KOREAN IDENTITY

SIMON MORLEY
Simon Morley. November 2013.

1. Identity and World-View

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As members of society we adopt world-views. A world-view is the larger point of view we have, and from where we interpret the world. It is a collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by us and the groups to which we belong. World-views are usually limited to readily identifiable historical, geographical, ethnic and other groupings. Considerable pressure is exerted to ensure that members of society conform to the dominant world-view. World-views depend as much on what they do not include as what they do. They are exclusionary. In a contemporary global culture of multiple meeting-places, cultural distinctions have become blurred and confused. However, some clear differences between world-views remain. The following observations are some generalizations.

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!! The most important characteristics of contemporary Korean society are shared

by Koreas immediate north-east Asian neighbours. They are inherited from the regions traditional world-view founded on Confucianism. The two key characteristics of this shared world-view are patriarchy and collectivism.

Patriarchy

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Patriarchy the institutionalization of elder male-dominated power and the exclusion of women from such power.

Collectivism

!! Collectivism the dominance of the group over the individual.

Intimacy

!! As a result of patriarchy and collectivism, Koreans prioritize intimacy - the sense of

belonging to a family group where everyone knows their place and role.

Holism

Koreans also value holism - the ability to pay broad attention to context and relationships, categorizing objects, and explaining behaviour. The whole is perceived in every part (as in the concept of yinyang). Koreans prioritize the experience of an embodied relationship to time and space, which exposes the impermanence of things. They are more comfortable with flux, indeterminacy, ambiguity and process than Westerners.

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In a patriarchal and collectivist society there is great social homogeneity, consistency and stability. However, there is also a tendency to place excessive power in the hands of an older male elite and to disregard the rights of women, children, young people, and all those who are considered to be outside the family. There is also tendency for individuals to lack initiative, to follow time-honoured patterns and to resist innovation. Mindless obedience to authority and conformity to the official line, even by the so-called intelligentsia may be another negative consequence.

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Cultural identity based on patriarchy and collectivism is shared with South Koreas neighbours, especially with China. But Japan has experienced a much longer period during which these traditional values have been challenged by Western models. Over the last sixty years South Korea has also absorbed many Western ideas about identity. North Korea, on the other hand, displays exaggerated - even pathological - traits of patriarchy and collectivism. .

Individualism
The most important new concept imported from the West is Individualism. Individualism means that emphasis is put on self-reliance and the independence of each member of society. The desires and rights of the individual in some circumstances override those of the group. Individualism suggests that encouraging and protecting personal liberty and exploring difference are important for social well-being, and permit greater possibilities for economic, social and cultural progress.

Contemporary individualism has three characteristics. It is:

1) Competitive
!! - each individual is a rival, competing for a limited

number of rewards.

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2) Commodified - each individual has a tendency to define him or herself in relation to the possession of desirable consumer commodities, and they are themselves defined as commodities.

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3) Networked - each individual can now be connected to others via cyberspace. A new kind of individualism has emerged that is mixed with digitally-produced collectivism.

Self-Integrity

As a result of individualism Westerners value self-integrity rather than intimacy. They believe it is more important to display self-reliance and independence, and to determine their own position in relation to others through maintaining a strong sense of independent autonomy.

Analysis

As opposed to holism, Westerners emphasise analysis the ability to focus on a single dimension or aspect, whether in categorizing objects or evaluating arguments. They therefore value the ability to disentangle phenomena from the contexts in which they are embedded. Westerners separate mind from body, and see things in relation to a detached essence or transcendent unity. They emphasise and value clarity and permanence.

Contemporary individualism produces many negative side-effects. By focusing attention on the individual rather than the community, it encourages selfishness and self-centered behaviour, forcing people apart and into isolation. It destroys social cohesion and a sense of social purpose. By fostering the idea that the self is autonomous, it encourages the belief that society is an obstacle to selffulfillment, and that it is there to serve the individual. Competitive individualism means compassion and empathy are rejected in favour of a survival of the fittest mentality. Commodified individualism leads to an attitude in which the self is treated as an object amongst other objects. Networked individualism means that the self is defined in relation to an artificial, virtual reality rather than to physical reality.

2. Korean Cultural Identity

As in China and Japan, culture in Korea has its root in Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. But shamanism is also important, and this is more uniquely Korean.

Generally speaking, Chinese art is typically grandiose and decorative.

while Japanese is art sentimental and formal.

It is said that when a Chinese person admires a mountain he will have it re-built, full size, near his house. When a Japanese person admires a mountain he will make a miniature version for his garden. When a Korean admires a mountain he will build his house near the mountain and make sure theres a window with a good view.

The Korean artist Lee Ufan says Koreans love in-between-ness, which is a characteristic of the hazy mountainous landscape of Korea, and is also evident in the half-closed eyes of their Buddhas in postures of mediation.

3. Some examples of Korean visual culture:

Ceramics

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Ceramics, in particular, is a field in which Koreans have traditionally excelled.

- the mystery and sophistication of celadon

the formless form of white porcelain

the raw modesty of buncheong ware

Literati Painting
!! Korean elite art - Literati Painting () of the Joseon period was

dominated by Chinese influences.

!! Unlike Western art which was usually painted in oil paint on wood or

canvas and stretched on a wooden frame, Korean paintings were usually painted with water-based colours or ink on paper or silk, and mounted on paper so that they could be rolled up.

