'Princesses' revisits Korea's dark past

Cast of "Princesses 2020" pose for its poster. / Courtesy of New Universe Theatre Company

Theater production looks back on 100 years of sexual exploitation of women

By Park Ji-won

From the very start, theater play "Princesses 2020" was far from a one-size-fits-all type of performance. After audience members purchased tickets at Arko Arts Theater in Seoul, the organizers asked them to choose one of three "symbolic" entry options ― "Upper Hole, Lower Hole or Back Hole" ― to enter the theater. Those who chose the back option were ushered to explore the backstage area.

The title "Princesses" has multiple meanings. In the play, the main character's name is Gong-ju (meaning "princess") but in Korea's modern history the term could be taken to mean a prostitute, particularly in the post-World War period. In the Korean title, the word Gong-ju is created using a combination of two Chinese characters ― "gong" meaning hole and "ju" meaning owner. The title rather crudely refers to the women as "owners of holes."

It is a tale of women who made ends meet by selling sex. The play, which wrapped up on Sunday, shed light on Korea's dark past ― covering almost a century of the sex trade in Korea starting from wartime sex slaves ("comfort women") in the 1940s.

"Princesses" was a colloquial term used by U.S. soldiers stationed in Korea after the country was liberated from Japan's colonial rule in 1945 at the end of World War II.

A scene from "Princesses 2020," a play by New Universe Theatre company (NUTC) in this undated photo. Courtesy of NUTC

It begins with an ordinary girl named Kim Gong-ju. Born in 1931 when Korea was under the colonial rule of Japan, Kim had different aspirations from those of her peers.

Her obedient sisters chose marriage, rather than seeking a career, and were content with their lives as housewives.
Gong-ju, however, wanted to study and live independently. So, when sex traffickers approached her and lured her by promising money and the chance to study overseas, she fell for the half truths. She became a comfort woman, a wartime sex slave during Japan's colonial rule, and was taken to Burma, now Myanmar, in 1944. Every day she was raped by dozens of soldiers. When she resisted, she was severely beaten. The "comfort station" manager even threatened to kill her.

After Korea was liberated from Japan in 1945 with the end of World War II, she wanted to live a new life. She met a policeman, fell in love with him and became pregnant. But he walked out on her and Gong-ju became a single mother with a young son.

She was then framed as a "North Korea sympathizer" in 1951 when the massive purging of communists was in full swing. Having nowhere to go, she became a sex worker again, this time for Korean and U.S. soldiers in Daegu.

She felt she was dirty but couldn't end the vicious cycle of poverty and selling sex because she had to provide for her son. She continued to work as a prostitute at military brothel called "Gijichon" in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. Her clients were U.S. soldiers. She became a madam in 1970 in Yongsan, and Miari in Seoul, which used to house significant red light districts.

Observing abusive practices there, she tried in vain to fight against other pimps for her and fellow sex workers' human rights. Her voice was ignored and she ended up losing her job in 2009 as the government pushed to clear the red light districts under an urban redevelopment plan.

She tried new businesses, like running a food truck, to make ends meet. But due to a lack of expertise and experience, her businesses failed and she returned to prostitution, near the Jongno district in 2019 only to be diagnosed with cancer in 2020.

In the final scene, she is seated in a chair in a traditional hanbok costume, a typical image of sex workers in the 1970s and 1980s. She is speechless just like the archetypal comfort woman statue.

"Princesses" looks back on Korea's dark past through the eyes of sex worker Kim Gong-ju. It shows that her life as a prostitute was not entirely her choice. There were times that the red light districts were thriving with the implicit backing of the Korean government. At that time, sex tourism was part of the Korean economy.

The play also shows how women were victimized during the war and even after the war with the establishment of military brothels. The sex trade was banned by law in 2004. But the law failed to stop the sexual exploitation of women and the sex industry still exists. "Princesses" raises a key question. Who is responsible for women falling victim to sexual exploitation?

"The play shows that we all, both men and women, have been contributing to the establishment of a society that exploits women," Kim Su-jung, artistic director of NUTC told The Korea Times.

The show ran at ARKO Arts Theater from June 9 to 14.