Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea’s Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon by Daniel Tudor (PDF)

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“Daniel Tudor covers all the important issues, yet does not simply tell the more familiar stories, but looks deeper and wider to give the full story of Korea today.” –Martin Uden, Former British Ambassador to South KoreaIn just fifty years, South Korea has transformed itself from a failed state, ruined and partitioned by war and decades of colonial rule, into an economic powerhouse and a democracy that serves as a model for other countries. How was it able to achieve this with no natural resources and a tradition of authoritarian rule? Who are the Koreans and how did they accomplish this second Asian miracle? Through a comprehensive exploration of Korean history, culture and society, and interviews with dozens of experts, celebrated journalist Daniel Tudor seeks answers to these and many other fascinating questions. In Korea: The Impossible Country, Tudor touches on topics as diverse as shamanism, clan-ism, the dilemma posed by North Korea, and the growing international appeal of South Korean pop culture. This new edition has been updated with additional materials on recent events, including the impeachment of Park Geun-hye and the sinking of the Sewol Ferry. Although South Korea has long been overshadowed by Japan and China, Korea: The Impossible Country illuminates how this small country is one of the great success stories of the postwar period.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Tudor, Seoul correspondent for The Economist, provides a fairly perfunctory account of the ‘miracle on the Han River,’ which saw South Korea transformed from postwar ruin to prosperous democracy within four decades. The book’s real value comes in its exploration of the cultural forces behind the country’s zeal for self-improvement.” –Financial Times”Sixty years ago, South Korea was an economic wasteland. Today, it is not only the world’s 11th largest economy but also a vibrant democracy and an emerging cultural force. This transformation is the subject of a new book, Korea: The Impossible Country, by Daniel Tudor, Korea correspondent for The Economist.'” –Time Magazine”Mr. Tudor pushes into new social and economic territory with his book, including the rising role of immigrants, multicultural families and even gay people in South Korea. He lays out some of the contradictory behavior one finds in South Korea, such as the unending desire for new and trendy gadgets and fashion and yet the tunnel-like view of what constitutes a successful life.” –Wall Street Journal”Tudor’s Korea: The Impossible Country is a fascinating overview of daily life in Korea. Tudor’s in-depth analysis is the one of an insider who has never lost sight of the view from the outside. His book helps you feel comfortable right from your first visit to Korea.” –David Syz, Swiss Secretary of State for Economic Affairs”With a new generation every five years, it’s hard to keep up with Korea. This book is long overdue, but Daniel Tudor has done a magnificent job filling the gap. Not only has he captured the new Korea, but he does so in an effortless style that leaves the reader wanting more.” –Michael Breen, author of The Koreans”Written with affection and deep knowledge, Daniel Tudor’s book fills a huge gap in our understanding of one of Asia’s least known countries. His engaging narrative overturns the stereotypes by depicting a society which, though full of stresses, strains and contradictions, has overcome poverty and dictatorship to become a prosperous democracy. South Korea’s transformation into a vibrant, modern state is, as he says, a story that deserves to be better known. Tudor has done the “impossible country” a service by opening its secrets to the world.” –David Pilling, Asia Editor, Financial Times”Daniel Tudor covers all the important issues, yet does not simply tell the more familiar stories but looks deeper and wider to give the full story of Korea today.” –Martin Uden, Former British Ambassador to South Korea”Recommended for expats and any readers who are keen to learn more about Asian cultures, Korea: The Impossible Country is a well-researched and authoritative window into a country and its people.” –The Expat Magazine About the Author Daniel Tudor is from Manchester, England, and graduated with a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University. He has lived in Seoul for a many years and served as Korea Correspondent for The Economist from 2010-2013. The first edition of Korea: The Impossible Country received high praise and has been translated into Korean, Chinese, Polish, and Thai. His subsequent book, North Korea Confidential (with James Pearson), was selected by The Economist as one of the best books of 2015. He is also co-founder of Seoul-based The Booth Brewing Company.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Korea. The impossible Country is a passionate comprehensive introduction to Korea, its culture and its people. The book is easy to read, engaging, very informative, and a great introduction to the country, especially if you intend visiting. Tudor’s depth of knowledge is admirable and impressive and although his expertise is economics and business, the book has a soul. What is more, Tudor is able to dig into the Korean soul and present it to you in its many faces. You will dive through Korea’s collective psyche and understand why Koreans behave and do things in a certain way.This book could have been a Wikipedia sort of book or a travel guide sort of book but it succeeds at being none of that but being informative and a good companion from travelling. The book touches on the eternal and the mundane in five fascinating sections:1- Foundations: We are presented with a brief analysis of the most influential religions in Korea (Buddhism, Christianity and Confucianism) and the specific forms that Capitalism and Democracy take in that country.2- Cultural Codes: We immerse ourselves into those beliefs, ways of being and attitudes that make Koreans who they are: Jeong, Chemyon, Han, Heung, competition, family and neophilia.3- Cold Reality, focuses on those aspects of life that make the functioning of society possible but aren’t as thrilling as others: politics, business, work, marriage, studying and being fluent in English.4- In the hours not spent working: eating, drinking, music, cinema, and the living space are the subject of this section.5- More of Us and Less of them, analyses Korean attitudes towards foreigners, gays, women, and the many faces of Korean nationalism.The book is preceded by short historical introduction. Nothing boring, it is short and sweet, very informative and a good introduction to the History of Korea. Plenty of historical details are also