A Study of the Meaning and the Change of Familism in Korea

From the perspectives of traditional Korean familism, the family was a life-giving and morality-building institution. The family was also a location where people of Chosun society developed an identity as humans. Due to these characteristics of the family in the traditional familism, that is, the family as the basis of life, morality, and identity, the family was a unit that transcends personal desires, thus the institution enjoyed a long-lasting stability. However, with industrialization, the transcendent values have been taken away from the family, and the modern Korean family has changed into a private unit of personal happiness and the interests of only the immediate members. Surely the traditional familism had values that are contradictory to the civil society, such as sexual discrimination and family egoism. In spite of the limits, the traditional familism contains some family values that can be utilized to improve today's family cultures in Korea. For example, the approach to the family as a unit for life, the emphasis on transcending personal interests for the sake of family stability and deep intimacy, and the importance of the family in human lifes could inspire today's Korean families.

한국 사회에서 '가족중심주의'의 의미와 그 변화