Jeju Incident / Jeju Massacre

In a few weeks it will be time for me to teach students about the Jeju Massacre. I don't actually know that much about it-- just the basic outline and main events, most of which are contested. It's one of the super super occluded parts in Korean history. Today, however, I saw a news article about a documentary made by Jane Jin Kaisen, and luckily enough, the documentary is available on Vimeo (go watch it at this link). It starts off a little slow and unconventional, but ultimately I understand why Ms. Kaisen chose to do it that way-- and it works.

Strangely this is just one day after I saved a new article that talks about the Peace Park built on Jeju Island. You can access the article (no pay wall, yay!) on the website of Cross Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review (just click here).

Perhaps this difficult period in Korean history will finally be faced and emotionally processed.

More Links:
Japan Focus article by Sonia Ryang on the massacre (2013)
Earlier article in Japan Focus by Tessa Morris-Suzuki on museums and the Korean War (2009)-- doesn't really get into the Jeju issue, but related to the Cross-Currents article, also.
An academic article on the government's process to uncover the history of the massacre (behind a paywall)
This -might- be the same document as behind the paywall above-- the English translation of the government's fact-finding report.
Human Rights Monitor Korea on the Jeju Massacre (2014)
Excerpts from a speech by historian Bruce Cumings on the massacre. Because these are excerpts I am a little worried the original meaning may have changed a bit.
Detailed article in the Jeju Weekly
Blurb about the translated book Dead Silence with fictional stories of the Jeju Massacre
News article about the Korean (low-budget) film Jiseul about the Jeju Massacre (it won an award at Sundance in 2013)
New York Times article from 2001
Newsweek- Ghosts of Jeju from 2000
History Channel
Wikipedia on the Jeju Uprising (remember, the info here can be edited or mis-edited at any time)

I may add to this page at some point in the future. In the meantime, it's a place where I can bring together various things I want to look at again when I prepare to teach this particular subject in a few weeks.

The School Year Has Begun!

There are so many things I've started to write and haven't finished... maybe I will. Don't hold your breath. In the meantime, let me tell you about the start of the school year:

It's Saturday, the first week is done and I'm sitting in my office, listening to Karjam singing (unfortunately not live) and determined to finish a ton of class prep today.

Monday:
Intro to Modern Korean History (for majors)
Tuesday:
(5 weeks only): Intro to Korean Culture and Society (for majors)
(every week): Intro to Korean Studies I (for majors)
(teaching 5 weeks, attending every week): Intro to Korean Music: Pungmul Drumming (for majors)
Wednesday:
Contemporary Korean Culture and Society (for non-majors)
Thursday:
Modern Korean History (for graduate students in Korean Studies or International Studies)

This week was the first week, and usually first week classes are so easy-- you spend time on the syllabus and letting students know the expectations for the course and you try to get to know them and let them learn enough about you to suss out if they really want to take the class. But when it's your department and it's the same students on Monday and all three classes on Tuesday, it's very different... you really have to start teaching right away because you can't do introductory games and conversation for 11 hours! The students are not required to take all the classes--the required class is Intro to Korean Studies I and the rest of the classes are optional-- but of course they need a certain number of credits to graduate. So almost all of them are enrolled in all four classes (two students elected not take the history course and one student isn't taking the music course). They are also enrolled in various other courses that meet distribution requirements.

Next week I won't be teaching Korean Culture and Society, but rather Lyudmila will spend 5 weeks with them teaching them how to look at Korean culture and society through Korean literature. Then I get them, and at the end of the semester Lina (a friend from my MA at Yonsei University who is doing her doctoral dissertation research in Korea right now) will teach them about Korean Social Movements for 5 weeks. For the Korean Music class, however, I will always attend even when I'm not providing lectures on Korean music. On those days (about 9 or 10 of the 16 weeks) my friend Go Seokjin will teach them drumming on the janggu or hourglass drum. The style they will start with this semester is the style from Imshil Pilbong Nongak, also the style played here on campus by the student club. I am hoping to integrate my students with the club and then with attendance at the transmission center in Pilbong. An ideal outcome for me will be to find a way to give students credit for attending a certain number of weeks of classes in Pilbong during their vacations. I still have to figure out how that will work out, though. And my new chair, who I love in every other way, seems to be very nervous about the connection of pungmul drumming with politics and will NOT listen to me when I assert that the kids these days are not interested in politics and just want to play the music. I hope to get him to listen to common sense, soon.

So far I love the personalities and attitude of all my major students.

On Wednesday I taught my non-major class... that was stressful. First of all the classroom that was mine on the schedule was being occupied by another class. What the heck! Finally we started, at least 15 minutes late, in a different classroom, but it was NOT the way I want to make a first impression!!! Then the students included two students who spoke no English, even though the class is listed as being taught in English. These students (who are from China and from Uzbekistan-- it's not Korean students who are totally unprepared to use English) really wanted to take the class, and the students in the class really wanted to meet more foreigners and make foreign friends... this left me in a quandry over what to do. If I told the two foreign students to leave, we'd lose 2 out of 5 enrolled foreigners (only one is German and an obvious foreigner, by the way), but all my class prep was done in English, and I didn't want to redo my syllabus and spend all the extra time to prepare lessons in Korean (did that last semester and it easily was double the prep time, maybe triple).

