[ks-open] Re: Insa-dong

[T.N. Park]

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Thanks for your article. It was most enlightening. When I get the chance in
the next few weeks, I may try to head over there and share some ideas. I was
extremely disappointed when they razed Chungang-chông, and I even wrote some
articles to save it. With the majority of Koreans (about 2/3, according to a
Chosun Ilbo survey) opposed to razing it, Kim Youngsam went ahead and did it
anyway, perhaps as a distraction for all the nonsense going on in other
sectors of his government.

Cheers,
TNP

Virginia Moon wrote:

> REPLY sends your message to the whole list
> __________________________________________
> 
> TNP’s comments and the article presented by Professor Jungmann reminded me
> of another article I found in the Korea Times last year that I thought would
> be of interest.
> 
> V.Moon
> 
> "Demise of Modern Cultural Heritages Too Easy: Government Agency Ready for
> Law Revision" by Cho Sang-hee.
> 
>    Despite the split of public opinion and some architects' strong
> opposition, the Chungangchong building, former Japanese colonial
> headquarters converted into the National Museum, was toppled in 1996 in a
> drive by then president Kim Young-sam to clear the Japanese legacy.  What
> was needed as a procedural
> document was "one sheet of death-note-like paper."
> 
>    With similar strokes of the pen, many important heritage buildings from
> modern Korean history have been demolished without being properly protected,
> critics charge.
> 
>    The popular cinema Kukto Theater, one of the most representative
> buildings of the colonial period in downtown Seoul, disappeared overnight.
> When the popular theater was being blown up, neither moviegoers nor the
> media knew of the demolition plan.
> 
>    "It's because the business has become simply a matter between the
> building own and the city officials," said an architect during an interview
> Friday.  "Neither a public hearing nor advance notice," regretted the
> architect who declined to be named.
> 
>    "Even culture tourists visiting architectural sites are just looking
> for old roof of tiles," said Kim Chung-dong, architectural historian at
> Mokwon University in Taejon. "They are misled to believe that only the
> antique is worthy and not the modern ones," he added.
> 
>     Buildings of the recent past, mostly inscribed in people's memory and
> many of them built during the Japanese rule, have been destroyed, "showing
> the bureaucracy and people of cultural, historical indiscretion," according
> to the critics.
> 
>    The examples make up a long list, from Hwasin Department Store, now the
> Samsung-built Tax Office Building on Chongno Street, to the former
> Kyonggi-do Office whose site has been changed into an outdoor performance
> park on Sejong-ro.
> 
>      Alarmed by the overnight disappearance of some popular buildings of
> the recent past, the Cultural Properties Administration held an urgent
> meeting of academics and experts in Seoul to brainstorm for countermeasures.
> 
>      The recent symposium titled ``Saving the Modern Cultural Heritages''
> held at the Korea Press Center was also an occasion to save the government
> agency from the calamities of official failures.
> 
>    ``It's true that the government was a little bit perplexed by the cases
> of Kukto Theater and others but it is working on a breakthrough,'' said Seo
> Jeong-bae, administrator of the Taejon-based Cultural Properties
> Administration.
> 
>    The top cultural heritage official attended the event to announce that
> the Culture-Tourism Ministry and his office are working revising the weak
> Cultural Properties Protection Law.
> 
>    They point out the lack of regulation over buildings from modern times.
> The current law recognizes only properties built before 1930 as treasures or
> materials deserving protection.
> 
>    The most recent case was the controversial project removing traditional
> Korean houses in the pine-shrouded estate of the formerly exclusive
> Samchonggak restaurant in Songbuk-dong. The housing section of Samsung Heavy
> Industries was going to build dozens of four billion won per unit houses
> likened to the mansions of Beverly Hills, to the displeasure of some
> citizens and the Seoul city government.
> 
>     With the support of a concerned citizens' petition movement, the city
> government summoned its committee of cultural experts to consider the modern
> Korean style houses as candidates to become a city heritage not to be
> destroyed.
> 
>    The location is associated with the history of inter-Korean talks as
> the scene of a banquet with visiting North Korean Red Cross delegates in the
