Trusting the Universe, Korean Honesty, and My Wallet

Back in 2000, as everyone knows, I met K (my husband), at the Andong International Mask Dance Festival. This is also the festival that made me fall in love with Korean Mask Dance Dramas (in the inaugural year, 1997). And of course both of these things have changed my life.

In 2001 I went to China to see K for the first time (before I knew more than a few words of Chinese, and none of Tibetan). I took the boat from Korea to Qingdao, and without any Chinese managed to buy myself a  ticket (seat, not sleeper) on a train to Xi'an (most of the way to the end of the train line nearest K's home). In Qingdao in the train station waiting for my train, nervous, laden down by a huge camera bag and another bag for clothes and necessities, I desperately needed the bathroom, but had already realized how hard this would be to navigate without setting my bag on a very nasty Chinese train station bathroom floor covered in fluids one does NOT want to identify. Then I met a Korean-- he had seen me on the boat and said something to me. All I needed to know was that he was Korean. "Can you watch my bag? I have to use the bathroom!" and off I went, only realizing once in the bathroom how funny it was that I was willing to trust this fellow based purely on the fact that he was Korean. (As it happens Kenneth as I are still friends, he brought his family to a performance of K's in Vancouver in August-- I don't think we'll ever lose touch of each other).

I have always been convinced of Korean honesty, and a little government and business corruption aside, I maintain that belief.

I did lose my wallet on the bus once. Dang that sucked. And I did have to pay a "finder's fee" to get it back (the finder claimed the cash was already gone when he found it). Actually he wouldn't even deal with me. My friend Yoomi's mom had to go meet him and exchange for my wallet. Ugh. But that guy did not dim my belief in Korean honesty.

Until last Thursday, that is.

I arrived at the Andong International Mask Dance Festival at 2pm, right as the performance of Goseong Ogwangdae was starting. I had left home at 7:10, caught a bus to the bus station in East Seoul (a single bus... but it took forever to get there), but then was stymied when the next two buses to Andong were sold out. As an experienced traveler in Korea, I joined the line of people hoping that not all the ticket holders would show up... allowing me to catch an earlier bus. I missed the first bus by three people. When the second bus hit departure time I was third in line and made it on. Anyway, I arrived in Andong with this big rush rush rush stressed energy. I got in line and bought a ticket for the performance hall (the festival is free, except for that one hall. A single entry is 7,000 won, in order to come and go as I liked I bought a 30,000 won ticket good for the entire duration of the festival). I even managed to find a front row seat in the packed hall. When the funeral procession of the last act entered the stage I stood up and slipped 10,000 won into the rope on the front of the "coffin" for the character of Keun Eomi. This was the last time I saw my wallet.

Hwang Jong-uk Performing in the Role of the Old Monk

After the show I gleefully reunited with my Goseong friends (although in fact I saw them all in July, but still I had a chance to tell them about my job, and I'm still pretty excited to say "I got a job! I'm a professor now!"). Before long the bus took most of them back to Goseong, except Hwang Jong-uk, Minsu, and two K-Arts students who were helping out. I hung around with the four, especially Hwang, walking around, taking photos of them teaching a demo class for kids, and then eating dinner together (Hwang's treat-- I think I owe him about 20 meals at this point). Once they left I had to carry all my stuff again, and decided to go check into a hotel, then return for some night photography.

In the hotel room I couldn't find my wallet. "Don't freak out! Don't freak out!" I kept repeating. But it was really gone. The hotel owners (who couldn't remember me from last time, but that might be good as last time I left with their key and didn't find it in my pocket and send it to them for at least a week) were pissed when I tried to leave with the key but not paying, but I assured them my friends would loan me money.