Thursday was the hardest day. I got a bus at 6:05 and made it to the campus in Seoul by 8, finding the classroom by 8:20 or so. The class started at 9, and there were 12 students there, only one with a 100% Korean name, although several had diasporic Korean names (like Eric Lee). A student (sounded American and looked Jewish) was a bit abrasive and challenging of a couple of the things I said-- he took a hard-lined (Korean) nationalist perspective (which is kind of funny since he's not Korean), and his attitude in class really threw me off. I am hoping (for once) that my first impression made him think he did not want to take the class, because an argumentative ultra-nationalist will be hard to deal with considering that I was trained by the opposite of the nationalist camp and hence will say things a nationalist might not like over and over all semester.

Now I better buckle down and work on prep!

Korean Immigration Offices and the Drive for Multiculturalism

Today my "Contemporary Korean Culture and Society" class topic was Multiculturalism in Korea. The students had been assigned a group project (3 or 4 people per group), worth 20% of their grade. They took it very seriously (when I arrived at 9:12 for our 9:30 class there were already 7 of 10 students in the room checking to make sure their PPT including video and/or audio files were working). Six of my students are Korean (although one lived for 13 years in the US) and four are Chinese. I made them form a group that had to include one student majoring in English Translation and one student from China (sometimes that is the same thing), as well as one native Korean student. The students presented in the language they are more comfortable using, so that the presentation language even switched back and forth during each group's turn at the podium, but the paper submitted had to be in Korean (the language of the course).

Their assignment was to determine if Korea could become a multi-cultural society. They had to go find foreigners to interview about multiculturalism and prejudice in Korea. No one took a shortcut-- they didn't interview fellow students or professors here. We heard and saw interview snippets (for all but one interview) in Korean, Chinese, and English, and had photos of the audio-only interviewees. Each group was responsible for as many interviews as they had group members, and of those only one interviewee could be white (I prepped them heavily to go look for Chinese--the largest group of foreigners in Korea-- or farmers and marriage migrants in our local farming community). In one group all three group members interviewed people who were all rosy-eyed about Korea (perhaps because they had not been here long), but two of the group members balanced that message out by contributing their own difficult experiences living in Korea. I think the assignment was somewhat sobering for the Korean class members as they heard stories about feeling ostracized (when restaurant staff won't listen to the foreigner order and look at the Korean wife at all times), about pretty horrible working conditions (at a 3D job in a factory), and about a half-Korean child's struggles with the education system (and the mother, who spoke good Korean, eloquently described her frustration). All three groups concluded that Korea wasn't a multi-cultural society yet, but to varying degrees believed it could happen in the future. Honestly I was very impressed with their presentations.

After the students finished (they spoke for nearly an hour, but it was good stuff!) we had a follow-up general discussion that only got really lively when I asked them how it felt to approach foreigners and interview them. I finished the class with a lecture to discuss the changing laws and policies related to foreigners in Korea and presentation of some statistics with an extra focus on multicultural education.

Ironically as soon as I had lunch I had an experience of how Korean laws and policies play out on the ground. I had been putting off going to the Immigration Office to get my residency permit until Karjam arrived since it's such a pain to go there. I have previously visited many of these offices-- in two places in Seoul, in Incheon, and in Daegu. As a general rule, a yearly visit is needed, so I've visited such offices at least ten times (although when continuing the same employment this process is virtually painless, just a waste of time). Despite the increased population of foreigners in Korea -- over 1.5 million at this point-- this process has not been streamlined or improved in any particular way since I last went through it.

Arriving at the Suwon Immigration Office, first of all, it was very difficult to find where to grab a number. Grabbing a number, we looked for an appropriate form. The names of all forms (in slots under glass table tops) were written only in Korean or Korean and Chinese (mind you, these are traditional characters, somewhat different from many characters used in mainland China). At the very least each form could be given a big number and a guideline could be taped to the table top in a gazillion languages explaining which form you need: "Form #1: this and this and this. Form #2: another thing" and so on. The boxes on the form we needed were labeled in Korean and Chinese. There was an English instruction sheet. It did not specify which form it corresponded to, but I presume it was for the one I was filling out. However (in somewhat broken English) it explained "boxes 7-11 fill in your address, phone and cell phone in your home country" but the form did not have any numbers on it, and if you counted, starting from the top, it was obvious that the directions were for a previous iteration of the form and the order of items had been switched (significantly). Since this guideline didn't list the accompanying Korean, it was as good as useless. Above the table top a laminated copy of several forms was hanging, partially filled out. These were also the old version of the form, and had been photocopied so many times the Korean was almost unreadable.

I filled the form out (for Karjam) and then, just to be safe, confirmed the process at the info desk. The staffer there only spoke Korean, although she did tell me (in Korean) that if I wanted the info in English there was an English speaker "over there" (gesturing towards no where in particular). I paid the fee (which is lower than it used to be!!) with their new bank machine method, and then waited and waited for our number to come up. I observed the other foreigners in the room and found that they were either relying on a minder/friend/boss to translate or in some cases they were proceeding through the form as easily as I did (whether reading the Korean or the Chinese I don't know, although most appeared to be Chinese).

But we couldn't finish the process because I had forgotten my passport at home (we realized over halfway there), and K's visa is dependent on mine, so I have to process first. I'll go back tomorrow and try to take some photos for this blog post.

All of this really made me wonder about the government's sincerity in revising their attitudes towards foreigners. An entire huge room of bureaucracy that could easily have had forms available in 20 languages (perhaps with a sign to say "ask here for forms in names of languages" if they were afraid to have all the choices sitting out) instead elected to make an annoying process as troublesome for any foreigner who can't speak Korean (or read Korean or Chinese) as possible. They were polite about it, but the message that in Korea you needed to conform to the Korean way of doing things or GTFO was echoing through the room. I imagined myself as someone only in Korea a couple weeks, desperate to make my new ID (essential to getting health insurance, opening a bank account, getting a cell phone contract and more), and I could feel how stressful that visit to Immigration would have been.

