The unusual dismissal of a tenured professor from his position was a retaliatory decision made because of Whang's criticism against Geun-hye Park, the 11th President of South Korea.
Dr. Whang currently runs a podcast WhangShimSo, where he provides free consultations on personal and career conflicts, and commentates on the diverse social issues in Korean Society.
[6] He was born as a second child in the town of Jinhae, and lived there until he was 9 years old when his parents decided to move to the bigger city of Pusan for the opportunity to better educate their children.
This led me to think that in Korean society I need to do well academically in order to be treated properly as a person even before having any idea of what I really want to do.”[7] In the spring of 1981, Whang was admitted into Seoul National University's Social Sciences department.
After receiving his BA in psychology in 1985, Sang Min Whang continued his studies at East Graduate School under professor Bong Yeon Suh's guidance.
The question that continues to be repeated in Sang Min Whang's work since his graduate school days can be summarized as follows: "How are peoples' minds living in a particular society or culture expressed in different ways for each individual?"
(Refer to "Digital Freaks Decide Future Consumption")[9] In his life as a researcher, Sang Min Whang delved into the subject of the “self,” especially “identification and respect for an individual's disposition” based on the study of “Korean Peoples’ Identity.” In particular, he researched the relationship between “the self oneself perceives” and “the self others perceive,” or the “real self” and the “ideal self” Koreans experience and build in various aspects by connecting it to specific fields in education, development, politics, marketing, etc.
[10] He rejected mainstream psychology that looks for the “average” among people and tried to define the different individual characteristics expressed in a cultural or societal setting and measure these “unknown concepts” using MDS (Multidimensional Scaling).
In order to find a method that can investigate the characteristics of each individual living in a sociocultural environment instead of assuming an absolute and immutable attribute, Sang Min Whang organized a seminar called “What is Research Methodology?” with his students after starting his post in Yonsei University.
One of the people invited to this seminar was Heung Gyu Kim, a former professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, who introduced Q Methodology to Whang.
According to Sang Min Whang, Q Methodology makes it possible to do a quantum-mechanical interpretation of the mind unlike the existing factor analysis that was being used in psychology.
It applied the fact that like how the subject can be conscious of the observer and decide on its movements and change, an individual can be aware of her environment and her own characteristics to manifest them (Refer to Q Workshop Manual).
[11] However, Sang Min Whang thought these five factors would combine and manifest in different ways depending on the sociocultural environment and an individual's experience and beliefs.
Likewise, a person's mind becomes known not by the score from individual psychological traits or factors, but only after going through a larger frame that can look at those comprehensively.” (<
After publishing his “President Geun Hye Park Image” research in Shin Dong Ah magazine, Sang Min Whang was sent to Yonsei University's disciplinary committee for “violation of prohibition on holding a job outside of professorship and violation of prohibition on engaging in commercial activity”[21] and the former Yonsei University president, Gap Young Cheung, who was being mentioned as a potential minister nominee in Geun Hye Park's regime, passed the dismissal motion on his last day in office on January 29, 2016.
The retaliatory decision to dismiss a tenured professor, along with Yoo Ra Chung's illicit admission incident, showed that universities lost academic autonomy and became an instrument of political power.
However, it was confirmed Sang Min Whang did not receive any salary or engage in any commercial activity for profit and only conducted research by accepting projects through Wisdom Center.
Gap Young Cheung, who removed Sang Min Whang from Yonsei University, was one of the figures being mentioned as a nominee for the first chief of staff or the minister of economy under Geun Hye Park's regime, but he unable to take a government post.
[30][31] In other instances of abuse of power, it became known Geun Hye Park's regime not only made the conglomerate CJ group discontinue the Saturday Night Live television program that satirized Geun Hye Park, but also exerted pressure on CJ group's human resources to influence management position appointments within the company.
