According to Korean legend, all animals, such as puppies, magpies and cranes wanted to become human. Details taken from larger works in the Ho-am Art Museum and the Museum of Korean Embroidery.

Stories of this kind abound in Korea.  Sometimes snakes, fish, or even centipedes aspire to be human.  Invariably they fail to overcome the tremendous obstacles lying in their path, the conflicts between their animal nature and the requirements of living in a human community.  Most of these hapless creatures are female.  A vain desire to be something other than oneself or a devotion to unworldly purposes seems to be more marked in females than males, whether among animals or humans.  I am sure, however, that modern feminists would have a lot to say about this.

Even turtles, butterflies, and mice wanted to become human. Details taken from larger works in the Emille Museum and the National Museum of Korea.

I do not believe, as many scholars seem to, that this kind of story indicates totemism, that is, a continuity and unity between human beings and animals in Korea’s premodern period.  On the contrary, I think that it points in the opposite direction, to a belief in the fundamental and unbridgeable gap between human beings and animals.  By the same token, such stories indicate the Korean concept of humanity by describing the behaviors proper for a human being.

Despite the end of ideological conflicts, contemporary civilization faces many crises: the hypertrophy of technology, destruction of the living environment, tribalistic nationalism, and so on. 

The real cause of our troubles may lie elsewhere, however.  Maybe we do not know, as this story suggests, how many of us actually are foxes, wolves, snakes, fish, or centipedes, though looking like ordinary human beings on the outside.

Jong Yil Ra is dean of the Graduate School of Kyung Hee University in Seoul, Korea.