SeoulGlow #5 - The Art of Daechuri

The farming village of Daechuri is being evicted by the Korean government for the expansion of a nearby U.S. military base. For several years, the villagers and activists have resisted the forceful eviction, but the residents of Daechuri recently signed an agreement with the government to leave their village by the end of March.

I visited Daechuri on Saturday March 3. Behind the perimeter of fences guarded by police, many of the homes had been demolished and the unharvested fields were trenched off with barbed wire. But there was art everywhere amidst the ruin -- murals, sculptures, junk art, and a gallery filled with paintings. The villagers held their nightly candlelight vigil in a hall surrounded by painted portraits, and in the evening they sang songs around a bonfire.

This video is a tribute to the art of Daechuri.

- Bum Lee

• Category

  Travel & Events

[freedomofmymind]

Something wrong with this video and story.

[Scott Stout]

Point well taken. However, I think the writer of the song was interested more in targeting the Korean individuals and coorporations who stood to benefit from an expansion of the US military base in Daechuri than expressing anti-american sentiment...Although you are totally correct about the anti-american sentiment surrounding this issue, the lyricist has rather explicitly left out any reference to America, preferring targets closer to home.

[MINHD111]

The misunderstanding lies in the fact that you refer to the song when I comment the events of Daechury and rely on the translation. What the author of the video (see comment)calls the "activists" are opposing the expansion of US military bases in Korea which is the ground for THIS expropriation.

Hence the link with US militarism an imperialism. The link is also made with the idea that the US make this world a world for the rich (see the reaction to the FTA and to the import of US beef.

[Scott Stout]

And I don't know where you got antimilitarism...that's not even relevant.

[Scott Stout]

Again, there is absolutely no mention of America in the whole song. The writer is focused on the Korean gentry specifically, and wanting to focus nowhere else. He's particularly angry at the Korean 'yangban' society for 'sucking the blood' of the Korean worker. There is NO anti-imperialist scentiment in this song at all. Not that anti-imperialism doesn't exist in Korea, it does. Simply not the focus here.

[Scott Stout]

Great video, good work. But...translation of the song's first line was way off...It referenced 'whiskey' and not 'wine,' and there was no mention of America, which makes the reference grossly erroneous. Though American cultural imperialism is as ubiquitous as it is irrefutable in Korea, that isn't the point of this lyric, and the translator misses out (big-time) on the 'whiskey-soaked, golfing, (and in particular) hostess-bar-frequenting' corporate culture the writer intended to reference.

[srstacy]

Sounds like a song Kim Jong Il would have written to pull the wool over his sheeple.

Go ahead, click the thumbs down.

[MINHD111]

(end)Here there is obviously a merging of all the oppositions to US presence in Korea and antimilitarism which in growing among the young Korean who did not live the Korean war.

The problem seems that the Korean government underestimates the anger of population and that both The Korean government and the US command do not care so much about violence and let easily soldiers and riot police to be beaten by the rioters thinkng that it will quiet demonstrators

[MINHD111]

They have offered a lot of money to the farmers because they knew this would not be unpopular in Korea, where as in any country the long term presence of foreign troops creates frustrations and angers. And, of course you can totally understand that farmers do not like to leave the land that they may have inherited from fathers and live part of their lives and so on....

But as you say in every democratic country you also make expropriation (for ex to build airports ...)

[sullenboy1o3o]

cool song