Ithaca; London: Cornell University Press, 2018. xiv, 183 pp. (Illustrations.) US$45.00, cloth. ISBN 978-1-5017-1073-5.
This work purports to show how the South Korean government developed Korea’s middle class, how that class became bifurcated in the 1970s, and declined after the financial crisis of 1997. Since “middle class” is a particularly vague term, Yang focusses on the group of professionals and managers that moved to Seoul’s newly developed Gangnam district. Her book reveals how this group of Koreans fared as the “East Asian Miracle” unfolded.
The introduction notes the middle class’s role in social and political change, the “contested concept” of such a class, and the importance of cultural norms and individual strategies for defining the concept. Yang also examines efforts of the Park Chung-hee government, which took power through a coup in 1961, to establish a middle class where there was none after the Korean War. Park evidently expected the new class to provide stability and legitimacy for his regime.
Yang’s “imagined middle class” (chapter 1) actually emerged after it became a much discussed public topic in the early 1960s. Also, it became the cornerstone of a “spiritual revolution,” which made hard work and limited consumption patriotic. Housewives were exhorted to be frugal, and, as strict import restrictions kept out consumer durables, there was little else to do but save. This suited a government whose five-year plans emphasized the establishment of heavy industries. Such industries needed both savings for investment, and the managerial and technical expertise of middle class husbands, the “salary men” employed by favored firms that eventually became Korea’s giant conglomerates (or chaebol) like Hyundai and Samsung.
Chapter 2, “Gangnam Style,” explores how the Gangnam district, south of the Han River from downtown Seoul, became a showcase for conspicuous consumption in the years 1978–1996. Gangnam, largely rural, was transformed to house Seoul’s population overflow and attract middle class residents. This was achieved by government subsidies and tax breaks for private developers, improved transportation, and incentives for elite schools to relocate there. Also, there were national lotteries where winners could make advance deposits on yet-to-be-built apartments.
Some lotteries were fixed, as chaebol construction firms profited greatly from land speculation, and speculators received inside information by bribing politicians. Also, many of Korea’s “frugal” housewives could game the system, buying and selling lottery tickets, moving frequently to ever larger apartments, and borrowing in others’ names to buy multiple tickets. Since prices rose more rapidly in Gangnam than elsewhere, families with more holdings became more wealthy, creating a split between middle class haves and have nots. The split, in turn, fostered distinctions in middle class identities. Yang finds a hierarchy where larger apartment owners are executives or professors, have high-end and/or multiple cars, and whose apartment complexes are protected by more experienced security guards. In short, residents were surrounded by others with similar lifestyles; this even extended to schools, where students sorted themselves according to apartment size.
In chapter 3, “Betrayed Dream,” the Asian financial crisis and subsequent IMF bailout in December 1997 triggered a decline in both the size of and identification with the middle class. IMF conditions forced many financial institutions to close, creating massive layoffs, which in turn, ended the practice of lifetime employment. Yang shows how middle-aged men, especially those who opened small businesses (fried chicken restaurants were a favourite), were among the hardest hit. Borrowing money to start their businesses, inexperience as entrepreneurs, and excessive competition meant that many failed. Other hard-hit groups were poverty stricken elders and young adults who could not find jobs.
While middle class haves had sufficient resources to weather the downturn, the have nots were plagued by unaffordable housing and rising education costs. Housing shortages, spurred by speculative buyers, increased rental costs for families that were forced to sell their apartments. Moreover, pressure from increasing competition to enter top-ranked schools pushed families to spend more on extracurricular tutoring and cram schools.
The current (2015) phase “Hell Korea,” or frustrated expectations, opens Yang’s brief conclusion. Korea’s middle class decline is not unique; she finds parallels in China and India. Though uncertainty and inequality will shape future politics, she cannot say whether democracy or reactionism will prevail.
My synopsis above cannot do justice to the breadth and depth of Yang’s “dialectical approach.” This approach incorporates interviews, including pairs chosen to reveal the career consequences of having family support or not having it. Also included are data on change in size and identification with the middle class, relative increases in apartment purchases in Gangnam and other Seoul districts, and more. Additionally, Yang examines the nature of everyday life for families in Gangnam’s gated apartment complexes.
Two gaps in the analysis and one problem of exposition merit attention. First, Yang offers insufficient explanation or no explanation for the rise and fall of the middle class. Secondly, Yang speaks of an “imagined middle class” but no imagination is required because the middle class was already there in the early 1960s. Unlike most developing countries, Korea benefitted from a Confucian respect for education. A supply of managers and technocrats was therefore inherited from the Colonial era, augmented by recent returnees educated abroad.
The expository problem with this book is excessive repetition. This suggests that Yang’s work is a dissertation expanded to book length. In spite of these reservations, I would encourage my readers to read From Miracle to Mirage. Yang writes clearly, the book’s structure is sound, and fifteen pages of references indicate mastery of an extensive literature. Readers will find fascinating details, such as those about the workings of gated apartment complexes and, more generally, will learn about the dark side of Korea’s “miracle” economy.
Paul Kuznets
Indiana University, Bloomington, USA