In my recollection, fifty years ago, there was a small old wooden hut in the neighborhood made for Confucian ritual. I saw one day it was getting demolished, and soon after, an apartment building was being built on the site. Several years later, the apartment collapsed killing many people as a result of shoddy construction. The demolition of the Confucian building was disturbing to my eyes; the thought of something that old could be gone all of a sudden saddened me. Every time when I passed the site where it stood for centuries my mind would go blank with a big question in mind: "How could people do that?" Thinking that many historic buildings could have been demolished as easily as it with no regulations and deterrence caused me queasy feeling, knowing the destruction and plundering of old artifacts that the country had to endure from Imperial Japan during the colonial era prior.
Artifacts and historical landmarks that should be preserved to teach and show trace of its past to the generations to come were not treated with respect. In that respect, Korea rid of many valuable voluntarily. How many artifacts must have been disappeared and gone in our memories in the process of industrialization!! I guess that there was no old folks who could have protested against demolishing the tradition even if that alter meant only to a certain family.
In considering the fact that Shinchon was already urbanized as far back as I could remember five decades ago, Shinchon does not exude historical aspects of its past. Korea has been mainly in agriculture, and Shinchon may well had been reflective of its landscape baring nothing but rice paddies as what my grand-father attested to me, recalling what the surrounding area of my house looked like before I was born. However, bustling atmosphere of Shinchon often erased my memories of what my grand-father said, "I could see all the way to Shinchon rotary standing on the hilltop where our house was built, and there was nothing but a long stretch of rice fields stretching all the way to there."
Despite what my grand-father had said how agricultural landscape of Shinchon, the bustling place would make me to forget his testimony asking to myself spurring curiosity again: why the place has no trace of its history?
I had to employ a recollection of my childhood to quell the burning curiosity once: the landscape of neighboring town Yunhee-Dong that I know of, as a reference. I can speculate what Shinchon may had been looked like recalling Yunhee-Dong in my childhood, when it had begun its facelift getting urbanized after Shinchon. I witnessed YunHee-Dong transforming itself well into my teenage years.
All throughout my childhood. I remember walking a long path in between rice paddies there and I had even seen several thatched roofed houses without hick-ups in YunHee-Dong.
Founding Yunsei University in late 19C may have played a major role why was Shinchon urbanized much earlier than YunHee-Dong. Shops frolicked along the road that stretched from the main gate to Sinchon rotary.
When my mother got her a Canon camera as a gift - after learning how to take pictures from her younger brother - first thing that she would do was taking her children to different places in Shinchon to take pictures of her children. It was my first experience getting to know broader view of Shinchon, following my mother, going beyond the boundary of daily sphere of living visiting periphery of Shinchon. One of the places that she took us was a ancient tomb site near Yunsei University. I think that the tomb is still there, but may not be in exact physical forms as what I saw five decades ago. It was an interesting place as a child because it was not only my first place ever visiting an old tomb site but also a place where I was staying in close proximity of death at the time when the notion of death was seen too remote to come into my consciousness. At the site, there were statues of various animals carved out from marble standing guarding the tomb. So, naturally, the place exuded senses of mixed feelings where aura of death and an atmosphere of merry-go-around in a town fair intermingling together. Hopping onto a pony statue for a photo shot and looking out, there was an old building at the bottom of the hill painted in brown exuding an eeriness with tall weed growing all around it. The building was probably was used by son of deceased person to mourn the death of his father as the mores of Confucian culture dictated in hundred years ago, and it bore no trace that it had ever been used recently making me to wonder when it was last time a person stayed in there.
It may not had been a desirable place for taking pictures, but moments at the tomb site left me indelible memories. I want to visit there to see how much it has been changed over time. Although I have not visited the place despite my numerous times visiting Korea; I regretted that the thought of going to visit never occurred to me all the time.
After so many years of living in Shinchon, at least to my knowledge, there is not much trace of its past. I would speculate that Shinchon may had been regarded as outside of enclave of loyal residence, with four main gates at the periphery, from which would take at least half a day to reach one of the four gates that led to loyal residence by walking, Namdaemun. Shinchon must have been largely a rural area cultivating crops, not much different from Yunhee-Dong or MoRaeNae. I would suspect that the urbanization of Shinchon started as the universities, such as Yunsei Unversity, were found and started growing.
In my recollection, the tomb and Shinchon Train Station are about the only historic sites that I can even think about in my birth place; the old clock town in Shinchon rotary was gone in early 80's and the Shinchon Market is shrunk down hardly suit the tastes of my visits thereafter when I was little.
