Gangnam

This project is going to address the major theme of "City as Power" that was introduced in class earlier throughout the semester. Narrowing down the scope, the keyword that I am going to be centering my project around is "Gangnam". Since Gangnam was introduced in our class meetings, my interest in Gangnam was heightened. Though I have never been to Korea, it was interesting to listen and learn how the now-thriving district of Seoul, Korea came about and developed itself into the highlight that it is today. To orbit around this keyword of Gangnam, I am going to be addressing several questions that I have based my research around.

1) How is Gangnam currently represented in modern-day pop culture?

2) How did the Korean government influence the development of Gangnam?

3) What were the issues that arose from the development of Gangnam?

Gangnam is a district of Seoul located south of the Han River. In Korean, Gangnam is translated to "South of the River", giving reference to its physical geographical location.

Gangnam, in the present day, is a symbol of wealth, social status, and prestige of the upper class. Furthermore, as a representation of that, Gangnam is known for its plastic surgery, department stores, and underground shopping centers. This district is quite evidently a highly developed area of Seoul. It even accounts for about 10% of the entirety of Korea's land value.

However, Gangnam was not always the build-up, developed, economic super-district it currently is. It was once a land filled with an abundance of rice paddy fields. It lacked proper land infrastructure such as roads and bridges and did not have a lot of housing, with low-density houses littering the land. Gangnam was even named Youngdong historically in the past.

Background on Gangnam Style

Gangnam Style was a song first released in 2012 by South Korean singer, PSY. It was released on the Youtube platform on July 15, 2012. The song's music video is interesting, to say the least, but eye-catching, with various elaborate backdrops, flashing lights, and the iconic Gangnam Style dance that imitates one riding on horseback. This is supported by the Gangnam Style music video being the first Youtube video ever to reach 1 billion views on the platform. The song, Gangnam Style, undoubtedly alludes to the real-world Gangnam district in Seoul but specifically mocks Gangnam for its superficial materialism. The lyrics seem to represent Koreans' mixed feelings about Gangnam with 2 contrasting viewpoints: the aspirational chase of wealth on the one hand, and the lower class grimacing at the wealth the rich have that was earned unfairly on the other. PSY even compared Gangnam to the likes of Beverly Hills, which is an extremely upper-class district in Los Angelos, USA.

Music Video Analysis

The photo above is a still photo of one of the scenes from the music video of Gangnam Style. Initially, the camera frame is zoomed in on PSY's face as he frolicked in the sun, which the audience would assume to be a beach that the rich can travel to and access. However, the camera frame pans out more to show PSY lying in the shade of an umbrella in the sand pit of a children's playground. In my perception of this scene, I feel that it shows the lower class of Gangnam represented in the form of PSY as they do not have the wealth or capacity to attain real luxury items or experiences and thus, resort to replicating a cheaper version of that item or experience. This is further amplified by the nature of Gangnam because since it is such a hub for wealth and luxury goods, the lower class is surrounded by things they are unable to attain due to the disparity of their wealth.

Lyrics Analysis

To dive deeper into the analysis of Gangnam Style and its portrayal of Gangnam, I am going to be analyzing some English-translated lyrics from the song. The line that I am going to be analyzing is...

"A classy girl who knows how to enjoy the freedom of a cup of coffee.”

Firstly, looking at the word choice of "classy", strongly suggests that the girl referred to in the line lives a lavish lifestyle. "Classy" is defined in the Cambridge English dictionary as stylish and fashionable, further confirming that this girl is not of a poor background and is rather of an upper-class status as she would be able to afford stylish and fashionable items if she was of lower class status. This reference loops back to Gangnam as the district is known for its high-end status serving the upper class, indicating that this "classy" girl would be a sample of the type of people found in Gangnam, a person of upper-class status.

