UNSRC Korean Cultural Society

LA Times

REPORTING FROM SEOUL -– Even at first glance, the design renderings for the soon-to-be-built pair of apartment towers here pack a wallop: They evoke New York’s World Trade Center towers in mid-explosion in the terrifying moments after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

But wait. The Dutch designers say the images have nothing to do with debris flying off two towers that have just been rammed by a pair of commercial airliners. It’s more like a dreamy cloud formation inspired by a gaze up at the sky.

Netizens aren’t buying the explanation. In recent days, an international frenzy of criticism against the project, dubbed “The Cloud,” has caught fire on the Internet.

” ‘AAAAAGH! YOU HAVE ERECTED A TERRIFYING MONUMENT TO THE NIGHTMARES OF 9/11!!!’ was probably not the reaction that [the Seoul client] had in mind when they unveiled their plans today for an ambitious new construction project,” The Gawker website noted.

Gawker went on to add that the project “calls to mind the kinds of images you don’t really want to call to mind when looking at a new set of twin towers.”

The towers are part of a bigger project, called the Yongsan Dream Hub, whose designer is Daniel Libeskind – the master plan architect for reconstruction at New York’s Ground Zero.

The Dutch firm MVRDV, which created The Cloud concept, says the pair of luxury residential towers -– one at 60 floors, the other at 54 – will be connected in the middle by a 10-floor high passage its calls a “pixilated cloud” that houses “a large connecting atrium, a wellness center, conference center, fitness studio, various pools, restaurants and cafes.”

Now the designers are dodging a mounting PR attack.

“A real media storm has started and we receive threatening emails and calls of angry people calling us Al Qaeda lovers or worse,” the firm wrote on its Facebook page.

On its website, the company says that it did not “see the resemblance during the design process” for the buildings.

“MVRDV regrets deeply any connotations The Cloud projects evoke regarding 9/11,” read a statement. “It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks nor did we see the resemblance during the design process. We sincerely apologize to anyone whose feelings we have hurt.”

The firm said the South Korean press at first did not report any resemblance to 9/11 and instead “hailed the project as a great innovation.” The negative connotations came from the U.S., according to press reports.

The designers say The Cloud “was designed based on parameters such as sunlight, outside spaces, living quality for inhabitants and the city.”

The firm’s website also includes hundreds of mostly-negative comments about the project.

The company’s belated apology came after a Dutch newspaper last week published a front-page architectural rendition of the project and the headline: “Inspired by Twin Towers?”

One 911 victim thinks so. The NY Daily News quoted a retired New York City deputy fire chief, a father of four firefighters who lost his eldest son during the attacks, who doesn’t buy the Dutch firm’s apology.

“I think it’s a total lie and they have no respect for the people who died that day. They’re crossing a line,” he said. “It looks just like the towers imploding. I think they’re trying to sensationalize it. It’s a cheap way to get publicity.”

Meanwhile, South Korean Internet chat rooms have included little criticism of the project.

“I think it depends on how you look at it,” wrote one blogger. “The designer said that he was inspired by the clouds around the building. I just find weird that some people immediately associate it with fire and smoke.”

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Source : english.chosun.com/si… ( English Korean )

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LA Times

REPORTING FROM BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA -– I met Jang Ji-young, one of the planet’s most extraordinary cabdrivers, at the train station of this coastal city.

My traveling companion, who sat in the front seat, noticed something different about the 59-year-old Korean right away –- not his easy laugh or the fact that he spoke a little English and made friendly eye contact with his passengers in the rear-view mirror.

Not any of that. Jang accelerated and stopped his taxi with his left hand, using a device on the side of the steering wheel -– going forward with a roll of the wrist, pulling back to apply the brakes.

The man who was delivering us to a Buddhist temple in the mountains high above town has been physically disabled since age 2, when he was struck by a terrible fever.

But that has never stopped him from being an outgoing and fearless traveler of the world.

For two years he has driven his taxi all across this nation, which is about the size of Kentucky, 40,000 square miles in all. And Jang -– smiling as he rhythmically moves and breaks his cab with his left hand -– has probably driven most of them.

