Anthony Bourdain on Han: Parts Unknown ( S. Korea)

Parts Unknown: Season 5 Episode 2 Han or Haan is a theorized culturebound syndrome in Hanja that denotes a collective feeling of oppression and isolation in the face of insurmountable odds, the overcoming of which is beyond the nation s own capabilities. It connotes aspects of lament and unavenged injustice. The minjung theologian Suh Namdong describes han as a feeling of unresolved resentment against injustices suffered, a sense of helplessness because of the overwhelming odds against one, a feeling of acute pain in one s guts and bowels, making the whole body writhe and squirm, and an obstinate urge to take revenge and to right the wrongall these