Rating: 
Summary: Breen's on target - ignore the naysayers!
Review: Am somewhat surprised at the negative tones of some of the reviews below, which appear to be predicated on opinions that the book is is in some way insulting to Koreans, is too British, or is non-academic. As regards the first point, it is worth noting that the positive reviews appear to be from people currently in Korea, or, indeed from Koreans themselves. It is worth further noting that the book became a bestseller in its Korean translation ("Hankukin-ul Mal Handa"- literally, "Talking about Koreans" - which may actually be a more accurate title for the book than the English version). This reviewer personally taught this book at Seoul's Ewha Women's University as part of a course on Western writings on Korea, and the students were very pro. Too British? Perhaps - but the British compararisons and frame of reference are familiar to most English-speaking readers, and Breen's writing style and sense of humor are - to me anyway - pluses.
Indeed, it is not an academic work - but nor does it claim to be. As a commentary it is far more readable than most tomes sitting on dusty universtiy library shelves. Finally, to the reviewer who states that Breen's referencing of driving habits to the national psyche are fatuous, I would suggest that his analogy is right on target. When driving, Koreans fall outside the essential social circles (family, school, home-town, etc) that govern and, indeed, make up Korean society - so the resultant chaotic, competitive and often ugly conditions offer an up-close look at how Koreans operate when they are supposedly regulated by law - rather than customary social obligations. But enough about previous reviews. For anyone seeking an general, engaged, personalized but insightful and enjoyable look at the Koreans - this book fits the bill.
Rating: 
Summary: Please do not find any NATIONAL CHARACTER in this book.
Review: As a person of Korean background, I found Breen's book pleasantly insightful. I've read many good historical reference books about Korean history, but few that give insight into the national and social character -- and fewer still that actually hold Koreans accountable (at least by degree) for their own 20th century history. Breen tries very hard to give his reader what feels like an "inside scoop" on very difficult, complex, and beautiful society. As such, it can seem "politically incorrect" for some -- particularly because he is an "outsider" writing about Korea. But his status actually allows him to write with greater objectivity -- at least in my view -- because he has the courage to articulate what Koreans intuitively understand but rarely utter. Breen exposes secrets within the national character and that is always discomforting. 20th century Korean history, however, has been rife with unsustainable secrets and its nice to see some of these exposed. Koreans have been victims and pawns in the 20th century -- but they have also made some important and fateful choices. If we (as a Korean) want our losses and sacrifices acknowledged, then we must also accept and embrace our responsibilities. Breen is very good at showing the necessity of both! A Korean would probably never write a book like Breen's -- not because they don't know, but because the context is so clear to them. The trouble is that few have bothered to share this context with the rest of us. I thank Breen for taking the risks to do so. The Cold War is not over in Korea. For those of us who hope for a "Velvet Revolution" that might peacefully reunite the split halves of Korea, Breen's book is helpful and insightful. It is a global village and Koreans cannot function as the sole agents of their destiny -- which is something Americans are also learning (albeit slowly). Few have the courage, candor or skill to do what Breen has done. No book is perfect, but Breen has opened a new door and let the sunshine in!
Rating: 
Summary: Michael Breen's Land of the Morning Calm...
Review: As a person of Korean background, I found Breen's book pleasantly insightful. I've read many good historical reference books about Korean history, but few that give insight into the national and social character -- and fewer still that actually hold Koreans accountable (at least by degree) for their own 20th century history. Breen tries very hard to give his reader what feels like an "inside scoop" on very difficult, complex, and beautiful society. As such, it can seem "politically incorrect" for some -- particularly because he is an "outsider" writing about Korea. But his status actually allows him to write with greater objectivity -- at least in my view -- because he has the courage to articulate what Koreans intuitively understand but rarely utter. Breen exposes secrets within the national character and that is always discomforting. 20th century Korean history, however, has been rife with unsustainable secrets and its nice to see some of these exposed. Koreans have been victims and pawns in the 20th century -- but they have also made some important and fateful choices. If we (as a Korean) want our losses and sacrifices acknowledged, then we must also accept and embrace our responsibilities. Breen is very good at showing the necessity of both! A Korean would probably never write a book like Breen's -- not because they don't know, but because the context is so clear to them. The trouble is that few have bothered to share this context with the rest of us. I thank Breen for taking the risks to do so. The Cold War is not over in Korea. For those of us who hope for a "Velvet Revolution" that might peacefully reunite the split halves of Korea, Breen's book is helpful and insightful. It is a global village and Koreans cannot function as the sole agents of their destiny -- which is something Americans are also learning (albeit slowly). Few have the courage, candor or skill to do what Breen has done. No book is perfect, but Breen has opened a new door and let the sunshine in!
