Okay, so a few words about aegyo, neoteny, and youth.

First of all, youth - or rather, adolescence. Let's look at the words first, shall we?

"Adolescere" means "to mature, grow up", implying it is a transitory state - a road, rather than a place.

Then there is "puberty" - which comes from "puber", meaning (sexually mature) adult. Same root as "pubic", btw.

In (sino-)Korean, though? The word is "청춘", which means "verdant spring".

That already shows a massively different attitude.

Many Western cultures now see adulthood as desirable, cos it's seen as the age where an individual is free - Asian cultures, on the other hand, do not to the same degree.

Adolescence is seen as something distinct, something to be cherished, not get over with as soon as possible.

Next, neoteny. It's a biological term for adults retaining physical traits of the young.

No ethnicity is more affected by it than Asians. Simply put, we "look younger" - generally, we don't grow beards, we are less curvy, etc.

So the simple fact of the matter is that generally speaking, a 30 year old Korean looks FAR more like their 15 year old self than, say, their white counterpart.

I had to show ID to buy beer in Germany at 25, where the legal drinking age is 16.

So the lines are less distinct.

So if adolescence is considered an ideal state of being - spring is the most celebrated season in Korea, as well as my name - and people look like teenagers until they're damn near 30, aegyo begins to make a lot more sense, doesn't it.

Simply put, infantilisation is only bad if you think being a child is bad - but then, Western children openly yell how they hate their parents and how they can't wait to turn 18.

As though being told what to do by your boss was better than the same from your mum.

And there's another aspect right there - Asian parent-child relationships mean that in a very real sense, we never STOP being children.

I'm 41 damn years old, and my mother still calls me "우리아기" & "내새끼", and babies the fuck out of me.

So there it is.

You don't have to like aegyo, but thinking it is ipso facto bad comes from a lack of understanding of the meaning of youth in Korean culture.

And telling Koreans to stop it because you hate your childhood is not the fucking move.