He told us proudly that he’s 500 of 30,000 cab drivers in this town are physically disabled. Three of South Korea’s main cities, including the capital, Seoul, employ physically disadvantaged cabdrivers — men and women who no longer have the use of a leg or an arm -– providing them with the motorcycle-like throttle device that enables them to go about their merry ways.

Jang doesn’t have the use of his right leg, which is shriveled and spindly beneath his thick leather brace. He limps on a cane when he’s not behind the wheel. But when he’s in the driver’s seat of his taxi, he’s just like everybody else.

And that makes Jang Ji-young proud.

He’s fought hard to take his place in society. When he was a boy, to show his mettle, Jang dragged himself to school by leaning on a long stick, like a shepherd’s staff. He just wanted to be like the other kids, he explained.

But that wasn’t possible in a nation that has long treated the disabled like damaged goods. Jang got married and raised a son, now in graduate school, doing what he could. He sold gold and fine jewelry. But the 1997 Asian financial crisis ended that endeavor.

“I have to work,” he said. “I have a family.”

He started driving a taxi a few years ago. He’s pleased that the government makes it possible for people like him to do jobs that most customers assume must be done by the able-bodied. “I got in this taxi,” he said, “and I never looked back.”

But people still treat him differently -– he can’t help that. Finicky customers will bend over backward to apologize once they learn that Jang is disabled, though he doesn’t make a point of telling anyone, unless they ask.

Once, he drove three young teenagers to a wealthy area of Busan. They directed him to a deserted area and ordered him to stop. Jang realized too late what was up, and suddenly feared that the youths might beat and rob him.

Instead, they bolted out the door and ran as fast as they could.

Jang sat in his idling cab, doors ajar, and watched them go. He had lost a fare, but suddenly he couldn’t stop laughing. “I called out to them ‘You don’t have to run! I’m physically disabled! I can’t chase you! You can walk.’ ”

Inside his cab, Jang is King of the Korean Road. The four wheels provide him with a mobility he could never achieve with his cane or walker. He described how the travel bug bit hard and how he once went to the United States and was flabbergasted by the size of the place.

“I went to the Grand Canyon,” he said. “When I got to the rim, I just screamed out. I couldn’t help myself.” He also went to Las Vegas (and lost), pumping $100 in quarters into the slot machines.

As he drove along, eyes on the road, Jang began naming all the towns and cities where he’d driven his cab across South Korea. As he spoke, I was reminded of that song “I’ve Been Everywhere” done by Hank Snow and later Johnny Cash. I studied Jang’s face and thought of the wonderful reciting of so many colorful place names:

I’ve been to Boston, Charleston, Dayton, Louisiana, Washington, Houston, Kingston, Texarkana, Monterey, Faraday, Santa Fe, Tallapoosa, Glen Rock, Black Rock, Little Rock, Oskaloosa, Tennessee to Chicopee, Spirit Lake, Grand Lake, Devils Lake, Crater Lake, for Pete’s sake.

When we got to the temple, Jang eased his taxi through the crowd of worshipers walking up the narrow mountain road.

We paid Jang, bid our quick goodbyes and then jumped out to grab our bags from the truck. That’s when we noticed another extraordinary thing about Jang Ji-young.

Silently, he had opened the driver’s door, slid out his cane and came struggling toward us, limping heavily on his badly shriveled right leg. And then, smiling into my eyes, Jang took my hand and squeezed it hard. Suddenly, I was choked with emotion.

I stood on that mountain road for a bit, waving once, and watched the taxi disappear down the winding road, happy to have shared a few miles with one of the ablest cabdrivers on the planet.

See you down the road, Jang Ji-young.

[I’ve been to] Pittsburgh, Parkersburg, Gravelbourg, Colorado, Ellensburg, Rexburg, Vicksburg, Eldorado, Larimore, Admore, Haverstraw, Chatanika, Chaska, Nebraska, Alaska, Opelika, Baraboo, Waterloo, Kalamazoo, Kansas City, Sioux City, Cedar City, Dodge City, what a pity.

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