Rating:
Summary: Witness North Korea
Review: Breen's book is a brilliant insight into an incredibly complex and confused culture. I would recommend it highly. The only drawback (and it is minor because it can be gleaned from other books) is a lack of discussion of how two thousand years of despotism resulted in a country completely destroyed from within. And what affect that had on the daily behavior of Koreans towards each other. Combine Breen's book with Wandering in Northern China by Harry A. Franck if you can find it, and you will see how far the Koreans have come since 1905 when occupied by the Japanese. The first five chapters of Franck's book describe his experience in Korea. You will be amazed by how far they have come in such a short time. Then again, considering the massive importation of Western ideas and funds, it would be a surprise if they didnt, given their Confucian imperative for education. And that explains a lot about what is happening today. Korea is a confused culture because just as the Kuwaiti's are straddling the 8th century culturally while using the wealth and technology of the 21st handed to them by the west, so the Koreans are steeped in Shamanism (equivalent to an African "Witch Doctor" tradition) while incorporating and overlaying 21st Century business, technological and philosophical concepts. It is a pool of swirling contradictions that plague the Korean psyche. The Koreans did not experience the thousand years of a gradual increase in freedom and technological advancement experienced by the West since the Magna Carta. They do not have the historical underpinnings of the ancient greek and roman civilizations. Their philosophical underpinnings are Confucian and Buddhist vs. Aristotelian in the West. They were freed from Japanese domination in 1945. Half of them were again freed from a threatened communist domination in 1952. They never knew any form of freedom until after 1945. They have experienced a very limited form since then having only had democratic elections for a few decades. And they have gradually and begrudgingly come into the 20th Century of western thought but just barely and only as much as needed to copy and run western-style businesses and acquire western technology. And billions in foreign aid has been pumped into Korea by the West and only because they were at a demarcation point, a line in the sand drawn by the west that the North was told not to cross, did they get this money.
The critical passage on page 75 (hardcover) in the Breen book is where he describes the basic personal and political interaction patterns followed by Koreans: they have learned to interact "through warfare, strategic subservience and sullen resistance". They know no other way of social intercourse. These are all characteristics of manipulation which are the only way to deal with thugs who have absolute and total control over your life. These methods of personal interaction were developed over thousands of years to protect themselves from the thug-like, gang-like despots who ruled over them. Might makes right. And that is exactly what North Korea is doing to the west today. Instead of taking responsibility for their behavior and changing their ways, they continue to embrace a destructive economic system (communism - which is simply despotism propped up in another ideological guise. just as buddhism was brought into korea to mollify the common man suffering under the yoke of despots, so the ideology of communism is used to justify the living conditions in the north). They are simply using the traditional methods of korean manipulation to get free money from the west. they threaten warfare or else. sometimes they are sullen, sometimes they are sweetly, aquiesingly subservient. it is all part of the same game. Breen's real insight is in recognizing this. And that is why Koreans have such a difficult time when they leave Korea and try to integrate into western cultures and why they stick together so much. They simple do not have the cultural tools to communicate with westerners on their level. And Breen points this out when he says that his friends who are fluent in both Korean and English, argue in English because Korean is not a language predominantly of logic but predominantly of emotion, status, and subservience. The Korean and the westerner are not even on the same page. westerners typically do not respond well to such childish manipulation, we prefer a more logical method (or a more subtle form of manipulation). and that is the great dilemma for most Koreans who come west. the two cultures, one of ancient shamanism and one of the enlightenment (aristotelianism), are fundamentally incompatible and if we attempt to reconcile them both within the same personality, it simply leads to massive confusion and contradiction. Either one or the other has to go - sorry to all those multiculturalists out there.
