On November 19, 2021, Seoul, South Korea, a group of customers sit quietly in the “Green Lab” cafe, where people can find refuge from the stress of daily life in the “healing” space. (Michelle Ye Hee Lee/The Washington Post)
On a small street near a city park called Seoul Forest, there is a teahouse that can only accommodate 10 people. Here, you cannot speak. Your phone must remain silent. Shoes are not allowed.
A rule has only one target. Relax. Just space.
As South Koreans enter the life phase of the new coronavirus pandemic, some are relaxing their social lives by visiting public places, where they can be alone and do very little. Nothing is new in South Korea, as people desperately want to escape the stress of living normally as adults amid a global pandemic in a high-stress, fast-paced society with soaring property prices and often grueling work schedules.
For this year’s Space Out competition, competitors sat in a “healing forest” on the southern island of Jeju, aiming to keep their heart rates as low as possible. Since its inception in 2014, the competition has spread internationally, including Hong Kong and the Netherlands.
The concept is seeping into some public spaces in South Korea. This month, theaters across the country premiered a film that simulates a 40-minute flight of an airplane through clouds. Tickets for “Flight,” a project backed by mega-theatre company Megabox, cost less than $6. “Take a break in the fluffy clouds,” read the sign.
It’s the sequel to this spring’s “Fire Mung”: a 31-minute shot of a campfire burning.
Such spaces and experiences are not a mainstream phenomenon, but the researchers say they tap into people’s growing sense of being trapped and alone in the second year of living with the pandemic.
Deok-hwan Yoon, a consumer trends researcher and co-author of the annual book “Trend Monitor,” said he expects relaxation and leisure to become a trend as the public grapples with the pandemic phase.
“It’s hard to cope with feeling trapped and alone at the same time,” Yoon said. “They want their alone space to be somewhere other than their home. …Until the pandemic situation improves significantly, we expect this trend to continue.”
Divergence is known as “hitting mung” in Korean, which is a slang use of the word “mung” to describe a state of total mind-wandering. (In this case, “mung” describes a state of emptiness.) With the weather changing this fall, the now-popular terms are “forest mung” and “foliage mung,” meaning to keep your distance when looking at trees or foliage . There’s the “fire mung,” or dazing while watching a log burn, and the “water mung,” meditating near a body of water.
Cafés like Green Lab, a store near Seoul Forest, have been featured in local media coverage and have attracted a steady stream of visitors throughout the pandemic by offering spaces to heal and “hit the green.” While drinking tea, patrons can read, write poetry, meditate or just gaze out the window at the trees.
On November 19, 2021, at the “Green Lab” in Seoul, South Korea, customers receive tea, a basket of flowers and stationery so they can take a break from their daily lives. (Michelle Ye Hee Lee/The Washington Post)
Green Lab, founded just before the pandemic, came up with a concept called “rituals,” an emerging trend that encourages daily self-care. Until recent months, customers were not used to visiting a store just to enjoy their own company. But now, the three time slots offered each day are sold out quickly, leaving little room for casual customers, says employee Bae Hyun.
“It’s hard to find space in Korean society where you can do nothing,” Bae said. “People seem to be getting more and more interested in this, but I think it will take some time for it to become widespread. As people’s daily lives change in the pandemic; they’re becoming more familiar with the concept.”
Chung Jae-hwan, 38, brought a group of colleagues to the store on a recent weekday afternoon. As the head of skincare brand Hyggee, Jung said he was always looking for ways to find calm in the competitive business world. He tried Pilates and yoga, but wanted to find a place that didn’t require him to do anything – and ended up in Green Labs.
“I want to be able to hit the stop button and take some time for myself, but I feel like I always have to do something,” he said.
“In this space, the rule is I can’t do anything,” he said. “It made room in my brain. I even read a book, enjoyed the smell of the diffuser, looked at flowers, and wrote poems. I started to have new ideas one after another, and I felt refreshed. “
One of his colleagues, Ahn Areum, said she had heard of Space Out Competition, but didn’t know of such a store. She can’t wait to find out, and says she’s been looking for ways to cope with the anxiety and everyday stresses of the pandemic.
“I’m so exhausted that I don’t even have time to daze. After get off work, I come home, I have to do chores, and then it’s almost like 30 minutes to an hour before I can sleep.” I spend that time on my phone. So having that space, I can actually focus on taking a break,” says Ahn, 32.
Similar spaces have opened in other parts of the country.
In Jeju Island’s cafe “Furuyose”, the upstairs area is reserved as a place for people to be alone. The café provides stationery so you can write to yourself over your coffee and dessert. A cafe in the southern coastal city of Busan offered a “Hokage” area where people could stare at a screen with video projections of bonfires, local media reported.
On Ganghwa Island, off the west coast of South Korea, a cafe called Mung Hit also offers a no-event relaxation area. In one section is a single chair facing the mirror for anyone who wants to sit and gaze. There are nooks for meditation, reading, sitting by the pond or garden, or enjoying the mountain views. No pets or children allowed.
The cafe, which opened in April 2019 with the goal of providing a “self-healing space,” attracted many tourists once the pandemic hit, said manager Ji Ok-jung.
“‘Hitting mung’ is a concept of emptying your heart and brain so you can fill them with new thoughts and ideas. We opened because we wanted to create a space for people to do that,” says Ji .
“This is a place where people can heal themselves. Only you can do it, no one else can do it for you, and we want to make it accessible to everyone who is burdened by the demands of modern life,” she said.
Ta Jung Kim, 32, found the cafe online and visited it recently to get away from the city. There were other visitors, but she found enough nooks and corners to be alone, to minimize contact with others, and to clear her head a bit.
“As I sat there, isolated, relaxing, taking in the view, drinking my coffee, I couldn’t help but be in a daze,” she said. “I felt so comfortable and I felt like my heart was opened. The busy thoughts in my head disappeared and I came back with a more positive outlook.”
