It appears a tightened budget and, ahem, local opposition have forced Seoul to downsize a planned Chinatown in Yeonnam-dong:
An ambitious Chinatown project in Seoul has been downsized due to the opposition of Korean residents and tight budget.
Ethnic Chinese in Korea expressed disappointment over restricting the development to just a few streets in Yeonnam-dong.
The original plan was to convert the nation’s largest Chinese residential area in Yeonhee-dong and Yeonnam-dong into a lavish business and living complex. Seoul had planned to buy buildings in the two districts and resell or lease the remodeled structures to ethnic Chinese but the plan has now been placed on the backburner.
Ethnic Chinese are upset, of course:
The ethnic Chinese community here expressed disappointment. Yang Tsung-sheng, the executive vice president of the Chinese Residents’ Association in Seoul, said they had looked forward to the project very much, but at the same time had expected opposition from Korean residents.
“We heard Korean residents in Yeonhee-dong, where our schools are located and thousands of ethnic Chinese live, didn’t like the plan at all and said they do not want it to be a Chinese village,” he said.
Hmmm… local residents standing up and saying they don’t want their neighborhood turned into a foreign ghetto. Perish the thought.
Anyway, there’s a bit more to the story — the plan called for the establishment of hotels, casinos and mahjong parlors, according to one lawmaker.
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What about relocating China town to, lets say, just south of the DMZ ?
“Hmmm… local residents standing up and saying they don’t want their neighborhood turned into a foreign ghetto. Perish the thought.”
Hmm… massive Koreatowns in China from Shenyang to Beijing to Shanghai to Hong Kong, and even an entire autonomous Korean prefecture to boot:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koreatown#China
One measely little Chinatown in a city of ten million? A little reciprocity perhaps, however paltry and asymmetrical?
Perish the thought!
We’ll see how that works out for the Chinese in the end.
We’ll see how that works out for the Chinese in the end.
It appears that is precisely where they are going to get IT.
#3: Well, after China slays and flays the American dragon, I’m sure it’ll be able to beg for and win at least a few concessions from the mighty Korean juggernaut.
Just about every Korean I’ve met has told me that Chinese people are dirty and smell, so who would want them in their neighborhood?
#6: And they’re right. Korea is a very clean and fragrant land.
Like sands in the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.
Good point.
So instead of a New York City-style Chinatown, the local Chinese will get to enjoy a Washington, DC-style Chinatown.
Kevin
It’s a good move. Multicultural communities should take form naturally, not sanctioned by the government. I wouldn’t mind the government helping multicultural communities a bit by improving infrastructure and offering multilingual civil services, but the Chinatown idea was too excessive. Hopefully, the one being planned in Ilsan will get scrapped as well. Though, it seems that the Chinatown in Ilsan is merely an excuse to build high-density residential towers.
So if I were to go back to Sydney and reside in, say, Epping or anywhere else where the percentage of Hangeul sinage is overwhelming, I’d be well within my rights to tell the recent immigrants to knock it the fuck off? Not that I would, I don’t give a toss.
#10, as a former resident of Goyang si, I am interested in the plan for a Chinatown in Ilsan. Where exactly is it meant to be?
I’d say you were well within your rights to question national immigration policy that promoted the development of said neighborhoods. That is, if you found the development of said neighborhoods objectionable (for reasons of cultural preservation, social cohesion, national unity, etc), which, as you’ve noted above, you don’t.
#10: Cydevil, I partly agree with you and concur that the Ilsan Chinatown is largely fake, but there is already a naturally existing Chinese community in the Yeonhee-dong area. And if you look at the history you will see that the old Chinatown behind the Seoul Plaza Hotel was essentially destroyed by the government, so if you want to argue that the government should not be creating artificial foreign or ethnic communities, it should not be destroying foreign or ethnic communities here either.
No one can seriously argue that the Chinese need government help to create Chinatowns in foreign countries. I see the Yeonhee-dong project more as a correcting of past injustices here.
