The King's palace (Wang JongHyun)

Minjok

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Republic of Korea has been in a process of globalization over decades. After the 1988 Seoul Olympics, alongside with ‘Segeywha’ drive by Kim Young-Sam administration, numerous different cultures poured into Republic Of Korea; thus it seems to be that Koreans minds and activities have changed and become completely different from what Koreans used to be.[1] However, “No” according to a Professor Shin Ki-Wook. He argues there is a fundamental belief of ‘Minjok’, Romantic nationalism deep down in every Koreans that has never changed.[2] Therefore, nothing has actually changed, just Koreans adapted to a new environment of globalization.[3] So what is ‘Minjok’? Actually Koreans, who are very familiar with the word, cannot write any sound words if someone asks him or her to write about ‘Minjok’. Therefore, let’s first look into Minjok and then understand it.

Koreans use the same word Minjok in both Korean ethnic group and Korean ethnic nationalism. Hence there is a great need to separate the concept of ethnic group and ethnic nationalism in order to avoid any confusion. Therefore, I will just scheme through what happened to create the concept of an ethnic group and romantic nationalism.

First, I will identify the Minjok as an ethnic group because it is preceding condition to achieve romantic nationalism. There have been many attempts to explain the concept of an ethnic group but it is still controversial as there is no concrete reason that one can find. Nevertheless, most plausible argument is in Anderson’s “Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin & Spread of Nationalism” Anderson argued that people began to imagine the concept of ethnic group after concept of mother tongue was created thanks to the invention of printing press in 16^th century.[4] In other words, the symbolic idea of ethnic group based on cultural similarity from generation to generation became objective by invention of printing press. Additionally, people must have subjective desire in making a subjective choice which ethnic group he or she wants to be a part of as Joseph Ernest Renan said.[5] To sum up, a combination of objective and subjective indicator of ethnic group completed the concept.

However, in late 18^th century, alongside with Independent war and French Revolution, the concept of nation became an ideology called nationalism. There are three main reasons for this change. Monarchy was losing its power. Accordingly the right of people became stronger than ever before. People no longer worshiped a monarch and they began to worship themselves thereby creating romantic nationalism. However, romantic nationalism was so abstract that it didn't have any real thing to worship. So, there was a necessity for visualization of a new ideology. Therefore, a folk culture was reproduced and reconstituted so as to allow people to imagine and visualize it.[6] Also at the same time it developed as political symbol to enhance loyalty toward fatherland.

Brothers Grimm

The representative example of reproduction and reconstitution of folklore is Brothers Grimm. They collected two hundred tales and at the same time they were creating, they were also modifying. For example they altered each ‘Fee’ to an enchantress or wise woman, every ‘prince’ to a ‘king’s son’, every ‘princess’ to a ‘king’s daughter.’[7] Brothers Grimm published their modified and idealized collection calling them authentically German. These folktales allowed people to feel strong attachment and loyalty toward the land and ethnic group.

Capitalism emerged and become a main stream at that time. George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel predicted that a modern society will be so individualized that people will only work for their own good not for the public interest. Therefore, a government will mediate conflicts between different interests. This came true and romantic nationalism served a function to unite individualized society. Additionally, the church was also losing its power. “Why I’m blind?”, “Why my daughter is a mentally retarded?” Religion used to answer the mystery of life like those questions. Oh the other hand, modern science or speculation system just kept silence to these questions.[8] Romantic nationalism was a perfect alternative to fill the gap because of its characteristics of historicity, continuity, and fatality as an ethnic group. To sum up, romantic nationalism was an ideology that was created for necessity of the time.

Joseon Sanggosa

Most Koreans consider Minjok a unique concept exclusive to our country. However, as we can see actually the general idea of it was borrowed from romantic nationalism created in late 18^th century. The concept of Minjok as an ethnic group also existed in Korea for centuries but Minjok as an ethnic nationalism was also artificial. In Japanese colonial era, in addition to fall of monarchy and religion, and rise of capitalism, Koreans were being exploited by Japanese both fiscally and mentally and Japanese tried to manipulate Koreans mind by saying actually all Asian is the same so we have to be united. Korean intellectuals were interested in the concept of romantic nationalism as it could unite people in an ethnic group thereby resisting the Japanese so they implemented the western nationalism in Korea. For example, Shin chae-ho published Joseon Sanggosa (The Early History of Joseon) full of reproduced and reconstructed history, claiming that Koreans are descendants of Dangun, the god and ancestor of Korean people. He gave pride, hope and unity to Koreans to fight back Japanese Empire. Therefore, Minjok as an ethnic nationalism appeared in Korea.

Minjok served as a mean to control people in later years. Presidents were very interested in power of uniting that resides inside Minjok. Thus, they used the concept as a necessary illusions to manipulate Koreans.[9] Kim duck-soo’s samulnori or Anheung hawae village were created to visualize folk culture. Koreans consider Samulnori and Anheng Hawae village authentically Korean but actually Kim duck-soo created Samulnori and most of Korean traditional houses in Anheung was built in 1950s. The Minjok serving as a necessary illusion was very successive and the unity made Korea to be post-industrial country form agrarian country just about 50 years which is amazing compared to Western Europe. Korea did what Western Europe did for 200 years.

