[Current & Culture]The Vast and Cruel City of Seoul

Amid the Dazzling Nightscape,
People Endure Hard Lives in Jjokbang and Gosiwon
Before Scaling Up the City, Let Us Reflect on Its Painful Corners

Seoul is planning to expand. The People Power Party has adopted a party resolution to incorporate neighboring metropolitan cities and is preparing a special law. While the ruling party claims this is an administrative measure for the residents, the media interprets it as a strategy to capture metropolitan area votes in next year's general election. The city most frequently mentioned as a representative of this is Gimpo. This is the so-called ‘Mega City Seoul Project’. Considerable controversy has already arisen.

In the mid-1980s, rural villages would become completely dark after sunset. Having been born and raised in a coastal village on the East Sea, I thought the world was like that everywhere. But when I first came to Seoul in the fourth grade of elementary school, the city sparkled even at night. Hamburgers, elevators, and tall buildings were all new to me, but nothing fascinated the 10-year-old boy more than the city’s nightscape. Since that day, I persistently begged to live in Seoul, and eventually, my parents left our beloved hometown and moved to Seoul.

Even after becoming a Seoul resident, I often gazed endlessly at the city’s night scenery. At some point, among the countless lights that made up the sparkling night view, I began to wish that at least one of them was mine. The city I wanted to live in had become a city I wanted to own. As I secured my own home, got married, and raised children, my feelings toward Seoul changed again. Now, Seoul became a city I wanted to protect. Not as a superhero, but with a hope that it would not decline or become corrupt, but instead transform into a better place. As it changed from a place I wanted to live in, to a place I wanted to own, and finally to a place I wanted to protect, I seriously studied the city of Seoul. I walked many miles and read many books, and here I have selected just two.

First is The Birth of Metropolis Seoul. This book reconstructs content that Professor Im Dong-geun, an urban engineering and geography scholar, discussed on a broadcast. The subtitle, ‘Power, Capital, Institutions, and Desires that Created Life in Seoul,’ aptly describes the nature of the book. Because of the cover and title, it might seem like a stiff academic text, but the content is not like that at all. It feels like listening to an exciting old story. I deliberately sat in the very back seat of the bus during my commute to read this book. When I paused from reading in a daze, I would look out the window and think, “Ah, so this huge city was made like this,” nodding my head. I strongly recommend this reading method for this book alone.

The second book is Exploitation City, Seoul. This is a book that compiles investigative reports by Lee Hye-mi, a reporter for the Korea Times. While the previously introduced book takes a comprehensive view of Seoul over more than half a century, this book focuses on Seoul as a place of residence, obsessively delving into the worst housing conditions such as jjokbang (tiny rooms) and gosiwon (small dormitory-style rooms). As the title suggests, it is a passionate outcry exposing the cruel structure of exploitation. The author wandered through countless alleys of jjokbang villages and met people enduring life in rooms worse than prison cells. Realizing that within the dazzling nightscape, which I had regarded as an object of admiration, there were signals of a structure where these people struggled to survive, I felt sorry and ashamed. I thought this book was too valuable to keep to myself, so I invited the author to a broadcast I host to hear the story directly.

Will Seoul really grow bigger, or will this attempt end in failure? The discussion has just begun. I hope urban engineering is not distorted by political engineering. Before expanding its size, I hope the city looks back on its painful spots. I’m not sure about Mega Seoul, but I definitely reject Cruel City.

Lee Jae-ik, Novelist

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.