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. 

Bongcheon Noli Madang and the TV Camera

December 2nd, 2010
In the morning I went to Professor Hilary Finchum-Sung’s class, which was awesome. She finished up her lecture on contemporary Korean (traditional-esque) music (which is where a lot of her current research is focused and then went on to review the second half of the course for the exam. No, I won’t be taking the exam. We had lunch. Guess what, this is amazing, Seoul National University has put in a vegetarian buffet (for all intents and purposes VEGAN buffet) in the student cafeteria in the building next to the school of music. It’s on the second floor. If you’re in Seoul go there. It’s open 11 to 2:30. Only 5,000 and TOTALLY amazing. Finished everything on my plate and didn’t take any more but would have gladly loaded up on almost any of it again (if I’d had room). Since next week is the exam I can’t be sure I’ll see Hilary until next year in March, which is a bummer. I love talking with her, but don’t want to impose myself (more than auditing, that is).

I had class at 봉천놀이마당 Bongcheon Noli Madang in the evening. The KTV cameraman came again, the show will be broadcast on January 7th and will have 7 foreigners all learning some Korean traditional thing on it. So I got there early, but since the cameraman was earlier I couldn’t do much of anything except stretch. Class went really really well, I’m really feeling the flavor of 고성오광대 Goseong Ogwangdae, and what’s more, I really think the movements are somehow more natural and “right” to me than the other mask dance dramas. Not sure why. Just suit my body type and the way I enjoy moving, I guess.

We basically just practiced the same thing (the basic motion set we’re learning) for the whole class, then near the end we learned a little more. I didn’t make an ass out of myself on camera, and I did manage to get through interviewing no problem. During break and after class we had fruit, snacks and tea. Then after we locked up we went out for 뒤풀이 duipuli after-party which I don’t normally do, but I decided that I had to make up for the cameras (several people didn’t come to avoid the camera) and I paid for the food and drinks we had. I really like the Bongcheon group, especially 장미이 Jang Mi’i. She and 선우 Seonu are the same age, both one year younger than me. The rest of the group for the day was 선미 Seonmi (who uses Japanese in her work), 재숙 Jaesuk (who’s husband used to be really active with Bongcheon but maybe not doing mask dance) and 지원 Jiwon (drummer). When I got home I caught heck for having drunk some 막걸리 makgeolli.

Presentation in Korean

November 24th, 2010
On Wednesday I worked so hard on my presentation for Friday that I forgot to meet 이연순 Yi Yeonsun and hope she’ll forgive me. In the evening I had dinner with Kimberley which was nice.

November 25th, 2010
Class with Professor Hilary Finchum-Sung. Today was a day when I didn’t know much of what she was introducing, since she was talking more about contemporary Korean music (What makes something Korean music? How has thinking about music evolved as Korea has modernized?) She introduced important innovators and composers. It was pretty darn cool. Afterwards I had lunch with her, we talked about preparing for publication, since she’s also working on editing some of her pieces for submission right now. Awesome to have someone more advanced in this academia-thing than me to talk with.

I went to Yonsei then the Ahyeon Market for 반찬 side-dishes. On the bus I got a phone call from a TV program that wants to make a segment about me learning 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum. I would rather not have to deal with that sort of thing, but I feel a responsibility, too, towards all the arts I am involved with. So I explained I’m working on learning at four locations. They will call and ask for permission to film at each.

Back at home I worked on my presentation until it was time to go to 봉천놀이마당 Bongcheon Noli Madang. The class was even smaller, and we moved a little farther through our basic movement set, I’m starting to feel comfortable, I have chunks memorized. Unfortunately, I don’t remember all of it, certainly not as much as I’d want to remember in front of a TV camera. After class we had tea and bananas. All of the members, even 장미이 Jang Mi’i are quite adamant that they are not professionals, they all have other jobs and the Noli Madang is just their hobby.