On the second day we were there before the office opened and our number was still 39...

Behind K is the actual immigration officer that served us

There is a time to assert that in Korea foreigners need to learn some Korean, and at least a basic understanding of Korean culture, but I don't think that is when dealing with bureaucracy in a state that repeatedly insists that it is creating a new multicultural society. I'm the foreigner who will search for the squat toilet in the public restroom (partially because it's more comfortable and better for your bowels) because I don't want to be seen conforming to stereotypes about foreigners. I also get embarrassed to be seen walking around with bread (and yes, it's still hard to find good bread in Korea), insist on the 온돌 ondol room at the hotel (the room where you sleep on the hot Korean floor instead of on some sketchy mattress that can't be laundered), sometimes add an extra squirt of hot sauce to my 회덮밥 (sashimi salad) when someone's watching me dress it, and refuse English translation on principle (even when I secretly hope I understood everything). Because I am that foreigner, who asserts my preference for Korean things, Korean ways, and desire to be treated like a Korean, please do not misunderstand that I think the Korean government should coddle people through life in Korea. But life in Korea and completing your process for becoming a resident, not just a visitor, are two different things. Being sensitive to the difficulties of being new to Korea (as most people in that office surely were) is compassionate and good PR.

All Done! 

A good blog entry on multiculturalism in Korea from the Culture Muncher.
Another blog on the topic of white/English privilege in Korea on Mapping Words.

POSTSCRIPT: When K and I visited the office the second time I did see a copy of the form with English instead of Chinese characters. But the fact that I hadn't been able to find a single one the day before means that others couldn't have found one, either.

Contemporary Popular Culture (class)

I keep mentioning the class I teach in Korean, because it's such a giant presence in my life right now, but I'm also teaching Contemporary Popular Culture. And I have to say, I love teaching the class. The students are awesome, and they are trying very hard. I teach this class in English (although I translate vocab words for them, or answer questions asked in Korean, and even allow them to explain a very difficult thought in Korean), but none of the students are majors in the English language and most of them haven't studied the language since they graduated from high school. It's a larger issue for a couple of them that the class is in English-- but it's a class where I am introducing very theoretical ideas, so it's not easy for any student. (I did give up on having them summarize readings and now I summarize and explain the readings for them, but the ideas are still tough nuts!)

Yet, as you could guess, they love the topic. Today was the fourth class, and they really started to use some of our theoretical terms and ideas. They have mastered the Bechdel Test. They can spot "male gaze" at work in music videos and advertisements. They can (collectively) work out whether something is best described as appropriation, or transculturation, or cultural exchange. They seem to accept "cultural texts" and "media texts" as terms that don't (have to) refer to something written down. They have been exposed to various definitions of popular culture, and I've done my best to explain that we can analyze texts based on cultural reception/use, or production/political economy, or text -- or of course use a hybrid approach.

They are now reliably able to complete short analysis exercises without getting side-tracked by description (there is a woman, she is cheating on her boyfriend) or judgment (he has a good voice, I like this song). The breakthrough on that was last week when the students watched Lorde's "Royals", a song they'd never heard before, and one wrote "the fact that they are boxing (a low-class sport), and just standing in the pool and looking at the tennis court, reinforces the class differences between people who are royal and the video subjects." (I did clean up the English a little for you).

Today I was so obviously pleased with them that they felt pleased with themselves and I think we all left the classroom feeling very happy. One of the students told me during break today that the class has already changed what she sees when she watches music videos (due to the convenient length of music videos, we've used a lot so far, although I am moving on starting next week).

I love teaching this class, and hope I have an opportunity to teach a similar class in the future. Perhaps by focusing it more on Korea, I could teach this as an advanced Korean Studies course.

In the meantime, I must admit I'm enjoying exposing the students to a wide variety of media texts, and actually anticipating reading their first assignments (due next week, on viral videos --their example must not be a music video, however).

I decided to do what I thought was right today, because I feel this class of students can handle it: I told them that if they came to class and turned in all their work, they'd all get an A, not even an A-. I felt a little bit like Peter Sellars as I explained to them that it was not my place to try to figure out if they had done their best work or not. If they wanted to hand me crap and pretend it was their best, they could live with knowing that they were the sort of person who takes the lazy route. I asked them to think of the assignments not as a bothersome item of work, but as exercises that would allow them to engage with the class subject, and help to empower them in a world full of media texts. I asked them to enjoy the assignments without thinking of them as work, or feeling stressed, and to do their best work because they wanted to, not because it was the only way to get an A. They looked at me with a mixture of shock and joy. It was somewhat the same look they gave me when I told them that if they told me honestly, 24 hours in advance, that they'd be missing class, that I could accept that, because they were adults and should be able to decide how to spend their time, as long as they didn't abuse my understanding by missing class often.

Teaching in Korean

Around 6pm on Tuesday night I checked my text messages and found a text informing me that I would be teaching my class (the next morning at 9:30) in Korean. Admittedly the text was over an hour old-- but that hour would not make the difference.

