Confusing Thought

Confucianism permeates the Korean way of life, most notably through sexism, authoritarianism and its educational system. Upon arrival, I was very impressed by Seoul’s landscape and financial power. Confucius promoted a strong work ethic and a “for the greater good” philosophy, obvious in the modern and very successful Korea. Confucius also taught harmony and thus, the Korean people we encountered were severely nice and agreeable. I say severely since their overtly pleasant demeanor creeped me out a tad. It reminded me of Pleasantville or Stepford Wives. After a little bit of research and interaction, I realized that the Koreans were actually, sincerely sweet. It was and yet wasn’t just a façade.


Korean culture books hammer in the importance of Confucius thought in daily life. Superficial harmony trumpets solving a deeper issue. Vitaliy explained that extramarital affairs are quite common—extremely evident by the large numbers of love hotels found about the city—but no one talks about it. The husband and wife pretend that nothing is wrong with their marriage. It keeps the peace. The same idea is applied to other relationships. Respect for all. Show kindness to a stranger. Be courteous. If one is brought up in such of culture, politeness is second nature and expected. We interpret a person’s politeness as if they hold a selfish motive or that they, indeed, are sincerely nice to us becuase they like us. For Koreans, the “niceness” falls under a category of cultural pressure to always be nice. I’m not saying that it’s necessarily a bad thing, but it was still very unbecoming.

You may research Confucius if you would like, yet I’ll give you a super quick bio:

He was born to a de-throned noble family and grew up in poverty around 550 BC in China. During his life he very unsuccessfully pursued power by trying to overthrow a few ruling families, rise up the ranks of province ministry and finally tour Chinese provinces and promote his philosophy. His teachings are collected in a book we call the Analects, written after his death by his students. He lived during a very chaotic time in China (power vaccum) and formed a school of thought advocating a peaceful and structured society where everyone knows their place. Confucius highlighted five basic relationships: husband-wife; father-son; elder-young; king-subject; and one between friends. Only the latter relationship was one of equals.

During all of our Korean tours, our guides would point out how the palace architecture was influenced by Confucius principles, the gardens, the…well, everything. I point this out since when we got to the king’s living quarters we saw that he had one house and his wife had another house. Confucius taught that men and women must live separately. The man may enter the woman’s house, but the woman may not enter the man’s house. This thought grew over the through the years. At one time, women were not even allowed to leave their homes at all because it would upset the balance of things (Chosun Dynasty). Women were not even allowed to work until the turn of the 20th century. Korea claims to be equal in all things now, but from my anecdotal experience and handy dandy culture guides—that’s far from truth. (I should note, that with Korean’s hard work ethic and deep desire to become a “world class” country, this gender divide may/will most likely change within the next 50 years).

Lastly, Confucianism in the education system. Confucius believed in memorization, but he also encouraged interpretation. Take what you have learned and apply it in a new method. Create a new idea. The Korean education system bought into the memorization part of Confucius, but stopped there. NPR recently did a story about how Korean high school students have one day to take an exam to determine the rest of their lives. That one test will determine if they go to college and where. One test. One time. All based on memorization. During Confucius’ time, memorization in order to promote education, gave power to the majority—the poor and illiterate. Information = power. Remember the Finish girl from Tokyo? From her half year in Japan, she noted something that I feel would be appropriate to apply to the Koreans (in this one particular case): the Japanese students study. They study A LOT. What their studies yield, on the other hand, is quite reverse to their efforts. An easy example would be their mastery of English. Somehow, despite years of English classes, an American, with two years of a high school foreign language (not saying much here) can read, write and speak better [enter language of your choice here] than the Japanese students can English. Blew me away. Theory—they’ve got that down to a science. Application? Not so much.

Yet snafus such as these may be the reason the Korean government is so desperately trying to change its education system. And given Confucian belief in authority, the government will most likely win this battle, revamp education and make it a better system for the entire population.

Last note:

Superficial harmony, while making for a lovely and very civil lifestyle, but avoids actual issues that cannot be ignored without horrible results:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/17/AR2010041702781.html