The Tie That Binds

Confucian filial piety and its role in South Korea has changed over time without losing its significance.

- Hannah Stuart-Leach 

FOR A VISITOR TO SOUTH KOREA, THE CONCEPT OF FILIAL PIETY CAN BE CONFUSING. The first thing I found on the tourist board’s website was Gaesil, a place where you can have an “agricultural hands-on experience” complete with lessons in traditional Korean etiquette and tea ceremonies. The website states that this village is where many of the legends and folktales about filial piety – defined as the duty to respect, obey and care for one’s parents – originated. Tellingly, the site also states that “unlike other villages, the descendents in Gaesil Village have maintained their traditions”.

South Korea has changed rapidly since the era that has been recreated, predominantly for tourists, at Gaesil, from an agricultural society to a country where more than half the population lives in the capital city. Seoul, and other modern cities such as Busan, are high-energy, high-tech and increasingly westernised – far removed from this long-ago lifestyle.

“Filial piety is far less central in Korean society these days,” explains Emanuel Pastreich, an associate professor at Kyung Hee University who has written widely on the subject. “In part, South Korea has been overrun by a consumer culture of ‘me first’. In part, because filial piety and Confucianism was so focused on men, it is seen as something that is backwards and discriminates against women.The failure to come up with a modern interpretation of filial piety has been a tremendous weakness for Korea.”

Filial piety, in fact, exists in many societies and was codified by Confucius and his followers in China and Korea, says Pastreich. “There are some specific characteristics of filial piety in Korea, but they are rather subtle and hard to describe for those not so familiar with the tradition... Koreans tended to be more strict in their interpretation.”