Читать книгу My Korea - Kevin O'Rourke - Страница 12

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LEARNING THE ROPES

OVER THE FIRST FEW MONTHS we were given an introduction to Korean mores. Our pastoral counsellor talked from his own personal experience. Like most of the early missionaries he was colonial in his mindset, which meant that whereas he had no great affection for the Japanese, he thought they were a necessary evil and an inevitable part of Korean economic development. Many foreigners were tarred with the ch’inil (pro-Japanese) brush because of attitudes like this. He also had negative attitudes about Korean abilities to do things the way he thought they should be done. He felt the screw was never given the last turn, equipment was inherently flawed, bits and pieces inevitably fell off. He didn’t know it, but he was also pointing out the flaws of Japanese merchandise in the first years of Japan’s industrial development. Learning is a long process. Korea was at stage one while Japan had moved on to stage two. Our counsellor had forgotten Japan’s stage one.

Along with a colonial mindset, the older missionaries had a flawed view of the Confucian legacy, which I believe came, in part at least, from the early French missionaries and Dallet’s book on the Korean church. Dallet never set foot in Korea. He compiled his book on the basis of letters sent home to Paris by the French missionaries. The book is amazing for the wealth of information it contains on Korean institutions and mores. The shorter English version should be compulsory reading for those who don’t read French but who aspire to live long-term in Korea. Dallet reached some wrong conclusions, inevitably so, I suppose, since he was relying on second-hand information. One of the areas where Dallet got it wrong was in dealing with the Confucian tradition. Korea in the 1800s had a large population of dispossessed yangban who for one reason or another could not get posts in the bureaucracy. To work was beneath their dignity, but they retained the right to complain and criticize. They were a constant drain on society and a thorn in the side of the developing church whose appeal, despite yangban beginnings, was egalitarian. The Catholic church tended to attract the more disadvantaged people in society: chung’in (a middle group between yangban and commoner), commoners, kisaeng, butchers, and so on. Dallet made the mistake of judging the great Confucian tradition by the attitudes and actions of a disgruntled, dispossessed minority. Gale and Allen shared this jaundiced view. Our counsellor had inherited Dallet’s view of Confucian culture, but he had a great sense of humour and a bottomless well of fun stories, and he regaled us with all his skills. The general advice he gave, and sage advice it proved to be, could be summarized in three propositions. Don’t try to be more Korean than the Koreans. Make friends rather than enemies because in Korea friends and enemies tend to be for life. And if you have some extra money, give it, don’t lend it. Money lending is destructive of human relations.

Trying to be more Korean than the Koreans was not a problem in the ’60s and ’70s. We lived distinctly Western lives, in Western space, speaking a lot of English. Our lifestyle was probably an inevitable condition for survival, physically and spiritually, but it was also the prime source of our language problems. We never learned the language of the kitchen. The Korean church was so welcoming and our sense of camaraderie was so strong that feelings of not-belonging were only experienced by a minority. However, I am aware now that the sense of being an outsider was a feature of the experience of some young expats in the ’80s and ’90s who didn’t have the luxury of a church support community. They desperately wanted to be accepted; not-belonging was an enormous source of pain. Today, too, young ex-pats tell me about feelings of alienation in alleyways, subway cars, stores, work places and rented accommodation. I am shocked by stories of abuse and resentment that are totally outside my experience.

Our counsellor’s injunction to make friends not enemies was so true it hurt. Many of my friends today have been friends for forty years. Solidarity in friendship is what makes the Korean experience so special.

The third proposition was not a problem for me. My total resources when I arrived in Seoul came to about $500, and by the end of the year, the experienced poker players had tucked it safely in their inside pockets. In all modesty I should add that I got it back with interest over the next ten years.

Purity of heart and generosity of spirit were the virtues that defined the Korean experience. Of course, it wasn’t all plain sailing. Yokshim (greed, desire) constantly tries to ensnare even the most innocent heart.

Evening on the Mountain: Song to the Moon in the Well

A mountain monk coveted the moon;

he drew water, a whole jar full;

but when he reached his temple, he discovered

that tilting the jar meant spilling the moon.

Yi Kyubo (1168–1241)

Most of us spilled a little moonlight every day, but despite the depredations of yokshim on foreigner and Korean alike, the overflowing heart, Korea’s gemstone since Shilla and Koryŏ, is my abiding memory of the early years, and as Sŏ Chŏngju notes, green celadon is its perfect symbol:

Good Times in Koryŏ

Tenth month of the third year

of the reign of Sukchong:

glorious day; not a prisoner on Koryŏ soil,

jails utterly empty.

Sunrays blossomed in that emptiness

like yellow chrysanthemums,

sunrays wherein Tan’gun’s smile was etched,

a smile that opened again the village of the gods.

Green celadon, coloured and fired

in the village of the gods.

Cloud-crane patterned, cloud-crane patterned,

Koryŏ pale green celadon.

Sŏ Chŏngju (1915–2000)

I discovered very early that Korea gets in the blood. If you are going to leave, you better get out before the five-year limit. Otherwise in your heart you will never be able to leave. I have known many who stayed too long, and when eventually they left, they were more or less unhappy in situations outside Korea. This was true of diplomats and business people as well as missionaries.

In the Blood

If you wonder why Korea is in the blood,

look to the heart, to friends that endure,

to loyalty green as pine and bamboo,

to flowers that bloom in the snow.