#Trams were once the backbone of #Seoul's #publictransit system. The 1st launched on #Buddha's Bday in 1899 by Gojung, & the last ran Nov 30, 1968. The network was greatly expanded in the colonial era, & recently track laid in 1927 was uncovered in front of #Gyeongbukgung Palace This track was in use till ‘66 & buried during the construction of a pedestrian underpass at Sejongro. Seoul’s bulldozer’ Mayor Kim Hyon-ok was responsible for the trams’ demise. The cars were outdated, replacement + track repair was too costly, & the system disrupted traffic.

Massive candlelight protest calling for #윤석열퇴진 (Pres. Yoon to resign), underway right now. Crowd stretches from Seoul Station to Seoul Plaza (City Hall). A pretty amazing sight that I can’t imagine seeing in 🇨🇦. Must be a several hundred thousand out. Young & old. #촛불행동 Some more photos of the crowds with their signs before the sun set. It was only six years ago that similar protests were held on this day, calling for Park Geun-Hye’s impeachment.

On Monday, I went to Tongmunkwan in Insadong, Korea’s oldest antique bookstore. The owner’s grandfather, Lee Gyeom-ro, took it over from a Japanese proprietor in 1934. As you step inside, you are instantly overwhelmed by the smell of old paper. I found two fantastic photo books! Choi Min-Sik was born in 1928 to a poor Catholic peasant family in what is today South Hwanghae-do, North Korea. He moved to Seoul upon liberation, and after the war he smuggled himself to Japan where he had dreamed of studying art

2022년 코라시아포럼에서 #이재명 @TheMinjoo_Kr 대표과 #김진표 국회의장은 축하를 연설했어요
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I am at the @hankookilbo’s 2022 #KorAsia Forum this morning. opposition Democratic Party leader @Jaemyung_Lee & Nat’l Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo just delivered congratulatory speeches Fmr. US SoS @mikepompeo joins virtually for a talk with ex-US Amb. An Hoyeong. On 🇨🇳 influence, he says it is already entrenched, & states worldwide must push the CCP back from inside their gates. Also, “🇨🇳 wants every nation to be a vassal state that pays it tribute & homage”

Many of the victims from this weekend’s tragedy in #Itaewon/#이태원 were in their 20s, which means they would have been in their tween/teenage years when the MV #Sewol disaster (#세월호 침몰 사고) happened on April 16, 2014. I’ve been thinking about Sewol a lot over these days. I have memories of seeing it on the news and discussing it in my high school law class, but it was only after coming to Korea that I really understood the scope of what happened, the gov't's complicity, & social impact it had.

I just passed the scene of the tragedy that occurred last night in #Itaewon/#이태원 and I really have no words to express the sadness I feel. As of now, 151 people have lost their lives - many of them in their 20s just like me. #이태원사고 Floral tributes for the victims have started to be left at the top of #Itaewon/#이태원 Station Exit 1 and posted on storefronts, such as Foot Locker’s, beside the alleyway where the stampede occurred.

Back in May, I joined the Architecture Archive Project for a short discussion and walk around the former HQ of the Chosŏn Land Trust Company (aka Hanil Building), a 3-story brick structure that was designed and built in 1929 by Japanese companies & boasted a lot of local history The land on which the building sat until recently is now being redeveloped by Buyoung Housing with a 27-story hotel, which when complete will have 850 rooms. Initially the company was given a construction permit on the condition that the façade of the Hanil Building be preserved

As noted in a previous thread, I made a presentation for my Korean class last week about a few lesser known sites in Korea. One of them was the now abandoned prison in Munheung-dong, Buk-gu, Gwangju. This prison was the third to have been established in the city’s modern history.  The first opened in 1908 during the last years of the Korean empire at what is now 충장로. It measured just 95 square meters and could hold 130 prisoners in 11 cells.

Two of my latest reads… 1) Cohen’s #TheNetanyahus; a satirical account of the late Harold Bloom’s encounter with @netanyahu’s father while the latter was applying for his job at @Cornell. 2) @JihyunPark7’s memoir focuses on her yrs growing up in the DPRK, & not 1 but 2 escapes I found @JihyunPark7’s memoir helpful in understanding just how powerful 성분 is in reality, especially when one is a descendant of somebody who fled South during the war. Also appreciated the co-author’s reflections as a South Korean, which were interspersed between chapters

On this day in 1987, 21 year-old Lee Han Yeol died at Yonsei Severance Hospital in Seoul. Lee was hit in the head by a police tear-gas canister 27 days earlier, but never regained consciousness and remained on life-support until succumbing to his injuries. These injuries were sustained during mass street demonstrations against the death by torture of SNU student Park Jeong Cheol and the Chun Doo Hwan dictatorship on his university’s campus.