Modern people, who lived in rapidly changing times, couldn’t find time to look back on themselves in the past. However, they are so exhausted from a long-lasting economic depression and their hard-hearted lives that they are now stopping their work and are taking their time to heal themselves. As the number of people healing themselves has increased, recently, ‘healing’ has become a new culture. –Ed.
 
■ The appearance of healing culture
  Korean people, who used to grow and develop everything rapidly while exclaiming “Quickly Quickly!”, have changed. They used to overwork themselves for better lives and better positions, but now they are starting to hold their work back and take their time. In other words, they are healing themselves. Healing originally meant treating patients who were suffering from diseases, but now it has become broadened to indicate not only physical treatment but also mental treatment. In the past, as a social concern about their health had increased, the word ‘well-being’ was popular. However, because of a long-lasting economic depression and the coming of the age of limitless competition, now social attention has expanded from just physical health to mental health. ‘Healing’ is the result of the social situation. Now ‘healing’ has been naturally absorbed into our society, so it can be found easily everywhere.
 
■ Healing trends in daily life
  Because of the healing trend, books whose themes are healing are on the best seller’s list. These days, Things Which Can Be Seen Only If You Should Stop by the monk Hyemin, Painful Is the Growing by Kim Nan-do and others, which console the youths of this generation, are on the best seller’s list at most major book stores and internet book stores. In particular, Painful Is the Growing by the monk Hyemin was the most borrowed book at the national library of Korea.
  Lectures whose themes are ‘healing’ and ‘mentoring’ are popular as well. Modern people are feeling tired of their lives and need mentors to heal them. This is not an exception for university students, for they are worried about getting jobs and planning their lives in the medium to long term. On January 3 this year, Daehaknaeil Research Laboratory for the Twenties conducted a survey of 500 university students across the nation to recognize how university students use and take contents concerning ‘healing’. According to the survey, 77% of university students have experienced contents(lectures, books, programs) concerning ‘healing’ more than one time. The most experienced healing content was healing lectures, which accounted for 49%. Ye Eun-bin(24, Daegu), who attended ‘Kim Mi-kyung Show’, which is one of the most famous healing lectures, said, “When I went to the show, Pyo Cheol-min, the leader of Wizard Works, was on the show. He started his business from infancy, and he had to fail three times before he succeeded in his business. As he had experienced that many failures, he became undaunted by another failure, and he was absorbed in his work, so he succeed in the end. After listening to his story, I thought that a successful man was not a special being. What was especially impressive was his saying, “Before you get more to lose, fall down more often! I felt comfortable about my failures when I thought according to what he had said. In that way, I felt I was being healed.”
  Healing trips are also popular. People who are exhausted by tough daily lives go traveling for weekends or holidays to console themselves and to get energy to freshly start another week. Keeping up with this trend, there are about 150 recreational forests for healing trips all across the country, and there are over 300 altogether with the recreational forest, temple stays and trails. Local governments also joined to develop healing theme travels. Chungcheongnam-do developed more than 10 kinds of tour products including the west coast mud flats, roads for hiking and hot springs. In addition, Jeju-do, which is famous for Olle Roads, is attracting not only Koreans but also Japanese, and Incheon and Gangwon-do are also developing healing tourist attractions. Korea Forest Service unveiled a plan to make 34 Healing Forests by 2017.
  Besides, the influence of healing is making many changes. It changed the character of small theater plays and musicals. Small theater plays used to feature foolish people, and musicals used to feature splendid spectacles that caught audience’s eyes. However, they have been affected by healing culture, so more and more works which touch the audiences are on the stage these days. In the housing market, which has been suffering, construction companies are constructing apartments near parks, mountains and rivers where people can relax their bodies and spirits, and they are concentrating on healing apartment marketing. In the fashion world, nature-colored products, which are green, are pouring into the market.
 
■ Healing without healing?
  As modern people are increasingly concerned about their physical and mental health, related industries are making efforts to develop products and services concerning healing. However, some say that these healing products are just claiming healing, but in fact they are too far from the real meaning of healing. In other words, they are just a method of making money. Moon Hyong-jun, a cultural critic said, “The biggest reason of modern people’s unease and frustration is the system of capitalism. Capitalism has made almost everything private, and in this process, companies changed workers’ positions to be temporary for cost saving. In addition, the nation, which is on the side of capitalism, doesn’t help them. In addition, their family is in the process of being scattered because of Westernization. It has resulted in increasing anxiety. That is why people are trying to pursue healing to get out of their unstable lives. However, the healing culture which has no consideration for the structural problems of capitalism is just a capital product and another market that capitalism has made.”
  However, people are still crazy about healing and the heat is likely to continue to rise. Whether the method is sincere or not, it is true that people are consoled by the healing culture. It may be a placebo effect, but isn’t the value of healing the fact that modern people in a lonely world have a method to be consoled?

By Seo Hwan-hui
hh32@cbnu.ac.kr