Pyeongchang
Pyeongchang: Quest for Revitalization By: Yung-Ju Kim Amid the pastoral landscape, in one of the least developed provinces in South Korea, where agriculture and fishing are still the most ubiquitous industries, and a population that is experiencing an overall decline while struggling to keep up with a rapidly growing senior population – is a county, home to 40,000 residents who are gearing up for one of world’s most widely publicized international events. Despite some of these challenges, the residents will have you focus on the positive aspects that their town has to offer: a pristine coastline, prized national parks, a 1400 year-old Buddhist temple that has remained intact and unharmed from fire or wars and an enviable food source that is highly sought after throughout South Korea. This is Pyeongchang, the host of the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics. Most people will wonder how a relatively unknown county in Gangwon-do province came to host the Winter Olympics, one of world’s most recognized sports franchise. The story originates back to when Gak-gyu Choi, then governor of Gangwon-do in 1996 envisioned hosting the Winter Olympics as his humble province was preparing for the 1999 Asian Winter Games. With the construction of new, high-performance venues already underway, Governor Choi set his ambitions higher with the Winter Olympics as his ultimate goal. As part of his reconnaissance, he sent his Vice Governor Jin-Sun Kim to Nagano, Japan, as it was gearing up for the 1998 Winter Olympic Games. When Vice Governor Kim became the succeeding governor, he made it his campaign promise to bring the Winter Olympics to Gangwon-do province in order to revitalize its deteriorating economy, and during his three terms as a very popular governor the residents, too, believed that hosting the Winter Olympics was the answer to reversing the many years of depopulation and economic decline. No one, however, was prepared for the challenges that lay ahead. The mission to bring the Winter Olympics to Gangwon-do was an arduous task, which took three Olympic bids over the course of 12 years to accomplish. The first Winter Olympic bid was lost to Vancouver by a small margin 56-53 on its second round of voting. Despite the Pyeongchang Olympic Bidding Committee’s assiduous marketing efforts, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) mistook Pyeongchang as Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea, and this lack of name recognition consequently leaned in favor of Vancouver. The second Winter Olympic bid was lost to Sochi 51-47 also on its second round of voting. While Pyeongchang’s name recognition had improved since the first bid, Vladimir Putin’s heavy handed involvement was no match for a provincial town led bidding committee. After two losses to Vancouver and Sochi, the local residents, planners, and government at both the provincial and federal level left nothing to chance for their third Winter Olympic bid. By this time much more were at stake: both chaebols[1] and international investors who had made hefty real estate investments were dealing with heavy losses; morale and the spirit of the Gangwon-do residents were riding on this third bid attempt; and the global strength and influence of the South Korean government were being tested by the Olympic bidding process. In order to demonstrate to the IOC that Pyeongchang was not only a viable candidate but the strongest candidate for hosting the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, many projects were highlighted during the course of the Olympic bidding process: the construction of Alpensia, a 5-star, $1.4 billion ski resort, that was to become the main hub of the Olympic Event and Planning headquarters; the approval of the long-anticipated high-speed rail that would connect from Incheon International Airport to the Olympic venues — essentially reducing the travel time between South Korea’s east and west coast by 50%; and a slew of international winter sports competitions to be hosted in Pyeongchang which showcased their Olympic-caliber venues and ability to host large-scale, international events. Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Bidding Committee’s efforts were rewarded when Pyeongchang won in the first round with the largest voting margin in history, 63-25-7, beating out both Munich, Germany and Annecy, France. The news of the Olympic bid victory was received by the Pyeongchang residents with overwhelming joy and relief. Over time, however, Pyeongchang was not immune to the challenges of Olympic planning and development. Differing national and regional concerns from environment to economy turned the locals from being the strongest advocates to a group of dissidents. Gangwon-do province is recognized as one of the most undeveloped provinces in South Korea. While on the one hand “undeveloped” has a rural connotation, Gangwon-do’s undeveloped terrain also emphasizes its pristine, untouched landscape. As a consequence of the Winter Olympic development, the environmental impacts became one of the most contentious issues between Pyeongchang Organizing Committee Olympic Winter Games (POCOG) and the residents. Among the string of environmental concerns was the felling of 500 year-old trees in Mount Gariwang. Not only did the 23 hectares of clearance include ancient, rare species, but the area dates back to 15th century Chosun dynasty when the forest was used to grow and procure ginseng for their kings. Not only is the Pyeongchang Olympics