I do tons of research on South Korea and yet I cannot find anything on what a guardian is or what they're called in Korean. I hear it mentioned all the time in kdrama and the mom in My ID is Gangam Beauty just told her son he sounded like a guardian. I've seen kdrama where even a younger brother was required to sign for his older sister. I recently watched a tiny documentary on single women in the mid to late thirties and beyond having issues getting medical care because they dont have a guardian to sign for them. Can anybody enlighten me on this situation with a guardian? Please? I am going nuts not being able to find even the tiniest shred of information on it online. I only stumbled on the documentary researching something else. I am researching sexism and sexual discrimination in South Korea and I think this is an important issue but I just cant find anything on it.  Thanks!!!

Just curious, what is the name of the drama where younger brother was required to sign for his older sister?

Pretty Noona Who Buys Me Food. I think it's the most recent noona romance drama made. I couldnt finish it because it just looked like it was going to end in disaster. 

I think the necessity of having a guardian signing your papers has something to do with the "family register" or hoju? The system has been abolished, though, according to Wikipedia.

My guess is that the term "guardian" probably means different things in different scenarios. Patients who are minors in many countries require a legal guardian (usually their parent) to make medical decisions and provide consent before medical procedures like surgeries. A legal guardian can also be appointed to make medical decisions for adult patients when they are not able to make those decisions themselves (e.g. if they're in a coma or are mentally disabled). Children are often appointed as legal guardians for their elderly parents once they begin to show signs of dementia.

Up until shockingly recently, many countries still required women to have a male guardian (a father, brother, or husband) sign for them or at least give their permission in order to do basic things like open a bank account (in the US and UK women obtained that right in the 60s and 70s, in Saudi Arabia they still don't have that right). It sounds like there was a similar practice in place when it came to obtaining medical care for women in Korea in the 1930s, but I would be very surprised if such practices were still legal today.

But a guardian can also be a non-legal term for someone who looks after another person. Depending on the situation, that could be a parent, another family member, a god parent or adoptive parent, or anyone else who ends up looking after another person. My guess is that the mum in My ID is Gangnam Beauty just meant that he sounded like someone who is responsible for looking after another person, whether as a parent or some other capacity. 

I don't remember that scene in Pretty Noona? In episode 8 the ML helps look through some of the FL's paper work while she's still receiving treatment, but she doesn't need anyone to sign off before she can leave. Do you mean when she tells the ML "They said I can leave?"? Because yes, she just made a phone call before saying that, but the phone call was to her parents who don't even know that she's in the hospital, not to her brother. Presumably the nurse that was just looking after her told her she was all set to leave. 

@ Kura2ninja, I think you are right about the family register, at least partially, but as of the time that the documentary I was referring to was posted, Dec last year, people had to have a family member sign for them to receive treatment at a hospital. The quote from the documentary:

"If I need medical surgery, only my direct family members are eligible to sign the consent form. I currently live with my friend, who is single as well, but she would not be eligible to sign the form even if my life depended on it. " 

They dont happen to mention if this applies to men too, but I suspect it doesnt since this documentary is about single women. If you want to watch the whole thing, it's here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmwfNdUbd4c

@ AH, the scene in Pretty Noona was in the beginning of the series when she gets into a fight with her ex and has to go to the police station. Her brother comes to get her our of trouble and the police officer at the desk asks who will sign for her. 

The term "guardian comes" up often in drama, but that is of course the English version. I have yet to actually catch the term in Korean, which is part of what is driving me crazy about it. Though if I had it, I am still not sure I'd be able to find out what it actually means.  The term was used as recently as this year in the drama My ID is Gangnam Beauty. The mother tells her son that he is developing into a proper guardian in relation to how he was treating his love interest. 

 mojavered:
"If I need medical surgery, only my direct family members are eligible to sign the consent form. I currently live with my friend, who is single as well, but she would not be eligible to sign the form even if my life depended on it. " 

I assume this refers to a situation in which the woman couldn't consent to surgery herself (e.g. if she's unconscious) and someone needs to make the decision for her. In this case, her friend wouldn't be allowed to consent, the hospital would have to get consent from her family members.

 mojavered:
@ AH, the scene in Pretty Noona was in the beginning of the series when she gets into a fight with her ex and has to go to the police station. Her brother comes to get her our of trouble and the police officer at the desk asks who will sign for her. 

