Gwangju and South Jeolla International Magazine
Gwangju and South Jeolla International Magazine
July 2021 #233
July 2021 #233 (Sub)standard Practice: Urban Redevelopment’s Sudden Fall from Obscurity
Deadly Collapse
In the Hak-dong Area of Gwangju
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1 Gwangju & South Jeolla International Magazine
From the Editor
W
elcome to July and to our latest issue of the Gwangju News! We hope the fair weather of late June is a harbinger of a pleasant July, especially after the recent tragedy that has befallen Gwangju. Be sure to read our feature on this deadly Hak-dong building collapse that should never have happened (pages 6–11).
July 2021, Issue 233 Published: July 1, 2021 Cover Photo Rescue workers atop the rubble of the Hak-dong accident. By Isaiah Winters
THE EDITORIAL TEAM Publisher Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Chief Copy Editor Layout Editor Photographer Copy Editing Online Editor Content Support
Dr. Shin Gyonggu Dr. David E. Shaffer William Urbanski Isaiah Winters Karina Prananto Kim Hillel Yunkyoung Di Foster, David Foster Karina Prananto Melline Galani
The Gwangju News is the first English monthly magazine for the general public in Korea, first published in 2001. Each monthly issue covers local and regional issues, with a focus on the roles and activities of the international residents and local English-speaking communities. Copyright ©2021 by the Gwangju International Center. All rights reserved. No part of this publication covered by this copyright may be reproduced in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise – without the written consent of the publisher.
Registration No. 광주광역시 라. 00145 (ISSN 2093-5315) Registration Date: February 22, 2010 Printed by Jieum 지음 (+82)-62-672-2566
Special thanks to Gwangju City and all of our sponsors.
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Education has its alternatives. Learn what the Raemi School has to offer in alternative education to its students. Well-being is a concern for everyone, and quite importantly for teachers and students. Learn how it can be fostered in the field of education [Language Teaching]. Learning Korean is certainly a concern of every expat in Korea – “It’s Worth Doing!” – check out Everyday Korean. Check out our Restaurant Review of the Bondisto in Yangnimdong. Read about the disappearance of green space in Bongseondong [Opinion]. From GFN Radio, we bring you the latest from the music scene in “Top of The Drop” and all about The Afternoon Show with JD. We also introduce the webtoon “Alan and Me.” Bring yourself up to date with Gwangju City News, feast your eyes on the psychedelic Photo of the Month, and puzzle your neurons with the Crossword Puzzle for July. As always, stay Covid smart, stay Covid safe, get Covid protected, and enjoy the Gwangju News.
David E. Shaffer Editor-in-Chief Gwangju News
July 2021
For volunteering and article submission inquiries, please contact the editor at gwangjunews@gic.or.kr.
Several of our other articles relate in one aspect or another to Korea’s past, while we visit a futuristic solar-powered abode, we also introduce you to a restorer of old hanok houses who is bringing them beautifully into the present [Lost in Gwangju]. Also, bringing back memories of her childhood in Gwangju, one student abroad relates her reconnection and infatuation with the Jeollado dialect [Gwangju Abroad]. Our Photo Essay depicts the Japanese-era tunnels found in Mokpo, and our Book Review details the travels of the book’s author to many little-known historical sites throughout the country.
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The Gwangju News is published by the Gwangju International Center: Jungang-ro 196-beon-gil 5 (Geumnam-ro 3-ga), Dong-gu, Gwangju 61475, South Korea Tel: (+82)-62-226-2733~34 Fax: (+82)-62-226-2731 Website: www.gwangjunewsgic.com Email: gwangjunews@gic.or.kr gwangjunews gwangju_news
We hope you will be eager to read our other features for the month. You are invited to a solar energy house in Ilgok-dong that generates more energy than it actually needs! The dog days of the Northern Hemisphere begin in July, including three particular Korean “dog days,” and our feature [Hot Dog!] recounts the traditional customs, foods, and foretellings associated with these hot days. Another of our features [Blast from the Past] takes us back three quarters of a century to the time of Korea’s liberation from colonial rule. And two of Gwangju’s artists allow us to reminisce about life in Gwangju’s backstreet neighborhoods before the dominance of the high-rise apartment complex [People in the Arts].
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Photo of the Month By Shah Nawaz Shan
City of Human Rights
This colorful “Gwangju” sign depicts the diversity of Gwangju, the “City of Human Rights,” from its perch atop Jeonil Building 245, itself a symbol of human rights.
The Photographer
Shah Nawaz Shan is originally from Sindh, Pakistan. He is a development professional who has managed and implemented emergency and development projects for reputable NGOs. He has recently completed his master’s degree in NGOs from Chonnam National University. He is a life explorer who wants to live his life as no one has lived before. @shahnawazshan11
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Contents
ISSUE 233, JULY 2021
NEWS 01. From the Editor 04. Gwangju City News FEATURES 06. (Sub)standard Practice : Urban Redevelopment’s Sudden Fall from Obscurity 12. Energyman and His “Energy-Plus” House 16. Hot Dog! It’s Summertime in Korea 19. People in the Arts: Two Peas in Their Pods – Yang Na-hee and Noh Yeo-woon 24. Blast from the Past: A Peninsula Is Liberated, a Nation Is Born TRAVEL 26. Lost in Gwangju: Making a House a Home – With Hanok Restorer Kang Dongsu TEACHING & LEARNING 30. The Raemi School: Looking at the Future from a Different Perspective – The Other Way Around! 34. Language Teaching: Teaching and Learning . . . and Well-being 37. Everyday Korean: Episode 43 – 할 만해요 (It’s Worth Doing) FOOD & DRINKS 38. Restaurant Review: Bondiso, an Artistic Fusion COMMUNITY 40. Gwangju Abroad: Reconnecting with Gwangju Through Saturi 42. Opinion: The Green Space Vendetta CULTURE & ARTS
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02. Photo of the Month 44. Gwangju Webtoon: “Alan and Me” 46. Photo Essay: Mokpo’s Japanese-Era Tunnels 50. Book Review: Travels of an American-Korean: 2014–2020 by Richard Pennington 52. GFN Radio: The Afternoon Show with JD 54. GFN Radio: Top of The Drop 56. Crossword Puzzle
July 2021
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Gwangju City News
Gwangju City and Local Medical Institutions Cooperate for Children
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The key points of the agreement are (a) promoting understanding and cooperation for “making Gwangju a better place to have children,” (b) creating a pregnancy and childbirth-friendly environment, (c) promoting support policies for each life stage, and (d) sharing the integrated information platform Gwangju iKium.” To this end, Gwangju and the affiliated institutions are promoting the “making Gwangju a better place to raise children” policy by providing a comprehensive guide to support policies by providing life-cycle support policy guides to visitors to medical institutions and promoting information such as policy-promotion video screening. The agreement with local medical institutions directly related to pregnancy and childbirth is expected to further boost Gwangju’s policy of “making Gwangju a better place to raise children.” In order to strengthen the responsibility and public nature of care services, Gwangju City has announced a series of policies to create an improved environment in which to raise children “since July 2019 and has been pushing for six life-cycle support policies including meeting, marriage, pregnancy, birth, childcare, and work-life balance.” Meanwhile, Gwangju’s total fertility rate, which had continued to decline until last year, rebounded from January to March this year, up 6.8 percent from the same quarter of the previous year, as the city’s policy to overcome low birth rates has led to tangible results. This is the first increase in six years, and Gwangju is the only place where the total fertility rate increased in the first quarter of this year among the 17 major cities and provinces.
July 2021
MONTHLY NEWS
From the Gwangju Metropolitan City website (http://gwangju.go.kr)
The medical community, City Hall, and Gwangju City Council joined hands on the city’s key policy of “making Gwangju a better place to raise children.” Gwangju City Council President Park Yoohwan, Vice Chairman Oh Young-hyeon, Mizpia Hospital Obstetrics and Gynecology Director Lee Hyun-soo, and IFirst Children’s Hospital Pediatric Department Director Choi Chang-sun, on behalf of the departments of obstetrics, gynecology, and pediatrics in the city, signed a business agreement for mutual cooperation to make Gwangju a finer place to give birth to and raise children.
▲ Gwangju Mayor Lee Yong Sup (second from left) with local medical institution representatives after signing an ageement promoting Gwangju’s policy to make Gwangju a better place to raise children.
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Park Yoo-hwan, Chairman of the City Council, stated, “The decrease in the number of births is due to concerns about childcare and assistance. We ordered the expansion of childcare, care facilities, and related services, and if the community creates an unbiased culture of caring for pregnant women, the birth rate will increase.” Mayor Lee Yong Sup said, “Now we have to take the lead in solving the problem of low birthrates, and we all need to gather strength and wisdom to raise our children healthily and guarantee a sustainable future. We hope today’s agreement will be a driving force to build Gwangju into the center of Korea and lead the world.”
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“Let’s Make Gwangju a Happier Place for Women” Gwangju Mayor Lee Yong Sup (center) meets 20 members of civic groups representing the women of Gwangju. ▶
Mayor Lee Yong Sup visited facilities for female civic and rights groups, and listened to their problems on the second day of the “Special Week for Women and Childcare in Overcoming COVID-19.” Mayor Lee held a meeting with about 20 members of groups representing the local women’s community, including the Gwangju Women’s Association, the Gwangju-Jeonnam Women’s Association, and the Gwangju YWCA at the Gwangju Women’s Organization Center. At the meeting, Mayor Lee stressed the importance of eliminating discrimination and violence that still exist in society and the need to create a world where people come first, regardless of gender. He invited the female community to take the lead and by taking up the role of local leaders who care for their neighbors.
Following the meeting with women’s civic groups, Mayor Lee had a meeting with representatives of more than 20 facilities related to victim support, including domestic violence, sexual violence, and sex trafficking. Representatives of women’s rights facilities requested improvement in treatment for facility workers, priority in vaccination, support for the sale of goods produced by women who are victims of prostitution, and the easing of requirements for subsidies.
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A taxi driver who had a partition installed as part of the pilot project said, “I gained psychological relief from the threat of drunken passengers when driving at night. Also, since the spread of COVID-19, more passengers ride in the back seat than in the seat next to the driver, and the transmission of droplets when talking is partially blocked, so passengers also prefer it.” Son Doo-young, head of the city’s public transportation division, said, “In the case of city buses, the installation of barriers to protect drivers is mandatory according to the relevant laws, but there are few cases of similar protection for taxis, so we have implemented a partition pilot project for women and elderly drivers. If the collected opinions and responses are good, we plan to continue to expand the installation to strengthen the safety of transportation personnel.” Translated by Melline Galani.
July 2021
Mayor Lee expressed his gratitude for the hard work of those involved in helping women suffering from violence, healing their pain, and helping them become independent, while vowing to do his best in making Gwangju a safe and happy place for women.
Gwangju City is conducting a project to install partitions in taxis to protect taxi drivers from assault by drunken passengers and prevent infection from COVID-19. In March, partitions were installed on a trial basis in 113 taxis for female and elderly drivers, and an additional 100 are planned to be installed at the request of passengers and drivers. The installation cost will be shared by the city (80 percent) and the taxi driver (20 percent.)
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In order to promote the rights and interests of local women, the women’s civic groups suggested providing additional support to the female community with long-awaited projects for women, expanding support for events such as commemorating International Women’s Day on March 8 of each year, and offering training support for the empowerment of local female activists. In addition, civic groups have decided to actively take part in the city’s new project, “Making Gwangju a better place to raise children.”
Gwangju City to Install Additional Partitions in Taxis
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July 2021 2021 July
FEATURE
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▲ Rescue workers, reporters, and wrecking crews seen the day after the collapse.
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(Sub)standard Practice Urban Redevelopment’s Sudden Fall from Obscurity By Isaiah Winters
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July July 2021 2021
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here’s so much one could say about the recent collapse of a five-story building in Hak-dong, Gwangju. With nine dead and eight injured, it’s hard to know where to start picking up the pieces. To provide some context, the ill-fated neighborhood is nearing the end of a long, arduous redevelopment process for the sake of unaffordable high-rise apartments. The Gwangju News has been there on multiple occasions to give this erasure of history some of the spotlight it deserves, but urban redevelopment has proven to be a stubbornly anti-viral topic – that is, until June 9, 2021.
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July 2021
About an hour after the collapse had occurred, I got a strange phone call from my wife. She just wanted to hear my voice and know that I was safe. At the time, I was finishing up my interview with Kang Dongsu, the hanok restorer featured in this issue’s Lost in Gwangju, so I assured her all was well and that I’d soon be home for dinner. “Did you hear about Hak-dong?” she added earnestly. I said I hadn’t, and then she let me go. Over dinner, I learned of the collapse and my wife’s ensuing panic. She knows how often I visit the area for photography and therefore had a reasonable fear that I’d been nearby when it happened. In fact, we’d been there together with our close friends Ryan Berkebile and Sounion Hong to take photos just ten days prior. During that visit, I got a very close look at demolition methods used on the Gwangju Apartments just a few hundred meters from where the disaster later struck. In the hours following the collapse, I tried to make sense of it all by comparing images of the disaster site with my most recent photos. The main commonality that stood out was the use of what I call “rubble ramps.” Basically, an excavator begins clawing at one part of a building and then, as bits of concrete, rebar, and whatever else cascade down to the ground, a pile forms. This pile creates a demolition earthwork of sorts that the excavators climb on top of to demolish additional parts of the building previously out of reach. Over time, these mounds can become formidable. What likely happened is that, after the back of the building had been clawed away, leaving only the flimsy façade and portions of the sides intact, the ever-growing force exerted by the enormous “rubble ramp” plus the constant battering of excavators eventually proved too much for the feeble structure and even feebler scaffolding hiding the sketchy process. The most damning detail of all is that the adjacent sidewalk and bus stop were never once closed to protect the public. In retrospect, the whole operation was a bit like erecting scaffolding and construction tarp around the ridge of an active volcano to hide its inconvenient volatility and then letting the public freely hike to the summit. Of course, tempting fate
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in this way seems unconscionably absurd now that the consequences are national news, but this sort of thing happens all the time. In short, it’s both standard and substandard practice. Two months prior to the collapse, another building just 300 meters away was being demolished in the same way, raising concerns among locals. Although it fortunately didn’t collapse, one resident, identified in local news only as “Mr. Shin,” filed a public interest report over the potential risk of such demolition practices and the serious danger they posed to adjacent public spaces. In his report, Shin specifically mentioned the piling up of dirt and lack of safety precautions taken in the demolition process. Shin’s report was received by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, which notified the Dong-gu Office of the Urban Management Bureau. In response, said bureau issued “an official letter” to the demolition contractor demanding that safety be “strictly observed” so that nearby pedestrians don’t suffer from any accidents. Apparently, that was good enough for the bureau.[1] Shin was less than impressed. In an interview with The Hankyoreh, he voiced more of his concerns about the potential for fatal injuries. Again, he referenced the increasingly steep slope of the dirt-and-rubble heap bearing down on the building façade, which was weakening more and more with every chunk ripped off. Ultimately, Shin’s concerns were ignored, and the precarious demolition practices continued unchecked. At the time, neither the demolition company (Hansol Corporation) nor the apartment developer (HDC Hyundai Development Company) responded to the report. Inquiries made by The Hankyoreh back in April were also disregarded. Two months later, Shin’s worst fears would prove prescient.[1] Five days after the collapse, on June 14, the Dong-gu Office conducted a belated safety inspection of the redevelopment site with the help of structural engineers and architects. The findings are quite damning. With the monsoon season just around the corner, sinkholes are a serious concern in the area, as many pits and underground structures have been left wide open. When these aren’t covered, water can seep deep into the ground and erode the soil upholding the heavily trafficked roads nearby. Overall, the post-processing of demolished buildings in Hak-dong was found to be severely lacking, with many buildings left half standing and unattended trash and rubble left at or just beneath the surface – an invisible danger passed on to the following developer.[1] Another interesting detail to emerge is related to illegal multi-level subcontracting. Although Seoul-based Hansol
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▲ Emergency rescue workers stand atop the “rubble ramp” the day after the accident.
