Jeju island is a cultural phenomenon in itself. As Korea’s only special self-governing province, it was created entirely from volcanic eruptions approximately 2 million years ago. The island is dominated by Halla-san, a volcano 1,950 metres high and the highest mountain in South Korea.
A distinct aspect of Jeju is the matriarchal family structures arising from social phenomenons such as the haenyeo ("sea women"), who are often the heads of families. They earn their living from free diving, often all year round in quite cold water, without scuba gear in order to harvest abalones, conchs, and a myriad of other marine products.
Those women are skilled divers who are able to hold their breath for more than two minutes and dive to depths of 20 meters. While the job is physically harsh, haenyo must also contend with other dangers such as jelly fish and sharks.
I personally wondered how women could hold such a status in Korea – a very patriarchal society. As it turns out, diving was mostly done by men until the 19th century. The job became unprofitable for men since they had to pay heavy taxes, unlike women who did not. Women took over the diving (which was considered the lowest of jobs) and, because of the great dependence on sea products in most places on Jeju, became the main breadwinners.
Starting from the late 1970s, exports of sea products to Japan such as abalone and conch have made the sea women richer than ever, allowing them to fix their houses, build new ones in Jeju City and send their daughters to college.
With that, they often became "the head" of their family. On Mara Island, where sea products accounted for almost all sources of revenue before it became increasingly attractive as a tourist site, sex roles were entirely reversed. Often men would look after the children and go shopping while the women would bring in money for the family.
As one mught have guess, haenyos clash with Korea’s confucianist tradition, and administrators from Seoul have actually (unsuccessfully) tried to bar the women from diving (ostensibly because they exposed bare skin while at sea).
However, there is a threat to the haenyo's continued success: with their daughters choosing to work in the island's tourism industry or in the big cities, the haenyo will most likely disappear. While in 1950 there were as many as 30,000 haenyo on the island, in 2003 there were only 5,650 sea women registered as divers, of whom 85% were over 50 years old.
One of my coworker’s mom is actually a 60-year-old haenyo. I think those women are simply amazing!
I’m really excited to be living in Jejudo because it’s so different and culturally rich. It is home to thousands of local legends – such as the ubiquitous dol hareubang ("stone grandfather") carved from a block of lava.
Plus Jeju has a subtropical climate, warmer than the rest of Korea, with four distinct seasons, just like home and tons of tourist stuff - waterfalls, Mountain Halla, caves, surrounding islands, horse riding, hunting, fishing, mountain climbing and festivals (penguin swimming contest in winter, cherry blossom festival in spring, midsummer night beach festival in summer, horse festival in autumn, etc.)
Jeju? I’m lovin’ it!
(ref: wikipedia)
(pictures: google images)
