SOUTH KOREA

Debut author Gonzalez, with co-author Lee, offers a searching reflection on the tension between South Korea’s embrace of globalization and its ancient culture.

When California teacher and guidance counselor Gonzalez first visited South Korea in the 1990s, he was astonished by its technological sophistication, which, by many measures, surpassed the United States’. He lived and taught there for 5 years, starting in 2012, and was impressed by “hard-working, entrepreneurial, goal-oriented, practical, and sacrificial Korean people” in a nation that historically weathered war and financial crisis to become a fiercely competitive player on the world stage. At the heart of South Korea’s success, he says, is its cultural emphasis on efficiency—a “way of life” for many citizens, who place extraordinary importance on conventional career accomplishment. However, for a culture with a long history of Confucian and Taoist traditions, the shift toward more traditionally Western values has come at a steep cost, according to the author, who thoughtfully investigates the ways in which a focus on efficiency and competition has negatively affected university admissions and infrastructure, to name two examples. Even more worrisome, he says, many “longstanding traditions seem to be declining,” including the valorization of unity and harmony, reverence for elders, and other traditional family values. Gonzalez astutely charts this tension, and overall, his appraisal of South Korea is impressively comprehensive, encompassing many aspects of its complex culture, even including eating habits. However, he has a tendency to bury the reader under far too much granular detail; for instance, he dwells at protracted length on recent industrial accidents—much more than is necessary to make his argument. Nevertheless, Gonzalez combines his rigorous research with a depth of personal experience, lucidly presented in this admiring but critical account.

An edifying analysis that’s exacting but fair.