Therefore it will take a long time for Korea to truly enter the modern world. It also explains their economic collapse. When modern technology meets primitive superstition and the country in which both are trying to co-exist no longer gets the cash handouts that enables the contradiction to continue, it collapses like a ponzy scheme. It is the ideas of the west that enable it to create and sustain modern civilization, technology, etc., not the other way around. One cannot maintain an advanced culture and technology on a foundation of irrationality. something has to give. and as long as Koreans cling to their ancient ways of superstition and manipulation, they will continue to struggle. And Breen's book exposes much of this.
I can also understand why it angers so many. It isn't something on which a lot of pride can be based. But all these issues will eventually go away without all that much effort. As western ideas, music, technology, McDonald's, Harley's, BMWs, Mercedes, Gucci handbags, bluejeans, etc, take over Korean culture, and all the old Koreans die out, it will be pretty tough for a Korean, riding a Harley, wearing jeans, smoking a camel and listening to Bruce Springsteen, with a kid who plays the violin and attends Yale, to say how much they dislike the west and everything it stands for. Just as good money drives out bad, so good ideas drive out the bad. Shamanism will fall before Christianity and the irrational manipulation of the Korean method will be supplanted by the logic of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. And Breen's book, by exposing much of what makes Korean's tick, will hasten that process.
Rating:
Summary: comic relief
Review: I always thought that the input of outsiders was important in assessing yourself. Just as Tocqueville's book on America is a classic to this day for its insight in an industrializing nation, Breen's book might be considered a classic on modernizing Korea someday. He points things out that I never noticed before, but I can see as important if you are entering Korean culture as a foreigner. I myself am Korean American, spending most of my life in the United States. Reading Breen's book, I can look at my parents and understand them a little better. This is an excellent and entertaining book, which I read in 4 hours. I recommend this to anyone interested in Korean culture. What makes it more interesting is that it's non-academic, making it understandable to anyone. The negative comments are strangely from people who are not Korean nor have they spent any long length of time in Korea. Other critics think you need a PhD in sociology to write anything about a group of people. How absurd!
Rating:
Summary: Please do not find any NATIONAL CHARACTER in this book.
Review: I'm sorry for saying that if some person (who is even a Korean!) really has read MANY and/or GOOD Korean history before reading this book, she/he may not say this book is PLEASANTLY INSIGHTFUL. Talking about NATIONAL CHARACTERS is always as dangerous as doing about RACIAL/ ETHINIC CHARACERS. We cannot and should not so easily talk about something like a national character after Auschwitz even though it does not seem to be a big problem at first. If you insists to find some NATIONAL CHARACTER in this book, however, unfortunately you still cannot find it here. You may have good skills to find some information in misinformation. And thus, the problem of this book does not come only from 'POLITICAL' correctness, and there are other problems. If there is anything like political 'INCORRECTNESS' in this book, it is not because he is an 'outsider'. Being outsiders does not necessarily mean being politically incorrect. On the contrary, many insiders can be so. Yes, this is not the problem of being insiders/outsiders.I know many people who are 'outsiders' but not so much offensive even though I'm not sure of their being politically correct or not. I don't want to affect the sales of this book(because I think the publisher is a good company), but I'm just sad about the fact that there are too many misunderstandings and distortions considered widely as truths and even insights regarding the matters of Korea, which are often made especially in offensive ways. If I, as an 'insider', feel uncomfortable with this book or some reviews here, it is not because the book says something that 'insiders' do not like and want to see, but because there are still those who insist that 'insiders' accept false things as bitter truths. This is not the matter of politics, but that of my conscience. I'm so sorry if I criticized this book too harshly. But I agree that the book was very readable, and I appreciate the author's good writing skill making it easy to read.
Rating:
Summary: said great, but where is explanation about the greatness?
Review: It's interesting to see foreigners' view about Korea.
