By TED STABILE
Contributing Writer
It’s officially been a month since I arrived in Korea! I’m taking Bruce Lee’s advice to heart and trying to enjoy life. I’ve developed a penchant for hiking and kimchi dumplings, and the past few nights Korea University was hosting their annual “Anamzon,”’ a yearly four-day long animal themed concert to celebrate the new school year and the upcoming holiday Chuesok (Korean Thanksgiving).
During the second day of festivities, I came across a pack of students protesting in front of the main gate with an audience of news reporters and passersby. One microphone was shared between the group and they shuffled speakers every ten minutes while the rest of the student protests held signs displaying bold Hangul. I couldn’t quite understand them but with Google Translate, some post-protest interviews on my part, inferences, and a little context-clue elbow grease, I got the big picture.
Students are unable to vote in the upcoming Board of Trustees election, and for the last few years due to cutbacks, many adjuncts have been cut. Some ex-faculty have felt so spurned that they’ve performed an on and off campout sit in on the main quad for the last two years. These students were irate over their lack of choice, voice, and overall resignation of the majority of the student body and administration. It gave me some nostalgic flashbacks of the Save Our Saint Rose movement, but none of my now alumni friends were catching hands this time.
The protestors asserted that the vote should be postponed, but I couldn’t quite make out if they also wished to participate in the vote, replace the candidate at the center of the vote, or a mix of both. I’ve never seen a more organized display of civic disobedience and willpower, but it wasn’t quite my hill to die on, so as a small gift I used a sheet of my notebook to make a sign of support that read: I believe in you, keep fighting, in Hangul of course.
Shifting generational gears, last weekend I paid a visit to the COEX mall, an actual tower of hubris in Myeong-Dong. COEX housed many western companies such as Rolex, Gucci and countless other Korean and Western fashion brands lined with trinkets and accessories. I find it imperative to confirm, they in fact do sell Kanye’s “Yeezys.”
Upon leaving, I heard drums and sirens in the distance and bumper to bumper traffic as far as the eyes could see. As I got closer, I saw there was a crowd of vans, vets, police, seniors and South Korean/American flags; a patriotic parade! Upon closer inspection, I realized the banner and signs the performers were holding donned very creative messages such as “Maintain the Alliance,” “Warriors of Taeguki, do not be disarmed!,” “No Peace without denuclearization,” and my personal favorite “HELL NO. FAKE PEACE! BIG LIE!”
The parade was in fact a protest, not an anti-war protest perse, but a protest against the prompt, formal end to the Korean War. Much to our mutual delight, these protestors were very interactive, and loved the attention. One man dolled up in a white suit was bold enough to break the march, come over and give me an elevator pitch on the “corrupt and now imprisoned’ former President Guen-hye as well as the “gone too soon” 20th century president Park Chung-hee, and bequeathed onto me a sassy poster that portrays his views.
Another woman, a mother, humbly asked me to tell the “friends and people back home:” “No peace with nukes, or peace through nukes and one Korea.” Many of the protestors were more moderate but still fueled with hype and a dollop of hysteria. They simply wanted the prospect of peace to be more scrutinized, lest North Korea take advantage of their country or at worst, invade.
Alternatively, others were perturbed by the possibility that the onset of peace would undermine or invalidate the sacrifices made during the Korean War. Other protestors stopped, stared, smiled and roared patriotically in my direction, and while I couldn’t fully penetrate the language barrier, I was nevertheless able to break the barrier with some mutual thumbs-up and by yelling back “Nae,” which translates to “YES! OKAY! RIGHT!”
All this hullabaloo stems from the current President Moon’s peace-talk promises to North Korea, with his most recent visit a few days prior. Upon first impressions, younger, millennial Koreans are fueled more by counter-culture and compromising the establishment whereas older more boomer-esque Korean citizens are concerned with their nation’s autonomy, nationalism, and especially their sense of self identity and culture, concerns that have understandably lingered prior to the Korean War during the grotesque era of Japanese occupation. President Moon actually plans to bring Kim to Seoul before the years end.
Bottom line, If the stars align and you all believe hard enough, I think we can kill two birds with one stone, show our support for peace between the Koreas, and make the dream “Give Kim Jong-Un a balloon animal” a reality.
Give him a Jeff Koons, let Koons handle it, and pls come back in one piece