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The Uprising as Civic Asset: New Citizens’ Groups and the Reimaging of Kwangju
- University of Hawai'i Press
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135 The Uprising as Civic Asset New Citizens’ Groups and the Reimaging of Kwangju In May 2000 the city government moved the Kwangju Biennale, an ambitious biannual, international, progressive/alternative art festival begun in 1995, from the fall to the spring to overlap with the May anniversary events; thus the major civic festivals representing the two sides of Kwangju’s self-proclaimed identity—as “City of Arts and Culture ” and “Mecca of Democracy”—were joined, creating a single tourist attraction.1 That year, shuttle buses ran between the 5.18 Cemetery and the Biennale site, and discount admission tickets to the artfest were on sale at a small kiosk near the cemetery entrance. Posters and T-shirts with the slogan “Millenium [sic] Long Glow—5.18” (Ch’önny ön üi Pit 5.18) and depictions of the new Kwangju Uprising “mascot ”—Nuxee—appeared on the streets alongside banners proclaiming more traditional sentiments, such as “Let’s keep the May spirit alive and drive out the American bastards!” (5 wöl chöngsin kyesüng hayö, miguk nomdül moranaeja!). This reimaging of Kwangju re¶ects, in part, the impact of new actors and groups in civic affairs. Every year the 5.18 anniversary celebration is managed by an anniversary events committee (haengsa wiwön hoe); the committee chairman (wiwönjang)—a position of symbolic importance in the 5.18 movement—is selected in the early spring by members of 5.18-related groups, who sponsor the events. By 1995 the sponsoring groups included not just the direct victims’ associations (as well as the local and 136 Commemorating Kwangju provincial governments), but also other new civic organizations with their own agendas. In fact, the chairman that year, a Catholic priest, was himself the head of one such recently established citizens’ group, the 5.18 Memorial Foundation—a demonstration of the growing power of these new associations.2 The 5.18 Memorial Foundation was started in 1994 with compensation money donated by victims, as well as membership fees from the associated groups. It also receives public funds, which it then can channel into various civic projects (like the anniversary celebration itself); indeed, it was intended to provide a conduit for the ¶ow of money into commemorative activities. Its board of directors included (in 1996) several dozen members representing a broad spectrum of community (as well as 5.18) leaders. As the chairman of the foundation’s board explained to me, “The reason for creating the 5.18 foundation was . . . that there are many groups [tanch’e]. While there are points of agreement and joint efforts [among them], there are also many instances when that isn’t the case. So we organized the foundation in order that all the groups together become members of the 5.18 foundation and join together to do things. Now there are only one or two groups that don’t belong. May 17, 2000, Uprising Eve Parade introduces 5.18 cartoon mascot, Nuxee. [3.90.205.166] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 01:59 GMT) The Uprising as Civic Asset 137 There are members of those groups who do, but those groups themselves don’t send representatives” (personal communication, 1996). It was the hope that this foundation would provide the momentum for bringing the separate associations together in the future; indeed, one of its primary goals was to unify the different groups and to prevent what was (in the eyes of some observers) the sel¤sh divisiveness of the various factions from presenting a bad image of the 5.18 movement to the public. Another prominent founding member of the foundation, himself a direct victim who had remained in the Provincial Of¤ce Building until the end on May 27 and who had donated his compensation money to the foundation, was more candid in his assessment: “Regardless of the existence of this foundation, it is time for both direct and indirect [other civic] groups to have mutual understanding. When the direct victims’ groups were suffering, the civic leaders and so forth didn’t care. They just turned their backs. But now the indirect groups have a strong voice. The direct victims’ groups see this as nonsense —they think ‘after all, you guys didn’t suffer and now you are using this opportunity for your own goals.’ But now is the time for both sides to have mutual understanding, and understand each other. This is my own choice for the direct victims’ groups. If not, the direct victims’ groups...