ABSTRACT
Seventh son Mong Yun was chatting with Uncle Chung Se Yung one morning over the phone about the proper name of S.Y.’s first grandson. He hung up after a few minutes of discussion on the most appropriate Chinese character and mused for a moment about the future. “We postpone our investment in new enterprises,” he said, agreeing with uncle, “but it is a temporary problem.” Even Hyundai’s enemies in the government, he believed firmly, “do not want Hyundai to break up.” For that matter, he doubted if the bureaucrats were out to get the old man just because they couldn’t stand to see this nouveau riche peasant’s son and his 120 or so immediate family members rolling in far greater wealth than those same bureaucrats, for all their Seoul National University degrees and socially proper marriages, would ever see before drawing their paltry pensions. No, said Mong Yun, “I don’t think they’re jealous about my father.”
