Remember Dongbaekseom
I’ve traveled to Busan’s Dongbaekseom Island and want to write about this special place. It’s a monument to Korea’s success and a living site for learning and cultivating a spirit of peace. Located in Haeundae, a wonderful, growing section of South Korea’s second largest city, this “Island of Camellias” contains beautiful walking paths. It reticently showcases the global vision of the late former President Roh Moo-hyun. It centers on a shrine to the Confucian scholar, Choi Chi-won. Just like the flowers that carry its name, Dongbaeksom continues to carry the everlasting possibility of life for those who believe in it.
Throughout South Korea there are many places combining natural beauty and memorials to human achievement. Like Dongbaekseom, many also have a quality of relative simplicity. There are no large or neon signs to signal the place’s significance. I like these kinds of places of discovery.
The visitor should enjoy seeing the five islands of Busan or Oryukdo and many special views of the city. Camellia flowers symbolize long life and faithfulness. Other cultures see the promise of youth or the divine in camellias. Also find a mermaid statue. It represents the legend of love between a mermaid princess, Hwangok, and her king, Eunhye. Hwangok lived on Dongbaekseom and patiently kept vigil for Eunhye by its beautiful shore.
Roh made this island’s Nurimaru complex the site for a 2005 forum of APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation). I toured the building and felt disappointed by its present organization. The Busan meeting succeeded a great deal for regional and international trade and climate accords. Progress needs measured faith in the possibilities of trade. Economic science encourages rejecting protectionism, and making measured investments in preserving local production. President Roh symbolized these values.
The local, regional, and national authorities should expand the present treatment of Nurimaru. It should further showcase the vision of Roh and Korea. Many of its goals for trade and climate change remain and have been extended.
These days, Korea encourages trade agreements and setting up related reforms. Other countries fall behind and cling to bygone nostrums. The dialectic of localism and universalism continues to unfold. Dongbaekseom knows this pattern of human organization.
However, it’s the shrine of Choi Chi-won that emerges at the island’s summit. I love to sit in this place, with its pagoda, stele and statue of the scholar-poet. Choi met his father’s challenge to study in Tang China and gain the treasure of Confucian thinking. On his return, he inspired many of the Silla period and beyond.
In fact, Haeundae is named for Choi, who sometimes went by the name “Haeun” meaning “Sea Cloud.” I missed the rock at Dongbaeksom that legend says bears his inscription of “Haeundae” on it! Even though perhaps most don’t know this fact, its meaning remains. Choi is in some real ways a father of present-day Korea.
Choi founded the Gyeongju Choi clan. When we see the prosperity of Haeundae and Busan today, I think we should remember that Choi’s wisdom lives on, despite pedestrian critics. He animated many of the key qualities of Korea’s advancement. These include respect for learning, dedication to knowledge as the basis for social organization, and patience to aim for truth and life as a connection of competing forces and thinking.
Choi carried a spirit of persistence and resignation in late Silla. While he wanted reform, and his writings provided guidance for it, Silla leaders ignored his wisdom. Their dynasty ended in part for failure to heed his advice.
Later, Choi visited Dongbaek and found it to his liking. After his death, Choi’s philosophy was viable from the time of Goryeo to Joseon.
Even though Dongbaekseom no longer is an island, it’s not just another archipelago. For wonderful exercise, monuments to leaders past and present, and for natural beauty all around, remember Dongbaekseom Island. Use it to inspire thought and action for better living! Bernard Rowan is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University. Reach him at browan10@yahoo.com.