The Korea Society

June 10, 2021 - Nunchi is Korea’s superpower. A sixth sense for winning friends and influencing people, this time-honored skill helps you connect with others so you can succeed in everything from business to politics to love. In The Power of Nunchi: The Korean Secret to Happiness and Success, Euny Hong explains the practice of nunchi in a highly prescriptive guide for social success. Hong—whose “incisive and humorous” (New York Times Book Review) reporting on Korea is always necessary reading—explains how nunchi is a part of daily life in Korea, how a great deal of communication is based not on words but on the overall context of an interaction. Hong argues that it is what catapulted South Korea in half a century from one of the world’s poorest countries to one of its richest, coolest, and most technologically advanced. The Korean economic miracle has always been based on nunchi: the ability to “eye measure” other nations’ rapidly evolving needs, manufacture export products to meet them, and adjust plans base