Comments on: The Korean Folk Village http://www.froginawell.net/korea/2006/07/the-korean-folk-village/ The Korea History Group Blog Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:30:30 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: Cat http://www.froginawell.net/korea/2006/07/the-korean-folk-village/comment-page-1/#comment-1378 Cat Tue, 04 Jul 2006 01:03:11 +0000 http://www.froginawell.net/korea/2006/07/the-korean-folk-village/#comment-1378 Thanks for such a thoughtful post. I've wondered many of the same things when touring the folk village in Seoul and taking the various palace tours. Namely, that there doesn't seem to be much information to put the "late Choson" period into context. And, I really wish there were more sites with information about the Three Kingdoms period. But maybe there are and I just have not found them yet. You also make a good point about the unrealistic wealth depicted in the "poor farmer's" house. But, as you say, this is true of almost all historical replica tourist attractions. Few depict the realistic living conditions, which is why so many people have an over-idealized conception of what the past was like. Thanks for such a thoughtful post. I’ve wondered many of the same things when touring the folk village in Seoul and taking the various palace tours. Namely, that there doesn’t seem to be much information to put the “late Choson” period into context. And, I really wish there were more sites with information about the Three Kingdoms period. But maybe there are and I just have not found them yet.

You also make a good point about the unrealistic wealth depicted in the “poor farmer’s” house. But, as you say, this is true of almost all historical replica tourist attractions. Few depict the realistic living conditions, which is why so many people have an over-idealized conception of what the past was like.

]]> By: Micah http://www.froginawell.net/korea/2006/07/the-korean-folk-village/comment-page-1/#comment-1363 Micah Sun, 02 Jul 2006 15:12:20 +0000 http://www.froginawell.net/korea/2006/07/the-korean-folk-village/#comment-1363 Reading your reflections on the Folk Village reminded me of my own trip there some years ago. I think that you're right to note the conflict between wanting the celebrate national heritage and wanting to preserve historical accuracy. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it would seem that, in its unwillingness to probe the extent of class disparities, the Folk Village has opted for a display of ethnonational unity over an exploration of conflict within the minjok. A friend who recently came back from a trip to Germany told me about a visit to the German Historical Museum in Berlin, which is apparently very much about presenting historical diversity and contingency, instead of a transhistorical vision of the timeless German people. I just looked at the homepage for the first time, and was interested to see that there's a poster exhibition running there about "Class Ideals and Class Enemies." English version courtesy of Google: In Seoul, I found the vision of Korean national history at the Lotte World Folk Museum interesting enough to merit more than one visit. If you liked the Magic Vision show at the Sodaemun prison, then you might be interested to see there's another one at Lotte World, depicting scenes from the Imjin Waeran. Reading your reflections on the Folk Village reminded me of my own trip there some years ago. I think that you’re right to note the conflict between wanting the celebrate national heritage and wanting to preserve historical accuracy. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it would seem that, in its unwillingness to probe the extent of class disparities, the Folk Village has opted for a display of ethnonational unity over an exploration of conflict within the minjok.

A friend who recently came back from a trip to Germany told me about a visit to the German Historical Museum in Berlin, which is apparently very much about presenting historical diversity and contingency, instead of a transhistorical vision of the timeless German people. I just looked at the homepage for the first time, and was interested to see that there’s a poster exhibition running there about “Class Ideals and Class Enemies.” English version courtesy of Google:

In Seoul, I found the vision of Korean national history at the Lotte World Folk Museum interesting enough to merit more than one visit. If you liked the Magic Vision show at the Sodaemun prison, then you might be interested to see there’s another one at Lotte World, depicting scenes from the Imjin Waeran.

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