As a teacher, scholar and writer living in a far-eastern (near-western) country, namely South Korea, I have come to a rather startling realization. My presence in this country, the work that I do and the ideology that I carry with me are the source of a clear and present cultural danger. My ‘mission’ is to teach the ‘global language’ of English to Korean students in a Korean University. In doing so I can take smug satisfaction in the cultural superiority that I possess. After all, I can surf the Internet, read the latest John Grisham novel and watch Hollywood feature films effortlessly. And it just so happens that these are the media commodities which command a market in our burgeoning global economy. Aruna Srivastava writes in her editorial introduction to “Postcolonialism and Its Discontents” that “our analyses, often trenchant and astute, of cultural texts, seems so often not to pertain to our institutional texts, discourses, and processes. . .In our institutional lives, we can clearly see and frequently encourage the replication of the very structures colonialism and imperialism were based on and thrived on.” (1). This assertion seems to be equally true of current discourses and processes held to be sacrosanct in pursuit of globalization. Korean leaders and educators have embraced rapid globalization (and the attendant technology) as the west continues to coax Asian cultures into the web of westernized media and global economics.
Currently Korean culture (specifically in regards to literature) is facing a crisis of identity under the manifold pressures of globalization. We are seeing, in far-eastern cultures such as Korea, a reluctant acceptance of the notion that success in the global economy necessitates cultural self-immolation. Critical to this process are a number of political, economic and technological issues which have forced Korea to emerge more rapidly and more fully from it’s isolationist shell and into the global arena. Educational policy aimed at institutionalizing English language study has lead to it’s formal inclusion into curriculums from primary school through to University. Pressure from the International community (specifically the International Monetary Fund) has seen the restructuring of the big multinational corporations and the introduction of more widespread foreign investment in Korea. And most importantly emerging technologies have bridged the gap between the culture of the world and the hermit culture of Korea. My paper deals primarily with the manner in which technologies, such as the Internet, have influenced the consumer mentality, the cultural values, and the cultural products of Korean people.
Marshall McLuhan suggests, in War and Peace in the Global Village that “all social changes are the effect of new technologies (self-amputations of our own being) on the order of our sensory life.”(McLuhan and Fiore 5) Korean writers who have chosen to both write in English and publish on the Internet illustrate both the ideological shift occurring in Korean culture and the country’s acceptance of new technology which can give voice to these cultural developments. For the purposes of this paper I have equated the phrases ‘social change’ and ‘ideological shift’ in order to be more precise in determining what has been effected by recent technological developments. From the heap of definitions for the term ideology I believe that Lenard Davis is closest to the mark with his summation that ideology is “the sum of that which a culture needs to believe about itself and its aspirations as opposed to what it really is.”(Davis 24)
In Korea at present there is certainly a wide divide between social realities and cultural perceptions. In the vast majority of acceptable, as deemed by the academy, Korean Literature there is an adherence to classical methods and images that belie the changing face of Korean culture. The ideological shift seems to be taking place from two different arenas. First of all there are the grassroots writers like Yeungkwan Kim who have embraced both Internet publication and multi-lingual translation. And second of all there are those among the canon who recognize the need to publish the great works of contemporary Korean poets and prose writers in English for a more global audience. The writing of Yeungkwan Kim is important in that it represents an early step towards a more global Korea. I would further argue that his work is by and large much more representative of current social trends than the work of other, more celebrated, classically inspired authors. Kim writes in Korean but has published his works on the Internet in several languages; including English. His writing holds precious pieces of Korean cultural life incongruously entwined with the realities of modern Korea. We are struck with portrayals of men and women who are outsiders and hangers-on in a society of “rich people (that) boast themselves (to) the world (and) shout out battle-cry(s) (even though) their spirits are rotten” (Hunchback 1). These stories convey to the reader the results of a shift in ideology which has placed success in global-economics above the sanctity of any cultural value. Kim uses images of nature in contrast to images of the emerging modern industrial complex. These “new environments inflict considerable pain on the perceiver.” (McLuhan and Fiore 7) The pain reflects the ideological shift that is occurring in Korea.
Davis explains, in “Resisting Novels” that “ideology is in effect the culture’s form of writing a novel about itself for itself.”(Davis 24). The novel, however, is a product of the Gutenberg revolution. Developed society is now in the throes of a new technological advance, that of the computer and more to the point, cyberspace. McLuhan states “Now that we live in an electric environment or information coded not just in visual but in other sensory modes, it’s natural that we now have new perceptions that destroy the monopoly and priority of visual space.” (7) In light of this technological shift the result can be seen as twofold. First, there is an ideological shift caused by the technological advance and second there is a new medium with which to create ideology. Davis’ statement could also be read to mean ideology is in effect the culture’s form of ‘creating media’ about itself. This does not mean that the novel is extinct, but in Darwinian terms, the novel (or the ideology of any specific culture) has evolved due to technological change. This evolution effects the manner in which we perceive sensory data.
