The Economist (2022-02-26) Riva

The Economist February 26th 2022 Asia 37

helped that its highly automated semicon-
ductor factories were less susceptible to
disruption by covid-19 outbreaks than oth-
er industries were.
But Mr Moon set the train in motion
when he called emergency meetings in
January 2020 to persuade companies to
speed up production of test kits. His deci-
sion to remain in the background of pub-
lic-health management probably helped
earn bipartisan support for the measures
the authorities imposed. It has been main-
tained, and is reflected in ubiquitous
mask-wearing and a vaccination rate of
86% of the population, one of the world’s
highest. The legislative supermajority his
party won in the elections to the National
Assembly in 2020 helped the government
swiftly dole out generous pandemic relief,
minimising economic disruption.
That victory also allowed Mr Moon to
advance another goal: to improve the
work-life balance of overworked South Ko-
reans. Before the pandemic, a reduction in
working hours for employees at large com-
panies had already led to increased spare
time and fewer after-work dinners with
the boss. More generous parental leave had
encouraged more fathers to spend time
with their children. Since then, the curbs
on working hours have been extended to
smaller companies. Budgets for parental
leave and child care have been boosted.
Companies still have some catching up
to do to accommodate these new habits.
And the president’s commitment to im-
proving life has waned at times: he has
done little, for instance, to push his party
to adopt fast-changing social mores on
such matters as gay marriage and discrim-
ination on grounds of sex, sexual orienta-
tion or health. Prominent political asso-
ciates of the president have been em-
broiled in sexual-abuse scandals. Little by
little, however, Mr Moon’s policies have
been chipping away at a culture that puts
work above all else.
The parliamentary supermajority also
helped Mr Moon fulfil his promise to
strengthen South Korean democracy. He
curbed the power of the public prosecu-
tor’s office by diverting some of its powers
to other agencies. Supporters hope that the
reforms will strengthen oversight of po-
werful government agencies and break the
culture of politically motivated prosecu-
tions that has bedevilled the presidency.
All Mr Moon’s democratically elected pre-
decessors have found themselves subject
to corruption investigations after leaving
office. Yoon Seok-youl, Mr Moon’s former
chief prosecutor and now the conservative
candidate for president, has threatened to
go after his former boss if he wins the elec-
tion. If he does, the result will be a test not
just of Mr Moon’s probity, but also of the re-
silience of his reforms.
The changes wrought by Mr Moon have

been mirrored in a development for which

he is cannot claim credit, but for which he

will probably be remembered as well:

South Korea’s rise as an exporter of pop

culture. btsand Blackpink are the world’s

most popular boy band and girl band re-

spectively. Bong Joon-ho, who was one of

thousands of artists and intellectuals

blacklisted by Ms Park for his left-wing

views, won a Best Picture Oscar for “Para-

site”, a dark satire about inequality. “Squid

Game”, a gory television show directed by

Hwang Dong-hyuk, also offering a crude

critique of capitalism, topped the Netflix

charts and produced countless memes

now lodged in the global imagination. That

both directors are now treated as national

icons rather than enemies of the state sug-

gests South Korea’s democracy has indeed

grown stronger under Mr Moon. That both

shows depict a world hopelessly stacked

against the little guy suggests that Mr

Moon’s promised egalitarian revolution

still has a long way to go.

K

rung thep mahanakhonmaybea

mouthful, but it is less likely to pro-

voke sniggering among those with a

teenage mindset than its better-known

alternative, “Bangkok”. That is one in-

terpretation for guidance published on

February 16th by the Office of the Royal

Society, Thailand’s answer to the Acadé-

mie Française. A dense press release

noted that this pithy four-word version

of the much longer formal Thai name for

the country’s capital should be the stan-

dard for official purposes and should be

used when writing in Roman script, too.

Some Thais criticised the government

for abruptly changing how their capital is

known around the world. But it is hardly

the first to consider rebranding a world-

famous city. Politicians have long loved

to rename places to suit their whims.

Rarely do citizens clamour for change.

Often a city’s name is changed to shed

colonial or other unpleasant memories.

Among the best-known is Bombay,

named by the dastardly British, which

became Mumbai in honour of a local

goddess,Mumbadevi.Batavia, the Ro-

man name for part of the Netherlands,

became Jakarta when the Dutch left.

Frunze, commemorating a prominent

Bolshevik, became Bishkek as the Soviet

Union crumbled. Equally common are

simply tweaks to spelling to reflect local

pronunciation: Kanpur not Cawnpore,

for instance, or Yangon for Rangoon.

In Australia, various places associated

with settlers or featuring offensive lan-

guage have been given Aboriginal names

instead. Tasmania’s Suicide Bay, where

30 indigenous men were murdered, is

now called Taneneryouer, meaning

“trauma”. In India, the ruling Bharatiya

Janata Party is replacing Muslim-sound-

ing names in pursuit of its Hindu-

nationalist agenda. Faizabad district in

Uttar Pradesh is now Ayodhya district,

and the city of Allahabad has become

Prayagraj. In 2019 Kazakhstan’s capital,

formerly Astana, (ie, “capital”), was

renamed Nur-Sultan in honour of Nur-

sultan Nazarbayev, a former president

who retired that year.

Inevitably, some changes are conten-

tious. The city government of Ishigaki in

southern Japan renamed an area under

its jurisdiction to include the word “Sen-

kaku”, as a scattering of islands there are

known in that country. That annoyed

both China and Taiwan, which lay claim

to the uninhabited cluster of rocks, and

know them as the Diaoyu islands. China,

for its part, last year renamed several

villages it claims in north-eastern India

to reflect its preferred spellings.

Nor do all changes stick. Few people

refer to Bangalore as Bengaluru or to

Chittagong as Chattogram. Rebranding

Bangkok, too, would be unlikely to

change how foreigners refer to it. That

may be why Thai officials hastily clari-

fied matters the next day: Bangkok is still

fine to use, they said—but so is Krung

Thep Maha Nakhon.

Geographyandpolitics

What’s in a name?

Why so many Asian cities adopt an alias

One night in Krung Thep Maha Nakhon