closely related , thus guaranteeing that eugenic or moral problems will not arise.

Because young people today tend to be less aware of this problem or, in many eases, believe that as long as the couple comes from different branches (pa). marriage is permitted, unions between persons of the same surname and family origin will continue to increase, and the victims of this legal snare will multiply.

The irrationality of this law is most obvious in the law's absolute prohibition of such marriages regardless of the degree of consanguinity of the partners. Activists calling for the abolition of this law argue that marriages should be prohibited for persons who fall within a strictly defined degree of consanguinity, and on the two occasions when couples sharing the same surname and family origin were allowed to legally register their marriages (for one year in I 977 and one year in I 988), marriages between persons who were third cousins or closer were not permitted.

During the most recent revision of the Family Law, legislators inserted a clause permitting marriage between persons of the same surname and family origin except those who were third

CHOI KUM¡SUK

19

cousins or closer, but resistance from the Confucian community forced the withdrawal of the article. As a result this painful problem remains unsolved leaving hundreds of families without hope for legitimacy. Revision of the laws pertaining to marriage between persons of the same surname and family origin is an urgent priority.

C. New Regulations Governing the Allocation of Property Following a Divorce The most recent revisions of the Family Law established for the first time the right of a worn~ an to request a share of the property accumulated during the course of her marriage even if she has no occupation other than her status as a housewife.

Generally married couples experience few property problems when marital relations are good, but if things begin to deteriorate between them, the issue of money and property often b~ comes a problem. The percentage of women working outside the home is growing gradually, but still most Korean wives experience financial difficulties when there is friction between the husband and wife.

When a couple is fighting, it is not uncommon for a man to spend several days away from home or to refuse to give his wife sufficient funds to handle household affairs. For a woman used to making ends meet on her husband's fixed income, this can be a great strain on the family, forcing the wife to submit to her husband's demands at the drop of a hat. In some cases, the wife must throw her self~respect to the side and beg for the money to support her family, while other women find themselves lashing out at their husbands in anger and starting the whole vicious circle of humiliation and animosity in motion again.

When such arguments lead to divorce, the problem of property rises again. For example, when a couple divorces because of a man's extramarital affairs or abusive behavior, divorce by mutual consent is possible if the husband offers sufficient alimony. If. however, the alimony offered is unacceptable, a divorce trial is necessary. What must a wife do in this case, and how much alimony can she expect?

First of all, the wife must provide evidence of her husband's faults or indiscretions. In the case of the husband involved in extramarital affairs, this means the wife must follow him to hotels and wait for him to come out with his lover. If the wife is caught she runs tbe risk of being beaten by her husband. If she wishes to prove that she has been beaten, the wife must produce a medical certificate from a doctor confirming the nature of her wounds.

Such proof of adultery or physical abuse can play a decisive role in the amount of alimony awarded. but waiting outside a hotel room day and night is no simple task for a mother of young children, for example, nor is it easy for a poor woman to find the time and money needed to get a medical certificate to prove physical abuse. In addition, it is not uncommon for a man to siphon off income over the years, so that even after decades of marriage, there is very little left to share with his wife if they are divorced.

As a result women are often left with little after a divorce despite the years they have spent caring for their husbands and family. Their property becomes the husband's sole possession, and the woman's own work within the home goes unrewarded.

With the adoption of the new regulations providing for the property rights of wives in the revised Family Law, wives will not only be given alimony in the case of divorce resulting from

20

RISE IN THE LEGAL RIGHTS OF KOREAN WOMEN

the husband's misdeeds. but will also be able to claim a share of the property accumulated during the course of the marriage, regardless of the cause of the divorce. As a result. the respon~ sibilities of the two parties can be executed more efficiently. Men will think twice before ge~ ting involved in extramarital affairs, if only to save money, and will be less likely to beat their wives.

D. Greater Equality in the Division of Inherited Property

The recent revision of the Family law completely does away with the discrimination against women in the distribution of inherited property. Previously, in the Civil Code enacted in 1960, the children and wife of the deceased were equal c~inheritors. In cases where there was no preexisting agreement on the division of property, the inheritance was divided according to a formula set by the courts. That is. unmarried daughters received on~half of what sons received, and married daughters received on~quarter the son's share. When the wife was designated a c~inheritor with the children, she received on~half of what the male offspring received.

The revision of these measures in 1977 increased the share of the inheritance given to un~ married daughters and wives. Unmarried daughters were treated the same as male heirs, and the wife received a share 50 percent greater than that apportioned to the male heirs. Married daughters continued to receive on~fourth of what their male siblings received until the most recent revision in December 1989 when this discriminatory measure was eliminated.

As a result. one could say that. legally. sex discrimination in the distribution of inherited property has been eliminated. but. in fact. in many cases. female offspring are often asked to forfeit their portion of the inheritance. or the inheritance is not distributed in accordance with legal requirements. I believe, however, that these problems will clear up gradually as most middl~aged couples have only two children, thus naturally eliminating much of the sex dis~ crimination which plagues the diStribution of inherited property today.

5. Politics and the Status of the Korean Woman The influence of politics on the improvement of the status of women in our society is only too clear. For this reason. we must take a closer look at politics and the status of the Korean woman.

When discussing political participation by the Korean woman, there is no ignoring the bitter fact that not a single woman was elected to office during the most recent general National Assembly elections. The complete failure by female candidates was all the more shocking when we consider that the 13th National Assembly elections held last year resulted in an opposition majority in the National Assembly for the first time (This opposition majority was recently un~ dermined, however, by the merger of the government Democratic Justice Party and the two lesser opposition parties, leaving the Party for Peace and Democracy, the largest opposition party, isolated).

Female political hopefuls are, nevertheless. gearing up for another run in the local assem~ blies which are to be reactivated in the near future. Women's rights groups, such as the Korean

CHOI KUM-SUK

2I

Rally for revision of laws governing family affairs to eliminate time-old discrimination against women.

League of Women Voters. the Korean Legal Aid Center for Family Relations. the Korean Women's Political Research Institute and the Korean Women 's Development Institute. are now preparing their programs for the local elections.

The Constitution enacted on July I 7. I 948 provides that women shall enjoy the same rights of suffrage and the same eligibility to run for public office as any man. Nevertheless. there has never been a female presidential candidate. and there have only been seven women named to the cabinet151 since the founding of the Republic of Korea . In addition. as of I 988. there are only six female National Assembly members. or 2. I percent of the total lawmakers. All of these female members were elected to their seats through the national constituency under the proportional representation system and did not gain their seats by standing for direct election.

As of the end of I 988, there were I 6 5. 86 7 female civil servants. making up 2 3. 2 percent of the bureaucracy at the national and regional levels. Only 92 of these (0. 5 percent of the total) are high-ranking officials (grade V or above).

A perusal of the lists of persons passing the high-ranking judicial examinations reveals that as of I 989 a total of 74 women have passed the exam. Of these. 37 are presently employed as judges. prosecutors or lawyers. a minuscule percentage of the Korean legal community. 161

22

RISE IN THE LEGAL RIGHTS OF KOREAN WOMEN

These statistics clearly reveal just how low the level of women's partidpation in the political and administrative establishment is at this time. One could even go so far as to say that worn~ en, who make up on~half of the Korean electorate, are almost completely unrepresented in elective office or influential administrative positions. How can we tum this situation around?

Basically, women's political consciousness must be raised and their political power organized, but how specifically can we achieve these changes in preparation for the upcoming regional self~govemment elections?

Following the discouraging shut~ut of female offic~eekers in the most recent National A~ sembly elections, many female political leaders have proposed the establishment of a quota system setting aside a fixed percentage of seats for women. One specific proposal suggests that 20 percent of the seats in the next election be reserved for female candidates. Such a system would provide an excellent opportunity for the development of female talent under the regional self~government system and would continue to have a positive influence on the political role of women well through the next National Assembly elections.

Women do not. of course, expect continued privileges simply because of their sex. Rather, they see this quota system as a temporary measure.

6. Conclusion In this article, I have considered changes in the status of Korean women from a legal point of view. Over the last few decades. our society has undergone a great deal of change, and there is no denying that the status of Korean women has improved significantly. Equality of the sexes is guaranteed in the Constitution, and various revisions of the Family Law and the enactment of the Equal Employment Act in December 1987 have almost completely eliminated any explicitly discriminatory laws. Nevertheless, in actual practice, the quagmire of political. social and economic inequalities tormenting Korean women remains deep as we can see from the evidence presented above.

I believe. however. that in the future, the status of the Korean woman will improve as the number of highly educated women capable of taking important leadership roles increases, and discrimination between sons and daughters in the home declines. ~

(The original text was written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREANA. This is a translation.)

Footnotes I. Civil Code Article 840 (Causes for Judicial Divorce): The husband or wife may apply to the court for a divorce in each case mentioned In the foUowing sub-sections: I) If the other spouse has committed an act of unchastity; 2) If he or she has been deserted mailclously by the other spouse: 3) If one spouse has been extremely maltreated by the other spouse or his or her Uneal ascendant: 4) If one spouse's Uneal ascendant has been extremely maltreated by the other spouse: 5) if the death or Ufe of the other spouse has been unknown for three years: 6) If there exists any other cogent reason for which it Is difficult for him or her to continue the marriage.

2. According to the statistics compiled by 'The Women's Hotilne,' only 8.6 percent of the respondents (61) would file for divorce if they were beaten by their husbands.

3. Civil Code, Article 836, Clause I. 4. Civil Code, Article 984.

5. All cabinet ministers are appointed by the President.

6. Kim Yun-duk, 'The Political Status of the Korean Woman and Strategies for Its Development,' (Korean Women's Development Institute, April 16, 1990).

CHOI KUM¡SUK

23

ECONOMIC STATUS AND LABOR CONDITIONS Sexist practices and habits continue Kim Ae-sil

I. Introduction Since 1960, the Korean economy has undergone rapid growth, elevating the nation in re-cent years to the status as one of the leading "newly industrialized countries." Because of Korea's astounding economic progress, developing countries throughout Asia and socialist countries in the Eastern Bloc are increasingly turning to Korea as a model for economic growth.

The vital role played by Korea's female labor force in the country's economic development is well recognized. The contribution of women is most notable in the labor-intensive textile and electronics industries where female laborers have served as the driving force behind Korea's international competitiveness despite low wages and intolerable working conditions they have been forced to endure. Married women in rural areas have also played a decisive role by making up for the severe labor shortage which has hit Korean agriculture as a result of changes in the industrial and employment structures. There is no denying the importance of the urban housewife who, through frugality and savings, has provided a vital source of financial capitaL as well as valuable human capital by supporting both her husband and children. Without such contributions from the female labor force, Korea's "economic miracle" most certainly would not have been possible.

By expanding educational and vocational opportunities, Korea 's rapid economic growth has unlocked an opportunity for a broad range of social activities to women. In the past. women were forced to be satisfied with their traditional roles as daughter. wife and mother. but in modern society, a growing number of women are actively participating in the labor market. and social attitudes about the role of women are changing.

Despite the quantitative growth in the employment of women, however. the economiC structure remains male--oriented, and working women are still clustered in auxiliary positions in the lower echelons of the work force, working for inferior wages. Female laborers in the manufacturing sector who have served as the driving force behind Korea's rapid economic growth are

Kim Ae-sil, born in 1946, received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and mathematics from the University of Hawaii in 1972. She went on to complete an M.A. degree in 1974 and a Ph.D. in economics in 1977 at the same university. From 1978 to 1980, Dr. Kim was an assistant professor in economics at Chonnam National University in Kwang;u. Since 1980, she has been a professor of economics at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. She has published a number of works on technology and employment. including The Economic Value of Housework.

24

ECONOMIC STATUS AND LABOR CONDITIONS

especially plagued by the problems of low wages, long workdays and horrendous working conditions, and remain an underdeveloped class alienated from Korea's growth.

The purposes of this article are: I) to analyze the quantitative and structural changes in the female work force as well as the economic status and role of the working woman; 2) to examine the problems afflicting working women in the manufacturing sector, such as low wages; and 3) to consider how we can go about solving the problems of the working woman.

2. Quantitative and Structural Changes in Female Work Force In 1963, the total Korean work force stood at 7,662,000 persons, of which female employment accounted for 2,674,000, or 34.9 percent of the total. By 1989, the total employment had grown to 17,515,000, with women totalling 7, 125,000, or 40.6 percent. During the period from 1963 to 1989, the number of male workers increased 2.1 times, while the number of female workers increased 2. 7 times.

The percentage of women active in the economy has also increased. In 1970, 38.5 percent of the female population was employed outside the home. That figure rose to 41.6 percent in 1980, 4 5.0 percent in 1988 and 46.5 percent in 1989. The percentage of married women participating in economic activities has grown at a particularly rapid rate.

Table I shows the breakdown of the female work force by occupation. For convenience's ~ke, let us compare the job distributions for 1963 and 1989.

The table reflects the fact that Korea's economy was basically agricultural in 1963, and that the economic role of women was largely limited to the agricultural sector. Fully 70 percent of the female work force was employed in the agricultural sector.

The majority of these women "employed" in the agricultural sector were, however, actually

Table 1

Occupational Distribution of Working Women (UNIT: I ,000 persons) FEMALE EMPLOYEES (%)

1963 (A) ADMINISTRATIVE, MANAGERIAL, TECHNICAL, PROFESSIONAL SPECIAL TIES

1989 (B)

INCREASE in Numbers

INCREASE 1989/ 1963

(B)-(A)

(B)/(A)

53 (2.0)

499 (7.0)

466

9.02

343 (13 .0)

1.211 (17.0)

860

3.53

SERVICE

I69 (6.4)

1,155 (16.2)

986

6.83

CLERICAL

30 (1.1)

849 (11.9)

8I9

28.3

1.814 (68 .9)

I. 536 (21.6)

-278

-0.85

222 (8.4)

I .876 (26.3)

I ,654

8.45

2,633 (I 00.0)

7,125 (100.0)

4,492

2.71

SALES

FARMING & FISHERIES MANUFACTURING TOTAL

KIM AE-SIL

25

performing simple tasks on the farm whenever necessary, and so it would be more appropriate to call them a source of "latent unemployment." rather than actual employees.

The women employed in the non-agricultural sector at this time were generally young girls working in small businesses following the end of the Korean War. Service sector employees were for the most part employed in the food and lodging industry, while the relatively small number of clerical workers were employed as receptionists. typists and clerks in banks or businesses. Women employed in professional or technical positions were generally nurses or teachers in elementary, middle or high schools.

The rapid economic growth of the 1960s and 1970s brought significant changes in the industrial and employment structures and had an especially conspicuous impact on the employment patterns of Korean women.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the number of women employed in the manufacturing and related fields skyrocketed. In a sense, that era served to mobilize the latent labor potential embodied in the rural female population. The early 1980s saw a rapid increase in the employment of female clerical workers, while the late 1980s brought a boom in the number of women working in professional. technical and administrative positions. The 1980s were also a period of rapid growth in the employment of married women.

The process of change in the composition of the female work force is a good indicator of the changing economic role of women during the course of Korea's economic growth, and reflects the changing demand for women's labor. I will briefly summarize the structural changes in the composition of the female labor force.

First. the most significant change in the structure of the female work force is the rapid decrease in the percentage of women employed in the agricultural and fisheries sector. In the early years of Korea's industrialization, women employed in the agriculture sector outnumbered those in the non-agricultural sector by a ratio of 7:3 (seven to three), but by the late 1980s, this ratio had been reversed to 2:8. and the number of persons actually working in the agricultural sector declined drastically. The percentage of workers employed in primary industry always declines in the course of any country's industrialization, but in Korea. it is clear that the work force in the countryside is growing conspicuously more female and older.

The second important change in the structure of the female work force is the SP.iraling increase in the number of women employed in manufacturing and manufacture-related jobs.

This group made up no more than 8.4 percent (222,000) of the total female work force in 1963. but by 1989 had grown to 26.5 percent (l ,876,000) of the female work force. At present. the manufacturing sector constitutes the largest employer of Korean working women, one out of every three women working in the non-agricultural sector, or two out of every three female wage earners.

A third significant factor in the changing composition of the female work force is the increasing number of female clerical workers who have constituted the most rapidly growing sector of the female work force in the last quarter century. In 1963. only 30.000 women were employed in clerical positions, but this number had increased to 849,000 by 1989. a 28-fold increase over a 26-year period. As a result. the 9: I ratio of men to women working in office jobs in the 1960s was reduced to 6:4 by the 1980s. Despite the trend toward office automation, the number of women employed in clerical positions is expected to increase consistently,

26

ECONOMIC STATUS AND LABOR CONDITIONS

further boosting women's share of clerical positions.

Fourth. we must point out the rapid growth of the number of women employed in the administrative. managerial and technical occupations since the late 1980s. The increasing number of women employed in these areas reflects the improved economic and social status of the Korean woman in recent years. Statistics indicate that women employed in these more advanced fields constituted only 2 percent (53.000) of the working female population in 1963.

As of the end of February 1990, however. some 544,000 women were employed in specialized fields (including education. industry. administration. research. the medical profession. journalism. law. etc.).

This 1990 figure represents a ten-fold jump since 1963 in the number of women employed in specialized fields. a 2.31-fold increase since 1983, and a 1.55-fold increase since 1986. In contrast to this steady increase of female specialists. the rate of increase for the employment of men in the specialties has been much slower over the same period: a five-fold increase between 1963 to 1990 was registered. followed by a 1.49-fold increase from 1983. and a 1.19-fold increase from 1986 to 1990. As a result. the percentage of women in the total specialized work force grew steadily from 21.4 percent in 1963 to 26.6 percent in 1983. 34.4 percent in 1989, and 36.1 percent in February 1990.

This perusal of the occupational breakdown of the quantitative increase in the female working population indicates how the demand for female labor has expanded from the manufacturing sector to the clerical field and then to specialized sectors over the last quarter century. and how the economic role of the Korean woman has diversified over the same period. Let us turn now to look at the occupations. educational backgrounds. status and wages of Korean working women to see how this quantitative growth has affected the economic role and status of the female portion of our population.

3. The Economic Status of Women Increasing participation by women in the work place has resulted in a gradual improvement in their economic status. but it is clear that the improvements in economic and social status reaped by Korean working women do not measure up to the quantitative advancements they have made on the job market. because the employment structure remains male-oriented. and most women have been unable to break out of the lower echelons of the economic order.

An examination of the Korean labor market in terms of educational background. rank and wages reveals that men monopolize the high status. highly skilled or educated. and high wage jobs. while women. on the other hand. populate the ranks of the poorly educated. low status. low wage and under-skilled positions.

For example. women employed in the manufacturing sector make up the largest segment of the working female population. but they are severely underrepresented in the administrative and managerial fields. The majority of the women employed in manufacturing tend to be unmarried women who have received no formal education beyond middle school. These women are employed in the textile. clothing and electronic manufacturing industries which are notorious for their poorly educated and under-skilled work force and low wages.

KIM AE¡SIL . 27

On the other hand, women have made few inroads in the administrative and managerial positions which offer relatively high social and economic status. Women make up just one (I) percent of the total work force in these fields. Male domination of administrative and managerial jobs is all too obvious from the 9: I ratio of male to female employees in these fields, and clearly reflects the Korean woman's inability to gain a foothold in the important decision-making processes affecting our nation.

What has been the actual role of women in the specialized professions and in clerical or office positions which have showed the highest rate of increase in female participation over the period we have discussed?

Female office workers are for the most part employed as clerks handling correspondence and documents, stenographers, typists, account clerks, telephone and telegraph operators, and the like. Stenographers, typists, key punch operators and similar positions make up 95 percent of these jobs, and women hold the majority of telephone and telegraph operators and account clerks jobs in Korea.

On the other hand, less than 30 percent of the office supervisors, inventory managers, or material supply and production managers in Korea are women. Of special note is the fact that women make up less than 2 percent of the office supervisors and communication supervisors in Korea. Thus, even though the number of women working in offices has been increasing rapidly, and the positions they hold have grown more varied, the majority of Korea's female office workers are concentrated in low-ranking jobs doing simple and repetitive tasks.

Most women working in specialized or technical positions tend to be teachers at the elementary, middle or high school levels, or nurses, while the remainder are involved in a variety of jobs as university professors or lecturers, doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, judges, librarians, translators, writers, artists, etc. On the other hand, hardly any women are active as architects, engineers, communication specialists or accountants in professions such as architecture, shipping or transportation, inventory, communications and the like. Except in the case of teachers or nurses which have been traditionally been viewed as "female occupations," women remain seriously underrepresented in the professions compared to their counterparts abroad.

Turning briefly to the educational background of the female work force, statistics indicate that 46.6 percent of working women have a middle school education or less. High school graduates constitute 46.2 percent of the female work force, while 3.6 percent graduated from junior college, and another 3.6 percent received a college education. Only 30 percent of the male employees received a middle school education or less, while 46.3 percent are high school graduates, 6 percent are junior college graduates, and I 7. I percent graduated from university or above. Clearly, the educational levels of female workers are significantly lower than those of their male counterparts. I believe that this phenomenon is a product of discriminatory employment practices which result in a concentration of female workers in unskilled factory jobs or mindless, repetitive clerical positions.

Men make up 90.2 percent of the university-educated work force, and unemployed female university graduates outnumber their male counterparts two to one. The employment difficulties of university-educated women will certainly become a major social problem in the I 990s.

The sexist employment structure is also clear in the distribution of jobs. The higher the rank, the more likely a man is to hold that position. A majority of both male and female workers

28 ' ECONOMIC STATUS AND LABOR CONDITIONS

Graph

1------------------------------------------------------~

Monthly Wage Distribution (1988) Unit: thousand won over 1.000

FEMALE

800-1.000

0.5 0.5

600-800

1.7

500-600

2.4

400-500

4.9

300-400

16.6

200-300

35.7

under 200

37.6 1 40

MALE

8

8.1 6.5

I I

15.0 14.0

I

I

17.6

I

I

19.3

I

12.6

_l 30

20

10

0(%)

6.8 10

20

30

40

are ordinary employees with males outnumbering females by a ratio of I. 7: I. This male-female ratio increases sharply. however. as we move up the employment hierarchy. Men outnumber women at the chief clerk rank by a ratio of 42: I. at the section chief level by 69: I . and at the director level by 169: I. These statistics indicate just how difficult it is for a woman to be promoted to a high-ranking position in Korea.

Finally. we shall examine the status of the Korean working woman as reflected in the wage structure.

Graph I displays the monthly wage distribution of the Korean labor force for 1988 and reveals that the female wage laborer dominates the lowest echelons of Korea's wage structure with 37.6 percent of working women receiving 200.000 won or less, 35.7 percent receiving 200,00Q-300.000 won and 16.6 percent receiving 300,00Q-400,000 won in monthly wages. Male wage laborers. on the other hand, are more evenly distributed with monthly wages ranging from the 300.000 to the 800.000 won level. Fifteen percent of all male employees received 800,000 won or more. while only 1.1 percent of the female work force enjoyed such a high income.

The average monthly wage for a woman is 230.000 won. only 52 percent of the average male wage of 450,000 won. When compared with the 1980 level of 42 .9 percent. it is clear that the gap between male and female wages has been reduced a great deal.

The main reason why women tend to bunch at the lowest echelons of the wage structure is because of their generally low level of education and because they are employed in the manufacturing sector. particularly the textiles and electronics industries, where unskilled labor is the norm. Nevertheless. the fundamental basis for the low wages of these female factory workers lies in the sexist practices which permeate our society.

Although the status of Korea's working women has improved to a certain extent. relatively well educated women are still discriminated against on the basis of sex. and very few working women are ever given an opportunity for promotion. In addition. other structural factors. such as discrimination in job functions and wage and benefit discrimination have resulted in women receiving lower wages than their male counterparts.

KIM AE-SIL

29

4. Issues Confronting the Female Factory Worker In this section. I would like to examine the wage levels and related issues facing female factory workers who have served as the driving force behind Korea's rapid economic growth.

Korea's early industrialization was based on labor-intensive export industries. such as textiles. clothing, shoes and electronics. From the latter half of the I 970s. the focus shifted somewhat to oil refining. chemical and steel production, automobiles. and shipbuilding. and in the I 9805. technology-intensive industries. such as computer and semi-conductor production. were promoted. As a result. the industrial distribution of factory workers was naturally transformed somewhat over time.

Today more than half the female factory workers are engaged in textile and clothing industries. One-fourth work in electronics production. and the remaining one-fourth are employed in oil refining. the manufacturing of rubber products. cigarettes or paper. food processing. or other industries. As these statistics indicate, the vast majority of female factory workers are still employed in the textile and electronics industries.

The low wages and long working hours of Korea's female factory workers are notorious.