[32] This example shows thorough vindictive punishment was carried out against people who revealed the true nature of Geun Hye Park's regime by applying “charges that do not have anything to do with the regime.” Like how in the dynasty era the suspicion of “having taken part in a conspiracy” was cast on everyone to cause a “purge” to happen and was used as an excuse to punish people, in Geun Hye Park's regime where she was called the “queen” by the masses, the suspicion of “having engaged in profit-seeking activity” that could easily incur hatred among people was used to discipline a company that could legitimately engage in profit-seeking activity and discipline a professor who had the right to freely research.
This is because in 2014 when Sang Min Whang was sent to the disciplinary action committee, he did five presentations in international and domestic academic societies and published one dissertation and the book The Person That Is Me.
It was brought up that Sung Joo Kim may be a member of the hidden power organization called “eight fairies” related to the Soon Sil Choi scandal, but she denied the allegation.
Professor Chang Yong Kim, who asserts that he also experienced the dangers of disadvantages caused by criticizing the regime, criticized Yonsei University's actions against Whang and warned against the current danger the state of social sciences is in Korea and scholars’ freedom becoming limited by saying as follows:“He was easily terminated by the so-called “genital” comment even though he was a full professor who was guaranteed retirement (tenure).
The following is the body of the research explanation that was published in Shin Dong Ah.“To the public that perceives President Park as a ‘foolish ruler,’ she is like “a king that tries to privatize the country.” Above all, she is an “incompetent and lazy” leader.
He may more or less fall short in taking actual action or combat because he is a strategist, but the public is satisfied with a leader who provides direction to keep the people from feeling confused.
However, in the actual recording of Gordian Knot, the sensational line “Candidate Park is a woman only in her genitals” was not found and there was only a comment ‘that (the claim by anchor Jong Jin Park that at-the-time candidate Geun-hye Park also has femininity) is an issue of genitals (not) acting in the role of a woman…’ Sung Joo Kim, who was the co-chair of the presidential campaign committee of Saenuri party at the time, visited Yonsei University in protest and demanded Whang's resignation from professorship in relation to this incident and appeared on Hyun Jung Kim's news show and testified that she received a promise from Yonsei University to send Sang Min Whang to the disciplinary action committee.
Sang Min Whang said “[I] did not [use the word “genitals” to] belittle women as a whole but used [the word] as an academic term to differentiate between societal role and biological difference,” but Sung Joo Kim retorted, “his action is one of not being able to distinguish things you should say and things you should not say.” On this, Sang Min Whang analyzed if Sung Joo Kim “is idolizing candidate Park as a divine being and not as a person then it shows the state of mind as is that considers the word “genitals” as profane and blasphemous.”[Gordian Knot Episode 219 relevant section recording (Sang Min Whang / ●: Jong Jin Park)]Whang: When we say a woman is less corrupt than a man, in that instance is the difference between a woman and a man a difference in genitals or are we talking about a difference in how they live?Park: I don't know about that.
If Yuna Kim goes to teaching practice, does it mean she fulfilled all the prerequisites to become a student-teacher by going to class assiduously for 4 years in college and received grades for completing courses?
A college has given up being a college and stooped to the level of gaining publicity like a regular corporation.”[39]Unlike Sang Min Whang's intention to discuss “Korean universities’ utilizing students as a means for gaining publicity and the preferential treatment of elite sports athletes,” he became embroiled in the controversy of “fact checking Yuna Kim's teaching practice.” A teacher from Yuna Kim's teaching practice site, Seoul Jinseon Girls' High School, refuted in an interview on “Mi-hwa Kim's Everybody” to “please check the fact that [Yuna Kim] is coming to school and diligently coming to practice teaching” and on June 6 Yuna Kim's management company, All That Sports, sued Sang Min Whang for slander saying “there are parts of what he said that are untrue that he spoke of as if it were true and because that damages the athlete's honor we are taking legal measures.” However, they also left the possibility of dropping the lawsuit open by saying, “we can drop the suit at any time if professor Whang apologizes for the false information that was not checked.”[40] On the controversy surrounding his comments, Whang said “I think it is possible to specially grant college admission to any number of (star athletes).
[42] At the end of 2016, the occurrence of "Geun Hye Park–Soon Sil Choi Gate" shed new light on Sang Min Whang's dismissal from Yonsei University in the press and in politics.