Topic > Modernization of Family Values ​​in Korea

The cultures of all societies develop over time, and family values ​​are a part of a society's culture that has always fascinated me. There are many factors that can influence how family values ​​develop, and there are many different ways you can see a reflection of this. To have a meaningful discussion about the modern family we must first dive into the history of Korean family values ​​and some of the major factors that have altered the culture. I will discuss the history of this from Confucian values, how the Korean War had a huge impact, and how this leads us to modern Korea. This brings me to the main question of this essay. Globalization has been the most influential factor in changing the structure of Korean families. I want to explore how this has been represented in pop culture. In my opinion, pop culture is a really good representation of how Korean family values ​​have changed over the years and how they are influencing societies. Media forms and pop culture push people to ask the hardest questions about their societies. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To begin, we need a good starting point for our historical context. For the purposes of this article, I have decided, unimportantly, to focus on the specifics in which one would normally have this information for historical writings. For the purposes of this research, history plays a role only in understanding traditional cultures. Having said this, what we can consider traditional for this purpose spans a very broad time span. Until the dawn of the twentieth century, Korea existed under the name of the Chosun Dynasty. This dynasty was, in large part, a society built on the ideals of Confucianism. Furthermore, even after Japanese colonial rule, we can still say that this was the main ideology and culture in Korea. In short, for the purposes of this study I will take a look at this period as if it were an era of traditional Korean culture. The main culture visible from any perspective of traditional Korean culture and family structure is that of the patriarchal family. . Men in Korea traditionally benefited from this “men first” family culture. An example from early traditional family cultures is the belief that the family should be run as a benevolent monarchy, in which the eldest male was the head of the family. Clearly the culture of segregation would have created interesting dynamics within families. Returning to this theme, "in the ancient family system, parents arranged marriages without the consent of their children, neither male nor female". This makes it very clear that in Korea family cultures were influenced by the agricultural nature of their society. In urban societies, just like in South Korea today, such rigid family structures would not be sustainable for families. A final example of traditional family culture is that in Korean families the elderly are cared for by the family. Although this has become quite a heated debate in Korea in recent years. Moving forward, after the Japanese colonial government, another wave of influence spread around South Korea in the form of US intervention. However, I would like to begin this part of our discussion with a brief word on the nature of war and its effects. For anyone who has studied war or been a part of it, it is basic knowledge that war separates and destroys families. In the case of the Korean Civil War, we can say that this was still the casemore amplified since it was a war based on ideological disagreements in Korean society. As in wars of this nature, families must choose a side and it is not always the same. . As Americans, we can somehow identify with this political tension in our modern contexts. Right-wing politics versus left-wing politics, I know from personal experience that during our last election, even families were torn apart. Furthermore, another obvious assessment of the war would be that of casualties. This is directly related to how the family structure in Korea has been influenced and evolved. A whole new generation of women and children left without husbands and fathers has been created. With this in mind, Korea also underwent very rapid modernization during this period. To me, there is a clear relationship between this and the rise of greater independence for women in Korea. Korea is a country that has gone through a process of rapid modernization, today it is one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world. Their industry is dominated by a group of companies called Chaebol, which are some of the largest multinationals. All this success is partly due to the effect globalization has had on the country. With this change came a lot of changes in Korean society. However, after the Korean War it is clear that the most significant steps towards modernization were made. Furthermore, this process had the greatest impact on the Korean family from then on. Industrialization, as a result of the initial pressure of globalization, changed the landscape in how people lived. People quickly began to move to cities and with this change large families were soon uprooted from family cultures. Furthermore, ideological changes have moved South Korean society away from patriarchal familism in favor of democratic ideas about individualism. Finally, with the growing influence of the United States in South Korea, we also see a clear relationship between the growth of Christianity. Naturally, this caused tension between the different ideas of family taught by traditional Korean ideologies and those that stemmed from different forms of Christianity. In general, the spread of Christianity, modern law, popularization of modern education, urbanization and institutionalization occurred as a result of globalization. This brings us to the world of mass media and pop culture we live in today. The rapid modernization of Korean technology has led families to spend more time than ever interacting with some form of media. With around 98.5% of South Korean households owning a TV, it's safe to say that tech culture is widespread. Many studies show that “television, as a medium, exerts the strongest influence on people's daily lives”. Considering that the penetration of television media in the Korean market is so high, this argument carries some weight (Korea). Because Korean media has so many foreign (particularly Western) influences, the lifestyles depicted are often bound to conflict with many of the traditional aspects of the Korean family structure. If constantly subjected to this form of influence, “it can elicit certain behaviors from the public”. Now, many of these behaviors could simply be purchasing activity, however it is unlikely and unfounded that the influence ends there. For example, with the rise of K-pop in Korea, more and more women are taking on non-traditional roles working in the industry. Furthermore, these same women play non-traditional roles on screen. Each of these examples works.