Why didn't South Korea and North Korea appear among the four East Asian countries of China, Japan, Korea and North Korea?

Author: Wu Ren

Link:/question/2349752/answer/19373353

Source: Zhihu

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1. The definition of "literary master" is rather vague. I think the landlord's question can be changed to: Why are Korean writers less well-known in China? How much position do Korean writers occupy in world literature?

If you ask this question, I think you can answer the first question like this: In China, Korean writers are rarely introduced and hyped.

as for question 2: I'm just a little ignorant. I really don't know the status of Korean writers in the world, especially in Europe, America and Japan. . Looking forward to knowing your friend's answer.

2. From a historical point of view, the modern history of South Korea (North Korea) is a history of destruction, which is much more tragic than that of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. Historical factors and language development have limited the further development of Korean literature.

First of all, because literature needs "hype" objectively, and South Korea's status in the world has not been high, it is difficult to make its own voice and attract the attention of Japan, China, Russia, Europe and America.

Secondly, the language used in Korea (North Korea) did not mature until after World War II. The vacillation of language problems (Chinese characters, Japanese and English, etc.) hinders the writer's ability to express himself.

Third, as far as the writer training mechanism is concerned, the basic education in modern South Korea (North Korea) is very poor, and the literacy ability is very low. However, Confucian elites are mainly busy with the movement to save the nation, either participating in politics or dying in the war, and their main energy is also spent desperately learning from China, the West and Soviet Russia. It is too late to take diplomacy, so they have no energy to write novels, and it is estimated that they don't write much prose.

Fourth, South Korea (North Korea) has been closed to the outside world for a long time in the past 5 years, and Confucian dogmatism is serious, and its cultural renewal ability is not strong, which stifles the vitality of literature. This is just like the wg in China and the Kanggan period in the Qing Dynasty. There were many literary prisons, and basically no great literary works and writers were born during this period. At the same time, South Korea is not as lucky as the Republic of China, because the Republic of China has the energy to engage in the new culture movement. South Korea was annexed by Japan in modern times, and its own culture was almost extinct, followed by the Korean War.

Therefore, after political unification, economic take-off, language standardization and political enlightenment, literature achieved the Big Bang and cultivated the soil for great writers.

3. I once asked a Korean friend a question. Why are there so many books on Japanese literature and so few books on Korean literature in the library in China? Is Korean literature not up to standard?

Korean friends explain this: Japanese intellectuals have always been relatively independent, open and exist in groups without interruption, and they have been well passed down. However, due to historical reasons, South Korea has been busy with politics and economy, and has been closed to the outside world for a long time in culture, so Korean writers have been unable to stand up.

What my Korean friend said is reasonable, but I think this answer is not sufficient. I think the literary explosion has already appeared in South Korea, mainly due to the miracle of the Han River, the political democratization movement and the Korean popularization movement, which started in the 198s. Only in this era of globalization, informationization and fragmentation, literature itself has declined, and it is hard to say that there is any more "literary master" recognition. Just like the contemporary debate about "the master of Chinese studies" in China, since the end of the Cold War, the value recognition of "literary masters" around the world has itself collapsed, that is, there can be no classical formulation of literary masters in the 17th and 18th centuries.

But, from another angle, don't you notice that Korean pop culture is particularly developed now? Especially in movies, the plot is really awesome. Aren't these screenwriters writers? On Douban, there is a saying that Korean movies exploded. I think it is a trend. It can also be said that the writers of contemporary Korean movies are not inferior to those of Japan and the United States. These screenwriters must be literary figures. However, it is true that as a backward country in literature, the popularity of Korean literature is still not high. In the era when the market has solidified, I believe that you will be able to find Korean literary works that you can't put down, and identify whose works have the magic that drives you crazy.