My Korea - Kevin O'Rourke

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it was also the prime source of our language problems. We never learned the language of the kitchen. The Korean church was so welcoming and our sense of camaraderie was so strong that feelings of not-belonging were only experienced by a minority. However, I am aware now that the sense of being an outsider was a feature of the experience of some young expats in the ’80s and ’90s who didn’t have the luxury of a church support community. They desperately wanted to be accepted; not-belonging was an enormous source of pain. Today, too, young ex-pats tell me about feelings of alienation in alleyways, subway cars, stores, work places and rented accommodation. I am shocked by stories of abuse and resentment that are totally outside my experience.

      Our counsellor’s injunction to make friends not enemies was so true it hurt. Many of my friends today have been friends for forty years. Solidarity in friendship is what makes the Korean experience so special.

      The third proposition was not a problem for me. My total resources when I arrived in Seoul came to about $500, and by the end of the year, the experienced poker players had tucked it safely in their inside pockets. In all modesty I should add that I got it back with interest over the next ten years.

      Purity of heart and generosity of spirit were the virtues that defined the Korean experience. Of course, it wasn’t all plain sailing. Yokshim (greed, desire) constantly tries to ensnare even the most innocent heart.

      A mountain monk coveted the moon;

      he drew water, a whole jar full;

      but when he reached his temple, he discovered

      that tilting the jar meant spilling the moon.

      Yi Kyubo (1168–1241)

      Most of us spilled a little moonlight every day, but despite the depredations of yokshim on foreigner and Korean alike, the overflowing heart, Korea’s gemstone since Shilla and Koryŏ, is my abiding memory of the early years, and as Sŏ Chŏngju notes, green celadon is its perfect symbol:

      Tenth month of the third year

      of the reign of Sukchong:

      glorious day; not a prisoner on Koryŏ soil,

      jails utterly empty.

      Sunrays blossomed in that emptiness

      like yellow chrysanthemums,

      sunrays wherein Tan’gun’s smile was etched,

      a smile that opened again the village of the gods.

      Green celadon, coloured and fired

      in the village of the gods.

      Cloud-crane patterned, cloud-crane patterned,

      Koryŏ pale green celadon.

      Sŏ Chŏngju (1915–2000)

      I discovered very early that Korea gets in the blood. If you are going to leave, you better get out before the five-year limit. Otherwise in your heart you will never be able to leave. I have known many who stayed too long, and when eventually they left, they were more or less unhappy in situations outside Korea. This was true of diplomats and business people as well as missionaries.

      If you wonder why Korea is in the blood,

      look to the heart, to friends that endure,

      to loyalty green as pine and bamboo,

      to flowers that bloom in the snow.

       4

      CULTURAL ADAPTATION

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      NEW IN KOREA? Feeling the strain? You are much better off than we were. At least you can read Dr Crane’s Korean Patterns (1967). Beg, borrow or steal it. It tells you how the Korean mind works and the areas in which a foreigner must be particularly careful. Insightfully, Crane begins not with relationships, which would be the obvious place to start, but with kibun. There is no English word for kibun, but when you have been in Korea for a while, you’ll know all about it. Kibun controls everything. With good kibun, you feel good; with bad kibun, you feel bad. By the time you motor through the gradations of good, better and best, not to mention bad, worse and worst, you’ll know a lot about kibun. For one thing, you’ll know that it’s not just a matter of your kibun; the other person’s kibun is important too. That’s lesson number one.

      Kibun controls the show.

      Rationalize afterwards, if you must.

      Don’t shirk the bill, though.

      Consequences never go.

      And read Yi Munyŏl’s Our Twisted Hero. This book gives the psychology of relationships and consequently of power in Korea. Ultimately, it is an allegory on power, said to be like The Lord of the Flies but really very different. It is an allegory about the abuse of power during the era of the generals in the ’80s, but the way relationships work here shows how they have worked throughout history at all levels of Korean society, from government to hospitals and schools, from crooks to bishops.

      Ŏm Sŏkdae, monitor of the sixth grade in an elementary school, rules his class with an iron fist. A sinister, shadowy figure, he terrorizes his classmates into abject submission, reducing them to cringing, fawning pawns. He beats them, takes their money, uses them to cheat on exams, collects ‘dues’, sells preferment and in general insists on being treated as a king. The story is told from the point of view of a transfer student from Seoul who challenges Sŏkdae’s dictatorship. A long, lonely struggle ensues, which ends in the capitulation of the Seoul boy. However, in capitulation, the Seoul boy discovers a new side to Sŏkdae’s corrupt regime: he begins to taste the sweets of special favour and power. The Seoul boy becomes Sŏkdae’s reluctant lieutenant.

      A new teacher takes over the class and is suspicious of Sŏkdae. An investigation reveals that Sŏkdae has been cheating on his exams. The teacher gives him a severe beating, humiliating him in front of the class. The boys who had supported Sŏkdae so loyally now turn on him like snakes. The Seoul boy is the only exception.

      After Sŏkdae’s departure, the long process of restoring democratic procedures in the class begins. Boys are elected to positions of responsibility and just as quickly deposed; some groups act recklessly, some groups do not act at all. In the end, after much pain and soul searching dignity is restored to all.

      Our Twisted Hero shows the boys under extreme pressure: how they react to power and against power, and how their parents and teachers react. Everything here is grist to the mill. The story is extremely well constructed, expertly told, and the characterization is excellent. The only weakness in the story is a rather debatable ending, which sees the hero carted off in handcuffs many years after the main action has concluded. The truth is that in Korea Sŏkdae types succeed. The end was probably dictated by concern over critical reaction to the moral implications of the theme. Despite this flaw, Our Twisted Hero is a considerable achievement. Published first by Mineumsa in Seoul in 1988 just before the Olympics, subsequently Hyperion brought it out in New York in 2001. You will read it in a couple of hours and be rewarded by an enhanced understanding of the power systems that operate in government, business, schools, hospitals, church and elsewhere.

      And read Richard Rutt’s Virtuous Women. It’s a rotten title but a great book. Virtuous Women will introduce you not only to the delights of classical Korean literature but also to the intricacies of the search for inner illumination, which in Korea is the distinguishing mark of the cultivated man. The heart of the book is Rutt’s reworking of Gale’s translation of The Nine Cloud Dream, the only

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