S. Korea over two months with COVID-19 -- is social distancing still the answer?

Chyung Eun-ju and Joel Cho

By Joel Cho and Chyung Eun-ju

The growing outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) made and still continues to make waves in almost every segment of the market. Among the most affected markets lies the art and fashion industry, which has already experienced disruption regarding its main international events.

In most countries where the COVID-19 cases are growing at alarming rates, local governments have taken measures to try to contain the spread and consequently "flatten the curve." Fashion shows, festivals, expositions, biennials and collaboration launches have all been postponed or indefinitely suspended, while stadiums, museums, boutiques and galleries have suspended activities in an attempt to control agglomeration of people in enclosed spaces.

Major international events have announced rescheduling of dates. Art Basel for example recently informed said it would be postponing its Swiss fair to September, while earlier this year (Feb. 7) it had already decided on the cancellation of its fair in Hong Kong. In the United States, events like SXSW, Coachella and major fashion shows have been cancelled, while creative collaborations that only a few months ago were all the buzz in the street scene are also being postponed. Even museums like MoMA, Guggenheim, Tate Modern and the Louvre have decided to close amongst the ongoing pandemic.

Taking a look at this matter in South Korea, it seems that the practice of cancellation or suspension of public events and spaces is not the solution envisioned by the local market. Despite South Korea being one of the first countries to be affected by the COVID-19 outburst, it seems that the containment measures adopted by the government has created an environment where the collective feels protected enough not to take the preventive measures of suspending events that involve social agglomeration.

Several events continued as planned amid the pandemic with some precautions such as temperature checking of consumers and advising the use of masks. Vunque and Manolo Blanik held their sample sale while the number of the infected soared over 430 on the last week of February. Although there was a protocol in place of only allowing a limited amount of people in the store for 30 minutes per group, several people did not comply and the promotional events soon lost control of the distancing measures advised by the World Health Organization.

Although state-run museums remained closed to prevent the spread of the virus until March 22, several private museums still operated ― Paradise Zip held its exhibition with Korean artist Eddie Kang on March 25, contemporary art gallery P21 held an exhibition by Bek Hyun-jin on March 19, Gana Art is preparing Yoo Sun-tai's solo exhibition on April 1, and the list goes on.

While Nike had closed down in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand ― and continued to stay closed despite its original statement informing they would reopen on March 27 ― the South Korean branch was fully operational despite the soaring numbers of confirmed cases of the novel virus. Nike was fully operational in South Korea and when asked if it had any branch closures due to the pandemic, it only stated they could not disclose the information unless a particular location was specified.

Sales may have gone down, but you can still see a similar amount of influx of people these days at select shops like Corso Como, Boon The Shop, and Beaker. While Dior has pushed back the release of its Air Jordan 1 collaboration and New Balance has postponed its Levi's collaboration, independent brands in South Korea continue to promote their collaborations following their normal schedules.

Kompakt Record Bar in Gangnam-gu still holds record concerts every Friday, Punto Blu still is open for people to hang out and holds concerts for people to gather. A person who went to a restaurant at Itaewon called Social Base posted on Instagram how she could not get a photo of the interior because there were way too many people on March 28.

So it seems contradictory that the country celebrated for dealing with the pandemic in an exemplar way seems to still be operating regularly, holding social events that attract the public.

President Moon Jae-in failed to impose a full travel ban during the brief “golden time” until WHO declared an emergency and the country then enacted a limited ban with a barred entry by any foreigners who had visited China's Hubei Province. Moon had urged Koreans to return to their normal lives on Feb. 13, as China was approaching 60,000. On Feb. 20, Moon and his wife hosted a “chapaguri” party (the instant noodle popularized by the film “Parasite”) at the Blue House and by that afternoon the number of infections in South Korea doubled from 51 to 104. Only then did Moon declare a voluntary lockdown of affected cities but the virus was already widespread among the country, but no direct ban or even limitation of commercial activities.

Of course, the impact and the protocol to adopt during a pandemic like the one we are facing is a lot more complex than just closing down markets and hoping for the curve to flatten. The question that remains now, however, is if South Korea is being responsible enough by not imposing more aggressive measures to try to avoid the agglomeration of its people?

This sudden international crisis only gives us one certainty ― as much as South Korea may be applauded by its policies in facing the novel coronavirus outburst, it is still in the same boat as the rest of the world, without a clear direction or certainty when it comes to the best solution for the crisis. Clearly, other parts of the world are reacting differently to the pandemic, Italy having closed itself from the world, the U.S. recently urging the quarantine of its people; there does not seem to be an exact way of dealing with the situation.

Although no one should panic because of the continuous spread of COVID-19, everyone should be sufficiently diligent to avoid non-essential social interactions. Whether Korean businesses still continue to operate normally or not, the Korean population should be cautious when attending any venue or event with an agglomeration of people. If there is only one thing everyone can agree on at times like these, it is that one can never be too careful.

Eun Ju Chyung (

ejc@wtfm.kr) and Joel Cho (joel@wtfm.kr

) are editors at WTFMAG (https://www.whatthefunmag.com)