I'm sure most here are aware of how progress happens in a society - it happens bit by bit, person by person, eventually turning into a kind of unstoppable momentum that brings about sweeping change. I've lived in Korea for some six (maybe seven?) years now, and even though I love the country, a big negative for a long time has been an overall dislike of cats. This has changed a great deal over the past few years though.
I spend quite a bit of time every day helping out cats I know that either live on the street or at a nearby temple, and have written about it in quite some detail (with pictures and video of quite a few of them) on Page F30 here and here.
Korea has been a bit of an oddity amongst developed countries in not liking cats until quite recently. There's a saying that when a country's per capita GDP reaches $10,000 it begins to like dogs, and when it doubles that then it starts to like cats too. That's a very rough estimation but it's true to a certain extent that it's easier to like animals when you have the ability to take care of them, use the internet, watch movies etc. and see the rest of the world getting along just fine with their pets.
One reason given for Korea not liking cats until now has been a superstition of cats as scary night animals, but one other major reason IMO has been the closed nature of the internet here. It's not censored (except for North Korean sites), but to sign up for most sites you need a 주민등록번호, which is like a SSN. Sites here legally have to require that number to sign up instead of just an e-mail address. Foreigners can send in a scan of their passport which is horrendously slow and annoying, and keeps me from bothering to sign up for just about anywhere. I think the closed nature of the internet here is what kept Koreans a little bit more isolated petwise until the advent of Flash videos that can be viewed and embedded just about everywhere. All of a sudden even the Korean internet is cute cats galore.
On that note, here's the cat that I like best and likes me best here in Korea. His name is MB:
I first found MB on a hill at the temple here, or rather, I heard him. One day I heard the sound of a kitten meowing (more like yelling), but couldn't see anything because of all the plants. I made my way up the hill and eventually saw this black and white kitten calling out for his mom that wasn't there, and looked really thin. Luckily I always carry around a kind of cheese sausage that cats like, so I broke off a piece and threw it his way. After the second one he realized that there was food in front of him and came forward to eat it, making some pretty loud OM NOM NOM sounds as he did. While he ate I scooped him up into my arms and got him to eat there, and every day after that I would visit him at the temple to give him food to eat, and now almost a year later he's big and strong. He's always followed me around whenever I go there so the only way to get away is to give him his favourite food and walk off while he's eating.
(In case you're wondering, I would take care of him myself but I live in a really small place. Plus MB is extra loud. The eventual plan is to move somewhere where I can take care of him)
Back to the temple: there are a number of other cats at the temple that aren't afraid of humans, and these cats "convert" dozens of people a day as they come to the temple, marvel at how they don't run away, and many pet them for the first time. People in their 40s or so are usually those that are most afraid of cats, but even people that age are beginning to like them too. MB for example has converted all the women that work in the kitchen where he lives. They're all in their 40s too and not a one of them knew anything about cats before he arrived, and now I often find MB rolling around on the ground and scratching one of their shoes (he loves shoes) when I arrive every day.
Finally, cats have been getting a lot better press on TV as well. SBS (one of the three main stations) was at the temple last week to film one of the cats. That cat isn't afraid of anybody and doesn't eat anything but dry cat food, so they think of him as a bit of a vegetarian since he's not even remotely interested in things like fish and tuna. EBS (a slightly smaller channel but the largest educational one) also is filming a long documentary on cats in Korea that they said would be out next month in two parts. Even one of Korea's most famous singers, Lee Hyori, likes to feed stray cats on the street, something that just a decade ago was thought to be a bit insane (based on the idea I think that only those without human friends would choose to spend time with animals like that).
This is a bit of a quiet revolution, and I think it will succeed within the next few years. People that don't like cats will still dislike cats, but in the way that most in North America don't: they just prefer dogs, or are allergic or whatever, but still know that they have their own thoughts and feelings and certainly aren't afraid of them (afraid of a cat! The idea still makes me laugh). Koreans on the whole really like the idea of being intelligent and cosmopolitan and well-traveled, so they are very quick to adopt cultural values that they have decided are worthwhile. This is another one that I see them in the process of adopting as we speak.