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Asya Pambouc | Université de La Rochelle | 2017-2018
‘갑질’(gapjil)
THE KOREAN BULLY CULTURE
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Introduction
To fully understand the concept of gapjil, looking at its terminology seems
like the right approach angle to start with. And what better way to study the
signification of a world than looking into a dictionary? Before starting my Master’s
degree, I had the pleasure to encounter and work with Talk To Me In Korean in
South Korea as a graphist intern; a company which publishes a variety of contents
on the web for people learning the Korean language; videos, pdf grammar lessons,
audio vocabulary lesson … and they also write textbooks. There I could discover their
Koran Slang Expressions dictionary which came handy in many occasions during my
stay in Seoul. It is while reading it that I could put a world on something I had
witnessed in Korean society but were unable to explain before: the Korean gapjil
culture. Here is how this concept is broadly explained in Talk To Me In Korean’s
dictionary: gabjil refers to a situation where two parties are not considered equal
and in which the party with the upper hand (gap) abuses its power or authority on
the other party (eul, “subordinate”). Those terms are for example used in housing
contracts where gap would be the landlord, and eul the one who has to follow gap’s
rules. As for jil, this particle added at the end of the word, brings a negative meaning
to the word. Here is an example of a situation that we could easily witness in Korean
society: if gap is an employer or a superior in the workplace and makes an employee
apologies for something he isn’t responsible for, that is gapjil. In an even more
common situation, in a store, if a customer makes an employee kneel down and
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apologize for small mistakes, that’s also considered gapjil. I have personally
encountered the last situation multiple times during my 6 months stay in South
Korea.
Recently in Korean society, the gapjil culture has begun to raise questions as
for its necessity and the violation of human rights that is can often lead to. It is,
indeed, only since the last few years that the subject has been really discussed.
Newspaper started to cover more and more issues on the question, raising public
awareness in the aftermath of Park Geun Hye’s corruption scandal. After defining
the origins of the Korean bully culture, this research paper will focus on trying to
answer the following question: Is gapjil able to disappear from South Korean society?
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The origins of gapjil
Numerous research led me to establish three different steps in Korean history
in which the gabjil culture has grown and evolved into what it is today.
The first step would be the Confucian roots of the Korean culture which seem
to have introduced the idea in Koreans’ mind that no one can be equal to one
another. One of the canonic texts of Confucianism, the Mengzi, tells us about the
five ryun, or the five basic duties one’s need to follow in a context of relation: 1) the
affection between a father and his son, 2) justice between the prince and his subject,
3) distinction between the husband and the wife, 4) the hierarchy depending on the
age, 5) fidelity between friends. This textual reference has been determining the
bases on which the Sinicized world constructs its relations with one another for the
last two thousand years. (Joineau, 2014) Looking at the world through these
principles means that one has to be able to identify his place in society and know
how to stick to it. Thus, in the Confucian ideology, world’s harmony depends on
one’s ability to not ignore their duties towards the people above him and vice versa;
it can be understood as an unwritten contract between the gap and the eul
mentioned earlier, respect and fidelity towards the gap will result to appreciation
and certain advantages that will reward the eul, an exchange in which everyone
should be a winner, a relationship of common interests. This ideology is reflected in
the Korean language too, and more particularly in the way people addresses to
others: Koreans basically never uses names, only honorific; an older sister will be
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called noona/noonim or unni, an older brother oppa or hyung, a superior will be
called by its function in the workplace such as director, manager, team leader etc.
The Korean language itself and the Confucian culture than come with it build walls
between people by addressing them by their age, or their position in the workplace.
People of lower rank in a company though can often be called by their names.
However, for Emanuel Pastreich, director of The Asia Institute in Seoul, gapjil
culture was born from radical competition encouraged in Korean society. "Korean
society is oddly even more dominated by social hierarchy today and in odd places.