My friends?!!! My only real Andong friend, Yeong-ae, was in Bali performing at the opening ceremony for APEC. I walked back to the festival in a half panic, looking everywhere I'd been and asking at each official desk, tourist info center, the police station, the ticket office, and finally the main festival office if a wallet had been turned in. In the main festival office Gwon Duhyeon (festival director whom I've met before but barely remember) reached into his wallet and set 50,000 won on the table in front of me. "Give me your name card" I insisted. And eventually he did, although he really would have just given me the money. I went looking more, then returned to the office. "Can I use your computer?" I asked Gwon and checked, finding out that my Chase accounts hadn't had even a whiff of action (my wallet had a Korean cash card, "check" card, two Chase cards, my Islander's Bank card, my driver's license, my university ID that I'd received on Tuesday, my transportation card loaded with more than 40,000 won, 110 in American cash AND over 250,000 in Korean cash). Sitting there I got a text from Hwang Jong-uk "Shall I save you?" he asked. "What does this mean?" I asked Gwon, handing the festival director my phone. "Oh, you're a friend of Hwang Jong-uk?" He asked, laughing, and dialing Hwang who promptly ordered Gwon to give me another 50,000 won.

I couldn't shake the memory of the man who'd wanted a finder's fee to return my wallet, and although I felt that my wallet had to return to me, I tried to accept that all the cash would be gone. And I kept trying to remind myself that I have a job. After spending seven years as an MA and PhD student with only one year in between (on Buddhist pilgrimage) and one year after finishing my doctorate (unemployed), I am very used to being stressed about money. And if someone started using my check card, I'd lose much more than just the cash. Korean "check" cards (kind of like a debit card) don't need even a pin, just a signature. (Gwon and I had tried to cancel my check card, but I couldn't use the automated system because I didn't know the account number). Dejected, but "saved" from embarrassment at the hotel by Gwon's loan, I settled in for a mostly sleepless night tossing and turning as I imagined someone partying with my money.

I was first in line as the door opened at Daegu Bank in the morning. What would you do if a foreigner walked into your bank without any ID? Would you cancel and reissue their "check" card?
Me:      (After summarizing the no money, no ID issue) You need to call my friend at Daegu Bank in Seoul (holding out my phone with her name and number)
Them:    Uh, we can't do that. (But then checking on their computer) Oh, a Jo Suhyeon does work in Seoul!
Them:     (After their phone connects) Do you know a foreigner called 시이달?
Jo SH:     Yes, of course.
Me:        Give me the phone! (Into phone in total Daegu-dialect whine) I lost my wallet. It has this and that and that and that in it! And I'm in Andong! Alone!
Jo SH:     Don't worry, give me back to them.
Them:      (After listening to Jo SH) Here is our form filled out with your ID number and your bank account info, sign here. Okay, here's your new card. And there hasn't been any activity on this account.

Of course I called Jo Suhyeon back to thank her after I had withdrawn some money. At that point I felt much less stressed, because it seemed I wasn't going to have a large amount of money lost, just potentially a lot of hassle to replace all the rest of the cards and ID. Then I had a nice breakfast (at my favorite Andong restaurant).

By the time I got back to the festival I knew my wallet had been found. Arriving at the festival I learned that it had been found by Im Jaeseon, a "friend" of mine whom I've known for about 15 years-- a professional mask dancer with Hahoi Byeolshin'gut Talnoli. Every single thing, including all the cash, was still there. I paid back Gwon, bought a fancy ceramic plate for Im, and had a good rest of the festival, my faith in Korean honesty stronger than ever.

Breakfast on my third day in Andong-- Note the Andong Salted Mackerel and two-type of squash squash savory pancakes

Cheonha Jeil Tal Performance

June 10^th, 2011

Today Karjam had his very important day of adding percussion tracks to the CD. 고석진 Go Seokjin, a talented traditional drummer and dancer agreed to take on the task of creating most of the percussion tracks for the CD.  He was, unfortunately, returning from Jeju Island where he'd been performing, and he ended up taking a taxi with only some of his instruments—the recording didn't get finished, in other words. The final decision was that he would add percussion to 7 of the 11 tracks, but they only got through four. Or mostly through four, as there may be a little of some other percussion instruments added next Friday when they finish the recording. The remaining three tracks are the three traditional tracks, mostly those will be a cappella with just a little bit of an intro.

I had to leave before they'd finished up to get to see 천하제일탈 Cheonha Jeil Tal's first piece, which I had not seen before. The piece was very very good.