In fact. Koreans in general are famous for working the longest work week in the world. With the activation of labor unions in recent years, wages have increased. and the working time

Factory workers account for a large portion of female work force in Korea. They have made a remarkable contribution to Korea's economic growth ..

30

ECONOMIC STATUS AND LABOR CONDITIONS

has been cut. Also the implementation of the minimum wage system since 1988 has reduced the number of laborers working for extremely low wages.

Nevertheless. low pay and long working hours continue to plague the female factory worker.

One reason for these long working hours is the low wages paid to these workers.

What is the monthly wage of a female factory worker employed in the textile or electronics manufacturing industries? While there is some variation based on the type of work performed, working hours, seniority, etc., they are generally paid between 200,000 and 350,000 won per month. When calculated in terms of an eight-hour workday, however, these women's pay works out to less than 200,000 won per month. So they cannot but boost their wages through overtime or work on the holidays.

In addition, these women suffer from a number of problems related to their low wages. First of all, these low wages do not cover the costs of even the most spartan of life styles. and second, because they only receive 50 to 70 percent of their monthly wages if they work only eight hours a day, most female laborers are forced to work overtime in order to increase their meager income.

A 1985 survey of women working in the electronic industry revealed that three-quarters of the young women interviewed did not make enough money to cover the most minimum costs of living. Many of the respondents said that they often ate only instant ramen noodles, or even ¡ skipped meals, in order to make ends meet.

As of 1988, the average wage in the manufacturing industry was 393,056 won , or 88 percent of the average monthly industrial wage of 445,370 won. Within the manufacturing industries, however, workers in the textile, clothing and leather manufacturing industries are paid 298,865 won on the average, or 67 percent of the average industrial wage. In addition, women working in the textile and clothing industries are paid only 4 5 percent of what male workers in the same field are paid. Thus one could assert that women working in the textile industry are paid on the average just 30 to 40 percent of what their counterparts in other industries are paid.

In addition to their relatively low educational levels, their lack of skills, and their short tenure on the job. sexist wage decisions and the surplus of labor in this field also play an important role in keeping these women's wages low. Most recently, however, the supply of unmarried women willing to take these jobs has dedined rapidly as a result of the expansion ~f educational opportunities for women, thus forcing employers to rely more and more upon married women. Recent surveys have indicated that these married women are laboring under even worse working conditions and for lower wages than their unmarried sisters. Married women have emerged as an unlimited supply of cheap factory labor.

The gap between the wages of male and female workers performing the same functions is the result of Korea's discriminatory wage structure. Men are paid more than women regardless of the work performed or the level of difficulty, and women are discriminated against in terms of family allowances. benefits paid for dangerous duty, bonuses and the like. The higher the rank, the more serious the gap in basic wages between the sexes, and the various benefits paid to women are no more than one-half of what their male counterparts receive. Because female laborers' tenure on the job is relatively short, their wages are. of course. lower, but this is clearly a result of the low wages and poor working conditions which cause women to . quit their jobs frequently. In addition, female workers are pressured to resign after marriage

KIM AE¡SIL

31

and maternity, thus cutting short their tenure on the job. It is apparent that sexist hiring practices and wage polides are a primary cause for the perennial low wages of female factory workers.

In addition to low wages and long workdays, female factory workers are plagued by a host of difficult problems, such as unhealthy working conditions, housing difficulties. human rights violations and childcare problems.

In the textile and electronics industries among others. factory workers are exposed to condi~ tions which are both dangerous and harmful to their health. In most textile factories, the noise from machinery and sewing machines is so loud that a human voice can not be heard. and the working environment is tainted by the use of various dyes, benzene and other chemicals.

In addition, ventilation and heating facilities are often substandard. and, in many cases. restroom facilities are inadequate. In the electronic industry, there are also many cases of female factory workers suffering from infertility, miscarriages, or stillbirths as a result of lead poison~ ing in the work place.

The lack of affordable housing is a problem plaguing all factory workers. In recent years, the price of homes and the deposits demanded for the lease of homes have skyrocketed, in~ flating the share of a worker's living expenses which must go to housing. This is a serious social problem which must be addressed promptly.

The demand for "humane treatment" is a topic which has arisen in the course of labor~ management disputes in recent years. The emergence of this issue reflects the employers' failure to respect their employees' most basic human rights. In the case of female factory workers, this lack of respect takes the form of impolite or lewd language, ridicule. cursing, physical abuse. sexual harassment and the like.

With the growing number of married women on the job, maternity rights, such as maternity leave and childcare facilities. are becoming a major issue. While the existing labor regulations guarantee the protection of such rights, they are largely ignored by companies throughout the country. There are few companies providing facilities for nursing mothers or for daycare. and as a result. some working mothers are forced to leave their children to play in the streets or to even lock them inside their homes. The mental and physical stress this places on working women is obviously enormous as is the pain and instability experienced by their ,children.

In addition. the work load of these women is almost incomprehensible as they work for an average of ten hours per day on the job, only to go home to do housework for an additional two to six hours. Thus resolution of the childcare problem and the more even distribution of household chores are critical issues for the working mother.

5. Resolving the Problems of the Working Woman As noted in the foregoing passages, the major issues facing the working woman in Korea are: 1) job discrimination which denies women the employment opportunities enjoyed by their male counterparts; 2) sexual discrimination on the job; and 3) overwork from the dual respon~ . sibilities for housework and child~rearing as well as wage earning outside the home.

What have Korean women, and the government and employers, done to resolve these

32

ECONOMIC STATUS AND LABOR CONDITIONS

problems? Also. what new issues will emerge in the 1990s?

Korean women have persistently endeavored to enhance both their social and economic status. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of struggle to improve intolerable working conditions and shorten the workday which was renowned as the longest in the woi"ld. It took five years of determined efforts to cut the basic workday from 12 to eight hours. and since 198 7. the active labor union movement has contributed to a gradual reduction of overall working hours.

Deeply rooted sexist attitudes are slowly changing as a result of the movement to do away with forced resignation at the time of marriage. suits over discrimination in forced resignation and retirement benefits. the movement to reform the so-called "Family Law," and the campaign to reappraise the value of household labor. Thanks to the stalwart efforts of women's rights activists. a number of legal and institutional mechanisms to help elevating the social and economic status of women, such as the implementation of the minimum wage, legislation of the Equal Employment Act and the revision of the Family Law. have been put into place. Of particular note is the Equal Employment Act. first enacted in 198 7 and revised in 1989. which prohibits discrimination in recruitment. hiring, wages. education. promotion. resignation and retirement. and which honors the rights of working mothers through its mandate of the provision of childcare facilities, including nursing and daycare facilities on the work site.

Nevertheless. the problems of women in the work place will not be solved by legislation alone. Working women and the employers who depend on their labor must join together to realize sexual equality in the work place if we are to see a solution to the many difficult issues discussed above. Unfortunately, businesses today remain interested solely in the exploitation of cheap labor and have not moved to correct their discriminatory employment practices.

Korea's working women. on the other hand. are demonstrating a newfound determination to achieve an equitable sodety through the formulation of positive policies for change. As a result. in the 1990s, we can expect an active campaign for the solution of the employment problems plaguing female university graduates and for the provision of childcare facilities at work places around the country. ÂŽ

(This article was originally written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREANA. This is a translation.)

KIM A&SIL

33

A History of Korean Women Pak Yong¡ok

I. Women in Ancient and Medieval Korea Why there should have been that apple for Eve to take is unclear. Clear enough is that before the dawn of history all living souls had no choice but to participate in the collective chore of hunting and gathering foods. This should have been true with Korea as it should have been with all the rest of the world. The name of the game then was survival. No humans could then afford the luxury of sexual inequality.

But then women, with her mysterious ability for conceiving. bearing and rearing child. commanded respect. Sure enough, women were often elected to serve as officiants in religious rites and to lead prayers for fertility or good harvest. Small wonder. Many guardian spirits of primitive states were female.

In Korea soon after the birth of the Shilla kingdom (57 B.C.-A.D. 935). right up to the first century A.D .. women are known to have taken charge of planning and officiating in most rites for worshiping ancestors. Consider the case of Princess Ahro. sister of Namhaewang. the second monarch of the kingdom. The princess was an outstanding example of how women played vital roles in conducting religious rites.

In primitive society, women, not men, indeed occupied a prestigious position and played accordingly weighty roles. Most historians share the view that at its very point of kickoff. civilization benefited extensively from the wisdom of women for the advancement of skills in farming, weaving, breeding cattle and making earthenware.

The male-oriented social structure began to take shape only when what came to l?e known as civilization started to make itself felt. At the early stage of civilization, though, women still bossed farming and weaving crews. Pak Hyokkose (who reigned 57 B.C.- A.D.4). founding monarch of the kingdom of Shilla in Korea. and his wife Aryong were both sacred personages in their new-born realm. Consider Aryong for now. She probably was revered more because she was the supreme boss on agriculture and sericulture than because she was the queen.

Pak Yong-ok . born in Shenyang, China . in 1935, ma;ored in Korean history at Seoul National University and obtained a Ph.D. from Korea University for a dissertation titled "A Study of the History of Modern Korean Women's Movement." She was formerly a professor at Seiong University, researcher with the Korean National History Compilation Committee, director of the Songshin Women's University Museum. and president of the Korean Association for Women's Studies. Currently she is a professor of Korean history at Songshin Women's University and a member of the compilation committee of the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. Ma;or publications

by Prof. Pak include A History of Modern Korean Women (1975), A History of Yi Dynasty Women (1976) and Independence Movement by the Korean Women (1989).

34

A HISTORY OF KOREAN WOMEN

Back then these two fields of human endeavor accounted for almost all the industrial activities in this part of the world. The queen's ultimate responsibility over both of these vital fields enables us to surmise safely that women's social position at the onset of Korean history was never inferior to that of men. Women were equal with men and divided work with them.

But the sex equality on labor started to go downhill as agriculture continued to develop and farming grew increasingly larger in scale. One outcome was inescapable. A need now arose for a strong labor force of muscular men. Male muscle power was the thing for irrigation. land reclamation and tilling in fast-expanding farmland. In consequence. women's role came to have more and more to do with home - yes. to the bearing and rearing of children. Men on the other hand gradually fortified their power structure and ended up placing in the process women under their control. In Korea, the downgraded position of women during this early period is typified by not a few historical episodes.

One concerns the all too human state of mind named jealousy. Indeed jealousy could bring women the penalty of death in the kingdom of Puyo (B.C. 320G-2200). King Chungchonwang (who reigned 248-70) of the Koguryo kingdom (37 B.C.-A.D. 668) ordered his concubine Kwanna to be thrown into the sea for the "crime" of having been jealous of his wife. Man frequently married into the family of his wife during the Koguryo period. This custom. which in fact was popular. indicates that women were regarded as an asset that could be acquired by men in reward for their labor.

Singular as it is. this custom by no means was anything confined to Korea. Listen to what the Old Testament has to say about Jacob. He had to toil his way through as many as I 4 years before he was allowed to marry his wife.

And then. though not surprisingly for the period. women could be possessed by men. Not infrequently did the number of women possessed serve as a measure of a man's social influence and wealth.

But such tendencies of male brutality did not immediately become commonplace. The primitive maternal family system continued instead to thrive among common people in the Shilla period until the late ninth to the early I Oth century. Legends. therefore, often feature a hero who only could identify his mother. Samguk yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms) says that the father of King Muwang (who reigned 60G-64 I) of the Paekche kingdom (18 B.C.-A.D. 660) was. of all things. a dragon. The Shilla kingdom installed three women monarchs during its rule over a millennium. This shows that its royal family recognized equal rights of its male and female members to the throne.

And now upper-class women were exposed to Confucianism as it spread through Korea. especially among its aristocrats. After the mid-Koryo period (918-1392), the ideal virtues of the highborn woman were explicitly defined. The emphasis was placed on practicing filial piety toward parents-in-law. maintaining harmonious relations with in-laws and relatives. assisting her husband, treating servants with benevolence. and holding herself responsible for family economy. The last was a must to enable her husband to concentrate on achieving social eminence without being bothered by household chores. Of course. all these virtues conform with Confucian ethical disciplines.

Here again. though. we have to note that the particular code ethics was not limited to Korea.

PAK YONG-QK

35

Witness what is said in the Old Testament - in Chapter 3 I of Proverbs: A capable wife keeps herself busy making wool and linen cloth. She brings home food from out-of-the-way places, as merchant ships do. She looks at land and buys it, and with the money she has earned she plants vineyard. Her husband is well known , one of the leading citizens.

Through much of the world, women in ancient times seldom had it easy. So often were they told to be selfless in shouldering all the burden of domestic chores. They were frequently compelled to work hard to make it possible for the rest of their family members to enjoy something of Ia vie en rose. They did so too in order to enable their husbands to do their best in making their way upward and forward in society. In Korea, the Confucian notion that woman was an inferior being to be subjugated by man was firmly established during the Choson period (1392- I 910).

Now comes the great theory about yin (negative and female) and yang (positive and male), the backbone of Oriental philosophy. It must be noted that yin and yang are the two contrasting but inseparable elements that moved all matters in the universe. Neither can dominate the other, though the two are of contrasting nature. Yin, or um in Korean, is static and docile; yang is dynamic and strong. Fire represents yang, and water yin . It is mandatory for these two elements to keep their respective positions and attain harmony in respect of the law of nature.

The theory of perfect harmony between yin and yang degenerated into one of conquest and domination. It was the same story all over again with the relationship between man and woman; it came to be defined as one of predominance and submission. Thus it was taken for granted that woman would be obedient to man. The Confucian teaching on ethical decorum for woman demanded that she be absolutely obedient to three men in her life: her father during childhood, her husband after marriage and her son (or sons) after the death of her husband. This of course represents nothing but the traditionally discriminatory point of view that places woman in a subordinate position under man.

D. Woman in the Confucian-oriented Choson Society I) Sexual Discrimination and Woman under ConfucianiSm

Woman's social activities were limited in a Confucian sodety- yesterday's Korea. There were even times when she was not permitted to remarry by law. The ban on remarriage by widow was based on the Confudan teaching: "a loyal subject never serves two kings, nor does a faithful wife serve two husbands." To be sure, those widows who refrained from remarrying were highly respected since the Koryo period. But the remarriage by widow came to be banned finally by law during the Choson period.

Kyongguk tae;on (National Code), a statutory code defining the structure and function of Choson's government, included a clause prohibiting the remarriage by widows in I476, the eighth year of the reign of Kin~ Songjong (who reigned I 469-94). Consequently, widows all

36

A HISTORY OF KOREAN WOMEN

the way from the top to the bottom of society were left with no choice but to remain legally unmarried.

Unfair? It downright was. No such edict existed for widowers. The unfairness of it all was from time to time a cause cilebre. The reason was not complex. A woman, when widowed at young age without children and unable to depend financially on her parents, often found herself left with no means of livelihood.

But the consensus of officialdom was unsympathetic. It held that should personal exceptions be recognized, Confucianism might in the end be endangered. And Confucianism meant everything as a condition for the perpetuation of the dynasty. This opinion was indeed over~ riding. In fact. the government went ahead and instituted a terrible punishment: never to employ in any capadty any of the children of remarried widows. Such children had to become nonper~ sons as far as the government was concerned.

Remarriage was considered a major sin for widows in all social classes after the rnid~hoson period. Consequences were depressing. Many widows lived in graveside cottages for three years after their husbands died. Some even killed themselves at the end of the obligatory mourn~ ing period. Others fasted to death. ostensibly out of extreme sadness.

Statistics on exemplary citizens compiled by Korean government during the Hideyoshi lnva~ sions from Japan, over four years from 1592 to 1595 are telling about how officialdom placed an utmost importance on the chastity of woman.

During those four years. the number of loyal subjects commended by the government stood at eleven and filial sons at 67, while faithful wives who received awards totaled 356. The gover~ ment on its part went all out encouraging faithfulness among wives by even exempting their family members from compulsory labor services. By the same token, with some of these women the social status of their family was advanced. Not to a few families, therefore. widowhood was a blessing in disguise.

2) Women's Position at Home

Indeed all the sweeping restrictions were there on women. But there was something else too on the other side of the coin. A woman noted for good manners, a high fecu_n dity and devotion to her husband at home was given an almost limitless power to exercise over domestic matters. At home, her authority often went all but unchallenged because her husband, in order to become il faut, persistently refrained from meddling in her chores for homemaking. educating children and even preparing rites for ancestor worshiping. She was nothing less than a big boss at home.

There is another matter to be considered. The wedding custom in Korea long ago required that the bridegroom spend a great deal of time at the bride's home after the nuptials. Those children who were born and raised during that period by necessity developed a sense of respect for their mother's family. According to a 1958 edition of Seoul published by the capital city's history compilation committee. Missionary George Gilmore. who worked in Korea for many years toward the end of the I 9th century, told of the position of the Korean woman in society and home as follows:

PAK YONG¡OK

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As women stay in their homes most of the time. they may appear to be completely ignorant of the social and economic life in the country. But a foreigner cannot have a more erroneous impression about Korean women than this. It also is a great mistake to think that they occupy a place of little importance in their homes.

The husband speaks in honorific forms to his wife whom he considers to be lower than himself... Children have the habit of quickly discerning those who do not deserve their respect. In view of this, that children respect women is a good evidence that their mother takes a prestigious position.

The Korean wife indeed displayed much influence at home. Her influence was felt most strongly in three areas: the management of domestic affairs, the emergency process of making decisions on who should head the family and the job of equally distributing inherited properties.

A. Leader of Home Management

By keeping her husband out of domestic affairs. the Korean wife back then often managed to isolate him too from most members of the family including his own children. Once out of home. he acted as though he was a great big boss. Once at home. he often was no boss at all. Not even on the matters of educating his children could he have his say stick. A learned husband might have been great at discussing Confucianism. When it came to practical day-today affairs of home life. he frequently found himself kowtowing to the decisions of his wife.

The wife was not necessarily dumb or uneducated either. She often studied Confudanism hard and for good reason. She had to help her children study it themselves. Sure enough. some wives were far brighter than their spouses even in worldly matters. Not infrequently did they manage to have their wisdom registered even in the Confucian-oriented patriarchal system.

Ou yadam. a collection of popular tales written by Yu Mong-in (1559-1623). contains the following story: Once upon a time, a general led I00.000 troops to encamp in the wilderness. He then planted two flags on the ground. the red one in the east and the blue one in the west.

Now the general gave this command to his men: "Those of you who fear your wives must gather below the red flag; those who do not. gather below the blue flag." All but one of the I00.000 soldiers gathered around the red flag. The general stared at the solitary blueflag man and asked him why he did what he did. The soldier answered. "My wife has been telling me all the time never to go to a place where more than three men are gathered because she said they would never fail to talk about women. Then. how could I dare to go to a place where as many as I00,000 men are gathered? I could not think of disobeying her.

In yesterday's Korea. many men of noble birth were bookworms and bothered to pay not a bit of attention to family finance. That left their wives worrying themselves sick constantly over monetary problems. Chonggu yadam. an anthology of folk tales compiled by an anonymous person toward the end of the 19th century. features the following story about the wife of a man named Kim Saeng at Sangju. Kyongsang-do Province: Kim's parents having died when he was in his teens. he did what odd jobs he could pick up. He was 27 years of age when finally with what savings he had. Kim married a woman

38

A HISTORY OF KOREAN WOMEN

and moved into a humble cottage to live together with her. Those were the days when males got married at age 13 or 14. But Kim comforted himself with a belief that he could now look forward to a happy married life.

That dream of his went to pieces on the very night of wedding. His bride then had a declaration to make. She said that they would put an end to their poverty in ten years.

She said: "Yobo (my dear). let's sleep in separate rooms from today. If we sleep together, children will come naturally one after another. It will certainly be a great joy to have many children. but have you ever thought of feeding them all? So you will make straw shoes in this room, while I weave hemp cloth in the next room. What do you think of saving all our money by eating a bowl of gruel just once a day for the next I 0 years?"

Amazed but approving her proposaL Kim Saeng began to sleep alone from the day and worked very hard. As winter set in, his wife gathered young men of the village to help her with her farmwork. His wife further used her wisdom to plant tobacco, a profitable cash crop.

In the end the Kims amassed a colossal fortune but never changed the way of their life.

They still ate a bowl of gruel a day and slept separately. On the night before their I G-year plan came to a finale, Kim, satisfied over what they had achieved, visited his wife in her room and offered to eat rice instead of gruel from that day. His wife sternly reproached him by saying, "We have endured for I 0 long years in spite of ourselves. We should not break our rule."

Thus the Kims were among the richest families in the province. But the wife still refused to consummate the marriage. She said. "Now that we are rich, how can we live in a shabby cottage like this?" They had a big house built. Then, only then, were they man and wife.

But both were already nearing 40 years of age and could no longer have children. Kim's wife comforted her saddened husband by saying, "There is no doubt that we need a child to maintain our family line and property. If you look for an appropriate child among all your relatives and adopt him as our son. what would ever be worse about him than a son we beget? We will love him as much as our own child." Kim Saeng adopted a son as his wife suggested. And they lived happily ever after.

Commoner women played important roles in the economic structure of Korea's traditional society. Grain and textiles, the two major items in ancient merchandise markets, were all produced by them. They had to work at their looms even harder when it became pqssible to have peasants exempted from military service in exchange for the payment made in kindwith fabrics. Women toiled so much too as wife and mother.

The case history of Kim Man-jung (1637-92) is well known. A renowned scholar and author of popular novels such as Ku-unmong (Nine Cloud Dreams), he was noted for ~eep affection for his mother. She was totally devoted to him. It is said that she never wore a worried look though she had to earn the livelihood of her family by weaving and embroidering after her husband died in a war. Though impoverished, she bought her sons all books they needed - regardless of their prices. She borrowed Chinese classics from Hongmungwan (Office of Special Advisers). through an official who lived in her neighborhood and copied them for her sons.

B. Executioner of the Rights of Family Head

Under the family system of the Confucian-dominated Chosen society, the family head lorded it over his family with as much influence as the king over his people. Women and children

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could never file a suit against the head of their family for crimes other than treason. The family head exercised absolute authority. Still and all, that authority was not monopolized by the family head. Instead. some of the women in his family could and did share it another reason to believe that the position of women in the traditional society was not exactly miserable all the time.

The primary right of the family head lay in keeping the family tree growing. Under the family system that emphasized the blood relationship on the paternal side, adoption was considered de rigueur when there was no son to continue the family heritage. In the absence of male representatives in a family, the decision on who should keep the family lineage was altogether left in the hands of the widow or her mother-in-law. The mother or the grandmother also held herself responsible for important matters like adoption. marriage and succession in the family. Even in the royal court, the mother or the grandmother of a child king "carried out state affairs behind the veil" (suryom chong;ong). Korean history from the Koguryo down to the Choson period is in fact dotted with such powerful women.

Let us study the case of Queen Shinjong, who placed a boy named Kojong in the king's throne. Kojong's reign lasted from I864 to I907. This was toward the end of the Choson kingdom. Then the most powerful lady of the court was Queen Dowager Sunwon. In fact she too conducted the affairs of state from behind the veil and made it possible for members of a Kim clan, with whom she was related. monopolize government power. Thanks to her, the latter half of the last century in Korea came to be known as one of the in-law government (sedo chongchi).

When the king, the queen dowager's son, died, she installed her grandson Honjong on the throne and held sway over the kingdom with her clansmen, the Kims from Andong. When Honjong died without an heir. she enthroned Choljong, a young boy who had no family background to speak of, so that she and her clansmen could retain their political dominance.

All this while, Queen Shinjong, mother of Honjong, had been kept right out of the power structure. Embittered. she waited for a chance to even the score. Now the queen dowager, with all her power, died of old age. Soon, too, did Choljong. Queen Shinjong pounced on the chance and picked Kojong, a I 2-year-old boy from a family that could in no way challenge her authority, and made him a king. And she ran state affairs for the ensuing three years.

C. Equal Rights of Women in Property Inheritance

Socially the Korean woman's power was restricted , yes. Not at home. Take for instance the statutes on inheritance. The daughters of a family were eligible to as much of the share as their brothers. One exception concerned the eldest son. He rated an extra portion to finance family rites for ancestor worshiping. The system for equal distribution of property among male and female offspring was based on Confucianism. It ruled that an unfair distribution. that could impair harmony among siblings, ran counter to the law of heaven.

Kyongguk tae;on, the basic statutory code of Choson, stipulated that family properties should be distributed equally among all children, with a little bigger portion bequeathed to the one responsible for the family's ancestor worshiping ceremonies. Of special note here is that the law ensured equal shares for married daughters as well.

Husband and wife had the same rights over property succession after their death. The property of a wife who died without a child went to her husband while he remained a widower.

