We Visit Korea for the First TIme

We had the opportunity to visit Korea for the first time in mid-summer.  We've been going to places in China for the last several years, and now Barbara was invited to do workshops in areas related to her work in marriage and dance therapy in Korea.  I was the "trailing spouse," to explore life and culture, both with her and wandering about on my own.   One starting place was the Jogyesa Buddhist Temple near our hotel, at left, which drew us back several times.

We found Seoul, Korea's capital, to be a modern city of 10 million.  This wasn't surprising--we've often found cities in east Asia fast-growing and often dazzling in design.  But Seoul (and much of Korea) had been devastated by war on its own territory as late as the 1950's, and needed to rebuild.  And it had become one of the "Asian Tigers" in recent decades, and had enough resources to engage in that rebuilding.

The view over part of Seoul above (photo above) was out of our hotel window.  The Buddhist temple in the lower right corner is the Jogyesa Temple, the largest in Seoul.  The photo at left is a large Lacebark Pine Tree, over 500 years old, in the temple grounds.  We would hear soft chanting from the temple below our window daily, starting at sunrise (this time of year, about 4:00).  People dropped by to pray or rest at various times during the day. 

In mainland China the relationship between the government and Christianity is complicated at best, and actively intolerant at worst.  But in Korea a large portion of the population are Christian: either Catholic (Myeongdong Cathedral is shown at right between masses the morning we visited),  or "mainstream" Protestant (Presbyterian and Methodist), or evangelical (Yoido Full Gospel Church is the largest church in the world, over 500,000). 

  

Footnote: opening up the desk drawer in our hotel room, I found a clue about religious practice in Korea: not just a Bible (as one may still find in the U.S.), but also "The Teaching of Buddha."  And also a Qibla, (here spelled Kiblat), the sign pointing to Mecca for Muslims who need to know in which direction to pray when traveling in a place that'unfamiliar.  (There is one mosque in Seoul, and a small Muslim population.)

While much of Seoul is modern, there are pockets of more traditional, small-shop areas which attract a variety of tourists and local folks (with numerous cafes).  And there several Hanok neighborhoods with traditional stone and timber houses.  We explored Bukchon Hanok Village, located on the winding streets on the slopes of Seoul's north side.  Many visitors come to see the housing, but we also saw a number of younger women who were wearing traditional Hanbok dresses (as seen on the two women on this photo, likely being photographed by their dad).  The dresses are high-waisted, with full skirts, and are sometimes worn for weddings.  Around the edges of the neighborhoods, there are shops which will rent a Hanbok for those who don't have one. We enjoyed the people-watching as well as the neighborhood.

And here I find myself beginning to consider more puzzling aspects of contemporary Korea. Part of me was seeing a Korea which has become increasingly prosperous, drawn to modern ways--even while drawn to nostalgic images of the past.  Yet the Korean government just issued the latest reports about Korean birth rates.  Already only 1.3 per woman in 2013, it had dropped to 1.05 in 2017, one of the lowest of any places in the world--even lower than Japan.  For Japan this has meant not only a shrinking population but an aging one, and Korea's pattern seems to be following.  (And the drop in population for Korea and Japan has has been more urgent by the low  immigration rates for each.)  Would Korea be able to continue itself its remarkable economic growth, and sustain a growing older population, with more children?

Is there something about gender roles in Korea that has led young women to have so few children?  There is a long term historical trend for city living, greater women's employment and education, later marriage, and changing attitudes about gender roles (especially for women) that lowers birth rates. And for most "modern" societies that has meant birthrates below "replacement" (2.1 per woman) (in the U.S. we are currently below replacement about 1.8).  But why these trends so more dramatic in Korea?  Something about the rate of changes in Korea?  The possibility that the lives of women have been changing so much faster than for men?  I found myself with more questions than answers.  (Hmmm.  What might Barbara say?)

An afternoon enjoying an excellent performance of a traditional theater piece provided thoughts.  It reminded me a Shakespeare tragedy, in which men's and women's lives and intrigues, social class, power, and frailty combined in human hopes, despair, beauty, and death.  Has each era had its own dilemmas to wrestle wth, and will the rapidly changing Korea I was seeing (and was only barely understanding) have its own problems to solve?

