[KS] "Pagoda" and Asian chauvinism

[Insu Fenkl]

Dear Victor,
I don't think that pointing out Korean atrocities in VN negates Hwang's story, 
which is a work of fiction and never claims to be representative of the 
entirety of ROK experience or behavior in VN. Nor does the new panAsian 
exclusion of the west suggest that Asians are in some way more problematic 
with their social behavior than Americans & Europeans -- racism, political 
isolationism, and the creation of an "us" against a "them" are all general to 
human societies. (I find it refreshing, actually, that the Pacific Rim nations 
can do this now -- it shows a shift of political/economic power away from the 
old white nexus.)
That aside, I would recommend you have a look at the film "R Point" directed 
by Kong Su-chang. It's marketed as a horror film, but I think that in it you 
will find a very interesting popular culture take on some of the themes that 
come up in "The Pagoda." Kong is clearly referring to Hwang's short story, and 
he's unpacking some of the subtext you find in the story's imagery, making it 
accessible to a general audience of less-literate moviegoers.
Hwang's story is more loaded than one might think from Ted's review, and it 
should be read carefully, preferably in the Korean, to catch the connotations 
in Hwang's use of language. When I was still a naive and bright-eyed grad 
student on my Fulbright back in '84, "The Pagoda" was the first story I 
proposed translating. Fortunately, one of the junior admins at the then Korean 
Culture and Arts Foundation took me aside and told me that it was forbidden. 
That mediated the shock when I stubbornly insisted to the Jr. Director and was 
told, outright, that I would not be permitted to do it (or else).
The general reading of that story is different now, 20 years later. At the 
time it was initially published, it was considered an expose of certain 
unpleasant realities, and though it is one of Hwang's earlier stories (less 
masterful in his use of language and imagery, which improved vastly after his 
time in prison), it is well worth examining for how it plays, in complex ways, 
with different levels of expression. Kong's film takes one of the themes and 
amplifies/runs with it, but it's hardly as powerful.And neither claims to 
authoritatively represent the full spectrum of Korea's involvement in VN.
-HIF
  

On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 09:04:32 +0000
  "victor fic" <vfic at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello list members: 
> 
>       
> The review of the short story "Pagoda" found below recounts how that tale 
>tells about Korean troops in Vietnam allegedly showed sensitivity toward the 
>local culture, supposedly unlike a certain white ally. Others  might recall 
>that the Koreans were brutal. When Americans encountered someone lying in the 
>street, one soldier kicked the body over whilst a comrade covered his friend. 
>The Americans taught this to the Koreans, who laughed at the Mi-gook's quaint 
>ideas. They would simply rake the body with gunfire. Also, Korean forces were 
>notorious for "ear necklaces" made from their victims severed ears. They also 
>forced their prisoners to draw lots. The loser got skinned alive and the 
>survivors were released to warn others. In fact, one leader of the Korean 
>troops in 'Nam was Chun Doo-whan, whose refusal to discipline his men was an 
>early signal to his allies that he is not -- pardon the pun -- a straight 
>shooter and therefore not the man Washington wanted to take the Korean helm. 
> 
>Finally, just as the Japanese keiretsu got rich off the Korean War, the 
>chaebol profited from the Vietnamese version. Solidarity means less than the 
>bank account.  
> About five years ago, the Hankyroeh tried to run an expose on these Korean 
>crimes. The comment to the editor took the hard nosed form of something like 
>forty ex-commandoes attacking the newsroom with bats. Isn't that a sign there 
>must be something to hide? Is it just Japan that lies?
> 
> I wonder if Asians can posit a non-chauvanistic unity? This observer notes 
>that the Western imperial tendency to oppress downward -- on the vertical 
>axis -- is more than matched by the Korean, Chinese and Japanese propensity 
>to shove the gaijin/waegook/laowai outside -- aggression on the horizontal 
>axis.  
> The risk for the US/West is that East Asian cultures now closed to each 
>other -- circles that collide -- will meld into one giant sphere that 
>discriminates. The fact that Washington is not invited to the Manilla 
>conference on East Asian regionalism, alongside Mohammed Mahatir's desire to 
>leave out Canberra and Wellington from any final blueprint -- is worrisome. 
>Whenever I see Japanese, Koreans and Chinese together, invariably the talk 
>gets around to how certain foreigners are self-interested -- implicitly in 
>contrast to the virtuous natives -- and how East Asians possess some unique 
>capacity for cooperation and togetherness, even as the skulls pile up -- the 
>sense of superiority and exclusion over the outsider is palpable. 
> Best, Victor Fic, Seoul, vfic at hotmail.com 
>  
> 
> "The Voice of the Governor General and Other Stories of Modern Korea", by 
>Hwang Suk-young et. al. and translated by Chun Kyung-Ja. Norwalk: EastBridge, 
>2002. 190 pp. (ISBN 1-891936-06-9 paper, $24.95).
> 
> Reviewed by Theodore Hughes
> Columbia University
> th2150 at columbia.edu mailto:th2150 at columbia.edu
> 
> 
> ...snip...
> In "Pagoda," the first South Korean literary work set in Vietnam, a platoon 
>of Korean soldiers is dispatched to R-Point...to secure a pagoda considered 
>important to winning the affiliation of the inhabitants of a local village. 
>After heavy casualties and an extended firefight, U.S. troops arrive on the 
>scene and proceed to raze the pagoda, paying no attention to the protests of 
>the Korean soldiers. ?Pagoda? contests the semi-peripheral position of South 
>Korea in the Cold War World, the location of South Korea between the U.S. and 
>its ?undeveloped? Others, by advocating a realignment based on a culturalist 
>pan-Asianism (here in the form of Buddhism).
> 
> 
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