Seoul Lights Up for the Holiday Season - Korea.net

More documents

Recommendations

Info

THE BEAUTY OF KOREA-17 SPECIAL SERIES White Porcelain Jar Decorated with Bamboo and Plum in Underglaze Iron Oxide National Treasure No. 166 Special Contribution-1 The Republic of Korea at Sixty BY GUY SORMAN The Seokguram Grotto This jar from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) is well known for its refined charm and beautiful painting. It is 41.3 cm tall, and the diameter at the widest point of the body is 37.9 cm. The technique used for the main designs — bamboo on one side and plum on the other — indicates that this piece was not decorated by regular potters, but rather by the members of the royal painting bureau. The wide, thick portions of the bamboo leaves were made with a layer of underglaze iron, which burned through the clear glaze to form rust-colored areas that lend texture and volume to the painting. The jar is an example of 16th-century Joseon white porcelains and buncheong wares, which are shaped like Ming China jars of the mid-15th century. The flowery borders on the shoulders are reminiscent of Ming Chinese blue-white porcelains of this period. ■ (Photo courtesy of National Museum of Korea) South Korea at sixty in the Western eye has an image problem due to the Bengali Nobel prize winner, Rabindranath Tagore, an influential poet and a world traveler. After he visited Seoul in the early twentieth century, Tagore wrote a poem called “The Land of the Morning Calm.” The poem became famous the world over and the name took. South Korea became known globally as Morning Calm and the West still perceives the country this way. These days, the name feels inaccurate, to say the least. This motivated former President Kim Dae-jung to rekindle the country’s reputation, not as calm but as dynamic, so far with limited success: dynamism lacks any specific Korean flavor. Calm or Dynamic Within South Korea, the debate still lingers as how best to represent the country on the international stage. South Korean officials and their public relations advisers can often be heard complaining that they lack the equivalent of the Japanese Fuji Mountain, the French Eiffel Tower or the American Statue of Liberty. Whenever consulted on this matter, I suggest the well known crossed-legged Boddhisatva, which can be admired in the National Museum of Korea, as the South Korean logo and icon. This Buddha, reminiscent of the Thinker by the French sculptor Rodin, has no competitor; I think that through its unique aesthetics and transcendental strength it could convey the spirit of the nation. My suggestion, however, has never been taken into consideration. Isn’t it dynamic enough? Or is it too Buddhist in a country where religions are so diverse? So far, the logo problem for South Korea remains unsolved; probably it cannot be solved easily while Korean identity is not that easy to describe nor to understand, at least for non-Koreans. It cannot be denied that in spite of the outstanding global success of South Korean brands, many buyers of these brands hardly know they are made in Korea. Western consumers who esteem Samsung cell phones are not sure whether they are Korean, Chinese, or Japanese. Hyundai cars have found their niche in the world market because 58 KOREA DECEMBER 2008 DECEMBER 2008 KOREA 59
SPECIAL SERIES they are perceived as reliable and not too expensive; but they are not grasped as Korean the way a Mercedes car is bought because it is German. South Korea as a trademark, in spite of recent progress due to its leading export companies, is still moderately acknowledged. Is this weak brand recognition due to insufficient efforts to promote South Korea as such? To a certain extent, yes, South Korean governments never packaged the Korean identity as a clear message nor promoted it in a systematic way, as Japan did in the 60s and still does. True enough, the message escapes easy definition. How to promote Korea when the country itself is divided? How to promote modern South Korea alone as it is so different from ancient Korea? How to send a unifying message when the South Korean people are so greatly diversified by region and religion? The solution to these dilemmas could very well emerge from the art world. South Korea now is popular abroad not only thanks to its industrial exports; artists do play a decisive role. Beware of the ambiguities however. The so-called Korean Wave is carrying American rock music to an enthusiastic Chinese audience: the music is played by Koreans but it is hardly related to Pansori. Korean television sitcoms may be closer to the true Korean soul; we know how they have been useful in bringing together the Japanese and the South Koreans in a more thorough way than many years of diligent diplomacy. Eventually, I consider that to really understand the South Korean identity, the South Korean movies and contemporary art have been more revealing than pop entertainment. Im Kwon-taek’s “Painted Fire,” Kim Jee-woon’s “A Tale of Two Sisters”, Park Chan-wook’s, “Old Boy”, have brought to an international audience a unique civilization, Asian but definitely not Chinese and definitely not Japanese. These movies have produced in the West a culture shock comparable to the European discovery of Japanese prints in the late 19th century. In fine arts, similarly, the video art pioneer Paik Nam June and his follower Jheon Soo-cheon have opened the eyes of art lovers everywhere; thanks to these artists, South Korea has been discovered as if it were a new continent. Korea was there but we, in the West, could hardly see it. Can these artists, to whom I shall add the writer Yi Munyeol, help us understand who South Korea is at sixty? It is the Morning Calm and Dynamism simultaneously. When Jheon Soo-cheon displays his installations in Seoul , Venice , Paris or New York, ancient funeral statuettes in a contemporary light, he connects the oldest tradition with cutting edge modernity: like Yi Mun-yeol’s novel , “Hail to the Emperor”, he makes evident the continuity from Shamanism to Confucianism, Buddhism, Christianity and the postmodern nihilism of Old Boy. Because of this outstanding continuity, we celebrate South Korea’s sixtieth birthday today as well as its 3000- year-old civilization. This is a reason why, when visiting the National Museum of Korea in Seoul, I regret that it does not incorporate the most recent creation of contemporary artists: the continuity would be for all to see. It would make clear that South Korea does not lack identity but does suffer from a still weak identity