Declaration of Conscience

Apparently the Korean term yangsim sonon, or "declaration of conscience" was popularized by famous dissident poet Kim Chiha (pictured) who issued a statement from jail in 1975 using the term.

In the letter, he explained how his conscience compelled him to challenge the legitimacy of Park Chung Hee's authoritarian rule. He later confessed that the letter was not written by him but by his lawyer friend, the late Cho Yong-nae.

Since then, the term came to mean a voluntary action by an individual – dictated by his or her own conscience – of exposing wrongdoings in public offices or trusted positions, regardless of the negative consequences that he or she might subsequently suffer.

Yangsim sonon also came to be widely accepted as a heroic deed, wrote University of British Columbia professor Chang Yun-shik in an article titled The Dialectic of Personalism Unfolds in Korea (Insight into Korea, Herald Media 2007).

It soon led to confessions by congressmen that their parties had taken illegal donations, by government investigators that their investigative work into government officials' corrupt practices were blocked by the Blue House, and by high school teachers that they had donated monies to their schools as a conditional payment for being hired - the list goes on.

A "declaration of conscience" is reportedly difficult to make and involved personal risks. 23 out of 47 "declarers of conscience" reported in the past five years were indicted, put on trial and sent to jail. Some of them lost their jobs and retirement bonus, or were demoted. Indeed, "going public with the organization's secret is regarded by many as a form of turning against one's colleagues and forsaking loyalty to the organization."

A newspaper editorial even argued that "a true declaration of conscience may contribute to public interest. It may be a worthy action if one individual's conscience could save the society. But declaration of conscience is often an act of betrayal. One cannot declare his or her conscience without betraying the organization and certain personal ties. That betrayal may cause distrust in society. Damage resulting from a declaration of conscience may be greater than the benefits accruing to it. A world in which people cannot trust each other is much more dangerous than one without a declaration of conscience."

Whoa.

The editorial ended with a phrase from Confucius' Analects – "I hate those people who think of disclosing other people's secret as honesty."

Hmm, did Confucius or any of his disciples ever say that?

Even so, Chang noted that there is increasing support for declarations of conscience as "courageous acts indicting social injustice and irregularity." Conscience declarers have even formed a group called the Assembly of Declarers of Conscience to carry out the task of "disclosing and fighting against social irregularities."

Many civic groups were also involved by helping individuals punished for their courage to officially restore their honor, and to urge lawmakers to pass laws protecting such individuals.

Two religious organizations have encouraged declarations of conscience by establishing booths to make it easier for those who wish to declare their conscience.

Chang argued that "declaration of conscience as a commitment may go against traditional Confucian ethics. But it is gradually being accepted by the public as heroic."

I am not sure what the "traditional Confucian ethics" are in this case. While Confucianism does contain strong references to the various types of human relations, I am somewhat certain that the spirit and substance of Confucianism does not condone dishonesty and wrongdoing.

And besides, as Chang pointed out, there is one very fundamental issue in the declaration of conscience - the declarers of conscience are disclosing wrongdoings by others, and not their own individual wrongdoings. Certainly the former is much easier than the latter.

Ling Jihua and Wang Huning

Those of us who count the nightly nationwide China Central Television (CCTV) news bulletin at 7.00 pm as one of our favourite television programs will certainly notice that whether for events marking the recent 60th National Day celebrations, state visits, or important political events/functions, two names would invariably be mentioned in the same breath - Ling Jihua (令计划) and Wang Huning (王沪宁, pictured).

Both are secretariat members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), while Wang also concurrently holds the position of director of the Central Policy Research Center.

Jihua (计划) in Chinese means "plan" or "planned". So it is with great interest that I found out that Ling has four other siblings (three brothers and one sister) with equally interesting/unique names - 路线 (route or itinerary), 政策 (policy), 完成 (complete or completion), and 方针 (policy or guiding principle). (中共政局全破译, 极目 编著, 新文化图书有限公司, 2007)

As for Wang, a graduate from Shanghai Teacher's Training College and Fudan University's Department of International Relations, he had been described by former Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江泽民) as China's "youngest political scientist."

