Introduction

We, who have begun to study, research, and write about Jeju culture, say this: that Jeju must be developed through empathy and resonance that extend the existential position represented by 'I, Here, Now.' And that, to encompass all of this, Jeju must be joyful and the people of Jeju must be happy.

They say the bear does the tricks while Wang the merchant pockets the money. Jeju Island must not perform tricks for others' benefit. It must find its own joy. It must find its own happiness. This is true development. The somersaulting steeped in superficial growth, mere spectacle, and political issues and slogans must now quietly disappear.

Then how can Jeju become a joyful place and its people become happy? Let us not irresponsibly say, in step with the trends of the times, that it is a matter of material wealth and capital. Jeju Island is not Hawaii. Jeju Island is Jeju Island. Jeju Island must find its own Jeju-ness. In other words, it must know 'I, Here, Now.' And so we say: 'Know thyself!'

To concretely realize this idea, and so that Jeju Island and all of us might become happy, we departed from existing conventions and titled this book Serendipity. This is quite provocative—especially given that, ever since Western thought came to permeate our minds, it has become difficult to countenance anything beyond discussions of reason and rational thinking. Moreover, theoretically speaking, it is also somewhat unreasonable to focus solely on the 'chance' that serendipity emphasizes.

We are aware of the limitations. But what is there that is not chance? The fact that you are reading these very words now, and the fact that the authors met one another and came to undertake this research and write this book—all of it is chance.

That's right. Life is chance! And yet, because of that chance, some are happy while others are unhappy. Is it fate? Is it luck? Let us concede, for argument's sake, that both luck and fate play a part. Then who is it that manages that luck and fate, who accepts the sprout (萌芽) of luck and fate and lets it germinate into life?

Shall we go on endlessly blaming luck, fate, and others, others, others? Whether I love it or hate it, it is my life; whether I like it or not, it is my life. Yes—my fault, my fault, through my most grievous fault! Everything is my fault. Let us change, starting from ourselves. Let us transform, starting with ourselves.

Again! Life is chance. But even chance starts from me. Some are happy, some are unhappy. Both happiness and unhappiness are my own doing. Since we must choose, let us choose happiness. Let us build a happy life. Everything is my own doing, and things come to pass in proportion to what I myself have done.

And yet again! Life is chance. Good things come, and bad things come as well. What is good does not necessarily end well, and what is bad does not necessarily end badly.

Therefore, what we need is precisely serendipity—the power to turn chance into success.

This book seeks to examine this closely. We judged it important to first consider the existential position found in 'I, Here, Now,' the empathy and resonance that extend it, and the serendipity that encompasses all of this, and we have examined them accordingly.

Each of us had spent several years researching our own frameworks for viewing the world, and over the past year we jointly researched a shared framework, a common set of principles, for viewing the world together. During this time, we published several co-authored papers on this subject in registered academic journals and also published related books, thereby enhancing the objectivity of our research and fostering our own inner maturation. It was in the course of this that we came to begin research related to Jeju Island.

This is quite a challenging undertaking. There are already many existing books on Jeju, and the book we have written differs from them. There is also much writing related to problem-solving, and our writing differs from existing work in this area as well. Of course, in order to break new ground, we made every effort to thoroughly survey existing research and writing. In particular, Mr. Choi diligently visited libraries here and there in search of materials, at times even flying to Jeju Island to gather materials and meet with relevant people. Based on the materials gathered in this way, we met several times each week to discuss them.

In truth, had we had more time and financial latitude, we could have produced a more polished result. However, for us, who sought to approach things in a manner different from existing methods and from a different perspective altogether, a flawless conclusion was, from the outset, an unreasonable expectation. No matter how diligent we were or how much effort we put forth, time was absolutely insufficient. Moreover, given our agreement with the Jeju Development Institute, we could not exceed the set deadline.

In the midst of writing this book, we published a paper on the same subject in a journal registered with the National Research Foundation. Some reviewers acknowledged it as a novel attempt, while others expressed skeptical views. We had expected as much. Viewed through an existing frame, there is much that is difficult to accept. At the same time, we lacked the logical rigor and theoretical density needed to fully transcend and refute the existing framework.

Yet we know well that novelty does not arise from complacent imitation.