A Walk through a Public Market

Today was a national holiday--Memorial Day--so I had the day off. I met my friend Ute for coffee this morning. I wanted to go hiking this afternoon, but it looked like it might rain, so I decided I'd be better off to stay in the city. I took the subway into Seoul and spent the day walking through the oriental medicine market and a large public market across the street from it. It was all fascinating but also a little disturbing at times. Today was one of the very few days since I came to Korea that I found myself being very critical of what I observed. I try to view this country with as much of an open mind and with as much respect as possible, but on a few rare occasions, I've found own values and culture at irreconcilable odds with what's going on around me. Today, though fascinating, was one of those days.

First, before I even got on the subway, I encountered this woman selling tiny chicks in my town. This is not the first time I've seen this, but it is the first time I've photographed it. She had them all crowded together in cardboard boxes. When someone bought a chick, she gave it to them in a plastic bag. I watched several mothers buy them for their young children. I'm not opposed to kids having pets, but I do find the notion of a disposable pet disgusting. Animals can be great to teach kids about compassion, respect, and responsibility, but what does it teach kids to hand them a living thing in plastic bag and let them walk down the street swinging it, dropping it, squeezing it to make it squeak? And how much of a chance do these little chicks have? No doubt, most of them will be dead tomorrow. If they do manage to survive, then what? Cute little chicks grow into chickens, and who keeps chickens in an apartment? So, this woman ignited my thoughts about cultural differences and standards of acceptability. It was probably the best possible warm up I could have had for the rest of the day.

Once in Seoul, I had to walk a few blocks to get to the market district. It was an interesting walk past small shops and businesses in an unimpressive part of the city. On my way, I passed a man who was selling plates on the street--and he had a lot of them. It made me wonder if he packs them up every evening or just throws a tarp over them at night.
Then I passed a woman selling big aloe leaves--for big sunburns, I guess.
Finally I came to the oriental medicine market. It's not an open market but a square of a couple city blocks by a couple city blocks that has many oriental medicine practitioners, pharmacies, and shops that sell all sorts of dried leaves, sticks, berries, mushrooms, and other unidentifiable things. There are also businesses where you can take the things that you buy in these stores, and they cook them in pressure cookers and create herbal tonics. Mind you, I didn't do this. I just observed.

The smells of the market most impressed me. I wish I could have photographed the smell. It didn't smell bad. It wasn't overpowering. It was even pleasant in its own way but definitely distinct--sort of like a very concentrated spice bread baking in the oven. I can't really describe it. The air just smelled spicy.
After taking in the sights and smells of the oriental medicine market, I crossed the street and wandered through a large public market. There is a small public market in my city that I have visited a couple times. It's a good place to buy fruit and vegetables and the occasional household item. Though I never have, you can buy fresh fish and kimchi there as well. This market in Seoul appeared similar, but the deeper I got into it, the more of an eye-opener it was.

I passed by alleyways full of people selling the usual fruit, vegetables, fish, and kimchi, among other things. These huge bags of dried peppers impressed me. It was actually a little hard to breathe as I walked past them, and it irritated my eyes as well, because the smell of pepper was so strong in the air. There were also stalls that sold ground red pepper in similarly sized bags. It was even more difficult to breathe while walking past those. Do the people who work there just get used to it?

I also passed by stalls that sold any type of grain imaginable. It was really tempting to dip my hands into them.
I passed by the fresh seafood stalls. First, there were people selling frozen fish in styrofoam boxes, then people selling live fish out of tanks. Then I came to the part of the market where they sold crabs of all sizes. These tiny, live crabs could be bought by the bowl. I'm not sure what you do with them.
The next part is where the market started to get a little disturbing. After the crab stalls were the stalls selling frogs and turtles. I'm not sure if the frogs and turtles were sold as meat or as oriental medicine. I think they're used in both, but I'm not sure about that. Anyway, even though I know they were being sold to be killed, it bothered me to see them in such crowded tanks.
I watched these soft-shelled turtles climb on top of each other and attempt to climb out of the tank until one actually succeeded.
I was hoping he'd be able to make a run for safety, but just after I snapped the picture, the man working at that stall came by and kicked the turtle's head really hard and sent it flying back into the tank.
I know, the turtle is being sold to be killed, but to me, it's just wrong to kick a living creature. The same effect could have been had simply by picking the turtle up and returning it to the tank. If he didn't want to touch it, he could have nudged it with his foot, but he kicked it--hard. I moved on.

After the turtle episode, I had to stop taking pictures, because the rest of the market was truly disturbing. Fascinating, yes. Educational, indeed. But disturbing. Continue reading at your own discretion.

After the turtles and frogs, there were more live animals--chickens, roosters, ducks, rabbits, goats, dogs. Remember, this market is in the middle of Seoul, so it's not likely that any of these animals will be taken to a farm. I'm not sure if they slaughter them right there. I didn't look too closely and certainly didn't ask. The animals all looked sick, malnourished, and dirty. The cages were too small, dirty, crowded, and dark. Some of the animals looked apathetic and had a a glassy expression in their eyes. Others were terrified. I saw a woman swinging two ducks around by their wings, while the ducks made panicked and pathetic quacks. The dog cages were perhaps the most disturbing, because the dog were not there to be sold as pets, if you get my drift. I kept walking.

Next, I came across a stall that sold various types of eggs. They also sold barrels of chicken and duck embryos. I don't mean eggs. I mean unhatched chicks and ducklings that had been taken from their shells. They were all slimy and covered in raw eggs, with egg yolks lying on top of them. Then there were several stalls selling dead chickens--whole chickens, plucked but with feet and heads still attached. If you just wanted chicken feet, there were barrels of them, too.

After the chicken stalls, there were stalls selling other types of meat and some sausages. I passed a couple places that were selling whole, cooked pigs' heads. After that, there was a table that had a whole, cooked animal lying on top of it. At first glance, I thought it was a pig, but when I looked at it a few seconds longer, I realized that it was not a pig but a dog. A whole, cooked dog. A whole, boiled-alive dog. I stood there, feeling slightly sick to my stomach, when the man working there looked at me, waved me along, and said "Pass! Pass!" He didn't really need to tell me twice. I decided I had seen enough and found my way out of the market. I had intended to stop on my way out to buy some fruit to share with the people at work, but at this point, I wasn't willing to work my way back to the fruit section. I made my way to the nearest subway stop and headed for home.

On my way, I stopped at the jjimjilbang (public bathhouse) to relax, reflect on the day, and remind myself of the cultural differences that I do appreciate here.

I love living in Korea, but today, I realized that I can't totally embrace everything here. I realize that some of the things I saw today were not necessarily the mainstream culture, and I also realize that there are things about my own country and culture which I do not entirely find acceptable, but at the end of the day today, I am finding myself feeling a little disturbed. Beginning with the chicks in the boxes, seeing the treatment of live animals today really bothered me. Even animals destined to be slaughtered for human consumption should be treated and prepared humanely, and keeping animals in those tiny cages, kicking and swinging them, and boiling them alive certainly doesn't qualify.

I don't eat a lot of meat these days--just a habit, not out of any sense of ethics; my teenage vegetarian phase is long over--but when I do, I'm always mindful that my meal has cost a living thing its life. I like the Native American traditions of thanking the animal for its life and then using or consuming all of it so that none is just discarded without thought. Maybe I'm overly sensitive here, but it seems to me that humans, with all of our power, need to be respectful and reverent of life, especially if we're about to take another for our own sustenance.