found in each chapter when a historical background is needed.The epilogue is a brief summary of what Tudor discusses throughout the book, that is, what makes Koreans a remarkable nation and the challenges that Korea has and needs to face in the changing world we live in.Tudor is basically an economist and there are plenty of statistics and business and economical references in the book. However, they add to the overall believability of the book.I love that one can read the chapters individually if one wants, as they are complete in themselves, making the book very versatile and practical.I didn’t find any typo in the book, something really cool.THE ABSENTEES>>> Two of the main absentees in the book are Korea’s working classes and rural dwellers, who are barely mentioned. Korea is a very urban country. I get that, but I would have liked having a bit of more background on rural areas and rural culture and see how they differ from the urban Korea or not. On the other hand, the working class is barely mentioned, and I would have liked to know more about them as well. Are their interests, struggles and obsessions the same as those people who would send their kids to an American University and have plastic surgery to look better in their resumé?>>> There is a total absence of Korean literature, theatre and visual arts regarding painting, sculpture and experimental visual arts and artists in section 4. Korea has a vibrant literary scene, a scene where women are dominating and are well-respected. Any visual artists that is not part of the film industry…?>>> One of the chapters I was looking forward to read was that on Korean food. One can find a list of typical Korean dishes anywhere, so I expected this chapter to go beyond that and offer a bit of depth about Korean culinary culture. Tudor does so superficially. Some of the questions that interest me and aren’t mentioned are: Which hours do they eat in the day? Is their main meal in the morning, midday or evening? Is there a foodie culture in Korea as we have it in Western countries? Is eating out expensive? Do Korean have a strong street food culture as other Asian countries? Does everybody cook at home these days or is still a women’s task? Which differences do you see in food eating according to social classes in Korea? Is there a “vernacular” tea culture in Korea? Do they love programs like MasterChef? Which foreign foods do they love the most? I think Tudor knows all of this and more, so I would love have loved that sort of information commented on, even if lightly. Perhaps in the new edition of the book?KOREAN, REALLY?Some of the things Tudor says about Korean can be seen also in Western Europe, USA and Australia, so I wonder whether those are specifically Korean, and in which ways they are specifically Korean.For example:> Yummy mummies who don’t work using their children’s achievements to push their own egos and, therefore, push their kids unnecessarily for their own sake are everywhere.> The obsession with technology. Yes, sure, Korean moves faster than other countries in the world of gadgets, but you find similar obsessions with gadgets and technology in many Western countries. there are many people camping outside their local Apple store before the launch of a new gadget or new version of a gadget to get it.> Gay actors who keep in the closet not to destroy their careers. Certainly, gay people have a brighter life in the Western World (Western Europe especially) but, where I live, there are constant items of news on TV about people being abused, bullied or marginalised because they are gay. The Australian ex-swimmer Ian Thorpe, had depression, publicly denied being guy, wrote a biography in which he denied it, and when he came out of the closet said that he had kept it secret out of fear because he didn’t know if his country would accept him. Also in Australia, a pop singer Anthony Callea kept his gay self hidden for work career purposes, he said, as most of his fans were female teens. Of course, nobody is making life difficult for them, but people who aren’t famous have a more difficult day to day.> The problem of the ageing population and low birth rates. I cannot but agree with what Tudor says, but this is not a typically Korean problem, as it affects most countries of Western Europe, Spain and Italy with one the lowest birth rates in the world and the population ageing at the speed of ageing :).THE EDITINGI notice the editing when the editing is not as good as it should be. I don’t mean editing as in correcting typos and odd grammar sentences, I mean editing as the proper job of editing a book by professional editors.> Tudor repeats himself quite often, things are said over and over again in different chapters, sometimes in the same chapter, and it is not always necessary. Just one example, the per capita earnings of Koreans in the post-war era.> At times the book reads like a blog, others like a newspaper article, and others as a proper book. That is distracting to me and not good for any book.> The “Special Feature: Interview with Choi Min-sik” feels like a cut-&-paste from a blog or article added here. I don’t know if that is the case, but it reads as a pastiche. The question that matters here is, is this interview really relevant to know the film culture of Korea and necessary to be included in the book? The answer is no.> The data that Tudor uses for some references to religious practices relates to the 1990s! Hello hello, 2016 calling. I wonder how accurate the statistics were in 2012, when the book was written, and today.> The author mentions a few books and articles, but does not quote them properly I understand that the book is for the general public, but including a footnote when an explicit reference is mentioned will not disturb the general populace, it is a matter of courtesy to the author mentioned, a professional backup for your reputation, and some readers could be interested in that book or article. Just an example: ” In a paper on the influence of chemyon on Korean consumer culture, Yoosun Hann of the University of Illinois wrote that it was important “not to stand out, but to fit in” (pp. 112-113)RENDERING FOR KINDLE~~ The comprehensive final index is not rendered for Kindle, therefore, not linked, therefore, useless for Kindle users. Moreover, the number of pages relates to the printed edition. Cheat! Cheat! Cheat!~~ If I get an e-book, I expect the book to have any website mentioned in the text out-linked.A WISHAfter reading the book I am sure he is an expert on Korea. Why not including a list of must-read books and reputed sources on Korea?IN SHORTI cannot highlight enough how much I enjoyed this book and how much I recommend it to anybody who wants to know about Korea. However, the book is not polished enough, and some areas and social groups are not mentioned or barely so.

