I’ve seen a lot of changes in Korea in my 60 years here. Aside from the country's dramatic economic growth, I’m interested in looking at the family and how it has been impacted by the rapid changes in Korean society.
When I first came to Korea, I was impressed with two things: families and the educational system. Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world in 1965, after being exploited by the Japanese, divided against its will and recovering from a senseless war. Yet families were strong and there was a lot of pride in family and tradition. Part of the family tradition and one’s identity was the “jokbo” or Korean genealogical records outlining family history. I was impressed with how families did everything they could to ensure that the younger generation has access to education.
These two values of family and education have shifted between then and now, and are likely shifting again as we go into the future. In 1965, it was still important to have a large family, but sometime in the 70’s, the social paradigm shifted and it became important to control population growth. Everyone — and that means everyone — got behind the slogan “have only two and raise them well” to reduce family size.