Does society owe its people a certain level of retaining obligation for keeping old buildings and shape of streets allowing the people to be reminiscent about a period of time that they had lived some twenty, thirty years later? In light of Shinchon had been mostly a farming place which would not have accrued or played a pivotal part in Korean history until turn of 19 century, it has accumulated fairly good substances of it since the time has past and have had a history of being urbanized. Even when I was little, there were skating place converted from rice paddies in winter time and there were strong wind blowing scents of people working hard to survive their living; it was a place where people gather and sell stuff and see each other making their living.
It would be even better if the air they had felt or the smell of wind coming from afar still feels as good as before. I recently bought a box of Korean grapes from a Korean grocery which has the same taste that I had enjoyed every summer when I was living in Korea, which I had solely missed for so long after coming to the U.S. Wouldn't it be great, at least, a certain district in Seoul, preferably the place where I had lived - Shinchon, has been kept frozen in time at least the physicality has been retained. At least I would love it to be. In Europe, there are places where Mortzart and Beethoven grew up, and not only they birthplace are retained but also the surrounding area, and even town retain its old physique as it was hundreds years ago. In Korea, the old palaces are retained, but as a person who have not often visited the old places, my sense tells me that the notion of town or places trying to keep old places is. Nevertherless, it is virtually impossible to expect to still that is the case some 40 years later, it is impossible to see the old Shinchon; it maybe only a dozen things that I can think about. For instance, it would be impossible to see the street vendors taking baked sweet potatoes out from their signature makeshift baking equipment made out from oil drum. Furthermore, it would be impossible to see the old Confucian ritual alter that had been demolished, located at the periphery of Shinchon when I was so little, to be rebuilt after 20 years later when I visited the town. The alter is gone permanently, maybe even without any indication placed, to most of young people that it ever existed; out of sight, even ten years ahead for the project of building an apartment nearby. I guess that why folk village is there nearby Seoul for people to come to see the old village with all sort of old style house lumped up and clustered in one big place, but antiquity of old and old life style have its own spiritual elements that can not be compromised with in the forms of touring folk village or eating sweet potatoes made from electric oven.
In Korea, everything physical changes as if old things are not worth keeping. The old house that I used to live in Shinchon has gone, and pretty much all the churches in Shinchon could no longer keep their old physique out of necessaity to get larger to accomodate more church people other than testifying the fact that it still reside on top of the hill at the same place although some churches have moved to a different part of the town.
The Korean churches bolding bears no responsibility contributing anything to the cause of retainability in its architecture; the old churches have been demolished and a new one is built on the spot to accomodate increasing capacity of church goers. The small size with wooden floor whose heating was provided by kerosine burner installed in the winter time was gone. And of its wooden floor and heard sound of children playing heard through the windows in the summer time can seldom experienced nowadays. Although, we are all in the wind of governance of time, we wish and often keep defienance that something is kept still without changing.
Artifacts and historical landmarks that should be preserved to teach and show trace of its past to the generations to come were not treated with respect. In that respect, Korea rid of many valuable voluntarily. How many artifacts must have been disappeared and gone in our memories in the process of industrialization!! I guess that there was no old folks who could have protested against demolishing the tradition even if that alter meant only to a certain family.In considering the fact that Shinchon was already urbanized as far back as I could remember five decades ago, Shinchon does not exude historical aspects of its past. Korea has been mainly in agriculture, and Shinchon may well had been reflective of its landscape baring nothing but rice paddies as what my grand-father attested to me, recalling what the surrounding area of my house looked like before I was born. However, bustling atmosphere of Shinchon often erased my memories of what my grand-father said, "I could see all the way to Shinchon rotary standing on the hilltop where our house was built, and there was nothing but a long stretch of rice fields stretching all the way to there."
Despite what my grand-father had said how agricultural landscape of Shinchon, the bustling place would make me to forget his testimony asking to myself spurring curiosity again: why the place has no trace of its history?
I had to employ a recollection of my childhood to quell the burning curiosity once: the landscape of neighboring town Yunhee-Dong that I know of, as a reference. I can speculate what Shinchon may had been looked like recalling Yunhee-Dong in my childhood, when it had begun its facelift getting urbanized after Shinchon. I witnessed YunHee-Dong transforming itself well into my teenage years.
All throughout my childhood. I remember walking a long path in between rice paddies there and I had even seen several thatched roofed houses without hick-ups in YunHee-Dong.
Founding Yunsei University in late 19C may have played a major role why was Shinchon urbanized much earlier than YunHee-Dong. Shops frolicked along the road that stretched from the main gate to Sinchon rotary.
