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The values that support the unions--and the rigid attitudes of white-collar workers--are changing, even more for the younger generation. When former construction boss Chung lost his job and his status, he and his wife were worried that they would be scorned by their three children. The kids surprised them. The Chungs' teenage son helps his father with deliveries. When Mrs. Chung fretted about their drop in status, the teenager reminded his mother of a story she told him as a child about how the local cleaning man was not born a cleaning man but was just playing the hand fate had dealt him. The Chungs' daughter, 20, a sophomore attending Yonsei University in Seoul, comes by to help her mother dish out bowls of steaming white rice to go with the hot pots. "My daughter said what we're doing is admirable," Mrs. Chung recalls. "We both cried when our children told us how proud they were." As the Chungs are discovering, the pioneer spirit can accomplish a lot.
--With reporting by Stella Kim/Seoul