Affective Protest Symbols: Public Dissent in the Mass Commemoration of the Sewŏl Ferry’s Victims in Seoul

ABSTRACT

Symbols used in the Sewŏl protests in downtown Seoul from 2014 onwards proved effective in soliciting public engagement for three years. After the sinking of the Sewŏl ferry that took 304 lives, most of them high school students, objects such as yellow ribbons gained iconic status as signifiers of the demand to investigate the ferry’s sinking and honour the memory of the victims. New visual indexes that created and articulated this emotionally laden discourse formed a common visual language of grief and anger towards the Korean authorities. This ethnography-based article explores the development of the protest’s affective aestheticism, its main agents and semiotics, and how it produced affect, which had strong cultural, social and emotional impacts. In 2016, the Sewŏl movement became the core of larger protests against the ruling elites.

ABSTRACT IN INDONESIAN

Upaya menciptakan keIndonesiaan yang asli selama puluhan tahun telah memakan banyak korban hak-hak sipil warga bangsa sendiri dengan dalih keIndonesiaan mereka tidak atau kurang asli. Sikap etno-nasionalisme seperti itu bisa berlangsung lama dan gencar berkat terabaikannya solidaritas lintas-bangsa yang membantu lahirnya kemerdekaan Indonesia, sebagaimana tercermin dalam pembuatan film dokumenter Indonesia Calling (1946) di Australia. Politik kebudayaan di Indonesia akan senantiasa terbelenggu oleh pertikaian tentang masa lampau macam apa yang boleh atau bersedia diingat atau dilupakan bangsa ini. Tentu saja, membongkar masa lampau saja tidak cukup untuk menciptakan Indonesia yang lebih baik, apalagi jika hal itu bertolak-belakang dengan kepentingan penguasa. Namun, mustahil mengharapkan perubahan mendalam dan berjangka-panjang untuk Indonesia tanpa menengok kembali secara jujur, terbuka dan kritis proses revolusioner yang melahirkan Republik ini, dan tanpa mengakui bahwa proses itu mengandung berbagai unsur yang tidak-asli, majemuk, dan lintas-bangsa.

KEYWORDS:

• South Korea
• Sewŏl ferry
• yellow ribbon
• commemoration
• protest symbols

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to the 416 Family Committee, the 416 Union, Mr Pak Ju-min, the volunteers at the Kwanghwamun Square Sewŏl protest camp, and the many others who helped us in this research.

Notes

1. Other Sewŏl umbrella campaigns were launched in Cheju, Ilsan and Niagara Falls.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support for Liora Sarfati’s fieldwork was granted by the Israeli Science Foundation and the Korea Foundation.