Secondly, the phrase "freedom of a cup of coffee" implies that the girl is not restricted by the chains of money and can purchase a cup of coffee freely with her financial freedom. People of the lower class typically are bound by their lack of financial freedom, often living their life from paycheque to paycheque through long hours of low-pay work, unable to spurge excess money on luxury items as they are forced to use their earnings for daily essentials like housing and minimal transport. However, the upper class can have more 'freedom' in terms of financials and time as they are not bound by these constraints. Thus, this girl does not fit the lower-class description as she can spend her money freely on inessential items which is what Gangnam is known for with its plastic surgery and luxury department stores as examples, and able to relax in her free time to "enjoy" her cup of coffee.

Gangnam Blues is a South Korean film released in 2015. The movie is set in Gangnam in the 1970 period when Gangnam was starting to undergo its major development. The movie follows 2 poor, young men who join a gang and get involved in the political conflicts over Gangnam's development. I am going to be analyzing certain still images from the movie and covering a major theme of Gangnam portrayed in the movie.

This still image is a still screenshot of an early scene in the movie, where government officials are scouting for land for their new developments and are investigating the Gangnam district. As can be seen, Gangnam was once a land filled with rice paddy fields with poor road infrastructure of winding dirt roads, as modernization has not yet reached this area of Seoul.

The image below further zooms in on the protagonist's village in Gangnam. This still shows the low level of infrastructure that Gangnam had at the time before its major development with the houses built out of thin metal sheets and wood. The pathways were made of dirt and not cement. The man on the right is retrieving water manually with the pails on his back indicating that there was a lack of a clean and efficient water supply system in place. The men in the ditch are also seen picking up scrap bottles and metals, which the movie later shows them bringing their collection to a central location to get paid for the amount of material they have retrieved.

One of the major themes portrayed in the movie was the extent of corruption and gang involvement in the development of Gangnam. In one scene, a government counselor is hiring and working with a gang leader and framing him as his "leader of manpower". This alliance later leads to the gang disrupting and destroying a presidential election event where gang members storm the event and essentially beat down anyone at the venue. This occasion was orchestrated by the government counselor to offer him the advantage in the upcoming presential election. This interaction further solidifies the idea that the development of Gangnam was a time and place where the rich got richer by using such connections and circumstances. With the rich getting richer, this extends the disparity between the rich and the poor with the rich getting richer by exploiting their connections and manipulating supposedly 'fair' events and programs. This takes opportunities away from the poor, preventing them from building their successes and ultimately finances, making the poor poorer.

With the population of Seoul expanding at an outstanding rate with 1 million in 1953, jumping to 2.45 million in 1960, the city was not able to cope with such rapid population expansion in such a small period of time. This led to disorganized urban sprawl occurring within the city and spreading out to the outskirts of the city as well towards the mountains and rivers. Within city limits, the rapid urbanization led to a decrease in quality of life and the formation of slums as other districts did not carry the capacity of high-density housing.

Looking at Seoul as a whole, it was in a desperate situation. The official water service rate in Seoul was 56% but in reality, water was only supplied once an hour. Road infrastructure was poor with only an 8% road ratio, taking 2 hours to travel cross-city, which was absurd since the city was only 16km from east to west. Education was also an issue as there were not enough schools to accommodate the large student population with tents being erected and used as temporary classrooms. The unemployment rate was high as there were not enough jobs to be supplied to the working population, leading to a high crime rate.

To combat these major issues, the Korean government started a plan to redevelop Seoul as a whole. However, I am going to be zooming in on the development of Seoul. The Korean government ordered the development of high-density housing in the many districts of Seoul but this would still not be enough to house the ever-increasing population. Therefore, the government ordered the development. of Gangnam as a new, built-up area to help mitigate these issues.

The Korean government utilized several schemes to kickstart the development of Gangnam. In this section, I will be covering the schemes that they used.

The Korean government first ordered the building of many high-rise expensive apartment complexes in Gangnam in the 1970s to combat the housing shortage crisis. This plan was a part of the state-directed urban redevelopment plans. To ensure that sufficient housing was constructed, the Korean government designated about 25% of Gangnam's land for housing. Through the building of high-rise apartments, more people could live in a smaller area of land as their houses would be stacked on top of one another, accommodating several hundred people. This is a big improvement to traditional houses which could only accommodate less than 10 people in a single house.

