Why South Koreans are killing themselves in droves
Suicide represents the nation's
fourth-leading cause of death. Cultural mores offer an explanation why
SEOUL,
South Korea —
The headlines are regular and morbid: a shamed celebrity or politician
takes her own life, a student leaps off a bridge after being rejected
from a first-class university, and an ailing grandfather commits suicide
to relieve the financial burden on the family.
South Koreans are
under enormous pressure to succeed at work, school and in relationships,
and to care for their families, fueling an abysmal suicide rate that is
the highest in the OECD group of developed countries. About 40 Koreans
commit suicide every day, making it the nation’s
fourth-highest cause of death in 2012.
The
relentlessness of these tragedies may be numbing, but the nation was
shocked last week when a 29-year-old reality show contestant, in a
bathroom at the guesthouse where filming was taking place, hanged
herself by a hairdryer cord.
The woman, identified only by her
family name Chun (a common privacy practice here, even for some people
on television) left a suicide note proclaiming her life was “full of
drama” and that she no longer wanted to live. The tragedy unleashed an
onslaught of criticism against the dating show,
The Mate.
Critics
proclaimed the show put its participants under emotional duress,
forcing them through rigorous physical challenges to find a boyfriend or
girlfriend. When contestants were rejected by the date of their choice,
they were
forced to eat outside, unable to mingle with the hip, young crowd of romantics.
Chun
worried that the directors were planning to portray her on television
as a tragic and forlorn outcast, according to her friends later
interviewed by Korean media.
The television network, SBS, has
since apologized and abruptly cancelled the show, but it has not
accepted responsibility for the incident.
It may sound awful, but
this is merely the latest of two high-profile suicides in recent weeks.
On Feb. 26, a struggling 60-year-old widow, apparently in agreement with
her two daughters, sealed the windows of her home and burned a charcoal
briquette in their house,
killing the entire family to permanently end their poverty.
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Police
found an envelope with about $650 in cash, along with a note for the
landlord: “To landlord, We are so sorry. This is the last monthly rent
and utility payment to you.”
Korea,
Japan, and the
Chinese countryside
are known for their high suicide rates. Young people in particular can
feel helpless against what society demands of them, failing to live up
to the expectations that they land the perfect job or meet a mate. Older
people can end their lives for more altruistic reasons, attempting to
relieve the burden of their presence on a family of struggling
care-takers.
But in South Korea, it wasn’t until the past two
decades — when the country joined the ranks of developed nations — that
suicide more than tripled. (The rate has tapered off slightly in the
past two years.)
South Korea has developed at lightning speed. The
resulting economic and social shifts have fostered a confusing and
high-pressure “cultural ambivalence” among its citizens, in extreme
cases leading to suicide, said Ben BC Park, a sociologist at
Pennsylvania State University at Brandywine.
In other words, it’s a
matter of old versus new. Younger South Koreans in particular are
caught between a modern, individualistic economy that demands intense
competition in school and the workplace, and the olden Confucian
expectations of reciprocity and caring for the family, he said.
“People
are receiving conflicting messages,” he said. “The family traditionally
served the role of promoting the sense of identity and effective
welfare. But policymakers still haven’t designed enough policy
interventions for individuals, preferring to pass the burden to the
nuclear family.”
Impoverished and suffering Koreans can “fall
through the cracks” of the welfare system and take their own lives, he
said. Others commit suicide when they’ve failed crucial university
entrance exams or get laid off, while far fewer kill themselves in
public as a form of political protest, he added.
South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye has pledged an expansion of the welfare state, attempting to sew up a widening wealth gap.
In the OECD, South Korea ranks among the highest for divorce, alcohol consumption, and household debt.
And
while the country has a sophisticated national health insurance
program, it falls behind in other areas, relying on a low minimum wage
of $4.57 per hour, keeping its exports competitive often at the expense
of its poorest citizens. Just over a year into office, critics accuse
the president of backing away from the bulk of her welfare promises.
Other
government bodies, though, have stepped up in recent years, embracing
unconventional schemes meant to make their citizens happier. The Seoul
municipal government, for one, launched a campaign in 2012 to rebrand
the city’s eerie Mapo Bridge, known to residents as the “Bridge of
Death,” where dozens of people leap into the Han River each year.
The
Samsung-sponsored project, ironically called the “Bridge of Life,”
installed motion-sensor lights for night-time pedestrians, shining over
messages scrawled into the bridge rails. “Let’s walk together,” and “I
love you,” the inscriptions read. City authorities have since expanded
the campaign to another bridge.
The Bridge of Life project has
attracted controversy, with the number of recorded suicide attempts
quadrupling since it began. Experts say the redesign had the unintended
consequence of strengthening the edifice’s association with death.
Lauren
Suk, a spokeswoman for the Seoul city government, disputed the
criticism, pointing out that the number of actual, successful suicides
was nearly halved to 8 last year, from 15 in 2012.
She added that
the rise in the number of attempted suicides owes to a change in the
counting process, and has nothing to do with the Bridge of Life
renovations.
In the past, authorities relied mainly on witness
reports for their tally, but now they can keep watch through cameras and
through cooperation with a suicide hotline called LifeLine Korea, the
city government said in a written statement.
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