Thanks for the great article on an issue that I thought needed attention for some time. People really do have to ask themselves,
"What makes a place (a city) special?" As a past foreign visitor to Korea, for ME at least, it was exactly those places and institutions
such as the P'imat-gol, the hanoks, the pojang-macha, the floating markets, etc.. Yes, new archetecture and landscape has its
place and can add to the asthetic quality of life of course, but what's happening to what's left of "old Seoul" or "old Korea" in the
ROK is a travesty. I mean, if people believe that it's a good thing to preserve the spire of the old Japanese Government General
building (the old capitol building that was behind Kwanghwamun that was demolished in 1996) and keep it at the Independence Hall
in Ch'onan for propaganda purposes (something I'm not necessarily against), then the same people might see it in their interest
to preserve their own "cultural" buildings or areas as "historic districts."
Again, this article was spot on. I does make me wonder what the Korean reaction to these changes are... How is the media,
civic groups, etc reacting to the loss of these historic areas? If there is no public support for preservation of these areas,
then all hope is lost. |
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The Rape of P'imat-gol (a.k.a., The Kangnamification of Chongno) 
[re] The Rape of P'imat-gol 