Although it can be wisely asserted that “nothing might seem better than to seize the tools of the oppressors, (however) a too-eager pursuit of new languages and new technologies can result in the loss of the very culture one most wishes to preserve.” (Carchidi 2) the writing of Yeungkwan Kim is of an entirely different sort. As an artist, Kim can be more aptly defined as “the only (kind of) person who does not shrink from this challenge” (McLuhan and Fiore 12) of representing the ideological shift occurring in Korea. Keep in mind that in Korea there is an unabating pressure for young students to learn English coupled with an emphasis on the role of English in the global economy and as an access requirement to cyberspace. In “The Paper Grandmother” Kim tells us about the split between the rising class of ‘global citizens’ and another class of Korean citizen. A paper Grandmother who “in cold winter, in hot summer, everyday (moves) to find paper-boxes with her hand’s string.” The narrator watches and thinks, “To live, she must do that job? Ahh……I am a salary man in a dirty city, but I am sick, in (my) mind. But she look(s) very healthy.” When we see the Grandmother again she is “carrying many paper-boxes on her back. The desert autumn wind (in the) subway station stairs. Above the high subway bridge, the full moon was shining.” In this description Kim gives us the full weight of contrast between this old woman who works with her hands and her back and the modern industrial complex symbolized by the subway. She exists in a natural world, the wind and the moon, even while existing in the ‘dirty city’. The narrator is encapsulated in entirely different imagery. He thinks that he “must help that grandmother. But it is just thoughts. White color… With y-shirts, necktie, western clothes, black bag. I go to (my) company and come back like (a) feedback machine everyday. I am just a powerless modern city man… Just crying, not help(ing). I have always played the hypocrite.” This imagery informs the reader of the pain inherent to an ideological shift. There is a longing for the seemingly simple ideals that nature offers but Kim does not see this as an alternative. This is where Kim differs from many other contemporary Korean writers. While he also invokes the pastoral imagery of Chosun Dynasty Korea he immerses that imagery in the Blade Runner background of Seoul. Both the grandmother and the narrator live in ‘the dirty city’. There is no way to escape this fact.
The plight of the narrator in “The Paper Grandmother”, is mirrored in Kim’s own attempt to hold onto the culture of his country’s past even in his stark realization that Korea must succumb to globalization. Perhaps Kim’s endeavor to put his work into English and make it accessible to a wider audience can be explained by McLuhan when he writes(on technological innovation) that, “The pain that the ordinary person feels in perceiving the confusion is charged with thrills for the artist in the discovery of new boundaries and territories for the human spirit.” Nonetheless, Kim’s narrator in “The Paper Grandmother” tries to bridge the gap between the old ideology and the new. He “found a truck across the street which sold fruit.” The fruit is expensive. It is something natural which is, ironically, only attainable by the rich. The narrator tells us, “At last, I gave the fruit to grandmother and returned home, singing, watching the full moon, feeling the cool wind. It was the joy of life. I have not felt it for (a) long time. I was happy. ‘This is real life’, I thought.” For a moment the narrator seems to grasp the prize. He has connected himself to his past through nature. He sees the moon and feels the cool wind. This connection is broken when he secretly visits the grandmother’s home. He sees “the small lighted room (of) the poor house, with creaking roof, broken door… from the cold ground the smell of the briquette gas was unbearable.” The images form the realization that neither he, nor the grandmother can escape the ‘dirty city’. Again we are haunted by the danger that, “to take on the new is not an innocent action; it can require the deformation of one’s self, and at its furthest extent can lead one to become an agent of the very systems of oppression that one first desired to dismantle.”(Carchidi 2)
Perhaps McLuhan’s suggestion (borrowed from James Joyce) that all social changes are the effect of new technologies (otherwise worded as self-amputations of our own being) is best dealt with in Kim’s “Hunchback”. In “Hunchback” we are confronted by a number of deformed characters who inhabit a “non-human zone.” These characters, among them, a one-handed man and a hunchback, represent the disembodiment that accompanies technological and ideological shifts within a culture. Kim explains that “The hunchback, one-handed man, beggars, and (other) such poor people were there, behind the brilliantly lit department (stores), shopping centers, and apartments.” (1) These are the disenfranchised souls that have been born of the technological shifts accompanying globalism. The souls which suffer, however, are those of the rich, who have been swept up in the tide of globalism. Kim writes, “But it was strange to me that this poor town was more peaceful in mind, better than the rich, except (the) noise, dirt.” (2). The disenfranchised are ‘more peaceful’ than the rich because the rich must suffer the pain of ‘self-amputation of their own being’ which follows an embrace of new technology represented by the changes in sensory perception offered by cyberspace.