This could be a bail/guarantee situation if the woman in the scene was of age. Do you have the time stamp of one of these mentions? I'd love to check what the characters are actually saying and what the context is.

There is a guardian system in Korea for children and disabled people just like there is in most other countries but not for women in particular. Legally, women have the exact same rights as men (including voting/healthcare/property).

@ devitto, thank you for your reply. Unfortunately I dont have access to that drama since DF shut down so I cant go check. I just know it happened after she beat the snot out of her ex and it's pretty early in the series. You might be right about the bail situation, but it still seems odd to me that a grown woman cant sign herself out. What if she had no family or friends to sign her out, what would she do? Same goes for the hospital situation mentioned in the video, what do you do if you are a single person with no family and you are unconscious and you need emergency medical care? Do they just let you die? And does it work the same for men in those situations as it does for women? I'm sure my incredulity comes from the fact that such things dont happen in the states, but I am still very curious how that all works. The video hints at the gov. there hoping to make a change at least in regards to how an unconscious person receives medical treatment, but I am very curious how it works as whole and if there is any discrimination between men and women, whether it be by law or by custom.

 mojavered:
@ AH, the scene in Pretty Noona was in the beginning of the series when she gets into a fight with her ex and has to go to the police station. Her brother comes to get her our of trouble and the police officer at the desk asks who will sign for her. 


 devitto:
This could be a bail/guarantee situation if the woman in the scene was of age. Do you have the time stamp of one of these mentions? I'd love to check what the characters are actually saying and what the context is.

I checked it on Netflix. It's two minutes and ten seconds into episode 7. The ML and the FL's brother show up for the FL and the mother of the FL's ex boyfriend shows up for him. The FL and her ex are both around 30 years old.

According to the English subs, the police officer says "First I need to talk to your guardians." And he asks the mum and brother (who both take a seat) for their IDs. We don't see what happens after that. The next scene is all of them walking out of the police station.

This page, which loosely and briefly summarizes points from some of the episodes, agrees with your hypothesis that the guardians are there to provide bail.

 mojavered:
What if she had no family or friends to sign her out, what would she do? Same goes for the hospital situation mentioned in the video, what do you do if you are a single person with no family and you are unconscious and you need emergency medical care? Do they just let you die?

There might be slight differences between countries, but the general rule for medical treatment is that doctors must always obtain consent before providing treatment. The one exception is for emergency treatment. If a patient is not capable of giving consent (e.g. if they are unconscious) and a legal guardian is not available to provide consent, but the patient requires emergency treatment, doctors can do what is immediately medically necessary.

If you face criminal charges and have no friends or family who can provide your bail, you can probably call on a lawyer. If no one provides bail, then the person facing charges would probably have to stay in a holding cell at the police station. I think I've seen dramas where that happens. That would be pretty similar to what happens in the US. If you're charged and can't post bail then you either have to plead guilty or you're held until your trial date. It's a really serious issue. The first segment of this podcast gives a really good overview of the problems with the current bail requirements in the US justice system.

@ AH, thank you so much for your very thorough reply! While I do think the situation with Pretty Noona is a normal bail type situation, I feel like when it comes to medical treatment, if you dont have a guardian, you dont get helped.  At least based on that documentary that I posted.  One woman is careful to mention that she wouldnt receive treatment even if her life depended on it. From watching so much drama, I get the feeling that being a guardian in SK is a bit different than what it is here in the states and is generally the job of a man/male, which is why the single women in that documentary find it so hard to be single at their ages. They want to be single but worry that they wont receive care without a guardian. It will most likely change pretty soon though, would be my guess. I think SK is really changing a lot in recent years. At least it seems to be based on all the blog post comments I've been reading from expats living in SK. 

 mojavered:
I get the feeling that being a guardian in SK is a bit different than what it is here in the states and is generally the job of a man/male, which is why the single women in that documentary find it so hard to be single at their ages. They want to be single but worry that they wont receive care without a guardian.

That's not the case. Of course there is discrimination, there are stereotypes, your grandparents will probably look down on you for being single in your 30s (mine probably will, too, and I'm super white) -- But there are no legal or medical consequences. 