But the fact of the matter is that the Korean government has always had a shizophrenic attitude to foreigners and ethnic minorities here. I personally think the government is hiding behind the fig leaf of local Korean resident opposition, because if you look at other parts of the city, there rarely seems to be a problem when the government wants to bulldoze through another large-scale urban redevelopment project.
If the plan seriously involved building casinos in Yeonhui-dong, I understand people getting upset.
As for the government listening to residents’ voices, let’s not forget that Yeonhui-dong is not exactly a poor, disenfranchised neighborhood. Plenty of rich people live there. Including a former dictator or two (at least they did last I checked).
http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=135&aid=0000001486
I’m sure locals were worried about stuff like that, too, courtesy the Garibong-dong Chinatown.
#16: Robert, you do understand the difference between Choson-jok and Hwagyo, right?
I’m not in favor of casinos in residential areas or other forms of government-endorsed gentrification at the expense of lower-income residents.
But in the final analysis, Seoul is a more boring city because there is no Chinatown in the urban core area. Inch’on doesn’t cut it because it’s too far away and frankly so is Yeonhee-dong.
No doubt it is a badge of honor for many Koreans to boast that Seoul is the only metropolis in the world without a genuine Chinatown.
King Baeksu,
Whatever the reasons, I’m still opposed to artificially fabricated multicultural communities spearheaded by the government. Many multicultural communities are taking form throughout Seoul, many of them by immigrants who have much lower income than the Chinese who lived here for more than a generation. Why should the Chinese be given such preferential treatment when relatively disadvantaged immigrants are successfully forming multicultural communities?
Also, the government’s main intent on developing a Chinatown is not a correct-the-past welfare project for the Chinese community, but rather a project to promote tourism. But I hardly believe that an artificial Chinatown is a good tourist attraction, nor do I believe that it is a “badge of honor”.
#12,
It’s somewhere near KINTEX I believe.
The Korean government has been talking about this for years. I think at one point they were thinking of sticking the Chinatown around Ttuksam. (Maybe that’s there the ‘forest’ is now!) I always thought that Lotte World would be a more appropriate venue for an artifically created Chinatown such as this one.
#13 – Marmot, what would NYC look like without neighborhoods, promoted at least in part, by past and present national immigration policy? Pretty bland, eh?
Well, really hard to say. It would be different, that’s for sure. And at any rate, bland isn’t necessarily bad. I’m sure that, say, the Paris suburbs and swaths of the English Midlands are much less “bland” than they were some 20 or 30 years ago. Ansan in Gyeonggi-do has definitely grown immeasurably less “bland” since 2000.
#22: Robert, are you going to start up a local chapter of Minutemen?
#18: Cydevil, you’re setting up a false problem. I’m not a fan of the gov’t's general approach to designating foreign communities here, but under your logic It’aewon would be an “artificially created” multicultural community because the got’v has decided to brand it an “Americatown.”
At least they got the Chinatown name right. Hannam-dong is clearly Japanese-oriented, but somehow it became another “Americatown” under the new designation system.
Anyway, let’s agree that the local gov’t is really rather clueless about how best to deal with local foreign communities here.
I’m sure Robert will steer the folks at City Hall in the right direction through his ceaseless efforts.
I’d say the locals are already engaging in that sort of activity:
http://breaknews.com/new/sub_read.html?uid=79375§ion=section3
the koreans are right to restict this project and i wear THAT with a badge of honor. there’s no room for chinese people in korea since they represent a serious security threat.
instead of creating fake china towns for disloyals, why not help the filipinos and vietnamese establish their commnunities in seoul? how about the mongols?
that would be much more cosmo and smart.
no china town in korea?
good.
#25: “there’s no room for chinese people in korea since they represent a serious security threat.”
Once again, Pawi reveals that he has a serious size complex.
Say there, pawi, how long does it take a Chinese family to become Korean?