40

A HISTORY OF KOREAN WOMEN

But when he remarried, he had to revert the properties of his deceased wife to her maiden family. In case a dispute arose over the ownership of the property of a deceased wife. the husband's right to inherit it was recognized only when he presented a note of donation by his wife or other necessary evidence.

Why were women granted such equal rights at a time when the male-oriented Confucianism, as a code of conduct, was everything? The time-honored marriage system amounted to an institution that registered due respect for women. And then you had to consider the edict against remarriage among widows. That statute had to be supported financially - by the equal rights for inheritance of women. That in turn encouraged chastity among women. It Is safe to say that though women ethically were subjugated to men during the Chosen period, it was a different story altogether where domestic economy was concerned.

With the advancement of trade and industry in the latter half of the 18th century, some women displayed outstanding abilities in business and accumulated considerable fortune. Widows, in particular, had to pay keen attention to the art of making money in order to support herself and educate their children. Those without children were forced to pay no less attention to earning money and saving in the interest of security in their declining years. Many women saved up by hoarding up surplus farm yields. They loaned money at high interests, too.

Korea now even had some successful businesswomen. One of them was named Mandok.

As the daughter of a rich merchant family, she was born early in the 18th century in Chejudo. a major island off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula. Her father often traveled to the mainland to sell Cheju goods like brown seaweed, abalone and mandarin oranges. She was eleven when her father died in a shipwreck. Mandok with her brothers went to live with one of the family's distant relatives.

Mandok then became a kisaeng (the Korean counterpart of geisha) and lived with a royal inspector named Yi To-won for a while when she was 19. He presented her some jewelry when he returned to Seoul. By selling the jewelry she raised some fund and started a business in deer horn (for a pep medicine) and skin. She also cultivated medicinal herbs and orange, while buying Cheju abalone and brown seaweed at low prices and selling them to merchants from the mainland at high prices. At the same time she imported cotton fabrics and rice from the mainland and sold them in Chejudo.

She made not a little fortune by successfully taking advantage of fluctuations in commodity prices, and became known for her wealth throughout her native island. In I 794. a storm hit the Chejudo island. The islanders suffered from a severe case of famine. The government in Seoul hurriedly sent emergency provisions - in vain.

Mandok now donated all her fortune, the wealth accumulated through 3 5 long years, for the relief of her fellow islanders. Hearing of this. the king ordered the governor of Chejudo to cite her with an official rank so that her name would be remembered by posterity.

3) Intellectual Activities among Women

A new tendency took shape among the masses to criticize and satirize the stupidity of the yangban (aristocrats) class as Korean society became acutely aware of problems arising from

its single-minded pursuit of Confudan ideals after the mid-chosen period.

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The new culture. characterized by its emphasis on humanitarian values. stimulated women and their activities in academic and literary fields. the two intellectual sanctuaries that had hitherto been monopolized by men. Women. whose major roles at home had included one of taking care of their children's education. realized all at once that they too had to study Confucianism.

Now a fast-rising number of parents felt compelled to give a Confucian education to their daughters before they married.

After the mid路Choson period. private tutoring became increasingly popular for men's education: teachers were invited to the private home to give their lessons. The instructions were mainly for the boys. But many of their sisters naturally took advantage of it. As a result. women came to produce a number of literary works. which generally expressed the authors' growing recognition of their egos. This in no time led to the birth of a women's drive to do away with the time-worn status of women and to build a new image for themselves.

This fact is illustrated by the stories of two women: So Yongsugak (1753-1823). who with her own prominent scholarship did well indeed in educating her children. and lm Yunjidang (1721-93). who achieved an unusual distinction as a Confucian philosopher and writer.

From an early age So Yongsugak's intelligence was marked. She educated herself by reading books at home while her brothers were instructed by private tutors. After marriage. she became a perfect wife and then a perfect teacher to her son. She not only checked his academic progress step by step but also made it a rule at night to read Chinese classics and tales of great men before he fell asleep.

Well known is a question that she is said to have posed to her son one night. She said that of the great people of ancient times there were two kinds: those who did not fear to speak out right things before the king and those who wisely guided the people and saved them from hardships. "Which ones do you think are greater?" she asked.

When her son pointed to the former in reply. she quickly exposed his inadequacy by saying: "Your intentions are good. But discretion eludes you. Great people should know how to save the people from crises ...

So Yongsugak also was an excellent mathematician. Unlike most Confucian scholars of her days. she had a practical and scientific frame of mind. lm Yunjidang was also self-educated: 路she did household chores during daytime and read books until very late at night. She never felt an intellectual deficiency while discussing 路academic matters with her brothers. She was indeed much brighter than her brothers. who used to say: "It's a great pity that you were not born a man." Her elder brother lm Song-ju (1711路88). a renowned scholar. was so impressed by her keen intelligence that he served his own sister as a private tutor. With his assistance she developed an altogether new Confucian theory of her own. She became a brilliant scholar; she left a long list of monographs and essays on philosophical subjects. a truly unusual accomplishment for a woman of her time.

III. Modernization of Women

and the Feminist Movement

I) Advent of the Modernistic View of Women

For long, women in Korea accepted discrimination against them and made no bones about it. That kind of stance in fact was a result of their ignorance. In order to realize that they were 42

A HISTORY OF KOREAN WOMEN

unfairly treated and denied their rights as independent human beings. Korean women needed to come into contact with a totally different set of opinions.

From this standpoint. Catholicism. introduced to Korea around the 18th century. provided a major momentum to cause changes in the consciousness of women. Catholicism brought a stunning message that all living souls are equal before the Lord. This gave many women in Korea an inspiration. They gathered outdoors to spread their newly-adopted religion.

The social consciousness of women met another major momentum through Tonghak (Eastern Learning). a popular movement to uphold the nation's spiritual heritage. This movement gained support from common people early in the 19th century. Its goal was nothing less than the establishment of a new social order based on humanism. Tonghak insisted on a fair treatment of women at home and respect of their personality. Denying the traditional concept of sex inequality. it asserted that all humans were equal within hanullim. the supreme deity of a Korean faith. and that women could become leaders of society just like men.

Confusions followed. But the new development failed to produce anything akin to the modern idea of sex equality. Brave as it was. the new movement was theoretically too deficient to break the tradition of patriarchal authority. Besides. both Tonghak and Catholicism recognized the patriarchal authority.

Korea. up till then known abroad as the Hermit Kingdom. for once opened its ports to the rest of the world in 1876. This touched off a rapid influx of modern thoughts and ideas. The enlightenment of women quickly became a favorite subject for discussion among reform-minded leaders. such as Pak Yong-hyo (1861-1939). Yu Kil-jun (1894-1914) and So Chae-pil (who was known also as Philip Jaisohn: 1863-1951 ).

They battled against the abuse of wife by husband and the practice of taking poison to induce abortion. They battled too for women's equal opportunity of education and for the right for widows to remarry. Their crusade was designed also to do away with the evil practice of keeping concubines and to restore equal rights between husband and wife. Thanks to their battle. the Reform of 1894 (Kabo kyongiang) recognized the equal rights of the sexes. remarriage by widows and the importance of women's education. A Decree on Elementary Schools. announced in July 1895. legally recognized the equal opportunity of education for men and women.

The Independence Club (Tongnip Hyophoe). founded in 1896 and its official organ. The Independent (Tongnip Shinmun). made a more direct contribution towards awakening the people to the urgent need for educating women. Convinced that Koreans themselves must be enlightened to prevent foreign powers from interfering in the nation's internal affairs. leaders of the club came to an inevitable conclusion: you have to educate women first in order to get your children well educated. Outcome: schools for women jumped in number to some 200 by 1910. the year Japan "annexed" Korea.

2) Modern Feminist Movement The modern feminist movement began to take life on the strength of the ever increasing number of the women who received modern education. In September 1898. a group of women residing in the northern district of Seoul. traditionally a residential district for the nobility. issued a Declaration of the Rights of Women. The declaration called for female suffrage and rights

PAK YONG-OK

43

for employment and education, the three basic issues of the modern feminist movement. These women formed an assodation named Chanyanghoe to assist the establishment of a public school for women and joined the Common Society of All People (Manmin Kongdonghoe). an organization for civil rights movement affiliated with the Independence Club.

They set up Sunsong Women's School. the first private institution for women's education in Korea, in 1899. Their activities were significant in that Korean women began for once to move on their own to take part in the intellectual and professional activities which had thus far been monopolized by men.

As the 20th century opened, the women's enlightenment movement proceeded more speedily than ever. It now was part of the public campaign designed to strengthen national power. As we have pointed out earlier, the feminist movement in Korea at this time was confined largely to producing "wise mothers and good wives." In 1907, Korean women even initiated a public campaign to redeem national debts.

In the main. the campaign was aimed at squashing Japan's scheme of occupying Korea by paying up debts that Korea owed Japan. With this in mind, a massive fund-raising drive got going. The target was to raise 30 million won, then precisely the size of the government budget. by collecting from each of the I 0 million Korean women three won. Their plan: give one-third of the fund to pay off debts from Japan, a second half to open schools and the final third to establish a bank to help promote industrial development.

Leaders of this ambitious crusade also sought to obtain equal rights for women on the strength of their achievement. The good drive died in no time - suppressed by Japan.

In the meantime, women in the rural communities stood up against forces threatening their life. Consider what some I 00 widows did at Amtaedo, an island off the southwestern part of Korea. They organized a protest against local officials for levying unreasonable taxes and succeeded in revoking them in 1909.

3) Expansion of the Modern Feminist Movement Since before their "annexation" of Korea in 1910. the Japanese went all out taking advantage of low wages for Korean women. Indeed they gave some Korean women a vocational education. But that education was exceedingly low in level. Not surprisingly, the vocational and technical trainings offered by the Japanese were designed solely to invigorate their ¡capitalism.

Sure enough, Korean women were all but exploited. They rated but one half or even onefourth of the wage that the Japanese earned.

In the main, women's education in Korea under Japanese occupation was conducted by institutions operated by religious organizations. One outcome of this was that the leadership of women's movements shifted from women of noble birth to those having received modern education at schools run by Christian missionaries - the mission schools.

From March I , 1919, when an historic uprising was launched against Japanese rule, Korean women 's role in the resistance movement became more organized. though their efforts to extend assistance to the Korean provisional government in Shanghai produced no notable results.

Through the 1920s and 1930s, the women's education and labor movement continued. Then the labor movement was related with a socialist movement. Established then was the Choson Women's Association to represent leftist viewpoints of the interests of female workers from under-

44

A HISTORY OF KOREAN WOMEN

privileged classes. Kunuhoe. or the Society of Working Comrades. was formed later in collaboration with the rightist and the leftist forces. The society was short-lived because of ideological conflicts among the comrades.

Little then was accomplished for the liberation of women. Once again the reason was not complex. The Japanese colonial administration was at once authoritarian and dedicated to treasuring Confucian values. Only a small number of intellectual women tried to carry the banner for women's rights.

Those were the dark years in the annals of women's crusade for women. The true advancement of women's movements began only after the liberation of Korea from the Japanese rule at the close of World War II in 1945.ÂŽ

(Tiiis article was originally written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREANA. Tliis is a translation.)

Snowflakes That Scald â&#x20AC;˘ Kim Nam-jo (192 7 - J

A half of my self always waited: And the other half ran, Both gaining nothing.

In the days and nights of declining years, The sky sinks into deep thought: And snow flowers float down.

My flesh utterly naked and bare.

0. snowflakes that freeze and scald!

The earth rocks the candle of hope And turns myriad minds to burning candles. *From Korean Poetry. published by the Korean Culture and Arts Foundation in 1987.

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The Korean history abounds with striking stories about great women. Here we have selected but two of them.

For all their differences in upbringing and character. they amount to the ffnest examples of Korea's womanhood.- Ed.

I) SHIN SAIMDANG

Perfect woman and artist Kim Huran

ost of the figures who predominated the stream of history in the past were men.

A very limited number of women were on the forefront of history in most societies.

But we know very well that behind many of those prominent men were their mothers. who were great women.

Shin Saimdang {I 504-5 I) was the mother of Yi I. a renowned neo-Confucian philosopher and statesman of the 16th century, who is better known by his pen name, Yulgok Obviously, she owes much of her reputation to her distinguished son. But at the same time we can say that only a great woman like her could bring up a great man like Yulgok.

Lady Saimdang had a personality and attitude of life that. 'transcending time and space, fully deserve to be presented as a model of success for women of today. She lived in an age when Korean society was under the overwhelming influence of Confucian ideology and moral principles.

At the time a strict male-centered moral code confined the Korean woman with the so-called "way of three obediences." i.e .. obedience to her father during the early years of her life. obedience to her husband after marriage, and then obedience to her son in old age. Lady Saimdang, however. did not submit herself to unconditioned subservience and meaningless virtues, sacrificing herself to no cause.

Saimdang fulfilled her various roles in life with almost incredible perfection. She was an exceptionally good daughter for her parents, an intelligent partner of conversation and reliable adviser for her husband. and a wise and loving mother for her children. Besides. she made constant efforts to cultivate herself. attaining a remarkable standard of learning and artistic endeavors. She was loved and adored by her family and relatives during her lifetime. Today, after more than four centuries. she is widely respected not only as a model of wise and virtuous woman but also as a prominent artist who successfully displayed the potential of the

M

Kim Huran, a leading poetess and retired ;ournalist. was born in Seoul in 1934 and made her literary debut in 1960 on the strength of a recommendation from the monthly magazine Hyundai munhak {Modern Literature).

As a popular poet and columnist, she has published a number of anthologies of poems and light essays. including An Ornamental Knife and Rose {1968), Musical Score {1971). A Certain Wave {1976), As a Citizen of Snowland {1982) and In This World of Man {1985). She'formerly served as president of the Korean Women's Development Institute. Currently, she is a member of the Korean P.E.N. Center and the

screening panel of the Korean Poetry Association. She is also a member of the Women's Policy Deliberation Commission .

46

SHIN SAIMDANG

Korean woman.

Saimdang was born on October 29. 1504. at Pukpyong village in Kangnung, a coastal city in Kangwon-qo Province in central eastern Korea. Pukpyong nowadays is a quiet village, but in remote ancient times it had been a center stage of the activities of Yemaek tribe, ancestors of the present-day Koreans. It has a beautiful natural environment with the rugged Taekwallyong Pass soaring above white clouds to the west and a clean. billowing sea to the east. The scenery is excellent enough to have drawn ancient geomancers to predict the coming of a great man.

A major historical asset of this village is Ojukhon, or the House of Black Bamboo, where both Lady Saimdang and his son Yulgok were born. The traditional Korean-style house was recently repaired and opened as a memorial hall for the mother-son duo of excellence. with a selection of their calligraphic works and paintings displayed for year-round viewing by visitors.

The name of the house was derived from a mysterious grove of black bamboo in its garden.

Saimdang came from a family of respectable scholarly tradition. Her father was Shin Myonghwa, the 18th generation descendant of Shin Sung-gyom, who was one of the top aides and meritorious subjects of Wang Kon. the founding monarch of the Koryo dynasty. Her mother was the only daughter of Sa On, a scholar of notable repute. She was second among all female five siblings. With a fine appearance and excellent talents. she was particularly endeared by her parents.

She displayed unusual talent in painting at an early age. At seven, she amazed her family by practicing landscape painting by herself with a painting by An Kyon. a master painter of the 15th century. She continued to make progress in her artistic endeavor to achieve a style of her own. She particularly enjoyed depicting flowers. birds and fruits, the motifs she could easily find in her daily life. Grapes, watermelons, little insects, birds, orchids and assorted flowers that often appear in her pictures are characterized by shrewd observation and mature brushwork with a delicate feminine touch.

There is a well-known episode about her brilliant skill in painting. While she was still living at Kangnung, one of her neighbors held a big party where many women from the village were invited. A young girl among the guests happened to spill water on her skirt during the party.

She almost cried when a big stain appeared on her red skirt. The fact was that she had borrowed the skirt from a friend of hers because her family was too poor to buy her new. clothes for the gathering. Upon finding the young girl in a baffling situation, Saimdang used her wisdom to ask for a brush and ink. and then asked the girl to take off her skirt. Then she spread the skirt on the floor and began to draw lovely bunches of grapes and leaves all over it. The picture was so fascinating that a rich woman among the guests instantly offered to buy it. It was sold on the spot at a high price. which was sufficient to buy a new skirt to replace the stained one and more dresses for the poor girL Saimdang was married at 19. Her husband. Yi Won-su. came from a ranking noble family in SeouL According to the custom at the time, she was supposed to leave for Seoul with her husband after holding a wedding ceremony at her house in Kangnung. But her father loved her so much that he was reluctant to send her away. Therefore, he suggested to the groom after the wedding ceremony that she would be allowed to stay with him for a while even though she was now married and he knew very well that she had to leave.

According to a biography of Saimdang written by Yulgok, her father said to his son-in-law: KIM HURAN

47

"I have other daughters, but I particularly endear this child who became your wife. I find it so hard to part from her, so what do you think of living with us for a while?" It was totally against the custom, but the young man agreed. This is why Saimdang lived with her parents after she got married unlike other women of her time. Her father died soon afterwards. He was 47.

After her father passed away, however, Saimdang found it even more difficult to leave her mother in sadness. She stayed with her through the formal mourning period of three years before she came up to Seoul and held a second wedding ceremony in front of her parents-inJaw. By this time Yulgok had already been born.

When she was 38 years old, Saimdang took over the duties for home management from her mother-in-law who had grown too old and weak to carry on with the demanding chore.

Overlooking the large household and assisting her husband who was serving as kamdral. a sixthrank official at Safronbu, the Office of the Inspector-General. she now found it extremely hard to take time to visit her mother at Kangnung. This made her so sad that. on her way back to Seoul from her last visit to her mother, she wrote the following poem:

Leaving behind my aged mother at Frome My heart aches on this lonely ;ourney to Seoul.

Looking back toward Pukcfron far away I see the white clouds drifting above a mountain in twilight.

This is one of the only two poems written by Lady Saimdang, which are handed down till today. The other piece also depicts her deep love for her mother.

My Frome is one thousand li away over mountains one upon another.

But I yearn to go back day and night. in sleep or awake.

Tfre solitary moon over Hansong;ong pavilion , A streak of wind past Kyongpodae beach, Seagulls scatter from the sand and again gather together.

Fishing boats sail in and out on the sea.

Wfren could I ever again tread the path to Kangnung To sit beside my mother and sew with frer?

These two poems tell us that Lady Saimdang, in spite of her perfect womanly virtues as required by the rigid Confucian moral decorum, was not all cool wisdom and intelligence at all.

Probably due to her innate artistic sensitivity, she was prone to tears of uncontrollable homesickness and love for her aged mother from time to time. But such an emotional spree seldom interfered with her performance of duties as a wife and a mother. Not only her family

48

SHIN SAIMDANG

members but all servants in her household respected her from the bottom of their hearts because she was a stern but loving mother and mistress.

Her husband discussed important matters with her and listened attentively to her advices.

Once a cousin of his father. Yi Ki, was serving as the supreme state councillor (yong-ui;ong) commanding enormous power. His house was crowded with many visitors all the time and Saimdang's husband, being a close relative of his, naturally visited him frequently. Saimdang did not like this and said to her husband one day: "I understand you know that your uncle indulges in power and conducts many misdeeds. Even though he is a close relative of yours, I do not think it is right for you to visit him so often when you are aware that he is not a righteous man. A man like him will never remain in power for long."

Considering this advice to deserve respect. her husband restrained himself from visiting his powerful uncle thereafter. Thus, he could avoid the impact of a political convulsion which soon took place.

From this episode we can discern the straightforward character of Saitndang, if not necessarily her insight to foresee the future. She did not hesitate to speak out her thought before her husband if it was needed to guide him along the right path. In a society dominated by a deeprooted notion of male supremacy, Lady Saimdang and her husband established an example of the ideal conjugal life, respecting each other as equal human beings and assisting for mutual growth.

They had four sons and three daughters and educated all of them successfully. Yulgok, who was the third son, established a nee-Confucian theory initiated by the Sung Chinese philosopher Chu Hsi, emphasizing ki (ch'i in Chinese). the energizing and concretizing element in the universe, as opposed to i (li in Chinese), the patterning or formative element. He was famed not only as a philosopher but also for many reform proposals he put forward in regard to government. the economy and national defense. Eldest daughter Maechang inherited her mother's literary talent and achieved fame as a poetess. The fourth son, U, excelled in the arts of painting, calligraphy, poetry and music.

The government of Chason, in recognition of the couple's exemplary roles in the society and family, posthumously granted them the honorary titles of Chonggyong puin. the highest rank given to the wives of noblemen in government service during the Chason period, and.Sung;ong daebu Uiiongbu chwachansong, an assistant state councillor. In modern-day Korea , in May every year, women's associations present the Shin Saimdang Award to an exemplary housewife who has attained a notable standard of artistic endeavor and at the same time made outstanding social service. The award ceremony, held in an ancient royal palace in Seoul. is followed by contests in calligraphy, painting, embroidery and poetry and prose writing, the arts in all of which Lady Saimdang distinguished herself. where all women are invited to demonstrate their skills. ÂŽ (The color section of this issue includes a photograph of an embriodery work that typiffes her artistry.- Ed.) (This article was originally written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREANA. This is a translation.)

KIM HURAN

49

2) KIM MARIA Symbol of patriotism for Korea Pak

Yong~ok

im Maria (189I¡I944) was a great woman who devoted her whole life to helping the establishment of an independent. democratic nation. She not only fought against the feudalistic oppression of women but also sacrificed her life for a greater cause: saving the nation from the colonial rule of the Japanese.

She had to choose an unmarried life because fate assigned her to carry on a task which was more imminent and greater than being somebody's wife and mother. The times called her to awaken Korean women to the mission of saving the nation and the people, of restoring the nation's independence and of achieving the freedom and equality of women.

She was born the youngest of the three daughters of Kim Yun-bang and Mrs. Kim Mong in the scenic village of Sorae in Hwanghae province, north Korea. She had a happy childhood.

Her great-grandfather had served as a government minister but gave up his distinguished career out of disgust for corruptions in politics. He moved his family to Sorae and concentrated on Confucian studies while cultivating farms.

Maria's father was different from most other Confucian scholars. He was keenly interested in foreign culture and civilization. Christianity had been already introduced into Sorae. Maria's father accepted the religion with open arms.

Maria's mother shared her husband's opinion that imported ideas and the civilization.should be further adapted and developed in Korea. She also did her best to give her daughters a good education. Maria began attending school from age five, dressed like a boy. The bright girl was always the top student of her class. Often she told of her dream about becoming an army general. Her childhood happiness was short-lived. At age five, she lost Father and at age I 3, Mother. Just before Mother breathed her last. $he asked her two sisters to make sure that Maria be given a chance to study abroad. "The world today is changing fast." she said.

After her mother died, Maria moved to Seoul where she attended Chongsin Girls' School, a Christian mission school.

She graduated from the school in I9 I0. Now she served as a teacher for three years at Sophia Girls.' School in the southern city of Kwangju before returning to take up a teaching position at her alma mater in Seoul. At the school. she is known to have "poured all her energy" in teaching her students of the importance of restoring independence for Korea.

Maria was at this school for three years before she traveled to Japan, the enemy country to her. The arrangement was made by the prindpal of Chongsin. Maria accepted it in the belief that she really had to learn much more to be of service for Korea.

Once in Japan, Maria did her studies in Hiroshima. In the spring of I9 I 5 she moved up to the Japanese capital to enter Tokyo Women's Institute, a hall of advanced learning founded

K

For a bio of the contributor of this article, turn to page 34 (A History of Korean Women).

50

KIM MARIA

and operated by American missionaries.

The end of World- War I touched off a worldwide fever for the right of self-determination among people in many of the colonized countries. Not surprisingly, at a rally held in the auditorium of Tokyo's YMCA on February 8, 1919, a feverish group of Korean students adopted a declaration for the independence of their country.

Of course, Maria was there and immediately made up her mind to return home and to smuggle a copy of the declaration into Korea. American professors tried to fast-talk her into giving up that idea now that she was about to graduate from the instiMe. Maria was determined. "What is the use of a graduation diploma in a country under foreign rule?" she asked. The professors were impressed. So much so that they helped her get her graduation diploma without going through the graduation tests.

On returning home, Maria realized she had been just in time to participate in a great battle.

A large number of Korean freedom fighters were getting set to kick it off. The D-Day was to fall on March I , 1919 - the March I Movement. She readily joined the group and worked to coordinate anti-Japanese uprising across the Korean peninsula.

