Deoksugung Palace

This past week has been a pretty typical week of classes. I-chats (which is an English conversation partner program that pairs international students with Korean students) began this week. I have eight different Korean students that I will meet with weekly. The students have very good English, but their confidence in speaking is something we as partners hope to improve.

My brushpainting class has been quite interesting as well. This past week we began working on elements for our midterm painting. Bamboo was the focus of the lesson. Let's just say that bamboo is more difficult to replicate to the teachers standards than what the class previously believed. We worked on painting the perfect bamboo stalks, confidently presented it to the teacher, only to have our hopes shattered one by one as she marked it with the infamous blue sharpie with areas that needed the be improved. My first bamboo was more blue than black by the time she was done with it. Hopefully the class will gradually improve so that the blue marker can be set aside.

This weekend I visited Deoksugung Palace with Jinyoung. We arrived at the palace and because of the lack of people interested in listening to an expert on the palace, we went on a private tour of the palace grounds. It was interesting to hear what our tourguide had to say about this palace and to learn the significance of it in Korean history.

Deoksugung was always a temporary palace. It was appointed the main palace after the destruction of Gyeonbukgung and Changdeokgung after war with Japan in the late 1500's. It was then made the capital palace again in the late 1880's when Korea's King Gojong appointed himself as Emperor, more about that later.

One reason Deoksugung could be a temporary palace is that it is located away from the other palaces, right outside of historic Seoul, but it is still close to the heart of the city. It is not in the center of the city seeing that Seoul has expanded far beyond any previous city limits. It is also built in the traditional format which means that it is not built with nails, but with perfectly set pieces. This made it very easy for the Kings to move their temporary palace elsewhere if they did not like the original location right outside of the city.

This palace is also special because it was the last Kings palace before the Japanese occupation. He chose to live here following a fire at Gyeonbukgung. It was here that he decided to try to transition the Hermit Kingdom into another East Asian force. He changed his title from King, which is symbolic of a power limited to one specific country, to Emperor, which carries an understanding in the region that the state is equal to the other powers. This transition also led to the construction of a Korean Temple of Heaven, because the change in title resulted in additional spiritual and ancestral rites that must be conducted by the Emperor.

This title change also changed the relationship between Korea and its neighbors. Korea's partnership with China concerning mutual protection was eradicated with this change in title. This was a change in relations in East Asia that opened the door for Japan to colonize Korea. With the rise of the Meiji in Japan and its opening to the West before Korea, Japan was more influential in the region and on the world stage. This advantage consequentially led to unequal treaties between Korea and Western powers (including the USA) that slowly gave influence in Korea to Japan.

The desire of Korea to open itself to the world is evident in this palace as well. It is the only palace that has Western style buildings. The first is a building in European style that was used to host foreign ministers. It is eerie to see these buildings and realize this is where many of the unequal treaties were signed that crippled Korea's attempt to modernize through globalization into a world power. There is also a terrace designed with a fusion of Russian and Korean architecture. You can see it in the deer and bats decorating the terrace with the typical colors of Korean palaces. This is where the Emperor entertained guests. It also displays the close relationship Korea had with Russia at the time. Following the assassination of the queen by the Japanese, the Emperor Gojung fled to the Russian legation in Seoul to protect himself from an assassination attempt. His royal chamber in this palace is located next to a shrine chamber for his deceased queen.

Following the Japanese occupation, the Western delegation building was converted to an art museum, with an additional building built. Another change to this palace by the Japanese during the occupation was the elimination of the traditional garden and modified into a Western style. To Koreans, gardens must be fashioned in a certain way to promote harmony. By changing it to a foreign style, the harmony was destroyed, symbolizing to the Koreans the end of the harmony they knew having a Korean monarch.

While so much has been lost, the palace has been restored to one third of its prior design. It serves as a page to a chapter in Korean history that was initially filled with hope with the transition of globalization, only to be crushed by its cold consequences of being abused by powers who do not view you as equal and colonized by a power that shares a complicated relationship of conflict. The old Korea meets the transitioning Korea in this palace, marking the end of Joseon and opening a painful chapter that is not yet complete with the separation of the Koreas.

After visiting the palace, we went back to the Hwangs new house in Sungkyungkwan, about ten minutes from Anyang. While we waited for the rest of the family to arrive, Jinyoung gave me a tour of their new spacious apartment. We then had some dinner and watched Harry Potter, a movie that we watched for the first time together two years ago. When the rest of the family arrived, we played a few games while catching up. I challenged Eujin to a game of battleship and won in a very close game. The family then played a round of Phase Ten, which was also very exciting and a great way to enjoy our time together.

Spring is starting to make its way to Korea. The Yellow Dust is back from the Gobi desert bringing lots of allergies for people. But spring making its way means that the blossoms will be coming soon!