Sajik Heights and micro-hanokization

My previous post* reminds me I forgot to mention an interesting development over Sajik Tunnel : this new hanok overlooking the traffic.



I waited to have the photo opportunity as a car passenger to show the impact from Sajikno. Of course, what strikes you first is the very ugly Yangeuimun Church, a towering white monster under wraps these days (maybe to transform into a towering colorful monster). The red bar to its right is the Korea Social Science Data Archive (KOSSDA or 한국 사회과학자료원). Further to the right is the Jongno Culture and Sports Center, where I used to go swimming twice a week or so**. And to reach this place from Gwanghwamun Space Bon, I had to pass in front of that hanok spot so I know pretty well every inch along the way.

I could write stories about the alleyway leading up to what I call Sajik Heights from Sajikno, the pawprints left by a dog on the rough concrete staircase, the passage over Sajik Tunnel (now covered with a deck), and the poor white dog who broke my heart each time I passed by her tiny place : either leashed or in her small cage, the poor bitch ruled over a 10 square feet staircase (she managed to get babies once but didn't keep them for long).

Now about this new hanok. There's a bigger one behind, and the owner used to grow an amazing variety veggetables in front of his place, including where this small new extension stands, by the ruins of a house partly serving as a parking lot.

This is a truly minor change, and there are many other hanoks nearby, and more than a few nice "jutaek" on the way to Sajik-dan and Seochon, but this tiny detail could have a lot of significance for the local urban landscape because of its visibility for outsiders at a key location.

I'm not talking about something very spectacular like the restoration of a whole traditional village, but about a small protuberance that catches the corner of your eye and suddenly connects you to a neighborhood, help you reconcile with your city. So many places disappeared over the years, and particularly along major avenues, that it's hard to get a notion of what's been lost without venturing deeper into vernacular Seoul. But from time to time, hope shyly shows its head.

Of course, preserving existing landmarks remains preferable to artificially creating new ones. And right on the other side of the tunnel (in Haengchon-dong, 1-88 beonji), there's an amazing jewel on the verge of collapse : not far from a magnificent gingko tree, this 1923 red brick house is not abandoned but - to say the least - poorly tended. Named Dilkusha ('my heart is happy' in Hindi), it used to be the residence of Albert Taylor, the press correspondant who was jailed for 6 months in Seodaemun Prison - at the 2009 exhibition "Three Foreigners' Reminiscence of Seoul" at Seoul Museum of History two years ago, they mentioned how his wife Mary could see him, from their house, walk the prisoners walk.

At the time of its construction, the view over the valley must have been breathtaking but now, villas almost completely occult it. I hope it can be saved the way a smaller red brick landmark was, just one block away : it is now a mini-museum at the corner of the park recently created at the top of the future Gyonam / Dongnimmun New Town.

We also owe Taylor the fantastic panorama exhibited on the museum's ground floor (curators had the brilliant idea to match this 90 year old marvel with a contemporary view of downtown Seoul).

Seoul Village 2011
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* "Junggye's "Baeksa Village" shall survive"
** or picknicking higher on Inwangsan (follow the trail on "Inwangsan's Great Wall and Seoul's Royal "T" Time")

Korean War : a photo exhibition at Cheonggyecheon

Don't get fooled by the UN flag : a highly conservative "freedom" movement is behind the photo exhibition on Cheonggyecheon Plaza which, instead of promoting peace and progress, too often radiates pure resentment and hatred.

Don't get me wrong :
- here is an interesting exhibition about key episodes of the Korean War (until March 18)
- that tragedy was started by the North
- Korea can thank the UN and all the countries who helped save not only half the peninsula, but also more than a few Northeners who refused to subscribe to Kim Il-sung's agenda (including NK POWs, who overwhelmingly opted for the South after 1953)

It's just that the not so subtle propaganda trickling down every other panel (along with a persistant rain that day) almost ruins the visit. And instead of Confucian wisdom and hope, the final message ("Never changed") exudes blind anger. It can be summed up like this : stop talking to North Koreans, they still want to get South Korea, and there will never be peace with such obtuse and stubborn people (I second that : peace is not likely to happen with this kind of dangerous ultra-radicals in Seoul to face that kind of dangerous ultra-radicals in Pyeongyang).

So it's a little bit like visiting Seodaemun Prison : you only have one side of the coin, a clumsily edited good v. evil, black-and-white fairyscarytale. There, you learn a lot about the horrors perpetrated for decades by Japanese torturers, but not one single word is written about the abuses that followed, perpetrated for many long years by the Korean government (as if you wrote the final book about Abu Ghraib without mentioning the post-Saddam mess). Here, you can expect many lyrical digressions about religion, but certainly not the full picture of a really nasty civil war (yeah, I know : all wars are nasty, and all civil wars are even nastier).

The only way to fix things and to prevent such tragedies from happening again is to promote truth and reconciliation, not to maintain obsolete propagandas and censorships. Praise the heroes yes, but please show some respect for innocent victims from all sides.

Ultra-conservatives will probably consider this exhibition a success because it exposes in the most direct fashion their basic points of view to the face of the world. Unfortunately for them, just like their attempt to silence the Truth and Reconciliation Commission*, this exhibition backfires and eventually exposes their imposture, sending the worst possible message to foreign visitors : not only North Korea is not changing, but some retrograde people in South Korea still refuse to see their own country become a great nation, and only manage to bring more shame upon themselves.

As a French citizen, I am very much humbled by the courage of countrymen who fought for peace and freedom in Korea, but ashamed to see the tricolore flag associated with such an agenda.

Seoul Village 2010

* see "TRCK lost in translation or lost in transition ?"