The whole country seemed to explode when the big day came. Indeed, along with thousands of independence fighters. Maria battled hard. But the Japanese military and police in the end put it under control. In the end she fled and hid herself in the dormitory of the old Chongsin school. And there she was placed under arrest by Japanese police agents who, as it turned out had been dogging her footsteps ever since her return home. ¡ Police put her through the infamous torture chamber routines. According to Pak In-dok, who was also arrested and who ran into her at the entrance of the interrogation room, Maria's face was covered with blood. As a result of the torture, Maria through the rest of her life suffered from chronic illnesses. But she never publicly complained about it. After having been held in the detention house for five months, she was let go. Police could squeeze no confessions out of the battling woman.

Maria resumed teaching at Chongsin. Her clandestine anti-Japanese activities continued. Her secret machine was an organization whose name could be translated as a Patriotic Women's Association. In close cooperation with its branches in the United States, this group raised 6,000 won in a month since its inauguration and sent it as a contribution to the treasury of the. Korean provisional government in Shanghai. The daily wage of a grown-up man back those days was only 2 won. But the hard-working secret organization was squashed in no time by Japanese colonial authorities after one of its members betrayed it. All its officers were arrested. The police were shocked by the magnitude of the association's activities.

Answering the prosecution's interrogation, Maria flatly declared: "It is natural for a Korean to fight for Korea's independence. It is natural for a Korean woman to join the fight as it is for a Korean man."

The Japanese prosecutor asked her when the organization was founded. He urged her to give an answer in terms of the Japanese era. Maria declined by observing: "I only know the Christian era."

Back to the torture chamber was Maria forced to go. She then looked. according to the vernacular daily Dong-A llbo, like a "living corpse." Her health deteriorated as she served her time in jail. She was released on parole and was admitted to the Severance Hospital in Seoul. Nobody

PAK YONG..QK

51

imagined the woman. who seemed on the verge of death. could escape from the hospital cell.

But Kim Maria did.

On June 13. 1921. she left the hospital on a rickshaw. covering her face with a parasol. She went to a Chinese-style restaurant where she changed into a Chinese dress. When darkness fell. she went to Inchon. the great port city to the west of Seoul. Now she took a few days' rest and left in secret for China aboard a wooden vessel.

It took three days' rough sailing before the indefatigable woman arrived in China. Being in a serious physical condition. she fell unconscious several times during the crossing but recovered consciousness owing to injections given by her friends. In China. she was hospitalized for three months. and recovered gradually.

After being discharged from the hospital. she took part again in the independence movement. On June 21 . 1923. she departed for the United States for study and arrived in Los Angeles on July 11. There she found a job as a factory worker and earned schooling expenses. However. her failing health and hard labor put her into a hospital again.

It was in September 1924 when she finally was enrolled at Park College. Parkville. Mo. Four years later she switched to Chicago University and earned her master's degree in psychology.

While studying. Maria inaugurated what was known as Kunhwa-hoe with former members of the Patriotic Women's Association. Kunhwa-hoe aimed at promoting patriotism among expatriate Koreans in the U.S. The organization also did its best to inform. through lectures and publications. the western world of the atrocities of Japanese colonial rule in Korea. It raised. too. more funds for the government in exile in Shanghai.

Maria's sense of mission is spelled out all over a letter that she sent to a friend back in Korea from Park College.

In part it read: Whenever I eat delicious food. wrap myself up in nice clothes. look at the splendid natu¡ ral and man-made scenes. and lie down in soft bed. I cannot enjoy those things as I am compelled to think about my people in and outside my native country. I cannot recall how many nights I sat up awake and wet my pillow with warm tears ... I will return to my coun¡ try in a hurry and share the sorrow, hunger and pains with my brethren.

Maria did return to her long-lost home country. That was in 1935- 12 years after she fled on a slow boat to China. This time there was no such adventures in store for her. Frail in health. she was kept constantly under surveillance by Japanese authorities. The Japanese never allowed her to resume her teaching career. They were convinced rightly that her indomitable ardor for independence could only cause more trouble at school. Maria had no choice but to teach theology at Martha Wilson Theological Seminary in Wonsan. north Korea.

While serving at the school. she adopted an orphan boy and named him Kim Tae-guk. And then she was once again hospitalized. this time for brain hemorrhage. at the Christian Hospital in Pyongyang.

Maria passed away at the dawn of March I 3. I 944. only about one and a half years before her country was liberated from the Japanese rule. She was cremated and her remains were scattered on the great Taedong River as she had wished. Maria had become a permanent symbol for independence in Korea. ÂŽ 52

KIM MARIA

Introduced here is a parade of some of the most successful Korean women who are active in various fields today.

The gallery seems to make one thing clear-cut. For those endowed with enough talent and willpower, south Korea is an exceedingly youthful and rewarding country with tons of opportunities.-Ed.

PROFILES IN EXCELLENCE

Women Who Have Made It Kim Yu--kyong

KIM

SAM-SUN, microbiologist

Kim Sam-sun was known as a little genius in her home town in Tamyang, Chollanam-do Province, southwestern Korea, like all of her six brothers and sisters. Thanks to her father who believed that women must be educated like men, she went to school when most other girls of her age stayed at home learning how to cook and sew. When she saw a streetcar "running with an electric line on top of its head" for the first time upon coming up to Seoul to enroll in a middle schooL an idea immediately occurred to her. There and then she decided that "you must study things like that if you are really to continue studying."

Whatever she meant by that young Kim did continue studying hard and spedalized ¡ in microbiology, probably one of the least popuKim Sam-sun lar subjects for women of her generation. She first majored in physics and chemistry at Tokyo Higher Normal School and then chose biology at Hokkaido University, where, three decades later, in 1961, she went back to take up a doctorate course in microbiology and won her degree in 196 5. She was the first Korean woman to win a doctorate in microbiology and the first female natural scientist to have ever obtained a full membership of the Korean National Academy of Sciences. Earlier this year. Dr. Kim, who has turned 81, published Mushrooms in Korea, summing up her decades' research in the 325 kinds of wild mushrooms growing through-

Kim Yu-kyong, born in Seoul in 1947, is assistant feature editor of Kyunghyang Daily News, a ma;or newspaper published in Seoul. She began her ;ournalistic career in 1969 upon graduating from the College of Education, Seoul National University, where she ma;ored in French literature. She has been writing mostly on performing arts such as drama and dance, as well as women and fashion.

KIM YU¡KYONG

53

out Korea.

Dr. Kim admits that her life has been very different from those of most other Korean women of her generation. She got married at age 36 because of the strong urge of her parents. It was simply an unthinkable age for a woman to marry at the time. She fell ill on the very day after the wedding, however, due to her frustration over having to give up studies. Fortunately, her philosopher husband was understanding and allowed her to continue her teaching career. She was 51 years old when she went over to Japan to take up her doctorate course. Back in Seoul. she taught at Seoul National University and several other institutions until retirement.

Her research in mushrooms and efforts to standardize their names are highly respected in academic circles. She organized the Korean Fungology Association and was elected its first president. She is also a senior member of the Korean Microbiology Association."''ve been a kind of bookworm all my life. and I am still very happy in my laboratory, " she says, adding that she feels the happiest when her experiments proceed as expected. She also says she has seldom slept for more than four hours a day throughout her life. She has never bought herself cosmetics or dress accessories. nor has she done much cooking. "But I could swim four kilometers when I was young," she says. "You need a good health to study hard."

LEE

TAl-YOUNG, lawyer

Dr. Lee Tai-young, director of the Korean Legal Aid Center for Family Relations. has been at the forefront of the battle for improving the legal status of the Korean woman since the early 1950s. As Korea's first woman lawyer, her activities have been dedicated to revising Korean law governing family affairs, a single-minded effort to elevate the position of women.

Lee, who was born in 1914 in Pyonganbuk-do Province (now in north Korea). was already the mother of four children when she enrolled in the Seoul National University's College of Law. In 1952, while Korea was engaged in a three-year internecine military conflict. she passed the higher state examination for judicial service. She came quickly into the limelight of public attention as the first woman to pass the fiercely competitive examination. But the nation's judiciary was not prepared yet to seat a woman on the bench. She embarked on her memorable career as a lawyer.

The emergence of the first woman lawyer in the country presented a hot topic for mass media. Her office was soon swamped with endless appeals from women who had been suffering from problems arising from the deep-rooted practice of sexual inequality in their families and society. She became convinced that women had to be rescued by all means from the harsh result of traditional sex discrimination. At first she grasped it as problems of women, but gradually she came to recognize that it involved both sexes. She came to know too that a professional approach by specialists was acutely needed to rectify the legal status of women. which was still in a primitive state. The Korean Legal Aid Center for Family Relations, the central force of legal struggle for hapless women in Korea, was born in 1956.

During the last three and a half decades. the center has provided free legal counseling on roughly 250,000 cases through its 28 branches in and outside the country. Most of these cases clearly underline the abnormal state of legal structure in Korea, offering a primary source of the power to move toward revising the laws related with family affairs despite various barriers 54

PROFILES IN EXCELLENCE

caused by the deep-set conservative notions. The movement gained a greater force when a number of women's organizations across the country formed the Federation of Women for Revising the Family Law in I 984. In December I 989. the National Assembly passed a bill for amending articles of the Civil Code related to family affairs. Among other things the law now provides for an equal distribution of the inherited property of a family among the male and female members. (For details. refer to another article in this issue: Rise in the Legal Rights of Korean Women

by Prof. Choi Kum-suk. - Ed.) The revision was far from satisfactory to Dr. Lee and those who had campaigned for it. It was nonetheless a small but significant victory for her and her group of volunteer workers and supporters. "Without help from these people with noble spirits of service," Lee says, "our campaign couldn't have achieved what it has. " The One Hundred People's Hall. housing the center's head offices in Seoul. was constructed with donations from I 00 graduates from Ewha Womans University. where Dr. Lee studied home economics in her early twenties. A total of I67lawyers. including her I 00 alumni from Seoul National University, are currently offering free legal counseling services. In addition. some 400 volunteers are working.

Aside from giving numerous lectures and participating in panel discussions on the family law and women's issues. Lee has authored a number of books including A Study of Korean Divorce System. Practical Knowledge in Law for Women. A Study on the Women in North Korea and Spooning Out Water from the Han River. She received the Magsaysay Award and various other prizes in recognition of her distinguished services to society and contribution to women 's causes.

KIMSO-HI, pansori star The name Kim So-hi has stood for the highest standard of musical excellence in Korea. The pure tone of her voice. its rare dramatic quality and masterly command of a great diversity of techniques have enchanted audiences of different age groups and personal tastes.

From nameless village auditoriums in the far-off Korean countryside to the Carnegie Hall in New York and many prestigious stages in Europe. the voice of this prominent musician touched the hearts of people in many countries. When she was a popular star in her twenties. an enraptured young man in the audience cut off one of his fingers in order to write a l~ve letter in blood. An American reviewer some 20 years ago remarked that this diminutive folk musician from the Far East commanded a wider range of notes than Maria Callas.

These and many other episodes illustrate the glamorous side of Kim's life. The other side is marked by hard training that has continued even after she established a solid reputation.

She trained herself rigorously not only in singing but also in playing various traditional musical instruments - and in dancing, too. In recognition of the virtuoso quality of her artistry. the government named her in I 964 a "human cultural treasure, " the highest honor endowed to masters of traditional arts and crafts.

The designation was prompted by her outstanding rendition of Chunhyang-ga, one of the five classical pansori numbers which date back to the later years of the Choson dynasty (I 392- I 9 I 0).

Pansori is a long dramatic song which is uniquely Korean. In it a singer does everything - narrating. chanting, playing all the characters in the tale. One performance can last several hours.

A pansori singer's voice is typically rugged and husky.

KIM YU-KYONG

55

Kim heard the pansori music for the first time when she was 12 years old. She happened to attend a recital by a famous female vocalist at the time who was visiting her home town.

She later recalled that the music was "a kind of revelation" for a sensitive girl who was suffering from the agonies of a broken family. She felt a strong emotion in her heart and visited the theater many times. Finally, she made up her mind to leave home to study music.

She obviously had an innate gift for music because. only two years later. was she already receiving critical acclaims as a young prodigy with an unusual voice throughout her native province of Cholla-do. the home of many prominent artists and musicians. In another two years. she won a great popularity among music lovers in Seoul.

Thus was born one of the greatest pansori singers of this century. She has successfully maintained her popularity and reputation for over a half century. Now. in her early seventies. she no longer performs as frequently as before. But she visited Japan twice to perform last year and is now planning a concert of Korean folk songs by her students. With all her memories of a splendid career. she seems to turn ever more humble. She has said: "I feel as if my heart is empty when I look back on my life. So many times. my heart throbbed with the beauty of music and my love of it. But so many times. too. have I felt as if my whole existence was plunging down a deep abyss. It's hard to say what I have gained during all these years and what I have lost. But there is one truth that never changes and it is that there is no way to obtain true perfection in all arts."

HwANG HY&SONG, cuisine expert

Hwang Hye-song

Hwang Hye-song has been known o.rer the decades as a foremost expert in traditional Korean cookery as represented by the royal cuisine of the Chosen period (1392- 191 0) . Designated as a "human cultural treasure" by the government. she has devoted herself to studying the secrets of the culinary life in the ancient royal court and to presenting it as a proud cultural heritage of the Korean people.

The influence of royal cuisine - dishes prepared for the king and his family - on the development of Korean cookery was tremendous as it became the model for cooking among people of all classes over the centuries. Unfortunately. however. the powerful tide of Western culture which has flooded the country since the end of the last century. as well as Japan's harsh coloniaiism that followed, brought about a deterioration

to the traditional art. It was ironic in a sense that Hwang began her study in Korea 's traditional culinary culture toward the end of the colonial period upon the advice of the Japanese dean of a Seoul university where she was then a young

56

PROFILES IN EXCELLENCE

professor of home economics.

Shortly before the end of World War II. Hwang began her daily visits to the kitchen of Changdokkung Palace to study royal cuisine from six cooks who prepared food for Queen Yun. the widow of Korea's last monarch. Emperor Sunjong. Court ladies were reluctant to deal with an "outside commoner" at first. but her enthusiasm and tenacity finally won over them. She was soon able to learn complicated customs and etiquette which surrounded the preparation and serving of dishes in Korea's royal court. Her lessons with the deceased court lady Han Hi-sun continued for almost 30 years. even after she moved out of the palace following the death of Queen Yun. Over the years. Hwang transcribed with a more precise language the delectable recipes. which had thus far been handed down by word of mouth from generation to generation of court ladies. For example. she substituted accurate measurements and cooking times for vague traditional expressions such as "boil bubble-bubble" or "add a little salt." At the same time. she went over ancient royal documents and seat arrangements for major events in court. as well as those about cooking traditions handed down in an aristocratic household some 300 years ago. She published her first book on the palace cuisine in 1957. and her fncyclopedia of Korean Cooking published in 1976 is recognized as the definitive work on the subject.

"The royal cuisine is important." she has said. "because it represents the most refined form of traditional cooking. It was nurtured in the richest of kitchens in all Korea by the very best of cooks and with the finest of materials available." She notes that a king's dining table was a kind of message from the people. All the dishes on his table were not meant to be consumed by the king himself. but more often than not served to inform him of the general state of the economy and agricultural conditions. In addition. she says. the manner of setting the tables for ritual occasions and banquets for foreign dignitaries reflects vital aspects of the Korean culture. During the early years of her endeavor. studying Korean traditional culinary life was to her an act of confirming her national identity under foreign rule. In recent years. she says that she has been feeling an even stronger sense of mission; she has to prevent Korean food and cooking methods from losing their unique quality.

Retired as a professor of Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul. Hwang currently heads the Korean Royal Cuisine Research Institute. which she founded in the early 1970s. All of her three daughters are working in the same field. "It seems I was born to do this. And I am happy that all my daughters enjoy working together with me." she says.

CHoN KYONG-JA. painter Chon Kyong-ja. with her long, straight hair and her enchanting dresses. looks different from most other Korean women of her age. Her paintings. though they are categorized as Oriental paintings, look stunningly different from conventional landscape paintings or the ubiquitous depictions of flowers and birds.

Looking back upon her life. Chon says that she seems to have been more guided by feelings than reason. "I believe artists are born fanatics. and I certainly am one of them," she has said.

"My home town was on a small peninsula in the south. The sea breeze there used to stir my heart. My mother was so good at embroidery and ink painting. and I used to find illustrations

KIM YU¡KYONG

57

in the Chinese story books of my grandfather so intriguing."

She made her early debut in 1942, when she was still an art student in Tokyo, by getting her work accepted by a government-sponsored show annually held in Seoul. Most of her paintings at this time were realistic presentations of familiar motifs like the two works admitted at the exhibition - A Portrait of Grandfather and An Old Woman . In 1953 . While she was teaching at a secondary school in her native province of Chollanam-do, Chon surprised the art community by presenting a work of unusual subject, 3 5 snakes entangled together to cover the entire canvas, entitled A Mode of Life. The picture earned her a prompt recognition by critics as well as a teaching post at Hongik University in Seoul - and quickly opened the road to success.

Chon explains that the snakes in her early paintings were an expression of her agony and frustration caused by poverty, a broken marriage and an ailing brother. Not only in terms of subject but in style as welL her paintings, characterized by bold coloring, remarkably differed from Oriental paintings of the traditional school. This aroused occasional criticisms from some segments of art community. From the late 1960s. her painting gained an even more vivid exotic atmosphere, owing to her trips to Africa, Central and South America and the South Pacific.

At the same time, she grew increasingly famous and popular as a writer of light essays and columns in newspapers and magazines. She writes mostly about her life as an artist and a woman, and about her travels. To date she has published I 0 books including AHouse on the Hill, Chon Kyong-;a Goes to the South Paciffc and The 49 Pages of My Sad Legend. Her uniquely candid style with a sentimental undertone attracts a broad readership in Korea.

She has been solely devoted to painting and occasional writing since her retirement as a professor of Hongik in 1973 . These days she spends about three to five hours a day for painting in a studio at her apartment in southern Seoul. She lives alone with a puppy. Her two sons and two daughters live separately. "An artist has to be lonely to be truly creative. Too much money ruins her creative mind, too," Chon says. She says that in the future she intends to do large-scale works on futuristic themes, using metallic colors. She says: "I do not think the future of the mankind is all too bright. I want to paint something mysterious and shocking, and beautiful and bizarre at the same time."

HWANG NYON-DAE, social worker

In addition to the usual medals. the Eighth Seoul Paralympics in 1988 had a special award given by a Korean woman named Hwang Nyon-dae to an athlete who, regardless of the games record. nationality or sex. was considered to have demonstrated the great human will for overcoming the limitations of being physically handicapped. The award included two million won (approximately US$3 ,000) in cash- personally donated by Hwang Nyon-dae.

Who was Hwang Nyon-dae? The name rang no bell for the games' foreign competitors and officials. To all Korean participants, however, how the award came into being was only too clear.

Among those physically handicapped in Korea, Hwang is known as their godmother. She extends her helping hands wherever they are needed. A polio victim herself and with a bitter experience of having been rejected by a primary school for the single reason of her limping, Hwang has succeeded as a medical doctor. But that was not all. She also has led a brave bat58

PROFILES IN EXCELLENCE

tie against the prejudice of society.

It was back in the early 1940s that she was denied her enrollment with a primary school.

She recalls the bitter experience every spring when a new academic year begins in Korea.

"Many people still have the same prejudice against those with physical handicaps," she says.

Hwang criticizes both some of the impractical welfare policies of the government and unconditioned charity from the society. She believes what is immediately needed by those physically handicapped is neither charity nor simple financial considerations but a true understanding of their conditions. Such a firm conviction stems from her own experience. She was hit by polio at age three and began to limp. But her father, unlike most other parents with crippled children at the time, never gave her a treatment Hwang Nyon¡dae different to that accorded his other children.

When guests came he made no bones about introducing her limping daughter to them.

Eventually Hwang studied medicine and became a good doctor. She had been determined to work for the relief of those who like herself were physically disadvantaged. She opened the Korean Polio Association in 1966 and in 1975 the Chongnip HaiL an education and welfare institution for the physically handicapped. The hall has a dormitory, a gymnasium and a swimming pool. Each year about 120,000 people take advantage of these facilities.

While reviewing a survey of handicapped children some years ago, Dr. Hwang made a startling discovery: a majority of the children covered by the survey said they had no hope for their future. Who is responsible for such a view? Her answer: the society as a whole. Now she is hard at work to help change the general stance that common people have tow?rds the physically handicapped. Her outstanding efforts have been rewarded with various awards, including the May I6 National Award and the Award for Today's Woman.

CHANG

YONG-SHIN, businesswoman

Business has never been a field where women have made their presence strongly felt.

That view has to be revised. Consider the case of Chang Yong-shin. In I 972 when her husband, then head of Aekyung Industrial Co., suddenly died, she lost no time in proposing to take over the management. She was then 36 and with no experience in business. Her decision left many people worried than impressed.

What followed has left far more people pleasantly surprised. In the last I 8 years the company, a leading soap and detergent maker in south Korea, has jumped from an equivalent of $350,000 to $430 million in sales. Today Aekyung owns a string of nine subsidiaries. It now

KIM VU-KVONG

59

is among the 70 largest business groups in the / country. On its payroll are 2,000 employees.

And the conglomerate produces 200 different lines of goods. Sure enough, of the 370¡member Korean Federation of Industries (KFI). Aekyung is the only outfit with a woman head - chairwoman. She is the sole woman on the KFI board of directors.

The fact is, when her husband suddenly died while sleeping in bed. Madame Chang was in a maternity ward giving birth to their fourth child.

The eldest child then was only eight years of age.

"Of course. it was not at all easy for me to make up my mind and plunge into the business world because of my children," she recalls. "Then again it was because of these children that I made that decision." Fortunately. her mother was understanding and willing to take care of the children.

Chang Yong¡shin "Without her help, I never could have done what I have." she says.

Her academic background is one of a chemist. Upon finishing her high school course in Seoul in 1955, Chang went to the U.S. and majored in chemistry at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, Pa. She explains that she chose chemistry because full scholarships were granted only to science and engineering majors at the time. She studied hard "not to lose my scholarship" through four years, came back to Seoul right after graduation, and got married as her parents wished.

It was only after she took up the management of Aekyung that she realized she had made the right choice of her major in college. Her knowledge in chemistry proved to be of considerable help for her business.

"At first I just hoped to keep the status quo of the company," she remembers. "But I soon realized that in business, there is no keeping the status quo. You either have to mqve ahead or fall back. My decisions have always been to move ahead. of course."

Chang says that being a woman has proved no disadvantage in business. The great Korean institution of entertaining clients after dark? She delegates that chore to her male employees.

Yes, she hurries back home after work, a habit that she still keeps even though her children are now all grown-ups. In fact, she has found that being a woman is a blessing in her business.

Her companies produce many things purchased by women.

Take for instance her joint venture with Pond. It took little time for her to sign the contract.

She herself used Pond 's cold cream while studying in the U.S. It became the first U.S.-made item of cosmetics introduced to Korea after the Korean War. Its sales score was more than amply gratifying to her.

Chang feels that business is just one of the many phases of life, so the same standards of judgment and values may apply to both. She is optimistic about the future of Korean economy in spite of its current doldrums. "Didn't we achieve an economic miracle that marveled the

60

PROFILES IN EXCELLENCE

world? We are the same people with the same strong points. I am certain that we can successfully overcome our current problems," she says.

LEE RHE&JA. fashion designer Western-style garments are widely worn as everyday clothes for both men and women in Korea today. But traditional women's dresses hardly seem to be losing their popularity, particularly as a formal attire for special occasions.

Colorful ensembles of cfrima (long, full skirt) and cfrogori (short jacket). characterized by their clas· sica! elegance and sometimes combined with modern modifications to suit individual tastes, are indispensable even now in Korea for occasions of family celebrations, social events and international gatherings.

Since the mid· I 960s, Lee Rhee-ja has been en· joying an unchallenged reputation as a foremost trend-setter and fashion leader wherever the Korean traditional dress is concerned. She has been displaying a striking originality in color com· bination and design of the otherwise simple dresses. Though sometimes criticized for an excessive use of rich colors and loud patterns, her dresses have been admired for their harmony of the old and new in aesthetidsm. The results have successfully demonstrated the unique beauty of Korea's traditional costume in and out of the country.

Her long list of clients has included the former and incumbent First Ladies, the wives of leading businessmen and politicians, top-class entertainers and other celebrities. Expecting major state occasions like banquets for foreign heads of state. she often has to worry about the overall harmony; none of her clients must look sartorially alike.

While Korea was still at its early stage of economic development what to wear was a "cultural concern " for many diplomats' wives. What were they to wear to present Korea's cultural characteristics and economic potential at the same time? A tough question. But Lee Rhee-ja gave a right answer when she offered a silk ensemble of cfrima and cfrogori, decorated with an embroidered design of roses of Sharon. the national flower of Korea. This was worn by Mrs. Ham Pyong·chun, wife of the Korean ambassador to Washington, when she attended a reception for the inauguration of President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Thereafter, the franbok (Korean traditional dress) ensembles decorated with embroidered designs of roses of Sharon became a standard costume for the wives of Korean dignitaries attending formal events abroad.

