[100 Years Ago Today] October 17, 1926 – A Sunday in Seoul: Arirang Enters Its Third Week, the New Colonial Headquarters Two Weeks Old, and Wuchang Fallen a Week Earlier

100 Years Ago Today

Sunday, October 17, 1926 · Evening Edition · 10:10 PM KST (1:10 PM UTC)

10:10 – As the clock smiles, reflect on a century of history

1. A Sunday Evening, a Century Ago

As you wind down your day, picture Seoul on the evening of Sunday, October 17, 1926. Two weeks earlier, on October 1, a vast new administrative building had been formally dedicated in front of Gwanghwamun gate. On the very same day, a silent black-and-white film opened at a Seoul theater. Which of the two would last longer in memory? A century on, the answer is not the one the builders expected. One caveat: I could not locate the actual newspaper pages for this particular Sunday, so I report only what is documented for the surrounding days.

2. Korea Under Colonial Rule

The Government-General of Korea’s new headquarters was completed in December 1925. Officials moved in from the old Waeseongdae site on January 4, 1926. The formal dedication came on October 1, timed to a colonial holiday marking the anniversary of annexation. Construction had begun on June 24, 1916, so the building took a full decade.

In the courts, the case stemming from the June 10 independence demonstrations moved forward. A Korea University archive indicates that pretrial questioning of defendants ran from October 7 to October 15. What happened on the 17th itself is not confirmed.

3. Arirang Travels the Peninsula

Na Un-gyu wrote, directed and starred in Arirang, a silent black-and-white film that opened at Danseongsa on October 1. It is regarded as the first great box-office hit in Korean cinema, and accounts say it was shown not only in city theaters but in remote mountain villages without theaters. Its theme song is described as both the first film theme song and the first banned song. I could not confirm audience figures or the screening schedule for October 17.

4. East Asia in Turmoil

In China, the Kuomintang’s Northern Expedition, launched in July 1926, was reshaping the map. The walled city of Wuchang, besieged for weeks, fell on October 10, the fifteenth anniversary of the 1911 uprising that began there. A U.S. newspaper of October 9 reported, citing Chinese officials, that ten thousand people had died inside the city during the siege, most of them from starvation. For Koreans, Chinese nationalism had obvious resonance, though I found no source linking this particular siege to Korean newspapers that week.

5. The World Stage

In America, the St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Yankees four games to three on October 10 for their first World Series title. In London, the Imperial Conference would open on October 19, chaired by Stanley Baldwin. It is remembered for the Balfour Declaration, which described the dominions as equal in status. On October 18, Queen Marie of Romania was due in New York aboard the Leviathan, beginning a U.S. tour that drew a ticker-tape parade.

6. Colonial Parallels

The Imperial Conference is a useful mirror. In London, the dominions were negotiating equality of status within an empire. In Seoul, a colony was being shown a monument to permanence. Both were assertions about who belongs to whom, made in the same weeks. This is an observation about timing, not a claim that the two were connected.

7. Century Mirror

A building that took ten years to raise is gone. A song that spread in days is still sung. Modern K-culture, with its global audiences, has a distant ancestor in a silent film shown in mountain villages.

8. Understanding Daily Life

I could not find reliable records of weather or prices for this Sunday, so I will not invent them. What is documented is a city holding two realities at once: a monument built to last, and a story people carried home.

9. Tomorrow’s Preview

Tomorrow is Monday, October 18. Queen Marie reaches New York, and London’s conference opens a day later. Good night, and see you tomorrow at 10:10.

Sources: National Archives of Korea thematic notes (Government-General building); Korea University archive via Korea Today series; U.S. newspaper, Oct. 9, 1926; Wikipedia and HistoryLink (Queen Marie); 1926 Imperial Conference records.