Urban Culture and Asian Modernity

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Urban Culture and Asian Modernity

Prof. Hashiya Hiroshi

(Dept. of Economics, TokyoKeizaiUniversity)

1. The Progress of Globalization and the Birth of a DenationalizedUrban Area

These days, Asian cities demonstrate dramatic changes, derived from the progress of globalization. Seoul and other Asian cities displaywesternized urban space. Be it Seoul, Tokyo, or Shanghai, it is difficult to identify an Asian city by merely looking at its photograph showing the forests of uniquely designed skyscrapers.

Yet, the architecture of the buildings does not represent all the aspects of today’s Asian cities. The fashion of the youth has crossed the borders and spread all over Asian countries. Stores sellingclothes of Korean brands have been opened in Chinese cities, and the Taiwanese youths, called Hajize(哈日族), imitate Japanese fashion. Also, Karaoke, which was first introduced in Japan, has since become a significant form of entertainment, livening upthe nightlife in East Asian cities. In Bangkok, Thailand, franchised stores, selling fancy goodsbear the name of a certain Japanese woman. In Asian cities, lifestyles,encompassing food, clothes, and building designs, have now become fused together.

Despite such fusion, however, and while the young Chinese purchase Korean designers’ clothes or shoes, and their Taiwanese counterparts buy Japanese fashionablegoods, it is unlikely that the Asian youthswouldbuy traditional Korean garments or accessories, namely,chimajeogori (a traditional Korean dress). The marketable goods in the cities are Westernized ones,“Western clothes,” and denationalized “Hello Kitty.” Furthermore, in pursuing the Western culture overall, the young seem to demand a softened version of the Western culture, which is to say that they avoid adopting the Western culture in as a whole, and wish to modify itby certain Asian cultural themes.

The reasonsfor such phenomena in Asian cities(which might be regarded as a positive perspective of globalization or the denationalization in the negative sense) rest within the commonality that has made the Asians construct modern cities and abandon their historical traditions. In other words, the notion of “modernization” is identical with that of “Westernization” in Asia.This interpretation has caused difficultiesto successfully combine the Asian tradition with the Western culture.

2. The Beginning of Modernity and AsianCities

The modernization of Asia simultaneously implies its Westernization, but the Asian modernity was not only the result of the influence of the West. It had also sprouted through the internal development of Asian society. Besides, the ideas,such as Dong Do Seo Gi (東道西器)in Korea, Hwa Hon Yang Jae (和魂洋才)in Japan, and Joong Che Seo Yong (中体西用)in China, upon which Asian countries tried to maintain their own traditions along with importing practical knowledge from the Western society in terms of science and technology, were generated by people. Nevertheless, Western culture began to overwhelm the Asian culture to the extent of influencing the mentality of the Asians.It has been particularly difficult to detect, in Asian urban culture, the results of the internal developments of Asian traditional societies, or to find the products from the fusion between the East and the West. However, the conflicts between the East and the West or between the Asian tradition and its modernity had confronted Asian modern cities.

Such conflicts had affected Asian cities in various ways. For instance, the buildings constructedshowed that the blending of the Eastern and Western architectures. In Japan, China, and Thailand, numerous buildings had been made of stones or reinforced concretes,similar in design to the Western architecture, whiletheir roofsresembled the Asian wooden architecture. In addition, during the Meiji era in Japan, public buildings such as government offices and schools were structured upon the basis of Japanese traditional wooden architecture, with only their façade being Western. These buildings were not always beautiful. They were provisionally popular, and could not plant an architectural style.

On the one hand, the general attempt to combine the East and the West has been made for a long time. For example, in current Korea, apartmentsare entirely built with Western-reinforced concretes, but the custom of removing one’s shoes on entry is still practiced. In addition, On-dol, which is a Korean traditional heating method, is still in use.The same can be said of apartments in Japan, which are modern butcarpetedwithDadami (straw mats).

On the other hand, the attempt to be westernized in public has been rather strong. In the modern age, Korean and Japanese monarchs abandoned their own traditional styles, and fullyperused westernization. Deocksoogoong in Seoul was structured with six buildings, and the rooms for the emperor and the empress in the palace were built based on the Western architecture. After the Meiji era, Japanese royal family has always worn Western clothes in official meetingswith the exception of traditional ceremonies.The dishesprepared for the parties withhigh-ranking foreign guests were always French. As such, Asian monarchs have maintained a conservative and traditional style in one way, while closely pursuing westernization before the populace.

Also, the citizens took the process to completely become westernized in the official place. The atmosphere of the office buildings in Asian cities has been almost identical with that of the official buildings in the Western society as the employees work in sitting in chairs and using desks.

