Koreans are an exceptionally nostalgic people. Instead of soaring into the future, Korean people often tend to indulge in the past, forever reminiscing about the “good old days.” As a matter of fact, the central theme of numerous Korean folksongs, pop songs and poems is almost always nostalgia, intensely missing one’s hometown, lover or friends who now only exist in memories. For example, “Gagopa (I Want to Go Home),” an all time favorite among Koreans, is filled with lyrics that evoke sweet memories and sorrow. 

Lee Eun-sang wrote, “On the southern seashore is my hometown/ I still dream of the breaking blue waves/ How can I forget the placid sea of my hometown?/ Will the seagulls be still hovering?/ Ah, how much I want to go home!/ I miss my childhood friends.” Indeed, Koreans are a past-oriented people, immensely fond of words such as “reminiscence,” “longing” and “yearning.”

Koreans seem to have nostalgia for even those who ruled the nation with iron fists or incorrect policies in the past. With prices skyrocketing these days while salaries remain the same, some people say that they miss ex-President Park Chung-hee. They remark, “When Park was president, we were better off.” Other people who oppose the Lee administration say that they miss ex-President Roh Moo-hyun who they believe cared about the lower classes. Due to the people’s nostalgia, we now have presidential candidates who are called “Little Park Chung-hee” and “Little Roh Moo-hyun.” Instead of trying to find a new, refreshing political leader who has a frontier spirit and a vision for the future, we hopelessly cling to the past once again, yearning for two ex-presidents with mixed legacies; Park was a military dictator who ended up leading the nation in the right direction, and Roh, on the contrary, had good intentions but led the nation in the wrong direction.

The problem is that unless we are free from the shackles of the past, we cannot have a bright future. “Little Park” and “Little Roh” can never become a better or more innovative politician than the original Park and Roh no matter how hard they may try, because it is their destiny to emulate their predecessors. Indeed, what kind of future will we have if “Little Park” or “Little Roh” becomes our president? The future of Korea will be nothing but a lesser imitation of past administrations. One of the reasons American universities do not hire their own graduates is that fresh Ph.D.s can hardly excel beyond their mentors if they remain under the mentors’ giant shadows. And yet, Koreans seem to favor inbreeding and imitations, constantly going back to the past instead of moving forward.

Another strange phenomenon that reflects Koreans’ nostalgia for the past is the “return of the emigrants.” It is well known that many Korean Americans permanently return to Korea as they grow older. Perhaps they find America a dreary, bleak place for old people despite excellent welfare benefits. The more compelling reason, however, is their strong nostalgia for the past. “All these years I have suffered from nostalgia for my homeland,” they say. “Now I’ve come back to bury my bones here.” For first-generation emigrants, therefore, Korea is always the home country and America always the host country, no matter how long they have lived in the United States. For all the Koreans who were born and raised on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is the land to which they return again and again. It is true that when Koreans depart from Incheon airport, they leave their hearts in Korea.

Interestingly, Koreans are often nostalgic not for the immediate past, but for the distant past. Perhaps that is why Koreans seem to be tightly attached to their high schools and colleges, and not to their graduate schools. Unlike America, therefore, where the most recent achievement is important, and thus a person is known to be a “Harvard Ph.D.” or a “Princeton Ph.D.,” in Korea a person is known by his high school and undergraduate college, even though, for example, he or she is an SNU Ph.D.

The Roh administration established the Past History Reinvestigation Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (the English title was simply the Truth and Reconciliation Commission). It would have been much better if we had established the Future of Korea Commission at that time, instead of retreating into the labyrinth of the past. Yet, we still hopelessly cling to the past. During the right-wing Park administration, for example, people whose family members and relatives had gone to North Korea or collaborated with North Korean troops during the Korean War were persecuted. During the left-wing Roh administration, people whose family members had been pro-Japanese were persecuted. But as Winston Churchill once said, “If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we will lose the future.”

It is imperative that Koreans sever the cord connected to the past and soar into the future freely. Too much nostalgia for the past can be poison or a disease. It is not the past, but the present and future that are important.

By Kim Seong-kon

Kim Seong-kon is a professor of English at Seoul National University and president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. ― Ed.