Teaching in Korean provides the following challenges:
a. My Korean is not at good as it should be to actually -lecture- in Korean.
b. Teaching in Korean requires assigning readings in Korean. All my books and articles are in transit, so again this means finding entirely new materials-- but this time they're in Korean, so I can't quickly scan across a few paragraphs and get an idea of the difficulty and appropriateness of an article for my class.
c. Preparing to teach in Korean means mastering the information in these readings-- publications that are brand new to me that I must be prepared to talk about and lead discussion surrounding almost immediately after reading (there is no time to prepare for the entire term in advance since it already started -and- since I've got other stuff to do, too).

I began to plan immediately, and although my jet lag was kicking in again, I realized that I had to throw out my syllabus of the same name and rethink the entire syllabus based around the number of classes I'd have, my desire to have exams instead of papers as the major grading element, and the clusters of complimentary readings I could find.

I became more calm after Maria Anna and Sarah, two professors in the Italian Translation Department, assured me that no students at 888 U expected a full class on the first day. They just wanted to know about the workload and get a sense of the professors.

I woke up at 4:45 (getting later everyday) and went back to work on class preparation.

I found the room where professors can photocopy and print things around an hour before class, printed a few articles I thought I might want to use for the next week, scanned through them, then went to my class.

There were four students there, and an odder group I cannot imagine the two extremes were:
a) Chinese student (Sports and Leisure Department) who is not of Korean ethnicity, who has been learning Korean for a year (still challenged by readings in Korean), who cannot speak or read English.
b) Korean student who lived from 5 to 18 in the US (and is now 19), who is challenged by readings in Korean, and wanted to have class in English (English Translation Department).
The other two were somewhere between these two.

I gave a one hour class, getting to know each other and discussing why Korean studies is important for people in translation departments and others as well. I also described in detail how they should prepare for class for the next week.

I think I did not make a fool out of myself, but I'm not quite sure.

Gyeongbok Palace and Patbingsu

July 17^th, 2011

I worked on the computer in the morning then went to meet 박연식 Bak Yeonshik (from Bongsan Talchum) and his friend Haeri. She knows a ton about 경복궁 Gyeongbok Palace and palace architecture etc in general and she gave us a personalized awesome tour. There were so many things she explained I wish I had known when Aimee, Hengyi Shr and my mom were visiting. Unfortunately the sun was baking (okay, at least it was sunny!) and I was in a tank top and I became horribly sunburned.

We went to a really great 팟빙수 (shaved ice) place and I had one made with Omija, which is my absolute favorite flavor, but I've never seen it offered for shaved ice before!

I had a date with 세정 Sejeong at 5:30 but showed up at Namsan Hanok Village early, allowing me thirty minutes of happy dancing and photography with my Gaejeonyeon and other 임실필봉농악 Imshil Pilbong Nongak people. Sweaty I joined Sejeong, who was feeling very physically exhausted, and we decided to have dinner and then watched the latest Harry Potter film. Afterwards we had a long discussion of her problems with finding the proper focus for her studies.

July 18^th, 2011

I went to teach at Dankook University, and it was a fairly good day except that it was the day to introduce both mask dance dramas and pungmul music to the students, plus go over two readings and have a discussion related to teaching and learning traditional arts. Of course we also had to have our time to practice 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum but most of the group was complaining that they hurt all weekend after practice on Friday. That's cause we're at the point in the basic motions routine where we squat and jump into the air repeatedly. It is both exhausting and for people with lame squat muscles, painful the next day.

After class I took the bus to 강남 Gangnam instead of near home and just went straight to the training center. I asked 장용일 Jang Yongil a few questions related to research and talked with him and the office manager and then headed to class. Today 김은주 Kim Eunju was back. It was so much easier to have class with her that all night the students kept calling out loudly "you're so great!" and "what an excellent teacher" etc. when she didn't make us repeat motions to the end of the routine (when they're all the same anyway). We had 16 students. 17 or 16 every class while Jang was teaching, too, even though every time someone or the other is absent. But my sunburn had me exhausted and weak and I did a terrible job all night. 

A Trip to Goseong

July 6^th, 2011

There is not much time before I leave for the US- just a couple days more than a month- and during most of that time I'll be teaching the intensive class and my time and movements will be restricted by that, hence I'm running around the country this week. Today I've departed Seoul for 고성 Goseong to see all the lovely folks at 고성오광대 Goseong Ogwangdae. The trip down to Goseong is about securing my relationship with the group and group members, demonstrating my relationship/close connection to/with the group.

When I arrived I decided to walk to the training center, but about half way there the rain decided to come down rather fiercely. I arrived a bit wet and bedraggled but the office manager was very sweet and drove me to where the people who were practicing 말뚝이 malddugi were. When I arrived there I found that 동근 Donggeun was teaching—which was a bit of a problem as his motions are not exact nor his knowledge very concrete. I followed along with the three students and around 4:00 동수 Dongsu, one of the isuja showed up but he didn't have any time to teach us, only to monitor. We went back to the training center and I talked to the office manager, hung out, went to eat dinner, came back, took a nap, then practiced from around 8 until 10. The interesting thing in the evening was that there was a young man, 신경환 Shin Gyeonghwan, of obvious performing talent, there practicing as well. He had previously attended one of the schools that had sent participants to the camp, but had now graduated and was working as an elementary school teacher about an hour's drive away from Goseong. Elementary school is still in session, so he had come for the evening's practice. I immediately asked him if he was a jeonsuja because of his obvious talent and depth of knowledge, but he told me that he was already a member of another art: the regionally certified 정읍농악 Jeongeup Nongak. He had been performing with them for quite some time and he explained that he performed on all the instruments and on 소고 sogo. During evening practice (which ended at 10 pm) there were still performers present and working with the students: very impressive.

