![\"\"](\"http:\/\/pcxsx1namun1ljpw72henvgf.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/KB-Robert-Fouser-RAS-tour-01.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThings in Seoul don\u2019t have anything to do with each other.\u201d We members of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch<\/a> (\uc655\ub9bd\uc544\uc138\uc544\ud559\ud68c\ud55c\uad6d\uc9c0\ubd80) heard this important principle for understanding<\/a> the Korean capital early in the day from our guide, Robert Fouser. A noted American scholar of linguistics and architecture, he\u2019d come to town to promote a couple new books he has out. He wrote them in Korean, a language that, during the years he spend living in Japan, he also taught \u2014 in Japanese. Just as none can doubt his experience with east Asian languages, none can doubt his experience with east Asian architecture, or at least his experience with traditional Korean houses, known as hanok (\ud55c\uc625), one of which he spent serious time and effort restoring to not just sound but fully authentic condition.<\/p>\n
The word \u201cauthentic\u201d came up more than a few times on the walk, which took us deep into Seoul, beginning at the Jongmyo Shrine. Between its construction in the late 14th century and its arrival on UNESCO\u2019s list of World Heritage Sites in 1995, the place has seen some hard times, up to and including destruction during the Japanese invasions of 1592 and 1598. Rebuilt in 1601, the Jongmyo Shrine counts as one of the oldest building complexes in Seoul, a city where most historical structures have been torn down and put back up again much more recently, in the 19th, 20th, or even 21st centuries. But which can make the claim to greater authenticity: those rebuilt longer ago, or those rebuilt more recently with closer adherence to their original architectural plans?<\/p>\n
People disagree about that question in Korea, but only recently has the debate risen to a high profile. For a long time after the Korean War, anything old suffered from shameful associations with poverty, backwardness, and underdevelopment; even in the 1980s, when Fouser first arrived in Korea as a student, tourists could roam sites like the Jongmyo Shrine more or less freely. But on our walk, we found sign after sign telling us where we couldn\u2019t go, and watchful supervisors ready to let us have it the moment we set foot on any now-forbidden stone. The Joseon Dynasty (\uc870\uc120 \uc2dc\ub300), the kingdom of the united Korea that lasted from the late 14th until the late 19th century has, it seems, become fashionable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n