UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Axis Mundi: the City and Geographies of Identity in Cheju Island, South Korea Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1fz365w9 Author Tran, Tommy Publication Date 2017 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Axis Mundi: The City and Geographies of Identity in Cheju Island, South Korea A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Languages and Cultures by Tommy Tran 2017 © Copyright by Tommy Tran 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Axis Mundi: The City and Geographies of Identity in Cheju Island, South Korea by Tommy Tran PhD Candidate in Asian Languages and Cultures University of California, Los Angeles, 2017 Professor Timothy R. Tangherlini, Chair This dissertation explores an emerging tourist destination’s transition from a former rural periphery into one of Korea’s fastest growing urban centers. In less than half a century, Cheju City, the capital of Cheju Island, grew from a sleepy provincial seat into a bustling tourist city with metropolitan ambitions. A central concern is how do residents of an emerging city become “urban”? Cheju Island has long been a curiosity in Korea due to its real and exoticized cultural differences from the mainland, but its present urban reality is often under-addressed. The findings in this dissertation examine how the “Free International City” project begun since 2002 fundamentally altered ways of life and thinking and provoked complete reinventions of tradition and a rural Cheju imaginary. The new spaces of the city offered unprecedented means to organize resources and ideas. Cheju islanders developed their own urbanisms with local idioms that synthesize imported ideas to a Cheju-specific situation that also differs – and, at times, ii rejects – mainland Korean urbanisms. A further paradox of unprecedented contact with and interdependency on mainland Korea is that mainland-island divides have persisted rather than diminished. In the face of destruction, rural traditions and communities have also acquired a new vitality and definition as they become markers of island identity. Cheju City, as a constantly shifting geographical form and concept, functions as an axis around which islanders construct their everyday spaces and interactions amongst each other and with the wider world. From a combination of historical, statistical, and ethnographic perspectives, this dissertation analyzes the ways people of multiple walks of life articulate, imagine, enact, create, and resist the city. iii The dissertation of Tommy Tran is approved. Namhee Lee Allen F. Roberts Timothy R. Tangherlini, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2017 iv DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my mother, who had long tolerated my eccentricities, and my Cheju Island friends, locals and expats, who inspired my endeavors from the beginning of this project. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………………….ix Acknowledgements Vita Introduction: The Invisible City Chapter 1: “The View from the Periphery”……………………………………………………...13 1.1 Cheju Vignette: A Disjointed Return 1.2 “Pyŏnbang-ŭi sisŏn” 1.3 Constructing the City 1.4 Methodologies 1.5 Cheju Vignette: The Guest Chapter 2: City of the Seven Stars……………………………………………………………….86 2.1 Cheju Vignette: Contact Zone 2.2 Situating Cheju Island 2.3 Histories Suppressed and Otherwise 2.4 Cheju Vignette: The “Peace” Village Chapter 3: Making the Korean Hawai’i………………………………………………………...150 3.1 Cheju Vignette: Original Cheju Woman 3.2 Honeymoons and the State 3.3 The Free International City Project 3.4 Cheju Vignette: When Cheju Goes to the World Chapter 4: The Grandmother Land……………………………………………………………..181 4.1 Cheju Vignette: Senjari Rangers 4.2 Island of the Gods 4.3 Heritage and Spiritual Endorphins 4.4 Cheju Vignette: Heralding the Dragon King Chapter 5: Cultural Content……………………………………………...……………………..234 5.1 Cheju Vignette: The Artisans 5.2 Creative Economy 5.3 City of Culture 5.4 Cheju Vignette: David and Goliath vi Chapter 6: Parallax Urban Dreams……………………………………………………………..282 6.1 Cheju Vignette: Visible City 6.2 Finding Polaris 6.3 Reimagining the City 6.4 Cheju Vignette: Paint the Town Red…Literally Chapter 7: All Roads Lead to Cheju City………………………………………………………341 7.1 Cheju Vignette: The Wind Goddess Rises 7.2 The Government has Landed 7.3 Coffee, Novelties, and Authenticities 7.4 Cheju Vignette: World Unnatural Heritage Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………...398 Appendices……………………………………………………………………………………...405 A.1 Maps and Geographical Features A.2 Tables and Statistics A.3 Chinese Character and Korean Han’gŭl Terms A.4 Chejuŏ Terms and Local Place Names A.5 Classical Arabic