황종욱 Hwang Jong'uk, the manager of the group, finally showed up and although it had been arranged for me to stay with one of the rooms full of girls in the old dormitory, he invited me back to his house. Actually Koreans do not lightly invite people to their homes, I was very touched. I liked his wife and his daughter (I didn't see the son much as we got there after 11). We shared some makgeolli and fruit and vegetables.

July 7^th, 2011

I woke up when the house started stirring at 7 (which was also before my alarm), and managed to wake my mind up fast enough not to be stumbling around in a haze in someone else's house. Hwang Jong'uk and I went back to the training center, but nothing started until nearly 10 (I was very surprised). During the almost an hour wait I stretched and then fell asleep stretching, stretched some more and fell back asleep and so on until I got tired of waiting and went looking for the teachers. Downstairs I found 전광열 Jeon Gwangyeol, the teacher for 말뚝이 Malddugi but unfortunately he didn't stick around (although he did say that since he'd seen me, it really was a good morning). Instead while the 원양반 Won Yangban crew had their own teacher and 문둥북춤 Mundung Bukchum had their own teacher and of course Act 5 had their own teacher, we ended up with 동수 Dongsu who was split between helping us and helping 승무 Seungmu with assistance from 동근 Donggeun. At last we learned to the end of the dance and I even started to feel like I'd memorized big chunks of it.

At lunch time 이윤석 Yi Yunseok (the National Human Treasure) showed up and we went to lunch (the secretary, Yi, 이재훈, 남진도 and 허종원). I honestly found the food barely palatable. I couldn't even drink the water as the cup smelled very strangely like fish to such an extent that I couldn't raise the cup to my lips. Oh well. It was about be able to see everyone. Dongsu did not go to lunch with us because his wife was due yesterday and home alone, so he went home to see her and brought her back to the center in the afternoon. They went to the hospital and the hospital told her the baby wasn't ready to be born yet. Before they went to the hospital, though, he taught Act 2 and sketched out Act 3 to the students. After that everyone was just practicing for the acts which isn't very interesting to me… so I worked on my computer in the corner of the room and finally decided to go back to Seoul. I left the training center just after 5. 

Karjam Leaves and I Practice Songpa Sandae Noli

July 1^st, 2011

In the morning Karjam finished up and uploaded to Youtube another video, the making of "Losar Dodlih" featuring Yoon Jihee (and you can see Go Seokjin on the video, too). Please visit it and give it lots of love! 

Karjam finished packing and re-packing then we had coffee/tea with our landlady. One last lunch in Karjam's favorite of our local restaurants (I'm actually glad I don't have to eat there anymore, I'm so sick of their food!) Then we headed to the airport. There is a new airport subway train that departs from Seoul Station and has a check-in counter for some of the airlines, including Korean Air which Karjam was flying. This was a real life-saver as his bags were SO FREAKING HEAVY. We checked in and went through immigration (no line and no line) there, then boarded the subway to the airport with his two instruments and a small backpack with his carry on stuff.

I was really sad to say good-bye to Karjam at the airport. It sounds dorky, but I'm more in love with my husband now than I ever was before, seems to keep increasing. I wonder if there is a limit?

July 2^nd, 2011

In the morning I worked on the computer in my empty house. In the afternoon right after writing something I –thought- was perhaps good I got on the bus and it turned out 박주현 Bak Juhyeon, our 대금 daegeum player was also on the same bus on his way to 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli practice. So we talked, starting with me asking him to help me understand some ideas I'd been playing with in my writing from his perspective, which helped a lot, but also meant I have to change some stuff. Better to change now than later! 

At class we had a fairly good turnout (it wasn't raining). 함완식 Ham Wanshik, 김명하 Kim Myeongha, 함승헌 Ham Seungheon and his wife and son (his son is so cute!), 어원석 Eo Wonseok, 윤지희 Yun Jihee, the 피리 piri player who's name I never remember, plus the two elementary school kids, their mother, and a guy who has attended 5 or so sessions of a community class and wanted to practice with us.  Ham Sr. talked and played the janggu while Kim Myeongha led the dancing. The difference between Ham's motions and Kim Myeongha's motions are like night and day. I think I prefer Kim as his motions are very natural. However in a calculated attempt to keep Ham happy with me I danced with Ham's motions all day and I know he saw that. After a good practice of basic motions Ham Sr. decided to lecture new guy about the instruments which 1) Ham doesn't know that much about 2) the musicians are younger and lower in status and can't contradict him 3) he didn't even find out if new guy already knew about the instruments or not… which he probably knew as much as Ham knows. So I was a bit frustrated. We then did basic motions again and Kim Myeongha led Eo and Ham Jr. through two acts (Buk Noli and Omjung).

After class Yun Jihee and I went to dinner together and she grilled me about advanced studies in the US. She didn't seem concerned about English, she wanted to know more what type of studies were possible in what type of department. It was nice to feel I might be helping her, since she helped so much with Karjam's CD.

Karjam Begins Recording

May 12^th, 2011

On Thursday my only research related activity was to go to 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum class in the evening. However it was an extremely busy day because Karjam started recording his CD. I went to facilitate and translate and such, and it did take until late-lunch time before Karjam and the engineer, 오영훈, figured out how to work together. But the really cool thing was that they did figure it out, by the end of the day Karjam had recorded both of his a cappella tracks and two instrumental tracks for another song (but not the song) and I had written more than three pages of good solid work on my dissertation—important and almost inspired pages that will definitely (after editing) appear in the final piece!