Corporation won the bid for demolition in Hak-dong, the demolition company working on the collapsed building was actually Gwangju-based Baeksol Construction. This means that demolition was double subcontracted, from Hyundai to Hansol and then from Hansol to Baeksol.[2] Naturally, the reason for this sort of thing is to save money. Hansol Corporation would take a financial hit by transporting its equipment down to Gwangju, so it cuts corners by hiring local contractors, but this cost-cutting method results in cuts to safety measures as well.[3] Apparently, this kind of illegal multi-level subcontracting is rampant in the construction industry.
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Resources 1 Jeong, D. (2021, June 10). [단독] 두달 전 “철거 건물, 도로 덮칠 듯”…참사 막을 기회 있었다. The Hankyoreh. https://www. hani.co.kr/arti/area/honam/998878.html?fbclid=IwAR1VKna EKnPi3Zjs8rH RivLBqaiiX8PjFmOYzUAWpfECTSFNfBrcfFx _pxI 2 Kim, Y. (2021, June 14). “17명 사상” 광주 학동4구역…“이미 철거된 건물들도 위험.” The Hankyoreh. https://www.hani. co.kr/arti/area/honam/999334.html 3 Jeong, B. (2021, June 14). 학동 붕괴사고로 드러난 건설업계 “고질적 하도급” 병폐. Gwangju Ilbo. https://kwangjuilbo. tistory.com/5546?category=751718
The Author
Born and raised in America’s largest county, Isaiah Winters is a pixel-stained wretch who loves writing about Gwangju, warts and all. When he’s not working or copyediting, he’s usually punishing himself with long hikes or curbing his mediocre writing and photography with regular practice. Regarding the latter, you can check his progress at @d.p.r.kwangju
July 2021
It’s hard to conclude an article on such a recent event, so I’ll focus on more perennial concerns. While negligent demolition projects like what we see in Hak-dong and around the country are likely here to stay, I don’t think urban redevelopment’s sudden fall from obscurity will stick – though I’d love to be proven wrong. In this case,
Photographs by Isaiah Winters.
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A recent police investigation into the demolition process has revealed that Baeksol Construction was also enlisted for asbestos removal in the area. This was found to be illegal, as Baeksol Construction didn’t have an asbestos removal license when the contract was made. (The company would later “borrow” such a license from Daein Construction, which is also illegal license lending.) The investigation is ongoing and may involve more subcontracting companies, but getting conclusive evidence in such cases can at times be complicated by the fact that so many of the contracts are made verbally.[3] We’ll just have to wait and see what facts turn up.
some heads might roll, a few fines will probably be paid, and a couple of dodgy companies may get taken down in the process; however, my concern is how quickly the public eye will redirect to other things, leaving only a handful of concerned citizens, journalists, writers, and photographers to remind the public how closely intertwined these issues are with our everyday lives.
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▲ A photo of a mostly concrete “rubble ramp” taken somewhere in Hak-dong ten days prior to the accident.
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The Gwangju News would like to offer our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of this tragedy.
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July 2021 2021 July
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Energyman and His “Energy-Plus” House
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July 2021
FEATURE
By Chung Hyunhwa
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uperheroes such as Batman, Ironman, or Antman appear in times of trouble. We are facing an awful climate crisis and we certainly need some help from such superheroes. Here, we have Energyman to the rescue! Energyman, Mr. Jeong Inbong, who is actively working to fight against the climate crisis, is living in his “energy-plus” house in Ilgok-dong on the north side of Gwangju.
◀ Previous page: Jeong Inbong, in front of his “energy-plus” house.
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MORE SECRETS The house itself was, in fact, very energy efficient because the walls were twice as thick as an average home due to the insulation. He has installed airlock windows (in Korean, 시스템창호) to minimize the loss of heat, and the house was also equipped with a dump heat exchanger control to reuse the heat in the house, which makes it a semi-passive home. He avoided using cement for the structure because it would emit carbon dioxide and other hazardous gases. There are 6kW solar panels on the roof, and 2kW panels in front of the house working as shade.
July 2021
“ENERGY-PLUS” HOUSE It was one fine Monday when I finally met Energyman, Jeong Inbong, in the small front yard of his house. His two-story house was surrounded by other houses, but even though it was not so big, it stood out because of the solar panels and solar heating systems rising above the roof. He started explaining about the solar air heater, which was my initial interest. When he was building his house, he told me that he was very willing to adopt any technology that was going to save him from using fossil fuels or nuclear power. Unlike the DIY solar air heater I had in mind, his system was a fancy one from Germany.
“He literally transforms human power to electricity. Maybe I should call him “Eelman” instead!” www.gwangjunewsgic.com
ENERGYMAN OR EELMAN? Earlier, I was looking for ways to make my place more energy efficient, and the idea of a solar air heater, an appropriate type of technology, sounded terrific. Once installed, this can heat the air up to 75°C with only sunlight and keep the indoor temperature above 28°C. If you like DIY projects, it is quite affordable. A lot of people consider “appropriate technology” to be for people in developing countries, while people living in developed countries use electricity to heat and cool rooms, clean the house, and even dry clothes. We may easily think that using more energy is the expression of affluence. However, soon we will be forced to not use fossil fuels for energy because they release greenhouse gases into the air, which remain in the atmosphere for over one hundred years. I searched to find someone who already was experienced with the solar air heater system because I was fascinated by the fact that all it takes is sunlight and a low-budget structure. Luckily, I found Energyman! I visited him after reading a couple of articles on his blog, as he seemed like an interesting person. He had installed solar panels, a solar air heater, and a solar water heater at his house. He also charges the batteries of his beam projector for the classes he teaches by pedaling his mini-generator. He literally transforms human power into electricity. Maybe I should call him “Eelman” instead!
He also invested money in a solar water heater. The air heater had a long tube in a box with a transparent cover to collect heat from the sun, and there was an automatic fan run by a small solar panel on the box to draw air inside the house. The tube was connected to the house through a hole in the wall. I got to feel the warm air from it. The water heater heated water and kept it in a tank. It provided hot water most of the time throughout the year. His house is an “energy-plus” house because it generates more energy than he needs in this way. He advises that installing solar panels is the most efficient and simplest way to be energy efficient because you can use the power to boil water and heat or cool rooms flexibly.
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▲ Different kinds of energy-saving technology at Jeong Inbong’s house.
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July 2021
Some people may worry about the electromagnetic waves from the solar panels, but according to Mr. Jeong, if you are a meter away from the inverters that are outside the house, you are safe. Even though he is producing enough energy for his family of four, he is still very cautious about using unnecessary energy. LIFESTYLE I was very moved by Mr. Jeong’s lifestyle. Not only does he refuse to use fossil/nuclear energy, but also he and his family eat only plant-based food because it affects the environment the least. He has been a vegan for 25 years. Mr. Jeong currently works for the Climate Action Vegan Network and Gwangju Sunlight Generation Cooperative. He also teaches about the climate at Gwangju Wisdom School. He did his doctoral studies in food and medicine at Chosun University and practices a one-meal-a-day diet, both for health and for environmental reasons. He does not even own a car. DECIDE TO BE A HERO! In these times of climate difficulties, I hope there will be an innovative way soon to remove massive amounts of
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carbon directly from the atmosphere. But until scientist heroes invent a way to do this, we need more ecoheroes like Mr. Jeong, the Energyman. What is positive is that we can all become this kind of hero by reducing the unnecessary loss and waste of energy. Putting solar panels on rooftops is one way. Adding extra insulation to our buildings is also a great idea. Some people who do not have space for solar panels at their homes are getting together to establish solar energy farms. Some are talking about climate justice for those who, despite being the least responsible for creating these climate problems, are vulnerable during unexpected winter storms and summer heat. One may argue that the industrial sector is consuming the majority of energy inefficiently, so this needs to change first and urgently. Yes, but we also should do what we can, and it all starts from something as small as turning off one switch. Be a hero and help save humankind. Illustration by Wi Hunho. Photographs courtesy of Chung Hyunhwa.
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The Author
Hailing from Gwangju, Chung Hyunhwa is currently leading Gwangju Hikers, an international eco-hike group at the GIC, and getting ready to teach the Korean language. Previously, she taught English in different settings, including at Yantai American School and Yantai Korean School in China. Ms. Chung has also worked for the Jeju school administration at Branksome Hall Asia in recent years. She holds a master’s degree in TESOL from TCNJ in the U.S.
TIPS FOR SAVING ENERGY IN A HEALTHY WAY • Be careful when using appliances that require standby power.
• Do not keep rice warm in the rice cooker.
• Eat more fresh veggies to avoid using energy for cooking.
• Use a smaller refrigerator, which is also good for having fresher food.
• Go to bed earlier and get up earlier to use the daylight more.
• Increase time for reading and • • • •
• •
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exercising rather than using the computer or TV. Use stairs instead of an elevator. Avoid doing the laundry when it is unnecessary. Save tap water, which requires energy to be delivered to homes. Use fewer dishes for meals to save water (you can even use just one plate when at a buffet-style restaurant). Add insulation for more efficient heating and air conditioning. Install airlock windows. Cool the roof by painting it a heatreflecting color.
July 2021
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Hot Dog!
It’s Summertime in Korea
FEATURE
By David Shaffer
WESTERN ASTROLOGY The “dog days of summer” is a familiar term that many of us quickly associate with the hottest and most humid period of the summer season. Fewer probably know that this period has traditionally referred to a specific span of time. According to Greek astrology, the dog days begin with the appearance of Sirius, the Dog Star, in the early morning sky and last until it is no longer visible. This year, that period is the 30 days from July 21 to August 19 according to Hellenistic stargazing; however, the dates and the length of the dog days vary in Western cultures: from 30 to 60 days and from early July to early September.
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July 2021
Now what is the association of the star Sirius and “dog”? The connection goes back to astrology: Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky, and it can be found to the left of Orion’s belt. The constellation Orion is also known as “The Hunter,” and Sirius is part of the constellation Canis Major (aka “Greater Dog”), which is located to the lower left of Orion and appears as a dog might when following its master. Outside of ancient astrology, however, the dog days have been associated with a myriad of things disagreeable: heat, lethargy, fever, disease, drought, thunderstorms, mad dogs, and bad luck in general.
bok-nal, and Malbok (말복) is the last of the Korean dog days. The procedure for calculating when these three boknal occur is a bit complicated, as each involves a gyeong (경, 庚) day. The ten heavenly stems (천간) are involved in naming each day of the year. Gyeong is the seventh of the ten heavenly stems, so each tenth day is a gyeong day. Chobok occurs on the third gyeong day from Haji, the summer solstice (Haji is one of the 24 seasonal terms that the year is divided into). So, Chobok always occurs 20 to 29 days after the summer solstice/Haji. This year it falls on July 11. Jungbok is the following gyeong day, ten days after Chobok, so it falls on July 21 this year. Malbok is somewhat later; it is calculated as the first gyeong day after Ipchu (the “entrance of autumn,” another of the 24 seasonal terms). Since Ipchu falls on August 7 this year, Malbok is on August 10.
THE EASTERN TRADITION The Far East developed its own version of dog days: three hot days of summer, which were introduced to Korea from Qin China in the 3rd century B.C. The three days are known collectively as Sambok (삼복, 三伏). Interestingly, the character for bok has resemblances to the stellar imagery of Sirius and Orion: the bok character (伏) is made up of the radical for “person” on the left (인, 人) and the character for “dog” on the right (견, 犬) – a dog walking alongside its master. Korea has its own set of particular folk customs, foods, and foretellings associated with Sambok.
Why a gyeong day, you may ask. Why are all three of the bok-nal on gyeong days? Well, it has to do with the Five Elements (i.e., fire, water, wood, metal, earth). All gyeong days are associated with the element metal. As well, the summer season is associated with the fire element, and since metal is submissive to fire (i.e., fire melts metal), the three bok-nal are associated with an array of misfortune. Activities to be avoided on Chobok, Jungbok, and Malbok included the planting of crops, treating ailments, traveling, and even marriage.
Sambok is three bok days, each of which can be called a bok-nal (복날), but each also has its own name: Chobok (초복) is the first bok-nal, Jungbok (중복) is the middle
COOL SAMBOK CUSTOMS As with so many of the holidays of old Korea, the dog days had their associated customs, foods, and prophecies.
