Tei Tai-Kin described the Koreans as having ‘a kind of herd mentality’. He used a word, skinship, which I had never heard before. ‘It’s a Japanese-English word. It refers to very close bodily contact, physical contact to show that there is an emotional friendship. When people like to be close to each other in a crowd. When that happens, they are easily manipulated by propaganda.’ There is actually a Korean word which is close to this – chung, meaning ‘group consciousness’ or ‘loyalty’ – but it has a moral aspect: collectivity is good. Standing together benefits the country as a whole.
