The Korean society is a homogeneous one - once a trend sets in, everyone starts following it. The so-called "yoohaeng," which translates to "trend," is a particularly surprising phenomenon in the country. Once a celebrity brings out a North Face black padding in the winter, it quickly turns into a must-fashion item, and the streets and schools and workplaces teem with men and women dressed in the padding. When the longer version of the padding that stretches from the shoulder all down to the ankle hits the market, everyone quickly turned to follow suit. The neon-colored shorts and clothes also became a go-to fashionable item, which was once overlooked for its overly attention-seeking color.
Such a social phenomenon goes beyond the fashion world. In the business setting, some types of businesses experience exponential growth, with branches opening up nationwide like weeds, only in a matter of weeks. The vanilla ice cream dipped with a honeycomb, the Taiwanese-style castella bread, the low-priced to-go coffees, and many others all have found a boom once. Some of them survived, such as the coffee, but others quickly died out to the misfortune and sadness of the business owners. The cycle is always the same - the swift rise, expansion, and transition to another industry.
Even in simple settings such as picking a menu for lunch, homogeneity becomes apparent, as everyone has to order jjajangmyeon if the majority chooses so, or if the boss picked out for lunch. It becomes an imposition to order something other than the majority-selected menu.
So the Korean society has little room for a singularity to stand out, and it takes a certain amount of courage to break away from the widely accepted norm. A norm is not bad per se, but when it puts on that tyrannical feature, to be used for killing and silencing the individuality that leads to creativity and diversity in a society, it begs the question of whether the norm is for the benefit of everyone after all. There is a serious problem in a society that requires its people to take courage to be true to themselves. Of course, in this world and time when relativity is taking rampage in every corner of the globe, I support individuality that is within the confines of the proper and civil judgment, of humanity, and of objectivity (There is nothing more absurd than arguing that being fat is healthy and thus needs to be celebrated, no?).
It was, after all, the unconventional and unorthodox thinkings that sought a better way to do things, that paved a new path for development and innovation, and that changed the world. History speaks a plethora of such stories. And these were the people with the you-do-you spirit. The process of pursuing singularity and pushing on with it for the betterment of others may be a difficult, painstaking, and lonely path. But eventually, what makes the world a better and freer place to live is being true to yourself and walking your path of life - just as the various colors of the umbrellas brighten up the gloomy and sad picture that is the world of homogeneity.
*This photo is not mine, and it was taken by Glen Kim. You can check out more of his photos on his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glen_photos/
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