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17 During the Joseon Dynasty period (15th–19th centuries) and afterwards, it was customary to seek out cool places to shield oneself from the intense heat of the dog days. Many would head for the hills to submerge their paws in the cool waters of one of the many pristine streamlets to be found there. Others would move in packs toward larger streams at the base of mountains to picnic and party in the shade of a riverside pavilion. In the Seoul area, Namsan and Bugak-san were two popular mountain areas for Sambok relaxation. Those who lived near the coast would race to the seaside for relief from the dog-day heat in the water and the sand. At the sandy beaches, morae-tteumjil (모래뜸질, “sand sauna”) was a great fad. People would lie down in the sand to be completely covered from the neck down by a mound of sand. This would cause the “sand-bather” to sweat profusely, which was believed to eliminate toxins from the body. These sand saunas were believed to be especially effective for those suffering from backache, arthritis and rheumatism, and even neuralgia. Morae-tteumjil was also popular because of the belief that if one took a bath on a bok-nal, they would become emaciated. As fun as it may sound, morae-tteumjil was not for everyone. Married women on Jeju-do had to be mindful of the belief that if they were buried in sand below the waist on a bok-nal, it could lead to pregnancy! And taking real baths was not for anyone on a bok-nal due to the belief that taking a bath on one of these three days could cause them physical harm of some sort. So, if one did happen to mistakenly bathe on Chobok, they would have to be sure to also bathe on both Jungbok and Malbok in order to avoid any malady or injury due to their Chobok carelessness.
century B.C. It was then that Korea adopted from Qin China the custom of hanging dog carcasses at the city gates. It was believed that this would not only reduce the foul smells of summer (from garbage heaps, toilets, and open sewers) but also drive away the evil spirits associated with the oppressive summer heat and its related maladies. SAMBOK SUSTENANCE In addition to the summer swelter, dog-day panting was amplified by the expectation of special foods to be served on the three bok-nal. In the royal court of Joseon, high-ranking officials were summoned and served a cool serving of binggwa (빙과), a desert of sugar water and fruit juices mixed with ice from one of the royal underground storage facilities along the Han River, from where the ice originally came the previous winter. Government officials were also given bingpyo (빙표, lit. “ice tickets”) that entitled them to ice from the royal ice bins. But ice and binggwa were summer luxuries only for the elite. For many, patjuk (팥죽), a red adzuki bean porridge, was a bok-nal standard (and still common today on the winter solstice). In addition to its sweet taste, part of patjuk’s appeal was its reddish color. As everyone knew that evil spirits feared the color red, some patjuk was splashed or smeared on the outer walls and the main gate of households to keep away the evil spirits and the misfortunes that they might cause. Bowls of the porridge were also placed in the corners of rooms as offerings to the guardian spirits of the household. (Spirits of all kinds needed to be taken into consideration.) Only after the ceremonial duties had been completed were mere humans allowed to lap up their Sambok porridge.
The association of dogs with the heat of summer goes back to long before the Joseon Dynasty – back to the 3rd
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▲ Samgye-tang (ginseng-chicken stew), served in a hot pot bowl.
The two most well-known Sambok foods associated with the three bok-nal over the centuries are stews: samgyetang (삼계탕, lit. ginseng-chicken stew) and gu-tang (구탕, lit. dog stew). The former has gained in popularity in recent years, while the latter has declined. Both, however, were believed to have restorative properties for bodies weakened by the summer heat and to ward off
July 2021
Many are familiar with the custom of washing one’s hair on Dano (단오) with water boiled with changpo (창포, sweet flag) leaves and roots, but hair washing was also customary on any of the bok-nal. It was believed that washing one’s hair in natural mineral water would prevent strokes, cure skin diseases, heal bruises, and even calm the winds. In the Gangwon area, it was customary to catch spiders on the bok-days. These spiders would then be dried and made into a powder to be used as a remedy for winter colds.
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People suffering from gastrointestinal disorders or anemia were more likely to scamper to a mineral spring on a bok-nal. In addition to the belief that mineral water was a great remedy for restoring energy sapped by the summer sun, mineral spring waters were thought to be a cure for stomach ailments and anemic fatigue.
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18 calendar, there are bok-nal predictions of pending fortune and misfortune. More often than not, these predictions are based on weather conditions. In the case of bok-nal, these predictions were related to dog-day rain, called Sambok-bi (삼복비). In the Jeolla area, rain on a bok-nal was called nongsa-bi (농사비, farming rain) and was considered to be an auspicious sign that there would be a good harvest that year. In general, however, the warm weather of summer was welcomed by the peninsula’s farmers; for them, sunny weather indicated that the autumn would produce an abundant rice crop. To show their gratitude, a dog-day rite called bok-je (복제) was performed by farmers in all areas on Chobok. Rice cakes and pan-fried foods were taken to the rice paddies and offered to the guardian spirits of agriculture, while supplications were made for a bountiful harvest.
▲ A bowl of bosin-tang, or dogmeat stew.
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July 2021
illness. Samgye-tang consisted of a young chicken stuffed with rice, ginseng, and jujube boiled in a broth, while gutang was a stew of greens, onions, and spices along with dogmeat. Gu-tang was considered a stamina food, so much so that it was a dish reserved only for men, and it was especially effective for men who were “dog tired.” The single main contributor to dogmeat stew’s decline in popularity was the 1988 Seoul Olympics, when the stew was known as bosin-tang (보신탕). The government banned bosin-tang restaurants from conspicuous downtown areas so as not to draw the ire of pet-loving international visitors and media expected for the Games. At the time, dogs were not at all popular as house pets; there was no “puppy love.” Indeed, the only dogs to be seen were watchdogs, usually mongrels, who spent all their lives outside the house. (Cute poodles, Chihuahuas, and Maltese are a more recent import.) To improve their image as well as sales, dogmeat restaurants changed the name of their signature stew to boyang-tang (보양탕), but this did little to bring back the popularity the stew had once enjoyed. International opinion against eating dogmeat was increasing, the love of Koreans for pet doggies was skyrocketing, and the knowledge of how dogs in Korea were slaughtered for their meat became widely known: In order to soften the texture and heighten the taste of the meat, it was common practice to string up the live dog and beat it over its entire body until it died. However, a somewhat recent survey surprisingly found that an estimated 780,000 to 1 million dogs yearly are still consumed in South Korea (Lee, 2017). PROPHETIC PREDICTIONS As with other special days on the traditional Korean
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In Gangwon Province, farmers feared thunder and rain on any of the three bok-nal as it was an indication that the fruit crops for that year would be very poor. In Chungcheong Province, it was said that the young ladies of Boeun were crying if there was rain on a dog day. Boeun County of Chungcheong was the cradle of jujube production, and rain at this time of year could severely damage the jujube fruit, which could considerably lower the financial status of the families of Boeun’s young ladies of marriage age, which in turn could greatly decrease their chances of finding a suitable marriage partner. So, the damsels of Boeun and the fruit farmers of Gangwon both hoped for no rain on any dog day. As the saying goes, “Every dog has its day.” In Korean custom, that day would be either on Chobok, Jungbok, or Malbok. Sources Hong, S. (1989). 동국세시기 (Dongguk sesigi; A record of seasonal customs in Korea; D. Choi, Trans.). Hongshin Culture. (Original work published 1849) Jung, J. (n.d.). 삼복 (三伏) (Sambok). Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture. https://folkency.nfm.go.kr/topic/detail/4130 Lee, K. (2017, September 14). 개고기는 法규제 자체가 없어 뭐가 얼마나 들었는지 모른다. Chosun Ilbo. https://www.chosun. com/site/data/html_dir/2017/09/14/2017091400272.html Shaffer, D. E. (2007). Seasonal customs of Korea. Hollym.
The Author
David Shaffer came to Korea when having a bowl of boshin-tang for lunch on Chobok was an annual custom among his office workers, and for many years, he lived next door to a bosintang restaurant. He has spent approximately 150 bok-nal in Gwangju and is looking forward to spending many more. Dr. Shaffer is the author of the book Seasonal Customs of Korea (Hollym, 2007) and is also the editor-in-chief of the Gwangju News.
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People in the Arts 19
▲ Artist Yang Na-hee
▲ Artist Noh Yeo-woon
FEATURE
Two Peas in Their Pods Yang Na-hee and Noh Yeo-woon By Kang Jennis Hyun-suk
Some artists attempt to express their inner selves on canvas, others undertake to foretell the future, still others paint the present, and then there are those who take it as their mission to preserve the past. This month Kang Jennis Hyunsuk introduces two young-ish artists who bring back vivid memories of their childhood through the dwellings of the era – an era where the single-story, tile-roofed house had given way to the two-story, concrete icheung-jip (이층집) that populated the alleyways of our fair city, and when the present-day, ubiquitous apartment complex was still nowhere to be found in Gwangju. These two artists both take as subject matter the dwellings of the alleyways and byways of the past, but as Kang discovers, they are not two peas in the same pod – no two artists are – but these two artists’ pods spring from the same pea plant. — Ed.
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July 2021
A major commonality of these two artists is that they constantly strive to find the essence of life through the observation of human beings and surrounding phenomena. Yang Na-hee's and Noh Yeo-woon's works seemed similar to me at first, but as I learned more about each artist, I discovered that each has their own unique style of painting.
ARTIST YANG NA-HEE Yang Na-hee’s work is three-dimensional. She cuts up cardboard boxes to make houses and villages, and on top of this, she colors them with oil paints. In Korea, neighborhoods of houses on urban hilltops are called “moonrise villages” (dal-dongne, 달동네), which means that the moon rises from behind the houses on the hilltop. The small houses are attached side by side in a maze of alleys. The moonrise villages on hills were usually those of people who moved to the city from the countryside when the nation was in the process of changing from an agricultural economy to an industrial one. Most of the residents were financially disadvantaged. Now, many of
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T
his article features two young artists who depict the old houses, alleys, and neighborhoods of Gwangju. They capture that which is being left out and forgotten in this fast-paced world. These two Gwangju artists are Yang Na-hee and Noh Yeo-woon.
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20 that are usually thought of as worthless. It was like finding new value in myself by taking on this new project of creating art from cardboard. Jennis: You discovered a new material, corrugated cardboard, and depicted the “moonrise village” through it. Did you also choose the topic for the same reason as the material? Yang Na-hee: Yes. One day, I was walking in an area that was hollow and empty, having been made ready for redevelopment. I could see the empty carts and empty houses. Only a few old people who had not moved yet were basking in the warmth of the sun. I felt that they were on an isolated island though they were living in the same city as me. I went back home and used discarded cardboard to capture the
▲ Song of Starlight by Yang Na-hee.
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July 2021
these hillside villages have been torn down in the name of redevelopment. The artist Yang Na-hee describes the disappearing hillside villages with corrugated cardboard. INTERVIEW WITH YANG NA-HEE Jennis: I am curious, Ms. Yang, as to what led you to decide to create your works out of corrugated cardboard. Yang Na-hee: It was when I was around the age of 30 – several years after I graduated from studying art in college and had started working as an artist. But it was a time of obscurity, when no one recognized me or my works. I was nervous and at a loss as to what to do or how to live, and I was not sure how long I could paint. One day, as I was struggling with the canvas and embracing my loneliness and anxiety as usual, I noticed corrugated boxes piled up in a corner of the house. Since I spent most of my time in the studio, I usually ordered items on the internet and got the necessary items delivered. So, the boxes began to pile up. The empty boxes awaiting disposal reminded me of the old people who collected empty boxes and sold them for their livelihood. It was the winter of 2011 when I saw an old woman in her 80s picking up discarded boxes. I felt sympathetic and thought about how useless things for one person could be a means of survival for others. I came to contemplate how we define things between usefulness and uselessness. I wanted to find new value in the things
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▲ Snowy Moon Hill by Yang Na-hee (2018).
warm, sunny houses while thinking of the “islanders.” I wanted to make it possible for us to remember our surroundings that are being abandoned and forgotten. Jennis: One of your works is called “Sunrise Village” (Haedongne). How did you come to name it “Sunrise Village,” rather than the commonly used expression “moonrise village” (Dal-dongne)? Yang Na-hee: “Sunrise village” is the other side of “moonrise village.” It also has stars at night and sunlight
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21
▲ Life, Scenery by Yang Na-hee (2018).
in the morning. The work “Sunrise Village” expresses the place where night, dawn, and the morning scenery coexist. I tried to convey hope as the bright sunlight spreads out, as if it moves from the darkness of the past to the brightness of the future. Jennis: Looking at your recent works, there are countless stars in the night sky. What is the story behind “Song of Starlight”? Yang Na-hee: The farther away one gets from the twinkling city of neon signs, the closer we can get to the stars. There needs to be silence and darkness to get close to the stars. When I see countless stars in the night sky, I can feel the depth of space. I wanted to express cosmic emotion with stars pouring down on trees and waves.
Jennis: I for one have found great value and meaning in your art and through this interview. Thank you.
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INTERVIEW WITH NOH YEO-WOON Jennis: I can feel a sense of nostalgia for the old days when I look at your artwork, and I am surprised once again that you are as young as you are. How did you come to draw scenes of our residential alleyways? Noh Yeo-woon: Before I entered elementary school in Hakdong here in Gwangju, I lived in Haenam and Yeongam. I missed the rural life after moving to the city. Luckily, there was an eight-way intersection in Hak-dong with a neighborhood tree at the center of the eight alleyways. In the summertime, adults sat under the shade of the tree fanning themselves, and children played hide-and-seek
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ARTIST NOH YEO-WOON A sense of nostalgia exudes from the alleyway. In the narrow alleyways of my old neighborhood, the houses were so close that I could even tell what my neighbors were having for dinner. The children ran around the alleys together, and the elderly watched the alley cats from their chairs. The narrow alley was a community of urban people who could not forsake the memories of their rural communities after
The moment I saw Noh Yeo-woon’s alleys at an art fair, I was reminded of my childhood. I thought the artist was probably an older person with long-held memories of the old alleys. Contrary to my expectation, he is a young artist, and his studio is in an alley, just like those depicted in his artwork. I was able to see the process of his artwork in his studio. Rough sketches and new paintings were hanging on all the studio walls as we began our interview.
