Funeral Rites in Contemporary Korea: The Business of Death PDF
Preview Funeral Rites in Contemporary Korea: The Business of Death
Gil-Soo Han Funeral Rites in Contemporary Korea The Business of Death Funeral Rites in Contemporary Korea Gil-Soo Han Funeral Rites in Contemporary Korea The Business of Death 123 Gil-Soo Han Schoolof Media, FilmandJournalism MonashUniversity Caulfield East,VIC, Australia ISBN978-981-13-7851-5 ISBN978-981-13-7852-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7852-2 ©SpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd.2019 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfrom therelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained hereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregard tojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmapsandinstitutionalaffiliations. ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore A good name is better than fine perfume, and thedayofdeathbetterthanthedayofbirth.It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart. Frustration is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. Ecclesiastes 7: 1–3 (NIV) 좋은이름이좋은기름보다낫고죽는날이 출생하는 날보다나으며 초상집에가는 것 이잔칫집에가는것보다나으니모든사람 의 끝이 이와 같이 됨이라. 산 자는 이것을 그의 마음에둘지어다 슬픔이웃음보다 나 음은 얼굴에근심하는 것이마음에 유익하 기 때문이니라. 전도서 7: 1–3 (개역개정) Preface While undertaking a research project on the determinants of health and the use of medicine in the Korean community in Sydney in the mid-1990s, I had the only available Korean funeral director at that time included as one of my study partic- ipants. He was highly professional and devoted to his profession, and I absolutely admired,andwasdeeplytouchedby,hispassion.ButImusthavebeensonervous thatIforgottoturnonthetaperecorderwhileinterviewinghim,whichremainsthe first and last such mistake of that kind during my entire research career. That interview also remains the most memorable one I have ever conducted because of the meaning and value of life he taught me. It was a paradoxical moment of learning about precious life through the death industry. I did not know then the experiencewouldeventually lead meto undertake a projecton funeralrites. There wasanotherstoryIheardfromanacademicinthe1990sthatmademethinkabout funerals. He was once researching eulogies, and he was visiting a funeral service homewhereabroadrangeofcasketswasonsale.Theacademicwasintroducedto a standing casket full of soft cotton and fluff. He was told that it should feel great andhewasencouragedtoplacehisbodyinittofeelit.Hedidsoasawaytobuild rapport with the funeral director. Any news and stories about death rather than something else seem to remain vividly in our minds for a while. My interest in death studies might have brewed in my mind for a while. However, the incident that more directly triggered me to get into writing this book is as follows. Living as a migrant in a new home away from my past home country, I take pleasure in catching up with the television news from Korea, especially while dishwashing in the evening. The TV news through a mobile app brings me the Korean news slightly differently from the way the online Internet news does. It is not only the news per se that represents Korean society and provides me with constant surprise, but the commercial breaks that continue to surprisemewithwhatKoreanswantandhowKoreansarewillingtoprovidefor the needs of others. One particular funeral service advertisement ‘completely knocked me out’, and I was blown away. I deliberately denied what I heard and saw in the advertisement: a funeral service professional boasting the good income she earns fromtheservice(SeeChap.5).Thiswastheincidentthatmademerealisethatthere vii viii Preface is so much to understand about Korean society and I decided to make an effort to understanditbetterthroughthetopicoffuneralrites.Ishalladmitthathumandeath had already become to me an important topic to reflect on. Korean immigrants have many ways to stay in touch with their friends through newcommunicationtechnologies,andtheyhaveeasyandfastaccesstonewsfrom Korea. However, they consider their visits to Korea particularly special, recon- necting with their old friends, relatives and the changes to the ‘homeland’. Yet, there are a few emergency visits that they might make in the event of the loss of their loved ones. They are heavy-hearted in their journey to the homeland. One ofmyacquaintancesonsuchajourneywaspuzzledandsurprisedtobegivenlittle ornocontroloverthefuneralservice forhis father. Despitealltheconveniencehe mayhaveappreciated,hewasalsodismayedatthelackofcontroloverthefuneral ceremony or the high level of commodification of the service, to be more specific. Suchanexperienceisnotfarfrommyownexperience.Then,whatarethedesirable ways to conduct the final ceremony and what kinds of values are missing there? This has been an important question in human history. My intellectual journey is closely related to my personal journey as a Korean immigrantinAustralia.EversinceIleftmypasthomelandinthemid-1980s,South Korea was busy preparing to arrive at the door of the OECD. I have watched the nationcontinuetodevelopsocially,economicallyandpolitically.MyKorea-centric thoughtwasthatKoreanshaveworkeddiligentlyinthemidstofalltheadversities such as lack of resources and the risk of another Korean War in the Korean peninsula. I have almost taken it for granted that South Korea has continued to improve its political and economic status in the international community. On the other hand, I had a colleague from the UK who said his country of origin has continued to lose its significance as an economic and political power in the inter- national community. This is an interesting and contrasting observation. This has affected the way I have formed my own identity as a Korean–Australian. The questionsthatfrequentlyaroseinmymindhavebeenregardingthewaysinwhich SouthKoreansocietyhasbeendevelopingforbettermentandalsolosingitsgripon long-heldgreatvaluesandrelationshipsthathavebeenasignificantpartoftheirlife and history. In a nutshell, I have started questioning: ‘What has it done well and what has it done not so well?’ What are the ways in which I can understand the fast-changingKoreansocietyandthelifeofKoreansthroughcontemporaryfuneral rites? Korean Romanisation This book has benefited from scholarly insights into a significant body of the lit- eraturepublishedintheKoreanlanguage.IthasbeenaconventiontoRomanisethe references to papers and books according to McCune–Reischauer or Revised Romanisationmethods.IhavedecidedthatIprovidetheoriginalKoreantitleswith Preface ix English translation. A rationale is that Romanisation is meaningful only to those who are able toread or understand theKoreanlanguage. Thosewho wouldlike to locate those Korean works may find this helpful. Ingeneral,theRevisedRomanisationmethodhasbeenfollowed.Journalarticles and theses published in Korea often have abstracts together with their authors and Englishtitles.EnglishnamesthatIprovidedaretheauthors’preferences,andIhave followed their own Romanisation. However, thetranslated titles ofacademic work have been slightly adjusted at times to best reflect what the work is about. InregardtotheuseofKoreanwords,Ihaveprovidedtheirtranslation.However, somewordsareusedwithorwithouttranslation,suchasthewordsangjowhichis atthecentreofwhatthisbookisabout.Thewordliterallymeans‘mutualsupport’, but it does contain many features of Korean traditional customs. The word netizen is a new common word in the Korean Internet sphere, a portmanteau of the words Internet and citizen. The word often refers to the people who respond online to media reportages. In a similar vein, some words are transliterated and other words are translated. For example, 보람상조 is transliterated as ‘Boram Sangjo’, whereas ‘녹십자생명 웰엔딩 효보험’ as ‘Green Cross Well-ending Filial Piety Insurance’. This is simply because some words are more complex to translate and may be best left as closeaspossibletotheauthor’sintentionorwhatthewordissupposedtomeanfor thesakeofnon-Korean speakers.Inother cases,‘apropertranslation’isusefulfor the sake of the readers’ understanding. Korean Names IthasbecomebetterknownbynowthatKoreannamesarewrittensurnamefirstand followed by given name. I have generally followed this pattern without a comma after each surname as many other writers have already done so. References to the Media Representations The bulk of the data for the analysis in this book comes from media reports in the Korean language. In some parts of my analysis, I discuss media representations at length indicating their full references. In these cases, it is awkward to reference every sentence despite my drawing on the media reports with references. It would beinconvenienttoreaders.TherearesomenewsoutletssuchasFinancialNewsor Yonhap News which are either well known outside Korea or easy to recognise for non-Koreanspeakers.Inthesecases,noKoreanRomanisationisprovidedattimes, butEnglishnamesonly.Inothercases,bothKoreannamesandEnglishtranslations areprovided,e.g.밝은미래뉴스(BrightFutureNews).Somein-textreferencesuse x Preface fullnamesofthecitedauthorssincetheKoreanfamilynamessuchasKimandLee are predominantly common. Exchangeratesnaturallyfluctuate.Allthefinancialvaluesoriginallyfoundinall the Korean material have been converted into dollar figures, using one dollar equivalent to 1000 KRW. This will allow anyone to find out easily the original figures inKorean money atthetime of publicationof theKoreanmaterial. Forthe interest ofreaders,1Americandollar isequivalentto1134KRWand1Australian dollar is equivalent to 813 KRW on 14 December 2018. Caulfield East, Australia Gil-Soo Han Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Laboratory Program for Korean Studies through the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Studies PromotionServiceoftheAcademyofKoreanStudies(AKS-2018-LAB-2250001). IamalsogratefultoMonashUniversity’sFacultyofArtsforallowingmeaperiod to concentrate on undertaking a field trip in Korea and completing the manuscript. I am particularly thankful to Kim Jung-Sim, the Korean Studies Librarian at Monash University. Korean studies scholars at Monash are well aware of her dedicationandunfailingsupportfortheirneedsofKoreanresources.Ihavegreatly benefitedfromherprofessionalapproachaswellaspersonalpassioninherrole.In fact, her support for my research has provided me with ample research resources and as a consequence, I have gained much depth of understanding of Korean scholarship on the topic. I am grateful to Ilaria Walker, Springer’s Commissioning Editor, and Nick Melchior, Springer’s Executive Editor, for initially recognising the potential value of the book and encouraging me to proceed with the proposal. Their support has initiatedtheactualpreparationofthemanuscript,andtheirencouragementhasbeen sustained for the last few years. Four anonymous reviewers have been a catalyst in slightly redesigning the structure ofthemanuscriptinamorecoherentmanner,bringinginthebackground chapteronKoreansocietyintransitionandremovingmyoriginallyplannedchapter on the high suicide rate in Korean society. Caron Eastgate Dann has provided me with a much needed intellectual companionship in the process of completing the manuscriptinadditiontoimprovingmyEnglishexpression.Chapter5isamodified andextendedversionofthepaperonFuneralCapitalism.Iamgratefultotheeditor of Korean Studies (University of Hawaii) for the permission to reproduce the bulk of the originally published paper in the journal. Parts of the book were presented to the Korean Studies Association of Australasia Conference and to the Korea Institute at the Australian National University. I am grateful to the feedback that the audiences offered me. I particularly thank Roald Maliangkay for his thoughtful suggestions on my xi
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