We shouldn't be like this

On the other side of what we call ‘Miracle of Seoul’, Minjok is creating problems. Minjok as an ethnic nationalism, which has been an engine of Korea’s development is actually a concept based on exclusiveness.[10] Minjok concentrates on cultural similarity and unity as one ethnic group. Hence, there is no place for foreigners to be a part of ethnic group. Koreans have negative perspective in having bi-cultural children as member of Korean ethnic group even though there are more of them in Korea than ever before. Also, Xenophobia, detesting and looking down on foreigners is prevalent in Korea. (When it goes to extreme Nazism happens) Minjok once had been a booster of Korean economy now is a ceiling that Korea can never get through because without global cooperation there is no growth.

Globalization

In conclusion, a phenomena called paradox of globalization is occurring. Globalization is in process but the unpredictability that globalization provides makes people to think nationalism as safe house.[11] Therefore, there is possibility that romantic nationalism can be a main stream ideology once again. As we can see from its historical background we can find that Minjok has a positive aspects such as uniting people and in Korea’s example, power to resist. However, there is a negative aspects that prevents an ethnic group from growth. Therefore, we must adopt only unity that an ethnic group gives and get rid of exclusiveness that an ethnic nationalism has by having unbiased perspective to other ethnic groups in order to succeed in the 21^st century. “Minjok without Minjok” or “Korean ethnic group without Korean ethnic nationalism” is what Korea needs in this century.

Refernces
[1]   http://www.ucalgary.ca/ev/designresearch/projects/Evds723/seoul.pdf
[2],[3] http://iis-db.stanford.edu/pubs/20125/Shin.pdf
[4],[8] http://www.juergensmeyer.com/files/Anderson.pdf
[5] http://ig.cs.tu-berlin.de/oldstatic/w2001/eu1/dokumente/Basistexte/Renan1882EN-Nation.pdf

[6]   http://faculty.washington.edu/ellingsn/Hobsbawm_Inventing_Traditiions.pdf
[7]   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romantic_nationalism

[9] http://books.zcommunications.org/chomsky/ni/ni-contents.html

[10] http://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?cid=200000000&docId=1096979&mobile&categoryId=200000223

[11] 장준하-민족주의 (Jang Joon-ha-Korean ethnic nationalism)

LONDON

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I AM MOVING TO LONDON

Where there is a will, there is a way.

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Who is he??????

He is my middle school teacher Mr. Kim. He is just a normal teacher in a normal school, but he is famous enough to be in a newspaper. Actually he is blind...

In our first class, he was clicking some buttons on that strange device under his hand in the picture. I thought it was just a new device that is connected to computer and helps teaching, He clicked a button and a powerpoint pop out. Then he started to talking about famous blind people. At first, I thought he was doing the usual encouraging us that we can do anything as disabled did. However, just after he finished talking, he confessed that he is blind. He told us that he can barley see an outline of object. He cannot tell whether we are men or desk until we say something to him. The first thought that passed my mind was 'How in the hell that blind men can teach us?'

Nevertheless, he continued talking. He told us how hard he studied in order to be a teacher. He told us that he had memorized whole textbook so as to teach students successfully. He seemed to be little depressed when he talked about difficulty he faced because of his disability but mostly every word he says alluded his passion and excitement. Gradually, I began to respect him. When the finish bell rang, he bowed to us and said " Where there is a will, there is a way. I wanted to teach others and I tried. This small dream came true and now I am standing in front of you. I ask your co-operation as I will face many problems while teaching. Thank you" I applauded and it continued for over several minutes.

I am sometimes so fear the fail that I lose will to move one step forward. However, whenever it occurs, I think about Mr. Kim, living epitome of the quotation 'Where there is a will, there is a way'

Speech fist draft

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4 years ago, at march second, I, smaller that even now, was standing in a line with a school uniform and exited due to the rumor I have heard. My parent told me that middle school is a place of anarchy. I guess my parent told me this story to advise me to think about my own safety. But I interpreted as every crazy thing I imagine can be true there. So, with a huge dream to do something crazy, I entered middle school.

At that time I was going through puberty so I was a typical, angry and rebellious frosh ready to say no for the sake of saying no. Whenever my mom said ‘종현아 이제 충분히 놀았으니까 그만 놀고, 공부해’ I replied ‘싫어’, if she goes one step further and says ‘엄마한테 말버릇이 그게 뭐니?’ then I would reply ‘알았어 그만해’ and then would play more.

A frosh going through puberty in middle school were like a man finally meeting his mate. Studying was not at the top of my to do list unlike my mother wish. Hanging out with my new friends was all I wanted to do. When we hung out, we did crazy stuff that I now really cannot understand the reason why we did that. We played baseball in a classroom with actual bats and actual balls and actual gloves. That time we broke a window and got about 10 penalty points. We played poker in school of coarse betting real money. I once got 100,000 won in one day. We played a game one time called “Hi” The rule was the one who loses rock scissor paper must sneak out and say hi to a teacher in a nearby classroom. We once found a dead fish in the pond and somehow decided to burn the fish. I will not explain further in this matter but just one thing. At one period, we were running away from a cop.