November 26th, 2010
For some reason I had to give a presentation in a class I’m auditing. I chose (to keep it useful to me) to just present an analysis of the grandmother scene in the mask dance dramas, a paper I wrote for Professor Don Cosentino in the best class i ever had at UCLA, Myth Analysis. I stayed up until nearly 3 working on a video to accompany my presentation, so this morning wasn’t easy. I actually got to class 15 minutes late, my first time to be late since the first day. I gave the second presentation, talking for nearly an hour and twenty minutes. Fortunately 경진 Gyeongjin had edited the Korean on my slides, so I had confidence in what was on my PowerPoint and supplemented it as best I could, but the question and answer period was the hardest in terms of using academic Korean. The third (and last) presentation for the day was also very interesting, on changing attitudes towards sex, all delivered in a very dry manner, but with a twinkle in the presenter’s eye. Unfortunately class didn’t end until 12:40 (scheduled to end at 11:50).

After class I went to Severance Hospital and saw the ear specialist again who said I still have an infection, not much improved over two weeks earlier, and he insisted I take oral anti-biotics (as well as the ear drops), just a five-day course. I have an appointment to come back next Friday.

Cell photo: maybe your hospital will be better if you decorate it for the holidays


Karjam and I went out to dinner as a late Thanksgiving celebration, but the restaurant was so disappointing. (I found it by googling “best restaurant in Seoul,” someone who writes a foodie guide to Seoul claimed it’s by far the best Thai food… not).

Transmission of Performing Arts within the Family

November 19th, 2010
In the morning I went to the history class at SNU. Again, she put me to sleep. I think she’s super knowledgeable but a hot room, cold day, blinds drawn, lights low, slide show… added to Professor Bak’s really mellow voice, it just was not a good situation. I just have not been able to sleep much since early in the week.

After class I ran errands, came home and in the evening Karjam and I went to the second in a series of three nights of performances at the 중요무형문화재전수회관의 풍류극장 Intangible Cultural Asset Training Center’s Pungryu Theatre. The series was focusing on transmission within families. It was really amazing, but I wish we’d been able to see Thursday’s show. Friday was also quite special, with four acts. The first act was 신상철 Shin Sangcheol and his wife 선영숙 Seon Yeongsuk performing with (among others) their two sons 신현식 Shin Hyeonshik and 신현석 Shin Hyeonseok. They performed several pieces, the first was 가곡 gagok but I must admit that I find Hilary’s assistant 기쁨 Gibbeum’s gagok to be more appealing. The highlight was when the family (plus several others) played 시나위 shinawi. Since my research is on transmission, this was a wonderful example of transmission to see. The father was playing 단소 danso and 해금 haegeum, the mother played 가야금 gayageum and the two sons played 아쟁 ajaeng and haegeum.

The second act was not one I was looking forward to, because I am so sick of seeing 살풀이 salpuri (a dance rooted in shamanism) and 승무 seungmu (a dance rooted in Buddhism). They are performed too much, but I felt that the two performers, a mother and daughter 김복련 Kim Boknyeon and 신현숙 Shin Hyeonsuk, had a slightly new/different interpretation. In particular the daughter’s interpretation of seungmu felt fresh, usually we see two styles: the style perpetuated by 이매방 Yi Maebang (who actually performed on Thursday) and the style of 한영숙 Han Yeongsuk (now deceased), sometimes called the 경기 Gyeonggi style. Many dance historians insist that both dances were originally choreographed by 한성준 Han Seongjun, who as you might guess is the father of Han Yeongsuk. The two performers we saw are registered for the -regional- arts of salpuri and seungmu for the Gyeonggi region, so it's reasonable to guess that they are preserving the Han Yeongsuk-ryu, yet I've seen other performers of that ryu and the dance (particularly for seungmu) was somewhat different. The pamphlet information on their performance, although written by 이병옥 Yi Byeongok, one of my Songpa Sandae Noli performers, a dance historian professor, did not get into the extreme politics of ryu. (Extreme politics indeed, as regional performers will get a smaller stipend than nationally registered performers, less status, fewer paying students, fewer performance opportunities, and if indeed some can argue that their performance is the more 'authentic' one... well, you understand). [Advertisement for Korea featuring a seungmu dancer. It's just really cool looking, won't give you an idea of the dance, though.][Just a couple minutes of salpuri]

