SEOUL JOURNAL: "A New Lifestyle in South Korea: First Weekends, and Now Brunch," by Su Hyun Lee, New York Times, 7 November 2007, p. A4.ARTICLE: "Shy of Publicity but Not of Money: Little-Known Entrepreneurs Putting China Near Top of Billionaires' List," by David Barboza, New York Times, 7 November 2007, p. C1.
WEALTH REPORT: "The Revolution of Chairman Li: China's Richest Man Leads Others to Give, Bucking Nation's Taboos," by Kate Linebaugh and Jane Spencer, Wall Street Journal, 2 November 2007, p. W1.
South Korea, leader of the nouveau riche pack, is a source of fascination for China, struggling to figure out what it means to have wealth. That's why Korean fashion and style and soap operas are so popular in the Middle Kingdom: they show the way.
South Korea is light years ahead, seemingly, but looks are deceiving and gaps are closing. Still, cutting back to the five-day workweek is a big sign that Koreans are further along on the "getting it" scale.
Inside China, the wealthy are likewise a source of intense fascination for the masses, in a 1930s American sort of way ("My, that Thin Man is certainly swank! And his wife is to die for!"). That's only natural, just like it was for us back then.
Within the wealthy elite, there are the ones who really "get it," in that Warren Buffet, Bill Gates sort of way (just like Rockefeller and Carnegie [who basically invented PR in the service of personal makeover] did more than a century ago). These guys are showing the way on how to give back and their role is huge in filling the societal gaps that proliferate amidst China's stunning boom.
Go back and read about our robber baron philanthropists and our progressives and our public space advocates from the age of America's rapid rise: they all came to the conclusion that society's ills and desires must be adequately addressed to avoid social tension and--even--revolution. For example, that's basically why Central Park was created in New York. TR had similar rationales regarding national parks. People simply needed release and sanctuary from their increasingly industrialized lives.
And if the government couldn't provide, then rich philanthropists should.
Now, our rich philanthropists are more outward looking, trying to shrink the Gap in various laudable ways. But don't expect that from China any time soon. Plenty on their own plate back at home for the foreseeable future, because that's where China currently stands in its developmental trajectory.
Been there, done that, got the New York Public Library card.
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Comments (6)
As a sidelight, Korean dramas are also popular in Japan as well. Middle aged women were literally acting like teenagers when the male lead of an evening soap opera made a series of appearances in Japan.
Posted by Bob Kawaratani | December 6, 2007 7:50 AM
Another sign that this is resonating in China. The most popular TV series this year in China was "The Bund" a 42-part TV drama set in 1930's Shanghai, complete with decadent Chinese gansters competing for domination of the triads.
http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Shanghai_Bund
Posted by historyguy99![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/nav-commenters.gif)
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December 6, 2007 11:02 AM
I have read that the real reason we have welfare is: "they all came to the conclusion that society's ills and desires must be adequately addressed to avoid social tension and--even--revolution."
How I wonder, would the thought process go today by the, so called elite, when confronted with a destroyed urban sub-culture that features gangster lifestyles, disgraceful behavior towards women, a large percentage of adult felons, siblings with multiple fathers and mothers with no husbands?
We know now that welfare isn’t the answer, it’s the problem. So I wonder what would they conger up?
Posted by Wiredman | December 6, 2007 4:16 PM
I have become very interested in somebody doing serious economic analyses of philanthropy as an inevitable bi-product of capitalist evolution, certainly something that Marx completely missed. It is far more important than just PR. My favorite example is the American university system, the best in the world, which is essential to the future of both the American and the global economy, i.e., technological development, training of future business, political, and cultural leaders, creation of new intellectual property etc., and where would it be without the philanthropy of robber barons: Stanford, U of C, Carnegie Mellon, Vanderbilt, etc. (as well as big endowments for every other major university, public or private). Interesting to see the same developments in China, which confirms my theory that this is a necessary bi-product of capitalist evolution, namely, that in addition to PR considerations, very rich people ultimately run out of things to spend money on (contrary to Veblen), and to some degree, everybody (even the super-rich) has a basic desire to accomplish something of value during the course of their lives, so wealth accumulation inevitably leads to philanthropy, even without tax incentives.
Posted by stuart abrams | December 6, 2007 5:05 PM
"nouveau riche" is exactly the term I used to sum up the atmosphere here in SK the other day. Guys here will more readily spend $130 on a bottle of Jose Cuervo in a bar where everyone can see them buying it, rather than a fraction of that price in a liquor store... The Lambos and Ferraris and Porsches here in a city where traffic density rarely allows one to exceed 40mph... The middle-aged housewives with the fur coat and plastic surgery addictions...
This is the first I've heard of a 5-day workweek, though. Seems all of my Korean friends virtually live at their jobs.
Posted by Jeremy A | December 6, 2007 5:31 PM
Actually the Korean serial dramas are pretty popular here in the states, at least among my (former, sigh) Hawaiian neighbors & Vietnamese in-laws. You can buy DVDs dubbed in Vietnamese with English subtitles, so the whole family can watch. They are over-the-top melodramatic, but without the sex and sleaze of American daytime soaps. Reminds me a little of 50's TV, when Lucy & Desi slept in seperate beds.
Posted by TEJ | December 6, 2007 7:38 PM