When perplexed, there's always shopping and eating to be had.  Barbara and I enjoyed wander about Seoul and its neigborhoods.  There are a number of large markets, sometimes with a specialty.  The one in the photo above was primarily for fabric and clothing, but like other markets with lots of buyers and shopped, there were also rows of food stalls to feed those gathered there.  At those shown here there were a variety of meat and fish specialties.
   We also explored a river twenty feet below street level that had been covered up with concrete, but restored in recent years.  It runs for 5-miles through  central Seoul, and is accesible by stairways (and occasional elevators) every few blocks.  It "open ups" the urban core, like an urban park with the sound of rushing water (and even a grey heron!) for strollers to enjoy.

Here we see Barbara happily waiting for her order at a popular Korean cafe, featuring a variety of stuffed dumpling (mantoo).  Barbara and I like different Korean foods, so between us we've enjoyed a variety!  Like Chinese cuisine Korean food often features rice or noodle dishes (at least a dish of rice at a minimum), but Korean food is also distinctive from what we've had in China, Japan, and Vietnam.  And one thing I was surprised at is the number of coffee cafes in Seoul!  

In downtown Seoul saw older streets and districts (such as this one at left, popular for strolling, shopping, and snacking), among tall sky-scrapers often with complex shapes and glass designs.  

Korea's excellent museums helped fill in us on the history of what we were seeing on foot.  A sketch: The Joseon Empire, from 1392 to 1910, was a longest period in Korean culture before Western and Japanese influence.  Western, including American, influences became important in the 1870's (the Catholic Cathedral pictured earlier was built in the late 1880's over earlier Korean reluctance).  Technological developments (the telephone, streetcars, streetlights, etc.) were evidently welcome, but Korea was incorporated into the expanding Japan empire in 1910, which lasted until the end of World War II.  

In the meantime (1920's into the 1940's, China to Korea's north had become divided in civil war between the Chinese Nationalist Movement and the Chinese Communist Party for control over China's future.  In Korea this led to war between the north, supported by the now victorious People's Republic of China, and the south (Republic of Korea), supported by the United States.  Here we see a Life magazine (at a history museum) dated 1950.  
   The war cost over two million Korean lives (north and south), both civilian and military (a majority civilian), before it ended in 1953.  The war has never actually ended; no peace treaty was ever adopted, and only a militarized "armistist" line separates north and south.  There are still over 28,000 American troops stationed in South Korea; in the airport in Seoul we saw troops coming and going.  
   Of course, reminders of this history has been much in the news, in the dispute over the "denuclearization" of the north, and Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un.  This made our own visit a particularly interesting time to be there--though truth to tell life "on the streets" seemed pretty normal.

And sometimes we also saw reminders of the Japanese occupation as well.  In front of the Japanese embassy there was a memorial (a demonstration) to those young Korean women who'd been forced to serve sexual slaves to the occupying Japanese forces during the war.  Passersby are invited are invited to pick some literature, talk with one of the young Koreans who are  at the booth day and night, and to sit for a moment (like Barbara) next to the statue of one of the women, many of whom did not survive.

Back to history: the generation that followed the 1950's saw rapid economic growth.  From 1961 to 1987 Korean exports grew 30-40% a year, and Korea was transformed from a society which as late as 1960 was still over 70% rural.  
   Some call Korean culture "ppalli-ppalli" or one encouraging everyone to "hurry up."  And political and economic changes have sometimes beenen turbulent.  Museum exhibits admit the development of democracy has sometimes lags behind economic growth (in 1961 military officers overthrew the democratically elected government), and that growth hasn't always benefitted all Koreans.  Elections have reflected such issues; the year before we arrived, a liberal lawyer, Moon Dae-jin, won the presidency, campaigning in part of reviving a lagging economy.   

At left we see a group of children with their teacher, exploring a wall-size portrait of historic Seoul.  I realized how much difficult history recent generations have been through, when I recalled that when I was their age the Korean War was still waging (I was born at the end of War War II).  Watching them, curious and playful and mischievous and unbearably sweet, I hoped their lives would unfold well.

I conclude with a visit to another cafe, this time with with gracious host of the program through which Barbara was able to teach (and learn from) a group of fifty women for several days.

Bruce (and Barbara)