Over 150,000 visitors since yesterday : the new and improved Jongno Kyobo Bookstore made the most of its rainy reopening day.
As expected (see "Kyobo Bookstore V2"), the flagship store is bigger, more modern, and better interfaced with Jongro street (Sejongno remains a different story, but I would bet more than one buck on one cafe in that corner).
Stone gave way to glass and wood, the elevated mini flea-market plaza to a sunken outdoor agora for events and public readings, leading to the main entrance. Transparent elevators offer a direct access to parking lots - a clear improvement from the old journey backstage.
The revolution is less spectacular inside - it's not as if you landed in terra incognita, but areas are better arranged. A faux vintage art section, a wider choice of Foreign Books (and closer to the main entrance), a better exposition for books in general...
Hot Tracks and ArtBox are still there, but Kyobo is also investing in ebooks and I wouldn't be surprised to see them venture into cloud services. What will never change, let's hope, is the unique humanistic spirit that makes the company so well respected across the nation.
Seoul Village 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
N.K. 3.0 rebooted - and relocated
Kim Jong-il allegedly brought his son and designated successor Kim Jong-un to his own father's school in China (Kim Il-sung attended the Yuwen Middle School in Changchun, Jilin).
This "pilgrimage" is of course meant to restate the dynasty*, but also to appease Beijing : it looks as if the KIM Trilogy found its very legitimacy in "the motherland"... in other words, yet another confirmation that the North Korean regime are selling their own country to their big neighbors in exchange for their survival**.
OK. Maybe the People's Liberation Army hasn't come back to Pyeongyang yet. But it's already venturing into other neighboring countries. Last stop ? Pakistanese Kashmir***.
Seoul Village 2010
* see today's S.K. press, ie "Kim Jong-il pilgrimages in China’s Changchun" (JoongAng Daily)
** see previous episodes, including "after the Cheonan tragedy, the Juche, Sunshine, or China Line ?", "Kim Jong-il's bridge to nowhere"...
*** "China's Discreet Hold on Pakistan's Northern Borderlands"
This "pilgrimage" is of course meant to restate the dynasty*, but also to appease Beijing : it looks as if the KIM Trilogy found its very legitimacy in "the motherland"... in other words, yet another confirmation that the North Korean regime are selling their own country to their big neighbors in exchange for their survival**.
OK. Maybe the People's Liberation Army hasn't come back to Pyeongyang yet. But it's already venturing into other neighboring countries. Last stop ? Pakistanese Kashmir***.
Seoul Village 2010
* see today's S.K. press, ie "Kim Jong-il pilgrimages in China’s Changchun" (JoongAng Daily)
** see previous episodes, including "after the Cheonan tragedy, the Juche, Sunshine, or China Line ?", "Kim Jong-il's bridge to nowhere"...
*** "China's Discreet Hold on Pakistan's Northern Borderlands"
Monday, August 23, 2010
ICN : simplified immigration procedures for (some) foreigners
Welcome to Incheon International Airport : no queuing, no question asked, you just have your passport and fingerprints scanned by a machine and voila, you're in or out of Korea. This VIP concept has been provided to Korean citizens but not to foreigners, but that's about to change.
Not for everyone though : to qualify, you have to have enjoyed a permanent residency status for at least 3 years, but that can be lowered to 1 year if you have invested USD 2 M or more into the country.
The Ministry of Justice estimates at 1,300 the number of beneficiaries, but didn't give details about how the new measure will be implemented (ie will the lucky ones be notified or will they have to claim some document at their immigration office ?).
Yesterday, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance announced another kind of simplification for foreign residents as of next year : the possibility to opt for a 15% flat tax rate. Also : more tax incentives for each employee hired through FDI (KRW 10 M).
The relevant administrations shall be briefed soon regarding all those updates. Remember that as a foreign resident in Seoul, you only need to know one number for all questions regarding immigration, tax, and everyday issues : Dasan 120 for the Seoul Global Center.
Seoul Village 2010
Not for everyone though : to qualify, you have to have enjoyed a permanent residency status for at least 3 years, but that can be lowered to 1 year if you have invested USD 2 M or more into the country.
The Ministry of Justice estimates at 1,300 the number of beneficiaries, but didn't give details about how the new measure will be implemented (ie will the lucky ones be notified or will they have to claim some document at their immigration office ?).
Yesterday, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance announced another kind of simplification for foreign residents as of next year : the possibility to opt for a 15% flat tax rate. Also : more tax incentives for each employee hired through FDI (KRW 10 M).
The relevant administrations shall be briefed soon regarding all those updates. Remember that as a foreign resident in Seoul, you only need to know one number for all questions regarding immigration, tax, and everyday issues : Dasan 120 for the Seoul Global Center.
Seoul Village 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Jongno Elegy
Browsing the small "Jongno Elegy" exhibition at the Seoul Museum of History was a rather upsetting experience. I felt like a time traveler visiting in year 2509 an exhibition about 2009 Jongno, watching pictures of buildings I used to pass by every day, artifacts from shops I used to roam, and even sitting in a reconstituted Pimatgol restaurant where I dined last year, complete with the graffitis on the walls.At this stage of redevelopment, not all the places depicted here have even been destroyed yet, but it's as if they were already. The older generations are already used to seeing echoes of such earlier ghosts as the Hanshin Department Store, but they had more time to adjust : It really feels like I pressed the fast forward button and was frustrated of the last gasps of old Jongno.
But as the Museum honors Jongro, the street, it reaches much further back in time, across the capital's 600 years. A cut exposing layers of soil near Jongmyo adds some perspective : paving being a very recent phenomenon, even one century can be translated into a meter high layer of various debris.You are invited to try the gear of a delivery man, lifting the heavy wood-and-metal structure on your shoulders in the "commoner" version of the more traditional Jongno photo op (you as a Joseon yangban / king / queen).
Elegies are about mourning the dead. This is also about contemplating the process of dying.
Next stop ? Itaewon. Judging by "semu", the museum's magazine, I wouldn't be surprised to see an exhibition about it in the coming years.
Jongno Elegy (exhibition)
20100813 ~ 20101003
Special Exhibition Hall, Seoul Museum of History
Tel : Dasan 120
Seoul Village 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Gwanghwamun inauguration
I decently couldn't miss the inauguration of Gwanghwamun after all those years of waiting and following every step of the restoration. Furthermore, the weather made the short walk almost pleasant. Last night, a massive thunderstorm raged over our heads, relentlessly pouring buckets everywhere like an unruly army of Fantasia brooms, and today, a bright ray of sun even illuminated Sejongno right after the balloons lifted the banner hiding the gate's nameplate.
4,000 guests and thousands of Seoul citizens attended the show, waiting for a long limousine to arrive from Hyojaro and drop LEE Myung-bak in a pale yellow hanbok. The President reached his place like a Jeoson rock star, accompanied with classical music, and making everyone wonder what the show was all about : the 65th anniversary of Independence, Gwanghwamun inauguration, or a political meeting* ?
Quite an atmosphere, indeed : the colors, music and balloons were sometimes more reminiscent of a Fourth of July in Armpit, Tennessee, or a Bastille Day in a small village in rural Cantal. The National Anthem, sung four times by pro singers, Independence veterans, young kids, and all together, kind of put the focus back on the event.
The nameplate was quickly and successfully unveiled, so that the Presidential speech could start. Nice words about "fair society" (a few days after a massive Presidential Pardon for top politicians and businessmen) and reunification (mostly to introduce a new "reunification tax").
100 years after the official beginning of the Japanese occupation**, LEE also saluted the formal apologies from Naoto Kan : for the first time, a Japanese Government recognized the fact that the annexation was "against the will of the Korean people".
And for the first time, the other day, Japanese extreme-right die harders made a big mistake by inviting Jean-Marie Le Pen and other controversial European figures at Yasukuni : they wanted to react to Kan's refusal to visit this controversial shrine, but doing so, they also exposed their true nature and imposture to their own fellow citizens. Maybe, this time, the Japanese people will start to contest this troubled minority the right to decide who can remain a Prime Minister, and the right to decide what must be written in history textbooks.
Seoul Village 2010
* of course, Independence and Gwanghwamun are also about politics.
** as we all know, it started earlier in Dokdo.
4,000 guests and thousands of Seoul citizens attended the show, waiting for a long limousine to arrive from Hyojaro and drop LEE Myung-bak in a pale yellow hanbok. The President reached his place like a Jeoson rock star, accompanied with classical music, and making everyone wonder what the show was all about : the 65th anniversary of Independence, Gwanghwamun inauguration, or a political meeting* ?
Quite an atmosphere, indeed : the colors, music and balloons were sometimes more reminiscent of a Fourth of July in Armpit, Tennessee, or a Bastille Day in a small village in rural Cantal. The National Anthem, sung four times by pro singers, Independence veterans, young kids, and all together, kind of put the focus back on the event.
The nameplate was quickly and successfully unveiled, so that the Presidential speech could start. Nice words about "fair society" (a few days after a massive Presidential Pardon for top politicians and businessmen) and reunification (mostly to introduce a new "reunification tax").
100 years after the official beginning of the Japanese occupation**, LEE also saluted the formal apologies from Naoto Kan : for the first time, a Japanese Government recognized the fact that the annexation was "against the will of the Korean people".
And for the first time, the other day, Japanese extreme-right die harders made a big mistake by inviting Jean-Marie Le Pen and other controversial European figures at Yasukuni : they wanted to react to Kan's refusal to visit this controversial shrine, but doing so, they also exposed their true nature and imposture to their own fellow citizens. Maybe, this time, the Japanese people will start to contest this troubled minority the right to decide who can remain a Prime Minister, and the right to decide what must be written in history textbooks.
Seoul Village 2010
* of course, Independence and Gwanghwamun are also about politics.
** as we all know, it started earlier in Dokdo.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
The strange case of Dr Andre KIM and Mr KIM Bong-nam
Kim Bong-nam passed away a few days before turning 75, pneumonia eventually claiming "victory" over cancer.
Andre KIM, Korea's most famous fashion designer, became really popular only a few years ago, when he was forced to give his real name during a testimony, crying over the shame. Many Koreans discovered a human being behind the almost cartoonish character : whatever the circumstances, Andre KIM always donned a white costume and a smiling face, capped with black eyeliner and the weirdest calvitia cover up ever imagined.
KIM was not exactly into minimalism : to sum up his style (easily recognizable be it on a dress, a bicycle, or a fridge - to name only a few items he put his label on), consider that Michael Jackson once asked him to become his private designer... Actually, I couldn't help but think about Wacko Jacko each time I saw Andre : two overgrown and troubled kids refusing to age, and combining an extravagant style with a maladive shyness. This on-stage / back-stage contrast is relatively common in the entertainment industry, but on the few occasions I met KIM, his case seemed quite severe.
His heritage belongs to Korea : a poor country growing rich and confident, daring joy and extraversion even while working as hard as hard can be.
With Andre KIM, Korea lost more than a famous designer : its actual King of Pop.
Seoul Village 2010
Andre KIM, Korea's most famous fashion designer, became really popular only a few years ago, when he was forced to give his real name during a testimony, crying over the shame. Many Koreans discovered a human being behind the almost cartoonish character : whatever the circumstances, Andre KIM always donned a white costume and a smiling face, capped with black eyeliner and the weirdest calvitia cover up ever imagined.
KIM was not exactly into minimalism : to sum up his style (easily recognizable be it on a dress, a bicycle, or a fridge - to name only a few items he put his label on), consider that Michael Jackson once asked him to become his private designer... Actually, I couldn't help but think about Wacko Jacko each time I saw Andre : two overgrown and troubled kids refusing to age, and combining an extravagant style with a maladive shyness. This on-stage / back-stage contrast is relatively common in the entertainment industry, but on the few occasions I met KIM, his case seemed quite severe.
His heritage belongs to Korea : a poor country growing rich and confident, daring joy and extraversion even while working as hard as hard can be.
With Andre KIM, Korea lost more than a famous designer : its actual King of Pop.
Seoul Village 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Gyeonggyojang back to Donuimun
It's always a bit strange, when I go see a doctor at the Samsung Gangbuk Hospital, to know the reception desk used to be the home of Kim Gu, head of Korea's provisional government, between the 1945 independence and his assassination in 1949, in that very same building, renamed Gyeonggyojang ("Capital Bridge Mansion") as a tribute to that period.
Typical of the Western-Japanese architecture from the occupation years, Gyeonggyojang was built in 1936 by a flamboyant Korean collaborator who offered it to the national hero as a smart flip-flop cover-up. It later became private property and now belongs to Samsung Insurance, who agreed to empty it and return it to the public.
The transformation into a museum (located in 108-1, Pyeong-dong, Jongno-gu) will finish next year but on August 15th, a limited number of selected visitors will be allowed to explore it for the national anniversary.
This old new landmark will provide a perfect purpose of visit on this side of Donuimun : as we saw earlier*, the gate will be restored where it was, precisely in front of this hospital, and I hope Samsung will seize the opportunity to make the complex a bit less overwhelming.
Seoul Village 2010
* "Donuimun restoration and Sadaemun resurrection"
Typical of the Western-Japanese architecture from the occupation years, Gyeonggyojang was built in 1936 by a flamboyant Korean collaborator who offered it to the national hero as a smart flip-flop cover-up. It later became private property and now belongs to Samsung Insurance, who agreed to empty it and return it to the public.
The transformation into a museum (located in 108-1, Pyeong-dong, Jongno-gu) will finish next year but on August 15th, a limited number of selected visitors will be allowed to explore it for the national anniversary.
This old new landmark will provide a perfect purpose of visit on this side of Donuimun : as we saw earlier*, the gate will be restored where it was, precisely in front of this hospital, and I hope Samsung will seize the opportunity to make the complex a bit less overwhelming.
Seoul Village 2010
* "Donuimun restoration and Sadaemun resurrection"
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