We are looking at something profoundly different from Confucian hierarchy which
is based on ethical principles." Indeed, the Confucian traditions have been corrupted
and transformed throughout the years to the advantage use of political powers. It
seems to have started before the Japanese colonization in the pre-modern Joseon
Dynasty with landowners abusing and exploiting their tenant farmers. (Park, 2017)
An attitude that perpetuated during the colonization and was what seemed to be
one of the key factors of the Korean economic miracle.
Indeed, beneath the economic miracle lies many social shifts in South Korean
society. Park Chun Hee’s coup d’état on 1961 brought a military dictatorship which
promoted violence and corruption in order to coordinate the rapid economic
development of the country. This is what Oh will call the “credible threats” system
as opposed to the Western credible commitments system that promotes exchange
in alliances. For Oh, the birth of this mafia state and an economy relying on chaebol
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created a new business culture which is the third element of the Korean post-war
economic miracle. Indeed, the Korean economic miracle owes its success to three
main factors: 1) a mafia state that maintained a GDP growth alongside intensifying
class polarization; 2) chaebol groups that could not survive without political
protection extended to them by the mafia state; 3) a credible threat system, as
known as the gapjil culture, that could not maintain or organize human business
and social relations without resorting to credible threats (use of force by power-
holders to someone who does not participate in economic activities or carry out
contractual conditions). In other words, from the 1960s to the 1970s both the
government and big businesses agreed upon a new rule of using credible threats in
the form of brute to realize organizational goals. Between labor/suppliers and the
chaebol, credible threats worked in a pattern to induce labor/supplier commitment
to economic growth and sacrifice for the chaebol and punishment in the case of
failure. (Oh & Jun, 2016)
We could have thought that gabjil would have disappeared with the country’s
democratization but unfortunately it once again evolved to be within the reach of
everyone who holds himself to higher regards. In other words, gabjil can touch
anyone anywhere in South Korea today.
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Today’s use of gapjil and Korean people’s perspective
It is important to realize that, even though a certain form of gabjil also exists
in Western cultures, their usage compared to Korea is everything but similar. In
Europe those principles only apply to minorities like the military or to certain
segment of the elites but in Korea it is omnipresent. (Joineau, 2014) Moreover, the
form it takes in Korea tend to too often violate the Labor Law and the basic human
rights of the victims whose conditions were still considered absolutely normal until
very recently.
For the Korean psychiatrist Choi Myong-ki "People boss others around for
various reasons [in today’s Korean society]. Tyrannical leaders do so in order to
make sure they are in charge, so they expect their subordinates to recognize their
authority and follow their directions without resistance. If the bullies feel their
subordinates' reactions or recognition are insufficient, they take the offensive."
However, according to the psychiatrist bullies don't know they are being excessive.
(Kang, 2017) This has been recently depicted in a Korean TV series called “While
You Were Sleeping” broadcasted by one of the most famous private Korean
broadcasting stations, SBS. In one episode, a group of journalists and reporters are
having a meeting trying to decide which topic to choose for the following night’s 9
o’clock news. One of the journalist proposes to talk about a recent case involving a
university professor abusing his power (in particular his influence on grades) on his
students by making them drive his car and run his errands. The journalists and
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reporters around the table starts mocking the professor, calling him a bad guy and
qualifying his behavior as “outdated”. But suddenly, the manager oasks for the
younger member of the team to stand up, and, while giving her a company’s credit
card, ask to bring coffees for the whole table, without, of course, asking if it wasn’t
too much trouble. For Choi, "They do the same as they did in the past because their
demanding behavior was accepted then. But their attitude backfires and gets them
in trouble today because society has changed a lot. People they interact with are no
longer tolerant of bullies or of dysfunctional social hierarchy." (Kang, 2017)
Nowadays, foreign and local medias have been publicizing gabjil more than
it ever had. This turned the Korean power abuse into a huge cultural issue that
everyone wants to talk about. On the internet we can witness a boom in whistle
blowers posting compromising videos or pictures to denounce bullying managers or
chaebol heirs imposing the exertion of their “alphaness”. Those people have now
become subjects of mockery; those who, because, of their economic status, their
social level hold themselves to higher regards to whoever they are performing gapjil
on. Here is a non-suggestive list of recent events that will illustrate my point:
On the 23rd of March 2017, Kim Moo Sung, a South Korean political figure,
was seen in Gimpo airport (South Korea) throwing his suitcase to his assistant
without even taking a look at him. News channels and amateur videos went viral on
internet and soon reached foreign medias as well. The videos were distorted
multiple times by exchanging the roles of the assistant and Kim for example or by
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creating the impression that the assistant was throwing the suitcase back at Kim.