On the other hand, she has often done clothes for Korea's entries in international beauty contests. Her bias-cut skirts with flower-like hems and skirts decorated with bold zigzag stripes in bright colors of a rainbow have been among her creations for beauty queens from Korea

KIM YU·KYONG

61

at international pageants. They earned three ethnic costume awards in the I970s.

"There are strict rules in wearing our traditional dresses in spite of the changing sense of fashion and individual preferences. " Lee says. "The designer has to respect these rules while exercising all the benefits of her creativity." She organized the Korean Traditional Dress Association some years ago to deepen the public's correct understanding about traditional Korean dresses. a drive in which she hopes more and more dress designers will join. Currently the hard-working designer is engrossed with her studies of Korean costumes in the medieval period.

CHUNG KYUNG-WHA. violinist

She fell in love with the sound of violin when she played her first note on the instrument at age six. The violin produced a sound so different from that of piano. which she began to play at age four. She showed both an unusual talent and enthusiasm in learning to play her new instrument. At age nine. the little violinist copped the top prize at a national competition in Korea and at age I3 left for the U.S. to continue to study it at juilliard. What followed is one of the best known success stories for women in Korea.

At I9. she shared the top prize in the prestigious Leventritt competition with Pinchas Zuckerman. She made her successful debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra the next year (in I968). and her European debut with the London Symphony Orchestra in London came two years later. The following years saw the diminutive young violinist from Korea acclaimed on numerous stages around the world. captivating music lovers with her brilliant performances.

In I982 . Chung Kyung-wha was named by the Sunday Times Magazine as "the greatest instrument player who has been most active during the previous two decades." A New York Times review of her recital at the Carnegie Hall in I980 pointed to the ingenious quality of her music: "A consistent level of excellence in technique and interpretation may be expected as a matter of course from Chung Kyung-wha . Her recital made sure that the emotional temperature remained on the cool side throughout the evening. Actually. this was not really surprising either. for Miss Chung generally projects a musical personality that suggests dignified objectivity. for all her intensity and fire-and-ice virtuosity."

Chung was born in Seoul in I948 as orie of the seven children of a businessman. Ht:r parents were particularly enthusiastic about musical education of their children and moved to New York where the world's best institutions and teachers were available. The results have been truly remarkable: among all of her musician brothers and sisters. Kyung-wha certainly has had the most notable international career. But her elder sister Myung-wha is also an accomplished cellist. Earlier this year. her younger brother. pianist-cum-conductor Myung-whun. made a successful debut as art director and conductor of the Bastille Opera in Paris. The three have been known as the Chung Trio. performing together between their heavily-scheduled individual activities.

"When I left Seoul in I960. Korea was in a political confusion in the wake of the students' April uprising," Chung once recalled. "I was then filled with an ambition to become a successful violinist and make my country known to the world. But at Juilliard. I was so shocked to see Itzhak Perlman. who was then also a student of my teacher. Prof. Ivan Galamian. playing at least 20 concertos at a time. I couldn't sleep a bit that night. Then I practiced and practiced

62

PROFILES IN EXCELLENCE

to overcome my frustration. At that time I practiced for 14 hours a day, and my daily routine consisted only of practicing and attending classes. Now I feel it was an incredible challenge and passion, and such a life pattern continued until the Leventritt competition."

Prof. Galamian, who was famous for his stern teaching method, once told his Korean student to come for a lesson on Sunday morning at 7 o'clock. But she even amazed her notorious teacher by saying that she had been practicing until six in the morning. "Both of us were like that," she admits. She married a British businessman in 1984 and lives in London with her husband and two sons. During a press conference she gave while visiting Seoul in 1985 for her first concert tour to her homeland after marriage, she said: "The problem of marriage was on my mind for a long time. I know it is more difficult for a woman to continue her musical career than man because she has to think about matters like love, marriage and homemaking.

But once you have ac!Ueved a certain knack, they cannot be big problems." She said that she did not feel that having a family and a baby posed an obstacle to her musical career. Added she: "I found that it's so rewarding to have a baby and now I feel more secure."

It is widely known that her mother, Yi Won-suk, has been especially dedicated to training her as a musician. Kyung-wha once said that she believed she would not have been able to build her career without the all-out support she had had from her mother. She says: "I thank my mother for encouraging me to continue my musical study even while my family was not in a good shape financially."

KIM SOQ-NYUNG, archer On September 30, 1988, three Korean flags were hoisted side by side at the Hwarang Archery Range on the outskirts of Seoul where the archery competitions for the 24th Games of the Olympiad had been under way. A trio of smiling high school girls from the host country made a clean sweep of medals in the women's individual finals. Standing in the center of the all-Korean winners' podium was the 17-year-old Kim Soo-nyung, who turned out to be the nation's first double gold medalist in the sport by leading the same trio to the top place in the women's team event the next day.

With an outstanding skill and composure, Kim, who was then a second grader at <;:hongju Girls' High School in Chongju, Chungchongbuk-do, a central inland province, comfortably cruised into the individual title to retain the woman's crown for Korea; the similar crown was copped

by Suh Hyang-soon four years earlier in Los Angeles. In May this year, the world 's top woman archer played once again a decisive role in reaffirming Korea's supremacy in the 1990 Spring Arrows International Archery Tournament held in Sukhumi in the Soviet Republic of Georgia.

She won the gold medal in the women 's individual Grand FITA finals and helped her team . pick up the team gold medaL A Korean male trio won the team crown too in the same tournament.

Earlier in the tournament, Kim reassured the world of her reigning position by collecting 341 points in the women 's opening round 70-meter singles event for a world record , which was five points more than her previous world high at the 35th World Archery Championships in July 1989, in Lausanne, Switzerland. She also improved her own previous world mark in the women's grand FITA final-eight round. Back in Seoul, she immediately entered the final

KIM YU-KYONG

63

stage of training for the Beijing Asian Games. where the archery games are scheduled to open on October I. "I will do my best again in Beijing as I have done in all my previous games," said Soo-nyung, who is now a freshman majoring in physical education at Korea University.

Soo-nyung is noted for rapid-fire shooting. It takes just 40 to 50 seconds for her to shoot off three arrows. about one third of the I 5D-second allotted time span. After releasing her arrows. she returns to her seat even without glancing at the target in many cases. sometimes only listening to her Walkman. She says: "I acquired my quick shooting style because of my father's advice. He's been telling me to shoot on the first try without worrying too much." She said that she found her shooting method quite effective. especially when she had to go through the physically demanding national trials before the Olympic Games because it made her much less exhausted.

Soo-nyung's father. Kim Byong-son. a city-employed street sweeper. said after the Seoul Olympics that he felt more painful than proud when he thought that his little daughter had to pull the bowstring for several hours every day. He and his wife went to the Olympic archery site on the final day of the competition to see their daughter in action. "It was not until Soo-nyung smiled bashfully with her medals around her neck that we could stop praying, " he said. "Soonyung has always accomplished whatever she set out to do. And again she made it." According to her father. Soo-nyung. who is the eldest of his three children. had been a great joy for her family even before her Olympic victory. She never gave up her top grades in her class since elementary school days. After taking up archery. she often studied into early morning hours to be good at both.

For the single reason that she had "long arms." Soo-nyung was chosen for a newly-organized archery club of her school when she was in the fourth grade. At first her parents opposed her joining the club because they wanted her to study hard and become a teacher. But the coach was so insistent that they finally consented on one condition: archery must never be a hindrance to her studies. "I believed that I could do both well. " Soo-nyung has said. Beyond Beijing, her goal is now set at keeping her title into the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

Spain. to win Olympic gold medals in two consecutive Games. After realizing this dream. she hopes to become a teacher as her parents wished. And .now she knows for sure what to teach.

@ (This article was originally written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREAN A. This is a¡translation .)

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PROFILES IN EXCELLENCE

The Greatest in Korea Today & Yesterday

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A Seoul Olympic double gold medalist, Kim Soo-nyung takes aim. She is one of the world's finest archers.

65

A statue of Lady Shin Saimdang (1504¡511. who is widely revered as a perfect woman and artist, at her home town, Kangnung, near the east coast.

Independance fighter Kim Maria, who dedicated her life to achieving liberation from Japanese colonial rule.

An embroidery work by Lady Saimdang. She also excelled in painting, calligraphy and poetry.

66

THE GREATEST IN KOREA TODAY & YESTERDAY

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World-renowned violinist Chung Kyung·wha.

68

THE GREATEST IN KOREA TODAY & YESTERDAY

ChangingFor Better or Worse?

Barbara R. Mintz

ow are things for women in Korea today? Have the changes that have inevitably occurred for the better or for the worse? My observations here are not those of a scholar but of a long time sympathetic observer. My observations derive from firsthand experience over the years, from talking to people, and from reading: I hope they are not too far from the mark in terms of what's going on with Korean women today.

Many scholars have written about what the female condition in the Confucian Choson dynasty (and before) was like. History remembers a few strong individuals--Queen Min-and those who illustrate Confucian virtues- Shin Saimdang, Chunhyang. Shim Chong. These women (whether real or fictional) were of course extraordinary, not the typical wife and mother (whether aristocrat or commoner) who led lives ruled by the Confucian system.

Was the ordinary life back then so bad? Well. if you were a commoner wife- a farmer's wife. a fisherman 's wife , a peddler's wife-certainly you led a physically arduous life cooking, cleaning, bearing and caring for the children, and harvesting the rice. cleaning the fish and squid. or hauling the laden pushcart up and down the roads from market to market. Most women and men in old Korea led such lives of hard physical labor. Those who tend to romanticize "the good. old days" should remember that.

Today? Unless you are now a farmer 's wife, a fisherman's wife, a peddler's wife. probably your life is not the same kind of physical labor. Women standing at whirling spinning mills, sitting at semi-conductor assembly lines. or bending over garment factory sewing machines for eight. ten or more hours a day of course get tired. So do men employed in such industries.

Labor law, however, now allows for sick leave, a very generous maternity leave, an annual. if brief. vacation leave. Farm work does have slack times (winter, for instance), but housework seldom does. Even the recurring festivals (lunar New Year's, Chusok. family ceremonies) require more effort by the housewife to prepare special food for the family and guests who are sure to turn up to celebrate.

Life in the old days could also be secure. A woman from a good family, whether aristocrat or commoner, had a dear identity. a well-defined role to play in sodety. She would marry, bear sons, see to their upbringing, care for her husband helping him and therefore the family as a whole to prosper. and. in turn, be cared for in her old age by her sons who would con-

H

Barbara R. Mintz is an admissions officer and a member of the English faculty of the University of Maryland, Asian Division. She has lived in Korea since 1962 teaching for universities in Pusan and Seoul. She has also worked in business in Seoul and has written often about Korean life and culture for various publications.

BARBARA R. MINTZ

69

tinue to offer her rAspect after her death. Such was the ideal. If any woman achieved this role-model ideal. her life would be a happy one. But human life seldom achieves an ideal. Lack of sons brought disaster- including probable rejection by her husband; failing family business (whether caused by a failed rice crop or by bad political judgment at court) brought disaster: invasion and war brought disaster. But even though disaster lurked at every turn. the role-model ideal was there, something known, something everyone agreed was her role, a woman 's role in traditional Korea.

Not all women in traditional Korea were content with this role model. especially if life showed it impossible to achieve. What could a frustrated , bright ambitious woman do on her own?

Some became shamans, outcasts of society indeed, but independent self-supporting women.

That the female shaman remains a feature of modern Korean life is an interesting phenome-non. One scholar has wondered if the shaman will disappear as more opportunities for women with their abilities develop.

Almost all female college students I've asked subscribe to the ideal role model: they wish to marry and to be good mothers. However, other possibilities are now open to young college women in Korea- a job, even a professional career in addition to or even instead of marriage.

Of course obstacles to pursuing a professional career abound- even for those "feminine " professions of teaching and nursing. For many women and most men, the old ideal is blinding; they can't see any other possibilities for women. Most young college women now believe they can get an office job after they graduate, but few wish to develop that job into a professional career.

The job is merely a waiting period until they marry. It takes a strong person with a strong sense of self-rather than culturally imposed-identity to batter against the social ideal.

Local newspapers sometimes carry vignettes of professional women who "have made it in the man's world" of business or government. They carry such articles because such women are rare. ("Making it" in education and social services is also highlighted by local press probably because "making it" outside the home is itself phenomenal in the cultural mindset.) If a young woman wishes. say, to set up and manage her own business, such an endeavor may well take up all her time (as it does with men who have the same goal). What time then will she have for marriage and children? She will certainly have to cope with heavy soda! pressure from everyone-not just from the men she meets in business but from her friends and family who all will tell her to get married and will arrange "meetings" with eligible bachelors in 'tearooms for her. Clearly, a life of coping with such pressures is not secure, but one fraught with tensions. Is the trade--off worth it? If we believe that opportunity to develop oneself in whatever direction one wishes is indeed good, then we must agree that it is, and if it is, then society must adjust to the demands of such wishes. It does not appear to be doing so very fast.

And if a professional woman wants to combine marriage and a career? Many women today do so: physicians, nurses. teachers, and other professionals do combine marriage and their careers. While the devoted housemaid who used to see to the care and feeding of young children is going the way of the dinosaur (because she can now get a factory job), the Korean extended family system can still be called upon to help with childcare. Grandmas on both sides of the family are still available for extended babysitting. In this instance. Korean professional women have more support than do most Western professional women.

Korean society does accept the idea of women working on the assembly line and behind

70

CHANGING - FOR BETTER OR WORSE?

the typewriter (computer). Indeed. Korean sodety hardly has a choice: it needs female labor in the factory and office. A recent news article reported from the Ministry of Labor that in 1989 Korea's one million married female workers represent ten percent of the nation's total work force. thirty percent of the total female workers in the country. These figures do not seem to include agricultural or domestic workers but only industrial and perhaps office workers.

According to the news article. the Ministry of Labor has made it mandatory for workplaces with more than 1,000 female workers to set up nurseries on the premises. and the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs will establish 1.240 nurseries for working mothers by 1992 ..

All these of course are steps in the right direction. Other articles. however. point out significant problems in enforcing the Equal Employment Act of April 1988. For example. ads recruiting new employees often specify "men only" or "women only" in violation of the act which stipulates that an employer must give equal opportunity to both female and male applicants. Once in a job. however. a secretary or clerk (the office "girl") continues to have problems. Her position is a low one. a status continually reinforced not only by her usually low pay but also by the men around her who order her about (fetching coffee for themselves and office visitors) and too often address her in disrespectful language. (I leave out sexual exploitation to others to investigate and discuss.)

The feminist movement in the West has long pointed out the sexism apparent in the English language. For example. grammar texts describe the pronoun his in such a sentence as "Everyone needs to pick up his ticket early" as the generic he. the pronoun used to designate both the male and female meant by everyone. Some. however. have objected to such generic use calling it linguistic sexism. Others object to such words as history. saying the events that story relates happened to both men and women. (Herstory. however. seems to err in the other direction.

Perhaps we need a new word.) The word man. according to grammar books. is also meant to include persons of both sexes in such expressions as the man in the street. all men are created equal. and mankind. However. when a group of American college students was asked to choose photographs to illustrate a chapter in a sociology text titled "Urban Man," more than half chose pictures of men. The study concluded that the word man is in fact not generic applying equally to both sexes. but instead implies male. This result supports the theory that language not only reflects social values and attitudes. language reinforces social values and attitudes. Though women in Western cultures have made much progress. those cultures are still male dominated- as the college students demonstrated.

Korean is of course a language that reflects the values of the society that uses it. One of these values is that of social position. I have elsewhere written that it is in fact impossible to say a sentence in Korean without asserting the social position of either the speaker or the listener. The verb stem ka-. for instance. can be used as a complete sentence: it can be an intimate imperative issued by a speaker to someone younger or lower on the social scale than he is. The verbal affixes of Korean form an intricate system by which each speaker of the language continually redefines his and his listener's social relationship. Let me emphasize: it is literally impossible to speak Korean without such social definition. Korean even has special words for such social distinctions: I (a speaker) always mokta (eat): you (a listener) can chapsutta (honorably eat). If a speaker says that you mokta. he has asserted a relationship that can include recognition of age difference. of authority. of superior position. however derived.

BARBARA R. MINTZ

7I

We could speculate on the reasons why such a language system (not unique in the world) developed in Korea. but that is in the realm of historical linguistics. Instead. let's consider sexual equality and democracy in the home. Parents of course speak to children in panmal-the forms of the language appropriate from one older to one younger. Children are carefully taught polite language, that appropriate from a child to an elder. A father tells his son to mogo; the son asks his father to chapsuseyo. A husband usually tells his wife to mogo; the wife asks her husband to chapsuseyo. And there lies a significant obstacle to sexual equality-the language itself.

Traditionally, a wife addresses her husband with polite forms (as indicated by certain special words and by appropriate verb affixes). A husband normally addresses his wife in panmal. the same language he uses with his children. What does such usage say about their respective positions? Exactly what you'd expect from a Confucian system. The wife's subordinate position to her husband is not only reflected by the language, it is continually reinforced by the language.

The husband continually restates his view of his wife; she continually restates her view of herself and of him. The view is not that of one equal to another.

What happens in an office? Men in authority often use panmal to both young women and young men; young men of the same age use panmal with each other and polite language to men in authority over them; many young men use panma/ to the "office girls" but expect polite language in return and get it. What social views does such language usage reinforce? Certainly the young women are coming out on the low end- again.

Modern urban Korean has undergone some changes. The ubiquitous use of Mr. and Miss seems to have developed as a way to avoid the problems of address among people with no family relationships and implies no particular social distinctions. The informal but polite verb ending -yo is in widespread use (an;:i certainly helps make the foreigner's language learning problem easier). But it is still the case that language can and does reinforce attitudes that are not conducive to enhancing a woman's position or self-image in the workplaces or at home.

To change a culture's language is to change the culture. Language change by government decree does not work-it never has. Remember the effort a few years ago to eradicate English from Korean radio and TV sports broadcasts? Yet language, which undergoes natural change always. can be encouraged to change more rapidly. English has changed. We no longer have stewardesses; we have ffight attendants. male and female. We no longer speak of a chairm.an; it's chair or chairperson. An actor. poet. or painter is either male or female; so is a soldier or airman.

Recent grammar texts advocate "Everyone needs to put up his or her tiCket early" as appropriate usage. If changing the language can bring about desirable effects in terms of sexual equality. how can it be done? One approach is to campaign to have radio, TV and movie script writers use only the informal polite form (the -yo form) when they write "home dramas" or comedy sketches featuring spouses in a family or male and female workers in an office or factory. TV has such a powerful influence that we could expect such usage to get picked up, especially among the young, quickly.

Certainly Korean women have come a certain distance since the Choson dynasty and change seems to be accelerating, but much destructive to a positive female self-image remains. It saddens me very much to read about the growing though illegal practice of aborting a fetus if it is female since the family wishes a boy, not a girl. To one outside the cultural system. such a practice seems destructive not only literally to the fetal life but also to the woman who is

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CHANGING - FOR BETTER OR WORSE?

choosing or is perhaps being pressured into choosing to destroy a daughter because the fetus is not a son. I believe that women should have a choice whether to bear a child or not. but the cultural need to abort a female fetus seems to me to be a serious manifestation of the society's devaluation of female life. The result. according to recently published figures, is an imbalance of baby boys to baby girls today. If this trend continues, there will be an excess of 400,000 bachelors when today's children reach marriageable age. Ironically, perhaps then the society will be forced into valuing its women more highly than it appears to do now.

Attacking any kind of destructive discrimination requires multi-pronged strategy. Enforcing existing laws (the Equal Employment Act, the law against determining the sex of a fetus) , revising old laws (the Family Law), raising the consciousness of both men and women and insisting upon mutual respect as shown in appropriate language are only four possibilities, but they are powerful ones. Many people in Korea today are committed to the struggle. We hear of the work of Dr. Lee Tai-young and the Korean Legal Aid Center fer Family Relations, of the Korean Women's Development Institute, of other organizations devoted to women's affairs and causes. Women's Studies as a field of scholarship is thriving at Ewha Womans University and is spreading to other schools. As more people, both men and women, become committed to the ideals of sexual equality, everyone will benefit-women, men, the nation itself.ÂŽ

Bark* No Chon-myung (1913 - 57)

The howling of a dog is heard.

I welcome it- like my friend's voice.

Is there a village house nearby?

The bark evokes for me the picture of a happy home with its family's shoes arranged on a stone, boiling rice steaming in the kitchen, vegetable soup simmering on a brazier, and Grandma scolding, which even sounds nice.

A bark at daybreak evokes a village for me.

Life outside, as imagined in a jail cell, all seems happy. *From Korean Poetry . published by the Korean Culture and Arts Foundation in 198 7.

BARBARA R. MINTZ

73

IN THEIR DECUNING YEARS A gerontological study Rhee Seon~ja

I

t often is said that culture defines desires of the members of a society and methods to satisfy them. Based on this theory, I take up some of the questions confronting Korean women in their declining years: what their present social position is, what their past was

like and what Korean society is doing to solve their problems.

I. Korean women in old age: who are they?

Korean women in old age who form the grandmothers' generation today were on the whole born between the beginning of the 20th century and the 1930s. This is an exceedingly tumultuous period of Korea's modern history. During this period, the Choson dynasty fell to give way to Japanese colonial rule amidst fierce independecne movements. Japan annexed Korea in 1910. This came after Japan beat China and Russia in a race for winning the hegemony over the Korean peninsula in the 19th century.

The outcome was inevitable. The Japanese rule left the Korean people in the throes of despair and chaos. Yesterday's landlords and members of now-defunct nobility all but lost their old privileges. The Confucian system of ethical and moral values that had dominated Korean society during the Choson period for over five centuries was falling apart. Today's Korean grandmothers spent their childhood through these chaotic years.

Most of these women married at the age of I 5 or thereabouts; early marriage Wc:ts popular at this time. In the main, they were married before the 1940s. Many gave birth to seven or even eight children.

Free love was out of the question during their youth. Marriage then was regarded more as a relationship between two families than a tie between two individuals in love with each other. Marriage accordingly was arranged by parents or matchmakers. Eligible girls were seldom allowed to voice their opinion about the choice of their spouse. Many couples did not even have a chance to see each other before wedding.

Rliee Seon-;a, born in 1943, graduated from the School of Public Health, Seoul National University, in 1967.

She obtained her M.S. in public health from the University of Minnesota in 1972 and her doctorate from Seoul National University in 1983. Now a professor at her alma mater, she concurrently serves as president of the Korean Public Health Association and a director for the Korean Society for Gerontology. Her books include Community Health and Nursing (1983) and A Practical Guide for Public Health and Nursing (1985).

-7 4

IN THEIR DECLINING YEARS

These women saw Japan go kaput in World War II and their country become free in I945.

Now they were young housewives looking after their families still in the process of growing.

The joy of independence was short-lived. Another war broke out the Korean War that lasted from I950 to I953 .

Most of these women then had little knowledge about differences between communism and capitalism. But they nevertheless had to undergo extreme adversities in an internecine war. Their husbands and grown-up sons were drafted one after another into armed forces and sent to the front. At home. these women had to shoulder all the responsibility of taking care of their parents-in-law and little children.

Traditionally. the Korean woman grows up under the solid protection of her parents and is married in accordance with their decision. With marriage she becomes a subordinate to her husband and is forced to understand that there is but one way to go and that that way is to follow the ways of his family. After her husband dies. she must depend on her eldest son for support until she dies. This was a typical life pattern of the Korean woman under the Confucian-oriented patriarchal system. and that system was dominated by a strict notion of male supremacy.

Today's Korean grandmothers belong to a generation ruled by such ethical concepts. They seldom were taught to regard themselves as independent human beings. Indeed many of them even today believe as a matter of course that they should obey their parents and husbands. and depend on their eldest sons for support in their declining ages. Small wonder. At each election time, most of them are known to vote as the rest of their family do. A majority of them by the same token are not familiar with the concept of the feminist movement. Some find it hard to know the meaning of the term.

Except those daughters of wealthy families in large cities. not many of them were exposed to the benefits of modern education. Consequently. they possess no professional skills other than those of a full-time housewife. Most of them again were members of an agrarian society.

They used to work with their husbands in rice paddies and vegetable gardens. Indeed it is safe to say that many of them for once learned to read and write only in the course of a literacy campaign conducted across the country after liberation from the Japanese colonial rule.

Even so. many still find it hard to read newspapers or magazines. let alone to wri~e down their opinions. Whenever anything complex had to be written. these women would ask others to do it for them.

