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South Korea Family and Social Life in the Cities
Contemporary urban family and social life in South Korea at
the start of the 1990s exhibits a number of departures from
traditional family and kinship institutions. One example is the
tendency for complex kinship and family structures to weaken or
break down and be replaced by structurally simpler twogeneration , nuclear families. Another closely related trend is
the movement toward equality in family relations and the
resulting improvement in the status of women. Thirdly, there is a
movement away from lineage- and neighborhood-based social
relations toward functionally based relations. People in the
cities no longer work among their relatives or neighbors in the
fields or on fishing boats, but among unrelated people in
factories, shops and offices. Finally, there is an increasing
tendency for an individual's location and personal associations
to be transitory and temporary rather than permanent and
lifelong, although the importance of school ties is pivotal.
There is greater physical mobility as improved transportation
facilities, superhighways, and rapid express trains make it
possible to travel between cities in a few hours. Subsidiary
transportation networks have broken down barriers between onceisolated villages and the urban areas
(see Transportation and Telecommunications
, ch. 3). Mobility in human relations also is
becoming more apparent as people change their residences more
frequently, often because of employment, and an increasing
proportion of the urban population lives in large, impersonal
apartment complexes.
Matchmaking was a big business in Seoul and other cities in
contemporary society; coffee shops and lounges often were crowded
on weekends. In a change from traditional society, prospective
brides and grooms held scores of interviews, son pogi,
before deciding on the companion they would like to date-for-
marriage. Many of these young men and women changed their minds
after these dates and the process began again. Yonae, or
"love match" marriages occurred with increasing frequency.
Contrary to the Confucian ideal, the nuclear family
consisting of a husband, wife, and children is becoming
predominant in contemporary South Korea. It differs from the
traditional "branch family" or "little house" (chagunjip)
for two reasons: the conjugal relationship between husband and
wife tends to take precedence over the relationship between the
son and his parents, and the nuclear family unit is becoming
increasingly independent, both economically and psychologically,
of larger kinship groups. These developments have led to greater
equality among the family units established by the eldest and
younger sons. Whereas the isolated nuclear family was perceived
in the past as a sign of poverty and misfortune, the contemporary
nuclear family is often viewed as being a conscious choice made
by those who do not wish their privacy invaded by intrusive
relatives.
Economic relations between the generations of a single family
changed radically in the transition from traditional rural to
modern urban society. In the past, the male head of the
patrilineal family controlled all the property, usually in the
form of land, and was generally the sole provider of economic
support. With the development of modern industry and services,
however, each adult generation and nuclear family unit has become
more or less economically independent, although sons might depend
upon their parents or even their wife's parents for occasional
economic assistance--for example, in purchasing a house. Because
urban families usually live apart from their paternal in-laws,
even when the householder is the eldest son, the wife no longer
has to endure the domination of her mother-in-law and sister-in-
law. In many cases, the family is closer to the wife's parents
than to the husband's. The modern husband and wife often are
closer emotionally than in the old family system. They spend more
time together and even go out socially, a formerly unheard-of
practice. Yet the expectation still remains that elderly parents
will live with one of their children, preferably a son, rather
than on their own or in nursing homes. This expectation could
change in the last decade of the century, however, with the
expansion of health care and social welfare facilities.
Outside the nuclear family, blood relationships still are
important, particularly among close relatives, such as members of
the same tangnae, or mourning group. Relations with more
distant relatives, such as members of the same lineage, tend to
be weak, especially if the lineage has its roots in a distant
rural village, as most do. Ancestor rites are practiced in urban
homes, although for fewer generations than formerly: the majority
of urban dwellers seem to conduct rites only in honor of the
father and mother of the family head. As a result, there are many
fewer ancestors to venerate and far fewer occasions to hold the
household ceremonies. In some ways, however, increased
geographical mobility has helped to preserve family solidarity.
During New Year's, Hansik (Cold Food Day in mid-April), and
Ch'usok (the Autumn Harvest Festival in mid-September), the
airplanes, trains, and highways in the late 1980s were jammed
with people traveling to visit both living relatives and grave
sites in their ancestral communities.
Data as of June 1990
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