promotion policy. What use would be such a policy? It would convey some economic benefits. Strong national brands sell: world consumers buy French perfumes because they are French, Germans cars because they are German, Japanese technology because it is Japanese. Korean products sell for many reasons but rarely because they are Korean. Among industrial advanced nations, South Korea, so far, has not yet built a decisive cultural advantage. Rising Expectations In sixty years, however, South Korea went from one of the poorest countries on earth to one of the most successful. Its civilization alone would not have permitted such progress if the right strategy had not been followed, a free market economy and a progressive shift from enlightened despotism to full-blown democracy. For the younger generation who takes South Korea’s present status for granted, it is difficult to imagine a different evolution. But a glance at the neighboring countries which benefit from superior basic resources show how communism could bring nations to their knees. History has thus proven that South Korean leaders made the right choices at an early stage when liberal democracy did not necessarily look like a winning choice: whatever the rational (resist North Korea? emulate Japan? follow the United States?), South Korea had it right. This needs to be reaffirmed as Korean society at sixty doesn’t escape the turmoil which goes with maturity. Is South Korea in a crisis? Of course it is; only stagnant nations mired in poverty, under despotic regimes, ignore crisis. Because it is an actual democracy, and a modern economy, South Korea has entered into the cycle of rising expectation: only when life is improving do you start wondering why it is not improving more rapidly. When free speech is allowed, why not become vociferous? As seen from abroad, especially from Western Europe, the street demonstrations and strikes which take place in South Korea do not surprise us: we have lived through those kind of events before and we still live with them. In democratic countries, elections never fully solve social conflicts; the purpose of elections is to quiet those conflicts so that they would not degenerate into civil war. What we now see in South Korea is business as usual in Western democracies. Are South Koreans disappointed with democracy? This is common as well: democracy is always disappointing while people expect too much of it. It is an imperfect regime but it is non-violent and it doesn’t pretend to dictate individual life. Maybe South Koreans are not yet accustomed to the inherent modesty of democratic institutions. They also are not fully reconciled - no nation is - with the imperfections of the free market economy. Free market economy brought South Koreans out of poverty; this was hardly debated when the growth rate hovered around ten percent. When the growth rate plummets to four percent, enthusiasm for the market tends to decline. The very high growth rate could absorb many imperfections of the system such as long work hours, unequal redistribution, brutal exodus from traditional activities to mass industry. But a slower growth rate underlines these imperfections: hard work is less well-tolerated, the gap between rich and poor, between regular and irregular workers fall under harsher scrutiny. A slower growth rate generates social frustration from the less educated toward the better educated, from the less paid toward the wealthy entrepreneurs. The search for scapegoats (the Americans, the chaebol), and a fiery nationalism, close to jingoism, take root easily when expectations are not met. Shall we conclude that South Korea is in a crisis, or in a transition? It seems to me as a transition to the next stage, when South Korea will become a major global player on the world scene. Global Player South Korea at sixty has unique resources that remain untapped: its civilization as mentioned above is the most evident. By promoting its cultural resources, from its museums to its cuisine, by pursuing the globalization of its economy, South Korea could be better recognized as a global player. A stronger economy, more cultural value would bring a stronger diplomatic position; South Korea does not need to remain dwarfed between China and Japan. More global clout would make reunification easier against those who do not want it. Not only against North Korea, which is an economic midget but against China and Video artist Paik Nam-jun’s works Japan as well; those two countries are not enthusiastic about Korea’s reunification. The goal of a unified Korea, which is now closer than ever, could be the ambition of a new generation, the success of the present administration and a tremendous booster for the Korean economy. How will it happen? It is anybody’s guess but, based on my knowledge of North Korea and my memories of Russia, I bet on an implosion of North Korea under the stress of mass poverty. The North Korean people are no longer ignorant of the global reality. Many in South Korea fear the cost of this reunification; but the benefits in terms of market opportunities and new work force would rapidly offset the costs. Moreover it would bring peace to North East Asia, which remains unstable and very much depending on the good will of the U.S. military. A stronger and larger Korea could balance its influence between Japan and China with the ultimate goal of a North East Asian economic zone, following the lines of the European Union. Such a grand design could become the new national ambition of the South Koreans and overcome short-term domestic conflicts or short-sighted nationalism. This grand design should not exclude some significant 60 KOREA DECEMBER 2008 DECEMBER 2008 KOREA 61
Page 3 and 4: Opening a communicative space betwe
Page 5 and 6: COVER The Experience of Foreign Stu
Page 7 and 8: COVER The Korea Herald U.S. Enginee
Page 9 and 10: DIPLOMACY Yonhap “Sets of bilater
Page 11 and 12: GLOBAL KOREA Yonhap Ramsar Changwon
Page 13 and 14: GLOBAL KOREA World Ocean Forum 2008
Page 15 and 16: CULTURE Emography on a closet Calli
Page 17 and 18: CULTURE Royal Protocols of the Jose
Page 19 and 20: CULTURE Hanbok Artist Makes Style S
Page 21 and 22: PEOPLE Moon Young Doo Credia Japane
Page 23 and 24: ART A scene from “A Ballerina Who
Page 25 and 26: TRAVEL Inje Ice Fish Festival Night
Page 27 and 28: EVENTS Daegu Photo Biennale 2008 1
Page 29: BOOKS Goguryeo: In Search of Its Cu
Page 33 and 34: SPECIAL SERIES 880,000 new jobs wil

Seoul Lights Up for the Holiday Season - Korea.net

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?