A changing, older New Town: Gwacheon

 

For a long time Gwacheon, south of Seoul, has been the icon of stability because of its jobs like civil servants occupying the three dull red cuboid government buildings, yet for a tiny city to grow up in, its inhabitants were - and probably still are - progressive and sometimes even subversive. I don't quite know why this was but this was a blessing and gave me, at least, a lot of freedom of thought and emotion. I am grateful for this, as there I went through the 80s and the early 90s as a primary and middle school child.

Let me properly introduce Gwacheon: A number of older houses removed, a pioneering New Town was budding there throughout the 1980s. All of its 12 uniform danji's (complexes) of flats (apartments) were built by the Korea Housing Corporation. To each danji, a small shopping complex was attached near the front gate.   

Half of my first year there from 1985 to 1986 was spent in 'Geumbit' (meaning Golden) kindergarten in the 6th danji, where I went through - oops! - obligatory repetition of the multiplication table and imitated the artwork by the kid beside me, who was drawing a lady in a violet-coloured dress. In the 4th danji, where I lived, there was much greenery by the roads inside the danji. When I met it, I started looking for four-leaf clovers at once.

Then the primary school began, 10 minutes walk from home. Things started to happen. 

It was on a walk from school beside the same 4th danji green that I told this little boy in my year 3 class, "I like you" (I meant 'I adore you') and in response he very pointedly said, "I like you too, but only as a friend."

Throughout the primary school period I never stopped being class officer and the first year saw me elected as class president. Here, I started forming my political ideas. A bald dictator President Chun Doo-hwan's picture had been occupying the staff room wall: noticed by me when I was on some errand to the staff. Anyway June 29, 1987 came and soon, I understood, a new president was in place, not my choice, whose party advocated peace and democracy, but satisfactory, I thought, and the picture was taken down to my relief.

The 1988 Olympic came. And sports boom. The primary school had, once a year, a Sports Day. On the day we children were delighted in sports, traditional games and mums' big gimbab lunch boxes. We had other hobbies: virtually all of us Munwon Elementary School kids were Seo Tai Ji fans and in the classroom boys danced to his music.

On a corner near the school there was a beautiful brick post office, only one in Gwacheon. Come to think of it, as always, there was quite a few "only one" in this small New Town. The only one cinema was touched by the only one KFC, and the only Catholic Church was on the only road from Seoul. (At the cinema a friend and I watched "Silence of the Lambs" hiding our identity as a middle school pupil.) The stationery at the gate of Munwon Elementary School had, I guess, three other clones at least, each at the gates of other primary schools in Gwacheon.

On picnic days we usually went to Seoul Grand Park. Lots of green and Elephant Bus. Here, again, the gimbab boxes never missed a bit. Later in the afternoon, passing the older Gwacheon houses, we went back to the school, then were dismissed home. Back at home, I could enjoy watching the evening sky beyond to the mountains in dusk. At least I did.

We were New Town children, but due to the blessed planning of the city and other blessings, had plenty of nature and nice people around us. Now housing development by conglomerates has come to the city and it can barely be stopped. But although we are middle aged, we do still remember our fantastic little friend of a city.