This fact might explain their obsession with advanced learning for their children. As though to make up for their own loss of educational opportunities. they show even a passion when it comes to the question of education for their children. Even the poorest of them deep in the countryside aspire to send their children to college.

Why are they so keen about it? For one thing, they feel obliged to give their sons a good education in order to try to secure a future prosperity for their families. For another. they know they have to depend on their eldest son for support in the declining years of their life.

Another important factor behind the particular zest is a deep-rooted idee fixe in Korea that white-collar workers are superior to the blue-collared. Indeed most parents are dead set on making their sons grow up into senior government officials or top-class engineers.

Many of the captains of industries in Korea today are the sons of these women. the fruit

RHEE SEON-JA

75

of their Herculean efforts and wild dreams. These men have played pivotal roles in national and economic developments of south Korea just as their mothers had wished. But these women's excessive enthusiasm for education has had a negative impact on our society as well.

Mothers have created a social syndrome called chima param (literally, the skirt wind). referring to their exceedingly aggressive and persistent interference in school affairs.

Cramming work, assisted by private tutors hired at home or at spedal schools opened for preparing youths to take stiffly competitive college entrance tests, has emerged as a serious social problem. This has led to excessive educational expenses. (Real estate prices in a rich residential district in southern Seoul where a number of good high schools are located have been climbing at an alarming clip. The reason is not complex. Graduates from these schools have a better chance of passing the entrance test at better colleges.)

There is an old saying in Korea that a woman's lot is like a coin with two sides. It means that it completely depends on marriage whether a woman would be happy or not for the rest of her life. A successful marriage means a comfortable life with a capable husband from a rich family with a good reputation. It is interesting to note that the same saying also teaches parents to marry off their daughters to families better off than they and that they should have ¡ daughters-in-law from families lower in status than theirs.

Among these women, divorce was something totally unthinkable -too shameful a thing to think about. The rule was to do everything possible to stick to the families of their husbands.

And sure enough, society has always gone overboard in praising young widows who refused to leave the husbands' families and stayed with them until death- no matter what harsh circumstances they might have to endure in the process.

In many cases the parents-in-law wielded unchallenged authority. Obeying to their commands and serving them was among the primary duties of a young married woman.

Their preference has for so long been for giving birth to sons. This led the wives to have many children in order to have as many sons as possible.

Back those days, the eldest sons were not attractive candidates as bridegrooms in the eyes of parents with eligible daughters. Here again the reason is not complex. The eldest daughterin-law had to shoulder the heaviest household burden among all daughters-in-law. Even now medical doctors. lawyers, college professors and government officials who are not ~e eldest sons are popular as would-be-grooms.

As we have observed so far. the typical Korean grandmother today has led a toilsome life serving her in-laws in the traditional large family. She produced many children and gave them good education in spite of her often miserable living conditions. After spending her whole lifetime for the single goal of bringing up her children well. she now finds herself owning almost nothing valuable for herself.

II. Present situation and problems Today's Korean grandmothers spent their middle years from the 1960s to the 1980s while Korea underwent a drastic process of industrialization at a speed that was beyond their imagination. There was an exodus of young people from the countryside to large cities, one clear-

76

IN THEIR DECLINING YEARS

cut reason behind the explosive growth of urban population. The outcome spelt many a thing they had not dreamed of even in their wildest dreams: traffic jams, environmental dislocations and fast-growing number of crimes.

These bewildering changes have had a due impact on the traditional Korean family system.

Today's daughters-in-law belong to a new generation that has received modern education. Oblivious of the old unwritten law that they should dedicate themselves to doing domestic chores and taking care of their parents-in-hw, many of them work outside their home. Once people said: the larger the size of a family, the better off it will be. No more. These young wives insist on having but one or two children. They would spend little time with their parents-in-law. The fact of the matter is. in most of the modern housing units in large dties there is indeed not enough space to share with parents-in-law.

On the threshold of the 1990s. south Korea as an emerging industrialized nation boasts $5 .000 for its per-capita GNP. The irony is, the rise of the GNP has meant a decline of the senior citizens' authority at home. A decline exists too in the number of those young people thinking of living with their parents after marriage. Even in case the parents and their son and his wife live together, the domestic power structure no longer is what it used to be.

For the old people, the old ways in so many cases are gone. They could no longer expect to be respected at home. Nor would they be cared for like yesterday's old parents. It is not uncommon for them to find themselves left in a room to be shared with their grandchildren.

When it comes to the question of household management or even mere housekeeping, they realize that their views are one thing and those of their daughters-in-law another. Their position, more often than not. is that of a dependent rather than a revered family elder.

A majority of urban Korean women in old ages live with their married children in spite of their humiliating position in the family. In sharp contrast. a growing number of old women in rural areas are found to be living either by themselves or with their husbands after their children moved to large cities to work.

Old people account for some I0 to 12 percent of the rural population in Korea. and three percent of old rural residents maintain independent households. These independent old people are generally in good health. But they too would have to live with their children when their health begins to deteriorate. .

Korean society condemns those who do not support their parents without understandable reasons. The concept of filial piety is still very much alive in the consciousness of the Korean people in general. Not infrequently, however, opinions may differ between a husband and wife with regard to the problem of living with his parents. And this sometimes triggers antipathies between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.

Most elderly women do not expect their children to go out of their ways in supporting them.

They are generally happy over their current standard of living, and are content with the minimum expenses they receive for livelihood. They accept on the whole the modernized or abbreviated form of ancestral worshiping rites. weddings and funerals. They accept too such fast foods as instant noodles and even make do with factory-made sauces instead of going through the complex family recipe to make sauces at home.

Supporting old parents is not so serious a problem among the families of middle class and above in present-day Korea. Grown-up children routinely solve the problem among themselves.

RHEE SEON-JA

77

When the eldest son is not financially capable of supporting his parents, his younger brothers and/or sisters assist him and even married sisters cooperate. Those parents with no sons live with their married daughters. In most families, the grandmother takes the responsibility of looking after her grandchildren with joy. Watching the youngsters grow up, she remembers her younger days when she brought up her own children.

This has been the general state of life among aging women from the middle class and above, who successfully harmonize the past and the present, forming the brighter side of today' s Korean society.

In the darker side of the society, families in a state of "absolute poverty," are very likely to consider money spent for grandmothers as an extra kind of additional expenditure. Therefore, old women in these families feel small before their daughters-in-law. This humiliating fact drive some to take refuge in old people's home, others end up in welfare facilities - - to be listed as homeless.

The nation and society must do more for them. Regrettably, however, Korean society is only now beginning to realize the existence of these problems.

III. Future prospects Old people in a modern industrial society, which is today's Korea, no longer play their traditional role. Nor do they exercise their traditional authority. They cannot easily find appropriate roles for them to play after retirement and, because of a sudden decrease in income, they are quickly alienated from society. Moreover. many of them find themselves impoverished after having financed their children's costly education and their elaborate Korean-style wedding ceremonies. As a result they often find no choice but to depend on their children.

Korea has yet to establish a full-scale social security system for its senior citizens. At present only retired military personnel and public servants with a record of more than 20 years' service are eligible for government pensions. Social security pensions for the nation at large are scheduled to begin from the year 2008.

Problems of old people involve two major areas: government pension and medjcare. For the pension system, we have to wait for almost two decades. The medicare situation is better.

The entire population is covered with a state medical insurance since two years ago.

The government has set up welfare facilities for old people at various locations to conduct health counseling and education. But there must be an enough number of social workers trained for taking a good care of these senior citizens.

Problems are indeed many in this field. But we Koreans have always known how to respect and maintain harmony and balance. This national trait hopefully will contribute to the job of solving these problems for aging women in our country. The idea of a welfare state for south Korea gained consensus during the 1980s. For it to become a fact we may have to wait for the advent of the next century. ÂŽ

(Tftis article was originally written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREAN A. This is a translation.)

78

IN THEIR DECLINING YEARS

What young Korean women are saying ( 1)

A Buddhist Nun's View on Return Hyonwon

enunciation. or giving up the secular world. is usually regarded as an extraordinary development in one's life. Reaction on the part of most people to this initial step taken towards asceticism is aiways mixed with sympathy and curiosity. The sympathy stems from a sort of admiration; at least once in their life have most people longed to say goodbye to all that. though they almost never manage to live up to that yearning. The curiosity comes from the question that weighs down heavily in their mind about how we were able to manage to do that.

Sometimes our everyday life itself seems to be an endless repetition of simple acts like leaving and returning. We repeat these acts without giving it any serious thought. Matter of factly we go and return.

Of all the acts of leaving clnd returning we know of. the greatest and the most beautiful was the return of Siddhartha the Buddha. His renunciation was all the more remarkable because he was not a man of mean birth but a prince who had been enjoying all manner of luxury and power. His return was astonishing indeed because he came back to share the way of truth that he had discovered after painstaking wandering and meditating with his fellow men.

We leave the world behind when we realize that the reality surrounding us is full of painful absurdities and that we cannot be truly emancipated in such a world. At this primary stage of renunciation. people voluntarily alienate themselves from the excruciating conditions of life in this world. At the second stage of renunciation. however. the subject of leaving is no longer the persons suffering from reality themselves but the reality causing pains to them. This is nothing less than a revolutionary change. a change called in Buddhism "enlightenment" or ¡:awakening," the stage of bodhisattvahood surpassing the supramundane. ¡ What is to be sent away, or the object of leaving. at the second stage of renundation is all that obstructs our course of life as free people. They include religious and philosophical vanities confining the human spirit. the time-old discrimination of the sexes boosted by selfish confrontation . materialistic poverty brought about by greed and inequity of distribution. and the pains of disease caused by aging or negligence of the law of nature. These are the sufferings of human life which we call by the name of sarva-dukha in the ancient Sanskrit language.

R

Hyonwon. a bhikkhuni (Buddhist nun) who was born in Seoul in 1956, is currently taking a graduate course in Indian philosophy at the College of Buddhism. Dongguk University in Seoul. She entered Songnamsa Temple in Ulchu-gun County. Kyongsangbuk-do Province. in 1975. She graduated from Unmun Buddhist Seminary at Unmunsa Temple at Chongdo-gun. Kyongsangbuk-do in 1980. and Dongguk University's Department of Indian Philosophy in 1988.

HYONWON

79

The only way to basically overcome these sufferings is the "awakening." So. "awakening" should not be monopolized by a few saints or ascetics. But the substance of it has to be internalized by all members of the society so as to achieve true advancement in the quality of both the life of individuals and the society as a whole. The practice of wisdom and mercy is the greatest virtue in life as taught in the Mahayana (Greater Vehicles) school of Buddhism.

In the vast Buddhist world. Korea is among the nations blessed with the profound philosophical traditions of Mahayana. I always thank with a joyous heart for the fact that I was born in this beautiful country and that I have renounced the secular world in search of truth . as Siddhartha did. Korea has a 5.000-year-long history graced by a great culture. Buddhism was introduced to this fertile land about 1,600 years ago.

I fully realize at the same time that I belong to a generation that has experienced immense sadness. I spent my childhood during the years that immediately followed the Korean War. a period marked by chaos of an unprecedented magnitude in our long history. Members of my generation fell helpless victims to a crude educational system heavily depending on Western institutions. We grew up watching our parents plunge into sorrow and confusion and the traditional virtues from our own past gradually give way to foreign mores and ways of thinking.

More tales were told about European and American heroes and saints than the beautiful legends and historical facts recorded by our own ancestors. The task of overcoming the materialistic poverty overrode all other questions. though. We were obsessed with a "miracle" of economic development. And then. with the glory of the Seoul Olympics. Our children. familiar with the taste of hamburger and pizza, are not aware of the chronic shortage of foods from which we once suffered at the advent of every summer.

Once a certain goal was set. our society even tolerated some immorality in the process of achieving it. The judgment of good and evil was almost completely forgotten . In the interest of elevating the level of materialistic affluence. human qualities were exploited. And what do we see now? Our once beautiful mountains and rivers have been contaminated mercilessly.

As a result. we are now having too much of greasy ham and polluted air.

We must not look at this lamentable reality of ours only with hatred. however. Erasing an illustrious history of 5.000 long years with a century of folly is even more difficult than working out an economic "miracle. " We are not to blame anyone for the undesirable byproducts of our reckless endeavor to overcome poverty, or the sudden cultural dependence that has seized upon us. This is because all of us should jointly take the responsibility for these mistakes and strive all together to correct them.

Buddhism teaches us that ultimate freedom can never be realized in a society where such negative factors as hatred, exclucivism and struggle exist. Greed and stupidity destroy the lives of people and lead to a history of darkness. while wisdom and mercy create a history full of radiance.

What makes us even sadder is the fact that we commit new mistakes in the process of correcting old ones. Conflict between ideologies. setting aside the discussion regarding which side is right. begins with prejudice. greed and selfishness. The theory of classes has also been derived from prejudice. The Buddhist point of view on the class theory is that both the materialistic poverty of the have-nots and spiritual destitution of the haves. not to mention the tyranny

80

A BUDDHIST NUN'S VIEW ON RETURN

of the knowledge of intellectuals. are the objects of edification in need of salvation. The con~ cept of women's liberation. introduced from the West without a serious analysis of the fun~ damental problems of the female sex as part of humanity. has made a mistake of regarding men as the enemy of women.

In our hasty battle for modernization. we have been blindly accepting everything from ad~ vanced societies. believing that they must be better than our own cultural and historicallega~ cies. Nevertheless. it is evident that coexistence and equal participation. not a history of struggle. will open the road to a true enhancement of humanity and environments surroundin~ it.

Which will bring about an ultimate freedom for man. the irony of high technology and poilu~ tion. or illiteracy in a primeval forest? The answer is obviously not so simple.

As early as the sixth century B.C.. Siddhartha formulated "the law of interdependent origina~ tion.'' whereby one condition arises out of another. which in turn arises out of prior conditions.

Thus. we can surmise that nature can be restored to its original state when people attain en~ lightenment by getting rid of their greed in the belief that their greed has destroyed nature.

Likewise. we might also say that my suffering has been caused by my neighbor's, so my fre~ dam will also be realized through my neighbor's.

Greed of the rich causes the misery of the poor. and the ultimate happiness of rich people will come when they abandon their greed. Charity. therefore. is not performed only for the purpose of relieving the poor from their misery. Greed for power causes sufferings among the masses. and justice in distribution leads the powerful to a bright life. Mercy is not only an altruistic virtue. therefore. but helps create a virtuous reality for the one who practices it.

Mercy is a road leading to freedom.

Patriarchal institution violates the absolute value and equality of all humanity. Therefore. equal~ ity of all human beings should be recognized prior to any discussion of sexual discrimination.

Asserting sexual equality without understanding the more fundamental issue of humanity is like C!Jtting off one crooked branch from an ailing tree.

Women need to realize that they must awaken men from their unconscious authority and sense of superiority that have been fortified through the long, repetitive process of struggles and conquests in human history, instead of denouncing the superficial features of patriarchal traditions. They must make a declaration of the absolute equality of all humankind instead of persisting in the "feminist rights." Only when they attain such a realization and guide men to the path of truth, can women truly be elevated to the status of free and equal human beings.

The problem of sexual discrimination can not be resolved when it is tackled with relative viewpoints of the oppressor and the oppressed. It has to be approached with a more fun~ damental and universal understanding in the ways of society and humankind.

Now. I want to conclude by saying that women of this country must broaden the scope of their interest beyond their own conditions and rights as members of the female sex. They must respect all living things. They are advised to share the substance of their awakening with others in order to emulate the ideal of "the great and beautiful return."

ÂŽ

(This article was originally written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use of KOREANA This is a translation.)

HYONWON

81

What young Korean women are saying (2)

My Social Responsibility as a Woman and My Plans Lee Se-won

am extremely busy these days, taking the mid-term exam, writing plans for a thesis. and preparing for the graduate course.

However, I find my mind to be rather far away from my busy schedule, the reason being my failure to seek a practical solution to the vague yet powerful anxiety about my future.

I think the readers can understand this sort of anxiety and psychological pressure, since it has emerged as a universal social disease inflicting college seniors.

This anxiety and pressure stems from the barriers college seniors face as they are about to come out into the society, particularly to the job front.

The socio-economic conditions for employment and job opportunities for college-educated manpower remain quite limited, while the volume of highly educated workforce increases rapidly.

There already is a large group of unemployed college graduates, and college seniors are inevitably ruffled by the concern if they will fall into the unfortunate group too.

I am not free from such concern. Rather, I am even more baffled by the problem of unemployment. as women's access to socio-economic participation is even more limited than that of men.

Women are less paid than men even if they do the same work for the same hours. In many cases, women are not given chances to take open tests for job positions. Many women feel frustrated as they, even after passing the difficult open tests. are required to serve in subordinate roles to men in the male-centered workplaces, doing such trivial things as making coffee and typing documents.

Under these circumstances. some women collegians seek collective actions against businesses discriminating them against men. while some softer ones give up the will to social participation and turn to an easy escape called marriage. Actually not a few women marry this way.

For all these trends, however, more and more women, especially .those called intellectuals, are moving to build their career through active social participation. They are very sensitive and positive when it comes to their rights to enjoy worthwhile lives and the social barriers that stand in their way.

They carry out their assignments with passion and determination, making use of all means and opportunities available. They are building their career in each of their fields, overcoming practical limitations, defeating obstacles and paving the way for a good many other women

I

Lee Se-won, born in 1969, is a senior ma;oring in Spanish literature at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.

82

MY SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AS A WOMAN AND MY PLANS

who will follow their footsteps.

Meanwhile, there has existed since a long time ago a collective movement among women aimed at improving the society's treatment of them.

Such a movement has been only natural and proper as the basic environment of life for women has not changed until now. It has reaped some positive result though very small and gradual. in correcting the time-worn prejudice against the social role of women. One of the latest achievements of the movement must be the partial revision of the family-related laws.

However, improvement in women's status has been piecemeal and campaigners of women's rights have failed to consolidate their movement as an irrevocable social trend nor have they succeeded in inviting the majority of the nation's female population to support their campaigns.

It seems that women's movement in Korea has been centered on abstract arguments which have often overlooked the different conditions of life of the target audience.

There must be a wide difference in the ways of thinking and living between the women of different social strata, ages, professions and regions. In order to embrace all the women of different backgrounds, the campaingers have to identify the common problems facing the women and present them with a unified vision that will lead them in one right direction. In my view, women's movement in Korea has exposed a weakness in this respect.

Mounting awareness of this weakness has encouraged progressive scholars and students to fight against the defect through more substantial activities. One of the visible efforts to overcome the defect may be "The Working Women," a research group at my school department.

The group is open to all students of the department regardless of sex. At present there are 12 women and four men in the group, which is quite small compared with the 400 students attending the department. The lack of participants is a common problem that hits most research groups specializing in women-related subjects.

In the case of "The Working Women," the 16 members seem to have joined the group with the simple understanding that women's status is hampered by the feudalistic and patriarchal authority of men even in the "Ivory Tower," where people should acquire fair recognition of their role as a progressive segment of society. The aim of "The Working Women" is trying to enforce sexual equality on the campus, ¡promoting right views about women and expanding women's social participation. ¡ The Korean society is unreasonably prejudiced against women. And respect for women 's rights remains a mere lip service. I do not think women have to accept this sort of treatment and put up with it only because they are women.

I want to make my life more than a "woman's life," and I believe I have the social responsibility to reform and overcome the limitations and unfavorable conditions women are faced with in our times. Now, I can see the origin of my anxiety and the way of overcoming it more clearly. Perhaps one year later when you, KOREANA readers, visit Korea, you may be able to run into a graduate student doing progressive research on women. I do not know if my choice will be the best for everybody, but I think it is my duty to analyze the problems of Korean women with a scientific mind and find a clear and theoretically sound answer to them.

ÂŽ

(This article was originally written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREANA. This is a translation.)

LEE S&WON

83

INTERVIEW

BATTLE AGAINST CONFUCIANISM Koreana Interview

Madame Kim Yun-duk President Korean Women's Development Institute

Few persons alive could be a more fully developed specimen of Korean womanhood than the sub;ect of our interview. The wife of a Korean businessman, mother of six and grandmother of another six, Madame Kim Yunduk has even found time to serve as a National Assembly member for three terms. Fittingly, the handsome woman now heads a unique government center dedicated to the advancement of women's status in this country- the Korean Women's Development Institute (KWDI).

Koreana: What does the Korean Women's Development Institute do? Aren't most Korean women fully developed already- mentally and physically?

Kim:

Our fundamental task is to help elevate the woman's position in Korean society.

To do just that, our government founded this institute- perhaps we could call it a unique institute- back in 1983. Our staffers now number 164. And we operate on the strength of an annual budget provided by government to the tune of a little over $4,000,000.

What specifically wo do? We ourselves conduct or sponsor a long list of research projects- some sociologicaL others psychological and still others even political. The findings from these projects are often submitted to the government as a valuable source of information in developing policies to increase the welfare of ,women in our country.

At the same time, we carry out a series of training programs to improve the leadership quality of those women now playing or aspiring to play important roles in all manner of women's movements in south Korea. Naturally we always spearhead efforts to explore fresh fields to provide women with more job opportunities.

Let me finally say that we work in cooperation with as many as 112 women's organizations around the country and yes, we do so to help eliminate sexual discrimination.

Koreana: We hear so often in Korea that term- sexual discrimination. Could you cite one or two of the most glaring instances in point?

Kim: 84

I could spend hours answering your question. You say "glaring." What do you say

BATTLE AGAINST CONFUCIANISM

Kim Vun-duk, president of the Korean Women's Development Institute.

about this glaring fact that. excluding special professions like doctors and lawyers. the average wage level of Korean women is only 60 percent of that of men? Even at grade schools, some teachers seem to persist in telling the children that women 's place is at home- and nowhere else. What could you do with this helpless kind of situation?

Koreana: Well. what indeed are you doing to cope with it?

Kim:

A great lot. Take for example the Equal Employment Act written into law in 198 7 precisely for the purpose of eliminating such wage injustices against women. We in this institute went all over the place championing the cause of doing away with the inequality in our wage scale between men and women.

We then provided both the government and the opposition political parties with a mountain of research data that showed how vitally important to make it fair and equal. The result is, the government. with a full cooperation from the opposition parties. drafted that epochal law and put it into force. One outcome is telling. The number of women taking the senior and junior dvil servants' tests have really quadrupled in number.

You see, we work hard to make Korean women realize that they must never toler¡ ate sexual discrimination against them. In order to spread this message effectively, we regularly have some of the top university professors go on extensive lecture circuits around our country.

Koreana: Is that enough?

Kim:

Far from it. But to spread that kind of realization in south Korea , we're constantly up against one thing. I talk of the crushing weight of our time-honored Confucian heritage. I don't say that everything about Confucianism is against women. But es-

KIM HYUN¡DUK

85

sentially the teachings of it tend to be conservative. And conservatism in our society is often based on the old value system under which the position of women is subordinated to that of men.

And this, we say, must change. The reason is simplicity itself. The world is changing fast. So are its value systems. Women must be strong.

Koreana: Some people in Korea itself say that women already are too strong to suit them.

What do you have to say about this?

Kim:

That is a difficult question for me to field. Let me quote the result of a recent poll conducted by a leading newspaper in Seoul.

Seventy-six percent of south Korean women covered by the poll said that the happiness of the Korean women will reach an apex when a success is attained by her husband or children. On the other hand, 70 percent said that her sense of happiness will be gratified only when having received full education, she achieves an economic independence of her own.

When you say that Korean women are strong, that's because two thirds of our gross national product represents family spendings on livelihood. And sure enough, women all but control spendings in this field. That and the question of what education the family should give to its children is nearly always decided upon by women-or by the housewife. But that wouldn't mean that women in our country are stronger than men. The fact of the matter is the other way around.

Even so, as the poll indicates in a fascinating way, views of women are drastically changing in our country.

The fundamental job for us to shoulder in this institute could be called a consciousness-raising about the social status of women in south Korea.

It's a very big job to take up. But somebody has to coordinate all efforts in taking it up. And that somebody has happened to be this institute.

ÂŽ

86

BATTLE AGAINST CONFUCIANISM

REVIEW

TRADITIONAL ARTS Preserving Traditional Performing Arts Lee Bo-hyung

he annual presentations of Korean traditional arts and crafts designated as "intangible cultural properties, " sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, are divided into several different events according to the nature of the arts presented.

The first of these events for this year. the spring show of the performing arts for an indoor stage, took place from April I 0 to I 6 at the folk arts theater in the Korea House. The autumn show is scheduled at the same place.

Folk games and masked dance plays, suitable for outdoor demonstration, were presented from May 7 to I 4 at Seoul Norimadang, an open theater for traditional performing arts. This is located near Sokchon Lake on the southeastern outskirts of the capital city. The annual handicraft exhibition was also held around this time.

