Third Cultural Post

[Mary Chang]

Unlike the United States, Korea is heavily based on collectivism. Collectivism refers to the practice or principle of giving a group priority over each individual in it. Korea scored 18 on individualism while America scored 91 on individualism. The power of collectivism in Korean culture is demonstrated in the miracle of Han River. Because of collectivism, Koreans work together as if the whole country is one family in times of hardships. After Korean War ended in 1953, Korea saw a incredibly rapid growth following the war and transformed from a developing country to a developed country within 50 years. By the end of the century, Korea had grown to become the world's 11th largest economy. This was possible because of how Koreans work together to achieve a common goal that is better for the whole instead of focusing on individual benefits. During IMF Crisis, within the first two days of the gold collection movement, over 100,000 South Koreans donated more than 20 tons of gold worth over $100 million. In total, it added up to $150-$200 million and helped Korea overcome IMF crisis in a short amount of time (1997-2001). Recently, about 1.5 million people turned out for the non-violent protest for previous president's impeachment and it was praised worldwide for their civil protest. Although collectivism brought great results to collectivism, it has cons like commoditization of employees, sacrifice their personal lives and lack of diversity.