First 손병만 Son Byeongman performed monk 1's dance, followed by monk 2's monologue and then monk 3's dance, moving into 합동 circling and then he left the stage. Next 허창열 Heo Changyeol performed 문둥북춤 Mundung Bukchum, brilliantly and perhaps just a bit longer than normal, it seemed that there was some extra 소고춤 sogochum at the end but I could be wrong. Finally 이주원 Yi Juwon entered from the back of the audience as 이매 Imae from 하회별신굿탈놀이 Hahoi Byeolshin'gut Talnoli. He did indeed pull an older Korean woman and then a foreign man from the audience, adding the extra moment of amusement when the woman could not be enticed to speak in English to the foreigner and Juwon had to suddenly out of character explain.

           

Next the players donned new masks and acted out a play with two parts, the second humorously about plastic surgery (and its popularity in Korea). I found this second section to be ineffective as it was extremely reliant on dialogue for long stretches, and while it had acting it didn't have much of any dance.

After the show I had dinner with the players and musicians, who were all getting ready to leave for Namwon, where they'd be performing on Saturday.

Lecture and Demonstration at SNU

May 25^th, 2011

Karjam worked in the studio from 10-6. I waited and occasionally helped with translation and what not, but my computer ran out of batteries so I couldn't get as much work done as would have been ideal. Next time I'm taking my cord.

Karjam in the studio

In the evening I kept working, particularly preparing for my presentation on Thursday and skipping the chance to go see an excellent performance at KOUS which Facebook friends later favorably reviewed.

May 26^th, 2011

My day was completely taken over by going to Seoul National University to do a guest lecture for Professor Hilary Finchum-Sung. We agreed to meet for lunch, which was a real bang-up awesome day at the veggie buffet (swoon), had a rollicking conversation (sorry I can't divulge much but part of it was Hilary's advice because a couple of days ago I found an online article, an academic performance review (of two performances of two groups I am close to and –really- close to) by someone who turns out to be an up and coming scholar on exactly my subject, mask dance dramas, who's graduating a year before me and I'll have to compete with her on the job market. But worst, her article was so factually inaccurate, such utter BS that steam was coming out of my ears. Anyway, Hilary had some advice for me and I feel better about it now. Ultimately there will be people who can get away with shoddy scholarship because they do research on a place few know about (hence few can tell them they're wrong). And sometimes it will be partially just because the local language is incredibly tough and they haven't learned it yet (properly). But… time will tell and my scholarship will stand out!

After this discussion and lunch we went to her Intro to Korean Music classroom, I lectured for 1.5 hours, then we took a break and 허창열 Changyeol presented, first he did 문둥북춤 (from 고성오광대 Goseong Ogwangdae) then 이매 from 하회별신굿탈놀이 Hahoi Byeolshin'gut Talnoli, then he led all the students in some rousing dance and last he taught some basic motions from 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum. He has amazing charisma and was able to get all the students up and moving. It was really awesome. I know Hilary was impressed. Then we sat around for awhile and rested.

A photo Hilary took

The Class with Hilary in the center back (Changyeol and I center front)

When I got home I madly prepared my Korean symposium presentation for Friday. 

Flying Visit to Andong

March 9th, 2011
I figured out that to meet 손영애 Son Yeong'ae, my friend from 하회별신굿탈놀이 Hahoi Byeolshin'gut Talnoli, I had to catch the 7:30 bus to 안동 Andong, but set my alarm for 6:55 and didn’t realize that wasn't too smart until halfway through breakfast (when it was 7:11). I ran down the street, caught a taxi who drove like a video-game and got the bus, then had a nice nap to the brand new Andong Bus Terminal (wow, such a difference, the old one was from the 60s, in use over 40 years!). Yeong'ae and I decided that I would go with her to 하회마울 Hahoi Village where they were performing Hahoi Byeolshin'gut Talnoli at 2pm. I interviewed her on the entire drive to the village, and then sat in her car to finish the interview. We ate lunch in the village and I wandered around while she changed clothes.

