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CULTURE NEWS

Meeting ASEAN in Ansan

Wongok-dong, a neighborhood in the Danwon District of the city of Ansan in Gyeonggi Province, is home to people of various ethnic backgrounds. Of the roughly 86,000 people from 107 countries who live in Ansan, over 20,000 live in Wongok-dong. In 2009, the area was designated as a “Special Multicultural Village Zone,” and there are many signs that give evidence of the diversity of its locals. One of them is “Kidaria,” an artwork on the wall of the Ansan Migrant Community Service Center, which depicts an oversized human figure made of 58 national flags. Next to it is a signpost with signs for many countries that show their respective distance from Korea. Across the neighborhood, you will also find signs for many public facilities, such as banks, restaurants, etc., that are written not only in Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, but also in several foreign languages—Vietnamese, Khmer, and Indonesian are particularly common.
Of course, no discussion about cultures is complete without mentioning food. The stores and stalls lining Ansan’s Multicultural Food Street are offering a wide range of dishes. On weekends, some visitors come to this street simply to take in the fragrances that remind them of their home countries. Small mom-and-pop stores, each selling ingredients of a particular country, are another interesting feature of this street. The colors and fragrances of imported tropical fruits add to the street’s flair. Many fruit stores sell durian, popular across the ASEAN region but usually a rare sight in Korea, while food stores and groceries display meat imprinted with a halal mark. Restaurants offer not only Vietnamese cuisine, which Koreans are relatively familiar with, but also lesser-known dishes from Cambodia and Indonesia. The street may be located in Korea, but the sights, smells, and tastes make it feel as if you were in a place that is an amalgam of the ASEAN countries.
After you are done touring the Multicultural Food Street, your next stop should be the World Cultural Center. It is surrounded by a wall decorated with figures wearing the (quite accurately depicted) traditional attire of various countries that seem to invite passers-by inside. Among the center’s exhibits are dolls, masks, and traditional clothing as well as musical instruments of many countries. The center offers something for visitors of all ages, ranging from instruments like the danmo, a traditional Vietnamese percussion instrument, and the Indonesian spring drum, to a traditional clothing experience, allowing visitors to try on clothes, hats, and shoes, including the Vietnamese ao dai, the Cambodian sampot, or the sarong, which is worn in many Southeast Asian countries. Currently, however, because of COVID-19, visitors are advised to make a phone inquiry in advance.