Getting married in Korea: Of gender, morality, and modernity (original) (raw)
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Pihon yŏsŏng -New Lifestyle and New Choices for Marriage and Unmarried Life in South Korea
Journal of East Asian Cultures 2021/1: 107–128, 2021
What decision do people face when getting married in a modern Asian society? At the heart of this question lie traditional attitudes toward marriage (kyŏrhont'aedo 결혼 태도 結婚態度) which are completely different from those held by Westerners. Therefore, when we discuss issues such as number of marriages, number of single households and low birth rates, it is important that these factors are understood within their own cultural framework. In East Asia, traditional ways of thinking and basic principles and ideologies are markedly different from the West. It is clearly true in the case of South Korea, where an originally patriarchal Confucian society is now facing the problem of extremely low birth rates in conjunction with the appearance of new ways of life. One of these is the main focus of this paper, namely pihon yŏsŏng, women who remain single by choice. As one of the "four dragons", South Korea is a proud and well-developed country with a strong presence in the world economy, exporting its goods and services to countries all over the world. However, by taking a closer look at Korean society and reading about its latest problems, we find that it is facing many of the problems experienced by other similarly developed European nations, namely economic imbalances caused by a rapidly aging society, gender inequality, a widening generation gap, youth unemployment, falling rates of marriage, rising divorce rates and an extremely low birth rate. Of course, we might find parallels between these nations regardless of their geographical locations, but we can also point to unique factors which originate from the cultural background of each country.
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The Twelfth International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS 12)
This small-scale study aims to trace the changes that have occurred in the Korean marriage culture in a time span of about one hundred years, more specifically, since the beginning of the 20 th century, when Korea opened its borders to foreigners, until the present, as well as to identify the causes that have led to these changes. The theoretical framework I employed is content analysis, whereas the content (data) subjected to analysis is represented by fragments excerpted from a number of novels authored by Korean and Korean-American writers, which are categorized according to their themes and coded in terms of non-verbal elements. The focus is on such nonverbal codes as rituals, exchange of artifacts, eligible age for marriage, as well as on the status roles created by marriage in the Korean culture. The primary data is supplemented with information coming from the Korean society trend survey, conducted by Statistics Korea. The findings of the analysis reveal a slow, though obvious change in the marriage traditions that can be related to Western influence, the spread of Christianity, as well as to the massive industrial, technological, and economic development of Korea.
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This paper examines how Korean gays and lesbians negotiate South Korea's heteronormative system anchored in the heterosexual and patriarchal family through marriages of convenience ("contract marriages"). Korean gays and lesbians pursue contract marriages in order to fulfill their filial duties to marry, while maintaining their gay and lesbian lifestyles. Yet, in pursuing contract marriages as individuals but in the service of conforming to the family, they both reinscribe and transform the heteronormative values of marriage, family, and children. They also challenge the Westernized model of the "out and proud" gay or lesbian.
Recent studies on immigration in East Asia are focusing on female marriage immigration, the migration of large numbers of women from developing countries to marry men from industrialized countries like South Korea. Typically lost in the discourse however, are international marriages involving foreign grooms, once the more dominant trend in South Korea before the mid-1990s. This article explains how trends in international marriages in South Korea reversed in the mid-1990s and how marriages involving the two genders differ in their drivers and characteristics. Both phenomenon are examined in the context of neo-classical economics and push-pull theories of migration, hypergamy, homogamy, demographic transition, changing social norms, and state policies. The large scale migration of foreign brides to South Korea, or marriage immigration, is driven by demographic factors, institutionalized support, and the rise of a commercial marriage industry. Marriages involving foreign men do not share the characteristics of marriage migration, its drivers are less clear, nor is it supported by the state and Korean society.
Political Economy of Cross-Border Marriage: Economic Development and Social Reproduction in Korea
Feminist Economics, 2012
This contribution situates the recent increase in cross-border marriages in Korea in the context of feminist debates on social reproduction. Drawing on surveys, policy documents, media responses, and interviews, the study explores how the phenomenon of cross-border marriage in Korea coincides with changing demographic trends and policies in the domains of the family, population, and welfare. Beginning as a solution to the “rural bachelor's marriage problem” – visible in the late 1980s – marriage between Korean men and women of foreign origin became increasingly common in the 2000s, in parallel with the emergence of national policy issues such as low fertility and a care deficit. The study suggests that current trends in cross-border marriage and policies on multicultural families reflect the need for changes in the organization of social reproduction that has resulted from the economic development that began in the 1960s and the political-economic restructuring since the 1990s.
Demography, 2020
Explanations for the substantial decline in rates of marriage in East Asian countries often emphasize the role of rapid educational expansion for women in reducing the desirability of marriages characterized by a strong gender-based division of labor. Focusing on South Korea, we consider a very different scenario in which changing educational composition of the marriage market reduces the demographic feasibility of such marriages. Analyses of 1% microsamples of the 1990 and 2010 Korean censuses show that changes in the availability of potential spouses accounted for part of the decline in marriage rates over a period of 20 years (1985–1989 to 2005–2009) for highly educated women and less-educated men. We also show that growth in international marriages played a role in preventing an even more dramatic decline in marriage among low-educated men. These findings support the general relevance of marriage market mismatches in gender-inegalitarian societies and highlight the declining fea...
International Marriage: A Case Study of Nepalese Brides in Korea
Inha Journal of Social Sciences
International marriage in Korea is thriving as more foreigners are getting married to Koreans. Being a homogenous country, Korean society faces a daunting task to integrate these newcomers. Apparently, poverty back home and the dream of dazzling foreign life floors their ways for international marriage. However, things change completely once these newly-wed wives land in Korea, and in no time with a few exceptions, several marriages break up. We conducted an in-depth interview of 10 Nepalese female married immigrants residing in various locations in Korea. We observed their motives behind the marriage in two folds: genuine (marrying to form a family and live here permanently) and fake (using marriage as a pass to enter Korea for other purposes, mainly economic). Upon examination, we encountered a dichotomy as the brides with fake marriage were found to be satisfied and enjoying while those with genuine intention were miserable. Further, we selected the samples with genuine intention or who married to form a family and live in Korea to examine various individual, cultural and environmental factors responsible for ending international marriage. Upon examination, compared to individual and cultural factors like finance, family, age etc., we found language and environmental factors such as inaccessibility to support facilities and the weak immigrant integration policies more responsible for disrupting these international marriages among Nepalese brides