[KS] Re: KSR 1998.08: _Troubled Tiger: Businessmen, Bureaucrats,

[Mia Yun]

Dear Mr. West,


In your haste and zeal to defend Mr. Clifford and to criticize Mr. Lim, you wrote, "Mr. Lim seems predisposed to assuage the wounded pride of (fellow?) Koreans, as if ..."   I don't know if Mr. Lim is indeed Korean but how unwarranted!  And irrelevant!  


Mr. Clifford's generalizing remark like "Koreans too often have a greediness,"  contrary to your assertion, I might add, is indeed offensive and has a tone, however slight, of racism.  Wouldn't you agree that one could make a generalizing remark like this regarding any other ethnicity or race, lets say by substituting the word "Koreans" with  "Jews," or  "Arabs," or "Americans,"  or "Japanese," or "Chinese?"  And could you make this sort of generalization without being accused of being a racist?   In my opinion, a remark like this can only do disservice not only to Mr. Clifford's book that might otherwise be an admirable one --I don't know as I didn't read the book -- but to any book that purports to be taken seriously.  It is highly probable that such a remark could strike a reader like Mr. Lim or any other that "racial prejudice is at work in Clifford's narrative" to quote you.  And that his approach is even patronizing. 


I am not writing this to criticize Mr. Clifford in his criticisms on Korea or Koreans. Whether one is a writer or a reader, or a reviewer, his or her approach toward any given subject is always subjective.  In this respect, Mr. Clifford's subjective views then should be as welcome as Mr. Lim's subjective review.  Surely Mr. Lim has every right to find some of Mr. Clifford's criticisms offensive?  Why not?   Mr. Clifford himself offered the carrot, so to speak.  At least in the instances I have pointed out.  And yet, you criticize Mr. Lim by saying, "Mr.Lim's superficial assessment of the book provides no basis at all for crying racism."    


Your guess that Mr. Lim might be a Korean who is "predisposed to assuage the wounded pride of (fellow?) Koreans, " is mean-spirited to say the least. 

 


Mia Yun           



Mia Yun

Author of <italic>House of the Winds

</italic>http://www.pipeline.com/~miayun


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