But back to art, first. The following five sets of statues were installed this year by the Seoul parks department, to illustrate popular Korean children's stories. Each set is accompanied by a story board telling the entire story; I photographed them as well, and although I am not sharing them because they're in Korean only, I am telling you the stories anyway - in English. There are a dozen more stories in this section of the park, but I was getting overwhelmed.
Here's our first story. A brother and his younger sister lived in the deep mountains with their single mother. One day, while returning home at night from her work at a nearby town, the mother was eaten by a tiger. The tiger then went to the children's house, saying "open the door, Mom's home," pretending to be the mother. The children, surprised, ran up the tree in the backyard. The tiger spotted them and asked them, "How did you get up the tree?" The answer: "We put some cooking oil on the trunk." The tiger tried - but kept slipping. The sister, excited by the tiger's slipping, slipped her tongue and said: "Idiot! Use an axe!" Once the tiger started to cut the tree down, the two started to pray to God, and were answered by a sturdy rope from heaven. The two ascended to heaven. The tiger prayed for another rope, and he got one too. But God had given the tiger a rotten rope, so as the tiger climbed, the rope snapped, and he fell to his death. The two became the sun and the moon; the sister, scared of darkness, became the sun, while her older brother became the moon.
Next. In a village lived two elderly men with a neck tumor each, one kind (and a good singer), one greedy. The kind man was so hard at work cutting trees down that he couldn't return home in time, so went to an empty hut in the forest to spend the night. Scared, he started to sing to calm himself down, when goblins appeared. The goblins asked: "Where is that beautiful singing coming from?" The man answered: "From my music sack." The goblins then got jealous, and paid the man for the tumor in gold and treasures; the man lost his tumor AND got a fortune, and lived well thereafter. The greedy man, now himself jealous, asked the kind man what happened, and learned the story; he then went into the mountains, into the hut, and sang as well. Sure, the goblins appeared again, and the greedy man sang louder to be sure. The goblins then told the man: "Hey, your music sack is no good. Take it back!" The greedy man came back home with a second tumor on his neck!
Here's our third story. Once upon a time, there lived a poor, but kind lumberjack. Looking for a good tree to cut, he found one next to a pond, and started to cut it down with an axe, but by mistake lost his grip, and flung the axe into the water. The lumberjack was at a loss, and started to cry, as he had no way to make a living and support his elderly parents. Hearing the cry, a mountain man showed up: "Why are you so sad?" The lumberjack said: "I flung my axe into the pond by mistake. Without it, I can't make a living." The mountain man came back with a golden axe. "Is it yours?" The lumberjack: "No, it isn't." The mountain man then came back with a silver axe. "Is it yours?" The lumberjack: "No, it isn't either." The mountain man then came back with a rusty iron axe and asked again; the lumberjack truthfully answered "Yes, it's mine." The mountain man was so inspired by the lumberjack's honesty that he gave him all three axes, and the lumberjack and his elderly parents lived happily ever after.
Story number four. A kind lumberjack lived with his elderly mother. One day, while working, he saw a deer being chased by hunters, and took it to safety. The deer, in gratitude, asked the lumberjack for one wish. The lumberjack wanted to get married. The deer then said: "On the next full moon, heavenly women will come down to the pond on top of the mountain to take a bath. Hide one winged dress. And remember, please don't return the dress until the stranded woman gives you three children." The lumberjack did as told, one heavenly woman was stranded, and she became his wife. A few years passed, and two children were born. One day, the lumberjack's tongue slipped, and he revealed the story of the winged dress. The woman wanted to see the dress, and upon putting it on, immediately escaped back to heaven - with the two children. The lumberjack became despondent, at which time the deer appeared again with one advice: "On the next full moon, go back to the mountaintop pond. After you stole the dress, the heavenly women now bathe themselves with a giant scoop. When it comes down, get in it." The lumberjack followed the deer's directions, and the scoop took him to heaven where he was reunited with his wife and children, living happily ever after.
Our final story for today - and probably the best known of them all.Once upon a time, two brothers - the kind Heungbu and his older brother, the greedy Nolbu - lived together. Nolbu bugged Heungbu and his many children at every dinner. After their parents passed away, Nolbu kicked Heungbu and his family out of the house, and Heungbu was forced to live in a beat-up hut.