The reason I went to the show, though, was to see the third act, 박동매 Bak Dongmae. She had learned from her mother, the late 조공례 Jo Gongnae. I had a chance to meet Bak in 2008 and interview her, I was very impressed with her attitude and I love her singing voice. She is the National Human Treasure for 남도들노래 Namdo Deulnorae, a type of work (farming) song from the southern corner of Korea such as her home, Jindo Island. Bak’s performance was great, with three other women singing chorus verses and they acted out various tasks of carding and spinning as well as transplanting and weeding the rice seedlings as they sang.

The last act was another mother/daughter pair, 박경자 Bak Gyeongja and 김명이 Kim Myeongi. Their art (both of them are certified in the same art, which wasn’t the case in all of these families) is 삼설양굿 Samseolyanggut, a shamanic ceremony from 순천 Suncheon and registered for protection as a regional (South Jeolla Province) art, not for national protection. Karjam and I watched this show for nearly an hour as they performed the ceremony, (which was, like many gut, quite bizarre with knives and shoveling food into mouths, and sexual behavior, cross-dressing and well... the things that society usually sweeps under the rug) but as it grew closer to 11 and I became more concerned that we’d miss the last bus and have to take a subway home (and as I found the gut more and more repetitive) we finally left before they’d finished. We were already some of the longest remaining audience members. Packed at the beginning, apparently much of the audience had come for the first two acts, by the time the third act started nearly half the audience had left.

Guest Lecture about Korean Mask Dances

November 17th, 2010
Wednesday is my day off, but when scheduling a time to have a drumming lesson with 이연순 Yi Yeonsun it was the only day that worked. So in the afternoon I went to meet her at a community center where she’d just ended a class. The idea was that we could keep using the room. Unfortunately, someone else had scheduled use of the room and she didn’t find out until during her class when they came to set up. She called me but I was already on my way, so we agree to meet and talk. I ended up interviewing her for 2 hours. No exaggeration, more than 2 hours of conversation was recorded. It was an amazing interview, only something possible because I’ve proven my interest, knowledge and discretion. The contents of the interview would be much less interesting to you than to me, and much of it will need to be kept confidential, but most importantly she gave me a good foundation for other interviews and some real honest feedback on how performances are being protected for future generations.

In the evening Karjam and I went on a quick trip to a 국악사 traditional musical instrument shop where I picked up two more 한삼 hansam to use with my Thursday guest lecture. Then we romantically strolled by the lantern exhibit set up in 청계천 Cheonggae Stream.

Cell phone photo of a sangmo wearing sogo playing lantern-guy:


November 18th, 2010
This morning Professor Hilary Finchum-Sung’s class was on 풍물 pungmul for the first half, a subject I already know a lot about, obviously. I brought my 열두발 yeoldubal and 상모 sangmo and two 소고 sogo so the students could try them during the break time. Then I got to do a guest lecture on mask dance dramas for the second half of the class, which was a really awesome opportunity, I’m so grateful I had that chance (even just thinking about it while preparing was great for me, since I’ve never had a chance to do a short lecture on mask dances). I used a PowerPoint and the video on release through laughter in the mask dances dramas that I referred to making a couple days ago. After answering their questions (more than an average of two questions each) I handed out my hansam and taught them some motions. It went really well, except I wasn’t happy with how thin and nasal my voice sounded, and I answered some questions in an unnecessarily drawn out manner (if I’d only thought it through first…). Karjam came and filmed the entire thing.

After class Hilary bought us lunch, then Karjam and I went to the National Museum of Korea to see the special exhibition of Goryeo Dynasty Buddhist paintings. The paintings were really impressive, but the exhibit lights were too low and even on a Thursday afternoon it was much too crowded for my tastes. We rushed home and I left again ten minutes later to go to my new class.

