Expat Living: "Multiculturalism in Korea?"

Multiculturalism in South Korea?

Hanbok Parade at Hi Seoul Festival

(Image from Wikipedia)

My most recent language column for the Korea Herald has posted online but not yet appeared on my doorstoop.

I had to make a few last-minute changes yesterday afternoon to clarify what I meant about Muslims in Europe with respect to my point about radical multiculturalism. I explained to one editor that I was speaking about a form of multiculturalism that had left itself without the intellectual grounds for criticizing even something as problematic as Islamism, which was the term that I was using and which refers to the political use of a radical form of Islam, e.g., the sort promoted by Sayyid Qutb.

The editor suggested that I add another example of radical multiculturalism, so I included a reference to the genital mutilation of young girls, a practice imposed by some cultural groups now present in Europe, and I considered including a reference to the honor killings that also take place among some cultural groups in Europe these days.

Neither genital mutilation nor honor killings are specific to Muslim communities in Europe, for one finds these things also among some Christian groups, as well as among groups that are neither Christian nor Muslim.

That editor was satisfied with my changes, though I see that the editors have attached a note emphasizing that the views expressed are my own. Apparently, I've sailed into treacherous waters. We'll see:

Multiculturalism in Korea?

Back in a youthful decade of innocent wandering about the intellectual landscape of Europe from 1986 to 1995, I reveled in the multicultural world that I believed was being constructed there in that postmodern paradise.

What eventually came to be called the European Union was already a community of nations and therefore of cultures, which seemed like a perfectly good thing since the results for me personally were the enjoyment of delicious, ethnic foods, the challenge of new languages, the nurturing of international friendships, and, of course, the possibility of romantic intrigues across cultures.

What I only came to see clearly over time was that the multiculturalism that I had enjoyed was a moderate sort founded upon Western values and largely characterized by European cultures, a European multiculturalism, albeit with a few scattered communities of non-European cultures. This was largely a multiculturalism of human rights, individual freedoms, democratic values, and enlightened judgment. In short: moderate, constructive multiculturalism.

I have since become aware of another sort of multiculturalism, one founded upon the assumptions of a radical cultural relativism, probably borrowed from cultural anthropology, that takes as indisputable the belief that all cultures are equal and that no culture can legitimately pass judgment upon another since the values that one appeals to in passing judgment are derived from one's own culture rather than from some universal standard that is not culturally bound.

This radical multiculturalism, despite its intrinsic inconsistency -- is cultural relativism absolutely true for every culture? -- has come to exert such a powerful influence upon European thinking that Europeans often find themselves without the intellectual resources to repudiate such a practice as the female genital mutilation imposed by some cultural groups or to vigorously criticize Islamists who would wish to impose a stringent form of Islamic law upon Muslims now living in Europe. Some prominent Europeans actually capitulate to the Islamists. Such a public intellectual as Rowan Williams, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, has openly spoken in favor of allowing Islamic courts to be established and given some degree of authority over Europe's Muslims. Such a move would constitute not a moderate, constructive multiculturalism but a step toward a deconstructive, radical multiculturalism instead.

But what does all this have to do with Korea? Not terribly much -- not yet, anyway. Multiculturalism exists in Korea only as a word, not as a clear and distinct concept, for it is usually conflated with multiethnicity, as though the two terms meant the same thing. Admittedly, an ethnic group usually does carry its own culture, but no necessary connection binds ethnicity to culture, so an expat living here might wonder if the Korean language makes no distinction between multiculturalism and multiethnicity.

Not being a Korean-language columnist, I checked with my wife for the Korean terms, and she explained to me that the Korean for multiculturalism is "damunhwajui" (다문화주의), whereas the Korean for multiethnicity is "dainjong" (다인종). After making this distinction, she added that the latter term rarely gets used in Korea because the word sounds too negative. Multiethnicity can hardly be a positive thing in a country that still celebrates the purity of its Korean blood. Koreans therefore prefer to use the term "multiculturalism" even when they are talking about "multiethnicity."

This misuse leads to misunderstanding even in Korea's English-language newspapers. Articles on international marriages -- or "gukjaegyulhon" (국제결혼) -- refer to the children as multicultural children even when the children are growing up in Korea, attending Korean schools, and becoming culturally Korean. Such children are not multicultural, but could more accurately be called multiethnic, in the limiting sense of mixed ethnicity.

Korea may therefore be developing into a multiethnic society if we mean by this the ethnically mixed children who are becoming ever more numerous as international marriages come to account for over 10 percent of the weddings taking place annually in Korea.

Such a process, however, will not lead to Korean multiculturalism, whether moderate or radical. For a multicultural Korea to develop, large-scale immigration of entire communities settling into self-isolating enclaves and maintaining their own cultural values would have to take place, and that does not seem to be happening.

Nor would that be a good thing for Korea if it were to happen, for the result would likely be an unworkable radical multiculturalism of the sort that currently looms in Europe.

Jeffery is a professor at Kyung Hee University and can be reached through his blog Gypsy Scholar at gypsyscholarship.blogspot.com. The views expressed here are his own. -- Ed.

Well, there it is. It seems pretty innocuous to me, but I'm probably not the best judge of that since I think that everything that I think is innocuous.

I suppose that I'll soon find out what others think.