According to author Ji Mu, "(王)为江立下了汗马功劳. "三个代表" 就是王提出的, 成为中共章程和中国宪法的内容. 难能可贵的是, 胡锦涛不避前嫌, 重用王滬宁; 王滬宁只为政治理想, 助胡锦涛创立新理论. "和平崛起", "立党为公,执政为民", 东北振兴战略(温家宝首次提出构思),都是王沪宁向胡建议的."

("Wang has made outstanding contributions for Jiang for coming up with the concept of "The Three Represents" which was subsequently written into China's Constitution. What is especially commendable is that Hu Jintao had graciously taken on the services of and entrusted Wang with heavy responsibilities. To fulfil his vision as a political scientist, Wang helped Hu devise theories such as "peaceful ascendancy", "building the party for the public good, ruling to benefit the masses", and even the strategy to help revive China's northeastern region, a proposal which first raised by Wen Jiabao").

Ji Mu concluded that analysts should not take their eyes off Wang as the latter is likely to come up with new "theoretical thinking" that might further propel China's political reform.

Hallyu - Korean Wave

Hallyu, or Korean wave, has shown a remarkable sustaining power. The craze for Korean pop culture has lingered for over a decade, a somewhat unexpected development considering that Korea has long been on the receiving side of cultural influences, and is, according to Jung-sun Park, "economically advanced yet not necessarily topnotch."

In her article titled Korean Pop Culture Spreads Beyond Asia (Insight into Korea, Herald Media 2007), the California State University Dominguez Hill scholar traced the global, regional and national changes behind the emergence of hallyu.

The sprouting of a great number of Asian cable and satellite TV stations clearly provided a fertile ground for the development of hallyu. More TV stations meant a greater demand for programs that could be aired, "but many local industries could not produce enough or good enough programs to satisfy such explosive demands."

Consequently, the need to import programs from elsewhere, especially from the West and neighboring Asian countries, increased tremendously.

But at that time few Asian media industries could produce pop cultural products that had "transnational marketability", especially as compared to their Western (mostly American) counterparts. And even though the Hong Kong film industry had transnational appeal, it was experiencing a serious decline by the mid-1990s.

The popularity of hallyu was also due in part to "ideological and political concerns", given the fears of some Asian countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and China over the impact of "Western (mainly American) cultural invasion." In the case of China, even Japanese pop culture was somewhat shunned or at least kept at arm's length, due to "reservations about Japanese pop culture's penetration" of Chinese culture.

"Relatively free from political and historical burdens, Korean pop culture was considered to be a good alternative to the hegemonic and imperialist Western and Japanese pop culture in some countries. Moreover, it is sophisticated and interesting enough to appeal to Asian consumers with diverse preferences and tastes, and could provide the consumers, who are bored with the too-familiar and too-abundant Western and Japanese pop culture, with something fresh and different. In the beginning, the competitive price of Korean pop culture products was an additional attractive point."

Local conditions too, spurred the development of hallyu. These included the saturation of the Korean market, fierce local competition, and the influx of capital in certain media fields, such as the film industry, which prompted the Korean media industry to actively explore overseas markets.

As for fans of hallyu, Park suggested that many young Chinese viewers tend to be fascinated by the "sophisticated and glitzy urban lifestyles frequently portrayed in Korean dramas."

"They pay close attention to the fashion styles, urban sceneries and general lifestyles with the hope that someday such things could be a reality for them as well. For the young Chinese, who live in a rapidly developing and modernizing country, Korean dramas provide fantasies about economic prosperity and cool and luxurious modern life, and indirectly satisfy their desires."

"On the contrary, old Chinese viewers may become attracted to Korean dramas because of the portrayal of close and warm family/social relations, including young people's respect for and care of the elderly, and the lack of overt violence and sex."

And interestingly, just as there are fans of hallyu, there are also opponents of the Korean wave.

A Japanese comic book boldly titled “Hateful Hallyu” was published in 2005 which criticized not only hallyu itself but Korean culture and history as well.

"The fact that it initially ranked at the top of Japanese Amazon's reservation list illustrates that old Japanese biases and negative feelings towards Korea, which have been suppressed in the temporary craze for hallyu, are revealed again as a sort of defense mechanism … These shadows cast on hallyu also demonstrate that old histories, economic interests and current affairs are deeply embedded in the transnational flow of pop culture."