Specters of Schinkel in East Asia: Berlin, Tokyo, and Seoul from a Viewpoint of Modernity/Coloniality

Abstract

This chapter examines connections between three modern capital cities—Berlin, Tokyo and Seoul—to show the ways a dominant cultural heritage was transferred to heterogenous cultural environments in the colonial periphery, autonomously appropriated by the colonized, and then transformed into a postcolonial “lieu de mémoire.” Chun examines three main points of discussion: Prussian classicism as a cardinal legacy of German national culture, the Japanese appropriation of Prussian classicism, and the German-Japanese cultural legacy in the Korean capital city Seoul before and after national liberation. These specific points highlight the fact that colonial intervention in an indigenous space created a yawning chasm between the modern city and its historical past.