⭐The subtitle of this important book stems from two extraordinary facts about South Korea: that in the space of two generations it has gone from being one of the poorest countries in the world to being a member of the OECD (the group of rich countries), and it has gone from being under the rule of US-backed military dictatorships to being a thriving democracy. Such dramatic changes make the country worthy of study on a number of fronts and Daniel Tudor has made a strong effort to help us understand this remarkable, if also darkly flawed, state.The book begins with a brief history of Korea from ancient times up to the division of the peninsula in 1948 and the ensuing civil war that ended in 1953. The overview introduces some key themes about relations with China and Japan, the influence of religions and Confucian ethics, attitudes to outsiders and the consolidation of the national culture with its own script and origin myth.The main body of the text is divided into five parts. The first looks at the influence of shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity, and then the rise of industrial capitalism and democracy. Tudor covers each of these social influences well but makes insufficient distinction between elite and popular culture and how these played out differently over time. This would have helped to explain some apparent anomalies later in the book.The second part looks at specific cultural traits and how they influence both attitudes and behaviour. These include social bonding and attachment, status competition, maintenance of `face’, melancholy and joyfulness, family structure and obligations, and `neophilia’ – that Korean obsession with the latest thing. Many of these traits can be seen in other Asian countries but Tudor tries to give them a particular Korean flavour and for the most part succeeds.In the third part of the book the focus shifts to politics, including relations with North Korea, the links between politics and industrialisation, and the melding of political and business cultures. There are also chapters on the drive for perfection and the current mania for learning English – or rather, for acquiring a certificate to say you have passed an English exam. Much about Korea’s industrialisation has been better explained by the Cambridge economist Ha-joon Chang and there is a lot of repetition of facts and arguments in this section that showed the need for some judicious editing, but there is plenty of interest to digest.The repetition unfortunately continues in the following part of the book, which shifts from cultural analysis to descriptive accounts of housing, diet, cinema, the music scene and the party culture (North Korea has a party culture as well, of course, but only with a capital `P’). These chapters read more like a travel guide or a series of magazine articles. There is little insight into why popular culture has taken its current forms, except in the field of music. Tudor completed the manuscript of this book before the extraordinary phenomenon of PSY and his Gangnam Style song, and I wondered how Tudor would have explained it. The Gangnam area of Seoul gets a number of mentions, though, and you can see why its inhabitants are so ripe for ridicule.The final part of the book looks at ideas about nationalism and cultural identity and how these are changing. There are chapters on the gay subculture and the role of women, but again the accounts are more descriptive than explanatory. Change is happening but it is very slow.Korea is rich, its culture is influential in Asia and it has some global companies that are titans of modern capitalism, but the picture is not all rosy. The country has the highest suicide rate in the OECD and the second highest globally (take a bow, Lithuania). Koreans work some of the longest hours in the industrialised world and take very few holidays. Like workaholics everywhere, they are hopelessly unproductive as a result, languishing in the bottom ranks of OECD productivity. Work culture is hierarchical, bureaucratic and conformist, and industry mainly relies on copying innovation from elsewhere. Creativity outside the arts and computer industry is thin on the ground. Discrimination against women is still strong, as is active prejudice against gays, even though homosexuality is not illegal.Before World War II, the elite culture was based on neo-Confucianism but shamanism and Buddhism were popular among the poor and in rural areas. Women in poor and rural households had greater autonomy to go about in public and participate in work than their rich sisters, and in the chapter on gay culture Tudor notes that same-sex couples were regarded as unremarkable in rural society before the twentieth century. Today the elite culture of politics and business is dominated by a fundamentalist form of Protestant Christianity, yet 70 per cent of the population is not Christian and animist faith persists. All through this book I saw signs of an elite-popular divide in terms of culture and beliefs, and found it frustrating that Tudor did not discuss this and its impact on social change.While he does not shrink from discussing the negative aspects of Korean society, Tudor is at times a little defensive, trying to paint a positive image overall. He is worried that people might think that Koreans are shallow. K-Pop is so mindless and manufactured that it makes Stock-Aitken-Waterman look like profound intellectuals. Koreans are obsessed with luxury goods and showing off, and there is an inexhaustible passion for looking good, with spending on cosmetics, clothes and plastic surgery all exceptionally high. Advertisements for tongue operations to improve your English appear regularly in the media. Shallow? Never crossed my mind: in modern capitalism this sounds like the height of sophistication. At least Koreans have the ability to laugh at themselves. If you watch Korean comedy shows on TV or enjoy PSY’s mockery of the consumer culture, you will see there is cause for hope.Tudor believes that the adaptability of Korean culture and the determination and cohesion of its people will ensure that progress continues. I think he is right and that the shallow bits will be taken with a grain of salt. Korea tells us a lot about how, and how not, to live and this book is a reliable companion in explaining how the place works. I would have appreciated much less repetition in the text and more use of the religious, structural and cultural themes from parts one and two in explaining why the society looks and acts the way it does in the latter parts of the book, but by and large Tudor takes us into an Aladdin’s cave of ideas and information that makes this `impossible’ country far more plausible. Highly recommended.

