Shrimp to Whale: South Korea from the Forgotten War to K-Pop

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The general tone of the book is highly positive. For those seeking a more critical view, it leaves more to be desired. But if “Shrimp to Whale” seeks to tell the underrated story of South Korea’s rise in recent years to a wider audience, it accomplishes that beyond a doubt. You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. With passion, comprehensive depth and a bird’s eye view from afar and up close, this is a valuable read for anyone with an intellectual curiosity in South Korea and its remarkable journey, achieving in several decades what has taken others centuries or millennia.’ — Eun Mee Kim, President of Ewha Womans University, Seoul

And they would have a completely different life from the moment when they were born. I draw this picture so to speak, in the book because if we compare with other countries that were already developed, where the development process took hundreds of years, really, we’re not even talking about decades. this wasn’t necessarily the case in other countries when the case of Korea, this was this compressed development in a period of 30, 40 years going for being colonized and extreme poverty to having a fairly middle class life, fairly stable job. And as I said, being able to go on holiday, something that certainly hadn’t been taken for granted by Koreans in, in history. Really. A bear gave birth to Korea. Or so the legend goes.” Ramon Pacheco Pardo begins his engaging account with a sweeping history of the ancient kingdoms and warring empires that once ruled the Korean peninsula before it was divided in 1945, and the modern states of North and South Korea founded in 1948. The title invokes the old saying that Korea is a “shrimp between whales”, forever in danger of being crushed between the world’s great powers. But the author argues that South Korea has long since outgrown this depiction and now deserves to be seen as a “whale” in its own right. Pardo said he was blown away by “how full of life” South Korea was when he first came to the country in 2003 as a student. Originally from Spain, both countries went through a dictatorship coinciding with a period of economic development before transitioning to democracy. These similarities were what first motivated him to experience living in South Korea. So I think innovation really is, is where Korea can thrive. I think it’s well known there is a population decline. Of course, some people see this as a challenge. but then I think there is a debate there because it can be a challenge if there are less workers, but we focus on the economy. Something interesting that you see in Koreas that focus on these less labor intensive sectors, cause it doesn’t have enough workers, right? And more focused on these high tech, capital intensive sectors. Plus, for example something very interesting, whenever I visit the increasing presence of robots actually before it was in factories only, but now you go to the airport or you go to a restaurant and you see robots because they simply don’t have enough workers, right? So robots, for example, they will take your dishes, you know, once they’re dirty instead of a waiter doing this because they don’t have enough, right?In his book “Shrimp to Whale: South Korea from the Forgotten War to K-Pop,” Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a professor of international relations at King’s College London, attempts to give a fuller picture of the country beyond Samsung and North Korea.

Ramon Pacheco Pardo (38:17): I mean as you mentioned, we discuss in the beginning, right? I’m working in London and Brussels right working at Kings College and University of Brussels. And other than that, I’m in Korea really most of the time, right? As often as possible. and the book, from what I understand I mean it is available in bookstore for sure. I’ve seen it in London, in Brussels, in the US as well actually in Korea, places such as, such as Kyoto. But many readers have told me that in the countries not for sale, So just buy it online, right? I know in many European countries, I said the US, Korea is definitely available, but I do know that many people are telling me, Look, I just bought it online because that was the easiest thing for me to do. And I’m not going to name any platforms, but that different platforms, of course, and that’s where you can get it. And also focusing on the development of infrastructure. So trying to build housing, trying to build roads, railroads as well. So trying to build the basic infrastructure that any country would need if they want you to export. And that would be the second key point in the case of Korea, that other countries, if you look for example, at Latin America, they were focusing on this import substitution policy whereby they just wanted to get rid of foreign goods right, and produce domestic goods. But the case of credits was supplemented by exporting, right? By making goods that would be exported to the rest of the world. Of course, South Korea was not the first country to think about this. Mexicans have done it in the past, but South Korea really emphasizes in 1950s. So from the 1960s onwards and especially related to these, the emphasis on moving up the value added chain, because other developing countries, I wouldn’t say they were happy to only focus on textiles, shoes, et cetera, et cetera, but maybe had the long term thinking just say, Okay, how do we move to the next stage? This fascinating nonfiction picture book filled with stunning illustrations details the end of life for a whale, also known as a whale fall, when its body sinks to the ocean floor and becomes an energy-rich food source for organisms living in the deep sea. When a whale dies, its massive body silently sinks down, down, through the inky darkness, finally coming to rest on the silty seafloor. For the whale, it's the end of a 70-year-long life. But for a little-known community of deep-sea dwellers, it's a new beginning. First come the hungry hagfish, which can smell the whale from miles around. Then the sleeper sharks begin their prowl, feasting on skin and blubber. After about six months, the meat is gone. Year after year, decade after decade, the whale nourishes all kinds of organisms from zombie worms to squat lobsters to deep-sea microbes. This completely fascinating real-life phenomenon is brought to vivid and poetic life by nonfiction master Melissa Stewart and acclaimed illustrator Rob Dunlavey. Kalani Scarrott (14:22): Yeah, there’s a million different threads I could pull on there, but I’ll start with the Chaebols. So could you explain, just for someone who’s never heard of the term, what they are, and then maybe why were they able to flourish and what’s their function, I guess, in the greater economy of South Korea? Kalani Scarrott (38:10): So yeah, just lastly, where can people find you? Obviously plug the book and where to find that, but yeah, anything else you wanna cover?

even if the birth rate goes up, it’s not going to reach the replacement rate. Doesn’t happen for any developed country actually. And that’s not going to happen in Korea. And I don’t see Korea opening up too much migration, […] We may be surprised, but I don’t think it’s on the cards. So, we’re going to see this innovation in terms of how to drive growth in an environment in which you actually have less workers ” Shrimp to Whale is a lively history of South Korea, from its millennia-old roots, through the division of the Peninsula, dictatorship and economic growth, to today’s global powerhouse. In a sense it was the election. So, okay, let’s stop with the election, because then of course after the election you could have carried on, right? more things happening, right? Like Extraordinary Attorney Woo, right? The new drama becoming successful, but you cannot just keep having everything, right? and, and that was a bit of a challenge. and the final one, which is a challenge, of course, you have a word limit. and I didn’t, I really didn’t want to go beyond, beyond the word limit. So sometimes you have to make choices and you say, Well this interesting, right? But I don’t have the space to discuss it. Let’s say, for example in Korean manga, right? which is something, it has been sector that has been growing right? Especially the stories that people read on their, on their, on their mobile phones, for example. So I find that very interesting actually, because in the abstract, especially younger people feel well is something that maybe we don’t want to do. But when it comes to the possibility of this actually happening, no, you actually see that this is something, that would be supported by the people of South Korea, right? of course, I’m not saying that North Korea is going to collapse in anytime soon, but some Korean said, Well, we thought this wouldn’t happen with the Soviet Union, or we thought the Arab spring wouldn’t happen, and then it happened. So what happens if there’s a North Korean collapse, then I’m pretty sure most South Koreans would rally behind a unified idea of a unified Korea, or even if it’s, if there’s a more long term process in which is reconciliation and the positive of unification, I think most South Koreans would support it. but yes, as, as I said, in depth, I think there is still the, there is this division between younger South Korean who feel this is not the way to go and other South Korean who feel we should still strive for it. However, no account of South Korea could be complete without mentioning its impressive soft power gained from its pop culture, comprising world-famous K-Pop bands, Korean movies, TV dramas, and authors, which first conquered Asia, and then much of the world. Yet even here, there is a practical aspect to its development, which was fostered and supported by the country’s authorities who wanted Korean movies and music to spread overseas and attract the wallets of foreign consumers.