South Korea's Real Culture of Shame

Academic literature has extensively documented the so-called ‘culture of shame’ in East Asia, and South Korea is no exception to the phenomenon as a national collective that suffers acutely from fear of losing one’s face — chemyeon as they say in Korean. Shame over possible loss of one’s honour underpins every aspect of South Korean society, where public shaming is routinely deployed to punish those who deviate from social norms. The ultimate price paid by Cho Hyun-ah, at the center of the “nut