When my mother got her a Canon camera as a gift - after learning how to take pictures from her younger brother - first thing that she would do was taking her children to different places in Shinchon to take pictures of her children. It was my first experience getting to know broader view of Shinchon, following my mother, going beyond the boundary of daily sphere of living visiting periphery of Shinchon. One of the places that she took us was a ancient tomb site near Yunsei University. I think that the tomb is still there, but may not be in exact physical forms as what I saw five decades ago. It was an interesting place as a child because it was not only my first place ever visiting an old tomb site but also a place where I was staying in close proximity of death at the time when the notion of death was seen too remote to come into my consciousness. At the site, there were statues of various animals carved out from marble standing guarding the tomb. So, naturally, the place exuded senses of mixed feelings where aura of death and an atmosphere of merry-go-around in a town fair intermingling together. Hopping onto a pony statue for a photo shot and looking out, there was an old building at the bottom of the hill painted in brown exuding an eeriness with tall weed growing all around it. The building was probably was used by son of deceased person to mourn the death of his father as the mores of Confucian culture dictated in hundred years ago, and it bore no trace that it had ever been used recently making me to wonder when it was last time a person stayed in there.
It may not had been a desirable place for taking pictures, but moments at the tomb site left me indelible memories. I want to visit there to see how much it has been changed over time. Although I have not visited the place despite my numerous times visiting Korea; I regretted that the thought of going to visit never occurred to me all the time.
After so many years of living in Shinchon, at least to my knowledge, there is not much trace of its past. I would speculate that Shinchon may had been regarded as outside of enclave of loyal residence, with four main gates at the periphery, from which would take at least half a day to reach one of the four gates that led to loyal residence by walking, Namdaemun. Shinchon must have been largely a rural area cultivating crops, not much different from Yunhee-Dong or MoRaeNae. I would suspect that the urbanization of Shinchon started as the universities, such as Yunsei Unversity, were found and started growing.
In my recollection, the tomb and Shinchon Train Station are about the only historic sites that I can even think about in my birth place; the old clock town in Shinchon rotary was gone in early 80's and the Shinchon Market is shrunk down hardly suit the tastes of my visits thereafter when I was little.
Does society owe its people a certain level of retaining obligation for keeping old buildings and shape of streets allowing the people to be reminiscent about a period of time that they had lived some twenty, thirty years later? In light of Shinchon had been mostly a farming place which would not have accrued or played a pivotal part in Korean history until turn of 19 century, it has accumulated fairly good substances of it since the time has past and have had a history of being urbanized. Even when I was little, there were skating place converted from rice paddies in winter time and there were strong wind blowing scents of people working hard to survive their living; it was a place where people gather and sell stuff and see each other making their living.
It would be even better if the air they had felt or the smell of wind coming from afar still feels as good as before. I recently bought a box of Korean grapes from a Korean grocery which has the same taste that I had enjoyed every summer when I was living in Korea, which I had solely missed for so long after coming to the U.S. Wouldn't it be great, at least, a certain district in Seoul, preferably the place where I had lived - Shinchon, has been kept frozen in time at least the physicality has been retained. At least I would love it to be. In Europe, there are places where Mortzart and Beethoven grew up, and not only they birthplace are retained but also the surrounding area, and even town retain its old physique as it was hundreds years ago. In Korea, the old palaces are retained, but as a person who have not often visited the old places, my sense tells me that the notion of town or places trying to keep old places is. Nevertherless, it is virtually impossible to expect to still that is the case some 40 years later, it is impossible to see the old Shinchon; it maybe only a dozen things that I can think about. For instance, it would be impossible to see the street vendors taking baked sweet potatoes out from their signature makeshift baking equipment made out from oil drum. Furthermore, it would be impossible to see the old Confucian ritual alter that had been demolished, located at the periphery of Shinchon when I was so little, to be rebuilt after 20 years later when I visited the town. The alter is gone permanently, maybe even without any indication placed, to most of young people that it ever existed; out of sight, even ten years ahead for the project of building an apartment nearby. I guess that why folk village is there nearby Seoul for people to come to see the old village with all sort of old style house lumped up and clustered in one big place, but antiquity of old and old life style have its own spiritual elements that can not be compromised with in the forms of touring folk village or eating sweet potatoes made from electric oven.
In Korea, everything physical changes as if old things are not worth keeping. The old house that I used to live in Shinchon has gone, and pretty much all the churches in Shinchon could no longer keep their old physique out of necessaity to get larger to accomodate more church people other than testifying the fact that it still reside on top of the hill at the same place although some churches have moved to a different part of the town.
The Korean churches bolding bears no responsibility contributing anything to the cause of retainability in its architecture; the old churches have been demolished and a new one is built on the spot to accomodate increasing capacity of church goers. The small size with wooden floor whose heating was provided by kerosine burner installed in the winter time was gone. And of its wooden floor and heard sound of children playing heard through the windows in the summer time can seldom experienced nowadays. Although, we are all in the wind of governance of time, we wish and often keep defienance that something is kept still without changing.
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