Fully-illustrated The Passenger collects the best new writing photography art and reportage
from around the world. IN THIS VOLUME: Hell Joseon by Elisa Shua Dusapin - The View from the
North by Lee Hyeonseo - Lessons in Democracy by Jiyoung Choi - plus: the Samsung Republic and
the most militarized border in the world the real reason why Korean women don't have children
democracy and K-pop baseball esports and shamanism and much more... From kimchi to TV
series from Oscar-winning films to K-pop from webtoons to cosmetics in recent years Korea
has captured the global imagination one viral trend at a time. In this volume The Passenger
sets out in search of the world's coolest nation. Eighty years ago at the end of a devastating
civil war South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world under constant threat
from the Communist regime north of the 38th parallel and completely dependent on the United
States for its security and prosperity. Today it is the world's tenth-largest economy a
dynamic and innovative country with a per capita GDP similar to that of Western Europe a
lively and participatory democracy that stands up to its larger more powerful neighbors. And
above all the country is the origin of the hallyu--the Korean wave--which has reached every
corner of the world and taken the global entertainment food and culture industries by storm.
This extremely rapid and astonishing transformation has inevitably brought ruptures and
contradictions. If the global youth looks to Korea as previous generations looked to Hollywood
and New York young Koreans instead talk about Hell Joseon: a country that is rapidly aging an
economic system dominated by powerful chaebols (family-controlled conglomerates) a fiercely
competitive educational system a generational gap in outlook and behavior and at the center
of it all the role of women-- one of the keys that The Passenger has chosen to try to decipher
a complex fascinating country central to the dynamics of today's world and that is often
exoticized and idealized to the same extent.