My second class at 봉천놀이마당 Bongcheon Noli Madang went well. Up until about 2003 Yeonsun was a member, she’d been with the group for many years, and it turned out that the woman, 미경 Migyeong, who got Karjam and I free tickets to the dance performance a while back was there this evening, and the conversation with her uncovered the fact that the announcer that evening had been 지원 Jiwon, one of the key members and the drumming instructor for the group. 장미이 Jang Mi’i talks constantly as she teaches, explaining each motion, and its meaning, and then again and again as we repeat. She is either talking or counting out loud at all times. I find this a bit hard to take, and want to concentrate more on the motion and don’t need each fine detail of the motion explained to me, I’d rather do it three times instead of once with talking, at which point I would expect to be doing it properly based on watching carefully. Maybe it’s just because Korean isn’t my native language so paying attention to what is said may be more distracting for me than it is for most people. The others had learned a fair stretch of the choreographed basic motion set on Tuesday, I had to catch up and learn the new set of motions, but it was fun. Someday I may be good at 고성오광대 Goseong Ogwangdae. We had 8 participants (a much more manageable sized group) including Jang Mi’i, Jiwon who did our drumming and 김선우 Kim Seonu who is the go-to office, drummer, secondary dance instructor sort of person. I also found out that she’s only a year younger than me, which is surprising; she comes off as still in her 20s. After class ended we sat in a circle, evaluated class (while Seonu made notes) and had hot tea and cookies and other snacks.

Songpa Sandae Noli Isuja Practice

November 5th, 2010
In the morning I went to the Korean History class, but I was so exhausted I could pay attention well. I mostly fought falling asleep and didn’t get much out of the class. After class I headed home, but in the evening I was able to go to the 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli special rehearsal for 이수자 isuja. I’m not an isuja, which is generally someone who’s been learning more than ten years and is a well established regular performer, but I try very hard to maintain a very good relationship with everyone in the mask dance group, and was allowed to come in my capacity as a researcher (and didn’t know to what degree I’d be allowed to practice). I did, however, get told to follow along with basic exercises.

I arrived an hour early with a snack to share with 김영숙 Kim Yeongsuk in the office. I gave her a full report on the meeting of the mask dance groups, and then while I was talking others started to arrive and discuss what time to leave for 남원 Namwon where we will be performing in two weeks. 이영순 Yi Yeongsun and I are discussing her helping me a bit with my drumming, as she’s a professional drumming teacher, so we sat together and she explained to me about the differences in the 장단 jangdan or rhythmic patterns used in different mask dance dramas. Songpa uses 타령taryeong a lot but 고성오광대 Goseong Ogwangdae, for example, uses much more 굿거리 gutgeori. I want to not only know this sort of thing well enough to explain it to someone, I want to be able to drum each competently for an on the spot demonstration of what I mean. At the isuja practice there were two musicians (on 장구 janggu and 피리 piri) and seven dancers (not counting myself). Five of the dancers were in modernized hanbok pants, the men were in the matching tops as well.

The practice operated much as other practices do, first everyone practiced the basic motions. When we practice the basic motions one person (a senior person) at the front of the room will call out the name of the next motion as we’re at the end of the previous motion. I find this a bit hard because if I’m at the back of the group, I’m far from the caller, who is near the drum, and some of the names of the motions sound a lot alike… When they call out the motions the motion is called and then the caller uses low form, “gaja” (let’s go) as the ending. Not sure why it’s low form, perhaps just cause it’s shorter, perhaps because it’s not actually directly talking in low form to anyone in particular. After the basic run through, the group began practicing for the next morning’s performance for a different group of elderly (at a different location than the last two performances for elderly). There was a lot of discussion (this seems particularly after seeing the performance of 강릉관노 가면극 Gangneung Gwanno Gamyeon’geuk) of how to reduce speaking and increase the miming in the performances. The discussion centered in large part around where and how to cut out various content to make a satisfying performance. Most groups have ways to adjust their performances to fit the circumstances, and only perform the full versions once a year. Songpa has developed some of this, but perhaps now they feel a need to develop more short-cuts. At any rate as they discussed chopping various bits out of Act 3 (옴중/먹중 놀이) certain members were a bit disturbed (“if you cut out that part, then the character won’t even be Omjung anymore!” one of them said). As they practiced 김영숙 Kim Yeongsuk also packed the bags for the following day’s performance. At one point 탄종원 Tan Jongwon was reading the 대사 daesa off his iphone! I wish I had a good photo of that!