Why does the government sponsor all these presentations?

In I 964, the government began to designate Korean traditional arts and crafts as "intangible cultural properties" with a view to preserving and transmitting them to future generations. The government also conferred the title of "human cultural property" on those masters of traditional arts and crafts who had made distinguished efforts towards preserving the nation's indigenous cultural and artistic heritage. These masters holding the title of human cultural property are paid 400,000 won monthly allowances (approximately US$600) for shouldering the responsibility of passing their skills to younger generations. The annual presentations are participated in by these masters and their disciples. Their works are shown side by side so as to make it possible to check whether the traditional arts and crafts are handed down in an appropriate way.

So far. the Ministry of Culture has given the designation to a total of 92 crafts and arts. The list breaks down into I 8 items in music, I 4 items in drama, six items in dance, 30 items in handicrafts, 2 I items in games and rites, and three items in cooking and martial arts. A total of I 72 distinguished artists in these areas have been given the title of human cultural prQperty.

They are currently teaching 680 students. Already 73 5 others have finished courses necessary for their designation as successors to the masters.

Of course, there was no need for several different events to present these arts every year in the I 960s because there were not so many designated items and artists at the time. One annual event lasting several days at one place was sufficient back those days. But the number of the arts and crafts and their masters holding the titles of intangible and human cultural properties, as well as their aspiring successors and students, has been steadily increasing over these

T

The author, Yi Bo-hyung, was born in I 93 7 and ~nished the graduate program of the Department of Music at Yonsei University in I 969. From I 97 4 to I 983, Vi wnducted research programs on traditional music, dance and folklore as an expert advisor at the Cultural Properties Research Institute. At present. he is a member of the Ministry of Culture's Cultural Properties Advisory Committee, a director of the Korean Traditional Music Association and a lecturer at the Department of Korean Traditional Music. Seoul National University.

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87

years. Naturally. organizers of the occasion began to feel the need to divide them into a few separate events not only to accommodate all of the designated items but also to provide them with better environments for presentation.

Thus the performing arts originally staged indoors or at court yards were included in the category of "stage arts," and those performed outdoors were classified as "outdoor arts." Even within the category of the performing arts. there are too many items to be presented all at once. Therefore. they were divided into spring and autumn shows. Folk games and rites needing large groups of performers are mounted at the places of their origin because staging all of them in Seoul during a certain period would incur unnecessary expenditures and cause confusions.

Unlike the countries where traditional culture has gradually changed to form the basis of modern culture. such as the European countries. Korea and most other countries in the socalled "Third World" have experienced great cultural shocks in modern times due mainly to the overwhelming inflow of Western culture. In most of these countries. therefore. traditional culture has either been totally destroyed or survives in distorted forms. Numerous intangible cultural properties in these countries face the danger of extinction.

In order to preserve these endangered cultural assets. the government of the Republic of Korea adopted a policy to designate the traditional arts and crafts for their efficient management. Thanks to such efforts. a great number of traditional arts and crafts have been saved from extinction. But it can be easily imagined that even this method involves not a few problems.

As the number of designated arts and artists continues to increase. some problems have turned serious. How can the government efficiently manage by itself so many "intangible" cultural objects and their performers? In the case of folk festivals. therefore. the best way to preserve them is to revive them at the places of their respective origin with voluntary participation by local residents. The Committee for Revival of Folk Festivals. formed for this purpose. has played a leading role in this area. although it has not been so active recently. We need more organizations of this type. preferably formed on private basis so as to induce voluntary participation by the public.

The government. on its part. is advised to establish a permanent facility for presentation of traditional arts and crafts so that they can be exhibited on a periodic basis - - weekly or monthly instead of annually - for a thoroughgoing evaluation of the state of their preservation.

Currently. all affairs related to the preservation of intangible cultural properties are handled in a section of the Cultural Property Division II of the Ministry of Culture's Cultural Property Maintenance Office. In order to cope with the increasing work volume. the ministry is advised to consider an expansion of its bureaucratic system in charge of these affairs. The officials in charge may also seek greater assistance and advice from various specialists. or the ministry may consider including some of these specialists in its permanent staff to achieve even greater efficiency.ÂŽ (This review was originally written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREAN A. This is a trans-

lation.)

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PRESERVING TRADITIONAL PERFORMING ARTS

REVIEW Art

Art Galleries in Two Seouls Lee Yil

hen was Korea's first art gallery born? Answers to this question vary according to your definition of an art gallery (galerie d 'art). When you define it as a place for displaying and transacting art works. the first such establishment in Korea was the Banda Hwarang. It used to be where Lotte Department Store now stands in downtown Seoul.

The gallery was very small and did not organize any shows. But it did fairly well after the government returned to Seoul at the end of the Korean War (19 50-53). It was a point of rendezvous for many artists and art lovers.

Then from the latter part of the 1960s. galleries began mushrooming in number in Seoul's Insa-dong area. which is often called Mary's Alley. There really was a boom of galleries. The impact of this on the area was surprising. Entrepreneurs with little or no knowledge of art opened galleries. as though they were launching an eatery or even a coffee shop.

Some opened a gallery out of their honest but naive passion for art. while others did to show off what they thought to be their high-brow tastes in art. Many perished almost as quickly as they were opened.

An art market. as we understand it now. was still in the making. An art gallery needs to meet a few basic requirements. Apart from a certain amount of finandal and commercial savvy, plus very special human relations. what comes first is the gallery owner's solid taste.

The matter of taste is not always linked with the question of artistic knowledge. Rather it means that the owner should have a clear-cut stance when it comes to the selection of art works. Just as all human beings have different personalities. galleries should exhibit different tastes and varying standards of judgment in dealing in art.

Of course. an art gallery cannot exist without clients. The clients can range from simple art lovers to specialized collectors. Their inclinations vary as much as their personal backgrounds.

A good gallery owner goes beyond that and makes his or her taste registered with the clientele. To cater to the client's demand and do nothing else is to lack a sense of mission. And this sense of mission. or professionalism. is the second most important requirement of a good gallery owner.

To have a solid opinion about art is to develop a pouncing critical viewpoint on art. In many advanced countries. top gallery owners cast a great deal of influence over the art world. Even if the gallery owner does not directly engage in criticism. the critic often speaks for him and form his own circle around the gallery of his or her choice. And thus is formed a circle with

W

Prof. Lee Yil. 58. graduated from Seoul National University's Department of French Language and Literature. and studied archaeology and art history at the University of Paris. From 1966. he began teaching at Hongik University's OJllege of Arts. He has served as a member of the ;ury for the Tokyo International Prints Biennial and the Cagne-sur-mer International Printing Exhibition in France. He currently serves as president of the Korean Art Critics Association and publisher-editor of the Korean Art Critics Review.

LEE YIL

89

lnsa-dong In central Seoul is famous for many art galleries and antique shops.

the gallery owner, the critic and the client.

To make a long story short I want to say that galleries in our country are yet to come on that right track. Of course, the short history of galleries in Korea is one reason behind this fact. But a sound climate for a sound market cannot be created unless or until gallery owners themselves fulfill the basic requirements.

Perhaps we should not be comparing the climate of Seoul's art galleries with that of Paris'.

The Ville Lumiere is divided into the north and south sections by the Seine. You see galleries in both sections. Noted for galleries in the south are the Rue de Seine, Boulevard St. Germaindes-Pres, and in the north are the Rue Faubourg St.-Honore and Avenue Matignon.

Galleries on one side used to distinguish themselves from those on the other in ~aracters .

But this kind of differentiation may no longer work. A new assemblage of galleries has appeared in Ouartier Beaubourg -- around the Pompidou Center. And this poses a threat to the old network of Parisian art dealerships.

Likewise, Seoul is divided into the southern and the northern districts by the Han River.

Lifestyles in some ways are different from one side to the other. While the mode is conservative up north, it looks progressive and ultramodern down south. You cannot say differences are as telling when it comes to art galleries in our city.

But then it is certain that each street produces a mood and scenes of its own. In SeouL galleries in lnsa-dong made the area a central art market on the northern side of the Han River. That emergence was almost reminiscent of the Paris nest of galleries along the Seine.

Galleries, big and smalL opened up in lnsa-dong like those in the vicinity of the Seine. Galleries along the Seine served as the birthplace of many artistic movements and a haven for a long parade of ambitious, young and nameless artists. lnsa-dong has also served as a cradle

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ART GALLERIES IN TWO SEOULS

of contemporary art in Korea by offering stages for youthful dreams and accommodating experiments and adventures.

Another important art street north of the Han River is Taehangno with its ample share of galleries. Taehangno has been thriving as a "culture street" since the Korean Culture and Arts Foundation (KCAF) opened in the area and began attracting attention as a popular venue for artistic performances. The KCAF Arts Center. along with other galleries. is playing an important part in producing the area's unique atmosphere.

As I watched the emergence of galleries on Taehangno. I was often reminded of the Pompidou Center and the neighboring galleries in Paris. Of course. there is a great difference in style between the two areas. But I must admit that my hope. to begin with. was that Taehangno would someday become Korea's mecca for contemporary art.

It was only a wishful thinking on my part. though. At least two factors dashed my early hope.

The first is that Taehangno and the surrounding Tongsung-dong have turned into a kind of popular entertainment quarters. Too many cafes. bars and restaurants¡ have popped into existence to suit the original artistic atmosphere of the area.

The other factor is the appearance of a new gallery district south of the Han River. I talk of the gallery quarters in Apkujong-dong and Chongdam-dong. The galleries here seem to attract many art lovers. Even so. these streets on the south bank of the Han remind me of some of the Parisian carriage-trade streets. They are. to say the least. consumption-oriented. How to overcome this atmosphere would be the big challenge for those galleries to the south of the Han. ÂŽ (This review was originally written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREAN A. This is a translation.)

LEE YIL

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REVIEW

MUSIC Mozart in New Umelight Han Sang-woo

hey say that anyone who can play Mozart like Mozart is entitled to musical primacy.

Indeed, the more you listen to Mozart, the more difficult it grows.

All musical works possess melody, rhythm and harmony, and each work allows typical interpretation. To Mozart. tempo was of extreme importance. A slight deviation from the original tempo would cause the loss of the original flavor of his music.

Until some years ago, there was a tendency in Korean musical world that Mozart's works were played by young pianists as a kind of mandatory process at the early stage of their career.

Recently, however, not a few musicians of notable fame and experience have been including Mozart in the repertories for their concerts, indicating a new trend to analyze and understand this great composer from a fresh and broader perspective.

Particularly, some musicians have declared that they would perform all of Mozart's piano concertos next year on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his death. Already, it is clear that the year I 99 I will be a year for Mozart lovers.

What needs to be mentioned at this juncture is that in Korean musical community, there has been a move to perform the entire works by Beethoven or Mozart in a series of concerts since some years ago. These so-called "academic" endeavors have materialized most notably in a series of recitals by two pianists, Profs. Lee Kyong-suk and Kim Sung-hi. both performing the entire sonatas by Mozart.

Prof. Lee Kyong-suk, of Seoul National University, had already been acclaimed for performing all of Beethoven's 32 so~atas in I 988. the first such attempt in the country.

She did not stop there and went on to perform all of Mozart's I 8 sonatas during the first half of I 989. From September I 989 to May this year. another prominent female pianist. Prof.

Kim Sung-hi at Sookmyung Women's University, performed the entire canon of Mozart's sonatas again.

There is a saying that you begin to play Mozart with a smile and end it crying. This means that his musical world is so pure, dean and lofty-spirited. Therefore, it may not be too difficult for a player to handle his music technically, but it is extremely difficult to express the spirit in his music perfectly.

In view of such difficulty, those musicians who are striving to master Mozart both technically and spiritually should deserve high respect. Particularly, the presentations by these two outstanding pianists made us realize. first of all, that Korea has pianists who can play Mozart like Mozart. This is highly encouraging at this point when many people talk about the need for

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Han Sang-woo. 52 , graduated from the College of Music. Seoul National University. From I 969 to I 984 . he taught at Kyonggi Middle School and served as a member of the broadcasting commission at Munhwa Broadcasting Co. He currently serves as the director of music at Seoul High School of Arts and Music, a director of the Korean Music Association, and a member of the Korea Public Performance Ethics Committee.

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MOZART IN NEW LIMELIGHT

a qualitative progress of the Korean musical community that has already made sufficient development in terms of quantity.

It was obvious that these two musicians. with their serious efforts to achieve perfection. presented a breakthrough in the Korean musical world which had been generally too permissive of easy-going. amateurish attitudes of musicians. It is true that Western classical music still finds various obstacles to its taking root on Korean soil. But musicians should also bear in mind the fact that they cannot touch the heartstrings of their audience without achieving perfection in terms of both technique and musical spirit.

Second. the two musicians impressed us with their pure. untainted spirit. "Popularization" is one word that we hear often these days. We are very apt to take this word to mean "democratization." but they are of totally different concepts. The word "popular" has an unmistakable connotation of being "easy ¡and comfortable." "Popular music" refers to music that is easy for most people to understand and follow.

We certainly need popular music for entertainment of the general public. If the entire society only pursues things that are easy and comfortable. however. our spiritual depth and value of life will be greatly deteriorated. Therefore. classical music should maintain its unique spirit and quality. while popular music retains its atmosphere necessary to cater to the greater populace. The act of delving into Mozart itself is nothing but expediting the artistic spirit of highest dimension. an effort to preserve the pure quality of classical music.

Third. they showed us that a true musical performance needs intense communication between the musician and the audience. Big concert halls accommodating thousands of people are increasing these days. but small halls provide an ideal environment in which the audience can closely follow every slightest movement and change in the mood of the performer on the stage.

By performing Mozart's sonatas in small theaters. these two musicians clearly manifested their intention to offer their audience an opportunity to appreciate Mozart in a most sincere atmosphere. The audience in turn seemed to be doing their best to concentrate themselves in order to feel the deepest flavor of Mozart.

Last but not the least. both musicians displayed remarkable academicism as well as professionalism. the two elements combining to achieve a high standard of musical excell<7nce. In musical circles. the word "academicism" is sometimes used to camouflage unpolished performances. But it is self-evident that the concert musician should be equipped with both academic depth and professional expertise.

The two professors demonstrated their outstanding academic zest by performing the entire collection of Mozart's sonatas instead of selecting a few better suiting their taste or style.ÂŽ

(This review was originally written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREAN A. This is a translation.)

HAN SANG¡WOO

93

REVIEW Dance New Vista for Dance Kim Chae-hyun

f Korea's dance community marked the 1980s with a fast-rising number of performances, that climb has turned even steeper still for the opening portion of this year. Indeed we are even tempted to say that the 1990s will witness an explosive growth of it all.

The prospects, to say the least are bright. Dance will become one of the commonest forms of art in this country and do so much sooner than later. But then I by no means am saying that the prevailing state of affairs about dance in our country leaves nothing to be desired.

Far from it. Consider the very basic job of adding to tons of popular appeal. Dance must simply be appreciated by a much larger portion of the population.

Of course, I am now implying that the artists are to blame for the absence of popular interest.

The reason is simplicity itself. For it obviously requires the collective efforts on the part of all of the dance community to make it far more accessible and appealing for the public.

No matter how many performances are given, that number becomes meaningless where no solid communications exist between the general populace and the dance community. Indeed no such communications exist in our country.

Our dancers, of course, are downright unhappy about this. Then again it must be noted that to those artists brimming with creative ardor, the particular situation in Korea today should not remain a mere source of pessimism. It should spell for them a great challenge.

Why is the public indifferent to dance? Mainly because there are few works of notable artistic quality. What to do? Evidently, our "dance specialists" must do much better than now.

This spring so many dances were staged that critics found it practically impossible to attend them all. In addition, the Bolshoi Ballet came late in March.

Since 1988, Soviet ballet artists have visited our country on four occasions. What was remarkable about the latest visit was that no "gala" program was offered. Presented instead were a few select numbers, and all of these were performed from opening to finale.

Though no top stars were among the visitors- nor were there any contemporary works performed-everything about it was genuine. Stage sets were flown from Russia. The company's own orchestra came to play.

Presented were Swan Lake, Giselle and, among others, Les Sylphides. The audience was captivated. The performances drew rave reviews from the press and the keenest attention from local dance fans.

Our public, that is to say, is well prepared to appreciate dance when its artistry or quality is high enough.

I

Kim Chae-hyun , 36, graduated from the Department of Philosophy , Seoul National University, and obtained a master's degree in aesthetics at SNU Graduate School. Since 1986, Kim has been teaching aesthetics of dance at Seo Won University, while being active as a dance critic. The author of Dance of Our Life, published in 1989, Kim has also produced several discourses including Research on the Nature of Aesthetic Experience.

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NEW VISTA FOR DANCE

National Classic111 Music Institute dance company presents Oar, choreographed by Moon 11-fl.

On the other hand, many Korean dance specialists have gained from the latest visit by the Bolshoi Ballet a fresh insight into the art of staging, direction and the dancing technique itself.

Once more the visit by a foreign dance company brings to mind our time-honored problem of coming out with an " original Korean-style dance."

The fact of the matter is, our dance community has at long last begun reaching somewhere in its effort to cope with that old problem. I talk of Oar, created and offered this spring by Moon Il-ji. permanent choreographer for the National Classical Music Institute dance company.

This was no mere exercise at reflecting Korean originality. It struck me as a deeply moving work of art. Taking off from seamen's longings and passions. the work masterfully blends Korean traditions in music and dance. Produced in consequence was an effect at once amazingly modern and haunting.

Oar. whose performance time is but a quarter of an hour. seems to have indeed broadened the vista for dance in Korea and even pointed to the way to go in solving that old problem confronting the local dance community.

Almost as memorable was something else: dance performances given as part of this year's May Day celebrations. These notable offers were made by dance troupes in Seoul named Pullim ·and Kippal.

The goal of the performances was lofty: to express the people's desire to remake Korean society. The artistic style, though, was highly acceptable. Instead of crudely echoing political slogans. it was designed to elevate the dances to the realm of serious artistic endeavor. This also has helped to broaden the vista of dance in Korea.

®

{Tftis review was originalliJ written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use hfJ KOREAN A. Tftis is a translation.)

KIM CHAE·HYUN

95

REVIEW Theater

A Drama Company Fetes 40th Anniversary

he National Drama Company presented a series of special performances to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its inauguration during the month of ApriL highlighting the I 990 spring theatrical season in Seoul. The special performances included Namhansan Fortress. a Korean original period play written by Kim Ui-kyong and directed by Chong Il-song: The House of Bernarda Alba. a Spanish folk tragedy written by Federico Garcia Lorca and directed

by Kim Chong-ok: and A Lonely City written by Yun Cho-byong. This was a work specially commissioned for the festival. It was directed by Oh Tae-sok.

Inaugurated on April 29. 1950, the National Drama Company was the first performing arts group organized under the umbrella of the National Theater. The company planned its anniversary festival under three basic guidelines: I) it should be jointly mounted by the entire drama community in recognition of the often voiced criticism over the company's "exclusive casting policy"; 2) it should feature one original Korean play. one revival from the company's old repertoire, and one translated foreign play: and 3) the festival should last a full month.

Namhansan Fortress, staged at the National Theater's Main Hall from April I to 4, was a revival of the company's premiere in I 97 4 directed by the late Yi Chin-sun. The play, set against the I 7th-century Korea experiencing a Manchu invasion. was performed by a broad range of actors including former members of the national company who are currently active in TV. cinema or working with other theatrical groups. The cast also included a number of big names from the past who are now in their sixties or seventies. such as Ko Sol-bong. Kang Kye-shik, Kim Dong-won. Chang Min-ho and Paek Song-hi. This of course was intended as a salute to their prominent and long careers. to which the company owes much of its success during the past four decades.

When it was first staged I 6 years ago, the drama rated rave reviews from critics. One said: "A painful historical episode unfolded with a calm tone." Another hailed it for its "dear lines. that. combined with stable movements. create a consistency in the overall flow ~f drama."

Still another praised it for its "persuasive dialogue reflecting the playwright's deep historical insight." It won the grand prize in that year's Hankook Drama. Cinema and Television Awards in addition to the awards in four other categories including the best production. best writing, best actor and best art.

The revivaL however. did not quite live up to its past fame. Audience attendance was better than average. filling some I .200 of the total I. 518 seats for each performance during the four

T

Song Aei-kyung, 34 . earned her B.A. from the Department of Mass Communications, Sogang University, and M.A. from the Theatre Department. Graduate School of the State University of New York. Albany. She was the assistant editor of The Korean Theater. the organ of the Korean Theater Association from I 986 to 1987. Since I 987. she has been lecturing drama theory at Songsim College for Women . She concurrently works as the programming and publicity officer at the National Theater of Korea.

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A DRAMA COMPANY FETES 40TH ANNIVERSARY

Scene from Namliansan Fortress staged by the National Drama Company in celebration of its 40th anniversary.

days. Technically, the presentation was not so disappointing. Director Chong Il-song employed symbolic methods of contemporary theater, disregarding the company's conservative style, to give the production a fresh impression from time to time. However, he failed to overcome the monotony of the original play that focused on the clash of differing viewpoints among the ruling elite of the Chason dynasty on how to cope with the invading Manchus and the eventual surrender by the king. The episode is recorded as one of the most humiliating developments in Korean history.

Director Chong, who had formerly been with the drama society of Seoul National University,

SONG AEI¡KYUNG

97

graduated from an actors' institute affiliated with the National Theater in its first dass. He belonged to the first generation of Korean stage artists who led a "small theater movement" back in the early 1960s, mostly directing serious Western plays like Dostoyevsky's Black Angel. After serving as a representative of Dong-in Drama Group and a producer with MBC-TV, he resumed his theatrical studies in 1967 at the University of Tennessee on a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation. Last year he marked his homecoming by directing A Time for Holocaust for the Seoul Drama Festival. It won the best production award in the Dong-A Drama Awards.

The stage set designed by Kim Hyo-son effectively visualized the edges of Mt. Namhansan, the backdrop for the last-minute resistance and despair. It gave depths to the stage and sharpened the effect of the actors' performances. The repeated use of the same scenery pieces added to the monotony of the drama during its latter half. though.

From April 5 to 19, The House of Bernarda Alba, the second piece for the festival, was performed at the National Theater's Small Hall, under the direction of Kim Chong-ok, a senior director. He is the leader of the Chayu (Freedom) Drama Troupe, one of the best private theatrical companies. Featuring a I 5-member all-female cast the drama made a sharp contrast with Namhansan Fortress whose huge cast consisted mainly of men.

Kim Chong-ok, who had directed Lorca's another well-known play, Blood Wedding, two years ago, failed to satisfy the expectation of those members of the audience familiar with his outstanding intuition and expertise. The casting also exposed a problem by including performers of too varying levels, from top-class actresses like Park Chong-ja and Son Suk to new faces with little experience. Consequently, the drama greatly fluctuated in its artistic caliber from scene to scene, or even from mon:tent to moment.

In the original play, Lorca intended an actress to take three different roles. but the Korean version failed to present the pleasure of appreciating the skills of a single actress portraying one character after another. The part was divided by three different performers.

The last production for the festival was A Lonely City, written by leading playwright Yun Chobyong under a special contract, a rare incidence in the Korean drama community. For the first time, the national company commissioned a writer to come up with a play to suit the specific conditions of its theater. The company paid the writer part of the honorarium when he began to write it, and the balance after he completed writing it. This set a ne~ example in the local theatrical world where most performing groups select their pieces from among existing plays.

Despite such a desirable procedure, skepticisms had from the onset been voiced by critics over the result of the production, a collaboration between two artists of completely different dispositions: a realist playwright and a modernist director.

Their skepticism indeed proved to have sufficient grounds. The drama, set against a pub and two mobile bars on hand-pulled carts, achieved little more than unorganized outpourings of discontent and frustration from clients of these inexpensive drinking facilities over various issues confronted by Korean society today, such as the territorial division, the sufferings of separated families, management-labor relations, traffic jams, housing shortages. college entrance examinations and among other things, class struggles.

ÂŽ

(This review was originally written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREAN A. This is a translation.)

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A DRAMA COMPANY FETES 40TH ANNIVERSARY

Views from Korea

Between Seoul and Tokyo the distance is but a little over a hundred minutes' ffight. Nevertheless. to even the finest of Korean intellectuals Japan remains "mysterious and mystifying." The colonizer never understands the colonized, and vice versa. And an enmity as a result of this still makes itself acutely felt in many portions of the world today. Though the following article does not necessarily reffed the views of KOREANA, it tells much and makes readers understand much more about a striking aspect of the view from Korea. As a follow-up KOREAN A may shortly run an article representing the view from the other side-Nippon.-Ed.

SURMOUNTING THE PAST: A Korean View of Japan and Germany Choe Chungho y first formal education in primary school took place during the colonial era when Japan occupied Korea and was designed to make an imperial subject of me. However, over the years I have had the opportunity to spend as much time in Germany as in the Japanese educational system.

