Recently, I went to watch the movie “Concrete Utopia” at the theater. It is one of the movies that heated up this summer, and the film industry and theaters are currently in a mood of revival after COVID-19 turned into an endemic. The opening scene of “Concrete Utopia” shows the history of apartments that became an object of novelty and envy in Korean society, since apartment construction accelerated in the 1970s. Director Eom Tae-hwa explained in his recent film-related interview that he tried to capture the process and symbolic meaning of Korean apartments since the 1960s, by referring to a humanities book with the same title “Concrete Utopia,” which politically and socially explains the history and change of apartments.
The director asks the most central question throughout the movie: Is the current Korean apartment truly a utopia? The bottom line is that my answer is no. Of course, ostensibly, apartments are a utopia-like space to me, for it represents the novelty and envy, and I personally prefer modern apartments to classic houses. Apartment offers convenience and comfort to residents with its modern designs and amenities. But behind it lies the starkness and endless material desires brought out by people’s nature of selfishness and individualism.
Material desire refers to a situation in which apartment prices are sharply rising. Although several factors would exist behind such a rise, I think prices in central Seoul and station areas are way out of line that is acceptable in bounds of common sense. To live in such a house, average Koreans who usually raise money by graduating from college and going to a regular job need money on a scale that they could never afford in their lifetime.
The issue of housing prices is also directly related to marriage issues. If asked about the youth problems that Korean society is facing right now, we cannot discuss them without marriage and childbirth. Everyone must be aware of the low marriage and birth rate among young Koreans recently. The economic burden is cited as the biggest reason here, and the reality of young people is never easy to bear with soaring housing prices and costs for child support costs.
We, Koreans, live a whole life with the goal of buying our own apartment and getting a job in Seoul. Not everyone may be like that, yet young people around me, and even young students and adults in my older generation are no exception. And when their goals they have dimly dreamed of face reality as they get older, those become more and more concrete as time goes by, finally dominating their days and even whole lives.
Thus, it is necessary to cool down the social atmosphere and craze that drives everyone eager to get their own apartments in Seoul. To do so, much more welfare and support for young people must be more systematic and flexible at the government and national level.
Sept. 16 was Youth Day, a legal anniversary established to guarantee the rights of young people and raise interest in youth issues. Social concerns and interest in youth issues are increasing, and many systems and projects have currently been in place to support young people. Yet, I sincerely hope that it will be a society where young people can live with less burden and more hope — for me, for the young who live in my generation, and for our future generations and our country.