Cell photo of packing the bags:
After running through the basic motions one more time 8 of us head out to dinner, it felt very comfortable all together- no need for alcohol, just sitting down like family to enjoy a meal. These people truly know each other very very well. 양홍기 Yang Hong’gi was one of the people at practice, and he dropped me at 강남 Gangnam since it was on their way home.

SNU to Sajachum

November 4th, 2010
In the morning I went to Professor Hilary Finchum-Sung’s awesome class on Korean music. Today was devoted to 시나위 shinawi and 산조 sanjo primarily. She brought in a bunch of students to play shinawi for us (this being shinawi as the group ensemble based on what was shaman-ceremony accompanying music), two stuck around to play sanjo (아쟁 ajaeng and 거문고 geomungo). It’s really awesome to be able to hear the music after Hilary’s contextualized it and explained it so well. Afterwards we ate lunch in the cafeteria together.

cell photo:

In the evening I headed to 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum class, 장용일 Jang Yongil was teaching us again. Us ended up being a very small group, only four others showed up, but one (선영 Seonyeong) left before class really got underway. She’s moving to France in a couple months. So it was just high school student수미 Sumi, 병호 Byeongho and the guy who is Byeongho’s back half of the lion: 조연혁Jo Yeonhyeok. We started with practicing the lion dance, and I actually tried being the back half of the lion to Seonyeong, I learned a couple of the tricky points to being the back half. It looks easier than it is, not that it looks particularly easy, either. Jang spent a fair amount of time explaining the entire meaning of the lion scene, at one point he quizzed me and I didn’t immediately answer (I didn’t quite get what he meant) and he starts scolding me about “how can I study this long and not know this.” I think he doesn’t quite understand that the point of my research is not to analyze the scenes (or become a world class dancer) but rather to look at how, where, to whom, in what way etc. he is teaching. (As well as other people teaching other arts and the other major prong of my research is looking at how shows are presented to audiences, how effective that communication is). He repeatedly emphasized that no one can dance these dances correctly if they don’t know what they mean (this was directed at the two guys who are just starting to perform the lion dance when other’s aren’t available, they couldn’t answer any of his questions).

Yesterday they had performed on the US military base in mid-Seoul, and I asked some questions about how the announcer had introduced the show, etc. This led to a long conversation with Jang (he’s so opinionated!) and it started to stir up some analytic thinking that seems based around an idea of a conceit that the audience understands directly from the artists, what the artists intended, without need for mediation. Comments welcome.

Dept. store already decorated for X-mas:

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.

Tongyeong Ogwangdae Performs in Seoul

October 22nd, 2010
I had Korean History class in the morning at Seoul National University, it was less interesting this week because instead of getting to the super interesting reading for the week, we spent over half the class going over what people would present and write their final paper on, which should have happened in some office hours or something, it was so boring to listen to, I had nothing to add, the professor told them some book or articles that they should check out, and asked clarifying questions but it took too long.

Sarah stopped by for juice and toast from the excellent new local bakery in the afternoon.

In the evening I went to a performance of 통영오광대 Tongyeong Ogwangdae at the 무형문화전수회관 Intangible Cultural Properties Training Center, and I took some video footage, it was really good, a lot of students of Tongyeong Ogwangdae showed up, and their great excited energy encouraged the performers and made it more fun for everyone. They performed the entire play, perhaps in a slightly shortened version, but all the acts. Before it started an employee of the 풍류극장 Pungryu Theatre made a really lame intro (I seriously wanted to interject), then the director of their preservation association made a long intro with great details and a lively description of each act. I hope to upload a short video like I did last week for Gangnyeong Talchum later on. Afterwards I chatted for a few minutes with 수미 Sumi and 정현 Jeonghyeon from Bongsan Talchum.