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Jennis: The work is really just like its title: “Song of Starlight.” I also want to ask if you have any plans for future artwork? Yang Na-hee: I still want to find further value and meaning in things. I hope many people who see my works will also be able to find value and meaning in them.
moving to the city. As the world rapidly changes, people spend less time sitting in alleyways with their neighbors, and the busy world craves for a much faster way of life. So, back alleyways too narrow for cars to enter, and blind alleys as well, began to be shunned, and newly built highrise apartments started to become a symbol of wealth. Migration from the alleyways to apartment complexes is still on the rise. Along with the disappearance of alleyway neighborhoods is the disappearance of the culture of the alleyway. People who were born after the 1990s are mostly apartment dwellers who have no idea what the sentiment of the alleyway is.
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22 22 in the maze-like alleys. When I was an art student in college, I heard the news that this alley-rich neighborhood would be torn down in the name of redevelopment. So, I wanted to keep the memories of this place alive in paintings. Jennis: There are no people in your paintings, but in their absence, I can sense a human presence. Through your paintings, we can get a glimpse of the lives of people from a house’s furnishings seen through its translucent window, or from an old stroller that an old lady used to carry her gleanings from the throwaways of others. I feel the warmth of life whose presence was there just a minute before. Noh Yeo-woon: That is right – people do not appear in my paintings. But I wanted to talk about people’s memories and their past through old gates, fences, and rooftops. There are flowerpots in the old alleyways. Sometimes a bathtub becomes a vegetable garden. I imagine the lives of individuals by looking at such traces. Jennis: Potted plants are said to be the smallest garden in the world. The people of the alleyways must have felt spring, summer, autumn, and winter through those many small gardens. I have heard that Seoul has an alley tour for people who miss these disappearing neighborhoods. Do you have any plans to work on alleyways in other cities? Noh Yeo-woon: I will continue to work on backstreets and alleyways until I find another interesting theme. The alleys I paint express the feelings I have after having observed them for a long time, visiting them both in the daytime and at night. So, it takes a lot of time for me to do a single painting. However, I would like to study the alleyways in other cities someday.
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July 2021
Jennis: I would like to know how you go about making the colors that appear in your paintings. You seem to have your own unique colors. What is the secret? Noh Yeo-woon: I usually use nine to twelve colors and mix them in various ways to express my feelings. Going out to paint landscapes with my “seniors” was very helpful for me when I was studying art in college. Some people say my landscapes look like still lifes. Actually, my personality is quite static, so I like to use simplified colors.
▲ Remember by Noh Yeo-woon (2019).
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Jennis: I have also seen your series on wilted flowers, “It’s Enough Just to Have Bloomed.” Can I ask what you want to express through these withered flowers? Noh Yeo-woon: I have come to think that young
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23 23 people my age are like withered flowers. I got a bunch of flowers from a friend at an exhibition, and I put them into a vase. A few days later, when I saw the wilted flowers, I felt they were like my friends and myself: We are grown to be beautiful flowers and strive to become good products in this society of capitalism. But just as getting a job should not be our end goal in life, we should not be commercialized like flowers for sale. Jennis: The descriptions of your paintings confirm for me that you are a very thoughtful artist. What do you most want people to feel when viewing your paintings? Noh Yeo-woon: It would be nice if people felt a sense of warmth and comfort through my paintings. Jennis: Oh, I can confirm that your paintings do create a feeling of warmth and comfort – and a very nostalgic one for me. Thank you. Artworks courtesy of Yang Na-hee and Noh Yeo-woon. THE AUTHORS’ PROFILES Yang Na-hee — Exhibitions: 10 Individual, 150 Group. — Awards: Gwangju Art Award (2020); Gwangju Art Award, Special Award (2019); Namdo Cultural Foundation Young Artist Contest, Selection Award (2018); Korea Art Exhibition, Outstanding Award (2016). — Collections: National Museum of Contemporary Art (Art Bank), Government Art Bank, Gwangju Museum of Art, Namdo Art Bank.
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Noh Yeo-woon — Exhibitions: Remember: Sansu, Sansu Museum of Art (2019); It’s Enough Just to Have Bloomed, Gallery Riche (2016); Rest, Taking a Break for a While, Gwangju Shinsegae Gallery (2016); Flows, Lotus Gallery (2014); Falling in Winter, Lotte Gallery (2019); Young Artists’ Exhibition, DeYoung Art Museum (2018); Between Eye Deception and Metaphor, Mokdam Art Museum (2017); AsiaF, Dongdaemun Design Plaza (2017); Time + Relationship = Us, Dasan Museum of Art (2017). — Awards: New Artist, 16th Gwangju New World Art Festival, 2014; Grand Prize, 25th Mudeung Art Exhibition, 2009. — Collection: Gwangju Museum of Art.
The Author/Interviewer
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▲ Seeping Through by Noh Yeo-woon (2019).
July 2021 2021 July
Kang Jennis Hyunsuk is a freelance interpreter and translator of English. She grows greens and enjoys reading. She also enjoys rural exploration through taking pictures. speer@naver.com
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24 Blast from the Past
A Peninsula Is Liberated, a Nation Is Born
blast from the past
▲ Flag of South Korea, 1945–1948.
The Making of the Republic of Korea
There’s a lot to celebrate in the Republic in August: the end of the War in the Pacific (WWII), the liberation of the Korean Peninsula, and the birth of the Republic of Korea – all on the same date, August 15 (represented as “8.15” in Korea), though not all occurred in the same year. In this issue, we bring you an account of how Korea went from a dynasty, to a colony, to an independent nation based on two earlier articles appearing in the Gwangju News, both by Dr. Shin Sangsoon: “The Way the 8.15 Korean Liberation Was Brought About” (August 2003) and “August 15 (8.15): Liberation and Birth of a Nation” (August 2010). — Ed.
THE AGE OF COLONIALIZATION The 19th century was the age of imperialistic colonial expansion by the Western powers, and toward the end of the century, Japan also availed itself of this trend lest it should miss the colonialization bus. A brief chronology of events shows the imperialistic appetite of the Western powers for this part of the world. The West’s appetite for territorial expansion was not satiated in the Orient. It extended to the African and American continents. In fact, there was no place under the sun that did not feel itsInfluence (see the box below for a chronology). The British proudly, or audaciously, proclaimed that the sun never set on the British Empire.
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1802 1854 1857–1862 1863 1840–1842 1856–1858 1857–1858 1866 1871 1894–1895 1898 1904–1905 1910
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Meanwhile, Korea (Joseon Dynasty) was a bone of contention between the Japanese, Chinese, and Russians during the latter half of the 19th century. After winning the two wars with China and Russia in 1895 and 1905, respectively, Japan’s domination of Korea was swift and stark, formally annexing Korea in 1910. Starting with the ruthless suppression of the March 1st Independence Movement in 1919, Japan imposed a series of harsh measures to erase the language and culture of the Korean people. They confiscated land (in those days, the only means of production) through the so-called Land Survey Policy. They imprisoned Korean language scholars on the pretext of instigating nationalism, forbade
UK occupies Ceylon (Sri Lanka), 1819: Singapore, 1824: Malaysian Peninsula, 1853: Burma (Myanmar), 1858: India. U.S. Navy requests that Japan open her ports. Franco–Vietnam War. France occupies Indochina. France occupies Cambodia. The Opium War. China cedes Hong Kong to the UK and is forced to open five ports extraterritorially. The Second Opium War. The UK and France attack China and conclude the Treaty of Tianjin, opening the Yangtze River. Russia occupies the Amur River in Manchuria and Vladivostok. The USS Sherman sails into the Daedong River in North Korea. The French fleet attacks Ganghwa Island near Incheon. The U.S. Pacific fleet attacks Ganghwa Island. Sino–Japanese War. China cedes Taiwan and Liaotung Peninsula to Japan. Spanish–American War. Spain cedes the Philippines to the U.S. Russo–Japanese War. Russia cedes southern Sakhalin; Korea becomes a Japanese protectorate. Japan annexes Korea.
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25 the teaching of the Korean language in schools, and ordered the use of the Japanese language in schools and homes. They suspended newspapers, conscripted Korean youth into the Japanese army, and forced laborers to work in mines and on the warfront. They forced the Korean people to change their names to Japanese-style names, asserting that the two peoples shared the same ancestors. And they mobilized young women as sex slaves for the Japanese army. Against this situation, the Cairo Declaration in 1943 (by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Chang Kai-shek) promised Korean independence after the war. With the surrender of the Axis powers (Italy and Germany) in early 1945 and the surrender of Japan on August 15, Korea was liberated from the yoke of Japanese colonial rule. LIBERATION AND BIRTH OF A NATION For South Koreans, “8.15” has a dual meaning: One is liberation from the 35-year yoke of colonial rule under the Japanese (1910–1945), and the other is the birth of the Republic of Korea on August 15, 1948. Liberation came on August 15 (8.15) of 1945 when Japanese Emperor Hirohito offered an unconditional surrender to the Allied Forces. When the surrender was made, Korea was not yet divided into north and south, so the whole of Korea rejoiced at the surrender and celebrated the liberation together. But in early September 1945, Supreme Allied Commander Douglas MacArthur had to announce that North Korea and South Korea would be governed by Russia and the United States, respectively, divided at the 38th parallel. MacArthur said the division would be a temporary devise just to accept the Japanese military surrender. But as everyone knows, the division turned out to be a bone of contention between North and South from that time forward.
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The Russian military government in the North, however, did not allow the UN Interim Commission to enter North Korea to supervise the general election. In the end, a general election was held only in South Korea (on March 10, 1948) and the elected delegates formed the Constitutional Assembly (July 17). Three days later, the Assembly elected a president and vice president of Korea. The next month, on August 15, 1948, the Republic of Korea was proclaimed, and the U.S. military government was deactivated. As for the North, they held their own election without UN supervision and proclaimed the establishment of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on September 9, 1948. In December of the same year, however, the UN General Assembly in Paris recognized the Republic of Korea as the only legitimate government in Korea. From the Joseon Dynasty, to colonial Chosun, to the Republic of Korea, a people were liberated and a nation was born. Original by Shin Sangsoon. Arranged by David Shaffer.
July 2021
On October 24, 1945, the United Nations was inaugurated with the Russian government’s ratification. The UN intended to govern Korea under trusteeship for the immediate future. At this news, the entire country – north and south – opposed the plan vehemently. The sentiment was “no more foreign rule!” Thirty-five years of colonial rule was enough! Then suddenly, the Communists in North Korea accepted the trusteeship, while the right
wing in the South opposed it. The Russo–American Joint Commission, which should have dealt with the problem, was not even able to convene a meeting with the social organizations and political parties to discuss the situation. Ensuing joint commissions failed to reach any conclusion. In the end, the Korean question was referred to the UN Special Political and Decolonization Committee, and there it was decided that a general election should be held over the whole of Korea under UN supervision to establish a lawful government and carry out the withdrawal of Russian and American forces. To supervise this, the UN General Assembly decided to dispatch a UN Korean Interim Commission to Korea.
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As for the other meaning of 8.15, emotionally overshadowed by the 8.15 liberation, people tend to forget that it also celebrates the birth of the Republic of Korea (ROK), which took place in 1948. It was in Cairo, Egypt, in November 1943 that the leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, and China met and discussed matters of world affairs for after the war. In their Cairo Declaration, Korean independence was referred to as such: “…in due course, Korea shall be free and independent….”
▲ Liberation! Korean activists released from prison.
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26 Lost in Gwangju
Making a House a Home With Hanok Restorer Kang Dongsu
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
July 2021
TRAVEL
By Isaiah Winters
▲ The Imgok Station hanok and its Japanese-influenced platform.
J
ust when you thought hanok architecture had been consigned to either moldering country homes or sterile boutique spaces, a lone hanok restorer in his mid-20s emerges with a vision to not only restore traditional houses in the present but also preserve their structural designs for posterity via 3D modeling. This is the unique undertaking of Kang Dongsu, the one-man carpentry crew behind Baemui (배무이), his hanok restoration business.
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After interacting for some time via social media, we finally met up in June to discuss traditional Korean architecture and his efforts to conserve it. This we did beneath the flying eaves of three hanok in the Gwangju area, each in a vastly different state of (dis)repair: his parents’ beautifully preserved home near Chosun University, a badly dilapidated home on the outskirts of Imgok Station, and his own home undergoing restoration in Gyerim-dong. This article will recount the highlights of each in turn.
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27
As for the house itself, it was Kang’s idea to buy it seven years prior. Although he was only in his late teens at the time, his parents had faith in his choice and went through with the purchase. Thanks to his keen eye for appreciating real estate and his parents’ willingness to invest, the house has since trebled in value. Sensing my eagerness to look around, Kang took me through all its rooms, including
July 2021
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reflected in how his mom welcomed me with coffee, cake, and a barrage of friendly questions.
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First, Kang warmly invited me to his parents’ tastefully restored home in Dongmyeong-dong. I soon found that the home doubles as a workshop where his mom makes her own Mother Goose brand of chic handbags and other accessories from Italian leather. When I entered, I saw Kang’s wife and a few student apprentices each tending to their cuts of leather along a large wooden table. Upon viewing this, one of my first questions had just answered itself: His artisan streak was clearly a family trait. The warmth and creativity I’d later see in Kang was also
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28 the sarang-bang (reception room), the cozy, book-lined loft, and the other rooms and recesses hidden behind shelves of leather handbags. Outside, the house features a one-of-a-kind balcony that Kang is constructing for his parents with wood and tiles from a hanok in Naju. Eventually, that’s where they’ll enjoy tea with a view.
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July 2021
In the shade of this charming house, Kang and I spent some time discussing a few of the differences in hanok styles seen across the country and during different time periods. I quickly realized that my simplistic appreciation of hanok aesthetics left me with a very low-resolution understanding of the influences shaping each structure. To the trained eye, however, the design of a single hanok can tell a highly complex story. For example, a hanok’s proximity to certain timber sources would affect its design, like with how the straighter, better-quality wood found up north allowed hanok there to have thicker timber frames relative to those in the south. Hanok styles were also highly subject to the eras in which they were designed. Pre- and post-colonial hanok styles differed greatly, as did those built en masse in the 1960–1970s during what Kang calls Jeolla’s “golden age” of mass-produced hanok, when about 100,000 of them were built over a 20-year period in Gwangju alone. (He really needs to write a book on all this.) With such a wealth of knowledge to tap into, I was excited about what he’d say at our second hanok of the day.
▲ The warmly lit kitchen in Kang’s new hanok.
