This book reveals how South Korea was transformed from one of the
poorest and most agrarian countries in the world in the 1950's to one of
the richest and most industrialized states by the late 1980's. The
author argues that South Korea's economic, cultural, and political
development was the product of a unique set of historical circumstances
that cannot be replicated elsewhere, and that only by ignoring the costs
and negative consequences of development can South Korea's
transformation be described as an unqualified success.
The historical circumstances include a thoroughgoing land reform that
forced children of former landlords to move to the cities to make their
fortunes, a very low-paid labor force, and the threat from North Korea
and the consequent American presence. The costs of development included
the exploitation of labor (as late as 1986, South Korean factory workers
had the longest hours in the world and earned less than their
counterparts in Mexico and Brazil), undemocratic politics, and
despoliation of the environment. The title of the book suggests the
ambivalence of South Korean development: "Han" refers both to South
Korea (Han'guk) and to the cultural expression of resentment or
dissatisfaction (han).
Because the author sees South Korean development as contingent on a
variety of particular circumstances, he ranges widely to include not
only the information typically gathered by sociologists and political
economists, but also insights gained from examining popular tastes and
values, poetry, fiction, and ethnography, showing how all of these
aspects of South Korean life help elucidate his main themes. The result
is the most comprehensive and informative account available of the
extraordinary changes that brought South Korea to the forefront among
major industrialized nations at the end of the twentieth century.