!! Western painting from the Renaissance until the Modernist period constructs an illusion of

three-dimensional space using fixed-point perspective, with one vanishing-point. North-east Asian art uses multiple viewing points.

!! In north-east Asian art, empty space or void - was used far more

consciously than in the West in order to create harmony between space and person, regulating the passage of energy.

!! In the True-View Landscape ( ) paintings of Gyeomjae Jeong Seon

(1676-1759), a specifically Korean style emerged, characterised by the direct and spontaneous response to particular locations rather than depictions of generic and ideal scenes.

!! Korean art also focused on

genre scenes scenes of every-day life.

Folk Art

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Korean traditional folk art, including folk painting (), royal artifacts, clothing, ladies craft (), architecture, musical instruments, household effects, pottery, embroidery, lacquerware, and mother-ofpearl decorations tend to be more independent from Chinese influence than literati paintings, and so can claim to be the most Korean expression of cultural identity.

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Patchwork
One important characteristic of Korean art and design is patchwork (). This was work that women traditionally carried out without a sense of aesthetic form and as a natural part of everyday life. This work was carefree, disinterested, and non-standardized. Some people have interpreted jogakbo, the Korean patchwork wrapping cloth, as embodying characteristics of the modern the aesthetic. Patching together otherwise useless and meaningless pieces of leftover cloth is more than re-cycling them, it is recreating something entirely different out of ready-mades.

What is Korean beauty?

The first attempt by a Westerner to produce an art historical overview of Korean art was made by Andr Eckhardt, who in Geschichte der Koreanischen Kunst (1929) claimed that classicism is the dominant intrinsic characteristic of Korean traditional art - by which he meant symmetrical structure, balance, simplicity, serenity and impartiality. The Japanese scholar Yanagi Muneyoshi focused on an aesthetics of sorrow in his influential study from 1920; in comparison with Chinese and Japanese aesthetics, he declared that Korean art displayed an aesthetics of autonomy. Korean scholars, most notably Ko Yu-seop writing in the 1940s and Choe Sunu in the 1960s, emphasised disinterestedness, imperfection, naivet and naturalness: Kwon Young-Pil discusses the influence of shamanism and the importance of humour, and writes that the Korean aesthetic is characterised by the classical concept of unification in diversity.

Korean art and artefacts are often characterised by the following traits:

1) the employment of the technique of notechnique, or the design of no-design

!! 2) disinterestedness, or detachment

!! 3) magnanimity and pleasantness in aesthetic sensibility

!! 4) irregularity of form and proportion that emphasizes the primacy of natural

form rather than artificial design and planning

5) a pronounced feeling for spontaneity in design and expression that allows artists and artisans to re-structure, exaggerate, and distort patterns and designs

!! 6) graceful humour

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7) modesty and a sense of intimacy

!! 8) the spirit of ecstasy, or dynamism

The Korean artist Kimsooja was asked whether she thought Oriental thinking has a real impact on the contemporary art world, or whether it risks being merely a postmodern exoticism, a dcor for western aesthetic investigations. She said:

Eastern thought often functions in a passive and reserved way of expression, usually invisible, nonverbal, indirect, disguised, and immaterial. Western thought functions more with identity, controversy, gravity, construction in general rather than deconstruction, and material rather than immaterial, compared to Eastern thought. The process finally becomes the awareness and necessity of the presence of both in contemporary art. It is the Yin and Yang, a coexistence that endlessly transforms and enriches.

But it is possible for East Asian artists to consider the values espoused by the ideas and aesthetics of traditional culture in a more negative light. To the young South Korean painter Lee Seahyun, the three viewpoint method characteristic of traditional East Asian landscape painting, does not offer a more flexible and dynamic alternative to Western fixed-point perspective. In his opinion it is a repressive and egocentric approach to nature; a visual and perceptual violence, because it involves arbitrarily cutting and pasting the front, rear, and the upper part side as a man wishes.

4.Korean Identity Today

!! After having experienced Japanese colonial rule and the

Korean War, Koreans believed everything of value came from outside their tradition, and failed to treasure what is precious in their own. Their world-view was in crisis.

But today this is changing, and concerted efforts are being made in many fields to rediscover, re-invent and define Korean cultural identity.

As Koreans embrace consumer capitalism they are becoming less patriarchal and collectivist and more egalitarian and individualistic.

Koreas patriarchy is weakening..

.but slowly.

Young Korean are highly adaptable, and they are willing to embrace change. For them, Korean identity is a work-in-progress - not something fixed and unchanging.

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Today in Korea we see strange hybrid cultural and social forms fusions of collectivism and individualism.

In a contemporary global culture traditional world-views are challenged by the speed of change, and in multi-ethnic societies previously separate and unique world-views are contested from both within and without.

Conclusion

Ideas clash, meet and overlap. Obscure and fluid forms of hybridity occur where cultures meet and merge, and different world-views are becoming more permeable to each other.

But Korea still remains ethnically and culturally homogeneous and therefore insular.

Conclusion

Art Star Korea is a laboratory within which traditional Korean patriarchy and collectivism are challenge by new ways of being and thinking. In Korea, unlike in Western countries where such programmes have already aired, reality tv and tv survival competitions explores new Korean identities based on the imported values of competitive, commodified, and networked individualism. By focusing on the artist this show has identified the most extreme symptom of such contemporary individualism. Within a Korean context this must therefore be understood as presenting the emergence of a new social type who is exploring new possibilities of Korean identity.