Spring came, and swallows built a nest on Heungbu's roof. One day, a big snake was trying to eat the swallow hatchlings, and Heungbu drove the snake away. At that time, a swallow fell from its nest and broke its leg; Heungbu meticulously nursed it back to good health. The swallow flew south for the winter, and returned next spring with some seeds. Heungbu planted the seeds, which grew into a huge pumpkin. When Heungbu harvested the pumpkin and sawed it open, all sorts of treasure - gold, rice, coins, and silk - spilled out.
Nolbu heard the rumor, got jealous, and purposely broke the leg of a swallow on his roof. He then pretended to treat the swallow before sending it off for the winter. Surely enough, the swallow came back with a seed, which Nolbu grew into another pumpkin. But when he sawed open the pumpkin, goblins popped out instead, who took all of his money and property, and punished him.
Homeless and penniless, Nolbu was forced to go to Heungbu for help. Heungbu, being the kind man that he always was, welcomed his older brother and family, and the two families lived happily ever after together.
Okay, I'm done telling children's stories. The next two photos are from a monument that the Park regime put up, telling true (at least to the best of my knowledge) stories of two courageous 1960s children, as a lesson. Plaques below each statue tell the story of each child.
This statue honors Jeong Jae-su, born on May 2, 1967. He was accompanying his father on a long snowy mountain walk, to visit his uncle and his grandfather to pay New Year's respects. The father, walking with a cane, collapsed due to the cold. Jae-su covered his father with his own outerwear to keep him warm, but that didn't help, and the father died. Jae-su himself died of the cold soon thereafter. This was the evening of January 22, 1974, and the two had walked 10 kilometers; two more kilometers, and they would've made it. Weather conditions at that time were 30 centimeters of snow on the ground, and 20 degrees below zero Celsius. He was survived by his mother and three younger siblings.
Here's a more famous story, part of the hardcore anticommunist indoctrination that was the pillar of South Korean education until the late 1980s (when Seoul decided to start establishing ties to the Communist Bloc).It was the night of December 9, 1968, and this child, Lee Seung-bok, was doing homework at a communal village tent; the villagers were there instead of in their isolated homes, due to the activities of North Korean guerrila infiltrators terrorizing the general rural area. Although it was Seung-bok's tenth birthday, he was more worried than happy, as rumors said that the infiltrators had shown up at nearby villages, killing villagers and taking their livestock. Sure enough, a band of infiltrators barged into Seung-bok's space. One said: "I'm here to help you." Seung-bok wasn't fooled, and shouted: "I hate the Communists who lie and terrorize!" Even as he was being dragged away, Seung-bok continued to shout: "I hate the Communists to death!" The infiltrators stabbed Seung-bok to death. Seung-bok's mother and two of his brothers ran out after hearing the commotion; the infiltrators massacred them too. Only the night owls' howls were there to honor the spirit of Seung-bok's birthday, and his courageous resistance to the Communists, on this bloody night.
The aforementioned two stories, particularly the latter, had propaganda value as well; after all, keeping the population scared of the Communist menace to the north was a sure way for the Unitary Executive to consolidate his power and continue his rule. By 1973, Park Chung-hee had already spent 12 years in power, and had just put in a new Constitution designed to keep him in power for life, and to severely limit the legislative and judicial ability to check his powers. It only got worse after his wife was gunned down (presumably by a North Korean infiltrator) the following year. The nightmare ended when Park himself was assassinated by his Secret Police chief in 1979.
Back to this park and its propaganda features, there are replicas of two North Korean infiltration tunnels. The Park government indeed found three North Korean tunnels in the 1970s, and a fourth one was found in 1990; the third one found is very close to Seoul, and is a tourist attraction today.
Here's another propaganda monument."Children are the main characters of tomorrow. Let's grow up kind, brave, and wise. - President Park Chung-hee, May 5, 1973."
The message is written in Park's own calligraphy, to emphasize his artistic skills AND his love for the nation's children.
May 5th is Children's Day in South Korea, a tradition first set up during the 1920s by a children's rights activist, who had been campaigning against the Confucian neglect and abuse of children in favor of the adults and the elderly. This campaign was probably inspired by the Japanese colonial rulers; Japan's Children's Day is also May 5th.
