Topographic map of the Korean Peninsula
When you mention Incheon, what do you think of? Those who are interested in international relations or the history of the Korean War may have heard of General MacArthur’s "Incheon Landing"; but for most contemporary Chinese, when they think of the name Incheon, they probably think of the airport.
Incheon city map
Maybe it was because "Korean people applied for Dragon Boat Festival as a World Heritage Site", or felt that "Korean people call Confucius a Korean" is unreasonable. But you may not know: South Korea used to be one of the few countries in the world that did not have a "China Town".
Lee Jeong-hee, a Korean scholar who studies overseas Chinese, once called South Korea a "country without a Chinatown." However, contradictory to this is that when you click on the Incheon Tourism website, it is not difficult for anyone to find that "China Town" is regarded as an important attraction of the cultural tourism route, and it is also rated as the best in Incheon on the international travel guide website. The fourth place of the scenic spots even surpassed the Geographical and Historical Significance Freedom Park and the Incheon Landing Operation Memorial Hall.
Incheon panoramic skyline
一
Where is Incheon?
Location Map of Incheon Metropolitan City
is a metropolitan city in the northwestern part of the Republic of Korea. Incheon is a harbor city facing the Yellow Sea. It is the third largest city in South Korea with a population behind Seoul and Busan. Located about 40km west of Seoul, it is the second largest port city in Korea. There is a Metropolitan Electric Railway connection between Incheon and Seoul. A large number of passengers travel between Incheon and Seoul every day. Due to the close distance between the two places, they have jointly formed a large metropolitan area.
South Korea's Incheon Port
Since the opening of the port in 1883, Incheon has stood in the world as the facade of the Korean capital. Although in terms of the number of containers entering and leaving in 2014, Incheon Port is only South Korea’s second largest port, handling only 9.4% of the country’s container volume, which is far behind Busan Port’s 75.3%, but since Incheon International Airport was completed in 2001, Incheon Relying on the advantage of being close to the capital, Seoul, with its status as an aviation hub, it has become the most important gateway to Korea in one fell swoop. Incheon, for the US military and tourists, has been the starting point for South Korea since the last century.
View of Incheon, counterclockwise from the top: Incheon Bridge, Incheon International Airport, Incheon Port, Songdo International City Skyline, Incheon Football Stadium, Incheon Metropolitan Government Office
Incheon, as an open feature to the outside world, is introverted and exclusive to Koreans The different stereotypes of Incheon also shape the development strategy and urban characteristics of Incheon. Relying on the geographical advantage brought by the port, Incheon had a superior industrial location after the war; in the novel "China Town" by the Korean writer Wu Zhenxi with Incheon as the background, the port of Incheon is full of industrial images: the wharf is entrenched by the railroad tracks carrying coal. Flour mills and kerosene companies were on the sidelines, immersed in coal dust carried by the north wind. Even now, Incheon still looks like an ugly duckling against the glamorous Seoul.
Ⅱ
Incheon under the 1997 financial crisis
However, the 1997 financial crisis spread like a plague in East Asia and the subsequent structural reorganization brought many changes to Incheon. Among them, the "Incheon China Town" that has become a tourist attraction today, and the "Songdo International City" where the family of triplets live in the show "My Superman Dad" can be regarded as 1997 in many senses. The product of the Asian financial turmoil.
Incheon International Airport is South Korea’s largest international airport
First, let’s briefly review Korea’s national policies and chaebol economy before 1997. For a long time, South Korea has promoted economic development by national policies and supported specific enterprises and chaebols with fiscal and tax subsidies. Before the 1997 financial turmoil, it made companies believe that "market benefits are guaranteed by the government and the state can help companies resist the crisis"; and 1990 The low interest rate environment in Western countries in the 1940s caused capital to flow to emerging markets in Asia, including South Korea.
All these conditions have allowed the Bank of Korea to continue to lend large amounts of funds to companies with poor reputations, causing fiscal deficits. In addition, the KoreanChina’s financial market has brought in more foreign capital, which has further aggravated the deficit problem. To make matters worse, Japan, as South Korea’s largest trading partner, has been in a downturn since the early 1990s, impacting South Korea’s exports and further exacerbating South Korea’s deficit crisis.
