창작과 비평

The Quarterly Changbi 175, Spring 2017

Abstract

This special conversation is projected to explore the significance of the candlelight squares to the young generation who have not experienced the June Democracy Movement in 1987. Those participants from a feminist activist group "Gangnam Station Exit #10", the student union of Ewha Womans University, Action for Impeachment of PSPD (People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy), and Changbi Publishers share their thoughts on people's motives for participation and their observations on new and different features of the protests from previous ones. For the main causes to prompt protests, they address such issues as the link between politics and business, the murder case in Gangnam station, the admission to college with special favor, and the harsh lives of young generation, as well as the Choi Soon-sil Gate and the Sewol Ferry Disaster. But they refuse to stay in resigned anger on the unfair and unequal Korean society, but rather try to seek collectively the possibilities of 'peace' protests, the right of women and minorities, and the 'revolutionary' qualities of the candlelight protests, etc. Their talk is particularly encouraging, since it leads young people from diverse backgrounds, who are the key driving forces of candlelight demonstrations, to communicate with each other and think over the possibility of a new type of democracy for the nation.