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After saying goodbye to his family and leaving everyone to their creative work, Kang and I hopped in the car and drove to the outskirts of Imgok Station to visit a large but badly decayed hanok I’d been saving just for him. As we approached it on foot, I threw out the one question I’d most wanted to ask him: “What’s the first thing you notice about this house?” He told me to look at the shape of the main pillars. “They’re narrower at the top and wider at the bottom – that’s a late Joseon-era design.” Kang suspected that the house had been built (and then later rebuilt) in stages, and that its pre-colonial pillars from the turn of the 20th century might have been repurposed from some earlier structure. This blew me away because, although I knew this particular house had some especially old design motifs, I never suspected that it dated back that far. The bulk of the structure, he estimated, was from the 1920–1930s during the Japanese colonial era, as some of the newer additions like the right-side platform were Japanese in design. With the entire backside of the house just an open chasm of wooden beams and rubble, we had no trouble getting inside, where we found a trove of family heirlooms. A family registry along with family photos soon turned up, the latter of which I’m always meticulous about looking through. Fortunately, Kang is a patient guy, so while I scoured each and every photograph for any before-andafter shots I could match up with the house, he gave a detailed look at an old, beautifully written speech that we’d found folded up like an accordion. Sadly, these artifacts and the hanok itself likely won’t be around much longer, as I recently heard from the friend who first showed the place to me that it’ll be torn down soon. Satisfied that we’d gotten to see almost all of the house inside and out, we headed back to Gwangju to see the restoration work Kang has been doing on his newly purchased home in Gyerim-dong. At the end of a cozy alleyway, far away from all the buzzing of motorbikes and footsteps of passersby, Kang unlocked a gate and revealed his carpenter’s sanctuary. Giant saws, angle grinders, mallets, buckets, and wooden beams of every shape and size were scattered about in what looked like more of a workshop than a home. Having just seen his
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▲ Kang, his miter saw, and his work in progress.
mother’s living workspace hours before, this arrangement made perfect sense.
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The Author
Originally from Southern California, Isaiah Winters is a Gwangju-based urban explorer who enjoys writing about the City of Light’s lesser-known quarters. When he’s not roaming the streets and writing about his experiences, he’s usually working or fulfilling his duties as the Gwangju News’ heavily caffeinated chief copy editor. You can find more of his photography at @d.p.r.kwangju
July 2021
I presume it’s going to take Kang a long time to finish the other parts of the house as outlined. For example, he plans to add an internal staircase and second floor for his future kids to use. These ambitions, plus his regular job restoring
Photographs by Isaiah Winters.
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As of now, only the conjoined kitchen and sarang-bang are habitable, with a bathroom en suite. The restored kitchen is rich in earthy tones that stay true to the home’s original makeup. In fact, whenever possible, Kang repurposes the soil and wood he removes from the house for his new additions. Though the trend these days is to brighten homes up as much as possible, the lighting he installed can be dimmed to look warm and understated, like candlelight. This soft glow brings out the walls’ earthen texture and the raw, unvarnished look that he prefers his beams to have. It was great to see an interior that worked with shadows rather than trying to eradicate them.
hanok locally and around the country, in addition to the work he’s doing on his parents’ home are all a lot for one person to handle. Then there’s the 3D modelling project that he does on the side for his clients and for the collective memory of hanok architecture more broadly. In short, he’s got his work cut out for him – and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
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TEACHING & LEARNING
30 Teaching & Learning
The Raemi School Looking at the Future from a Different Perspective – The Other Way Around!
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July 2021
By Jana Milosavljevic
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I
n South Korea, a country that is praised by many for its good quality education, surprisingly little is known about alternative schools that prepare students for different (alternative) life paths and offer them divergent educational backgrounds. One such school, the Raemi School, is located in Gwangju’s Hwajeong-dong at the Hwajeong Youth Culture Center. The name of the school was coined by the first cohort of students themselves when the school was established in 2012. Raemi (래미) is the reversal of the syllables of the Korean word mirae (미래), which means “future.” By giving this name to their school, these students wanted to clarify that they looked at their futures “the other way around” and from a different perspective than their peers. The Raemi School is a place where the focus of learning is finding and becoming “oneself.” In this school, the students embark on a journey to find joy in the process of learning itself. They can freely discover and choose what kind of skills they feel that they need to learn. Therefore, the keywords that the Raemi School emphasizes in the learning process are “self-reliance” and “independence.” The students learn not only how to find and recognize themselves, but also how to gain confidence to rely on their strengths and their own skills in creating the life that they want.
The classes and activities at the Raemi School can be summed up with the following categories: art, humanities, traveling, life skills, and local community. When it comes to actual classes, students themselves propose the things they would like to learn more about. They discuss the suggestions among themselves, and once an agreement is made, the school then invites
a teacher to conduct the chosen classes. For example, in case there are five students who are interested in studying Japanese, and one student in studying French, the class that starts off the semester would be the Japanese class, and the one student interested in studying French would have to wait until some more students would like to join in learning that subject in the future. As the example illustrates, students discuss all of the important matters connected to their school life and rules with each other and with the teachers, gaining experience and learning the meaning of “community” and “society.” The students also cook their own lunch with the teachers, wash the dishes and clean up after themselves, clean and repair what needs to be repaired around the school on their own, and tend to the garden and surrounding environment of the school, keeping it a clean and pleasant place to be. In this process, they get to learn how to work with agriculture, like how to plant and harvest rice. They also take part in local community events and interactions, such as April 16 Sewol Ferry memorial events, May 18 Democratic Uprising-related learning activities, and athletic competitions. However, probably one of the greatest and most demanding projects of the Raemi School and its students is the World Trip Project, which is unfortunately on hold at the moment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This project allows students to prepare their own 100-day trip around the world, starting from choosing the destinations and learning about them, to organizing and planning the excursion and collecting the funds in the first semester – and then actually going on the trip the following semester. This sort of travel that one embarks on in one’s teenage years helps students broaden their horizons, explore the wide world, and create significant relationships and experiences when meeting new people far from the safety of their own home. Furthermore, every student at the Raemi School sets their own study goal, like what they want to achieve personally during the education process, and the two head teachers are there to understand these goals, advise the student on their learning path, and navigate them towards achieving their
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July 2021
◀ Previous page: Top left: Raemi School Completion Ceremony, December 2020. Top right: Students also cook their own lunch with the teachers, wash the dishes and clean up after themselves. Bottom left: Students tend to the garden and surrounding environment of the school. Bottom right: Students learning how to transplant rice seedlings.
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Nevertheless, learning how to co-exist with others and developing “community spirit” bear the same importance as the abovementioned foci. While reflecting on their own existence and its place in the world, by growing up in the Raemi School’s community, the students naturally learn how to empathize with others’ feelings, express their opinions in a healthy way, discuss, and create a safe learning environment.
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"I felt like my many talents would go to waste if I went to a regular school."
▲ Clockwise from top left: Raemi School students commemorating the 7th anniversary of Sewol Ferry incident on April 2021, students also harvest the rice they planted themselves, many of the students try to especially develop their musical talents, current Raemi School students and a couple of graduates with their teacher Min-jeong, students and teachers built their own keyhole garden next to the school.
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July 2021
ultimate purpose. Finally, the Raemi School does not have final exams as a method of evaluation. Rather, the students present what they have learned, made, or achieved at a Completion Ceremony at the end of every semester, twice a year. Even though the Raemi School does not provide specific university entrance exam education, students still do learn the compulsory subjects such as math, history, English, etc. Most of the classes, however, are related to culture, art, travel, and the environment. Of course, it is possible to get back to conventional education and enter regular high school or enter university after graduating from the Raemi School. Students who wish to do so have to take special qualification exams. Still, such students are few. Most of them continue their path at another alternative school or tertiary institution, or they become independent and find or create their own jobs upon graduating from the Raemi School. The Raemi School is an integrated middle and high school, so anyone between the ages of 14 and 19 (Korean age) can apply for entry. After receiving the application documents, admission is decided through individual interviews. If you are curious to learn more about the Raemi School, you can visit the Raemi School Café on
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Naver (in Korean) or follow the Raemi School student activities on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. You can also get further information on the Gwangju Hwajeong Youth Culture Center website (www.gjyc.or.kr). Lastly, some of the current Raemi School students, as well as a couple of graduates, and one of their head teachers, Lim Min-jeong, were happy to share their thoughts and experiences about the school in a short interview. Gwangju News (GN): To begin with, please choose one word to describe yourself, one word to describe the Raemi School, and then let us know how those two words connect. — So-hee: I can describe the Raemi School with the word “free” and myself as a “bird.” I can fly, but I need a lot of practice, and the Raemi School teaches me about freedom. There are so many difficulties when you want freedom, but Raemi helps you find your way to freedom. I do not know if I will be able to fly after I graduate, but this school allowed me to grow, and I am satisfied with it. — Min-jeong: It is not easy to choose a word to describe myself, but what first comes to mind is something an old friend said about me in the past – she said I am like a “weed.” [Laughs.] I believe she said it because I can survive and live well anywhere, no matter the circumstances. The
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33 word describing Raemi then would have to be a “garden patch.” As I said, weeds can put down roots and grow anywhere, still, Raemi’s land is not an already cultivated rice paddy or field, but a fertile ground of endless possibilities to plant and grow whatever we want. So, I believe that a “weed” such as myself can fit into and grow well in Raemi’s “garden” as well. GN: Why did you choose the Raemi School? — Min-ha: I felt like my many talents would go to waste if I went to a regular school. [Laughs.] I wanted to develop various talents and skills, so I came to the Raemi School. I just never saw myself as part of the current “education triangle” – “home-school-academy” – that most Korean students are going through. — Min-jeong: I started working as a Raemi School teacher in August 2012. Therefore, based on my nine years of experience, I can say that the usual reason why students and their parents choose the Raemi School is because they do not trust conventional education. They wish to get out of the pre-determined routine and the designated school curriculum. Rather, the students hope to spend their teen years channeling their youthful energy in a different way than is provided by the regular national curriculum and learning different things and life skills. There are also students who tried going to regular schools, but they felt like they could not fit in very well, or that it did not fit their future life goals, so they looked at alternative schools and came to the Raemi School.
to the office of education, which is a pity, and should spread its network more. GN: What are your plans for after graduation? Or if you have already graduated, what are you doing now? — Ji-min: I am learning how to play the electric guitar at the Raemi School. It is very fun, and I think I am very good at it. So, I want to keep doing my best, practice a lot, and continue my life as a musician after I graduate. — So-hee: At the Raemi School, I study humanities with Teacher Min-jeong, and I like it a lot. So, I want to study humanities more. I think that college is a good place for me. Therefore, after graduating I will study for Korea’s college entrance exam. Maybe it will be hard, but I will work hard for my future in humanities! — Sang-yoon: I entered the Raemi School right after elementary school, and since I am 19 now, I graduated last semester. As you might have noticed, in Korea there is not a lot of awareness about cyclists being part of the traffic, and it can be dangerous to go on the streets. So currently, I am visiting elementary schools and educating kids about safety in traffic when riding a bike. We get on a bike together and learn about it through practice. — Soo-woon: I am 21 and I graduated from the Raemi School two years ago. At the moment, I am a PD for a community radio station. We broadcast community news, of course, but I am also focusing on collaborating with and creating contents for young adults who are similar to my age.
GN: What would you like to change about the Raemi School? — Ye-woon: I went to an alternative elementary school and another alternative middle school before I came to Raemi. I feel that the Raemi School could still develop way more as an alternative school and gain its independence. It seems to me that the Raemi School is still too connected
The Author/Interviewer
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Photographs courtesy of the Raemi School.
Jana Milosavljevic was born and raised in Serbia. She currently lives in Gwangju, and she loves exploring and learning about new cultures and meeting new people. In order to be able to communicate with as many people as possible, apart from Serbian, she has learned English, Japanese, Korean, and German. @janemiya
July 2021
GN: What would you like to say to invite new students to the Raemi School? — Yeon-woo: At the Raemi School, you can learn so many things, and more than anything, you can learn the things that you want to learn. Also, if you feel like you do not really fit into the conventional education system, try and join us! — Yoo-woon: I always like to say that Raemi’s greatest weakness is that it does not have any weaknesses. [Laughs.] So, to everyone wanting to come to the Reami School, I would just like to say that I hope you will come and learn a lot at a school with no flaws!
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GN: What is the best aspect of the Raemi School? — Min-yeong: I chose the Raemi School because I wanted to be able to choose the things that I wanted to learn. So, I believe the best aspect of Raemi is that it provides students with the opportunity to learn the things they would not be able to learn at a regular school. I feel that during my years at the Raemi School, my vision of the world has broadened and I have gained lots of invaluable experience. — Min-ho: I came to the Raemi School right after elementary school because I was curious to learn more things about real life that I thought I could not learn in a regular school. I feel the greatest thing I learned at Raemi really is work. Whatever work it may be, I think that Raemi School’s best aspect is truly developing students’ skills in many different fields of work.
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34 Language Teaching
Teaching and Learning . . . and Well-being
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July 2021
TEACHING & LEARNING
Inter view with Jocelyn Wright When we think about teaching and learning, we think of all the time and effort teachers put into lesson planning and the ever-present administrative work, and we think of all the time students spend hunched over their textbooks, doing homework, and cramming for tests. Little do we think of our own well-being or that of our students. And this was true even in pre-Covid times. The past year-plus of the pandemic has added an extra dimension of emotional stress to everyone, including teachers and students. This has recently been highlighted by tennis star Naomi Osaka withdrawing from a major tennis tournament for “mental health” concerns. The Gwangju News recently caught up with Jocelyn Wright to discuss well-being, centering especially on students and teachers. — Ed.
G
wangju News (GN): Hello, Jocelyn. Thank you for granting this interview. When we first talked about the topic for this interview, you suggested that the focus be on well-being.
In many ways, the educational enterprise is much like a wide-scale campaign, and I genuinely believe that it is most successful when all parties give and receive in ways that are mutually beneficial for their well-being.
Jocelyn Wright: I did, so let me start by recounting a story to explain why. At one point deep into COVID-19 last year, I heard about a marathon. This one was exceptional for two reasons. The first was that it did not require any actual running! The second was that, while super easy, it was also very impactful. It basically involved sharing cards with people around us on which two simple words were written: “You Matter.” Stories on the campaign website [https://youmattermarathon.com/] attest to the benefits both for the givers and the receivers.
