When laughter is probably the initial reaction of Americans to New York Yankees pitcher Chan Ho Park’s diarrhea comment, the event, in reality, reflects a cultural divide between America and South Korea. Sports media in The United States – particularly New York – approach players aggressively. Players who don’t “play ball” and submit to all questioning are considered to be “malcontent” or “clubhouse cancer.” After those labels are affixed, credit repair is needed. Yet South Korean culture dictates that citizens and athletes in general place high value on such concepts as che-myun (“saving face”) and kongson (“politeness”) . When explaining why he had pitched so ineffectively in his appearances previous to the legendary April 7 “Chan Ho Park diarrhea” video, Park probably planned to set up common ground with American reporters, be cooperative, and establish the big picture for his sting of poor pitching.
Not a unique New York Yankee experience – Chan Ho Park and diarrhea
In 1986, Chan Ho Park announcing diarrhea as an excuse to the New York Media would have gotten him told to come up with a better excuse. You see, Yankees pitcher Ed Whitson was already experiencing the heat of the New York spotlight back then, and it literally caused him gastro-intestinal distress. If Chan Ho Park’s salary was tied up with investments at the moment, the problem could easily have been addressed by cheap payday loans. . And, as stated above, it is culturally taboo not to cooperate with authority figures (and the media are treated with less scorn in Asian countries like South Korea than they are in The United States). Chan Ho Park was being honest and was confused by how funny the American reporters discover his statement if you watch the video. Either that or he has been working on his poker face.
What Chan Ho Park diarrhea has to do with the Power Distance Index
The Power Distance Index (PDI) deals with how a particular culture such as South Korea deals with authority and hierarchy, according to Dutch psychologist Geert Hofstede. According to veteran military pilot and essayist Albert Southwick, “a culture with a high PDI is more apt to respect authority even when authority is plainly in error.” This could possibly suggest that America’s low PDI score – in tune with the nation’s general lack of respect for authority and foreign beliefs – indicates why the American sports media is always pushing for the sensational story. A native of South Korea – a nation with a high PDI score – would respect the media authority, even if they’re invading his privacy. That is probably why Chan Ho Park answered questions and gave Americans what they would consider TMI – too much information.
But that’s nothing in contrast to flaming plane wrecks
More study of Aouthwick’s article shows the Chan Ho Park diarrhea dynamic on a more severe scale. In the 1990s, Korean Airlines jets got into fatal accidents. It is speculated that these happened because instead of questioning the clarity of instructions from the English air traffic control towers, so as to stay clear of questioning authority, the Korean pilots misunderstood in silence. “Chan Ho Park diarrhea” is hardly a “Koreagate” when compared with loss of life, right?
Sources
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geert_Hofstede
clearlycultural.com
http://www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/power-distance-index/
thefreelibrary.com
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/When cultural taboos could be deemed life-and-death matter.(COMMENTARY)-a0191821762