The most interesting part came after, when Kim got interviewed on the scene by
journalists. The deputy didn’t even understand people’s reaction and considered his
action as perfectly normal. The aftermath of this event was hopeful: internet users
had given Kim a nickname that is now daily used, gaejeossi, a mix between the word
dog, gae, and mister, ahjeossi. This new slang expression refers to these 40 to 60
years old men who thinks that no rules apply to them, that they are basically the
equal of God. (Vinogradoff, 2017)
A couple of years before, in 2014, the daughter of the CEO of Korean Air was
sentenced to jail after resorting to gabjil on on-board personnel, forcing the airplane
to land down, delaying the hundred other passengers on board. She was prosecuted
for violating aviation safety but her bullying was the topic that was the most pointed
out in the media. Everything started with a simple packet of nuts … This event got
her the nickname of the “nutlady” on news channels and internet.
Finally, in November 2017, a private hospital was under investigation for
having forced women nurses to execute sexy dances in front of their colleagues,
superiors and even patients during a private event hold by the hospital. The case
came to light thanks to an amateur video posted on internet by a whistle blower
working at the hospital. (Yoo, 2016)
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These cases were three of the most publicized events mocking the gapjil
culture in recent news, but many other events took place during the same period
and were almost as much mocked by the public opinion.
The relatable situations depicted in the media concerning gapjil, seems to be
the main factor for such overflowing interest over those kinds of scandals. Like
mentioned before, gapjil as we know it today can touch everyone in Korean society
and mocking those who looks like the perpetrators of our own misfortunes became
a growing source of satisfaction. A 2016 survey conducted on 865 employees of
several different companies shows us how far-reaching the bully culture inside the
workplace became. 89.1% replied they have been victims of gapjil at least once in
their career, and from these 89.1%, in 71% of the cases, the perpetrators were the
direct superiors. Furthermore, the most common form that gapjil seems to take is
moral violence (insults, arrogant actions toward employees) with 59% victims, work
overload with 53.6%, ignorance of one’s opinion in 39.7% of the cases and
discrimination with 33.6%. Unfortunately, like it’s the case with violence against
women, among the victims of gapjil, most of them never reported the perpetrators
because “it wouldn’t change anything” and also probably because it would above all
put them in difficult situation, or get them fired. (Vinogradoff, 2017)
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Political shifts against the Korean bully culture
There haven’t been much improvements in people’s situation towards gabjil,
but the topic begun to enter into political discussions, showing a certain interest of
the government on the matter.
In 2014, after the “nut” incident, a bill was presented to the National Assembly.
The said bill proposed to ban members of powerful business families from working
at their companies for at least five years if convicted of a crime. Unfortunately, it is
broadly known that chaebol heirs and high ranked executives can easily avoid jail
terms in today’s Korean society.
In October 2017, another bill against gapjil was presented to the National
Assembly by deputy Seo Young Kyo, a member of the Assembly's Legislation and
Judiciary Committee. The aim of the said bill was to establish a system to be able to
spot and punish soldiers who have recourse to gapjil on young Korean men doing
their obligatory military service. However, this law project his facing a backlash; Seo
Young Kyo, being a female deputy, is criticized for trying to interfere in “men’s
business” as the Korean military service only concerns men. Moreover, her bill is
said to be ignoring the other segments touched by this power abuse problem and
called “insufficient”.
