By Bernard Rowan
For the longest time, I’ve considered the idea of adoption and its wonder. In particular, I think about how “outsiders” become “insiders” through adoption. Adoptions happen for many reasons. It can occur necessarily or accidentally or neither. Many movies in one way or another tell the story of someone who experiences adoption by a culture or social institution in particular. The form of adoption may vary. Humanity uses adoption to exceed its normal or particular boundaries, usually for the better. Adoption may set a precedent more widely practiced by others.
I say all of this to share some thoughts about the spate of stories involving Ihn Yo-han. The story surprises me. I’m happy to learn Ihn is the first special naturalized Korean. His name has been and still prints at times as John Linton. Ihn is a director at Yonsei University Severance Hospital International Health Care Center. He currently chairs the innovation committee of the ruling People Power Party. As one can learn from The Korea Times, he developed the first Korean-customized ambulance.
I don’t know if Ihn would share the idea that Korea has adopted him. To my mind, it makes sense. It also provides a way to address certain nagging resonances of rejection. Ihn entered life and grew up in Korea. He has devoted his life to various works in his country. However, people in some quarters don’t think he’s Korean. Perhaps that’s because of his work for a particular party and national administration in South Korea, more or less. However, Ihn provides one of a growing number of opportunities for Koreans to widen their understanding of culture, nation and family.
South Korea is an advanced nation, but troubling are the occasional signs and symptoms of nativism or ethnocentrism. I can recall various primers in Korean culture that I read before my first visit. They praised the virtues of Korean monists and uniformity. They described Korean homogeneity as factual and as related to the country’s nationalism. It all sounded wonderful and nonthreatening.
Of course, Korean nationalism is wonderful and necessary for self-preservation and the national interest. It's not uniform: divisions between West and East are well-known. These divisions don’t address ethnicity and those which Korea (should) adopt.
I can remember Korean friends past and present and how they and their parents approached or interacted with me. The experiences were uniformly positive. However, for some reason as I grew more involved or noticeably interested in Korea, a few told me, “You’re not Korean.” While I had never thought that, it still hurt, I’ll also say that my closest friends consider me a member of their family. That is deeply humbling and loving. Korea should extend greater openness including to those whom it adopts as citizens, even if they aren’t ethnically Korean or native-born.
As Korea continues to face a falling birthrate and many challenges from a shrinking working-age population, South Korea will have to supplement its workforce. The economy and society need to adopt more workers, and among them, it would be a good idea to adopt more as citizens, should that status suit their work, commitment and regard for South Korea. This occurs widely elsewhere.
As more Koreans study, work and live abroad, the beautiful identities of those who live on earth and are of Korean ethnicity and descent continue to multiply and assume indefinite variety. What it means to “look” Korean changes all the time. “Korean uniformity” is an abstraction. If one even looks at the multiplicity of ancestor cultures and ethnicities that formed Korea, such uniformity is revealed to be an ideal or just plain fiction.
Paik Wan-ki and Jung Jae Hung have written about familism and emotional humanism in Korean culture. Koreans are inclined to emotions of affection and loyalty to their felt in-group. The Korean tendency to prefer the familiar and or networks of felt kin isn’t unusual or bad. However, the treatment of Ihn in some quarters shows familism and loyalty have gone too far.
I admire Ihn’s steady and steadfast commitment to his homeland and the Korean people. In the face of those voices who say, think or act out, “You’re not Korean,” he hasn’t quit or abandoned his love of Koreans and Korea. His work and contributions continue to shine forth, to save lives and to inspire generations of Koreans and foreigners alike to the next steps in Korea’s wonderful story of progress.
Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and academic services and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.
Korean ethnocentrism and Ihn
21
0
09.11.2023
By Bernard Rowan For the longest time, I’ve considered the idea of adoption and its wonder. In particular, I think about how “outsiders” become “insiders” through adoption. Adoptions happen for many reasons. It can occur necessarily or accidentally or neither. Many movies in one way or another tell the story of someone who experiences adoption by a culture or social institution in particular. The form of adoption may vary. Humanity uses adoption to exceed its normal or particular boundaries, usually for the better. Adoption may set a precedent more widely practiced by others.
I say all of this to share some thoughts about the spate of stories involving Ihn Yo-han. The story surprises me. I’m happy to learn Ihn is the first special naturalized Korean. His name has been and still prints at times as John Linton. Ihn is a director at Yonsei University Severance Hospital International Health Care Center. He currently chairs the innovation committee of the ruling People Power Party. As one can learn from The Korea Times, he developed the first Korean-customized ambulance.
I don’t know if Ihn would share the idea that Korea has adopted him. To my mind, it makes sense. It also........
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