A Culture Hub City of Asia, Gwangju and The May 18

A Culture Hub City of Asia, Gwangju and The May 18Jae-han Ryu(Associate Professor, Dept. of French Literature, Chonnam National University)Key words : Asian Culture Hub City Project, spirit of May 18 Gwangju Uprising, May Movement, “code progress”, “mutual understanding”The memories and the spirit of May 18 Gwangju Uprising have birthed cultural movements, especially the May Movement. This cultural movement is not giving up the political struggle for democracy, but giving rise to the memories of those days. This is a new kind of struggle to generate energy for the revival of the spirit of May 18th. In other words, the goal of the May Movement is to raise awareness of the social lessons of our grievous past through a new cultural movement. In this way, Korean cultural movements, based on “Memories of Gwangju” in the 1980s to 90s, and especially the experience of Gwangju in May 1980, has led to othercultural movements for democratization of Korea as a nation. The Korean cultural movements in the 1980s to 90s were pro-democracy movements which were hard processes of cultural transformation and re-creation. The May Movement, a new kind of pro-democracy movement, is identifiable in many ways through literature (poetry, novels, irregular publicationslike a mook, etc.), music, theater, video, art (prints, comics, hanging pictures) and so on. At first, the May Movement developed bysocial participation and practical actions at the personal or grass rootlevel. The movement of small group social participation and action fostered a sense of unity and established the identity of the citizens of Gwangju. The citizens formed a cultural chemistry named the Culture of May. Through this, they had firm feelings of attachment and identity. This moment established the identity of the district, and the residents’ identity and feelings of attachment take root here. The May Movement, which enables people to have such feelings of attachment and identity, realizes the democratization of culture, in which everyone can “equally” access cultural artwork describing the grievous scars in the modern history of Korea. That is,the culture has been democratized. It is not the ‘culture for a few people,’ but the actual equality has been achieved by ‘meaningful majority.’Also, the May Movement results in the democratization of culture, which makes it possible for user participation and mutual communication between producers and consumers of culture. In this case, the democratization of culture does not simply promote unilateral and passive consumers of cultural products, but effectively promotes people who play lead roles in creating cultural arts. Now, I think that it is time to go back to the true spirit of May. It is time to gather wisdom for our Asian Culture Hub City Project. We should draw out people’s grand participation in the project. It has been a top-down, one-sided system so far, but now the region’s “bottom-up” internal force and “top-down” external factors should be synthesized and disseminated. What is the use of “factionalizing”? Asian Culture Hub City Project should be a model of what is democratic and cultural. We are not talking about “code progress.” Now it is time that “mutual understanding” is required among civil societies and driving bodies. We don’t need pigheadedness or an unyielding spirit.The concern and passion of the citizens of Gwangju are required as well. Asian Culture Hub City should beestablished by ‘us,’ not by ‘others.’ This fact itself can be a cultural brand. To do so, “mutual understanding” in the civil society of Gwangju will play an important role. From this point of view, the case of Puy du fou in the Vendee district of France is a good example that shows a certain cultural spiritcan be embodied in a festival, with a grand participation of people. Also, it can be a chance to foster the region’s and the residents’ identities. Puy du fou in the Vendee district of France is very similar to Gwangju in many ways. First, these two cities are far away from the cultural andindustrial capital city of their country. These cities are located about 300 kilometers away from their capital cities. Even though transportation systems have been developed in significant ways recently, if there are no cultural or artistic attractions, people will not be motivated to visit these cities. Also, these two cities have grievous incidents in their history. During the French Revolution, a counter-revolt to the revolution broke out in the Vendee. The revolt was dismissed as a revolt instigated by the Fronde. However, later generations reestablished the Vendee’s impaired reputation by reinterpreting the revoltas “the passive resistance of peasants against radical changes in systems, not against the Revolution’s principle and ideology.” In May 1980, civil demonstrations took place in Gwangju against the newly installed military government. By valuing it as a democratic uprising against the dictatorial military regime, people started to regard Gwangju as a sacred ground of democratization. There are implications for Gwangju in the case of Puy du fou. It sublimated the scars of history in a festival with the residents’ grand participation. The residents’ voluntary participation plays a key role in building ‘the cultural brand.’ The performance Cin sc nie du Puy-du-Fou which consists of the residents’ voluntary participation has implications for Asian Culture Hub City, Gwangju. The May 18th Gwangju Uprising is a cultural brand promoting Gwangju’s representative, intangible heritage. Three thousand volunteers participate in the performance venting the feelings of their forefathers, and this fact gives Puy du Fou its own particularity and distinctiveness. Now it is up to the citizens of Gwangju whether a grand participation can be realized in the Asian Culture Hub City Project or not. The conflicts over cultural power will prevent the project from making progress. Furthermore, it will stop Gwangju, “Asian Peace Arts City” from being a living example of democracy and human rights.