Those, however, are not the craziest thing that we had done. One day we were watching a music video for heartbeat by 2PM. In the music video, there is one scene which the dancers create a pyramid. After watching the video, we just decided to try that out. As I was one of the lightest students in that group I was positioned over there. Of course as we are not professional dancers, our pyramid fell down real quickly, and unfortunately one which by the way was my best friend fell down knee first above my chest. Just after the crash, I literally could not breathe, I thought I was going to die and I panicked. But at the same time, I thought the accident really hilarious and laughed with my friends. I found out my rib was cracked and I really get freaked out whenever something comes close to my chest. If you want to check this out throw a ball at my chest, there will be retribution. The first year at middle school was a blast for me with countless crazy incidents. I was really having fun and that made me overcome all the 학원 hell I faced. Also, even now whenever I feel down I just think about that time. The joy I felt at the middle school gives me energy to go one step forward.

During middle school, we were all careless idiots. At least I was and all my friends were too. I’m not that crazy now but still time to time I just throw caution to the wind and do something crazy. My friends, especially so called ‘Naemi’s, are doing nothing except studying. They seem to be deprived of joy. Some say they find joy in studying but I think that is bull shit. What would life mean without any fun? Just relax not always but time to time and lose yourself in your potential insanity. Your stress will be relieved and life in KMLA would be much bearable.

How does the use of genre and writing style support the main ideas in George Orwell’s ‘Why I Write’?

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How does the use of genre and writing style support the main ideas in George Orwell’s ‘Why I Write’?

The main idea of ‘Why I Write’ is inner conflict of George Orwell. Throughout the essay, George Orwell continuously and carefully considers what to choose between his literary instinct and a call of the age wanting him to write serious political writings goes on. He wanted to write books with huge artful descriptions, but the chaotic age he was living in forced him to produce serious political ones. George Orwell admitted that he was not able to abandon the world view that he acquired in childhood and tried to compromise between two motives by making political writing into an art. But still he couldn’t be satisfied so he had no choice but to choose between his literary instinct and the needs of the times. His inner conflict is well depicted with the use of various methods in the essay and I am going to show how various methods supported the main idea in George Orwell’s ‘Why I Write’

Mostly, ‘Why I Write’ is written in plain style because as a political writer, George Orwell wanted his prose to be like a windowpane; meaning he used precise words and verses. Therefore, the essay was effective in conveying his inner complications because there was no double entendre, which makes readers to confuse with the main idea of an essay. Especially, the use of passionate words such as ‘Outraging my true nature’, ‘Ghastly failure’, ‘Astonishing speed’, and ‘Tumultuous, revolutionary way’ between the sea of precise words made the words stand out and showing his natural aesthetic instinct.

George Orwell claimed that an understanding a life of the author is crucial before understanding the writing as writings are mirrors of writers. Thus, he used genre autobiography in order to make readers to understand his life so that they can comprehend the inner conflict. He gave descriptions of his life before he became a professional writer. The descriptions were mainly about how he suddenly discovered the joy of mere words and made the same meticulous descriptive efforts. For example, he recalled that after reading ‘Paradise Lost’, he felt shivers down his backbone because some words were used partly for the sake of their own sound which is related to his literary instinct. Therefore, it was clear that the kind of book George Orwell wants to write have been and will be an aesthetic writing with full of detailed descriptions and purple passages.

George Orwell used expository writing style to show why he betrayed his lifelong dream to follow his aesthetic taste of writing. He explained the four most motives of writing are sheer egoism, aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, and political purpose. Then, he explained that the age, he was living in, was littered with international problems such as the Spanish civil war, the totalitarianism, the poverty in Burma, the imperialism, and the democratic socialism so he had no choice but to produce serious works meaning he chose a political purpose as the motive deserved to be followed and left aside all alternative motives, even aesthetic enthusiasm. Therefore, he explained why he follows the political motives even though it was a dream of his life to write aesthetic novels.

Then, the poem he wrote in 1939, when he still failed to reach a firm decision between aesthetic enthusiasm and political purpose, expressed the dilemma George Orwell faced. There are lines in the poem such as ‘But girl’s bellies and apricots, Roach in a shaded stream, Horses, ducks in flight at dawn’ clearly indicating what he wants to produce is books with full descriptions of bucolic villages in countryside of England. However, there were lines such as ‘A happy vicar I might have been Two hundred years ago’, ‘All these are a dream’, and ‘It is forbidden to dream again’ meaning that he felt an obligation to produce serious works in the age of turbulence he lived in. Therefore, the poem indicates that he had been constantly contemplating about what motive to follow.

George Orwell used various writing styles and genres to support the main idea above. George Orwell’s desire to write aesthetic novels was well descripted by the use of genre of autobiography and plain writing style. Additionally, the use of expository writing style explained why he produced serious writings against his desire to write aesthetic novels. Then, the poetry reflected inner conflict of George Orwell. George Orwell, therefore, successfully delivered his inner complication by using various methods.