Don't take dramas as a realistic representation of the South Korean culture; they really, really aren't. There is actually quite a bit of an uproar at the moment about the misogynistic way women are often portrayed in dramas. Cinderella stories? Contract marriages? Dragged by their arms or cornered into kisses? Those oh-so-funny "Kdrama Clichés" that are actually very damaging to real women in Korea.

As seen in this thread, people see these scenes and assume Koreans live that way. The general public is getting angrier and that's why dramas are slowly but surely changing and we're getting stronger female leads. 

I recently read this article about this topic, they compiled a list of 120 dramas released between July 2017 and June 2018 in the "Romance" genre and counted instances of forced touches, verbal abuse, etc. Even if you don't know Korean, look at the numbers on the charts. It's scary, isn't it. And women in Korea suffer because of these portrayals.

Link to Article

 mojavered:
I feel like when it comes to medical treatment, if you dont have a guardian, you dont get helped.  At least based on that documentary that I posted.  One woman is careful to mention that she wouldnt receive treatment even if her life depended on it. From watching so much drama, I get the feeling that being a guardian in SK is a bit different than what it is here in the states and is generally the job of a man/male, which is why the single women in that documentary find it so hard to be single at their ages.

I watched the youtube clip and I agree the situation she describes is bizarre. There should never be a situation where a doctor cannot provide life-saving medical treatment in an emergency (unless the patient explicitly does not give consent), especially if the patient actively consents or they are unable to consent but a non-blood-related guardian is available to provide consent on their behalf.

The clip also says that "Because the tax system, welfare policies, and even the medical insurance system are designed for families, they alienate unmarried women and single-person households."

It sounds like the issue is that, whether you're a man or a woman, there are situations where the medical insurance system and other related systems require family members to be involved in the process, so if you're a single person and you don't live with or near your parents the system doesn't work for you.

@ devitto, I actually dont get any of my information from the dramas I watch. I figure they are just about as factual as any Hollywood movie and while some facts might be true, the way they portray life is generally way off.  I only reference the dramas because that is where I hear the term guardian all the time. But as far as checking on sexual discrimination in SK, I get all that info from various publications, like Korea Expose, and youtube channels and blogs by people who taught English there and came back and by reading comments on all of these posts. 

There is a documentary on prostitution in Korea on Amazon and I basically knew all the facts before watching it just by reading stories from expats. There is a very serious problem with prostitution over there and people are extremely hypocritical about it. More than 80% of the men in Korea use a prostitute at least 4 times a month. This is the salaryman culture. Most business deals are done in brothels and its not hard to find porn vids of sex going on in noraebangs. Most wives in Korea accept that their men visit prostitutes but it's not acceptable the other way around. What is so hypocritical about it is that if any celebrity gets caught in one, then it seems the public just goes bonkers over it and all is lost for the person who got caught. How can you have so many ways of paying for sex and yet act all upset about it when somebody gets caught? It's bizarre. 

Here is another little factoid for you, Korean men are driving the underage sex trade around the world. They are by far the largest majority of men who take sex vacations to other east Asian countries and the majority of the people they have sex with are minors. This is fact. All if this information is available online if you know how to find it. I also follow a photographer on Instagram who lives in Seoul and is married to a Korean woman. One of his series of photos is all about the lack of understanding of a womans sexuality.  

Dont get me wrong though. I am not the kind of person who believes that just because some people in a country do the wrong thing that that means that all people do. Seems horribly unfair though because me being a US citizen, I get lumped right in with all the crazy racists that get all the media attention. Whatever. Stuff happens.  But I dont believe for a minute that Korea is populated with a bunch of misogynistic, sex crazed pedophiles, but I also believe that the sexual discrimination there is still very bad and has a long way to go before it changes and dramas actually help with that. Did you know that women over there have to wear pads in their bras to make sure their nipples dont show? Because if they do show, they believe they are at fault if they get sexually harassed. They did a little something on that on a recent drama that I love and forget the name of now. A woman who worked in an office hated her bra and never wore it and all the men treated her like she was easy. She got her revenge and the drama showed that those kinds of attitudes are all wrong. So dramas dont always perpetuate current social norms and often try to improve bad social norms. You can even find homosexual movies on Asian Crush that were made in SK. Very taboo there but people are making those films. 

@ AH, I agree that is does sound like it applies to both men and women when you look at what they say about single people households. In a way I get it because they cant really get sued that way. If it's law I mean. Course that would never fly in the states. A hospital would get sued for NOT helping.