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Korea’s community alcohol culture has been characterized for centuries by crafting a hierarchical label and an excess.
The glasses are adjusted with both hands and, after declaring them mashigo-jukja, “We drink and die,” the younger members of the group leave deferentially from their older peers before retrieving the drinks.
However, as the coronavirus pandemic lasts, these clearly collective customs are being abandoned for a new trend: homsul, or drinking at home, sun.
The trend has caught the attention of both investors and social scientists.
Rising alcohol sales have been well received as rare bright spots in an economy struggling to achieve a sustained recovery in domestic consumption despite record government stimulus measures.
But widespread isolation raises concerns about the country’s already high rates of depression and suicide.
Hyun-joo Mo, a Seoul-based anthropologist, said that while people were facing similar problems around the world, Seoul’s already extreme alcohol culture had become more “dangerous”.
“They don’t talk, they just drink. At least before they spoke, they had a conversation, ”he said.
South Korea has instituted this week tougher blocking measures since the onset of the pandemic, while health officials struggled to combat the transmission of the highly infectious Delta variant.
Across the large area of Seoul, home to nearly half of the country’s 52 million people, meetings of more than two people have been banned after 6pm and schools and daycares have been closed.
As restrictions have expanded, homsul, Mo added, had become generally among younger Koreans who found themselves with high unemployment and low wages, in addition to parents who worked with children under immense pressure due to rising housing and education costs.
“They feel isolated, depressed, desperate,” he said.
For brands of alcoholic beverages, homsul has been welcomed because the curfews of months in social activities and mass meetings have forced bars, restaurants and nightclubs and the ubiquitous South Korea norae-bang, or karaoke rooms, to close, many permanently.
According to Fitch Solutions, spending on alcoholic beverages in the country will increase by more than 8%, to $ 6.8 billion this year. This compares to modest 2% growth in sales in South Korea last year, while alcohol consumption across Asia decreased by 2%.
According to Ng Jun Ying, a food and beverage analyst at Fitch, the household consumption trend in South Korea “will remain in place for most of 2021.”
For alcohol distributors, a sharp increase in wine consumption also helps to offset the damage caused to the hospitality sector by the closure of bars and nightclubs.
Sale of beer and spirits, included cep, the national liqueur traditionally made with rice, still accounts for the majority of sales, but wine imports increased by more than 30% in 2020, Ng noted.
South Korea has the highest suicide rate among OECD members with 24.6 deaths per 100,000 people. Lithuania was the second highest with 21.6, followed by Slovenia with 16.5.
Seoul health officials said they had increased resources for suicide prevention helplines after volunteers reported a 50% increase in calls during the pandemic.
If anything in this story has affected you and you need help, you can contact Lifeline Korea at 1588-9191. In the UK, Samaritans are at 116 123. The national suicide prevention line in the United States is 1-800-273-8255.
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