1. Hyeon Jung Lee (Anthropology, SNU)

2. How can we understand East Asian societies and cultures, particularly the aspects of modernity, through the lens of suicide? What does suicidal behavior in East Asia suggest about the characteristics of family relations and the cultural beliefs in life and death in this region? How does modernity as experience and interpretation in this region differ from that of the West?

3. Long-term ethnographic research in northern rural China in 2004-2006, 2010-2012, and in urban South Korea in 2010-2012. Statistical data from WHO, Statistics Korea, and other reliable research sources. Literatures on suicide in China, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. Newspaper articles ( www.kinds.or.kr and 中國知識基 础設施工程 www.cnki.net ).

4. Guyana Suriname Uruguay China South Korea Japan Sri Lanka Russia Kazakhstan Ukraine Belarus Georgia Estonia Latvia Lithuania Sweden Finland France Poland Austria Slovenia Croatia Czech Rep. Bosnia & Herzegovina

7. URBANRURAL AgeMaleFemaleTotalMaleFemaleTotal 15-349.510.810.222.837.830.3 35-599.07.58.327.831.329.5 60-847.316.116.788.077.982.8 Total8.3 23.930.527.1 Source: Phillips, Li, and Zhang (2002) Suicide Rates in China, 1995-99. The Lancet 359:835-840. Per 100, 000 people

8. URBANRURAL AgeMaleFemaleTotalMaleFemaleTotal 15-345,7036,23112,00837,93259,88498,412 35-594,5103,8888,04741,44443,68085,146 60-841,0202,3484,76942,30038,44580,664 Total11,23312, 46724,824121,677142,008264,222 Data based on: China Population Census (China Data Online 2009) and Phillips, Li, and Zhang (2002) Person

9. SourceTotalMaleFemale WHO (1999)22.520.424.7 Phillips et al. (1995-1999) 27.123.930.5 Unofficial Record of an NGO (1999-2002) 31.5 (35.6) 71% of committed/ attempted suicide is by women. County Hospital Record (Jun-Sep, 2004) 71 people19 people52 people (73%) Accounts of a Village Officer (1998-2004) 41.7 (107.1) “Most” of them are women. Based on Villagers’ Memories (2000-2006) 16 people6 people10 people (62.5%)

10. Source: Statistics of the Causes of Death (Statistics Korea 2012) MaleFemaleTotal AgeRateNumberRateNumberRateNumber 10-196.22214.81525.5373 20-2928.299020.065024.31,640 30-3938.71,62422.088730.52,511 40-4947.72,11619.884534.02,961 50-5961.52,21020.774341.22,953 60-6978.31,55324.452850.12,081 70-79143.11,56943.668684.42,255 80-209.258379.6549116.91,132 Total43.310,86620.15,04031.715,906

11. (1) long-term family conflicts (spousal quarrels) (2) the husband’s and in-law’s violence, and (3) new gender roles and expectations within families appear to be important factors that influence depression and suicidal behavior among young married women from the ages of 15-34.

12. Young women’s desire for freedom and intimacy have been growing, but at the same time, their psychological burdens related to household economy, child education and care-giving job for the sick, have been increasing.

13. Suicides in South Korea show a sharp increase from the late 1990s. South Korea now has the highest suicide rates among OECD countries (around 33 deaths per 100 000 persons) (OECD Health Data 2012)

14. The elderly men (60 yrs and later) are more likely to take their own lives, and the largest increasing age gradient is found in Korea. Men over the age of 30 are vulnerable to suicidal death. Young women from the ages of 20-39 requires social and scholarly attention.

15. Since 1998, collective suicide among family members (usually parents’ suicide following the homicide of their own children) has become a social problem. The most vulnerable group is parents aged 30s suffering with family conflicts in the chronic economic deprivation or the sudden drop of socioeconomic status.

16. dongban jasal( 동반자살 ), oyako shinju( 親子心中 ), jieban zisha( 结伴自杀 ), compared with child homicide in the West. Does this practice explain strong familism (regarding a child as a belonging of parents) or a lack of the social safety net for children who cannot be taken care of by parents?

17. What do the differences and similarities between South Korea and China tell us?