organizing committee’s promise of restoring the habitat to its original state unrealistic and “patronizing,[2]” but the 58,000 trees which were home to endangered species of plants and birds were deforested for three alpine skiing events to be held over the course of 14 days will leave the area of ecological, historical, and cultural significance permanently scarred. A second point of contention is the financial impact of the Winter Olympics. While Gangwon-do remains second lowest income per capita province[3] in South Korea, the property values have increased 50% since the announcement of the winning bid and 80% remain non-resident owned[4]. Real estate speculations have only benefitted landowners while hurting long-time tenants, farmers and small business owners, who are now displaced and forced to seek a more affordable option elsewhere. Another financial contention is the backlog of wages that have remained unpaid to the construction laborers. Since January 2016
Selfie Contest Winner: Grace Lee
First-year ETA Grace Lee is the winner of our selfie contest! Grace took these selfies with her 6-year-old-cousin. We asked her a few questions: What was it like meeting your 6-year-old cousin the first two times? I didn’t even know I had a second cousin until I was visiting my uncle’s family on my dad’s side in Busan. It had been two years since my family was able to see my cousin and her family. So I was really happy to meet my second cousin for the first time! His name is 영이. He was shy at first but once I sat down to ask him questions about his Legos and what he had made, he let me play with him. He beat me at car racing! I wanted to take photos with him and didn’t realize he was making silly faces until a few photos afterwards so I played along. I really enjoyed meeting him and I won’t have a chance to meet him again before I leave Korea but I’ll definitely remember our first time meeting each other. What are five words you would use to describe your cousin Patient, silly, inquisitive, welcoming, and kind. I know sometimes little kids can be shy but he opened right up once he knew I wanted to play with him. We also read an English book together – “Wheels on the bus go round and round,” and it was interactive where he had a “Say Pen,” so when you pressed the pen onto the words on the book, it would narrate the story to you. He sat in my lap and we read and sang the words from the book together. What has been your most precious moment with your cousin? The most precious moment with him was having him sit in my lap reading an English book was really special to me. Also, just being able to be silly with him with the funny selfies was a lot of fun. He’s a natural behind the camera and I definitely see him being a jokester as he grows older. A poem by the Editor-in-Chief, inspired by these silly selfies: That first conversation: what should the warm-up question be? What’s this book about? Shall we sing together and read? As the magic “Say Pen” reads the words aloud you imagine the wheels on the bus go ‘round One day stacking Lego blocks again might remind you of this song you sang when you were young. You might wonder where the tune came from. Where will you be when the song pulls you back to these four pictures? A different selfie-style pose before each screen flicker As soon as you grow as tall as your laughter, don’t forget what these pictures have captured: that first afternoon in Busan meeting Grace, your cousin smiling after the toy car race you were happy to win.
Pieces of a Grant Year
Our own Infusion Staff Editor Monica Heilman allowed us to take a look at her grant year through her art and quite literally, allowed us to take a piece of her art home with us. At the ETA Final Dinner, Monica displayed 55 pieces, all done on cardboard cup holders. This is how she describes her work: “Pieces of a Grant Year” is a collection of moments I experienced in Korea, from the mundane (students sleeping during self-study time) to the touristy (Beomeosa Temple, Busan) to the seemly insignificant but actually very influential (squatty potties). Why use coffee cup warmers, also known as cup cozies, java jackets or paper zarfs? Just because? Actually, the materials came before the plan. Thanks to encouragement from our own Hillary Veitch and my frustrated art drive, I began collecting java jackets in January. It wasn’t until many months and paper zarfs later that I decided to draw, paint and paste memories of Korea onto these pieces of cardboard. The concept was broad enough for any number of cup cozies and finding a connection to the material wasn’t too much of stretch. Cardboard cup warmers are always wrapped snugly around your cafe drink-of-choice, but afterward they’re nothing but trash. Cup warmers are insignificant physical tokens, whereas the memories I wanted to capture were meaningful but intangible. Through “Pieces” I give form to these memories, but only in snippets, the same way one might experience memories. The final component of this piece is up to you. The memories here are meant to be applicable to the general ETA experience. Our memories of Korea will eventually grow faint, but I’d like to think you could slip a zarf into your jacket pocket, fly back to America, and later look back on that piece of cardboard with some degree of fondness. So what I’m saying is, if any of these catches your eye, take one because my jacket pockets aren’t big enough for them all. To see more of Monica’s art, visit her website: https://monicaheilman.com/ [slideshow_deploy id=’5054′]