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Changing Korea
Dear KBC members,
this is my first attempt to initiate a discussion here - hope you will share your thoughts and observations, and am grateful for that in advance ^^
Few days ago I was sitting in a coffee place - sipping my cappucino and thinking that I'm living in Seoul for 3 years and both the city and it's inhabitants truly embody the spirit of "Dynamic Korea". Talking about changes, it's always easier to notice them if you don't live in a place, since living makes one blind for gradual developments. But trying to compare today's Korea to Korea of few years ago (and in this discussion I'm not interested in Korea now vs Korea 50 yrs ago), and focusing more on culture / society rather than technologies (sure, we all see that Korea is experiencing a smartphone tsunami) the following are the things I noticed:
1. Explosion of coffee culture
seems that now having a coffee shop is the most trendy business. There are coffee shops popping up like mushroom after rain in same streets (in 혼대, on one of main streets I counted 7 new coffee shops opened during a period of 3 months). Recently I've been to Jeju and was strolling in a village free of GS25, yet I found a superb coffee shop (with a onion field view!). Do you share this observation, do you notice similar patterns in 강남 and other cities? FYI, my area of observation covers North Seoul - areas like 광화문, 이대,신촌,홍대,안국.
2. More colors in clothes
Again, few years ago I had hard time finding colorful shoes, shirts or pants. I'm not talking of pastel colors and pink - these were present, but some bright colors like green, lime, yellow, orange, etc ^^ And I'm not talking of Missoni and similar brands - they were present, but the price scale too high. Rather it's about street fashion. Nowadays, maybe due to recent invasion of Zara, H&M, I spot people wearing more colors, not mentioning abundance of colorful sneakers (just drop to Adidas or New Balance shops...)
3. More open skinship
Maybe it's effect of spring (though I noticed it during winter as well), but people seem to be much more open in touching each other, kissing openly in public places, walking holding hands. Maybe my memory betrays me, but few years ago I did not notice it as much as now...
What do you think of my observations and what are yours? Can relate to anything - culture, doing business, eating, drinking, etc...
Thanks!
Modesta
Replies to This Discussion | 이 토론에 대한 답글들
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Permalink Reply by Steven S. Bammel on -
Modesta - Thanks for sharing an interesting set of observations.
I'd also be interested in knowing what others think about the growth of the coffee culture. When I got here almost 20 years ago, I remember there being lots of independent coffee shops around at that time. So, my guess is that it's not so much that the "coffee culture" has grown but that it it's become dominated by the large chains and more focused on quality coffee (rather than tea and cheap coffee, like before). It must be very hard to be an independent coffee shop in this day and age in Korea.
I would say that another couple cultural trends we see lately are a growing awareness of the foreign components within Korean society (I've even heard Koreans call it a "multicultural society", which still seems like a stretch to me) and the slow recognition that the demographic aging in Korea is eventually going to lead to some huge social changes.
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Permalink Reply by Yee, Won Hee on -
Modesta,
Koreans favor what you mentioned above. They have had no other options but turn a blind eye to small but precious things in life, which was forced by hard times by time.
Gideon Rachman, a columnist of The Financial Times last year provided the idea that historians might take the place of the financial analysts and economists, including the late Paul Samuelson of Harvard, at the outbreak of financial crisis started in the U.S. They have churned out analytical and forecasting models based on too short a period of time - 20 to 50 years, the reliability of which was not fully stress-tested, ending up a WRONG judgment. There are many variables in practice that are only possible to define and extrapolate in the period of time longer than a hundred years.
Way before Yi dynasty founded in 1392, the code of ideas and behaviors of Koreans had been rather liberal.
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Permalink Reply by Mary-Jane Liddicoat on -
My husband witnessed a reminder that many Koreans still have very fixed points of view about 'open skinship' the other day at the Chosun Hotel swimming pool, when a young Korean couple who shared a simple kiss (not particularly the passionate variety) were told off by an older Korean male in no uncertain terms, in a very loudly public way, that they needed to stop.
How hilarious. No wonder the Korean birthrate is dropping through the floor.
What's right about the current suicide/birthrate crises in Korea that we're not getting? Sometimes it takes a crisis to create change...
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Permalink Reply by Steven S. Bammel on
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Oh, I don't think public displays of affection have a thing to do with birthrates. Korea's a whole lot more liberal than a lot of places with much higher birthrates...
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