The picture shows in 1996, in order to celebrate South Korea and Japan successfully won the right to host the 2002 World Cup football match, the Korean people participated in the celebration of
The debt and national credit crisis triggered by the fiscal deficit eventually broke out when the dollar appreciated. First of all, the Korean won linked to the U.S. dollar exchange rate has risen with the U.S. dollar, making South Korea’s export competitiveness declining; the international market’s confidence in South Korea’s economy has almost collapsed, causing foreign capital to flee one after another and putting tremendous pressure on the Bank of Korea. Let go and let the Korean won belittle. This transnational chain storm turned South Korea’s debt problem into a full-scale financial crisis.
With the assistance of the International Monetary Fund, South Korea has also accepted a restructuring plan with neoliberalism at its core, including opening up the investment environment, removing trade barriers, and lifting exchange rate controls. The sharply depreciated South Korean assets and a more open investment environment have made South Korea a core country for Western capital accumulation and a place for geographic expansion during the accumulation process.
In addition, the high unemployment rate caused by the financial crisis in South Korea has caused a bottleneck in the capital loop composed of production and consumption. At this time, a series of development plans led by the government attempted to invest funds in the renovation of the old urban area and the development of the new urban area to stimulate production and consumption and further boost the domestic economy. Incheon Chinatown has appeared in this context of time and space.
三
Incheon Chinatown
The Chinatown archway in Incheon looks "quaint", but it is a brand-new cement building completed in 2008.
South Korea is close to China and is widely regarded by the academic circle as a member of the Chinese character culture circle. It is also an important node in the triangle trade between China, Japan and South Korea in history. It is unbelievable that there are no Chinese here. Therefore, how should the title of "the only country without Chinatown" be explained? Furthermore, if it is true that there is no Chinatown in Korea, as scholars have said, where does the "Chinatown" in Incheon come from?
During the Japanese occupation, the map of Incheon was drawn by the Japanese. The location of Chinatown is almost impossible to identify in the picture.
Chinatown, located at the Incheon Port, became a gathering place for Chinese businessmen due to the international situation and the location of the port as early as the end of the 19th century. However, the invention of the container made the port no longer rely on porters and was able to move out of the city, which led to the rapid decline of the old port. In addition, the Korean government implemented discriminatory policies against overseas Chinese after the war, restricting overseas Chinese holding The right to own assets and education has caused a large number of overseas Chinese to leave South Korea, which has further caused the hollowing out of Chinatown.
A map of the various concessions in Incheon; in addition to the Qing concession, there are also Japanese and public concessions regardless of nationality.
Looking back at history, the predecessor of Incheon Chinatown was actually an area where traders gathered next to Incheon Port. In 1882, the Qing government and the North Korean government signed the "China-North Korea Merchants Water and Land Trade Regulations." The Qing government has extraterritorial rights in this area similar to the "concession". The number of overseas Chinese traders who come to do business here is increasing, mainly by the Shandong Gang and Zhejiang Gang. , Guangdong Gang mainly. In addition to the Chinese, today’s China Town is actually separated by a street, and it is also a block where Japanese people lived at the time. The Japanese-style buildings left by the Japanese at that time are not as public as the reconstructed Chinatown, but they are in the monotonous Korean streetscape. Among them, it is also prominent and distinguishable.
The picture shows Myeongdong, Seoul in 1996. Several boutique shop assistants were outside the shop entrance to be refurbished, notifying regular customers on the phone about the renovation.
After the 1997 financial crisis, the Korean government saw the wave of post-modern tourism development and the fact that China was gradually rising, so it moved its brains to the almost non-existent Incheon Chinatown. Therefore, the government-led Chinatown reconstruction plan started in 2004. In addition to attracting tourists with the authenticity and particularity of ethnic culture, it has also been built as an outpost to attract Chinese funds.
The picture shows a Samsung Life employee on the street during the financial crisis in January 1998Sing a cheering song: "I can do it! I can overcome the economic crisis!