At Bongsan Talchum엄하연 is back from giving her body a break (she has a persistent problem with her ankles). Quite a few people were absent but not 이병우 who did an interview for me during almost every break all class long. It was really amazing. He surprised himself by talking about things, telling his story, in a way he is not sure he ever did before. What was particularly striking about the interview, unfortunately, were the first few things he said before I noticed that somehow I had forgotten to press record. At the end of the interview I asked him a bit about modern dance and the current dance culture in Korea because in the morning I had been asked to write an article on a very short deadline for "Korea" a magazine distributed in Korean embassy and consulates in English speaking areas around the world. At first I thought the article content would be closer to my research, but it's really not. It's the cover article with three sections—only one can contain any real discussion of traditional dance (but it also is supposed to contain several other predetermined discussions), the other sections are an interview and an overview/introduction to dance related organizations. And the entire article has to be very positive and rosy-cosy "Visit Korea," there is no room for any sort of criticism in the article. Asking Byeong-u (a full time performer who sometimes performs modern dance) for a few comments will hopefully give me a chance to include that perspective in the final article.

Gyeongbok Palace and the National Folk Museum

April 18^th, 2011

The important thing was that we went to 경복궁 Gyeongbokgung. Because we had to take Karjam's computer to the service center I somehow convinced myself we could go to the palace at 1 instead of 12. That was silly, because we rushed a lot. At least it meant we spent less time outside in the on-off drizzling rain.

At 1:00 we took photos/video of the changing of the guards, which fortunately they decided to do despite the weather. I didn’t get anything earth-shattering as it was too wet to change my lens and I had the wrong one on the camera. Oh well. Next we cruised through most of Gyeongbok Palace, with a significant stop for me to take photos of Karjam that I hope will be good enough for the next CD. Yes, we're really hoping to record another CD soon, so keep your eyes peeled for it! He looked really handsome but he gets so self-conscious when I train the camera on him, it's so frustrating. Why can't someone as handsome as him be confident and flirtatious with the lens?  We went to the National Folk Museum which mom enjoyed but I know I didn't give her enough time there, which is stupid, because it's my favorite museum.

We had to leave after only 75 minutes because I had made us a reservation for the 4:00 opening of 경희루 Gyeongheenu. That is the giant open-walled building located in the pond at the palace. Since the beginning of April sometime for the first time in years they are opening it to guests, if you make reservations (the system ONLY works in Korean and you have to have a Korean gov't issued ID number so since I don't have one I had to call and make them work around the system). They have 3 times per day that you can go in, and each time they limit the number of guests. I was pretty confident that even if we were 20 minutes late it'd be okay, but it's good we were on time. It was only our group and another group of three that had reservations and as soon as we entered they locked the gate! The tour guide told us we had only 30 minutes and we had to follow her and listen to her for 20. She spoke in fast Korean on the geomantic positioning of the building, the philosophy behind the color choices on the roof, the mechanics of cooling the building on hot Korean summers, the activities that took place there and many other similar topics. Of course I couldn’t translate at her speed, esp. not into easy English for Karjam, not without losing track of what she was saying. Then she complained that I'd only come to take photos and wasn't listening! Uhhh… I can listen and take photos. So I explained that I certainly couldn’t translate into both English and Chinese in the tiny breaks between her sentences and that she was using advanced vocabulary that even if I understand it in Korean is hard for me to formulate into an English sentence while continuing to listen… and it turned out she could speak Chinese so she talked to Karjam during the free 10 minutes at the end when we were supposed to take photos. Unfortunately there was wire covering the upper story windows to keep birds from roosting and pooping everywhere. It was so awesome to be there, though. Wire or not I think I got some interesting shots. It was so cool, it felt very exclusive to be there with only 6 other people and the view across to the Blue House, across the palace, down on the pond, out towards 광화문 Gwanghwamun, etc. was awesome. Incidentally Gwanghwamun's sign board which infamously cracked right after the renovation was complete, is being repaired.

This is Gyeongheenu

Looking out from inside Gyeongheenu

The sad factor with the wire over the windows is that photos like this have obvious wire patterns...

Inside roof!

Mom and I took the bus and I ate Thai food with her at Buddha's Belly, then took the bus to class at KOUS, which Karjam went to pick up his computer (new fan, new DVD player something or other, less than 4 hours, about 100 USD at the HP service center—freaking LOVE Korea).

The final 진옥섭 Jin Okseop class was pretty good, the last thirty minutes anyway, but it ended earlier. Oh, I was given a CD for having perfect attendance. The CD is awesome, it's a collection of really old recordings curated by 배연형 Bae Yeonhyeong. It's amazing (listening as I type). Truly amazing to hear these voices off scratchy recordings from the 1920s and even before. I didn't take my computer to class as I would have had to carry it around all day, instead I just scribbled in my notebook. I got some fairly good quotes from him, but it's nearly impossible for me to hand-write and translate all but proper nouns and listen. That's why I really need to be typing my notes. Even with the extra key strokes to hit the toggle between Korean and English, I can still keep up with most of what he's saying. 

Sangmo and a Performance

April 12^th, 2011

I went to 전통국악사 Traditional Korean Music Store and to 고려국악사 Goryeo Korean Music Store and picked up more ribbon for my sangmo and a fan for practicing the part of grandmother in 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum.