> early 1970s. It was built privately under the supervision of the Korea
> Central Intelligence Agency under the nose of president Park Chung-hee who
> showed interest and is said to have visited the construction site. Later, it
> was used to entertain local politicians and businessmen from abroad. The
> city government, however, failed to earn the endorsement by the committee
> members who were occupied with the code of the age limit as it was built in
> 1972. The city decided on its own to save the houses by designating the area
> as a cultural location under city planning, meeting the public outcry.
> 
>     According to Mokwon Professor Kim's survey of Seoul, more than 100
> major buildings of historic importance and marketplaces have been
> continually destroyed or burnt down since the opening of the kingdom in 1876
> through the 1910-45 colonial period and during the development era between
> 1950-90.
> 
>     Among them were the old school of Paejae-haktang, the French
> Consulate, Severance Hospital, Saemunan Church, the National Library and
> Taehwa Christian Hall. Many of them were built by Western architects.
> 
>     As for the old Kyonggi-do Government building, which was later used as
> the national police headquarters, a panelist said it reminds of Berlin's
> Egyptian Museum for its shape and location. He compared the Charlottenburg
> Palace across from the Egyptian museum to the domed Chungangchong building
> and the museum looks very similar to the now disappeared Kyonggi-do office.
> 
>     Earlier, many architects suggested that the building on Sejong-no be
> converted to a museum and newly built museums to be included with the
> National Museum housed at the Chungangchong compound. They cited the museum
> district in Washington D.C. highlighted by the Smithsonian Institutions.
> 
>     Kim revealed that he was intimidated by numerous people when he tried
> to defend the existence of Chungangchong as an architectural, historic
> heritage, overcoming the bad memory of Japanese colonial rule.
> 
>     He also states that among major architectural heritages of modern
> times, many were designed or built by the Japanese. ``What is important is
> not the problem of who built it but how the people recognize and appreciate
> it.''
> 
>   ``The buildings of the time should not be condemned just because of
> their Japanese earmark,'' said Kim.
> 
>     He recently helped retrieve a Choson princely residence's cornerstone
> to Kyongbok palace from a hotel in Tokyo in a campaign to return smuggled
> Korean heritages from the Japanese.
> 
>     An official from Koyang City in the northern suburb of Seoul reported
> the presence of a colonial-period railroad station that he said may be
> demolished.  He questioned whether all the Japanese buildings deserve
> preservation or if they could be destroyed except for a few examples notable
> for their history and tourism appeal.
> 
>    The answer from the panel was ``selective preservation'' in regards to
> their usefulness or historic significance and the relation with the
> surroundings as well as the rarity of the examples.
> 
>     Many experts pointed out the fact that most of the buildings cannot be
> checked by local and central governments due to the lack of a register
> system.
> 
>     The Cultural Properties Administration has recently launched a
> nationwide survey of heritage-class properties to preserve them under a new
> system now being prepared.
> 
>     Lee Chun-geun, culture sociologist at the CPA, stressed, ``The
> designation of the modern properties will be done using more diversified
> categories while the age barrier will be demolished in the new system.''
> 
>     Taking an example of the U.S. system, the National Heritage Service
> applies a law that is left open to consider extra items apart from the
> specified categories as well as from the sites' age. It also stipulates that
> the authorities have a mandate to exercise emergency power to save
> endangered properties.
> 
>      So far in Korea, the museum pieces ranging from antique crafts,
> sculptures and paintings to architecture and archaeological finds have been
> properly protected by the law. Unlike the treasured Koryo celadons and
> period pieces, others have been left uncared-for.
> 
>      CPA chief Seo said the new law will also enforce the protection of
> the environs of the historic sites and buildings to maintain the heritages
> in a more open space.
> 
>     Heritage experts expressed a guarded welcome to the overall measures,
> pronouncing, ``It's never too late,'' and, ``Such a guardianship should have
> been introduced earlier.''
> 
> 
> 
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