Many explanations about Korean culture, customs are bery insightful.
Though he wrote that Koreans had many great culture, history,
and stories, Michael Breen did not write or explain why they
were great. It may be related partly to the fact that Koreans,
I think old generations, did not know how to introduce Korean
culture to foreigner as Michael Breen wrote in his book.
Usually he interviewed with over middle aged famous Korean
sociologists, journalists, scholars, intellectuals,
entrepreneurs, psychetherapists, politicians and so on.
That means he met and talked with 'well educated people'
who tend to correct social problem, negative aspects of
the society, and to build new society, 'modernize Korea!'.
But he did not do with ordinary young generations,
Korean historians who devoted themselves to study long history,
Korean folklorists who may have given him the different view
and aspects about Korean culture, Korean Neo-Confucianists,
Korean Buddhist monks, even Korean Sharmans!
He have many chances to talk with them as a foreign journalist
but he missed and lost the opportunities.
Even he wrote that he enjoyed Kimchi and other Korean cuisine
now but he did not interivew with any Korean cook!
It is true that he made great effort to explain the relationship
between the Korean modern turmoil and Korean culture which he
and other foreigners could hardly understand. But it is also
true that his approach is very limited to his personal experience
and his living boundary.
Rating:
Summary: Valuable resource on Korean history
Review: Let me say first that I understand the negative comments other reviewers have made about the book. I did wince when I first started reading because 1) the author's tone was intimately critical (although it might be a stretch to characterize it as pejorative) and 2) he's British. Anyone who has read any history of Asia (or Africa, or the Americas) is rightfully concerned when a European (or American) takes such a tone in a book on the history of a colonized nation. As a person of Korean descent, I was immediately keen to this potential lack of objectivity. However, I found the book very valuable. All of the historical facts that Breen cited can be backed up by Lee Ki-Baik's Korea Old and New (although of course the interviews and anecdotes I can't account for). I thought this book was an excellent compliment to Old and New because it gave a personal narrative to the history (although, of course, I would be very interested in reading a similar item from a Korean). But history is not the ultimate focus of the book. Breen is more concerned with the future of Korea, or rather the two Koreas. What is ironic is that while he notes (with some tone of criticism) a Korean tendency to speak wishes as if they were facts, he seems to close with a similar, rosy sentiment about how the Koreas might come together. I certainly felt that while he looked at Korea with a critical eye, he did so in large part because he truly cared for the country and it's people.
Rating:
Summary: Valuable resource on Korean history
Review: Let me say first that I understand the negative comments other reviewers have made about the book. I did wince when I first started reading because 1) the author's tone was intimately critical (although it might be a stretch to characterize it as pejorative) and 2) he's British. Anyone who has read any history of Asia (or Africa, or the Americas) is rightfully concerned when a European (or American) takes such a tone in a book on the history of a colonized nation. As a person of Korean descent, I was immediately keen to this potential lack of objectivity. However, I found the book very valuable. All of the historical facts that Breen cited can be backed up by Lee Ki-Baik's Korea Old and New (although of course the interviews and anecdotes I can't account for). I thought this book was an excellent compliment to Old and New because it gave a personal narrative to the history (although, of course, I would be very interested in reading a similar item from a Korean). But history is not the ultimate focus of the book. Breen is more concerned with the future of Korea, or rather the two Koreas. What is ironic is that while he notes (with some tone of criticism) a Korean tendency to speak wishes as if they were facts, he seems to close with a similar, rosy sentiment about how the Koreas might come together. I certainly felt that while he looked at Korea with a critical eye, he did so in large part because he truly cared for the country and it's people.
Rating:
Summary: First-rate Look at Contemporary Korea
Review: Michael Breen excels with his in-depth and personal analysis of contemporary Korean society. Even though he has lived in Korea for some time, his views and observations are not colored in any way. If anything, Breen provides readers with an up close and personal look at Korea, its people, culture, and politics that is just as much informative and insightful as it is entertaining. If you are going to spend anytime in Korea or if you are just curious about this Land of the Morning Calm, this is one book that should be at the top of your Korean reading list.
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