Bukcheong Saja Noleum Performance

October 8th, 2010
My morning Seoul National University class was even better than before. The professor is sometimes a little off the mark (as in her understanding of Korean history has been understandably colored by being trained only in Korea by in many cases nationalistic scholars), but she’s super knowledgeable, and I enjoy talking with her. The problem is that the rest of the students are half asleep and say NOTHING. Actually some are only occasionally awake (at least no one snored). If they engaged with the material I’d believe they were in graduate school, seriously, it’s embarrassing. This was a problem during my MA at Yonsei, too. Do they expect information to be spoon-fed to them? The passivity of learning is just phenomenal.

I took a nap in the afternoon and then went to the performance of 북청사자놀음 Bukcheong Saja Noleum in 풍류극장 Pungryu Theatre, which is on the first floor of the Intangible Cultural Properties Training Center that houses both Bukcheong and Bongsan Talchum among other arts. I paid for a ticket, despite knowing how to get in for free (and knowing that no one would challenge my right to be there), because I feel bad about the situation that’s cropped up. This year they decided to charge 5,000 per ticket but they didn’t do any extra advertising and last year’s standing room almost non-existent has become this year a half empty theatre (and it’s a small theatre).

The performance was awesome, Bukcheong is so different from the other mask dance dramas. I actually wrote detailed notes, in abridged form:
The performance began with a short, educational but fairly general intro by the theatre staff. Then most of the dancers danced in and out again after circling the stage. At last the Yangban is dragged onto stage by his servant, they talk and the Yangban says to bring music, so the servant calls the musicians onto stage.
The musicians were on 징jing (one person) and 북 buk (one person) and 통소 tongso (four people). They stood to the back and side of the stage, they do not wear masks (like 양주별산대) or flower hats (like 풍물 pungmul performers wear), but have exposed faces, a headband (of the type worn under a mask) and exposed heads. Next the Yangban wants dancers and 한삼 hansam (sleeve extension) dancers come out (exposed faces but wearing hoods), then knife dancers (exposed faced men with no hoods, 지훈 Jihoon was the leader of the two and cued the other guy as to what to do). Next two 소고 sogo dancers (both in men’s clothing, although they were women) and two older women in hoods and hanbok with 한삼 hansam came out. The following act was Jihoon and his partner back again with the two little children dancing on their shoulders. This was followed by the dance of the physically retarded hunch-backed woman (how would that ever go over in the US?), one of the highlights and one of the only other masked characters. After another dance by the married women in 한복 hanbok and hoods the lions finally come out. The lions were great, after the lion who ate the rabbit gets sick a monk chants for him and an acupuncturist comes out with needles (metal chopsticks). There was a final bow and then they taught the lion dance to anyone who wanted to learn, I did and go to dance the backside of the lion (manipulating the tail). The costume wasn’t as heavy or uncomfortable as I had worried it would be.

Photo- actually from Andong, but this is one of the same lions!

Meeting Professors

September 16th, 2010
Wow. It was the fullest day I think I’ve had so far.

In the morning I went to audit Prof. Hilary Finchum-Sung’s class “Intro to Korean Music.” She’s the first foreigner ever to be hired by a Korean music department. Not music department in Korea, a department that teaches KOREAN music. Wow! Actually I know other people like Heather Willoughby who are also ethnomusicologists with Korea as their region, and probably Heather or others could have been as competitive for that job if they’d been on the job market at the time that SNU was hiring. Regardless, last year she was teaching music theory IN KOREAN! She did say there was a lot of new vocabulary involved in teaching that class, but I was incredibly impressed. In fact, I’ve rarely been more impressed. Close up when we ate lunch after class she looked tired, but when she was teaching she was high energy, pretty and talented. The class is still in the highly introductory period where she’s setting a base-line of knowledge for the students to stand on so I knew most of what she taught, but she did it very well, demonstrating 거문고 Geomungo (6 string zither), 해금 Haegeum (two string fiddle) and 장구 janggu (hourglass drum). She is actually on her way to being really good on the Haegeum, and she sang a little with a very pleasing singing voice. She had some music students visit class to demonstrate 대금 Daegeum (transverse bamboo flute), 가야금 Gayageum (12 string zither) and 피리 piri (double-reed oboe), because it was the introduction to instruments class. So I had lunch with her and will go back to her class again.

