Seoul’s streetcars: Between tradition and progress

The claim that streetcars, introduced in Seoul in the spring of 1899, represented “the first step toward civilization in the Hermit Kingdom,” as declared by Harper’s Weekly, provoked both excitement and unease, with many fearing the slow-moving modern vehicles would erode Korea’s long-held traditions as they rolled through the city’s ancient streets. Horace N. Allen, the American representative to Korea, found the effect amusing. The Korean gentry, long-accustomed to the deference of commoners, now found themselves enslaved by the constraints of time. Allen described the harsh lessons of punctuality: “So with the electric cars, which also would not tarry at the demand of the attendants of one of the gentry, and even when the great man himself would simply stop at the car steps and give some orders to his menials, the impudent contrivance was likely to go off and leave him standing there in the road.” Even worse was being run down by a streetcar. George Trumbull Ladd described Korean men — presumably members of the gentry — walking with a dignified strut along the track