From Cemetery, to Cemetery Park, to Historical & Cultural Park

This park's name has kept changing — from "cemetery," to "Mangwoo Cemetery Park," to "Mangwoo-ri Park," to "Mangwoo Historical & Cultural Park." Each renaming was an attempt to erase a stigma.

Key takeaways

In 1977, "Mangwoo-ri Public Cemetery" was renamed "Mangwoo Cemetery Park," and in 1998 it was renamed again to "Mangwoo-ri Park." Fact The reasoning both times was that the word "cemetery" carried an unpleasant stigma. Fact In 2013, it was designated a Seoul Future Heritage site, drawing renewed attention to its historical and cultural value, and it subsequently also came to be known as "Mangwoo Historical & Cultural Park." Fact

Each renaming shifted the emphasis. The progression from "cemetery" to "park" to "historical & cultural [park]" was an attempt to redefine this space — first from a place of death into a place for a walk, and then again into a place of memory.

What to look for on site

Signage and official documents that still bear traces of each earlier name
How current signage tends to avoid the word "cemetery" altogether
The expanded guided-tour programs that followed the Seoul Future Heritage designation

Editorial note

Treat the history of these name changes as a story in its own right, without declaring any one name the "correct" one.