• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 1996

This study examines the spatial characteristics of postal office patronage in rural areas. in the light of future possible relocation and closures of the postal facilities. Most of private services have flown out small rural central places due to the decrease of supporting population, and there consequently remain only a few public services including government-run post offices at the Myon seats, the lowest level among rural central places in Korea. The small local population and its further decline undermine the rationale for maintaining such public services in depleted rural areas. For the worse of it, the government recently plans to transform the postal system to a quasi-private, corporational structure. One can fear that the profit-seeking nature of the new postal corporation will inevitably force to close many of such small rural facilities. The study first analysed nation-wide censuses of postal offices for the years of 1986 and 1992. The postal services examined are per capita number of postal stamps and revenue stamps sold, and letters, parcels, telegrams and monetary transactions handled at the post offices. It is found that, while the usage of postal services has increased substantially throughout the nation during the period of 1986-1992, the increment has largely been occurred by urban post offices rather than by those in Gun seats (i.e., rural counties); and that the gap of the service levels between urban and rural post offices is ever widening. The study further examined the service differentials among the post offices within rural counties to find that those post offices adjacent to the county (Gun) seats and larger urban centers rendered less amount of services than remote rural post offices, indicating that rural residents tend to partonize larger centers more and more than local Myon seats. At the second stage of the study, questionnaire surveys were conducted in Muju, Kimpo, and Hongsung-Gun's. These three counties are meant to represent respectively the remote, suburban, and intermediary counties in Korea. The analyses of survey data reveal that the postal hinterlands of the county seats extend to much of nearby Myons, the subdivisions of a Gun. It is also found that the extent of postal hinterlands of the three counties and the magnitude of patronage and quite different from each other depending upon the topography, population density, and the propinquity of the counties to metropolitan centers. The findings suggest to reappraise the current flat allocation scheme of public facilites to each of rural subdivisions throughout the nation. A detailed analysis on the travel behavior of the survey respondents yields that age is the most salient variable to distinguish activity spaces of rural residents. The activity spaces of older respondents tend to be more limited within their Myon, whereas those of younger respondents extend across the Myon boundary, toward the central towns and even distant larger cities. The very existence of several activity spaces in rural areas calls for an attention in the future locational decisions of public facilities. The locational criteria, employed by the Ministry of Communication of Korean government to establish a post office, are the size of hinterland population and the distance from adjacent postal facilities. The present study findings suggest two additional criteria: the order in rural central place hierarchy and the propinquity to the upper-level centers of the central hierarchy. These old and new criteria are complementary each other in that the former criteria are employed to determine new office locations, whereas the latter are appropriate to determine facility relocation and closures.

• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.36
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• pp.223-253
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to examine how the Korean classic novel "Shimcheong-jeon" has transformed in juvenile literature since the 2000s. Classical novels are far from modern and temporal, differ from modern cultures. Classic novels are also different from the lives and thoughts of modern children. It is therefore difficult for modern child readers to easily understand or agree with classical novels. In order for classical novels to have the meaning in the present, it is necessary to pay attention to the encounter between classical novels and children's literature. In the case of "Shimcheong-jeon", unlike other classical novels, there are many creative fairy tales. There are seven kinds of fairy tales that transformed "Shimcheong-jeon". They are diverse in genres such as picture books, fairy tales, and juvenile fiction, and are intended for a variety of ages. These works are described in various perspectives such as, Shimcheong who is full of desire, Shim Hakgyu who is disabled, Ppaengdeog's mother who has maternity and subjectivity, The dragon of the dragon king and Byeogdeog who loves Shimcheong, and Shin Cheong who has a dream. The themes of the works vary. So, These works extend our expectations for classical literature. Fairy tales that transformed "Shimcheong-jeon" reflect the lives of children and youths, this is important because it can reduce the distance between classical novels and children and youth readers. Classical novels are modernized and give new meaning to modern children and youths. And it reflects the characteristics of the novels of Pansori's "Shimcheong-jeon", preserving the value of classics. Tears of Paengdeok is a story that explains the origin of Pansori "Shimcheong-ga", and inserts some lyrics of Pansori, in the case of Cheong, Cheong, Pansori style is used. Although humor is the greatest feature of pansori, there are few of Fairy tales that transformed "Shimcheong-jeon". It is a direction to worry and to orient when transforming "Shimcheong-jeon" into a fairy tale.