The Distance Between Residences and Cemeteries

Seoul systematically removed all graveyards that once lay within the city and its surrounding areas, a phenomenon notably distinct from urban development patterns in other parts of the world. After the Korean War, refugees and migrants poured into the devastated capital. In this postwar environment, cemeteries-traditionally sites of mourning and death-transformed into spaces of survival for displaced populations. With the military demarcation line preventing their return home, refugees began to envision their lost hometowns as "absent places": unattainable utopias, idealized lands where all beauty resides-the very origin and endpoint of life. In contrast, Seoul, where they were forced to settle, became a "dystopia," stripped of sanctity. Over time, however, the next generation reinterpreted this dystopia, gradually transforming it into a heterotopia. As Seoul's urban landscape expanded, this heterotopia evolved into a Christian paradise. The second generation, having never experienced the trauma of displacement, found the newly constructed city comfortable and secure. Reinforced concrete buildings and asphalt roads became symbolic of paradise. The development of Gangnam-famously captured in Psy's global hit "Gangnam Style"-represents a belated cultural revolution among younger generations in modern South Korea and exemplifies the transformation into a concrete paradise

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Dystopia · Literature · Sociology · Utopia · History · Medicine · Night-time city culture · Spatial and Cultural Studies · Urbanization and City Planning

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