Conservation of Insa-dong: A Self-Defeating Thesis?: Fid-Bau Portal

Conservation of Insa-dong: A Self-Defeating Thesis?

Kang, Hong-Bin

Insa-dong, known to English speaking visitors as “Mary's Alley, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Seoul, the quintessential “zone of traditional culture” as guidebooks to Seoul proclaim. The present Insa-dong is produced out of the sedimentation of different historic origins and generative forces. It is a cumulative product of many individual actions that have taken place over time, and its evolution has been such that later strata only partly ‘succeed’ or ‘replace’ earlier ones, resulting in a mosaic like pattern, neither unitary nor fully integrated. The real issue relating to Insa-dong is not one of cultural conservation as such but a defence of the integrity, autonomy, diversity—in a word, authenticity of life (lived individually and collectively) against the ‘killer capitalist economy’ and the all-pervading bureaucratic controls in the globalizing age. Cities change over time and tradition is constantly redefined, rediscovered, reinvented. Any attempt to fix it spatially and temporarily entails ideology of control which can be oppressive. The higher goal is the attainment of diversity in city space and life. Money and power must not become the driving force. On the contrary, ways have to be devised to check the uncontrolled domination of life-sphere. The momentum for change must come from the civil society. The true significance of the debates relating to the conservation of Insa-dong lies in its capacity to be utilized as a vehicle to highlight larger issues that challenge the direction of development of Seoul and the Korean society at the present time.