The Old Gwangju Red Cross Hospital: Drawing the Lifeblood of Democracy
Written and photographed by Isaiah Winters
At the end of “Wedding Street” downtown, just before the Seoseok Bridge over the Gwangju Stream, the old Gwangju Red Cross Hospital (구 광주적십자병원) sits overlooked behind a cordon of chains. The signboard out front bears the image of a skeleton’s hand over the word “AIDS” with the subtext “Only your wholesome sex life can prevent AIDS.” Though cracked and faded, the public health warning still lists the symptoms of AIDS and oddly explicit instructions for how to prevent it, like by avoiding intercourse with female prostitutes and staying clear of the blood and organs of those infected. When viewed in isolation, the morbid old sign seems almost humorously inappropriate, but when it’s paired with the hospital’s history, a more apropos context emerges.
Given its proximity to the old Jeollanam-do Provincial Hall, the former Gwangju Red Cross Hospital was where many of the wounded were brought during the Gwangju Uprising in May 1980. Overwhelmed by the deluge of patients with gunshot wounds, the hospital’s blood bank was rapidly depleted, causing alarm among the medical staff. In response, the staff began making urgent pleas for the local community to come together and donate blood. As solidarity and civic-mindedness among the denizens of Gwangju were then at an all-time high, people from all walks of life began turning up in droves to donate their blood to the cause, including many female prostitutes. Today a commemoration plaque outside the hospital praises these “bar girls” for their acts of altruism, while the contrasting AIDS warning also seen outside the hospital reflects society’s hyper-vigilant and, at times, oddly selective response to the virus.
At present, the inside of the hospital sits largely unchanged since the day it was shuttered in 2014. Gurneys can still be seen in many of the rooms, including the emergency room, where squatters have taken over and made good use of the beds. The emergency room also includes a tiny operating room with a single stretcher and a few trolleys stacked with many of the nightmarish instruments an ER doctor might need in a crisis, including scissors, kidney dishes, tweezers, and blades of all sizes. Straight down the hall from this emergency room is the main operating room, though it’s unfortunately padlocked. In fact, most of the doors throughout the hospital are locked, save an OB-GYN office and a few other rooms squatters have taken over.
While looking through some of the junk left around, an old wooden stationery box turned up bearing an interesting message from just over 40 years ago. On the underside of the lid, a doctor had penned the following message in English:
Dept. of Otolaryngology, Kwangju Red Cross Hospital
May 1978
Sung Kon Kim, M.D.
“For My Patients”
Signed just two years shy of the Gwangju Uprising, it’s possible that this doctor was also part of the medical staff during those harrowing days. Interestingly, the strongest online link between this name and the Gwangju Red Cross Hospital are hospital records from the 5.18 Archives website showing that a 33-year-old man with the same name arrived at the same hospital on May 22 with a gunshot wound to the right leg.[1] Is it just a coincidence, or did Dr. Kim, after being wounded in the uprising, become a patient at his own hospital? Whoever the patient was, did the community’s blood donations save his life, or did he perish? The records simply don’t say.
One mystery about the old Gwangju Red Cross Hospital that was easier to solve was why it has such a nice new gate out back despite being over 50 years old. The answer is likely because one of the hospital scenes from the 2017 film A Taxi Driver was actually shot there on location. In the film, many retro vehicles had to be brought into the hospital’s rear parking lot to recreate how things might have looked back in 1980, and this probably required a sturdy new gate to accommodate all the activity. Another change made to the rear exterior of the hospital for the film’s sake was the addition of the name “Gwangju Red Cross Hospital” in Korean across the second-floor banister, though no trace of this add-on remains today.
In fact, it’s hard to find any reference to “Gwangju Red Cross Hospital” on the building today, and that’s because after the hospital went bankrupt in 1995, it was purchased a year later by Seonam University owner Lee Hong-ha and then renamed Seonam University Hospital.[2] If these names sound familiar, that’s because Lee and his now defunct Seonam University were mentioned in the Gwangju News’ 200th issue last October (see “That Other Creepy Gwangju Hospital”). Like with many of his acquisitions, Lee was more interested in embezzling money from them than in maintaining them. This explains both why he’s in jail and why the hospital still looks straight out of the 1980s. It’s a shame to see such an iconic piece of Gwangju’s history still bearing his brand.
It’s hard to say what will become of the old hospital, given its current ownership. Most likely, it’ll continue to sit and fester like so many of Lee’s other properties. In recent years, Gwangju City has certainly recognized the hospital’s historical significance, as it’s now registered as “Historic Site No. 11” along 5.18 Road (오월길), a course through the City of Light showcasing the most noteworthy sites from the Gwangju Uprising. Though the old Gwangju Red Cross Hospital’s private ownership casts serious doubts on any hope for a quick salvaging, last year’s A Taxi Driver and minor articles like this can at least help keep the old hospital’s memory alive in the public consciousness.
References
[1] 5.18 광주민주화운동자료총서 제25권. Retrieved from the 5.18 Archives
website: http://www.518archives.go.kr/books/ebook/25/#page=357
[2] Moon H. (2017, August 21). <디테일추적>영화 ‘택시운전사’, 서남대
부속병원을 세트장으로 쓴 이유는. Retrieved from the
Chosun.com website: http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_
dir/2017/08/21/2017082101881.html
The Author
Originally from Southern California, Isaiah first came to Gwangju in 2010. He returned to South Korea in 2017 after completing his MA in Eastern Europe and is currently the chief proofreader for the Gwangju News. He enjoys writing, political science, and urban exploring.