"Manners Maketh Man." As mentioned in the popular film Kingsman: The Secret Service, keeping manners or saving face is not exclusive to Korean culture. In any society it is inevitable to have a status, and along with status come different ways of expressing manners. Yet, in some cultures, the effects of saving face have gone too far. Cultures that are strongly based on Confucianism especially emphasize the importance of saving face, or what in Korean is called keeping up one's chaemyun.

 

Korea and China are the two main countries that have cultures rooted in Confucianism; thus, it is important for people in these societies to behave in ways that are considered appropriate to their respective status. Until recently, most people have regarded saving face within society as normal, or as some even say, the right thing to do. However, it is about time to question whether saving face should be regarded as natural to all human society, and when exclusive to Korean society, whether chaemyun should really be considered as a culture of Koreans. Perhaps the importance of keeping up chaemyun has developed not only by the Confucian culture, but also by the natural psychology of human beings.

 

Keeping up chaemyun is a behavior that people think is to satisfy others, but in reality does no good to anybody. Most people only care about their own face; thus, nobody completely satisfies others, nor becomes entirely satisfied about their own status. Saving one's face is not a way to help one's self-consciousness, but simply a means that Koreans have found to expand their self-conceit. The increasing number of foreign laborers in Korea due to Koreans refusing to work in manual labor is an example of a consequence of Koreans keeping up chaemyun. Therefore  keeping up chaemyun is, in reality, not benefiting anyone. Furthermore, it is becoming a hindrance to the further development of Korea as a nation. 

 

Since it has become clear that there is no apparent reason to maintain the importance of chaemyun within the Korean society, changes ought to be made. The basis of a culture is the mindset of people that form it, and once the mindset of people is altered, cultural changes will naturally come along. The media portraying images of people putting less significance on chaemyun, corporations creating a freer working environment where people can actually interact with each other, and the government setting structural devices to allow people to do what they want in their old age without caring about chaemyun may be some ways to change the originally conservative mindset of Koreans.

 

Fortunately, it is clear from various venues of mass media that more are now becoming increasingly aware of the fact that chaemyun is not a healthy tradition within the Korean society. Nevertheless, there are still too many people who believe chaemyun is rooted deep in our culture and, therefore, it is almost impossible to eliminate it from Korean society. The bottom line in bringing changes to Koreans' attitude towards chaemyun has to do with believing that traditional values or characteristics of societies can, and should change at some point in time. Now is the time that chaemyun in the Korean society face some drastic changes to allow Korea, generally as a whole nation, to face a hopeful future.