Korea as an inextricable part of the China/Japan/ Asia complexity

Our Christmas travels took us through Seoul Korea as a stopover on the way to Palau. This was a gift for us as we knew very little about South Korea or its' history. This also gave us a feel for the huge cataclysms and conflicts that have crashed over this small small section of Asia in the last one hundred years.

Our first gift was to learn about and experience some of Korea's rich history through just happening to book an Airbnb right in the middle of historic Seoul; beautiful wood-work, narrow little alleys and interesting court yards hidden away. Not at all the ultra-modern/ no history left city we expected!

Our understanding of Seoul and Korea was facilitated by a lovely dinner gathering with some of the active Seoul Quaker Meeting members who joined us for a lively evening of sharing, bumbling along in mixtures of Korean, English and Japanese, and lots of laughter.

Curious about how Quakers were started in Korea, they all referred to the "Korean Gandhi" Ham Sok-Hon who was one of the founders of Quakers in Korea. An ardent pacifist who was imprisoned and tortured by the Japanese, North Korea and then the dictators of South Korea all of our Friends mentioned how important he was in them choosing to be Quaker. Here is a link to his life and work. 

We particularly appreciated our in-depth conversations with the senior member of Seoul meeting whose 40 year stint in the US gave us some real perspective on the Korean war, the partition and Korean history and language. It was fascinating to hear about the work he has done with the AFSC on re-unification and the 30 some trips he has taken to North Korea. 

We immersed ourselves in a quick overview of Korea history, starting back with the earliest Korean pottery from around 8000 BC.  From those early periods the history of Korea, like the history of Japan, like the history of China, is littered with competing dynasties, with rulers taking power from other rulers, with invasions from their neighbours (yes, the Mongols and the Japanese at different times in history), with wars and periods of peace. A timeline of Korean history can be found here. 

Like China and Japan, there is a central and beautiful imperial palace:

Looking out to the vibrant modern city:

Remains of the original defensive wall (now peppered with modern military installations) that surrounded ancient Seoul:

And like China and Japan, Koreans debate about calligraphy originating in Korea. There are some claims that the original tea ceremony started here and as well as a variety of other ancient traditions revered in all three countries: 

Around the ancient parts of the city, the sprawling modern city attracts visitors from all over the world for its' shopping (apparently Korean cosmetics are highly valued by Chinese buyers) and the international craze for Korean youth culture known as the "K-wave".  We did not partake much in the K-wave phenomena but truly enjoyed wandering the streets in the freezing cold to get a feel for the city. 

Old and new:

Stairs that light up to encourage you to exercise:

Quaint tea houses in back alleys:

with mega-buildings on the major roads:

Art museums; science museums; culture museums:

And how could we not pose in front of the Canadian Embassy?

Though it got pretty bitterly cold in the evening, the Christmas light-ups helped liven our walks:

Our one bit of the K-wave we stumbled on and bought tickets to was a hilarious play/cooking show cum Taiko drums called "Nanta" that is sweeping the world. Think chefs/acrobats chopping cabbage in the air and drumming on cutting blocks with sharp knives and you have a bit of an image of this K-wave phenomena now playing in NYC, LA, Paris etc. 

If you have 15 minutes to spare, check out this Youtube of the Nanta show:

From the K-wave to the historical, we warmed up in a fascinating museum that looked at Korean history from the late 1890s to today. Here, like in Japan, was the histroy of the West forcing Korea to "open its doors" with all of the new knowledge this brought as well as religion, architecture and loss of traditions. The exhibition explained the Japanese colonisation (interesting to see this from the Korean perspective coming from Tokyo), the end of the second world war, the hope and then the Korean war and the series of dictators who ran the Seoul government for years. It also chronicled the importance of democracy (here are the displays where you can speak at the Prime Minsters podium and sit at their desk) as well as a hope for a tolerant and multi-culture future for Korea.

As we had a coffee at the museum shop looking over the square, we saw democracy and conflict in action. A large group of protesters came chanting down the avenue and a swarm of police came out to redirect them. 

Deciding to move away from that area, we ended up walking down the main central square on our way to our next museum only to find more evidence of the current waves of anger, protests and demonstrations. According to our Quaker friends, Koreans now, due to their recent history, are very prompt to protest in large numbers. 

It seems that on weekends is when the huge crowds gather, but the effigies are left during the week. 

A touching temporary shrine has also been built on the square in memory of the students killed in the sinking of a ferry in 2014. This disaster struck a real national chord and has fuelled national discontent since then. See the article here.

This was quite a beautiful cafe to bring people together in grief. 

This was a short visit in which we only had time to scratch the surface of this ancient and complex society. But again, having lived in both China and Japan, we were reminded about the generations and generations of complex conflicts and cultural exchange between these three countries. And as can be seen in the news these days, these conflicts continue to be alive and challenging to the relations between these countries today.