O r I e n t a L i s t y c z n y, T. LXVI, Z. 1, 2013, (s. 27–46) tomasz śleziak the Role of Confucianism in Contemporary South Korean Society Abstract

East Asia, in: Communication Monographs, Vol. 55, No. 4, pp. 374–388, Dec 1988.
28
Parents Pray, Jets Grounded for Korea College Exam, Reuters Online: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/09/
us-korea-exam-odd-idUSTRE7A849U20111109, accessed 12 January 2012.Reuters 2011.
29
Rodney E. Taylor Ph.D and Howard Y.F. Choy, Ph.D., Illustrated Encyclopedia of Confucianism, The Rosen 
Publishing Group, New York 2005.
30
Hwan Cha Seong, op. cit.
31
Circumstances: Laurel Kendall, Shamans, Nostalgias and the IMF, University of Hawai’i Press 2009,
pp. 137–139.

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THE ROLE OF CONFUCIANISM IN CONTEMPORARY SOUTH KOREAN SOCIETY
35
problems is that many of them, due to growing up in a wartime conditions of the first 
half of the XXth century, did not have an opportunity for professional education. With 
time, the discrepancies have grown between them and the younger generations, who – 
educated at the academic facilities and grown up in cities – gained clear advantage at 
the job market. Still, it is noticeable that the seniors – continuously unemployed due 
to personal circumstances, or the company retirees – seek new job possibilities at the 
“silver job fairs”. Since the traditional model of familial support for the older members 
is not always applied by their children or grandchildren, and accounting for the low 
number of the retirees covered by the government pension system, it is understandable 
for the elderly to seek further means of financial support
32
. This situation of the older 
generations, stemming from the rapidly changing structure of South Korean family and 
the economy of this country, is in stark contrast with the traditionally inscribed rule of 
respect for the elders, and the father-teacher-king chain of positions – the respect for 
which lied in the center of Joseon’s Confucian tradition.