Rice in Modern Korea: Matter of Survival or of Taste? = Rice in Modern Korea: Matter of Survival or of Taste?

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Although rice has always been considered the most important crop in Korea, Koreans` perception of rice underwent dramatic changes through the 1970s and 1980s. Chronic shortage of rice by the mid-1970s led the South Korean state to coerce its people to reduce rice consumption and replace rice with more affordable grains, like barley or imported wheat. Beginning in the early 1970s, the Park Chung-hee administration enthusiastically promoted a new high-yielding variety of rice called tongil (meaning, reunification), developed through collaboration with international agroscientists engaged in the Green Revolution worldwide. Tongil was very successful in South Korea in the mid-1970s, to the extent that the South Korean government could proudly declare rice self-sufficiency in the country from 1977. In 1978, however, tongil became vulnerable to various diseases and was increasingly criticized by farmers. Moreover, rapid growth of the South Korean economy enabled people to pursue a more diversified diet, which led to increasing demand for fruits, meat, and dairy products, and eventually to a decrease in rice consumption. As a result, from the mid-1980s, just a few years after South Korea had achieved rice self-sufficiency, the South Korean state encountered the unexpected problem of rice surplus. This change-from the fear of a rice shortage to anxiety over rice surplus-took less than one generation to occur. Reappraisal of this rapid and abrupt shift will help to foster a better understanding of changes in South Koreans` perceptions of themselves over time.