Pocheon City Documents the Transformation of Hantangang Villages
On December 24, Pocheon City in Gyeonggi Province announced the publication of the 2025 Hantangang Research Series, "Stories of Hantangang Youth and Migration Village," which contains research findings on the regional history surrounding the Hantangang River.
This research series documents the lives and changes experienced by the youth association of Gyodong Village in Jung 1-ri and the residents of Munamdong in Jung 2-ri, Gwanin-myeon, Pocheon City, who were relocated due to the construction of the Hantangang Flood Control Dam.
The series highlights the process of social change in the Hantangang region, based on the results of field research centered on interviews. While the previously published 2024 Hantangang Research Series focused on a survey of 23 people from 17 households of migrants from Gyodong and Sinheung-dong in Jung 1-ri, Gwanin-myeon, this year's research provides a more in-depth analysis of the activities of the Gyodong Youth Association, the main agents of regional change. In addition, the scope of the research was expanded by interviewing four more migrants from Munamdong in Jung 2-ri, who were not included in the previous study.
This series not only records the stories of disappearing villages, but also includes major documents and photographic materials preserved by residents. Through this, the publication aims to provide a detailed, village-level perspective on how rapid social changes and regional development processes after Korea's liberation and the Korean War affected both village communities and the lives of individual residents.
Choi Sunja, the lead researcher who oversaw the investigation and writing of this study, stated, "By documenting the activities of youth who played a significant role in regional development and reconstruction after the Korean War, as well as the changes in village communities, we aim to systematically preserve the history and collected materials of the migration villages, and to share and pass on the region's cultural and spiritual values."
The Hantangang Research Series is a comprehensive study of the Hantangang region, focusing on geological resources as well as ecology, archaeology, history, and culture. It began in 2023 with the publication of "Paleolithic Sites in the Middle Hantangang Region," which shed light on the area's Paleolithic culture, and this year's release marks the third volume in the series.
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