GN: Could you tell us what the scope of well-being entails within the educational context?
▲ You Matter card.
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Jocelyn: Sure. Recently, I asked students in a composition class to write about a wellness dimension where they faced a challenge personally but felt optimistic about change. As a prompt, I showed them a wheel with eight dimensions: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, financial, vocational, social, and environmental. I think that sums the holistic concept up pretty well and explains why, even under “normal” circumstances, none of us – whether teachers, students, or administrators – comes to school burden-free every day. Given this, it is probably safe to say that the pandemic has affected all of us, although to different extents and in diverse ways at distinct times. Psychologically, the experience may have hardened some of us, or made us more resilient and determined. However, others may have felt more anxious, stressed, or vulnerable. Socially, some of us may have benefited from greater closeness and connection to loved ones, for instance, to family members. Yet, others may have felt lonely and isolated, particularly if living alone. Our physical health during the pandemic may have changed for better or for worse as we have adopted new eating, exercising, and sleeping habits. For some of us, adapting to
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35 altered environments, such as online teaching, learning, or other work, might have been an exciting challenge, a time of greater growth, and possibly even freedom; for others, it might have been downright turbulent. Some of us may have been able to focus better and work more creatively. On the other hand, others may have had greater difficulty than usual concentrating on tasks. Financially, we or those we depend on may have been hit by the economic crisis, while others more fortunate may have remained more secure or even seen our bank accounts grow. In trying times, certain people seek out and obtain more spiritual guidance. Some of us, though, may have felt hopeless and without solace. Further, the sudden changes provoked by the pandemic and its unclear duration may have been dream shattering for some. (A case in point is a couple of students in my major who had been preparing to become flight attendants and were grounded before takeoff.) Of course, this turn of events has also prompted others to reimagine new career prospects and seek out relevant training. While few, these examples highlight a range of factors that might impact the well-being of individuals in the educational context at any given moment. GN: With all of these diverse challenges, how can we contribute to student well-being in the classroom? What practices and classroom tasks or activities can the EFL teacher – or any teacher for that matter – conduct to promote student well-being?
Of course, my job involves responsibilities aside from teaching. Outside of class, I attempt to make myself approachable and available to meet with students, whether for club activities, advising appointments, special events, or informal chats. While expressing themselves in English is a challenge for a few students, others have revealed that they feel more comfortable talking with me, as a foreigner, about certain topics. GN: You do a lot directly lesson-related and otherwise to accommodate the well-being of your students. What about teacher well-being? What should the teacher be aware of to ensure their own well-being? And how might the teacher contribute to the well-being of their colleagues? Jocelyn: I am glad you mentioned this. We matter, too! Indeed, with so many responsibilities, including administrative and other duties not yet discussed even preCOVID-19, teachers could sometimes feel overwhelmed or burnt out. When studying nonviolent communication, a point that really hit home was the emphasis on selfcare. It is not easy to help others when our own needs are unfulfilled. Besides getting enough daily nutrition, rest, exercise, and fresh air, we need things like peace, play, and meaning. Interestingly, we might consider pacing and spacing, discovery activities and gamification, and customization in our lessons but neglect them in our own lives!
July 2021
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“It is not easy to help others when our own needs are unfulfilled.”
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Jocelyn: A good place to start is with deliberate kindness. Taking time to learn students’ names and a bit about them: where they live, whether they commute to school, their interests and needs, who their friends are, whether they work, and so on. Doing this early on works well for me. Daily check-ins are also helpful. I always go to class early, so I can greet most students personally before starting class. Some students take advantage of this time to tell me what is going on with them. Taking time to arrange the classroom is basic practice, and I prioritize it, as it contributes to comfort. Especially over the past year, students have been more alone in their studies, so I have made a point of prioritizing social time for them at the beginning of each class. It is easier for them to work together and with me after we have first connected. Many teachers are already familiar with instruction-checking questions (ICQs) and comprehension-checking questions (CCQs), but affectchecking questions (ACQs), or “temperature checks,” are also useful. These are not always necessary, however. For instance, when I see students looking tired, especially around exam periods, I sometimes just stop a class and ask students to stretch. Other times, I purposefully include breathing, meditative, or movement activities into lessons. Additionally, when I have international students or those from multicultural families in my classes, I always aim for inclusion and try to celebrate the diversity.
A lot of teaching work is done before entering or after exiting the classroom. When designing my courses, I try to create experiences that will evidently be useful or personally meaningful in some way. The truth is that I am blessed to have a lot of freedom, so I have had the opportunity to teach many kinds of courses, currently including ones centered around computer skills, interpersonal communication, intercultural leadership, reflective practice, critical pedagogy, and writing and research methods. Then, in the spirit of eclecticism, when planning my lessons, I blend theory and practice, mix teacher-centered and learner-centered phases, combine deductive and inductive learning techniques, splice comprehension and production activities, and offer time for individual as well as group work. While I have to plan my syllabi before the beginning of each semester, I revise them as I go along to adapt them to the level, learning speed, and requests of each class. Increasingly, too, I have replaced traditional midterm and final exams with scaffolded alternative assessments, such as multimodal portfolios and projects.
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36 GN: “Pacing and spacing”? Jocelyn: Well, yes, paying attention to our own rhythms, giving ourselves breaks – temporal and spatial – varying our own activities, etc. Moreover, teachers also need a balance between autonomy and connection. Harmony in relationships as a result of honest expression and empathic listening can go a long way towards contributing to one’s own well-being and improve workplace dynamics. Through sustainable practices, like compassionate leadership, we can also make a positive difference in each other’s lives.
Jocelyn: Yes, we talked about peace linguistics above. Incredibly, this is a field I only happened to come across by accident in 2018, and which many have never heard of. Having spent the past few years trying to learn as much as possible about the discipline, I have become persuaded that it is truly valuable. As a result, I decided to create an international group to connect scholars and practitioners interested in peace linguistics and peace language education to initiate dialogue and research. If interested, you can find us on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/ groups/peacelinguistics].
GN: You mentioned nonviolent communication, and I know that you have also been involved in promoting the area of peace linguistics. Peace linguist Francisco Gomes de Matos has talked about using foreign languages for “communicative peace,” which involves communicating constructively. According to him, “Communicating well means communicating for the well-being of humankind” [Gomes de Matos, 2000, p. 343]. Jocelyn: Yes! Communicating constructively is a skill, and one that requires mindfulness and continuous practice, and this is actually true whether we are novice or experienced language users! However, how we treat ourselves and others – including what we think, say, and do – can transform worlds. Peace linguistics is still an emerging area but one with an enormous potential to promote well-being. Focused more purely on linguistic analysis and more practically on peacebuilding applications in numerous areas (language education being only one), peace linguistics can play an important role in contributing to harmony and social justice, two factors that contribute to well-being.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
July 2021
GN: A couple of issues back, cosmopolitanism in the EFL classroom was discussed in this column. Do you see any dovetailing between cosmopolitanism and well-being in the educational context? Jocelyn: Certainly. If the school is a microcosm of society, and one of its aims is to cultivate healthy global citizens (kosmopolitēs), there must be a connection. Moral cosmopolitanism, as I understand it, focuses on hospitality and helping others and is guided by a certain ethic of care. If we can successfully create climates that are humanistic and humanizing, personal and social well-being will surely be enhanced. GN: Some of our readers probably already know you or know about you because you have been teaching English at Mokpo National University for many years now and have led the Gwangju-Jeonnam KOTESOL Reflective Practice group since 2013, but is there anything new you might wish to share with us?
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▲ Peace Linguistics group on Facebook.
GN: Peace linguistics, teacher and student wellbeing, cosmopolitanism, nonviolent communication, compassionate leadership, and reflective practice – at first thought, these might seem dissimilar, but you have woven them all together for us, showing how we can put them into practice to enhance our well-being as teachers and that of our students. Thank you, Jocelyn. Interviewed by David Shaffer, Gwangju News’ editor-in-chief. Graphics and photograph courtesy of Jocelyn Wright.
Reference
Gomes de Matos, F. (2000). Harmonizing and humanizing political discourse: The contribution of peace linguists. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 6(4), 339–344.
GWANGJU-JEONNAM KOTESOL UPCOMING EVENTS Check the Chapter’s webpages and Facebook group periodically for updates on chapter events and online activities. For full event details: Website: http://koreatesol.org/gwangju Facebook: Gwangju-Jeonnam KOTESOL
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37
Everyday Korean By Harsh Kumar Mishra
Episode 43
할 만해요
It’s Worth Doing The Conversation 왜 거기 서 있어요? 이리 오세요.
Jeongmin: Why are you standing there? Come here.
네하:
네, 선배님.
Neha:
Yes, senior.
정민:
무슨 고민이 있어요?
~고 있어요
~아/어 있어요
먹고 있어요. eating (continuous activity)
앉아 있어요. sitting (continuous state)
보고 있어요. watching (continuous activity)
열려 있어요. open (continuous state)
가고 있어요. going (continuous activity)
누워 있어요. lying (continuous state)
Jeongmin: Are you worried about something?
네하:
아니요, 그냥 고향 생각이 나서요.
Neha:
No, I’m just thinking about my hometown.
정민:
가족이 보고 싶겠다. 대학 생활은 어때요?
Jeongmin: You must be missing your family. How’s university life going?
네하:
할 만해요. 모르는 게 많지만 점점 익숙해지고 있어요.
Neha:
It’s worthwhile. There are many things I don’t know, but I’m slowly getting used to them.
정민:
다행이에요. 궁금한 게 있으면 저한테 언제든지 물어보세요.
Jeongmin: It’s good to hear that. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me anytime.
네하:
너무 감사합니다.
Neha:
Thank you so much.
~아/어 있어요: Use this grammar point with verbs when you want to express that something/someone is in a continuous state. For comparison, while the similar ~고 있어요 shows continuity of an activity, the grammar point featured here shows the continuity of a state or fact. Ex: 그는 계단에 앉아 있어요. He is sitting on the stairs. 달력이 벽에 걸려 있어요. The calendar is hanging on the wall.
that is worth doing. When the verb ends in a final consonant, use ~을 만해요, and when it ends in vowel, used ~ㄹ 만해요. Ex: 일을 할 만해요? Is your work worth doing? 광주는 한번 갈 만해요. Gwangju is worth a visit.
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서다 이리 선배 고민 가족 보고 싶다 고향 생각이 나다 대학 생활 모르다 익숙하다 다행이다 궁금하다 언제든지 물어보다
The Author
to stand in this way senior worry family to miss hometown to think about / to recall university life to not know to be familiar to be a relief/good thing to be curious about anytime to ask
Harsh Kumar Mishra is a linguist pursuing his PhD in Korean linguistics at Chonnam National University. He is also a freelance Korean translator/ interpreter, content creator for TopikGuide.com, and does online Korean teaching through the same organization.
July 2021
~을/ㄹ 만해요: Use this grammar point with a verb to express something
Vocabulary Items
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
Grammar Points
TEACHING & LEARNING
정민:
2021-06-24 �� 10:19:55
38 Restaurant Review
Bondiso, an Artistic Fusion
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
July 2021
FOOD & DRINKS
Reviewed by Melline Galani
O
ften compared with Seoul’s Bukchon Village, Yangnim-dong never ceases to amaze. Its narrow streets filled with coffee shops and art galleries are hidden gems waiting to be discovered. Its Penguin Village, recently redecorated and expanded, invites guests to discover concealed treasures in the simplest objects. Every time I visit Yangnim-dong, I discover something new, either an art gallery, a coffee shop, or a restaurant. This was the case with Bondiso. This restaurant is not that easy to find. Situated on a narrow street with no car access and close to the Han Heewon Museum, it does not impress much at its entrance. An old-style house with just a name on it is not that inviting to dine in. But once you get inside, a whole new atmosphere greets its customers. Bondiso is a Korean fusion-style restaurant that serves pastas, salads, and meat dishes. Its menu has a limited number of dishes, but they are worth every penny. As I mentioned above, the restaurant is situated in an old house with rustic decor, ornamented with a kind of sterilized hanok design on the outside but with flamboyant European touches on the inside. It has the atmosphere of a Southeast Asian restaurant, yet it reminds me of some small restaurants in Europe. Bondiso’s unique menu matches perfectly with the distinctive decorated interior, but what I like the most is the outdoor garden decorated in a very romantic spirit. This is where I always prefer to eat if the weather permits. The staff is friendly, and for those who come for the first time, they kindly explain the menu and the signature dishes, probably because Bondiso’s menu is written in a particular manner and their dishes have special flavors that people do not expect to find when ordering. However, the menu is also in English, and I found it very easy to understand. After ordering the meal, a small appetizer consisting of homemade yogurt with fruits is offered on the house.
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On my visits to Bondiso, I have tried different pasta dishes, including their sweet pumpkin cream with baguette and one of the meat offerings. The roast pork had a soft texture, and it went really well with the sides; it came with grain flakes, grilled vegetables, and potatoes mixed together to increase the flavor. I had never seen such a unique association. The pastas were all delicious, even the simplest tomato sauce spaghetti. The prices for the pasta dishes range between 13,000 and 16,000 won, the meat orders are 20,500 won (roast pork) and 24,000 won, while the sweet pumpkin cream with baguette costs only 5,000 won. The restaurant also serves wine, coffee, and other beverages. While in Yangnim-dong, Bondiso is a must-eat restaurant. Well known among Koreans, it awaits its customers with a special atmosphere, tempting them with exotic fusion dishes never before encountered in the City of Light. Photographs by Melline Galani.
The Reviewer
Melline Galani is a Romanian enthusiast, born and raised in the capital city of Bucharest, who is currently living in Gwangju. She likes new challenges, learning interesting things, and is incurably optimistic. She loves living life as it is. @melligalanis
BONDISO (번디소) Address 29-2 Yangchon-gil, Nam-gu, Gwangju 광주 동구 양촌길 29-2 (양림동)
Operating Hours: 11:30–21:00 (break time 14:30–17:00) Phone: 062-444-1661 @bondi_so
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www.gwangjunewsgic.com
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July 2021
Clockwise from top left: Outside view of the restaurant, outside garden, roast pork with a side of grilled vegetables and flakes, carbonara, appetizer made of homemade yogurt with fruits, pappardele pasta, sweet pumpkin cream soup with baguette, tomato sauce spaghetti.
