Daegu
Daegu shows horizontal gene transfer: American missionaries grafted apple trees, Japanese textiles followed, now the city attempts adaptive radiation into 3,000+ auto parts firms and medical tech.
Daegu's economic identity embodies horizontal gene transfer—the city literally built its signature industry when early 20th-century American missionaries grafted foreign apple cuttings onto native crab apple rootstock. This pattern of importing external capabilities onto local substrate repeated when Japanese colonial textile technology arrived in the 1910s, creating 'Textile City' and driving 10-fold population growth after the Korean War.
Yet monocultures collapse. As textile production shifted to cheaper labor markets, Daegu experienced what biologists call competitive exclusion—losing to more specialized competitors. The city now attempts adaptive radiation, diversifying from textile dominance into automotive parts (3,000+ manufacturers), medical technology (a ₩5.6 trillion 'Medivalley'), and digital healthcare. Mayor Hong Jun-pyo's 2022 declaration reorganized the economy around five new sectors: mobility, AI, big data, robotics, and digital healthcare.
The transformation faces the constraints of path dependence. When Silla's King Sinmun considered moving his capital here from Gyeongju in 689 CE, he recognized Daegu's central position—Palgongsan was one of five sacred mountains, the city one of three great market centers under Joseon. Yet that same centrality now means competing with Seoul's gravitational pull rather than leveraging isolation. Daegu ranks 4th in per capita income among Korea's 17 metropolitan areas, but fights urban shrinkage as young people migrate north. The city that once defined itself by textile mills now bets on becoming an automotive and medical hub—secondary succession attempting to restore productivity after industrial disturbance.