Many Koreans despise Southeast Asians, thinking that Southeast Asian culture is not as advanced as South Korea and China

is in the Korean music scene, there are some Southeast Asians who can make a breakthrough in Korea with their team, and even reach the top of the Korean pop music industry. But from the perspective of Korean society, most Koreans hold a contemptuous attitude towards Southeast Asians.

This seems easy to explain. After all, the economic development of Southeast Asian countries is not as good as South Korea. South Korea is a first-world country, highly prosperous and highly developed, while Southeast Asian countries are much poorer. , The rate of higher education is very high. Compared with Koreans, Southeast Asians generally have a low level of education. In the mindset of Koreans, the value of a country is measured from the perspective of economic development, and the value of a person is measured by material wealth and educational certificates. Add this view to the above facts, and you will understand why Koreans despise Southeast Asians.

But this is far from the whole answer. Based on my observations of Korean society and discussions with Koreans, I found that many Koreans despise Southeast Asians, not only because of the economic gap, but also because the Koreans believe that Southeast Asian culture is inferior to Korea and China. advanced.

Actually, this mentality is close to the worldview prevailing in modern Chinese. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese still held the mentality of "Going to Heaven". Think that the entire world is culturally lagging behind China. At that time, this mentality was very popular among the Chinese elite. It was not until the final demise of the Qing Dynasty that it initially ended, and suffered several blows in the early 20th century, so it is not so popular among the Chinese today.

Why do you say that modern Koreans and modern Chinese have similar mentalities? This must first talk about Goguryeo in ancient China. Although Goguryeo is a dynasty objectively belonging to China, it is true that most Koreans believe that Goguryeo is part of Korean history. In fact, not only Koreans think so, but many foreigners also think so. This is reflected in Wikipedia. Koreans believe that Goguryeo is a supreme country like China, and has adopted its own central system for neighboring countries. This period of Goguryeo history has allowed many Koreans to enhance their sense of national superiority.

Therefore, Koreans have always encouraged Confucian ideals and dogma, and voluntarily entered this system. Even in the Ming Dynasty of China, they called China "Great China" and themselves "Little China". However, modern Koreans regard ancient Korea as a country equivalent to China, and they are all "Chinese" rather than "barbarian". This paragraph is not my guess, but I have checked a lot of narratives about Korean history on Wikipedia. In the Korean history that is mainly edited by Koreans, they do indeed reflect this idea.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a large number of Southeast Asian countries were China's tributary countries, including Vietnam, Thailand and other countries. Needless to say, Vietnam uses Chinese as its official language and adopts Chinese culture, including administrative system, architecture, philosophy, religion, literature, and even general cultural views. Thailand was considered by Chinese scholars in the 19th century to be China's most powerful and loyal country in Southeast Asia. While countries like Myanmar do not use Chinese written language and consider themselves equal to China, they also consider Myanmar to be the "brother" and China to be the "brother."

The relationship between Southeast Asian countries and China has made many modern Koreans believe that Southeast Asian countries have absorbed and adopted a lot of Chinese culture, so they are culturally close to East Asia. But it still lags far behind East Asian culture. And Korean culture goes hand in hand with Chinese culture, which is older and superior than other cultures. So obviously, Southeast Asian culture is only "similar" to Korean culture, but not as advanced as Korean culture. The situation has become more complicated. Koreans think that they have a "central culture" and look down on Southeast Asians who have a "tributary culture". Coupled with the fact that people are naturally "dislike" people of different looks, races, and languages, this has caused many Koreans to despise Southeast Asians. This mentality is especially prevalent among older Koreans.

In fact, it is precisely because of the abnormal interpretation of Confucianism by Koreans that the internal hierarchy of Korean society is severe, and there is also a certain racial hierarchy in how Koreans view foreigners. Southeast Asians who emigrate to South Korea and engage in low-end jobs there are often the bottom-most people in their home country, especially when they are dark-skinned, they will be classified as the bottom of the hierarchy by Koreans.

Koreans often use the word "lazy" to evaluate Southeast Asians, whether they are Vietnamese, Filipino, Indonesian or Thai. Because before the 1970s, South Korea’s economic level was comparable to those of these countries, but now it is far from South Korea, so Koreans will ask why people in these countries can’t do this and become like Koreans. , The Chinese are as hardworking.

Koreans believe that they have achieved the goal of becoming a developed country from almost nothing in just 40 years. As early as the 1950s, South Korea was even poorer than Vietnam, but now South Korea is seven times richer than Vietnam. However, Southeast Asians did not draw inspiration from the Koreans for economic development, but continued to be "consistent laziness."

The relationship between South Korea and Southeast Asian countries is also reflected in the issue of Vietnamese wives of rural farmers in South Korea. Korean farmers, many of them have reached middle age, and have been trying to find a wife for a long time, because Korean women usually don't want to marry them. The solution to this problem is that thousands of South Korean farmers have married Vietnamese brides, who are often much younger than them. These Vietnamese women found that when they were in trouble, the Korean public had little support or sympathy for them.

A Korean friend said to me, “Think about it. A few decades ago, Korean women went to Japan or the United States. They were very poor. Before they set foot on a foreign land, they didn’t even know who their husbands were. They didn’t. They speak English or Japanese, so they can’t go out of the house often. Their American or Japanese husbands complain that they don’t have a job and can’t cook.

The current situation in Korea is the same as before in Japan and the United States. Women from Southeast Asia come to Korea, yes In order to live a better life, rather than knowing who they are going to marry. They are not married out of love, so they are not worthy of sympathy."

Koreans are derived from the "cultural advancement" and despise Southeast Asians. People regret. But this is due to the character of the Koreans. They tend to maintain and value their ethnic group and appear very conservative. In fact, a race or a country can only go further with an open and tolerant attitude, but many Koreans have obviously failed to achieve this.