Post-Confucian Korea

Chung Sung-hee reports on the disturbing success of recent propaganda campaigns "stress[ing] that family is not based on blood ties but love and understanding" — Are parents not family, too? Read, and weep:

The study found that the scope of family narrowed significantly from five years ago. The percentage of those who believe their spouse and children are their relatives dropped from 98.4 percent and 98.7 percent in the first survey in 2005, respectively, to 81.1 percent and 84.5 percent. One of the biggest changes was that more people said they do not consider their parents as family. The percentage of those who deem parents as family fell from 92.8 percent to 77.6 percent, and that of those who view their in-laws as family plunged from 79.2 percent to 50.5 percent. In addition, more said siblings and those of their spouse are not family.

Noteworthy that the survey was "conducted by the Gender Equality and Family Ministry" (which many of my students rightly want abolished). As Kevin Jones reminded us, "Peter Hitchens is fond of claiming that the actual purpose of polling is not to measure opinion, but to change it" — National election poll stops asking respondents if they're married.

UPDATE: More — Only one out of five S. Koreans considers grandparents part of 'family': survey.