Terms Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………422 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Map of Northeast Asia with Cheju Island in the center……………………………….34 Figure 2: Wŏlchŏng’s tang maen simbang Kim Tolsan…………………………………………79 Figure 3: Tolharǔbang pair in Momodani Osaka Koreatown…………………………………...87 Figure 4: Map of Cheju Special Self-governing Province……………………………………….93 Figure 5: Yuch’ae kkot field in Sŏngsan-ŭp…………………………………………………….162 Figure 6: Ruins of Sŏlsaemit Shrine……………………………………………………………182 Figure 7: Traditional offering boats made of straw and paper………………………………….203 Figure 8: Yŏnggam-nori at 2016 Ch’ilmŏri Shrine Yŏngdŭng-kut Sŏngbyŏlche……………...205 Figure 9: Paper sculpture of Chŏch’ŏngbi at Ipch’un-kut parade………………………………221 Figure 10: Buddhist Yowang rite at Chongdal-ri………………………………………………230 Figure 11: Cheju Mokkwanaji………………………………………………………………….284 Figure 12: Reconstructed Kim Mandŏk’s Tavern……………………………………………...297 Figure 13: Map of Cheju City’s wŏndosim with city walls (in red)……………………………305 Figure 14: Map of Cheju City’s expansion from 1920 to 1977………………………………...308 Figure 15: The former Hyŏndae Theater, 1944-1978…………………………………………..310 Figure 16: The former P’yŏngan Mokje house…………………………………………………313 Figure 17: KEA’s map of Ku-Cheju……………………………………………………………315 Figure 18: HSJ’s map of Ku-Cheju…………………………………………………………….315 Figure 19: Wŏndosim Yet’gil T’amhŏm Course Map………………………………………….328 Figure 20: The three-centuries old Pak Family thatched house………………………………...330 Figure 21: The Ko family house built in the 1920s…………………………………………….334 Figure 22: Protesting villagers dressed as the ancestors………………………………………..342 viii Figure 23: Coastline of Ha-ye in 2011………………………………………………………….389 Figure 24: Unfinished Airest City complex…………………………………………………….395 Figure 25: Cheju Island monochrome topographic map………………………………………..404 Figure 26: Cheju Administrative Boundaries after 2007……………………………………….405 Figure 27: Average Temperatures in Celsius…………………………………………………...405 Figure 28: Average Precipitation in Millimeters………………………………………………406 Figure 29: Cheju City 2021 Concept Map……………………………………………………...406 ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation was technically ten years in the making. I can count a great many people as my influences. Due to the encouragement of Sherrin Hibbard, an adventurous fisherwoman- turned-teacher, who inspired my initial explorations in Cheju in 2007. Through Sherrin, I was able to meet many others, mostly Cheju locals, who would later contribute enormously to my project in one way or another – Fred Dustin of the Kimnyŏng Maze Park, Ko Young-lim (Ko Yŏngnim) of Cheju National University, photographer Brenda Paik Sunwoo and her husband Jan Sunwoo, Kim Myeongsin (Kim Myŏngsin) of Korean Air Lines, Ko Youngja (Ko Yŏngja) of the Traditional Culture Institute, Ahn Hye-kyoung (An Hyegyŏng) of Art Space C, Hyun Sungmi (Hyŏn Sŏngmi) of the Cheju Green Party, and Hong Sunyoung (Hong Sŏnyŏng) of Cheju Tourism College. Fred Dustin was ever my ardent supporter and provided deep insights on his life in Cheju since the 1960s. Ko Younglim would become my inspiration for focusing my project on Cheju’s urbanization. Academic training at my alma mater UC Riverside and my graduate program at UCLA were indispensable for acquiring the necessary skills for research and analysis. Professors Yenna Wu, Margherita Long, and Michael Dylan Foster inspired interest in East Asian Studies. Professors Timothy R. Tangherlini, Namhee Lee, John Duncan, Allen F. Roberts, Mary Nooter “Polly” Roberts, Jennifer Jung-Kim, and Lisa Kim-Davis. have been crucial to my development as a PhD student. Professor Tangherlini, who researched in Cheju in the late 1980s, was a crucial influence in developing my understanding of ethnographic methodology. Aside from Korean historiography and historical analysis, Professors Duncan’s and Lee’s guidance also made me aware of Korea’s constant transnational interactions. Thanks to Professors Allen and Polly Roberts, I learned much about studies beyond East Asia and other methodologies in x anthropology, museology, and cultural analysis. Jennifer Jung-Kim was my first unofficial advisor for teaching undergraduates. Although I took a single seminar with Professor Kim-Davis, it was her class that introduced me to urban geography. When I returned to Cheju in the 2010-2011 year for the TaLK (Teach and Learn in Korea) program, I met many enthusiastic people who would continue to be close friends. My cohort in the Fifth Generation of TaLK were known as the tightest group in the program – Shannon Barry, Paul Bye, Kara Prior, Benny Horn, Laurence Burrows, Flor Sigaran, Jenna Yi, Simon Preddy, Meagan Purdy, and Ben Wilkey. I was also pleased to have befriended the