Crossing the Line, Drawing the Line, by Han Min

South Korea and Japan are often described in Korean as countries at once near and far. They are close on a map, and some of their customs look familiar across the water. The distance can feel greater in an ordinary encounter.

Han Min, a cultural psychologist, uses that uneasy familiarity as a starting point. His book compares practices that have taken different forms in the two countries.

Looking at cultural differences in Korea and Japan

Some of the observations will be familiar to anyone who has spent time in Japan or followed its popular culture from Korea.

What Han brings is the perspective of a cultural psychologist who wants to explain why those differences feel significant.

Crossing the line and drawing the line

The Korean title, which describes Koreans as crossing lines and Japanese people as drawing them, captures an impression the reviewer recognized immediately.

Han uses the contrast to ask how people in both places think about closeness, obligation, and personal boundaries. It is the framework for his comparison.

The chapter titles give an especially direct sense of the approach. The outline below shows the range of examples and the character of Han’s comparisons.

Contents

• Part 1. Where Korean and Japanese culture differ
  • Korean mukbang and Japanese adult video
  • Korea’s tough older sisters and Japan’s cute young heroines
  • Online games in Korea and console games in Japan
  • Singing along in Korea and listening in Japan
  • Korean melodrama and Japanese isekai anime
  • Swearing and politeness
  • Trust in people and trust in systems
  • The roots of anti-Japanese and anti-Korean sentiment
  • National pride in Korea and Japan
  • Different approaches to setting rules for children
• Part 2. How distinctive habits take shape
  • Expressive Korean masks and restrained Japanese masks
  • The self as subject and the self as object
  • Korean jeong and Japanese amae
  • Crossing boundaries and drawing them
  • Gapjil, or abuse of status, and ijime, or bullying
  • Narcissistic and avoidant tendencies in Han’s comparison
  • Identification and fantasy
  • Emotion and reason
  • Hwabyeong and fear of interpersonal situations
  • Retreating to the mountains and withdrawing into one’s room
• Part 3. What comes into view when we look at culture closely
  • Korean ghosts with grievances and Japanese spirits bound to places
  • Best of three in ssireum and a single bout in sumo
  • The outlaw as hero and strength as a heroic virtue
  • Teachers who invite students to surpass or emulate them
  • Maitreya in Korea and Jizō in Japan
  • “Gwaenchanayo?” and “Daijōbu?”
  • Korean embarrassment and Japanese haji
  • Anger and aversion
  • Korean eoullim and Japanese wa
  • The father figure in Korean and Japanese stories
  • What it means to say “alda” or “wakaru”
• Part 4. A closer look at the two societies
  • Where did the Korean Wave come from?
  • Why do people dance on Korean express buses?
  • What is han?
  • Why did the bear and tiger want to become human?
  • People who make a point of being offended
  • The art of the Korean wisecrack
  • Where did the slang “jjijeotda,” or “you crushed it,” come from?
  • Why say “I’m home” when the house is empty?
  • What does a “wall” mean in Japan?
  • Why are there so many transformation stories in Japan?
  • Why do anime heroes rely on signature moves?
  • Giants and nostalgia for empire
  • When people in Japan cross the line
  • Friendship in Japan, as seen through Pokémon

Japan’s adult entertainment industry

The book is an introduction to a wide range of cultural differences.

It touches on yobai, a historical custom of nocturnal visits, but gives relatively little space to the adult entertainment industry. Han has discussed the subject in more depth in appearances on YouTube.

The rise of subscription platforms such as OnlyFans makes it worth asking how adult content circulates, who earns money from it, and how those arrangements differ from older industries. I would be curious to see Han bring his expertise to those questions in a book.

For now those conversations are scattered across videos. A sustained treatment from a cultural psychologist would be a different kind of read.

Yuji Hosaka’s Joseon Scholars and Japanese Samurai

For a comparison with a historical focus, Yuji Hosaka writes about the roles and ideals of two influential groups: Joseon’s Confucian scholars and Japan’s samurai.

• Related reading Yuji Hosaka’s Joseon Scholars and Japanese Samurai

Book details

Crossing the Line, Drawing the Line

Author

Han Min

Published

January 20, 2022

ISBN13

9788960519084

View the book on YES24

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