Cell phone photo with Hilary and two of the music majors:


After that I rushed to meet Professor 전경욱 Jeon Gyeong'uk, who is one of the top experts on mask dance drama, and among professors who teach on the subject the one I respect the most, hands down. He is also officially the person I am affiliated with for the Fulbright. It was very hard to talk to him, as there were six people in his office when I arrived (it’s always like that!) and he prepared us all tea (full tea production with all the pouring of water and discarding this and that and making sure the temperature was just right and what not. He’s a big tea aficionado. I had a five minute window when no one else was there, he went to the bathroom then sent a fax (and I waited for him to finish doing it) then asked the first question on my list, and he moved to his computer and attached documents that he sent me, and while he was doing that a reporter from the 중앙일보 Joong-ang Ilbo arrived, and until I had to leave he was still lecturing her (and preparing more tea). The lecture to her was very interesting, I won’t type it up in the public blog version in detail, but the short version was he was going off about changes to the masks that actually meant they were not as well made as in the past, lost artistic ability, ornamentation, realism, details, etc. It was sort of a rant. I told him I’d read what he’d sent and meet him again in a couple weeks.
Cell phone photo: Prof. Jeon makes tea


I rushed home, had a two minute cold shower, grabbed my 한삼 hansam (white sleeve extensions for practicing 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum) and my 미투리 shoes, loose pants and a t-shirt and rushed out to 봉산탈춤 where we had a fairly ordinary practice. I am worried about 원 중 Won Jung, who is applying to the National University of the Arts School of Traditional Performance. I don’t actually think he has much innate performance talent, and I wonder how much that counts (he wants to learn and devote himself to traditional arts, and through hard work he’ll get better… isn’t that what education is about?). His audition is Oct. 6th or 7th.

And I read academic Korean articles for tomorrow's class on all the bus and subway rides.

Nothing Exciting

September 10th, 2010
Uneventful day. I had my SNU class, and it was surprisingly engaging. I was also happy when a friend from last summer showed up today!

Karjam started Korean class; he was the only one to introduce himself in Korean! There are six other students, one Chinese, two American, one Canadian and the other is European I guess. I was worried they’d go too fast, but apparently they’ll be learning to read the next week and a half. He also found his way to his class at Ewha Womans [sic] University on his own. I am –so- relieved. This will bring him not just new independence in Korea, but by pushing him out the door it will push him to utilize his independence.

We watched a movie in the theatre and I made a huge dinner. The photo is not of our dinner yesterday, but close enough. Note the table, the spoons and chopsticks, the bowls, etc.

SNU Class and a Desk

September 3rd, 2010
I went to a class at Seoul National University (SNU) this morning. It’s taught in Korean, a grad seminar called 한국생활사 Korean Lifestyle(?) basically it is about the way people lived during the Joseon Dynasty. I wanted to audit a class like this so that I would have a chance to practice reading, speaking and listening to academic Korean. However the professor has assigned a RIDICULOUSLY heavy reading load and the week by week breakdown leaves me wondering how interesting it will be. Good thing about auditing, I can bow out later if I decide it’s not working for me. I suspect the professor is younger than I am and she’s never taught this class before.

We were supposed to have dinner with our friend, but she got sick, so it was a pretty uneventful day. The excitement consisted of going to the 아현가구상가 Ahyeon Furniture Market and buying a table approximately four and a half feet long and a little more than two feet wide, Karjam and I are sitting on opposite sides of it as I type, there is room behind his computer for some of my stuff and vice-versa. We also got a small (very) bookshelf and two chairs that match, it’s all an unfinished blond wood. I already feel more productive just to be able to sort of organize my work area. We also bought one more cup today. A couple more purchases and I might feel like a little house-warming party (or two, I think one for Yonsei/academic friends who are going to be both English and Korean speakers and one special one for my 개전연 Gaejeonyeon and other performance friends.)