After living in China for seven years, it was only last week that I took the time to visit South Korea. For someone like me, interested in witnessing history, I came on what was probably one of the most interesting weeks in the recent history of the Korean Peninsula: only few days before my visit, two important events took place: the former President, Roh Moo-Hyun, kill himself when hiking and North Korea held its second nuclear weapon test. It was impossible to come to South Korea on a more interesting time.
I arrived in Seoul on May 27th 2009, just one day before the scheduled funeral of the former President Roh. Besides the well known Korean language salutation “Ahhn niyong ha say yo” I don’t speak or understand any Korean and what I consign here is basically what I saw during my time in Seoul.
The week I traveled from China to Korea, the headlines in the world were the news about the North Korean nuclear test. But the country was in shock more for the suicide of Mr. Roh than for anything else. During my time in Seoul that’s actually what stroke me more: the seriousness with which the Korean people took the death of a former president. On my first day, I saw the every day life going as usual: people working on a normal day and young people enjoying the prosperity offered by their country in shopping malls, galleries and coffee shops but in the evening I witnessed a generalized respect and devotion to the memory of a fallen leader that surprised me very much.
From someone like me, who comes from a country where most of the people have a negative opinion of most of politicians and who remember European friends expressing negative opinions of leaders such as Sarkozy or Berlusconi, witnessing the mourn and respect of the Korean people to its former president was very surprising. Honestly I don’t know that much about President Roh, but what I read is that he has been accused of corruption and that’s another reason that made me wonder how was that possible that the death of a leader charged with corruption had that impact in Korea.
I don’t have any explanation for that but to me that reaction of the Korean people is very different with what in my opinion would happen in my country or in any other Western country, where in most of the people it’s present an instinctive suspicion of politics and politicians and where is very difficult, especially now, that the individual sacrifices his personal time to participate in political activities.
Regardless of the causes or the differences with the rest of the world, on May 27th in the eve of the funeral, Seoul Plaza was filled with thousands of people that gathered to mourn President Roh. There were people of different ages carrying candles and pictures of their leader; there were people reading speeches and there were also people that sang sad songs having the South Korean flag and the image of President Roh as background. On the floor, there were young and old people sitting on newspapers, just there, just being part of the event. There were also screens that showed President Roh when he was young, probably during the time when he was an activist.
There were thousands of people on the street on May 27th, but there was order and there was civility. Everybody respected everybody, nobody was pushing or rushing or littering or yelling. People were just there, being part of a community, showing respect, worshiping a fallen leader. There was a heavy police presence that evening, but the order was not maintained because the police. No, the individuals showed care about the individuals. People were offering water and there was a silent dialogue going on between them, not the loud voices of confrontation.
What I saw in Seoul that evening made me think on the differences between Korea and my country, between the West and East Asia. I thought that if in my country a former president charged with corruption committed suicide, there would be some people that would have the idea of throwing a party for that. My reflection was: who on these times would resent the disappearance of a politician? I think only the sudden disappearance of President Barack Obama would make people publicly express their condolences.
But Korea apparently was different: in Korea was possible to charge and impeach a President and then to publicly mourn his death.
Something also different about Korea that also sparked my reflection is that the funeral of President Roh and the fact that millions of people watched on TV, showed that in Korea individuals had a genuine and legitimate interest on the system. Individuals, people, seemed to care about the system, showing interest in the system, whereas in other places, individuals were anomic, just as the French sociologist Durkheim said. Is the interest of the individual one prerequisite for the health of a system? Would it be possible for a system to dye without the interest of its members?
Finally, I saw in Seoul that day a highly civilized behavior of the crowds, which behaved like one educated individual. What I saw in Korea and I compared for the case of China is that crowds are not always synonymous or equivalent of chaos. The Seoul example showed to me that it was possible to have thousands of people in a public square without chaos and destruction.
I arrived in Seoul on May 27th 2009, just one day before the scheduled funeral of the former President Roh. Besides the well known Korean language salutation “Ahhn niyong ha say yo” I don’t speak or understand any Korean and what I consign here is basically what I saw during my time in Seoul.
The week I traveled from China to Korea, the headlines in the world were the news about the North Korean nuclear test. But the country was in shock more for the suicide of Mr. Roh than for anything else. During my time in Seoul that’s actually what stroke me more: the seriousness with which the Korean people took the death of a former president. On my first day, I saw the every day life going as usual: people working on a normal day and young people enjoying the prosperity offered by their country in shopping malls, galleries and coffee shops but in the evening I witnessed a generalized respect and devotion to the memory of a fallen leader that surprised me very much.
From someone like me, who comes from a country where most of the people have a negative opinion of most of politicians and who remember European friends expressing negative opinions of leaders such as Sarkozy or Berlusconi, witnessing the mourn and respect of the Korean people to its former president was very surprising. Honestly I don’t know that much about President Roh, but what I read is that he has been accused of corruption and that’s another reason that made me wonder how was that possible that the death of a leader charged with corruption had that impact in Korea.
I don’t have any explanation for that but to me that reaction of the Korean people is very different with what in my opinion would happen in my country or in any other Western country, where in most of the people it’s present an instinctive suspicion of politics and politicians and where is very difficult, especially now, that the individual sacrifices his personal time to participate in political activities.
Regardless of the causes or the differences with the rest of the world, on May 27th in the eve of the funeral, Seoul Plaza was filled with thousands of people that gathered to mourn President Roh. There were people of different ages carrying candles and pictures of their leader; there were people reading speeches and there were also people that sang sad songs having the South Korean flag and the image of President Roh as background. On the floor, there were young and old people sitting on newspapers, just there, just being part of the event. There were also screens that showed President Roh when he was young, probably during the time when he was an activist.
There were thousands of people on the street on May 27th, but there was order and there was civility. Everybody respected everybody, nobody was pushing or rushing or littering or yelling. People were just there, being part of a community, showing respect, worshiping a fallen leader. There was a heavy police presence that evening, but the order was not maintained because the police. No, the individuals showed care about the individuals. People were offering water and there was a silent dialogue going on between them, not the loud voices of confrontation.
What I saw in Seoul that evening made me think on the differences between Korea and my country, between the West and East Asia. I thought that if in my country a former president charged with corruption committed suicide, there would be some people that would have the idea of throwing a party for that. My reflection was: who on these times would resent the disappearance of a politician? I think only the sudden disappearance of President Barack Obama would make people publicly express their condolences.
But Korea apparently was different: in Korea was possible to charge and impeach a President and then to publicly mourn his death.
Something also different about Korea that also sparked my reflection is that the funeral of President Roh and the fact that millions of people watched on TV, showed that in Korea individuals had a genuine and legitimate interest on the system. Individuals, people, seemed to care about the system, showing interest in the system, whereas in other places, individuals were anomic, just as the French sociologist Durkheim said. Is the interest of the individual one prerequisite for the health of a system? Would it be possible for a system to dye without the interest of its members?
Finally, I saw in Seoul that day a highly civilized behavior of the crowds, which behaved like one educated individual. What I saw in Korea and I compared for the case of China is that crowds are not always synonymous or equivalent of chaos. The Seoul example showed to me that it was possible to have thousands of people in a public square without chaos and destruction.
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