I am 5 weeks into my 5-month visit to the ancestral lands. I made it to the second portion and am now based in jeju island for the next two months.
those who have heard of jeju island mostly associate it with the beautiful emerald beaches as a tropical travel destination. it is often described as the hawai'i of korea. those of us who understand the colonial present that is hawai'i cringe at this description. and while hawai'i is a very different sociopolitical context given the structure and impacts of settler colonialism, there are also some parallels to jeju island.
the people of jeju island have experienced many layers of political violence and resistance. the ancestors of jeju island were some of the most active independence fighters against japanese imperialism. after japanese surrender, the people protested the division of the nation, the trusteeship with the US, and the general election of the ROK. in response to the rebellion, the first president of the ROK enforced martial law and over 30 000 people were killed (the 4.3 jeju uprising and massacre) under the korean government and the US military. in the present day, the US continues its dominance in the ROK with military bases all around the country, including gangjeong village of jeju island. the residents of the village, joined by activists across the country and around the world, protested the construction since its announcement in 2007 and they continue to protest the now-existing naval base which completed construction in 2016. this naval base damaged a biodiverse marine area designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as a portion of a sacred site called the gureombi rock.
this rich political history and present is often erased/unacknowledged and the island is objectified and fetishized for capitalist consumption, by the imperial west as well as mainland koreans. although i am not a settler on these lands, my ancestors are not from jeju island and i do feel a sense of discomfort in my being here, complicit in the tourism industry as a guest. while i do want to enjoy my time here, i also plan on further politicizing myself in this particular context of jeju island.
i have gone swimming in the ocean a few times now. there is immense joy as i frolic in the crystal clear waters and sunbathe on the soft white sands. it is my first time swimming in korean waters since i was four and there is a particular joy and grief that comes with that (이럴때 애환이라는 표현을 쓸까?). there is also a discomfort and a deep grief in the felt sense knowing of what these lands and waters have witnessed, the bones and blood of the ancestors they hold. i knew that i would be navigating these tensions when i decided to stay here and i look forward to frolicking, cultivating an embodied relationship to the land/waters, and grieving in different ways.
some noteworthy moments, mentions & observations from the past couple of weeks
i realized that i have been even more disengaged from my public instagram account in the attempt to refuse the western gaze on my trip to korea. with the globalization of "korean culture" through k-pop, k-dramas, and k-skincare, there is a weird fetishization and romanticization of koreanness. orientalism, but same and different. if techno-orientalism is a thing, what would we call this branch of orientalism? i'm not down for westerners (white and poc too) fetishizing and romanticizing korea as a tourist destination, so i haven't shown many photos (that would simplify my experience here) on social media. this feels refreshing. constantly thinking about attention and perception.
i went to a lesbian bar with my queer kyopo friend! apparently there are a loooot of lesbian bars in seoul. didn't know!
my friend and i went to a more rural area of gyeongido called ga-pyeong and we drove through the mountains. the mountain ridge (능선) was beautiful. the mountains layer over one another and the lines are soft because of the fuzziness of the trees (unlike the sharper lines of so-called vancouver's mountains). my friend and i learned that the trees that were covering most of the mountains in the area were pine nut trees 잣나무! appreciating how the ocean and mountains look and feel different here.
there are many layers of grief that i've been navigating which came up in therapy this week. the one that came as a total surprise for me was the longing that i feel for my daily dinners with my family. my parents, sister and i (accompanied by our family dog) eat dinner together almost every day and will often stick around the kitchen table after dinner for tea or dessert to chat. i miss eating with them.
wearing a bikini (esp a triangle bikini) in korea when i look korean means that i try to do my makeup in a way that makes me look like a kyopo lol. that ajumma gaze is always on the back of my mind, but i think it’s working.