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COMMUNITY
40 Gwangju Abroad
Reconnecting with Gwangju Through Saturi
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
July 2021
By Ashley Kim
I
n 2007, I emigrated from Gwangju to a mostly white suburb in southern California. I was seven at the time, and not understanding a word of class for a few months left me with a distinct fear of the English language. This fear developed into an obsession over how I spoke – the pronunciation, grammar, and tone all had to indicate intellect. It was as if slurring a consonant or breaking a subject–verb agreement took me back to my mute, confused self in the early days of my American life. I lost my Korean accent soon enough but also the joy of relaxed speech. My tense relationship with language began to thaw in the summer of 2018, when I visited my relatives in Gwangju before heading off to college. During this trip, I noticed the way people in the city spoke – the Jeolla regional
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dialect, or saturi (사투리). My mother’s Jeolla saturi, which she never uses with me, returned the moment she was reunited with her parents and siblings. If you do not have family from Jeolla-do, you can hear this saturi best in the women working in restaurants or in taxi drivers – especially when they get frustrated with traffic. Like all saturi, it assumes a casual and familiar atmosphere, as if you expect the listener to understand you immediately. The Seoul-based standard Korean (표준어), on the other hand, sounds more formal and impersonal. I cannot quite pin down how the Jeolla dialect sounds, but there is a distinct cadence and pattern of emphasis. Most of the time, it sounds playful, but it can also be quite charismatic. Dragging out an -ing (-잉) at the end of a sentence, for example, can transform an insult into a friendly jab.
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41
The fluidity that runs through the Jeolla saturi negated all the rules of speech I had set for myself back in America. This dialect emphasizes clarity, humor, efficiency, and ease over sounding smart or educated. With saturi, spoken language is not dictated by its written form. It exposes convoluted language for its awkwardness, and nudges the speaker to express their intentions more directly. There is no pure or perfectly correct saturi; everyone adopts a saturi to a degree and creates a unique blend of their own. After returning from Gwangju, I found myself spending hours on YouTube watching videos of people speaking the Jeolla dialect. The Seoul-centric media system in South Korea rarely portrays the Jeolla saturi on air, so I had to keep my ears alert for any person who spoke with the dialect. I probably watched all videos of Jeolladialect competitions, in which each contestant gives a short speech using saturi. I also looked at documentaries and travel programs that included interviews with locals. The more I looked into Jeolla language and culture, the more I became interested in how marginalized people speak and communicate. In South Korea, much of the business and cultural capital is concentrated in Seoul and its surrounding areas. What people of other regions do to preserve their heritage and identity was important to me because I felt that I had neglected that for so long in America.
“My mother's Jeolla saturi, which she never uses with me, returned the moment she was reunited with her parents and siblings.”
With the pandemic, I have found more time to delve into Gwangju-related content on the internet. There is much I do not know, but I feel deep satisfaction in discovering more about the city that I came from and the dialect that is used there. The sense of community in Gwangju shows in both its history and saturi, and that is what makes me want to come back to the city the most.
The Author
Ashley Kim (김상유) is a senior studying rhetoric at UC Berkeley. She loves reading Toni Morrison, hiking, and baking with her little sister. She currently lives in Brea, California, but spent her early childhood in Gwangju. Her hope is to return to the city after graduation and work with youth there.
July 2021
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this all goes back to my love for the Jeolla saturi and how it made me view speaking in a different light.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
To this day, I am not sure if my interest in the Jeolla dialect was the end of my anxiety with speaking or the beginning of just another obsession directed towards language. Either way, I just could not stop watching these videos. There was a rush in learning about a place that is completely unknown to most people around you. I filled my free time in college with virtual trips to Gwangju, thinking about the seemingly incommunicable gap between that city and my college in Northern California. By my junior year, I was deep into learning about the history of Gwangju and South Korea’s regionalism (지역감정), and I chose to write on the May 18 Democratic Movement for my senior thesis. Strangely,
▲ Map of Korean dialects/languages.
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42 Opinion
The Green Space Vendetta By William Urbanski
July 2021
BACK TO REALITY I wrote that introduction a few weeks ago when I was still in awe of the sheer boldness of the decision to bulldoze the park in question. Now, I would like to take this opportunity to backpedal on my previous statements because upon careful reflection, I think obliterating virtually the last urban green space in the area might not be such a sound idea for reasons I will attempt to enumerate and explain fully here.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
COMMUNITY
L
et me be the first to congratulate the erudite, brilliant, and overall stunningly wise individual who authorized the decision to destroy Yuan Geunrin Gongwon (유안근린공원, Yuan Neighborhood Park), one of the last public green spaces in Gwangju’s Bongseondong. In the face of public opposition, common sense, and reason, it takes considerable moral courage to stick to the objective of jamming as many buildings as possible into an already congested area. It is also a display of incredible bravery to stand up to the many children, senior citizens, and countless other residents who enjoy the park on a daily basis and to undemocratically expropriate one of the few outdoor gathering places in the area. By having the mental fortitude and valor to do, without asking, what is best for the populous, the individual who allowed this to happen has shown a level of compassion equal only to that of the Dalai Lama. I will personally be contacting the appropriate dignitaries in Sweden to see if the person responsible for this decision can be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Before we get started, let us make something clear: This is not an article about environmentalism or protecting the wildlife. After all, the park never had any ecosystem to speak of: In fact, whatever “natural habitat” may have existed there at one point in the past was long-since replaced by the dingy parking lot on top of which the park sits. Furthermore, the entirely of Bongseon-dong is essentially a concrete jungle that, besides a few strategically placed trees, is the antithesis of a natural environment. So, the value of the park certainly does not lie in its natural
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biodiversity but as an open, public gathering space where people can congregate, sit, talk, or just simply enjoy the grass and trees. WHAT IS THE VALUE OF A PARK? As you have no doubt heard, property is a hot commodity in Gwangju, and in particular Bongseon-dong, where a run-of-the-mill and cookie-cutter condo runs north of half a million bucks. One of the main reasons for this is that Bongseon-dong is a popular area when it comes to education, and the main street is simply riddled with every conceivable sort of academy. For any family with children, this makes the area a pretty attractive place to live since the kids will have convenient access to the myriad education facilities (and, incidentally, students who live in Bongseon-dong have the reputation of being quite smart). So, the “feedback loop” looks something like this: There are lots of academies, so many people move there, which causes more academies to open up, causing more people to move there. This sounds all well and good, but one of the major problems this creates is that there is little to virtually nothing to do in the area that does not involve shelling out money since every square meter of useable land is immediately scooped up by those wishing to install some sort of business. This brings us back to the park in question. In this desert of traffic, sidewalks, cafes, and billboards, the park is a refuge. While not extremely fancy or particularly large, it is well laid out, accessible to all, has lots of green grass and, to put it mildly, is a very popular place for the denizens of the area to gather, play, and relax. The park borders the main street, but has enough trees and bushes to block out the noise from the traffic, which is simply bonkers. Many times, I have walked through the park, even at night, and been surprised by how many people were there exercising. Besides this park, there are no other large, open spaces in the area, so it was very surprising that the park was chosen as a new location for a building that will eat up roughly twenty five percent of its area. The new building also cuts
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43 off one of the three main entrance points, reducing access by a third. You might be thinking, “So what? What’s the big deal? It’s just a park, and they’re leaving most of it intact.” But such a line of questioning misses the point that seizing a large chunk of public land for a building sends a clear message: Public space is a luxury the area cannot afford. I have not determined exactly what is being built on the spot, but it actually does not matter. What is beyond question is that reducing the amount of public space and green space, for whatever ostensible reason, makes an area less livable overall. It is also worth mentioning that more than a few people who live in the area are seriously PO’d about this whole affair. Relating to the issue of public spaces for pedestrians, I noticed an interesting phenomenon in Bongseon-dong. Can you guess one of the most popular recreational spots in the neighborhood? A place where dozens of people regularly gather on evenings and weekends to get some exercise? A church parking lot. (You read that correctly.) The fact that residents who wish to stretch their legs are reduced to pacing around in circles on a dimly lit asphalt surface is proof positive that the area needs more public space, not less. As well, a parking lot makes a pretty crummy playground and/or exercise facility, not least of all for the fact that it is only a matter of time before a car comes screaming into the lot and flattens someone. To a degree, I
would argue that the church parking lot is a microcosm of the area as a whole: a giant slab of concrete on which there exists an uneasy truce between lowly pedestrians and the dominant vehicles. NO BETTER PLACE FOR A BUILDING? REALLY? On the other side of the neighborhood, along the very same road, there is a massive construction project that has already started clogging up the area: a new apartment complex. These two projects will sharply increase traffic in the area that is already at its breaking point. That may seem like hyperbole, but if you do not believe me, I triple dog dare you to drive around the area on a Saturday afternoon or any day at rush hour. No doubt one reason for this state of affairs is that egregious parking violations in the district are not only tolerated but, in some ways, encouraged. To illustrate my point, roughly a year ago, I used an app specifically designed for the purpose of reporting illegal parking (in this case, people parked on crosswalks and in front of fire hydrants on the main street during peak hours). In each case, I was informed that the local government refused to issue parking tickets simply because they wished to encourage businesses in the area. If the area really, really needed another building (which it does not), there are plenty of other spots that would have been perfectly good. Walking around the Nam-gu area,
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July 2021
▲ The destruction of the park, which has been the target of derision by most people in the area, was curiously seen by others as an occasion for celebration.
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44 there is no shortage of recently demolished and soon-tobe demolished houses – and even an entire apartment complex that recently went the way of the dinosaur. In addition, there are numerous recently constructed buildings sitting with empty floors. Given that there is a multitude of other good sites to slap together either a building or the equivalent floor space, there remains only one plausible explanation for why the park was chosen as the location for the next bland, soulless edifice, (which, by the way, according to the schematic on the big gray fence surrounding the construction site, will feature, you guessed it, another parking lot): As a young child, the person who would authorize the destruction of the park was playing on some grass, slipped on a pile of dog doo-doo, fell, and skinned his knee while wearing his best pants. Upon returning home, he received no sympathy from his parents (or grandparents) and was also ruthlessly scolded for messing up the clothes that his parents had worked their whole lives to provide him. At this moment, the boy swore revenge against the great outdoors, envisioning himself as a John Wick-like character whose sole purpose was to carry out his personal vendetta on public green spaces by any means necessary.
“By the time this issue hits the stands, I will have already moved out of Bongseon-dong.”
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
July 2021
SO LONG, BONGSEON-DONG By the time this issue hits the stands, I will have already moved out of Bongseon-dong. Although the district has the best E-mart and the best Daiso in the city, there is no love lost since the area is simply too congested for my liking. I genuinely feel sorry for the residents of the area for whom leaving is not an option and who have no choice but to endure the loss of a space with a value that, while intangible, far exceeds that of any construction project. In my opinion, in terms of striking a balance between providing essential infrastructure and planning out a neighborhood that does not feel like a strip mall, it is too late for Bongseon-dong, but this saga will serve as a cautionary tale for other parts of the city. As for me, I am off to greener pastures.
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Photograph by William Urbanski.
The Author
William Urbanski is the managing editor of the Gwangju News. He is married to a wonderful Korean woman, always pays cash, and keeps all his receipts. He can be found at @will_il_ gatto
“Alan and Me” By Yun Hyoju
This month the Gwangju News is very excited to debut a new regular column featuring the exploits of Yun Hyoju and her husband, Alan. As this series will show, a multicultural marriage presents its own unique challenges that lend themselves well to amusing antidotes and comedy fodder. Enjoy “Alan and Me”! — Ed.
S
ince I was little, I have always been drawing cartoons and comics at my small desk during my free time. I never really thought that I would draw comics about my actual life, but after I met Alan, things got a little interesting. I mean, it is just another story of two people finding each other, falling in love, and getting married, but at the same time, because it is about us, it is a very special story for us. So, I decided to make some sort of record of our youth, love, and struggles through my comics. I could not really show anybody the comics that I had drawn other than my parents, but unlike in the past, these days everybody has their own platform to showcase their work online in so many ways. So, that is what I am doing at the moment while we are excitedly waiting for our first child to come along and join us on our journey on this planet.
The Author
Yun Hyoju was born and raised in Gwangju, and somehow ended up married to an Irish guy named Alan. She has been working on her short comic “Alan and Me,” which is about their daily life. She publishes a new comic every week on Instagram. It can be found at @alan_andme
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Webtoon 45
CULTURE & ARTS www.gwangjunewsgic.com
“Alan and Me”
July 2021
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46 Photo Essay
Mokpo’s Japanese-Era Tunnels
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July 2021 2021 July
CULTURE & ARTS
By Isaiah Winters
▲ One of the many excellent views from Yudal Mountain.
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47 47
▲ The entrance of the bigger tunnel seen at low tide.
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July July 2021 2021
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July 2021
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49
▲ Another view from Yudal Mountain, this time looking out at the islands of Sinan-gun.
I
f not for Gwangju, I’d be in Mokpo. There’s so much about the port city that endears me to it, including Yudal Mountain, Goha Island, and the cable car connecting them. The first time I took the latter, I spotted a tunnel on the inner shore of Goha Island that appeared to be in disuse and vowed to check it out one day – which, given my obsessive personality, happened to be the very next day.
▲ The first tunnel looks out to sea where an American invasion likely would have come from. ◀ The second tunnel looks across the port in the direction of Mokpo itself.
Hiking down to the tunnel was a thorny nightmare, but for my effort, I was rewarded with a surprise second tunnel nearby. Luckily, the tide was low enough for me to enter them both and snoop around. In the back of each were deep drill holes that likely would have been stuffed with dynamite and blasted away had WWII not ended. Apparently, fearing an American invasion, the Japanese forced local Koreans to make tunnels along coastal areas like Mokpo that could provide shelter, munitions storage, and surprise hideouts in case of enemy attack.
The Photographer
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July 2021
Originally from Southern California, Isaiah Winters is a Gwangju-based urban explorer who enjoys writing about the City of Light’s lesser-known quarters. When he’s not roaming the streets and writing about his experiences, he’s usually working or fulfilling his duties as the Gwangju News’ heavily caffeinated chief proofreader. You can find more of his photography at @d.p.r.kwangju
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
I don’t recommend you try to find these on your own, as they can be quite dangerous. To safely explore far more elaborate tunnels in Mokpo, visit the Mokpo Modern History Museum.