The next thing the government instilled in conjunction with the building of housing was the introduction of apartment lotteries. This movement was a part of the state-directed homeownership programs. This allowed many middle and even lower-class families to become apartment owners through the government-subsidized program, empowering them to climb the economic ladder. Climbing the economic ladder was even supported because investors drove up housing prices, making those reward apartments ever so valuable, making those who own the lottery benefit significantly from the disparity in housing prices. However, this brought around a wave of corruption as people often manipulated the lottery system to win using their connections or status. The scene in Gangnam 1970 described above with the government counselor supports this as he benefitted from manipulating the supposedly fair government election.

The government also motivated the general public to move down to Gangnam by relocating several major resources to the Gangnam district. They moved major transport facilities from Gangbuk to Gangnam to make Gangnam a hub of transportation and administration. Major government and business offices were also moved down to Gangnam, with offices such as the Supreme Court and the Public Prosecutor's Office moving to Gangnam. With many jobs relocated down to Gangnam, workers were incentivized to move to Gangnam to be closer to their work and avoid additional travel costs and time. The government went one step further and relocated elite schools from Gangbuk to Gangnam as well by offering better land prices. This urged families to move down to Gangnam to be closer to the schools and subsequently tutoring facilities in the later years as Gangnam and society progressed.

The rise of Gangnam brought many benefits to the lives of the public, Seoul and Korea itself. However, there are several drawbacks that came along with Gangnam's development that I will be discussing below.

Although Gangnam's boom did indeed benefit many and helped some climb the economic ladder, there were some left out and suffered severe economic consequences. With the richer getting rich and the poor getting poor, the economic gap kept increasing, this only kept getting worse over time as 4 out of 10 Koreans today live in poverty. With the increase in housing and the subsequent skyrocketing rise of housing prices, those who could not afford the new prices of housing resorted to living in low-income neighborhoods.

The 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics was announced in 1981, during the later segment of Gangnam's development. This required Seoul to undergo major urban reform as a whole to build even higher-quality roads, bridges, and infrastructures such as the many state-of-the-art stadiums required for the highly recognized international competition. In order for sufficient space for all this infrastructure to be built, people were displaced from their original homes. The government attempted to compensate these affected people by offering them substitute housing.

However, some people did not want to live in the subsidized housing villages and moved to the outskirts of Seoul. Those that moved to the hills outside Seoul created their own villages, which were nicknamed "Moon Villages" as a result of their high elevation. As can be seen from the image below of a "Moon Village", the entire village is built on the slope of a hill, which small attached houses dotting the slopeside. These houses were pretty well-built but are packed in such a high density, showing the vast amount of people displaced by the reformation of Seoul for the 1988 Olympics.

However, some villages did not turn out as well as the "Moon Villages". Guryong Village started as a substitute housing village for those displaced people. However, it was neglected since the 1980s and has now developed into a shantytown in Seoul. Seen from the map below, Guryong Village is situated directedly beside the super-district of Gangnam, showing the disparity of wealth and the two sides that the development of Gangnam had on the population. One of these "Moon Villages" was even featured in the South Korean film "Parasite" which went on to win an Oscar.

The images below show the current state of Guryong Village. Makeshift homes, some made out of plywood and plastic sheets, litter the entire area of the village with an extremely high population density and very poor hygiene and cleanliness conditions throughout the village.

Due to the poor conditions present in Guryong Village, incidents such as fires are common, with the most recent outbreak occurring in late January where 60 homes were destroyed by a fire that burned for more than 3 hours. This fire is one of at least 16 that have affected Guryong Village. One of the main factors of its vulnerability to fires is its high housing density with houses packed closely together. However, this is not easily fixable due to the huge number of people who live in and depend on this shantytown as their home and are unable to afford other housing to move out of the village.

In conclusion, I have set out my 3 research questions and have discussed and analyzed each of them effectively using multiple examples for each point. Overall, the development of Gangnam was a much-needed reform for Seoul in the 1970s and brought with it many positives and advantages to many people, but in turn, also had some drawbacks that the Korean government should look into and find a way to resolve with a clear example being Guryong Village.

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