These days, Asian traditional lifestyles have almost disappeared. There are no longer such people in Korea, for instance, who wear Hanbok, the Korean traditional clothes, and live in wooden houses, or, in Japan, those who wear Wahooku, the Japanese traditional clothes, and cook rice by firewood. Similarly, in China, Hootong, the Chinese traditional buildings, have been replaced with Western style buildings.

Thus, traditional cultures in Asian cities have faded away in two ways.First, by people seeking complete Westernization, and second, by those who have tried to combine the Eastern and the Western cultures. Nonetheless, it is impossible to developcity cultures identical to those of the Western cities, and particularly, the European cities. Most European cities have been modernized along the lines with medieval-European traditional cities. Therefore, the medieval streets still exist in the cities, and the citizens develop and adapt their lifestyles to the environments. Their clothes and meals have been created under the influence of traditional lifestyles. As a result, traditional culture has permeated into the modern city culture, and made it develop the modern European cities.

By contrast to the modernization of European cities, as described earlier, Asian cities have been denationalized, due to the import of the Western culture and the consequent departure from the fundamental traditional cultures. It has resulted in social disorder and chaos. Even if traditional cities could be rebuilt in Asian cities, it would cause clashes against modern lifestyles. Also, it cannot be ascertained that the attempt to combine Asian and Western elements has been successful. Thus, I think that the process through which Asians have tried to develop modern urban cultures seems to have been left as an unsolved issue.

3. Industrialization and AsianCity

Another aspect of modernization is the progress of industrialization. Asian cities have taken a different road in industrialization from the Western cities. In other words, while modernization had taken place simultaneously with industrialization in Western societies, many Asian countries had been colonized in the early modern period, a factor that opened them up to industrialization. Korea also experienced being colonized, which resulted in its being industrialized to a certain degree. Nevertheless, it was not until 1960’s that the country began to be industrialized as a member of Asian NIES.

While Korea has been rapidly industrialized, the urban space in Seoul has expanded, which has changed its inner structure. Although the territory of the city was expanded during the Japanese military-occupation, it was still limited to the north of Han River. In 1963, the city broadened its boundaries to the southern part of Han River. Seoul, today, has grown similar in shape to what it was like then. In addition, two areas, which represent Korea as a NIES member, have been formulated in the southern part of the city.

The first area is Seoguro and Yeoungdeungpo,where the industrial complex for export, which is a cluster of mid-small size enterprises, has been located. In addition, many apartments for people with low income have been built in the area. The second area is where the middle class live and there many high-quality apartmentsare built. Moreover, in Gangnam, a new type of busy street like Apgujeong is built.

As such, in the southern part of Han River, there are two different areas representing the bright side and the dark side of Koreabuilt during from 1960’s to 70’s. Such a situation could be seen in many other Asian cities, which were also rapidly industrialized.

Another thing representing Seoul as a NIES city was the urban lower class. The problems of the urban lower class and illegal residents are common in Asian cities. In developing the economy, Korea hasimplemented a policy of cleaning up such places where illegal residents lived.

In Korea, over-urbanization, which was before its industrialization, began since its military occupation by Japan. The over-urbanization created an urban sector made up of a marginalized group of people earning their livelihood throughinconspicuous jobs. In addition, at the end of the Japanese military-occupation, the Koreans who returned from Japan, as well asthose from North Korea(after the partition of Korea)built shanty houses that formed illegal settlements (Panjachon in Korean) around suburbia.

In addition,during the industrialization in the 1960’s, the urban lower class dramatically expanded. The illegal settlements like “Daldongne” spread over the suburbia of Seoul. There were about 84,000 illegal houses in 1964, andby 1970, the number had increased to 185,000, which is a ten to fifteenyearly growth. As a result, in the 1980’s, eighty-two percent of the lower class lived in the urban areas. Sixty-four percent of the lower class lived in the rural areas by 1965. Thus, problems associated with poverty began to occur more in the urban areas than the rural areas.

However, the urban lower class in Koreawas notadoubling economicinformal sector that was generally seemed in developing countries. For instance, there were homework forms in illegal settlements unofficially and subletting forms of clothing product for export officiallyin the forms of jobs. On the contrary, production laborers’ incomes or the qualities of labor of the part in modernity were not different to that of the urban lower class.

In other words, though the urban lower class did not play a conventional part in modernization of the country, they were involved in it various ways, and supported the modernity at the bottom. Also, within this class, informal networks developed in relation to moving, employment, banks, etc., and the illegal settlements, though low in terms of housing quality, created a living condition thatnevertheless enabled them to survive, as they practically supplemented the insufficient housing policy in the country. Such circumstances consequentlyexcluded the urban lower class from the mainstream modernization process, as well as increasing the number of the class.