If you look at the roots of many Korean families, “Kwak”, for instance, you can see that they sprang from a Chinese ancestor who emigrated to Korea perhaps 1200 years ago.
Isn’t that about when the Jews left Egypt to wander in the desert?
What makes you think the Kwaks aren’t secretly longing for the day they can return home?
Oops. Give or take a millenium. Still, nothing compared to 5,000 years of history.
“Why should the Chinese be given such preferential treatment when relatively disadvantaged immigrants are successfully forming multicultural communities?”
I don’t know… having a Chinatown, artificial or not, could help. Having Chinese in a major metropolitan place like Seoul could also be cool considering that it could attract business people from said country…
‘Say there, pawi, how long does it take a Chinese family to become Korean?’
about 1200 years.
“If you look at the roots of many Korean families, “Kwak”, for instance, you can see that they sprang from a Chinese ancestor who emigrated to Korea perhaps 1200 years ago.”
Many families how have sinic style surnames in Korea may not necessarily have a direct ancestor from China. Most commoners in Korea didn’t have surnames. When there was some sort of calamity (i.e. the Mongol invasions or the Imjin War) and people moved around, they adopted the surnames of their former masters.
btw, the koreans shouldn’t just restirct the birth of any given chinatown, it should also ask the tiananmen government to scale down it’s massive embassy. china doesn’t need such a building in such a small country like korea.
a trojan horse?
Many families how have sinic style surnames in Korea may not necessarily have a direct ancestor from China. Most commoners in Korea didn’t have surnames. When there was some sort of calamity (i.e. the Mongol invasions or the Imjin War) and people moved around, they adopted the surnames of their former masters.
In the case of the Kwaks, they did have a Chinese ancestor (Kwak Kyong) who emigrated to Koguryo in 1133AD.
#31: “‘Say there, pawi, how long does it take a Chinese family to become Korean?’
about 1200 years.”
Pawi, in the interest of generosity, I’ll give you just 120 years to become a real American.
Well… Koreans view China and Chinese differently then most expats and non-Koreans. The best parallel I can think of are a lot of Hispanics in a major U.S. city. Given the proximity of Latin America to the U.S., a small hispanic neighborhood in a U.S. city can quickly become Mexicotown. Immigration looks scarier when distance is closer.
“emigrated to Koguryo in 1133AD.”
You mean Koryo, right? Koguryo fell in 668 AD.
You mean Koryo, right? Koguryo fell in 668 AD.
Opps, I guess you’re right. Then why the hell does Wikipedia say Koryo is short for Koguryo?
#36: “…a small hispanic neighborhood in a U.S. city can quickly become Mexicotown.”
So that would make New Mexico, for instance, “New New Mexico”?
Or just plain old Mexico again?
Opps, I guess you’re right. Then why the hell does Wikipedia say Koryo is short for Koguryo?
Because Wikipedia is as reliable as pawi’s common sense.
@38 – I believe that is a result of Korean efforts in the Great Koguryo Wikiwar.
On a sidenote, it’s funny how the top Sponsored Link on this thread is for “Chinatown NYC.”
Why does Robert get paid to dis Chinatown instead of me?
33: pawi: we all know the new, supersize embassy is where the invasion tunnel will come out once China’s finished digging it beneath the Yellow Sea, from Qindgao. Kim Jong-il’s got nothing on Doctor Hu! I don’t trust them either!
By the way, Pawi: there’s a gauntlet thrown down over here http://tinyurl.com/3a9333 that still hasn’t been picked up. . . why are your shoes suddenly so interesting to you?
# 41,
No… it’s because Koguryo was called Koryo from the 5th century on in the Tang official histories. Wang Geon’s kingdom adopted the shortened name of Koguryo for the name if his kingdom, but the two kingdoms were not related to each other, other then being located on the Korean peninsula.
“Or just plain old Mexico again?”
I dunno… depends on your point of view. Maybe in 1848 it should of been named “New Anglo-Saxonville”….
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