Daniel Tudor > Quotes

“An hour spent by a Korean on the study of Chinese or Japanese will yield greater progress than an hour spent on English, other things being equal.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“Westernization is an often-used word in Korea, and can be applied to something considered cold, lacking in jeong, and going against traditional Korean values. To suggest that Korean households are now “Westernized,” whatever that may mean exactly, would be a gross oversimplification.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“In some sectors of the economy at least, the traditional importance attached to age and hierarchy is beginning to break down.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“Cocktail soju, a mixture of the spirit with fruit juice or yoghurt drinks to give it a more pleasant taste, is the ultimate in deceptive drinking experiences. It tastes completely unalcoholic and convinces the drinker that he is not even tipsy—until he stands up and finds his legs unwilling to comply with his brain’s wishes.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“Worldwide, South Korea is second only to Lithuania in terms of suicides per capita.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“The lack of adequate breaks, holidays, and sleep takes a heavy toll on the amount of work that people can actually produce in a given time.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“Chaebol-style capitalism was, and to some extent still is, very different from the dictionary definition of capitalism. Not only was industry directed by the state, but the chaebol corporations were rigidly hierarchical and bureaucratic, influenced by Confucian culture. Firms were expected to treat workers as sons, and workers were expected to respond in kind by thinking of their chairmen as father figures and offering absolute loyalty.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“There are interesting trends developing in clothing, hair, cosmetics, beauty standards, and cosmetic surgery in North Korea. Those who consider such things trivial should think again: these trends are changing how some people feel about the DPRK authorities, and even inspiring a few to defect.”
― Daniel Tudor, North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors

“Korea is now the world’s second-largest exporter of missionaries after the United States.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“As Korea has been a society in which women were mostly excluded from public life until the most recent generation of adults, church gave them a sense of involvement in something wider than the bounds of the family home.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“In a book entitled Sweatshop Warriors, Miriam Ching Yoon Louie states that the Park government even built up South Korea’s sex industry as a means of earning foreign exchange receipts from Japanese businessmen and American soldiers on leave from the Vietnam War—all “for the sake of the nation.” An article in the New York Times by Choe Sang-hun quotes one former prostitute as saying, “The government was one big pimp for the U.S. military.... They urged us to sell as much as possible to the GIs, praising us as ‘dollar-earning patriots.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“Third Line Butterfly: they don’t make K-pop, but they are the best Korean band around, in the humble opinion of this author.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“rather than follow one’s dreams and become an artist or a musician, for instance, one ought to select the most highly paid and stable job available in order to provide for one’s parents in their old age and create a secure environment in which to raise children—since there is also an imperative to continue the family line.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“General Park offered eighteen leading entrepreneurs a deal they could not refuse: participate in his development plans or go to jail.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“The Korean equivalent of “looking for a needle in a haystack” is “looking for Mr. Kim in Seoul.” Indeed, more than 21 percent of the population bears that family name. A further 15 percent bears the name Lee, and around 9 percent goes by Park.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“Because people are paid virtually nothing, they have very little incentive to do much actual work.”
― Daniel Tudor, North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors

“There are even entire chaebol cities: the city of Ulsan developed as a place for Hyundai employees to live and work, and now has a population of over a million.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“Korean children are among the worst in the world at social interaction (thirty-fifth out of thirty-six countries surveyed). In school, children are constantly tested and ranked, rather than taught to work with one another.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“This ability to perfect the products of others stems from a laser-like focus on continuous improvement, which owes as much to Buddhist thinking here as it does in Japan.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“Today Christianity edges out Buddhism as the most popular religion in Korea,”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“The main cause of North Korea’s recent social change is actually a tragic one: the famine of the mid 1990s, in which at least several hundred thousand people perished. The famine greatly weakened the bond between the state and the people, forcing the average North Korean to fend for him or herself.”
― Daniel Tudor, North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors

“Because each person was only allowed to convert a maximum of 100,000 won (around US$30–40 at the time, according to black market rates). Anyone holding a sum greater than that—as someone engaged in business naturally would—saw their savings wiped out.”
― Daniel Tudor, North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors

“Groups like Samsung, Hyundai, Lotte, and LG have so much money, political influence, and sway over the media that their power is still overwhelming”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“ren, the necessity to treat others within the community with humanity. In its essence, it is similar to the “golden rule” of doing as you would be done by. Ren has important implications for leaders. If a leader fails to show ren, for instance by treating his subjects brutally, he loses his mandate to govern them and may be disobeyed.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“Furthermore, a survey by the Chosun Ilbo newspaper in 2007 revealed that 65 percent of married Korean women have “secret funds” that their husbands are unaware of.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“According to the World Health Organization, South Koreans drink slightly more alcohol than the Irish and the British and almost double the amount drunk by the Japanese, on average.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“Suicide is the leading cause of death among Korean youths, and given the country’s educational culture and the pressure”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“During the 1950s, South Korea was “the poorest, most impossible country on this planet,” according to a long-time advisor to President Park Chung-hee, Kim Dong-jin (not his real name). The Korean War had made a third of the population homeless;”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“The trading of benevolence in return for loyalty is still a factor in Korean offices: whistleblowing is rare, as it goes against the employee’s obligation to his superior. A typical Korean boss is also more paternalistic than one from a non-Confucian society. He will take greater interest in the personal lives of his staff, and feel the need to treat them to lunch or dinner with regularity.”
― Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

“Things were ultimately exacerbated by a series of devastating floods in 1994 and 1995, which destroyed around 1.5 million tons of grain and ruined much of the nation’s infrastructure. Around 85 percent of North Korea’s power generation capacity was lost as a result.”
― Daniel Tudor, North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors