서울의 문화에는 여러 가지 모순된 면이 있다. 예를 들자면, 서울은 정부와 대기업의 월권행위에 대항하는 시민의 시위로 유명한데 반해 그 표면 아래에는 보수적인 군대 스타일의 문화가 깊이 뿌리내리고 있다. 지방자치단체 그리고 심지어 사회 문제에 항의하는 민간 단체의 조직 구조와 규율에서도 군대 문화의 잔재를 볼 수 있다. 서울 문화 속에는 엄격한 위계질서와 연공서열 문화가 곳곳에 남아있다. 아마도 모든 한국 남자들이 경험하는 2년간의 국방의 의무 영향으로 명령을 따르는 것이 습관처럼 받아들여진 것으로 보인다.
서울 속 직원들이 (주로 여성) 얼마나 효율적으로 일하는지 알고 싶다면 서울의 우체국을 방문하면 된다. 상사들이 뒷자리에 앉아서 메시지를 확인하는 동안 직원들은 모든 일을 효율적으로 처리한다. 서울 시민들은 문제를 창의적이고 실용적인 방식으로 해결하려고 한다. 사람들은 그들이 군복무 시절에 배운 “까라면 까”라는 군대식 명령에 따라 일을 처리한다. 시청 안에서도 그 표면 아래 존재하는 군대 스타일의 기강을 볼 수 있다.
And how do you interpret the term “4-dimensional girl” attached to this bizarre and disturbing “toy” I saw for sale at Seoul Station? Seems there are three versions of a nude women lying on nori and topped with a generous slab of sushi. What do you make of it?
Disturbing sushi girl toy from dispenser in the subway station
I have been toying around with an idea for a logo to represent Seoul that takes advantage of the three main mountains: Inwangsan, Bukhansan and Namsan and also includes the counter-loop of the Cheonggyecheon feeding into the Hangang. Here is my first stab. I wonder if anyone out there with some real artistic skill can help me make this into something significant.
There was an immense gathering in front of Seoul City Hall this evening to commemorate the first anniversary of the sinking of the Sewol Ferry, an event that cost the lives of over three hundred high school students from a working class neighborhood because the ferry operator told them to stay in their seats even after the boat began to tip and he fled himself.
The gathering brought a large number of high school and middle school students who just showed up out of concern, out of “sadness,” as they told me.
The event was billed as a candlelight vigil that would set a “Guinness Book world record.” The gathering was a mixture of spontaneity and meticulous planning. There was a festive mood at times and deep angst and worry about a world which has gone so completely wrong. It seems as if the students were wrestling to understand how this accident could have taken place and how so many in their society could pretend it had not happened.
The organizers marked out on the grass the shape of the ferry itself. The participants sat on an imagined ferry right there in downtown Seoul.Hangyore gave away a free edition with all the facts about the sinking.Laying down the strips that will mark where people sit with their candles for the vigil.
This work of art seems to be made up of figures representing the students who died. I am not sure of its meaning, however. People have scribbled their wishes and fears on the images. Somehow the Sewol Ferry sinking has come to represent all that is dark and hidden for youth in Korean society.The vigil continues.
I was impressed when Mayor Park changed the name of the Seoul Development Institute to simply the Seoul Institute. The significance was clear: there is no need to develop, to make things unnecessarily large.
And recently the Seoul Institute launched a “Small Research; small Seoul “ project to fund “experts and activists interested in Seoul policy for discussions and the exploration of possible solutions. The project supports both meetings and also a network for communication. The project provides opportunities for research and policy suggestions regarding city policy aimed at citizens.”
Flying in the face of most government practice in which making things bigger and more impressive is perceived as an unmitigated positive, Mayor Park and his team has boldly suggested that being small can be a virtue. The city is moving away from ambitions in concrete of the previous two mayors and towards an emphasis on livability and sustainability, not monumentality.
The presence of China in Seoul is increasing at an exponential rate these days. Chinese news is increasingly on the front page and signage with Chinese characters is displacing English. As I noted in a recent post, signage in the garden of the Shilla Hotel is exclusively in Chinese.
Perhaps the site of the Haechi (a Korean mythical beast) statue in front of the central police station near Gyeongbok Palace and the Chinese lion in front of the Chinese Culture Center hints at the subtle shifts taking place.
But the replacement of English with Chinese at the Jjimjilbang sauna, or the decision of Gangnam fortune tellers to advertise in Chinese give full testimony to the depth of the changes.
The haechi that stands in front of the police station near Gyongbokgung Palace and the lion in front of the Chinese culture center.English explanations are covered up with Chinese at a local sauna.A fortune teller in Gangnam has written up the sign in Chinese, realizing there is more money to be made telling fortunes for Chinese tourists than for Korean girls.
One truly remarkable building in downtown Seoul is the Seosomun Apartments near the Seoul Police Station which have somehow managed to survive in their original form to the present day. The building represents well the simple structures that went up across Seoul in the 1970s, especially under Mayor Kim Hyun-ok.
The game “Clash of Clans” has swept Korea, becoming one of the preferred games for kids and for that matter commuters on the subway in Seoul. This poster from the Seoul Metro represents well the rather comic battles between the Nordic clans that was released in 2012 by the video game company Supercell located in Finland.
The poster reads “they are swarming forward”
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Gaming has become so completely a part of the lives of young Koreans these days that they tend to compare their own lives to that of the characters in the games that they play everyday. That analogy is implied, but this Advertisement from Kyonggi University makes the analogy quite explicit. The poster is titled “2015 recruiting campaign for new students” and it lists its most practical and applied majors:
Hotel Management
Tourism management
restaurant managment
Hotel restauranting
At the bottom there is a take off on “Clash of Clans”
“the real skills faction is swarming forward”
The implication being that just like in a video game, having real skills before graduate will put you on the winning side.
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