“Miguk-in onda,” the Korean kids used to shout at me as I walked past the convenience store. The mere sight of a white guy on the streets of Seoul causing them to break out in cheers and shouts, proclaiming that an American guy was coming. I didn’t really have the heart to tell them I was from the south of England, nor did I fancy trying to explain Benedict Anderson’s 1983 book Imagined Communities or the War of 1812 to them. So, I just smiled and played along. “What’s your name?” the loudest and most confident would yell out.
We all know that Korean people work hard. It’s something like a national motto. We study hard, practice hard, sing hard. The delivery drivers work hard. The pop stars work hard. The students work hard. Everything in the country appears to be the result of intense personal and collective effort. And what results it can sometimes bring! Our country today, with its political, economic, and cultural revolutions, stands proudly as a result. From nothing; from the devastation of war and colonization, we have built a country that millions now flock to.
The world many of us inhabited growing up is not the world that young people experience today. We should also probably say that there never was one’ world, but rather my world and your world. Similarly, today the new generation of young adults face a great diversity of experiences. However, while accounting for the many differences among individuals, we nevertheless see a broader shift across the generations.
The night of Oct. 29, 2022 still lingers as a harrowing memory for Choi Sun-mi, the 50-year-old mother of the late Park Ga-young, one of the 159 victims of the deadly crowd crush i.