How does Yeungkwan Kim fit into this whole scheme of things? He writes of the pain that has accompanied the ideological shift caused by technological advances. He publishes on the Internet in several languages. He seems to have embraced both globalism and the technology that is making globalism feasible; cyberspace. And why shouldn’t he? The discourse that pervades postcolonial debate centers on the margin versus the center and issues of racism and classism that have lead to the exclusion of marginalized cultures or groups. Carchidi and others have argued that to grasp the tools of the oppressors may lead to an immolation of self or the culture which they want to preserve. But this sort of discourse begs the question, why should postcolonial scholars attempt to dictate the methods (or content) by which any culture or individual chooses to express it(their)self? This is exactly the sort of discourse that postcolonial scholars seem to despise. Once more we are lead into the realm of economics. It is not the place of scholars to decide which elements of a culture or which individuals in a culture or which methods or tools should or can be used. This is entirely the realm of the publishing industry.
The publishing industry, perhaps more than any other sector, has been faced with the overwhelming challenge of adapting to new modes of sensory perception. At this early transitional stage we can see the battle raging between proponents of traditional publishing practices and those offered by the Internet and mass communication. Amazon.com and barnes&noble.com as two of the largest Internet retailers are an example of how the traditional has tried to wed with the innovative. Whether or not one can order any book (in print or out of print) is of less importance than who has the means and content to publish. Nicholas Negroponte writes, in his groundbreaking book “being digital”, that “the burgeoning field of multimedia is likely to be one of those disciplines, like architecture, that bridge the gap.” (81) He adds that computer technology, “is being channeled directly into the hands of very creative individuals at all levels of society, becoming the means for creative expression in both its use and development.” (82) The case of Yeungkwan Kim stands as an example of what can be accomplished by an individual fueled with creative instinct and the means by which his voice can be heard. In a recent study that I conducted, Yeungkwan Kim’s site stands out as an exception in that it was the only one which offered contemporary Korean fiction in both English and Korean. Other sites offer examples of Sijo (A Classic form of poetry dating to the Chosun dynasty) and even modern poetry (in Korean) but there is little else in the way of English language work available on the web. The conclusion, it would seem, is that my argument is a straw man. I have set Yeungkwan Kim up as an archetype of a trend in Korean literature and publishing when he in fact is by far the exception rather than the rule. According to Park On-Za’s “Bibliography of Korean Literature in English or translated into English” there were, in the period from 1899-1990, a total of two hundred fifty-seven titles in the areas of a) introduction, criticism, bibliography, poetry, b) poetry, c) plays, d) fiction, folklore, short stories, e) essay, and f) miscellaneous writings. These are print publications. The Internet offers much more opportunity for writers of Korean literature (in both English and Korean) to both create and publish. The trend is easy to decipher when you couple the growing availability of publishing medium and a government which has embarked on a multilateral campaign extolling the virtues of both English education (which proliferates the society from the pre-school student to the businessman) and the pursuit of globalism. The economic necessity for publishers, both print and digital, to market to an English speaking audience is clear.
What remains to be seen of this dilemma is how the Korean government will reconcile the demands of globalism with the fading renaissance of Korean cultural assets. To understand the implications of the technological advances on Korean culture we must return to Davis’s statement that ideology is “the sum of that which a culture needs to believe about itself and its aspirations as opposed to what it really is.”(24) When a culture’s ideology shifts, as is evident in Korea, what is the ultimate reality that they must face? The answer is that the culture is intimately wedded to economic feasibility. And in an age of western dominated economic imperialism, if a society is not prepared to take the leap towards globalism, that society will suffer in it’s attempt to develop. What is the lesser of evils? To engage in cultural self-immolation or to condemn a population to backwardness and poverty.
Bibliography
Carchidi, V. “Come into My Web: Postcolonialism in the Information Technology Age.” First Conference on Postcolonial Theory. (1997) <http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/staff/conf/poco/paper1.html>.
Davis, Lennard J. Resisting Novels: Ideology and Fiction. New York and London: Methuen, Inc., 1987.
Kim, Yeungkwan. “Hunchback.” Korean Literature. <http://members.iworld/yeungkim/hunchbac.htm>.
----. “Paper Grandmother.” Korean Literature. <http://members.iworld/yeungkim/grand.htm>.
McLuhan, Marshall and Quentin Fiore. War and Peace in the Global Village. San Francisco: Hardwired, 1997.
Negroponte, Nicholas. Being digital. New York and Toronto: Vintage Books (A division of Random House, Inc.), 1996.
Srivastava, Aruna. “Editorial Introduction to ‘Postcolonialism and Its Discontents.’” ARIEL. Special Issue (January & July 1995) <http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/eduweb/engl392/aruna-ed.html>.