Situations Vol. 1(Fall 2010) © 2010 by Yonsei University Yang Jung Lee1
[email protected] Finding Chongno The Search for the Past in the Present In the 1920s Chongno was full of “brick houses, tiled roofs, tin roofs, thatched cottages… men in suits, kimonos, hanbok in black or white … men walking forwards, sideways, stooping, shoving, perched on something, crawling, yawning, smoking, spitting, and even urinating… people speak in Japanese, Western languages, Chinese, and different dialects of Korean… Of course since it is in a metropolitan area, there are foreigners, Seoul people, country people, people who are dressed to a tee, some dressed like beggars" (Chang 71-72, my translation). During the Chosǒn Dynasty, Chongno functioned as the center of commerce; if you could not find something in Chongno, it was a good bet that you would not find it anywhere. During the Japanese occupation, it functioned as a gathering place for revolutionaries, modern boys and modern girls, literary greats, newspaper printers, vendors, and peddlers. It was during this time that Chongno became the heart of the Chosǒn people. Ch’ǒnggyech’ǒn divided the city into the Japanese section in the south and the Korean section in the north. The center of the Korean section was Chongno. Today Chongno is still a conglomeration of different people and buildings although it has undergone great changes. Chongno sparkles with the light reflected on the windows of tall cement office buildings; tiled roofs of traditional wooden buildings are interspersed between concrete blocks. Men and women in suits run to work, while students walk to class yawning; ajummas shove their way to their destinations, while some stooped or loitering men spit or smoke.