A Sad Trend

One of the biggest stories in the Korean news recently was that of the young actress Jang Ja Yun taking her own life in March of this year. The entertainment industry had already been rocked by a string of celebrity suicides in 2008, including the very popular actress Choi Jin Shil, and the sad trend looks set to continue this year with yet another suicide, that of young actress Woo Seung Yeon, earlier this week.




Understandably, the public rarely receive a lot of information regarding the nature of the deaths or the reasons behind them. 'Depression' is most commonly offered as the driving force behind the suicides, but as more details are released by the media there does at times seem to be something more sinister behind them.

In the case of Jang Ja Yun, for example, it was uncovered that she had left a personal letter to her old agent, describing how she had been coerced into having sex with VIPs by her then current manager, presumably in order to further her career within the entertainment business. She apparently suggested in this letter that other actresses were involved in similar 'practices' and that the problem was rife throughout the entire industry. She went on to say that she wished she could do something about it herself, but that because she was young and new she was powerless to act and hoped that her old manager (to whom she left the letter) would do the right thing after her death.

The story behind the suicide of Choi Jin Shil was a little less clear-cut. It was linked in the media to yet another celebrity suicide, that of actor Ahn Jae Hwan, after it was uncovered that Choi had lent Ahn a large sum of money and that his suicide may have been a result of her demands for repayment after the failure of his business. Her suicide came soon after.

Choi Jin Shil

Whatever the reasons for these tragic events I find it hard to comprehend the difference in attitude towards the act of suicide between the East and the West. Now I'm the first to admit that after only spending a year so far in Korea I am still largely ignorant of many aspects of Eastern culture, but it just seems like such a drastic action, especially when you consider the family and friends that they have all left behind.

And what about the disproportionally large number of young, emerging actresses taking their own lives? Is there really a secretive seedy underbelly to the South Korean entertainment industry that runs so deep not even the police seem able to do anything about it? Are contracted actresses being treated like nothing more than pieces of meat by managers, agencies and corporate sponsors alike?

But it's not just celebrities who see suicide as their only option. In 2005 South Korea had the highest suicide rate among the OCED member countries and as of 2006 it had the 8th highest rate of suicide in the world. Why?

The World Health Organisation estimates that 90% of all suicides are related to mental illnesses (including depression) and anyone who has worked in Korea can attest to the general apathy (for the most part) towards sufferers.

And the other 10%? Businessmen suffering from recession blues, students feeling the stress of parental pressure, and gay men feeling ostracised in a society that denies their very existence. There are also reports of Internet suicide pacts being prevalent in Korea, although steps have been taken to close down such groups (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3560103.stm).

It could be argued that a lot of the problems above come from Korea's split personality. On one side it's an ultra-modern Asian tiger, with the highest rate of Internet connectivity in the world boasting some of the most successful electronics companies in the market. On the flip side it's an ultra-traditional tortoise, where pride and honour are sometimes more important than right and wrong. They can see where the world is going. They just don't always want to move their feet fast enough to keep up.

Perhaps the most obvious step forward is a more open and accepting attitude towards mental illness and the removal of the stigma attached to the sufferers themselves (it is fair to say that this stigma exists in many Western countries too, although not necessarily to the same extent.) A cultural shift on the other issues such as work ethic, the idea of success, and the existence of homosexuality is maybe a little further down the line, but the high suicide rate is a problem that Korea must address as a nation to protect it's people.