In addition, the overseas Chinese policy, which is related to the smooth "rejuvenation" of Incheon Chinatown, has also undergone major reforms after the financial crisis. In 1998, the Korean government announced its cancellation. Restrictions on foreigners’ holding of land; in 2002, permanent residence permits for overseas Chinese were also issued; in 2005, the South Korean government even tried to grant overseas Chinese the right to vote in local elections. These politically liberal gifts The right policy, in fact, should be viewed in the context of economic neoliberalism.
4
neoliberalism is still exclusive?
In addition to restaurants, there are also some increasingly marginalized traders and retail stores, which together maintain The "Chinese characteristics" that are becoming thinner in Chinatown.
However, under the brand new and beautiful appearance of Incheon Chinatown, there are still new xenophobia hidden. Decades of discriminatory policies have caused many time-honored restaurants originally run by Chinese to change hands and run by Koreans. After the reconstruction of Chinatown, real estate in the area was acquired by foreign funds, driving up housing prices; and the official use of “jajang noodles” as a sales point of Chinatown also further suppressed the business format of Chinatown and strengthened the social attitude of South Korea. The mainstream impression of overseas Chinese.
As a representative dish of Korean Chinese cuisine, "Jijangmen" is also placed in the museum here as a cultural symbol to strengthen the ethnic spatial significance of Chinatown.
In addition, the South Korean government will ultimately find it difficult to resist the trend of "old overseas Chinese" constantly moving out and being replaced by "new overseas Chinese". These old overseas Chinese refer to the descendants of Chinese businessmen who came here at the end of the 19th century; the new overseas Chinese are new immigrants who hold the passport of the People's Republic of China and arrive in South Korea one after another after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea. According to data from the Immigration Bureau of the Ministry of Justice of South Korea, from 2002 to 2006, the number of old overseas Chinese in South Korea shrank by 2%; by contrast, the number of new overseas Chinese in South Korea during the same period increased by about 150%. Since the old overseas Chinese population is more than three times larger.
Songdo International City is one of the most modern landscapes in Incheon.
Corresponding to Chinatown is Songdo International City, which is located on the seashore at the southern end of Incheon City and built on the reclaimed land. The Songdo International City Plan started in 2002 and started construction in 2005. It is a policy of the same period as the Incheon Chinatown Plan. As part of the Incheon Free Economic Zone, Songdo International City has invested 3.5 billion US dollars.
The South Korean government has also invested heavily in the construction of the 12.3 kilometers long "Incheon Bridge" on the sea, connecting Incheon International Airport with Songdo International City.
In addition to the two nodes of Chinatown and Songdo International City, the South Korean government has also invested heavily in the construction of the 12.3 km long Incheon Bridge on the sea, connecting Incheon International Airport and Songdo International City, making the newly developed city convenient and rapid Interact with other cities in the world and take advantage of the niche that is compressed in time and space.
The picture shows the Jajangmen Museum in Incheon Chinatown.
Thus, the "conservative" Incheon Chinatown and the "innovative" Songdo International City, the two seem to be very different from each other, but in the context of global capital flows, they have striking similarities. They are all policy products of the international economic crisis.
Some sluggish afternoon scenes. Most of the time-honored Chinese restaurants have changed hands. Even the most well-known Jajang-noodle restaurant, Gonghechun, was bought by the Koreans. In each aspect, the two echo each other. As far as cultural policy is concerned, the political correctness of multiculturalism is not only the core of Chinatown's revival and actively facing globalization, but also a more flexible economic development model based on cultural tourism as a strategy. In addition, South Korea’s specific performance in economic and trade policies has resulted in the deregulation of the state and a more open investment environment to foreign capital. Here, the cultural governance of pluralism is grafted with the capital logic of neoliberalism. Through the transformation of Chinatown and the birth of Songdo International City, the economic crisis is repaired by town development and real estate.
is concerned about the future development of bilateral relations between China and South Korea. Incheon Chinatown may be the entry point that we have to look at carefully.
However, although Disney's Incheon Chinatown has attracted Chinese capital, it has been ridiculed by many tourists as being overly false and invigorating, and it has no special features except for the similar Zhajangmen restaurants. After the new Songdo International City has become one of the most expensive market-making projects in the world, it is also facing the potential for insufficient momentum in attracting foreign investment. After all, these safe havens that use ethnicity, diversity, greenness, and openness as capital will inevitably become victims of the next wave of economic crises in the near future?
