九０年代的韓國興起了一個「發現自我」的浪潮，從商界人士要求一個傑出韓國文化理論開始，到由上一代菁英階級發起的儒學復興運動，以及其他年輕人中找尋傳統文化的大眾運動。這些追尋與七０年代日本的「日本人論」，載作為對西方支配的反動而生的文化國族主義運動有許多相似之處，但由於在該時期殖民的歷史經驗上的差異，使韓國不同於日本，形成了一個與殖民者相對的防禦性的自我認知。而再七０及八０年代的民眾運動中，韓國性的建構則在政治目的的強烈影響下，被本質化；到了九０年代，則是在全球化的脈絡下，顯示了國族主義與資本主義的接合。這些建構一直是政治的而非文化的，然而卻也開啟 了韓人可解構、進而再建構一個與真實歷史經驗相關的自我論述場域。

　　　　　A boom in "finding us" have emerged in the 1990s in Korea, starting with the demands from the businessmen for a theory of distinctive Korean culture, moving to the Confucian revival movement among the older generation elites and to other popular movements of exploring traditional culture among the youth. The search for national identity in the 1990s in South Korea has a resemblance with the Japanese "nihonhjinron" in the 1970s, as being a cultural nationalistic movement against the threat of Western domination. However, by the different historical experience of colonization, Koreans form a defensive ego in response to the colonizers. In the "minjung" movement in the 1970s and 1980s, the narratives of ego have been essentialized under the influence of political interest; in the 1990s, the narratives illustrate the connection of global capitalism and nationalism in the context of globalization. Those constructions of narratives have been political rather than cultural. However, they serve as a field where Koreans are able to deconstruct and thus construct narratives about themselves based upon daily historical experiences.