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Conclusion
Even though the government’s involvement in the matter is still quite lacking,
it seems that the Korean internet culture, that refers to the exorbitant time Korean
people spend on the web, has played a great role in drawing attention of the public
about gapjil in recent times. Internet became a vehicle for the whistle blowers
around the country to denounce their everyday hardships or to show the conditions
of others around them. Young people using internet are indeed very different from
the older generations and doesn’t accept the power abuse culture anymore. Kim Jin-
sook, a Seoul based lawyer, indeed said that a generational change is one reason
behind Korean society's growing impatience with bullies or ignorant superrich
people who mistreat their workers. "The older generation didn't confront abusive
practices because they took them as part of life and something they had to endure
but for the younger people who were raised in relatively affluent days and educated
about equal treatment and human rights, the dysfunctional social practices are not
acceptable, so they confront them. In an era of individual media, social media users
are independent journalists and they make the most of internet technology to
spread the word and influence society to correct the wrongs.” (Kang, 2017)
In this perspective there seems to be hope for changes. Several years ago,
gapjil wasn’t even a subject of discussion yet, actually the word itself didn’t even
exist. Putting a word on a phenomenon that concerns every Korean citizen allowed
them to start talking about it and even discredit it. Young people don’t feel they
should be bound to blindly follow 2000 years old principles anymore and their
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denunciations on the web is attracting more and more public attention. During my
stay in Korea there was something I could hear often from the mouth of those young
tired people: “When all the elders will be gone we will finally live in peace.”
Unfortunately, that seems to be true, the country’s economy and government is
ruled by people with outdated principles who cannot communicate with the new
generations who haven’t been living long enough to have experienced the Korean
economic miracle and what lied beneath it.
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Works cited
Joineau, Benjamin. 2014. “La relation seonbae/hubae dans l’ordre social coréen”,
Culture Coréenne, n°89.
Kang, Hyun-kyung, “Koreans' patience with bullies running out”, The Korea Times
(online), 28/09/2017,
koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2017/09/113_237129.html
(30/09/2017)
Oh, Ingyu. 2017. “For credible threats to credible commitment? The changing face
of South Korean corruption”, The Changing Face of Corruption in the
Asia Pacific, Griffith University: Elsevier Ttd. “Elsevier Asian Studies
Series”.
Oh, Ingyu and Jun, Hannah. 2016. “Economic miracle: From post-war
reconstruction to post-crisis affluence”, Routledge Handbook of
Modern Korean History, edited by Michael J. Seth, New York:
Routledge.
Park, Jae Hyuk. “Will ‘gapjil’ culture vanish in Korea?”, The Korea Times (online),
02/08/2017,
koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2017/08/129_233958.html (accessed
14/11/2017)
Reuters, “'Nut rage' incident forces South Korea to consider laws against abuse of
power”, The Telegraph (online), 15/02/2015,
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/southkorea/11414022/Nut-
rage-incident-forces-South-Korea-to-consider-laws-against-abuse-of-
power.html (accessed 30/09/2017)
Talk To Me In Korean. 2015. Korean Slang Expressions, Long Tail Books, 164.
Vinogradoff, Luc. “Les ‘gaejeossi’, l’équivalent sud-coréen des beaufs qui se
croient tout permis”, Le Monde (online), 25/05/2017,
www.lemonde.fr/big-browser/article/2017/05/25/les-gaejeossi-l-
equivalent-sud-coreen-des-vieux-beaufs-qui-se-croient-tout-
permis_5133665_4832693.html, (accessed 14/11/2017)
Yoo, Soo Sun, “Hospital hit for forcing nurses to dance”, The Korea Times (online),
12/11/2017, koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2017/11/113_239118.html,
(accessed 14/11/2017)
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Other sources
Cover image : www.yongho.pe.kr/2017/02/blog-post_41.html (accessed 15/11/2017)
Janelli, Roger L. Yim Dawnhee. 1993. Making Capitalism: The Social and Cultural
Construction of a South Korean Conglomerate, Stanford (CA),
Stanford University Press, “Anthropology/Business”, 241.
