Is it normal in Korea for adult parents to physically hit their adult kids when upset with them?

This happens in the western world as well. You’re just one person that happened to have somewhat decent parents or lived in a less stressful environment.

Many people were slapped, kicked, whipped and punched during childhood in the western world and everywhere else.

@Blackberry But the OP is asking about adult children being slapped. I’m not aware of that being widespread in this culture.

In this culture if an adult child was slapped by a parent, that parent may very well find the business end of a fist from their own progeny. Particularly if this was a reoccurring theme from their childhood. I do know that elder respect is a bigger deal in Asian cultures, from what I have seen it can be to the point of abuse, like treating their children almost as servants.

Is there any context behind the violence, or are you talking about it in general?

I’m not Korean, but I come from an Asian culture that I think is pretty similar to Korea. I can attest that kids getting beaten up by parents is a common thing here. No matter how old the child is, they are still considered “the child” and should be treated as such, a child who needs to be “taught”. And since it’s ok to beat up a young child, it means beating up your adult kid is ok too. Now whether to hit an adult child is the decision of the individual parents. If they think the child is too old to be hit, so be it. If they think the child still needs discipline, so be it too, although parents are more likely to use more restraint violence toward adult kids rather than straight up violence like hitting with canes yes, slapping is actually “restraint violence.

Seriously there are just so many things that are considered backwards by Westerners that are normal here, a lot of which were only brought to my awareness when I came to Fluther. I strongly believe my culture and Korean culture shares a lot of similarity, because I have a friend who lived in Korea for some years. And while she is quite wise and insightful thanks to her exposure to another place, I can still sense some backwards attitude that slips through if I listen close enough. I feel really sad for her.

@Mimishu1995 thanks!! And the context is usually if the adult child is dating someone their parents do not approve of!.

@janbb Oh ok I missed that oops.