South Korea is going through deep social, economic change

THE TENSION between traditional top-down economic and social decision-making and a more individualistic, bottom-up approach has been apparent in South Korea since it democratised more than three decades ago. In the past two months, however, two things have happened that have highlighted this tension.

On February 10th, in what feels now like a different era, the world looked on in amazement as “Parasite”, a rip-roaring, iconoclastic South Korean film, won the Oscar for best picture. It was the first non-English-language movie ever to capture that honour. The director, Bong Joon-ho, won best director, too. The success of “Parasite” is a sign of a flourishing arts scene in South Korea, and a potent symbol more broadly of the loosening of social and economic norms there. It is a brutal and darkly comic farce about class war. Daggers and dingy basements feature prominently. Asked after the ceremony how he was able to make such a film, Mr Bong replied, in English: “Because I’m a fucking weirdo.”

Yet even as Mr Bong, the weirdo who was until recently on a government blacklist, was being invited to the presidential palace to celebrate, the novel coronavirus was working its way through South Korea. Suddenly, the country’s impassioned debate about the clash between individual freedom and social obligation was put on hold. The...

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