Experience the Evolution of Residential Culture in Seoul

"Similarities and Differences: Life of Seoul Citizens," an exhibition examining the evolution of residential culture in Seoul, the South Korean capital, is now on at Shanghai History Museum.

Scheduled to run through July 7, the exhibition offers visitors a profound exploration of how residential spaces reflect and shape the lives, values and cultural identity of Seoul's inhabitants.

Seoul and Shanghai share a similar historical trajectory of compressed growth during the modern era, yet each has shaped its landscape of everyday life in its own distinctive way. This exhibition uses housing as a gateway to understanding these parallels and divergences, demonstrating that "housing" is far more than a place to sleep – it is a way of life in which people dwell, build relationships and create culture.

The exhibition highlights two defining forms of Seoul housing: the traditional Hanok of the late Joseon Dynasty and the contemporary apartment complexes that dominate today's skyline. While the traditional Hanok was a microcosm that responded to nature and embodied Confucian social order, the apartment was a product of efficiency and standardization born from aspirations for modernization.

A dedicated section on household furnishings, meanwhile, reveals the profound lifestyle shifts embedded in these architectural changes. Traditional low furniture and tray-tables reflected a "floor culture" where rooms served multiple flexible purposes – functioning interchangeably as studies, bedrooms and dining spaces. By contrast, the sofa, television, dining table and refrigerator of 20th-century apartments signal a transition to a "chair-sitting lifestyle" with clearly differentiated, fixed-function rooms.

Through this exploration of Seoul's housing and domestic objects, the exhibition, structured as the first step in a broader comparative study between Seoul and Shanghai, hopes to provide visitors with an opportunity to reflect on the similarities and differences between the two major Asian metropolises, as well as between tradition and modernity.

Date: Through July 7, 9am-5pm (closed on Mondays)

Venue: Shanghai History Museum

上海历史博物馆

Address: 1/F, East Building, 325 Nanjing Rd W.

南京西路325号东楼1层