Gwangju Uprising

[austinfd]

May 18 is an important day in Korean History. In 1980, residents of 광주 (현우's) hometown took to the street to protest the martial law and military government. True democracy is really very young in Korea..

Anyway, I found a series of cartoon books about the incident. They are called 26년 since they were published in 2006, 26 years after the events.

I bring it up since May is *sort-of* approaching and this is an important day for Koreans.

Perhaps we'll get a culture class on it, or maybe 현우 can give us some good information but if you are interested, try to find this book:



http://book.naver.com/bookdb/book_detai ... id=2914800

Or, you could find this movie:



Called 화려한 휴가 "Magnificent vacation"... but I don't know what the real English name is...

[javiskefka]

While I was studying abroad in 2005, I took a trip to teach at an English day camp in Gwangju. One afternoon some of the staff of the school took me around to see the the city, putting special emphasis on places significant to the 5.18 uprising, like the city square, memorial, and mountainside graves, because I guess it was important to them to show that part of Korean history to a foreigner. This was one of my most memorable experiences in Korea

[Keith]

that story is amazing... things like that make me want to cry.

Korean democracy was fought for, and won by the Korean people. After restrictive governments, puppet governments, true democracy was actually won by the people. It's a really interesting, and in my opinion, captivating history lesson

Thanks for bringing this up Austin!

[javiskefka]

So, inspired by Austin, I tracked down 화려한 휴가 and watched it. It was quite a powerful movie. It has these two characters that really reminded me of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Hamlet, in their timely running commentary to eachother. Anyway, the movie also has a lot of Jeollado Dialect throughout.

I looked up some more of the history of the events, and it seems like a lot of different people have been blamed and forgiven in turn for what happened.

[austinfd]

HA! HA!

You are one step ahead of me.... I keep hoping it will show up at my local DVD *rental* shop. I say *rental* because they actually sell them - for 3,000 - 5,000원! Anyway, the copy I bought on the street last month turned out to be a dud.... I'm anxious to watch it!

***I just realized the book image didn't make it through in my OP! Jeff.. I really encourage you to check out the book too. I'm only through the 3rd chapter, but it is quite captivating and full of fantastic vocabulary.

[Bouks]

I had no idea about the uprising...I suppose I am a product of a faulty school system, because I have several blind spots when it comes to history in various parts of the world. But don't get me started on all the gripes I have about American schools...

My major in college was international studies (with a concentration on the Middle East). The reason I picked that was simply because I thought I didn't learn enough about the world in high school. The choice was between the Middle East and Asia, since I was satisfied with my knowlege of European history. I am not using my major for any career purposes, but I am glad to have at least broadened my knowledge of the world. Obviously, though, I still have many blind spots.

[hyunwoo]

There's A LOT to talk about about this incident - I didn't get to experience this because I was still in my mom's body at that time - she was about 3 months pregnant with me.

The movie itself was really good, but for me, personally, there was something ... lacking, something that wasn't told, you know ... the movie covered what happened in Gwangju but didn't really cover the background of the incident in detail, and in the movie, 안성기(the father of the main heroin) only mentions the name once - which is '전 장군(General Jeon)' - who was a General at that time and who later became a President of Korea, and sentenced to death after being charged for the incident along with some other crimes such as building a personal illegal secret fund of about 400 million US dollars. My personal opinion is that the movie maker was still a bit 'careful' with the ending - talk about the incident but don't touch the individuals who were really behind it, maybe because the General who ordered the dispatch of military forces is still living -? I'm not sure.

[Bouks]

I hate when media producers do that...they love the controversial topics because they know they'll get a wide audience, but then oops, the topic is too controversial to say anything of substance. I'd rather they wait until they know they can dig deep...but they won't, because their bank accounts often won't wait.