Korea Has No Culture?

The description of the Koreans by Korean-Chinese writer 金文学 (김문학) in his book 中国人, 日本人, 韩国人 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, 2002) was, I thought, a little too critical.

He wrote:

"韩国缺少那种保存并继承自己的土生土长, 看上去并不起眼的传统文化的精神. 如果时代变了的话, 前代的文明就会随之彻底破灭. 正是由于这个理由, 韩国才缺少了逐步累积自己文化的积蓄思想. 所以, 尽管韩国对5000多年文化引以为豪, 但是细究起来, 就会发现文化没有什么值得大写特写的实际内容.

"Korea lacks the spirit of maintaining and perpetuating its home-grown and the seemingly unimportant aspects of its traditional culture. When times have changed, the previous generation of civilization will have been thoroughly destroyed.

"It is precisely because of this that Korea lacks the thinking of gradually accumulating its culture. Hence, even though the Koreans are proud of their 5,000 years of culture, but if you look at it carefully, you will discover that there is nothing worthy in the culture."

环游世界也找不到象韩国这样传统文化贫乏的国家, 韩国人能够堂堂正正地拿出来并受到世界认可的传统文化也是少之又少, 只不过是在虚张声势罢了... 韩国如果象日本那样重视累积自己的传统文化, 而不是一味地破坏的话, 韩国传统文化的底蕴也不会如此的瘠薄."

"Even if you go round the world, you will not find another county that is so lacking in its traditional culture. The type of traditional culture that Koreans can formally present to the world that is worthy of recognition is few and far between, and would merely be making an empty show of its strength.

"If Korea had, like Japan, emphasized the importance of accumulating its traditional culture, and does not consistently destroy its culture, then the foundation of its traditional culture would not have been so weak."