In the evening, as usual, I had 상모 sangmo class. Hyeonseok, Rimhan and I were the only students in class and Rimhan was late. I didn't have quite as good a rehearsal as the previous week, I think that the difference was not setting things up enough. Basically 이종휘 Yi Jonghui's line for the day was that he'd taught us all the steps, this step, that step, etc. and we should just run through them as we spun. Except we were spinning 바른사 counter-clockwise circles and 반대사 clockwise circles instead of doing 사사 1 ¾ circle left 1 ¾ circle right. It was harder doing counter-clockwise and very hard doing clockwise, Rimhan could barely do anything clockwise as his clockwise spin isn't there yet. Even counter-clockwise I find the transition into one step very hard and another step almost impossible to maintain (although I can do it with circles on both sides). At the end of class I video-taped Jonghui giving a mini-lesson in the basics. I'll put it up on my video section soon, but I won't make it publicly accessible link because it's not like he prepared to give a perfect lesson, it's just an on the spot thing.

Here is the video excerpt of me, I'll upload Yi Jonghui later.

April 13^th, 2011

I worked at home and at Chans Bros.

In the evening we went to a concert at the 국악원 National Gugak (Korean Music) Center. The concert had been billed as being a new way to introduce Korean traditional music, and of course I wanted to see how they'd do it and if it would be effective to reach the audience. The article I'd seen had not mentioned it was particularly targeted at families, but apparently it was, as the audience was mostly families.

There were two distinctly different things that they did: they had an announcer that was a "scientist" complete with an Einstein wig. He did little magic tricks and spoke in a very funny and affected manner. He did things like introduce all the instruments in funny and memorable ways. For example he introduced the 해금 haegeum and next when he introduced the 아쟁 ajaeng he said it was the haegeum on steroids, the haegeum's big brother (both are bowed, but the haegeum is like a little 2 string violin in size and the ajaeng is 5 feet long with multiple strings). Each instrument played a little snippet designed to capture the audience attention. Most were children's songs or pop songs or Western songs, not Korean traditional songs. The other thing they did was they had three compositions which they introduced through a Korean genre painting and a poetic/story of historic Korea. The announcer for those had one of those perfect radio classical music DJ voices. There were a total of 3 ensemble pieces (one was the first piece then the two last pieces were ensemble) and they were introduced by Einstein and in the middle were three compositions for between 2 and 4 instruments. All the pieces were new compositions, not traditional music. The best part was the amazing 거문고 geomungo player. 

Just Three Days

April 6^th, 2011

I had awesome productivity writing on my dissertation. In the evening I went to 상모 sangmo class. We had a really awesome class, today. It was just three students and 이종휘 Yi Jonghui attended as in the last two weeks by his girlfriend, 주리 Juri.  I talked with them about the writing I'd been doing during the day, Jonghui gave me a little additional insight. In class we worked on transitions from one step to the next without losing our spin, a very useful thing to work on, and we learned one new step, which although it gave me grief at first, I soon got down. I love sangmo!

April 7^th, 2011

I worked all day on the computer

April 8^th, 2011

I had 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum in the evening—I got there early enough to take 현석 Hyeonseok to dinner. Class was very ordinary except 하연 Hayeon is taking a month off to rest her constantly hurt ankles. I interviewed 수미 Sumi during class. After class ended the dancers for the April 29^th piece tried to memorize 박용철 Bak Yongcheol's choreography. I find the large amount of energy in the class that Bak is controlling now to be a bit worrisome—even though it's mostly confined to after class (or before and after) he has also brought in so many new people who look to him first. 

Jin Okseop Lecture on Korean Dance (#2)

April 3^rd, 2011

I worked on the computer all day, for a few hours at Chans Bros, the rest of the day at home.

April 4^th, 2011

Stopped by Yonsei campus and printed chapter 2 of my dissertation so I can look at it on paper for once. It's about 90 pages long, in three separate files right now. I hope I can clarify and edit it well enough to share soon. I was in the neighborhood so that I could meet my friend 회정 Hoijung to help her with a presentation she doesn't actually need my help with, but perhaps prep goes faster with my company!

After the meeting with Hoijung I decided I didn't have enough time to hurry home and then hurry to KOUS so I went directly there and talked with one of the workers there to get some background info on their operations before I talk to 진옥섭 Jin Okseop directly. Today class was much better because I had a small epiphany, talking with 세정 Sejeong helped me to develop another idea I've been thinking through and because Jin Okseop made a point that is really important. In fact Jin only talked for about fifteen minutes then showed a video that was at least an hour long.

1) Jin's important point: In Korean dance in the past, like the dance that was most commonly trained in the art's academies for 기생 gisaeng called 권범 gwonbeom, it was common to see fairly large groups of artists put on stage at once, after they'd trained together extensively and could match movements to each other well. But in the modern era when it's so hard to get a group of people together, or get them together often enough to dance as one, these types of dances rapidly lost members and were adjusted to become solo dances. In addition the solo dances became more popular and commonly performed.

2) Talking with Sejeong: it is common to see really old dancers put on stage. In the video we saw a woman with osteoporosis so bad that she had a huge hump in her back. We also saw people who were shaking as they danced and a guy who's balance had in large part deserted him. But Sejeong confirmed that we don't see musicians of similar age on stage. I asked her why not since obviously with an instrument like 가야금 gayageum or 해금 haegeum there shouldn't be much physical limitation on it. She said that the audience forgives the old dancers for shaking but they can't tell the age of the old musicians or tell if they are shaking when their tone is affected, so the musicians won't do go on stage once their performance is compromised.