The performance was outside at the open air theatre they constructed about 6 years ago. The seating area is covered but not the stage, however with the wind and cold temperatures I happily positioned myself in the watery sunbeam but was still freezing by the time the show ended. 65 people attended by my count, though many were late and some left part-way through. They performed an abridged version, all the performers looking cold, too. First Yeong'ae came out, performing 각시 gakshi, followed by the butcher scene, old monk and young woman scene, 이매 Imae scene, yangban scene and finally grandmother scene. However each scene was significantly cut, and the show ended at 2:45. It appeared that they almost didn't have enough players there to run the show at all.

Cell phone photos of the performance space and the main education building for the art.

Yeong'ae drove me back to the terminal, where I got a coffee and talked to an English teacher with a proud Zulu name (which I could not pronounce). I taught her to read Korean, as well as I could in twenty minutes, since she just arrived two weeks ago. I took a bus to North Daegu Station.

At my 합기도 Hapkido studio I practiced and led class until just before 11, then sprinted to the subway to get back to Georgy and 진홍 Jinhong's house.

Day 1 of the Korean Mask Dance Festival

October 29th, 2010
In the morning I had class at Seoul National University. The class was excellent again. I am not having much difficulty understanding Professor 박현순 Bak Hyeon-sun’s Korean at all, and she is so knowledgeable it’s really quite amazing. I’m knowledgeable about things, too, but the depth with which she can answer questions I asked such as “were yangban also regulating and taking a share of the profits from fisheries in the Joseon Dynasty?” (a question only tangentially connected to the topic at hand and certainly not closely related to her research)- well it’s just really great to have met her. As I sat in class and thought about the paper she wants me to write (what? I’m auditing!) I realized that the win-win scenario would be to propose we co-write the paper. She’ll get an English language publication out of it, and I can include an incredibly awesome historical analysis section to my paper on the Grandmother scene in Hwanghae and Gyeonggi Mask Dance Dramas. I proposed that to her as she drove me to the subway station after class (third time she’s done that) not enough time to really talk through it, though.

I rushed directly to the World Cup Stadium Subway stop, which is next to the park where the 4th Annual 대한민국탈춤제 Korean Mask Dance Festival was taking place. Or so I thought. Fortunately when I asked for directions, I was directed onto a shuttle bus because the walk was estimated to be 40 minutes!!! I arrived about twenty minutes into the performance of 하회별신굿탈놀이 Hahoi Byeolshin’gut Talnoli. My friends from the group were happy to see me, but I didn’t get a chance to say more than a few words because during the ten minutes between the two shows a TV crew cornered me and insisted on an interview (I was the only foreigner in sight, the entire audience must have averaged past 60 because honestly who else has time in the middle of a Friday? And I say that even considering the grandkids and a few housewives in the audience). The crew particularly insisted because during the show 이매 Imae (the mentally retarded character in the drama) has singled me out and insisted that I (and three Koreans) get onto the stage and dance with him, and of course I’d danced well (and tied Imae’s shirt closed and so on, since I was irritated I’d been dragged onto stage). So they wanted to include a clip of me on the stage and then the interview.

Photo: classic Imae pose


The next show was 동래야류 Dongnae Yayu, but this time there was any excellent announcing during their performance, in fact the entire announcing for the day consisted of a man and a woman behind the scenes, only communicating the bare facts of name and geographic home of the various groups. I later found out that they were people from Hahoi that were on the microphones. At any rate, I still enjoyed Dongnae Yayu’s performance. They had 12 musicians including the standard bearer, which really makes them the group with the largest number of performers on the stage. Some of the old ladies sitting by me (who gave me an excellent macaroon!) were copying along and responding on the lines, and kept up a running commentary throughout. They always wanted to know if performers were men or women, they cheered loudly when Halmi chased off the concubine and they and the rest of the audience exclaimed and giggled at appropriate moments (such as when the giant acupuncture needles come out). Having such an old audience actually meant the audience was much more appropriately responsive throughout the show.








The last show for the day was 북청사자놀음 Bukcheong Saja Noleum. Since the show began at 4 p.m. I was sort of surprised to see my friend 지훈 Jihoon dancing. The show felt a little frustrating to me, since just three weeks earlier I’d seen an extended version and it was still fresh in my memory, today was unsatisfyingly abbreviated. Many parts were included but then rushed, so that the perfect flavor wasn’t communicated. [Video file of excerpts from the performance]








After the show I talked a bit to one of my 고성오광대 Goseong Ogwangdae friends who was running a lot of organizational details backstage before I left.