⭐The attraction of this book is that Daniel Tudor covers all the bases in explaining modern South Korea. He evaluates all aspects of Korean history and society regardless of whether they conflict with preconceived ideas about “Asian values” , “Asian inscrutability” etc.The book is a genuine exploration of Korean society and provides a rather surprising picture of an “Over the Top” attitude permeating the whole country, with the many examples including the following:Extremist education with students working the longest hours in the world combined with a hyper-competitive examination system. The result is a very educated population in technical subjects, a degree of youth alienation, a high youth suicide rate, high status teachers, a high financial burden on families and a surprisingly low return (productivity) for the effort expended.The desire for physical perfection resulting in cosmetic surgery being available for all ages, and even going as far as tongue surgery to supposedly enable the better pronunciation of English words.The cult of the new (Neophilia – Love of the new) whereby perfectly good equipment is dumped in favour of a new model. South Korea is the country where mostly only foreigners drive older cars and where product cycles have become maniacally short, with anything new automatically being viewed as superior.Obligatory high level English language learning although only a minority will ever require it. This ties in with entrance to Seoul’s four prestigious universities where candidate levels are so high that fluency in English becomes an added factor.Extreme emotions, Han & Heung. So much for inscrutable Orientals! The author shows that Korean wear their hearts on their sleeve and revel in extremes of sadness and joy as reflected in their films and music that has a big following throughout Asia (Korean popular singers and actors regarded the most attractive in Asia).Extreme nationalism that is rooted in Korea’s history of subjugation by the Japanese and Chinese. Korean society is unified as probably no other and can undertake large scale projects with astounding determination, regardless of whether they are launched at a national level by a dictator such as Park Chung-hee or at a company level by for example Samsung. He doesn’t make the point, but the contrast with the US is remarkable (see ”

