Namdaemun Fire

Just so you don't think we live under a rock here at School of ROK, yes, we have been following the recent saga of Namdaemun, the grand gate at the southern edge of old Seoul and Korea's official #1 national treasure, which burned down this week as a result of suspected arson. Before it burned, the gatehouse was the oldest wooden structure in Seoul, dating from the 15th century. Now that the arsonist has been caught, domestic news outlets are squashing the handful of early speculations that the culprit was either a) a drunken Japanese businessman, or b) a drunken American serviceman. For the record, the suspect is a 60-something Korean man with a history of arson. Xenophobia, much? Also, early reports called the fire minor, but apparently some less-than-stellar firefighting (and a complete lack of sprinklers in a building made entirely of wood?!?) let the blaze get out of control.

Good news, though: no one was hurt.

On another note, the fire is not quite as horrifying as it might seem to Westerners, as there is much less of a stigma surrounding rebuilding or remodeling historical buildings. Here, it seems to be more the idea and the historical appearance of the building that's important to preserve, rather than the physical structure itself. Which makes sense, in a way--a lot of old Western buildings, obviously, look much older (and therefore much different) than they did when they were in use.