A few days ago, Kim Dae-jung came to mind, and I decided to watch a few videos of his old speeches on YouTube. One of the most impressive was a speech in Daegu during the 1987 presidential campaign in which he challenged the sharply hostile crowd to imagine a country without regional conflict. Always articulate, he argued the point passionately and managed to finish the speech without being driven off the podium.

In the 1980s, regional conflict divided Korea more than anything else. The conflict was sharpest between the southeast region of Gyeongsang centering on Daegu and the southwest region of Jeolla centering on Gwangju. Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan, the two dictators who ruled Korea from 1961 to 1988, were both from Gyeongsang and they favored the area in their economic development policies. This resulted in a growing gap between the two regions, with Jeolla feeling left behind. The Gwangju Uprising in 1980 against Chun’s attempts to consolidate power reflected the deep frustration of the region.

Times change and regional conflict no longer divides Korea as before. The major conflict in Korea now is generational. This is unique among major industrial democracies because the most common source of division is economic, racial, or regional conflict.

But what is a generation? In understanding generational conflict, the concept of a “social generation” is critical. Wikipedia defines a social generation as “cohorts of people who were born in the same date range and share similar cultural experiences.” The important point here is shared similar cultural experiences. Cultural experiences during a person’s formative years create a worldview that changes little after the mid-20s. To understand the worldview of a generation, we need to look at the cultural experiences they shared in their youth.

In Korea, I see four main social generations: Seniors, Boomers, 486ers, and the New Generation. Seniors were born before the Korean War and represent that last generation to know Japanese colonial rule. The influential political event of this generation was the April 19th Revolution in 1961 that overthrew President Syngman Rhee. They were middle-aged when the economic boom gathered steam in the 1970s.

The Boomers were born in the 10 years that followed the Korean War. They grew up under Park Chung-hee’s dictatorial rule and came of age during the harsh Yushin system of the 1970s. Except for a small number of student protestors, they remained fearful of politics. This large generation is now beginning to retire and is worried about how to fund retirement.

The 486ers takes its name from the 1990s 486 computer processor and refers to people who were born in the 1960s, went to university in the 1980s and are in their 40s. People born in the early 1970s should be included in this generation. This is the first generation not to know grinding poverty and the first to attend university in large numbers. The defining political event of this generation was the Gwangju Uprising and the protracted pro-democracy movement of the 1980s.

The New Generation consists of people born in the late 1970s and 1980s. As the first Korean generation to grow up in a prosperous democracy, they value individualism. It is also the first generation that used computers and the Internet at a young age. The defining political event was the election of Roh Moo-hyun as president in 2002.

The current generational conflict comes from the different worldviews of the Seniors, the Boomers, and to some extent the 486ers, on the one hand, and the New Generation on the other. The Seniors and Boomers remain rooted in Confucian hierarchical and collectivist values, whereas the New Generation emphasizes individualistic values. 486ers understand the individualist values of the New Generation, but grew up in authoritarian times so their essential worldview has more in common with Seniors and Boomers.

The generational conflict in Korea is so sharp because the division comes from opposing worldviews: hierarchical collectivism versus egalitarian individualism. This explains the conflicts on the subway between older people who demand seats and younger people who refuse to get up. It explains the resentment that older people feel when their children want to go their own way. It explains why younger employees try to get out of workplace drinking sessions.

The New Generation’s break from the others was possible, however, because the older generations created the conditions through economic and political development for egalitarian individualism to take hold. Like regional conflict, the current generational conflict will weaken as the New Generation ages. Until worldviews change, future generational conflict will most likely be less sharp.

By Robert J. Fouser

Robert J. Fouser, a former associate professor of Korean language education at Seoul National University, writes on Korea from Ann Arbor, Michigan. ― Ed.