06.20.2005 – Seoul, Korea

Like MacArthur in 1950 (and most foreign visitors these days), I landed at Incheon. My landing was easier.

In many ways, Seoul seems to be among the most American places on the planet. Everyone dresses in American-style clothing. I’ve probably seen 50,000 Koreans in Seoul by now in this city, and only three—two Buddhist monks and an elderly man in a kimono—were not dressed as Americans would. T-shirts with messages on them are everywhere, and all of the words on them are in English (I have yet to see a single T-shirt with Korean characters on it), almost all with references to things American—places (especially New York and California), sports teams, products, slogans, etc. The same with baseball caps: All have American logos; I have not seen any with Korean characters on them. Some of it gets a little too American, like the girl of about three I saw in a subway station wearing a pink shirt with white letters reading “Just Do Me.” Lost in Translation Korea-style, I suppose. Consumerism is everywhere. Hip-hop blares from stores as you walk by. Every imaginable American fast-food chain is well established.

They drive on the right side of the street here. I had expected it would be on the left, as in Indonesia, a legacy of Japanese imperialism. Apparently that was more firmly rejected here. (Today there were large contingents of police with nightsticks and cattle prods stationed at exits to subway stations in the area of government buildings. There have been large demonstrations demanding that Japan apologize for atrocities committed against Koreans, and Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi is here today for a meeting with President Roh. Still, it wasn’t scary, as it was when I was in Jakarta and the military stood around on street corners with Uzis, not nightsticks.) On the left-right question beyond driving, there seems to be some uncertainty. On some subway stairs there are arrows indicating that people should walk to the left. On some crosswalks, though, arrows indicate that people should walk to the right.

Of course everyone is speaking Korean and a majority of the signs are written in Korean. But that’s the exception that proves the rule: it makes you feel like you’re in northern Queens or Koreatown in L.A.

There are a few things that are different from the U.S. One is that there are, of course, mostly Asians on the streets, with a sprinkling of whites, about the number of blacks one might expect to see in North Dakota, and no Hispanic people at all. The custom, which I first saw in Russia a few years ago, of women walking around holding hands or with arms linked—or with arms around each other’s shoulders, some of them just allover one another—is commonplace here. In the U.S. the only similar example that comes to mind is George W. Bush holding hands with the Saudi prince. (W had better start holding hands with the Chinese leaders, too, since they are buying up most of the American debt that Bush is creating by slashing taxes on the hyper-rich and engaging in unnecessary and unending war.)

Like Michael Jackson, many women (and some men) carry umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun. And in the gardens at Jongmyo shrine, I saw an old man sitting on a bench, fanning himself with an East Asian-style fan. Then there are a few products I haven’t seen much in the U.S., such as grilled octopus sold by street vendors, and green tea soft-serve ice cream. I tried the latter—very good. I’ve also noticed that many men here stoop down on their haunches to rest (it doesn’t look restful or comfortable at all to me) while talking with each other). It reminds me of how Steinbeck described “Okies” in The Grapes of Wrath.

Oh, and another thing that’s so American here: all of the convenience stores are owned by Koreans.

And all the people giving manicures and pedicures in nail salons are Korean—just like in the United States.

But what’s really weird about all of this is that as I am walking around in this most American of places, I am less than 35 miles from the most tyrannical, bellicose, evil, and anti-American regime anywhere in the world. A half hour drive to the north of this city of consumerism, most of the population of this divided country is malnourished; many are actually starving. Here one feels completely safe, yet so close by people are completely at the mercy of the world’s most totalitarian government, and people in Seoul are aware that a huge enemy army, in the process of building nuclear weapons, is poised to invade. For people here it must be somewhat like America in the 1950s: surface happy days, but the fear of instant annihilation lurking below the surface.

RSM