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Only 70 years ago, South Korea was a dirt-poor agricultural country whose major export items were rice, seaweed, and the likes. Before that it was a Japanese c
by yongjik 8y ago
Only 70 years ago, South Korea was a dirt-poor agricultural country whose major export items were rice, seaweed, and the likes.
Before that it was a Japanese colony, and before that it was a die-hard confucian kingdom that would out-Confucius contemporary China.
Old moralities die hard. (Think of how racism persists in the US, 150+ years after the Civil War.) It didn't help that we imported right-wing American Christian ideology wholesale after the Korean War. :/
- api 8y agoWas the latter imported in part because it was compatible with older Korean values? Just curious.
- username3 8y agoKoreans accepted Christianity because they believed it’s right. Japanese are sensitive to social norms and wouldn’t accept Christianity even if they believed it was right to avoid conflict. https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-main-differences-between-Korean-and-Japanese-culture-e-g-social-structure-and-etiquette-What-is-it-like-to-interact-with-Koreans-vs-interacting-with-Japanese https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-main-differences-between-...
- yongjik 8y agoWhen your country is in ruins and barely saved by foreign soldiers fighting and dying, it becomes kinda easy to accept their belief system as your own. But actually they were quite compatible, come to think about it. Hard working will reward you, be obedient to your elders, your family and your country before you, men decide and women follow, yadda yadda. Edit: Of course many American soldiers who fought weren't actually right-wing Christian evangelists, but we didn't know it then. Koreans didn't speak good English on 1953: our perception of America (and what it stood for) was warped by whoever was willing to learn Korean... and a lot of them did it to spread the gospel of Jesus, I guess.