I observed that the Germans were incessantly taking up the issues of the past Germany, the past of the Third Reich. And I also became conscious of how the Japanese were trying to deal with the issue of past Japanese imperialism. Moreover, I observed that many European nations bordering on Germany were very much preoccupied with the issues of the past Germany. Accordingly, my attention was directed to the issue of how Asian nations adjacent to Japan were looking at the past deeds of Japan.

Nazi Germany, imperialist Japan, and Fascist Italy concluded a military alliance in the year 1940. Germany and Japan then provoked the second World War in Europe and Asia respectively. Both nations committed crimes against "peace," "mankind," and "humanity" as aggressors and as occupying forces in Europe and Asia. Their chauvinism and militarism led them to commit the gravest crimes of the 20th century, described by a Japanese as "the crimes that put mankind to shame for being called mankind."l 11 Germany and Japan alike met the end of the war as defeated nations. But before it ended each country suffered a brutal tragedy reminiscent of the scenes of the dusk of Gods (Gotterdammerung). The scenes were at Dresden in Germany and at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

During the post-war era Germany and Japan began to exhibit more dissimilarity than similarity

M

Choe Chungho, a well-known professor of mass communications and cultural critic, is currently a Visiting Fulbright Research Scholar at the School ofCommunications, University of Washington. Born in 193 3, Choe graduated from Seoul National University's Department of Philosophy in I 957, and Heidelberg University in West Germany in I 962. He obtained his doctorate in philosophy from Berlin Free University in I 968. He was formerly a ;ournalist working for the Hankook Ilbo, a ma;or Seoul daily, a professor at Yonsei University, and president of the Korean Mass Communications Society. His publications include Stages in the World, The Arts and Politics and Masters in the Art of Living. The present paper was delivered at the University of Washington's School of Communications Colloquium on May I 9 this year.

CHOE CHUNGHO

99

in their outlook toward their past. Of course. an external similarity exists between the two in the sense that both nations achieved an "economic miracle of rehabilitation" upon the ashes in the shortest span of time. But my own judgment is that Germany and Japan display a remarkable difference in their internal attitude. especially in their outlook toward their "past." To put it more precisely. while the Germans were still excessively conscious of guilt for their "past." the Japanese seemed to be entirely free from a consciousness of their past.

The first lecture by Prof. Karl Jaspers at the first fall term at the Heidelberg University following the end of the war was on "the question of guilt" (Die Schuldfrage). 121 In 1949 when the Federal Republic of Germany was established. the first President of the Republic. Prof. Theodor Heuss. vigorously defined the national goal for the German people to be "the surmounting of the past" (Bewaltigung der Vergangenheit). the Vice-Speaker of the Social Democratic Party, Prof. Carlo Schmid. agreed with this definition. Their belief was that the past should not be forgotten . should not be excluded from the German minds and that German democracy could be built only upon their challenge to the past. I think these few examples may suffice to represent the moral situation or the moral orientation of the post-war German intellectuals and leading personalities. 131 Furthermore. German social scientists have been heavily preoccupied with the study of Hitler's Germany and the daily or weekly newspapers of West Germany carry a standing space under the title of "Zeitgeschichte" (contemporary history dealing with the Third Reich).1 41 Of course. unceasing pressures. especially deliberate political pressures from Soviet Russia and East European nations in the course of the cold war helped make the Germans take themselves to task and to be always conscious of their past. Nevertheless. it is not only the socialist nations of East Europe who show a sensitive response to any sign suggestive of the rise of the Third Reich ghost. nationalism or militarism in West Germany. Paris. London and Washington also watch over the so-called "unliquidated past" of Germany and are equally wary of its future course.

A notable example of this watchful attitude occurred when a certain West German teenager scrawled the sign of the Hakenkreuz (swastika) on a church wall in Cologne in the late 1950s.

The incident was widely reported not only in the capitals of the West but in all capitals of the East and they warned against the revival of neo-Nazism in Germany in their reP<?rting and commentaries. The incident was also played up by Korean newspapers. even though in fact we Koreans suffered nothing directly from the past of Germany.

Then what is the case of Japan in comparison with Germany? For some time. Japan has been called an "economic animal" all the world over. Somehow. it may seem that the Japanese do not object to demeaning themselves so. In the eyes of Asian nations as victims of Japanese militarism during World War II, Japan is not only an economic animal freed from political ambition , but is also an economic animal freed from a sense of moral guilt over the past. This becomes more conspicuous in comparison with the "eternal guilty consciousness" of the German people.

In other words. the post-war Japanese no longer remember the fact that they were once an aggressor against the smaller nations of Asia during World War II. How was it possible for the Japanese to have been so rapidly "liberated from their past?"

Among the compound factors or reasons. one of the most decisive in my view was the fact

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A KOREAN VIEW OF JAPAN AND GERMANY

that two Japanese cities were destroyed by atomic bombs in August 1945. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki provided an opportune momentum to shift the image of Japan from that of an injurer to that of the injured.

The militarist Japan which provoked the Pacific war came to regard herself as the most pitiable victim of the war overnight. Japan emerged as a spokesman for the world peace movement. taking advantage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the post-war world.

The Hiroshima campaign of post-war Japan was a gigantic nationwide public relations strategy rallying all walks of life ranging from the conservative camp to the progressive camp regardless of intellectuals or the masses and Japan succeeded in this campaign. In addition to the banatomic-bomb rally held in Hiroshima in August of every year. Japan also mobilized the mass media to appeal to the world opinion about the misery and plight of the damage caused by atomic bombs. They succeeded sufficiently enough in touching off a kind of "Hiroshima sentimentalism " among intellectuals all the world over. One typical example of "Hiroshima sentimentalism" by European intellectuals is the motion picture "Hiroshima. mon amour" directed

by Alain Resnais based upon the script by Alain Robbe-Grillet.

It seems to me that the external Hiroshima campaign of post-war Japan had the effect internally¡ of offsetting and paralyzing the guilty conscience of the Japanese people over the crimes committed before and during the war. By taking the United States to task for the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan managed to cloud the blame directed against her as the starter of an aggressive war in Asia. The position of Japan as defendant against war crimes charges and war responsibility in the Pacific was reversed to that of plaintiff to denounce the United States to the world. Thus. Japan is obliterating the moral responsibility of the past for the mass massacre of Koreans with bamboo spears in the wake of the great earthquake in the "Kanto" region and for the mass murder of I 0 million Chinese people in mainland China.

Of course. the question of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki could be weighed in terms of humanitarian responsibility. Since Koreans also experienced the misery and plight of war during the Korean War, they can be as sincerely sympathetic to the victims of the atomic bombing as any other peoples of the world. Furthermore. we do not forget that the lives of many Koreans were also lost in the atomic bombing. I believe that. precisely because of this fact, the precious sacrifices of these victims should not be used as an excuse to exonerate or cover up the crimes committed by a militarist Japan.

When we wipe the tears of Hiroshima sentimentalism from our eyes to look squarely at the facts . we cannot avoid the conclusion that the two atomic bombs expedited the end of the war even though the Japanese militarists were so desperate as to dare a scorched-land war under the slogan of "assaulting suicide of the 100 million Japanese people." The early ending of war by dint of atomic bombs saved not only the lives of American soldiers. It saved more Japanese from meaningless death.

However, suppose we ignore the early ending of the war and brand the atomic bombing of peaceful cities as a war crime. Even so. the wrongdoings of Japan cannot be exonerated or neutralized by the wrongdoings of the United States. Could anyone ever dare to assert that the damage inflicted upon Japan by the atomic bombing could exonerate or mitigate the wrongdoings of Japan against the smaller nations in Asia?

CHOE CHUNGHO

I0I

In this connection. we might compare the case with that of the heavy bombing of Dresden in which 300.000 lives were lost overnight. On the night of carnival on February 13. 1945 when the European war was almost nearing its end. the peaceful city of Dresden. crowded by Ger¡ man refugees fleeing from the advandng Russian troops. was indiscriminately bombed by United States and British air forces. taking a toll in human life higher than the number of lives lost by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nevertheless. world opinion does not take the view that the evil committed against Dresden exonerated the evil of Nazi Germany. And the German people themselves. even though they were the victim. do not share such a view either. By the same token. world opinion. or at least public opinion in the nations victimized

by Japanese militarism. hardly takes the view that the atomic bombing against Hiroshima and Nagasaki whitewashed the bloody hands of Japan. If Japan ever attempted to put on the mask of a spokesperson for world peace on the pretext of being a victim of atomic bombing. then this would be a kind of acrobatics in logic utterly unconvincing to anyone. In the eyes of the Asian nations persecuted by Japanese aggression during the war. the atomic bombs not only took human lives in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. but also obliterated the consciousness of guilt from the hearts of the Japanese people.

There must be many reasons for Japan's rapid role-reversal from the position of the defendant and militarist to that of plaintiff and make-shift pacifist. but I think the following factors may be more important than others.

The first and primary factor was the internal division among the victorious allies following the end of World War II and the intensified cold war between the East and the West. New confrontations and immediate interests always outweigh those of the past. The war crimes of Japan were disposed of as settled by the trials of the military tribunals in the Far East. Having administered the external sanctions as such. internal inquisition into the conscience of the Japanese was either mitigated halfway or put off indefinitely.

The second factor was the silence kept by the Korean and Chinese peoples on the past crimes of Japan even though they were the nations most victimized by Japanese militarism. Both Korea and China had their lands divided following World War II and the position of both nations was too weak to assert their historical rights to denounce the past of Japanese imperialism.

The mainland of China was occupied by the Communists and excluded from the international forum of the United Nations while the divided Korea is not yet admitted to the United Nations.

The third factor was the geographical position of Japan. If we hold the view that the central arena of international politics and international public opinion is still situated in the West. then we may surmise that Korea. Japan and China stand on the periphery in the attention and in¡ terest of the West-oriented world. In this sense the three nations constitute the Far East. in a literal sense. on the West-oriented globe. Despite the ceaseless efforts of Germany to achieve self-redemption following the war. it is not yet free from the accusing volley of the world com¡ munity of nations against the crimes of the Nazis. Then how can Japan. by contrast. behave like a spokesman for peace through an about-face change from the former aggressor and war criminal of the Pacific war? This can be explained partly by the geographical positions of Japan and Germany. Germany is surrounded by a dozen nations on the European continent while Japan is surrounded by seas on all four sides as if hidden in the mist of the Far East when seen from the West.

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A KOREAN VIEW OF JAPAN AND GERMANY

The fourth factor is the idiosyncratic characteristic of the Japanese culture and the Japanese people as pointed out by cultural anthropologists. It is the "lack of the culture of guilt" in Japan as asserted by Ruth Benedict. It is said that the Japanese put the sense of shame before that of guilt. Thus, the Japanese culture is called "the culture of shame" in contrast to the culture of guilt which is oriented toward the absolute criteria of morality and the cultivation of conscience. The culture of guilt aspires to do morally good things based upon the internal awakening of a guilty consciousness while, in the view of Benedict, the culture of shame attempts to do good deeds only enforced by external coerdon.'51 This analysis explains the genesis of socalled Japanese pacifism of the post-war period better than any other explanations, now that the peace constitution of Japan was adopted by external pressures from the occupying forces following her defeat in the war rather than through the self awakening of the Japanese people.

The Japanese appear to be ashamed of their defeat in the war rather than feeling guilty about touching off the war.

The fifth factor is the rapid economic recovery and progress which helped Japan solidify her position and which, in some sense, is used to justify the elevation of Japan's position. Japan achieved a miracle of rehabilitation in the cold war of the 1950s, particularly owing to the Korean war and Japan soon assumed the leading position in Asia by her economic power. The success of economic recovery at such speed was made possible because Japan, like Germany, had to refrain from undertaking fundamental post-war reforms due to financial or psychological reasons (as indicated by Prof. Horst Ehmke). Therefore, the efforts at self-repentance and renovation to redeem the defeat in the war were carried out with an added weight on the economic and technological leveL not on the political or moral level. '61 After assuming a leading position in Asia by dint of her economic power. Japan now tries to expand her lead into the realm of political and moral superiority.

In the development decades since the 1960s, Japan has increasingly asserted her leading position to the outside world in order to obtain recognition that it is now a political and moral leader as well as an economic leader in Asia. Japanese intellectuals, particularly those of the so-called "progressive left" have not escaped such a mentality.

To sum up my generation's view of Japan and the Japanese based on my comments thus far, I may be permitted to say that our view of Japan and the Japanese people is more affected by an unchanged image of post-war Japan than by the changed picture of that nation.¡ In other words, even if the democratic Japan of today might have modified the militarist Japan of the past on external and institutional levels, Japan is still unable to liquidate or surmount her "past" in an internal and moral sense. We are watching Japan with fear that it is unable or is not going to surmount her past. From the perspective of my generation, the question of an "unsurmounted past" (unbewaltigte Vergangenheit) is no longer the concern of Germans but should be an immediate concern and issue in present-day Japan. However. it causes me apprehension and concern that not only the Japanese people themselves, particularly Japanese intellectuals but also intellectuals from smaller Asian nations once so severely persecuted by Japan, seem not to be worried about Japan 's "unsurmounted past. " To illustrate this worry, I beg your indulgence in allowing me to cite the following examples.

One of the famous old prime ministers of Japan who laid down the democratic foundation of post-war Japan has been reported by some weekly magazines to have inscribed an epitaph

CHOE CHUNGHO

I 03

on the tombs of senior-class war criminals of the Pacific war sentenced to death at the Far East military tribunal which also sentenced such people as Hideki Tojo to death. What reaction would there have been - whether in the East or West - if Chancellor Adenauer had inscribed an epitaph on the tombs of Nazi war criminals?

One of the representative writers of post-war Japan, once reputed as a possible candidate for the Nobel prize in literature, committed "hara-kiri" suicide urging the revival of Japanese militarism. What shock the world would have received if such a West German writer as Heinrich Boll had made a speech for the revival of Nazism, far less committed suicide.

Japan's attitude toward a "past" which was not surmounted either internally or morally is conspicuously demonstrated in the course of her negotiations for diplomatic relations with other nations which had an "unfortunate past" tied with Japan. Most of Korea's intellectuals and possibly some Japanese intellectuals may still remember how Japan coined new sly words and phrases in an effort to bypass the moral redemption or to justify Japan's past aggression toward Korea in the course of diplomatic negotiations for normalization of Korea-Japan relations.

Again later, we heard many awkward remarks of the Japanese by way of an apology or repentance for the inhuman crimes committed against the Chinese people in the course of events up to the start of normalization negotiations for relations between Japan and mainland China and even during the visit of Japan's prime minister Tanaka to Peking.

The stereotyped cliche employed by the Japanese to liquidate "the unsurmounted past" of Japan is their statement that "Japan will be willing to apologize for Japan's past if it is needed" for the expansion of diplomatic relations or economic exchanges. Such an apology would be an opportunistic modus vivendi only for the sake of the pursuit of diplomatic and economic goals. It is quite apparent that such an apology could never be a genuine one based on internal and moral conviction or on a guilty consciousness.

Japan's attitude shown in the course of rapprochement with the Korean and Chinese people is in vivid and remarkable contrast to the attitude of Chancellor Brandt who knelt on his knees at the tombs of those victims of Warsaw ghettos around the time of the conclusion of the treaty between West Germany and Poland.

In the long run, the unclear attitude of Japan toward her own "past" makes the Asian nations feel uneasy and apprehensive mainly because Asians are not sure what course Japan will take in the future, not to mention the past. Japan's opportunistic position in terms of her evaluation and internal attitude toward the "past" of war and aggression may lead the Asian nations to doubt even if Japan makes her peaceful intention felt in Asia in the future, that the alleged statement must be motivated by Japan's opportunism. If the evaluation of the "past" of war and aggression was opportunistic, then any alleged will for peace not based on moral conviction may be easily shaken off by situational or opportunistic momentum.

The uneasiness and skepticism shared by Asian nations about the peaceful intentions of Japan stem from Japan's geopolitical position as well as from the unclear subjective intentions of Japanese leaders. On this point I would like to make a concluding comparison of Japan and Germany.

The two nations are on parallel tracks in that both were defeated in World War II and both now enjoy prosperity based on economic progress. However, the position and role of Japan and Germany in Asia and Europe respectively are not necessarily similar.

104

A KOREAN VIEW OF JAPAN AND GERMANY

Germany, as a nation surrounded by many other nations on the European continent is closely and deeply integrated into the "heart" of Europe through her affiliation with many regional cooperative systems. Japan, by contrast is an island country and has for a long time been the single industrial power in Asia. In a sense, Japan is situated outside of Asia and was able to be detached from involvement with all of the conflicts in Asia since the end of World War II. As Germany is integrated into the inner part of Europe peace or war in Europe is directly tied with the very security of Germany herself. However, we may question whether the security of Japan is directly connected with war or peace in Asia.

Tension reduction and peace in Europe are really essential to the very existence, peace and prosperity of Germany. There is no question that once a large scale war breaks out in Europe, the most likely battle ground will be Germany with all miseries of war. Therefore, if and when German leaders or intellectuals profess their wish for peace, the world is inclined to take note of Germany's geopolitical position and to trust the earnestness and sincerity of their will for peace which is based on their objective and moral faith. However, could we ever assume that tension reduction and peace in Asia are essential to the very existence, peace and prosperity of Japan? Could we ever assume that war on the Korean peninsula or in Indochina, in mainland China or any war in Asia would be a fatal blow to the existence, peace and prosperity of Japan as in the case of Germany?

If I may be permitted to employ a little more extreme expression, I would say that while post-war Germany could be prosperous only through peace in Europe and through cooperation ~ith neighboring nations, Japan, willingly or unwillingly, could prosper by dint of conflicts in Asia , by dint of division and confrontation among some Asian nations.

The biggest war in the 1950s was waged on the Korean peninsula in Asia . The biggest war in the 1960s and 70s was fought in Indochina in Asia. Even in the 1980s and 90s the potential for armed conflict remains higher in Asia than in other parts of the world.

Japan has gradually emerged as the strongest leading nation in Asia, backed by her economic power to fill the gap left open by the United States. Subjectively speaking, Japan did not surmount or liquidate her "past" of war and aggression against the smaller Asian nations, at least internally and morally. Objectively speaking, Japan enjoys her cozy insular existence with the geopolitical windfall that she is in a position to benefit from conflicts in Asia. Japan, as such, is now emerging as a strong power backed by nothing but her economic and technological potential.

What sort of a country is Japan? What are they thinking of? What are they going to do? It is a mysterious country. And this is my view of Japan as a member of the generation who were once subjects of that mystified country. ~ Footnotes I. Preface of Japanese translator for: Viktor Frankl: ""Ein Psychopathologe erlebt KZ" (""Yoru to Kiri "), Tokyo, n.d.

2. Jaspers. Karl: Lebensfragen der deutschen Politik. Miinchen, 1963, p. 36.

3. cf. Alfred Grosser. La Democratie de Bonn. Paris, 1960. VI & VII. 4. See for example such daily newspapers as Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt. and such weeklies as Die Zeit.

Der Spiegel. Das Paralment, etc.

5. Ruth Benedict. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword. London, 1967. p. 156.

6. Horst Ehmke. Die Generation, auf diewir gewartet haben. Referat auf dem SPD¡Parteitag in Niirnberg.

In: "" Der Monat ." April 1968 (Vol. 235), p. 39.

CHOE CHUNGHO

105

Tidings from International Cultural Society of Korea (ICSK}

SHIMCHONG GOES TO JAPAN Another overseas triumph rince Hitachi, Emperor Akihito's brother. was there. So was Princess Hitachi. So too were 34 Japanese cabinet ministers and vice ministers, in addition to a glittering assemblage of distinguished men and women from all over Tokyo. Place: the National Theater of Japan. Occasion: the first performance in Japan of The Tale of Shimchong, that great classic of the traditional Korean folk opera.

Indeed the lovingly designed theater was packed to capacity (I .850). So overwhelming was the demand on the part of Japanese theatergoers to sit through it that with a happy cooperation on the part of the National Theater of Japan, there was even an extra performance given earlier in the day (April 23). The traditional opera was presented by the International Cultural Society of Korea , under the aegies of. among other Japanese orgaruzations. the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Culture Agency, NHK and Yomiuri Shimbun. Japan's (and the world's) largest newspaper.

One outcome was predictable. So moving was the performance that to the last member the Japanese audience gave a deafening standing ovation when the curtain came down for the evening. "I understood not a word said on stage," said a misty-eyed middle-aged man in the theater. "It's the spirit and the artistry of this great Korean dassic that have left me

P

The Tale of Shimcho11g was staged at the National Theater of Japan in Tokyo on April 23. and also at the Youth Culture Center in Osaka on April 26. 1990.

106

TIDINGS FROM INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL SOCIETY OF KOREA

in tears." That view, to varying degrees, seemed shared by much of the rest of the audience.

Three days later. the same performance was given in Osaka. Another sellout success.

The members of the cast and musicians were nearly entirely those "veterans" who had made it a terrific success on their "Shimchong tour" of Eastern Europe last fall under the ICSK patronage. The wardrobe was resplendent the choreography masterful and the musical effect "simply glorious, " as a Japanese theater critic put it. Once again Cho Sang-hyun, playing the heroine's father, dominated the stage. As Shimchong, the lovely star Kim Sung-ae left almost nothing to be desired. It was, all in alL a memorable tour.

Director was Sohn )in-chaek. Members of the Michu Theater Group, Pansori Preservation and Research Association and 88 Seoul Art Troupe gave a sturdy support to the stars. The musical side of the performance was brilliantly shouldered by members of the Folk Music Group of the National Classical Music Institute.

The probable next stop for Shimchong: the U.S.A. KOREA¡JAPAN INTELLECTUAL EXCHANGE

"Twenty-Five Years of Korea-Japan Cooperation" was the theme for the Ninth Korea-Japan Intellectual Exchange, a meeting staged in Seoul with the ICSK support in April. The occasion was designed to mark the 25th anniversary of the day that saw normalization of relations between Korea and Japan. About 30 scholars from the two countries took part in the forum organized jointly by the Asiatic Research Center of Korea University and the Japan Center for International Exchange.

ART WORKS FOR THE U.S.

The ICSK offered a gift that consisted of two Korean calligraphic works to the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs as a token of friendship and felicitations to mark the completion of the Merrill House renovation jobs. With some help from ICSK. the council in New York in June held a discussion meeting under the theme of Korea's place in the world. The occasion was meant to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the outbreak of the Kor~an war.

ICSK'S GUESTS

For the first half of I 990, the ICSK invited to Korea a number of scholars and artists for a variety of lectures and meetings. Among them were : Political scientist Elisa P. Reis of BraziL Professor of French literature and Mrs. Robert-Andre )ouanny of France, legal expert Karl-Heiz Roeder of East Germany, Dr. Detlef Ki.ihn of West Germany's Gesamdeutsches lnstitut conductor Dennis Burkh of the U.S., Soviet scholar William Smirnov, and political scientists Mijat Damjanovic of Yugoslavia and Longin Pastusiak of Poland.

Among the lectures that these visitors gave, one that left many Koreans particularly impressed and pensive was given by West Germany's Dr. Detlef Ki.ihn . He said his country had been totally unprepared for the drastic development in East Germany and the rest of the Eastern

107

bloc and that this led to a great deal of confusion in the Bonn government. He added: 'The possibility of north Korea's collapse in the near future (because of its economic diffculties) must not be overlooked. South Korea should be prepared for such an eventuality and should not be taken by surprise as West Germany had been.. .. I think Korea could be united much earlier than many people think.. .. "

,----- - -- 1991 Fellowship Program of ICSK - - - ------.

The International Cultural Society of Korea announces its 1991 Fellowship Program for Korean studies in the fields of humanities. social sciences and arts. The program is intended to provide scholars. students, and other professionals from overseas with an opportunity to carry out in-depth research in Korea for a period of one to six months.

Eligible candidates must have either a Master's degree or a Ph.D and should be pursuing advanced studies in any of the fields mentioned above.

Each successful applicant will be provided with one round-trip air ticket to Korea and monthly stipend of 1.350,000 won (approximately U.S. $1.900) and 900,000 won for postdoctoral and predoctoral work, respectively.

Applicants should complete two copies of the 1991 Fellowship Program application form and submit their academic research proposals to the International Cultural Society of Korea by October 3 I , 1990.

For application forms, program guidelines, or further information, please write to:

Fellowship Program International Cultural Society of Korea C.P.O. Box 2147, SeouL Korea Fax: (02) 757-2049 Telex: INCULKO K27738 Cable: INCUSOKO SEOUL

108

TIDINGS FROM INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL SOCIETY OF KOREA

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