⭐The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart

⭐” by Bill Bishop).The list continues and even includes their social binge drinking and their extreme spicy food (pickled vegetables with pepper and garlic – Kimchi, that apparently accompany everything – even pizza).In the last chapters, the author show that things are changing at the margin, with some degree of openness to multiculturalism, gay rights and women’s rights but that these issues in no way define society as they do in the United States.In my opinion this is a great book and the author suggests that South Koreans try and relax and enjoy themselves by following the advice of Soyeon Yi (2008 Korean “Woman of the Year” and first Korean in space), when she says, “Koreans are very good at being unsatisfied. Sometimes we need to have a break, and some champagne to cheer us up”.Aren’t they drinking enough soju already?

⭐When I started looking for books about South Korean culture, I was disappointed about the lack of new, English language material on Amazon.Daniel Tudor’s updated book, however, is truly a gem. This read, which was truly enjoyable and easy, has excited my enthusiasm for Korea and my interest in its long history. His disclaimer, about the opinions expressed in the reached conclusions of this book’s chapters, was useful – allowing a sense of perspective and also encouraging, for me, to continue research as to develop my own.I’ll be honest, the only reason I’m not awarding five stars is because I disagree with the author about Korean music.Thank you Daniel Tudor for this insightful piece.

⭐An insightful, well- written and engaging study of modern Korean society by someone who knows it well and has an obvious fondness for the country. Particularly strong on the historical context of why Korean society is the way it is, and on the rapid social changes currently taking place. Given the pace of change, the book already seems out of date – it was written pre-Psy, pre President Park v2.0 and pre the tragic Sewol ferry disaster, which might turn out to be one of the biggest catalysts for change of all. An excellent book for those seeking to understand the puzzling, wonderful country that is South Korea.

⭐This book provides an fascinating and very well written overview to South Korea for someone with little pre-existing knowledge. Covering history, politics, culture, music, food, media, family and pretty much every aspect of Korean life. Does a great job of explaining how the unique Korean identity was developed over the years, all the while being under the thumb of larger neighbours. It is not at all dry and there are many anecdotes to keep the book entertaining as well as informative.

⭐This is an incredible book which will give you a deep understanding of the cultural and philosophical underpinnings of the country. You will be able to understand why people are the way they are and really see the country for what it is. I don’t think I need another book could give you the key items you will learn here. Really fun and easy to read but with a lot of depth.

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