The shuttle bus took me back to the stadium which has a Homeplus built into the ground floor, so I bought some good food before taking the subway home. Karjam walked down to the subway station to help me lug it home, he’s so sweet when he’s worried about my health.

Second Saturday at the Mask Dance Festival

October 2nd, 2010
The morning really started with the performance of ‘오광대’ Ogwangdae, which of course is not a performance, but part of the name of three nationally registered and one locally registered mask dance all of which include as a key section the play of the five clowns (that’s the common translation anyway, I’m still not sure if I like it), that being O=five and Gwangdae=clowns. In this case, since 고성오광대 Goseong Ogwandae performed last week (before they left for a performance tour in the US), the two performance troupes were 통영오광대 Tongyeong Ogwangdae and 가산오광대 Gasan Ogwangdae. They performed back to back with no break, but without any common performance time (last week the lion dances had performed sort of together). Speaking of lions, Tongyeong has a one man lion, then a two man lion comes and eats it and the two man lion becomes a three man lion with six legs. Tongyeong was first, and it was immeasurably much more engaging than Gasan Ogwangdae. I actually like the Gasan masks, they are funky paper things in most cases, looking like something made in kindergarten, but in a couple cases they are very very furry, including 말뚝기 Maldduggi, who actually wears his mask so much on top of his head that the actor needs to bend his neck to show the audience the face full on. Gasan and Tonyeong, although their overall content is very similar, showed different scenes to make things better for the audience, I’m sure they worked that out in advance. Maybe it was just because of the way the choice worked out but during the Gasan performance I felt like they talked way too much, there was much less dancing and acting and much more standing around and talking. Because most of these Ogwangdae and Yayu mask dance dramas differ most in mask construction and the identity of their mystical-type beast who comes to threaten the 양반 yangban, I will have to review in order to see if Gasan really is that verbal or if it was just my impression based on what they performed today. Since I’ve mentioned it for other groups, in the case of Tongyeong there was a large (largest) seated group of musicians on the side. Gasan had a normal sized standing group along the back in the flower hats.
Photos: Gasan Ogwangdae. Check out those masks!





Photos: Tongyeong Ogwangdae. Hunter kills the lion.






Again I felt that good announcing could have helped so much for the audience to understand, there wasn’t even any text displayed on the large TVs at the start of the scene (some dramas have submitted their description and the explanation of which scene’s they will perform, then this is shown on the TV to give an overview as the scene starts). The audience however, was huge. Last night I had counted all my surveys (I came with 100 ) and was a little surprised that I had 11 that had not been returned to me. This morning when I arrived the volunteers gave me six more from yesterday. I also passed out surveys this morning, and again before the even more packed Saturday evening showing of 하회별신굿탈놀이 Hahoi Byeolshin’gut Talnoli.

Georgy and 진홍 Jinhong accompanied me to the evening showing, they had shown up in the middle of the afternoon just as Karjam and I were going to go look for real food (outside the festival grounds) and right after he’d chosen a full set of quilted winter 한복hanbok (in all grey, the color of monks clothing… not sure how I feel about that) and I bought a natural died with earth hanbok shirt, it’s a bit orange, a bit yellow-brown. We had also watched part of a shamanic ceremony and gone to a big Korean food festival they were holding nearby the mask dance festival. Karjam took video cuts of EVERY table of the food, I took quite a few photos, too, before I got roped into a live interview over the PA system and on the giant TV at the front of the hall. Karjam and Jinhong went looking for food, Georgy and I found her a hanbok shirt.



The Hahoi Byeolshin’gut Talnoli performance was, of course, very slick. We were in the front row, I was pissed on (by the cow) and Georgy had to go up and dance (with 이매 Imae). Fortunately there were other scenes than last time I saw it last weekend, although two scenes were the same. I think I got some good photos, anyway. We had dinner with Georgy and Jinhong before they drove back to 대구 Daegu. Tomorrow we will leave 안동 Andong after the 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli performance. A little bitter sweet. It’s been like a mini-vacation and an intense period of research combined.