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Older adults line up alongside the wall of Tapgol Park, ready to obtain meal tickets from the Jogye Order’s Wongak Temple. Korea Occasions picture by Choi Ju-yeon
Final yr, Seoul’s Jongno District introduced plans to take away all janggi (Korean chess) and baduk (Go) tables at Tapgol Park — a choice that sparked controversy, with critics viewing it as a de facto coverage to push older individuals out of the general public areas surrounding the park.
The transfer was not an remoted incident. Metropolis authorities pursued what they known as a “sanctification venture” at Tapgol Park 25 years in the past, throughout which older individuals had been pushed apart within the identify of bettering the park’s look.
Now, critics say little has modified in how the town treats its older residents. Whereas disruptive conduct needs to be addressed, they argue, enforcement have to be extra fastidiously calibrated — one which respects seniors’ autonomy reasonably than merely displacing them.
Lee Kang-won, a professor of Japanese regional tradition at Incheon Nationwide College who performed discipline analysis within the Tapgol space within the early 2000s, says older individuals have repeatedly been pushed apart by administrative measures.
In 2001, the Seoul Metropolitan Authorities launched the “sanctification venture” at Tapgol Park, citing the aim of attracting international vacationers.
Inexperienced house was expanded, benches had been drastically lowered and changed with uncomfortable stone seating, and video games comparable to janggi and baduk had been banned — measures critics say successfully swept older individuals out of the house.
The so-called “story circle,” as soon as a vibrant gathering spot that symbolized Tapgol Park’s social life, steadily disappeared. Many older individuals relocated to Jongmyo Sq. Park, solely to be displaced once more when the same “sanctification venture” was launched there in 2007.
Store house owners across the park additionally bear in mind the gradual shrinking of house for older adults. Kim Younger-bin, 73, who has shined sneakers alongside the park’s outskirts because the Asian monetary disaster of the late Nineties, recalled the same interval of exclusion.
“Again then, the Seoul authorities had little management over homeless individuals gathering within the park, so older individuals had been singled out as the issue. The park was closed, forcing the aged to hunt shelter elsewhere.”
Park Son-seo, 74, who lends janggi and baduk boards at Tapgol Park, mentioned that after every “sanctification venture,” timber changed the spots the place older individuals as soon as gathered. “Outdated individuals are handled worse than timber,” he mentioned.
The identify nonetheless lingers at the moment. Final yr’s measures concentrating on older customers of Tapgol Park had been a part of a “second-phase sanctification and environmental enchancment venture” that Jongno District Workplace has promoted since 2023.
In line with administrative plans, eradicating sport tables was offered as an preliminary step towards reshaping the park to raised replicate its standing as a sacred website of the March 1 Independence Motion.
As criticism mounted, the district workplace moved to open an indoor house the place older individuals can play janggi and baduk, setting it up in a nook of the close by Nakwon Musical Instrument Arcade.
The house is scheduled to open on Feb. 2. Whereas many older residents welcome the concept, some have expressed concern that if the brand new house is topic to tight controls and heavy-handed administration, participation could stay restricted.
Jo Yong-geun disposes of trash he collected with a litter picker right into a rubbish bag in Jongmyo Sq. Park. Korea Occasions picture by Na Gwang-hyeon
To keep away from excluding older individuals from Tapgol Park, some level to a self-management mannequin that has taken root at Jongmyo Sq. Park as a doable reference. There, a bunch of older individuals has for many years relied on a casual system overseen by a person in his early 70s who brings and lends out sport gear every day.
Contributors pay a small day by day price of 1,000 received ($0.75) to spend time within the space. Problematic conduct — together with playing, consuming, smoking or preventing — is strictly regulated not solely by the organizer but in addition by fellow park customers.
Some regulars, together with Cho Yong-geun, 72, make some extent of selecting up trash across the sport space every day. The principles are largely unwritten however broadly revered.
Lee Ryun-gu, a Jongno district council member, mentioned Tapgol Park as soon as operated beneath comparable norms. “There have been implicit guidelines — when you misplaced a sport, you gave up your seat; when you provided unsolicited recommendation, you had been informed to not,” he mentioned.
“Within the new house, the district ought to set solely minimal tips, comparable to utilizing respectful language, and let seniors handle the remaining themselves.”
This text from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Occasions, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Occasions.
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