Why has Christianity taken a strong root in Korea and the Philippines when it has not elsewhere in Asia?

Answer 1

Answer 1

Koreans liked Christianity because the Japanese and Chinese did not, so it became a part of Korean culture more easily as something that was different from the Chinese and Japanese.

Answer 2

Philippines

The Philippines is easier to explain. The Philippines was under Spanish occupation from 1570 until 1898 and under US American occupation from 1898 until 1945. Having centuries of Christian leadership in the Philippines along with heavy Spanish proselytization explains much of the conversions. Additionally, much of Christianity paralleled previous animistic beliefs with Christian saints taking the place of individual gods or spirits and Christian rosaries replacing traditional amulets.

Long term colonization changing the religion of an indigenous population is nothing new. Vietnam is 8% Catholic as a result of roughly 100 years of French occupation and Hong-Kong has many Christian institutions as a result of roughly 150 years of British occupation.

Korea

Korea is much more interesting. Missionaries had not even considered Korea before the Korean Lee Seung-hoon was converted by a Catholic Missionary in Beijing. This first Korean Christian returned to Korea to begin converting a small population of Koreans. In this way, Christianity began to spread more as a grass-roots effort for about a century. However, since Korean Christians argued against Shamanism and Ancestor-Worship, they were persecuted by the Choseon Dynasty of Korea and did not become large.

Later Christianity became popular with the progressive members of the Korean intelligentsia due its advocacy of human equality regardless of birth and placement. Given the regimented nature of the Korean political aristocracy, these ideas had strong implications. Further, Christian Schools and Christian Bibles really became the first public use of the Hangeul alphabet, expanding Korean educational opportunities. As more Koreans became educated by Christians to become literate, Christianity gained exposure. Since the Protestants were primarily behind this new wave of "Hangeulization" of Korean, Protestantism began to outstrip Catholicism as the dominant Christianity of Korea.

Of course, North Korea has surpressed all religion save the State-ideology of Juche, which has spelled the end to Christianity in North Korea.

I further disagree with Answer 1, because Korean culture has borrowed much from the Chinese (such as Confucianism; Buddhism; the ideographic writing up to the development of Hangeul system; the bureaucratic system of administration; etc.) and much from the Japanese (such as grammatical constructs; economic and legal structures; cuisine with a heavy emphasis on seafood, rice, and meat; and a strong naval force). In fact, things that were adopted by either China or Japan would probably have a better chance of becoming endemic to Korea.