But, because of the sudden increase of population and the necessity to develop social infrastructure, Seoul could not allow the illegal settlementsto continue any longer. Thus, in the 1960’s, the government began to clear the area and move the people into the state near Seoul. But, since the disgruntled residents strongly protested against being forced out of their settlements, the government decided to redevelop the settlements instead. In so doing, the government tried as much as possible to dissuade the residents fromleaving Seoul, but their migration could not be stopped.

In particular, with the policy titled, “Comprehensive Redevelopment,” which became the main stream of 1980’s, Korean government tried to provide the residents of the unlicensed houses with land and apartments. Additionally, the government issued formal permission for these residents to move into the apartments, whilesome of the apartments were given to other people. But, the whole process did not go smoothly, because the newly built apartments were too expensive for the people to move in. They could only do so with the compensations that they received from the Government. Moreover, when the redevelopment plan was decided, land speculators bought the unlicensed houses from residents, took the rights of moving into the new apartments, resold them with premium, and made profits.

Having such contradictive problems and serious anti-withdrawal movement, almost all of the illegal settlements were cleaned out. But, because Seoul did not have the urban basis in line with the traditional society, and the urban plan of the city could not catch up with rapid industrialization and urbanization, it became a chaotic and disorderly space. Such problems took place also in Tokyo, Bangkok, and other Asian cities.

4. Monopolized Migration to the PrimateCity

Another feature that Asian modern city has is the monopolized migration to them. The industrialization after World War II provoked this phenomenon. Such an intensive migration to Seoul began during Chosun Dynasty and the Japanese military-occupation,but it was around 1960’s when it made a rapid progress. During the decade, there was a strong industrialized policy by the Government.

The industrialization policy, which was also an export drive, made Seoul and Busan the core spots.Also, most industrial complexeswere constructed in Gyeonggi and GyeongsangProvinces.Moreover, the industrial complexes in those areaswere arranged into mostly labor-concentrated industries such as textile and electricity, which needed many workers. In addition, the economic difference between the city and the country widened, and the efflux of people from Jeolla Provinces, which were left undeveloped, became very serious.

The increase of the migration from the country to the city could be seen in other Asian countries. More seriously, Korea showed not only the decrease of the rural population but also the decrease of its absolute number.

As the same time, Seoul began to show that the natural increase of population by birth exceeded that by migration. And, the population in the center city began to decrease, while the residential places expanded to the outskirt. Given that Korea, as a member of NIES, is regarded to be somewhere between the developed and developing countries, these features showed not only that the formulation of the urban population occurred in developed countries, but also the increase of the city lower class occurred in the developing countries.

Furthermore, in the 1980’s, Korea set a goal to become a developed country. It encouraged the constructions of new towns on the outskirts of Seoul.Thus, many satellite cities such as Seongnahm, Gwacheon, and Goyang developed. And, subway lines in the metropolis were extended to the satellite cities. This further added to how people monopolizedSeoul.

Demographic changessuch asthe monopoly of a central city by the population still takes place in many parts of Asia, which also brings about uniformity of the urban culture. Not only in people efflux, but also in all other aspects, the centralization of the primate city has become more serious. Thus, in order to correct such an extreme centralization and pursue decentralization, it is necessary to establish structural policies like decentralizing the functions of the primate city and carrying out the assignments to develop matters such as the promotion of the local culture.

5. Possibility to Formulate New Urban Community

Asian cities have not developed sufficient urban communities such as resident organizations.This is because they were built within a very short time under the influence of rapid industrialization, which disconnected them from their historical traditions.

The local autonomy has spread throughoutKoreaas a result of the democratization in the 1980’s and the resurrection of the local congress in 1991 and the presidential election in 1995. Simultaneously, the communities, such as “Bansanghoei,”whose function was to mobilize the public during the period of PresidentPark, or “Saemaeul Movement,” which is made by the Government, had to change their roles and functions.

In PresidentPark’s government, Bansanghoei as a residentialcommunity took a significant role.They functioned as a vehicle for the Government to pass on to the public their policies through them. But in 1995, Ministry of Home Affairs developed the policy to change it to a self-autonomic organizationrun by the public. At the time, there were about 500,000 Bansanghoei organizations. However, the homemakers took up almost all the chief positions. Eighty percent of the organizations were held in the urban areas, and the attendance rate dropped down to fifty percent. Moreover, after mayors and heads of urban districts were elected by citizens, some of them amended certain acts, and abolishedBansanghoei in their areas, which goes to show that the rejection by the citizens of government controlled organizations was strong.