3) My own small epiphany relates to the ongoing analysis of the age of dancers on the Korean stage and it may actually be something I've figured out before, I was just figuring it out again in more depth and scribbling in the dark. In brief: in addition to the other many reasons to watch an old dancer or for an old dancer to go on stage, there is the desire of the audience for the authentic –folk- dance, for the person trained in the village who is the embodied connection with a near mythical past that they've mostly lost in the modern age, and that watching that person who physically holds the 'old' knowledge and 'old' ways may be more rewarding (emotionally) than watching the young and beautiful dancer who after 5 or 10 years of practice should –theoretically- be able to do what the old dancer can do. 

Comments welcome, of course.

And, super cool thing, 장사익 Jang Sa'ik (one of my favorite singers) was sitting directly behind me in class today. I gave him a bow big enough to acknowledge him but not intrusive enough that he'd have to engage me in conversation. At first (since his knees literally were 3 inches behind my seat) I was a bit distracted that he was there, but having 안대천 Ahn Daecheon on one side of me and Sejeong on the other, I got over it. 

Choreography Rises from Bongsan Talchum

March 31^st. 2011

Worked on the computer. Added a bunch of photos into past entries, feel free to scroll down to see them.

Kim Eunju teaches the relative newcomers 

Kim Eunju drumming

I had 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum class and I didn't want to feel like 현석 Hyeonseok was starving through the whole class, so I picked him up a roll of kimbap on the way. Class was pretty ordinary except 박용철 Bak Yongcheol had brought two more people, apparently they were both there on Monday as well. But the two other of his people that I had already met were not there. We did 사상좌 the dance of the novice Buddhist monks for the first time in a million years. Before class started and after it ended Bak Yongcheol worked on choreographing his dance performance (it'll be on the 29^th), he has the music and some ideas of how the choreography will be already. It appears that at least 병호 Byeongho and 정현 Jeonghyeon have committed to being part of the project. When class ended Hyeonseok had to use my phone to contact someone. 

From K-Arts to Bongsan Talchum to the Seoul History Museum

March 23rd, 2011
The research activity of the day was to go see the 한국종합예술학교 K-Arts students practice 고성오광대 Goseong Ogwangdae again. Karjam came with me, expressing his desire not to go basically at every moment. We arrived right at 8, and some students were eating dinner still. However they started before too long. 태환 Taehwan announced the performance date—May 7th.

They did basic motions with 희수, 혜미, 재윤, 준영 playing instruments. Then they did act one, Taehwan felt a big heavier in his motions. As he practiced 윤만 was practicing his own stuff, while 혜미 and 정운 were in the back of the room eating dinner.

Next they practiced act three, but they kept stopping and taking things again. 만희, 준영, 정우, everyone basically was on 희수's case for continually screwing it up. He must have a hard time remembering stage blocking. As for 만희 he got very little correction, but when he did he responded that 창열 had said he was doing it right but 대천 had agreed with the critique, so he was trying to find a middle ground.

Act two was next and 정우 looked a lot more masculine. They went through the act with no interruptions, although at one point 민기 just announced that he'd take his line over again (and did so). Afterwards they had a discussion of what went right and what needs to change. 정우 and 민기 get in a discussion about where (on the stage) to do the dialogue. 민기 says "when the teachers perform, 원양반 does a circle like this right in the center." And acts it out.

Act five was next. 준영 had hurt his leg and couldn’t move very well, but it almost worked better (certainly funnier). They took the parts several times esp. the part with the two songs, trying to get the timing all right. During one of his parts 윤만 tells everyone "don't laugh" because he's having a hard time due to difficulty keeping a straight face.

Last of all they practice act 4, and the two "ladies" are played by 정운 and 재윤(not the normal actors) and they totally goof around making it hard for 경진 to concentrate, but it's all in good fun.

At the end of the practice the students completely confirmed my absolutely positive impression of them. They were so awesome. They all came and sat down in front of Karjam and introduced themselves as a group and asked him to introduce himself and then to sing. And then Karjam asked them to sing (they sang a mourning song from 진도 씻김 굿) and then they asked me to give them feedback on the days rehearsal (my general feedback was that they were getting so much better and that now they were more comfortable with the roles they'd be able to fix the little things). Karjam was happy on the way home. He was definitely impressed.

March 24th, 2011
The research activity of the day was to go to 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum class, but I was a bit late because of the sudden heavy wet snow shower that snarled traffic. In class we had 12 people not including 김은주 Kim Eunju but including 인수 Insu who was there to practice his drumming accompaniment skills (which meant that Eunju was able to move around and teach without drumming). 박용철 Bak Yongcheol had brought another of his troupe people, a huge man, to class. 현석 Hyeonseok was there, too. And I felt guilty I hadn't come earlier, he'd been there waiting since 5:30 without dinner since his family doesn't have the money to spare. I guess I need to feed him every week as well as paying his tuition (to be fair, he doesn't know I do that). We practiced all the way through the monk parts and did lion dance at the end.

March 25th, 2011
On Friday I spent hours with 지수 Jisu again, then rushed home, changed, and went to a meeting of "Pine and Tiger" (a special group for discussion of issues related to tourism/expressing Korean culture to foreigners) which was a bit unsatisfying as Director 엄승용 Eom Seungyong was so late and we just couldn't have the meeting right without him. We did, however, tour the 서울역사박물관 Seoul History Museum. It is devoid of English, but actually has a lot of awesome displays—photos from the late 50s and early 60s, a display of items from daily life, and a great diorama of the city. After touring around we went to dinner, half way through Eom Seungyong finally joined us. The group didn't really jell, although I think I made a great impression on the two Korean members. Karjam and I saw "The King's Speech" in the evening.