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Korean Job Discussion Forums "The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
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in_seoul_2003
Joined: 24 Nov 2003
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Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 6:53 am Post subject: |
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Last edited by in_seoul_2003 on Thu Jul 12, 2007 7:34 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Location: I walk along the avenue
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Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 9:07 pm Post subject: |
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In Seoul wrote:
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My interest would be in extending the meanings of a monument to other infrastructure which partake of equally ambivalent meanings |
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At any rate, when Korea goes around arguing in favor of preserving some monuments as realities of its history, however contested the meaning of that history may be, destroys others, and preserves others which could be equally contested but aren't, then an analysis should be forthcoming. |
I think you might be shortchanging the strictly utilitarian aspects of certain infrastructure, aspects which likely take prominence over any "memorialization capacity" in the decision to keep them standing.
Suppose that, for some reason, there is a statue of Hitler in France somewhere, left over from the occupation. Now, Jean-Michel who lives next door to the park that houses the statue might want it taken down, as he regards it as an affront to the memory of Hitler's French victims. But let's also suppose that Jean-Michel is the happy owner of a Volkswagen beetle, a car first manufactured by the Nazis. Is there a contradiction between these two positions, between wanting Hitler out of the park but also wanting to drive Hitler's car? I don't think so.
The VW, while originally serving dual functions as both a convenient way to get around AND as a symbol of supposed Aryan superiority, has by 2005 been divested of almost any meaning related to the former that it might have had. You don't have to be a Nazi to appreciate the comfort and convenience of a VW, but ONLY a Nazi can appreciate a statue that has as its caption "Adolph Hitler, the Savior of Paris From The Bolshevik Hordes"(or whatever).
In the case of Korea's colonial era schools, government offices, etc, I think it was probably just a matter of "well, the schools etc are here anyway, and we really don't have the time and resources to tear them all down and build new ones, so we might as well just keep them up and use them".
And I would bet that any buidlings sporting names which extolled the virtues of Japanese colonialism(Rising Sun Towers or whatever) were divested of any such symbolic function by being re-named. |
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in_seoul_2003
Joined: 24 Nov 2003
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Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 7:08 am Post subject: |
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Last edited by in_seoul_2003 on Thu Jul 12, 2007 7:32 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Gwangjuboy
Joined: 08 Jul 2003 Location: England
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Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 11:44 pm Post subject: |
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mithridates wrote: |
�Ѱܷ� is the one that first exposed the acts of the Korean soldiers in the Vietnam War in slaughtering villagers for example, the so-called ����л�. |
The North Korean propoganda ministry is a big fan. |
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