Infrastructures of displacement: the transpacific travel of urban renewal during the Cold War

Bulldozing the dead: Chinese, citizenry, and cemetery in post-colonial South Korea

“…The goal of the post-colonial government to build a new nation dovetailed well with top-down construction projects that required a large amount of available land. The transregional spread of post-Second World War construction culture, which was epitomized by the mechanistic forms of bulldozers and wrecking balls, applied the modernist doctrine of planning to the developmentalist landscape in Asia (Eom 2020). The bulldozer, a machine widely used for earthmoving and construction (Ammon 2016), also functioned as a trope crucial for comprehending the postwar landscape of cities in Korea.…”

“…Park's repeated emphasis on kukt'o kaepal , or development of national land, was manifested through numerous construction projects, including the Gyeongbu Highway. In the same vein, Mayor Kim Hyoun-ok of Seoul, who maintained close ties with Park, was another figure who epitomized ‘an insatiable and modernist desire for development’ (Eom 2020: 307) in the 1960s. Mayor Kim, often dubbed the ‘Bulldozer Mayor’, wrought a drastic transformation on the city of Seoul by widening roads, constructing elevated highways, building subways, and razing squatter areas.…”