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50 Book Review
Travels of an American-Korean 2014-2020
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
July 2021
CULTURE & ARTS
Reviewed by Michael Attard
T
his book is a diary of Richard Pennington’s travels throughout South Korea between 2014 and 2020. The travels were prompted by his personal desire to deepen his understanding of Korea. The writings include memories and reflections, and his stated purpose is to educate and entertain his readers. The 85 trips are in chronological order. In Chapter 1, he travels to Anseong in January of 2014, where he visited the Machum Museum. He explains that machum (맞춤) can have several meanings, but that in this case, it refers to well-made brassware. The brassware made in Anseong was produced for Korean nobility and sold to Japan, China, and even India and Arabia. Concise paragraphs relating lesser-known historical facts are found in almost every chapter. One particular chapter I liked is “Confrontation at Imjingak.” In this entry, Pennington recounts how he was personally involved in a controversial social action. Close to the Demilitarized Zone, he was with a group of South Koreans who were attempting to send leaflets by hydrogen balloons into North Korea. I should clarify that he had been invited. The day, however, did not go as planned, as scuffles broke out and eggs were thrown. Apparently, it is the local people who are most against the floating of leaflets, as they feel that they have the most to lose. On this day, the locals won after the truck carrying the balloons was hijacked. While many places in Korea have a historical connection to the distant past, Pennington has visited a multitude
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of sites pertaining to World War II and the Korean War. In October 2017, the author visited Namhae and the spot where an American B-24 was shot down on August 7, 1945, the day after an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The story concerns a local Korean named Kim who found the crash site. The Japanese had gotten to the site first and took what they could use, leaving the eleven dead crew as they were. Kim, however, was compelled to give the Americans a proper burial. He knew this was dangerous and, sure enough, when the Japanese learned of what he had done, he was arrested and tortured. Fortunately for Kim, the war ended shortly thereafter, and he was freed. This is the type of story missing from most history books but found in this one. On a lighter note, who has not had an Imsil Cheese Pizza since coming to Korea? Well, our author traveled to the town of Imsil in North Jeolla Province to learn the full story of how it was born. Apparently, a Belgian priest came to Korea in 1959 and somehow ended up in Imsil. The priest managed to get a pair of mountain goats and a cow or two. The problem was that he had no idea how to make cheese. That did not stop the father or the locals, and eventually they had a profitable cheese operation. And in keeping up with the times, there is even an Imsil Cheese Theme Park there today. Our author has bounced all over Korea, and I wish that the book had a few maps. This would make the book more practical for those of us planning our own trips. Along the same lines, names in Hangeul would also help. Everywhere he went, he met people, and it is clear that Pennington himself, not being shy, had a lot to do with
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51 on North Korean television. No glimpse of life in South Korea was allowed. This book is 441 pages, and the author gives us his opinion on other topics as diverse as the Catholic Church and Muhammad Ali. I realize that it is his diary, but hearing about his two-mile runs over and over, baseball games watched on television, and the book he was reading made the story tedious at times. I think his purpose would be better served and that he would attract more readers with a book half the size.
▲ Richard Pennington
this. On the other hand, his encounters reveal the friendliness and strong tendency of Koreans to offer help in any situation. So, without really saying so, his encounters serve as an encouragement to all of us to get out and explore. However, he gives us the names of almost everyone he meets, which slows down the reading.
However, whether you are new to South Korea or have been here for a few years, Pennington’s book will definitely give you a look into the lesser-seen Korea.
The Reviewer
Michael Attard is a Canadian and has lived in Gwangju since 2004. Though officially retired, he still teaches a few private English classes. He enjoys reading all kinds of books and writes for fun. When the weather is nice, you may find him on a hiking trail.
As I said, all of the travels mentioned were in South Korea. But in the chapter “The PyeongChang Winter Olympics,” Mr. Pennington makes clear his feelings on the North Korean regime. He tells us that there was a concern that North Korea might do something to disrupt the games and reminds us that North Korea, just before the 1988 Seoul Olympics, had planted a bomb on a South Korean airliner, leading to the death of 115 people. He also tells us that no reference was made to the Olympics
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July 2021
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52 GFN Radio
The Afternoon Show with JD
Diverse, Inclusive, Representative, Multicultural, and Multilingual with the Best in Pop and Pop Culture from Around the World
CULTURE & ARTS
By JD
T
he Afternoon Show with JD is a multilingual and multicultural show that airs daily at 12:10–2:00 p.m. on weekdays and at 12:00–2:00 p.m. on weekends on GFN, aiming to edutain listeners with pertinent information vital to their lives here in South Korea. The show is hosted and produced by JD, a media graduate and specialist. The show offers services mainly in English, Korean, and Russian and has recently added Tagalog to its weekly segments. Our podcast services also offer information in over 20 languages and have close to 300,000 views so far. Since the inception of the show, the aim has been to make it as widely accessible as possible to everyone in the Gwangju and Jeollanam-do community, and we have constantly been working to improve and deliver on this.
July 2021
Our slogan is “Diverse, Inclusive, Representative, Multicultural, and Multilingual with the Best in Pop and Pop Culture from Around the World.”
From the music we play on the show to the culturally diverse guests and contents that we create daily, the most important factor is that it has to emphasize and highlight the globalized, multicultural world that we live in. Prior to The Afternoon Show (TAS), I was the host and segment producer of Kpopular, GFN’s Hallyu show. This show focused mainly on Korean pop-culture content and played only K-pop. However, once we evolved into TAS, it was important for me to create a show that heightened representation and inclusivity as well. Not only did we start playing pop music from around the world, but we also ensured that the content was multilingual so that local and international audiences could better understand the messages that we aimed to deliver. We have segments including English and Korean language learning, demystifying the news, inspirational quotes, recipes, and just fun chats to get listeners through lunchtime with energizing music. I also aimed to make the show more socially conscious in that we not only focused on pop culture and music but also on how these could be used as a way to tackle issues within society that are either not being addressed or have been sidelined. Thus, I prioritized edutainment: education and entertainment with pop culture as the cultural diplomacy vehicle.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
When you listen to the show, you will hear not only the best variety of music; I also tailor each show to be a reflection of what is happening in society at that moment. We create and facilitate conversations and highlight how important engaging with issues is in creating a globally aware society that is diverse, more open-minded, and promoting of mutual understanding.
-hee, former producer
Soo ▲ JD (left) with Han
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of the show.
I have also placed a huge emphasis on the show being multilingual. Gwangju has a large foreign community,
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53 and since contents were mainly provided in English and Korean, during the conception of the show in 2016, I decided to broaden it even more. I have always believed that access to multilingual information is imperative, especially for delivering emergency and disaster management messages. Thus, after being invited as speaker at a global multilingual conference in 2019 with UNESCO, I adopted some of my findings there to the show. This all came to fruition in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic and lack of multilingual resources within South Korea. I started a social impact campaign on the show with crowdsourcing help from the amazing Gwangju community. With information from the KDCA (Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency), we started the Let’s Keep Gwangju Safe Together Campaign with preventative guidelines and information in over 20 different languages in order to inform and help protect the community. You might recall that emergency information at that point was (and to some extent still is) only available in Korean. The campaign was hugely successful and is one of the most viewed on our audio-on-demand (AOD) service. Adding onto this, I branched out and also did multilingual info packets on other disaster management and emergency information, including typhoon and flood warnings and heat waves, in addition to producing numerous long-form documentary projects like a global COVID-19 time capsule project with responses from over 60 countries, a World Aids Day informational documentary, and numerous other projects surrounding Hallyu around the world.
Photographs by JD and courtesy of GFN.
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The Author
JD holds multiple degrees in media, film, and management policy. He is also a cultural diplomacy specialist. Stay safe and protected, and check out our multilingual audio on demand podcast on our website www.gfn.or.kr. JD can be found at @gfntaswithjd
July 2021
THE AFTERNOON SHOW WITH JD Let’s Keep Gwangju Safe, Together Campaign Website: http://www.gfn.or.kr/radio_intro.php?menu_ id=302 theafternoonshowithJD @gfntaswithjd
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
Thus, if you are looking for an energetic edutainment experience, you can tune in any day of the week and not only brush up on what is happening around you but also enjoy some fantastic global pop hits. We are also always looking to help improve understanding and increase safety within our community, and therefore, we are reaching out and asking that if anyone would like to volunteer to help record emergency services in their native language, they should get in contact with us so that we can improve our service to the community. You can contact us at gfnafternoonshow@gmail.com.
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54 GFN Radio
Top of The Drop By Daniel J. Springer
CULTURE & ARTS
Durand Jones & The Indications – “Witchoo”
Since the release of their second career LP American Love Call in March 2019, it has been quite the consequential couple of years for the group, especially for drummer and falsetto vocalist Aaron Frazer, who not only released his debut solo album in January this year but has started branching out into production as well. With this release, the band that originally met and released their debut as students at Indiana University have announced their third career album, Private Space. A supremely vibey, disco-inspired party track that is definitely a departure for the group stylistically, the album seems to be setting a marker for the band by showing where they’re going rather than reminiscing on where they’ve been.
Japanese Breakfast – “Posing for Cars”
For those unfamiliar, don’t let the moniker get you twisted, as Michelle Zauner was born in Seoul to a Korean mother. One of the rising stars in the indie game, her new album, Jubilee, is the artist’s career fifth, and this album really sees the artist going for it on a stylish and eclectic record that feels perfect for right now but still has the indie panache she’s become known for. “Posing for Cars,” the final cut on the LP, is a perfect example of this, as it just closes everything perfectly.
Adrian Quesada with Paul & The Tall Trees – “Don’t Stay Silent”
Record Store Day is June 12 this year, and the biggest release set for that day is the triple LP being released by Dallas-based Eastwood Music called The Truth to Power Project. Initially a small local project, it has mushroomed into a star-studded super album, with Grammy Award winner Leon Bridges and producer S1 joining the fray. You can also expect cuts from BadBadNotGood, Ghost Funk Orchestra, Holy Hive, Bastards of Soul, and this final single, featuring Paul Schalda and Grammy-nominated, Black Pumas man-behind-the-mirror Adrian Quesada.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
July 2021
Lucy Dacus – “VBS”
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In what might be the most anticipated “indie” record of the year, Lucy Dacus is out with Home Video as of June 25. While not the final single released before the album nor the most notable in terms of hype, “VBS” very successfully conveys this narrative of looking back on one’s childhood, knowing now what you didn’t realize back then, and all the jagged emotions that accompany these realizations.
Ormiston – “Time Fades”
The artist here is a tremendously talented singer-songwriter and producer who dropped an ominously titled but exceedingly positive album called Hammer Down on June 4. The artist describes his sound as inspired by indie-pop, chillwave, yacht rock, and electro-disco, encouraging the listener to “think Toro y Moi meets MGMT” and you’ve got a good idea. Great LP to check if you’re having a downer of a day.
Sola Rosa feat. Thandi Phoenix – Something Good (High Hoops Remix)
After dropping his career seventh album, Chasing the Sun, last year in September, producer Andrew Spraggon still has a few tricks up his sleeve, with this being a notable link-up between two of the best beatmakers in New Zealand. For those unfamiliar, High Hoops is the solo moniker of Jordan Arts, who is also a member of Leisure.
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55 João Donato with Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad – “Não Negue Seu Coracão”
Former A Tribe Called Quest member Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge have been cooking up something very special with their Jazz Is Dead label, inviting the absolute cream of the crop, from Roy Ayers to Gary Baertz to Marcos Valle, just to name a handful. Jazz Is Dead 7 (JID 007) sees another Brasilero legend in bossa pianist João Donato join the crew for another masterfully produced and innovative full-length.
Kesmar feat. Flore Benguigui – “Johatsu”
The main artist here is Sydney-based producer and songwriter Nathan Hawkes, who made his debut with a very well-received EP called Up to You. However, his latest EP, Forever Holiday, kind of takes it up a few notches with this tune featuring L’Imperatrice lead singer Flore Benguigui adding her usual pitch-perfect silk to the vocals. Be ye warned: The Empress can do no wrong.
Kevin Mark Trail – “Unfold”
After a rousing contribution to several tracks on Sola Rosa’s Chasing the Sun last year, it seems that the former collaborator with The Streets on Original Pirate Material is ready to truly get back at it. His latest LP, Heart String, is a beautiful rumination on recent times with the artist often going it solo on the piano therein, but there’s still a little bump and electronic magic to let you feel it along the way too.
Wallice – “Dramamine”
This is off the artist’s debut EP, Off the Rails, which just dropped June 4 and created a lot of great buzz. In an interview, when prompted to describe her music in the form of a dating app bio, she said, “Master of none overly sarcastic musician with too many hobbies and a love of arts and crafts, board games, and bowling (but not good at bowling).”
Local Focus Kamen Ross – “Very Distant Starlight”
June Releases Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee (June 4) Black Pumas – Capitol Cuts: Live from Studio A (June 4) Garbage – No Gods No Masters (June 11) V/A – Truth to Power Project (June 12) Kings of Convenience – Peace or Love (June 18) Mykki Blanco – Broken Hearts and Beauty Sleep (June 18) Lucy Dacus – Home Video (June 25) Faye Webster – I Know I’m Funny haha (June 25)
The Author
Watch Out for These
You can find “The Damyang Drop,” his monthly collaborative playlist with The Damyang House, on YouTube and Spotify. @gfnthedrop
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Lana Del Rey – Blue Banisters (July 4) Half Waif – Mythopoetics (July 9) Chiiild – Hope for Sale (July 23) Samia – Scout (July 23) Molly Burch – Heart of Gold (July 23) Darkside – Spiral (July 23) Durand Jones & The Indications – Private Space (July 30) Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever (July 30)
July 2021
Daniel J. Springer (aka “Danno”) is the creator, host, writer, editor, and producer of The Drop with Danno, broadcasting nightly on GFN 98.7 FM in Gwangju and 93.7 FM in Yeosu between 8 and 10 p.m. Prior to this, he was a contributor to several shows on TBS eFM in Seoul, along with being the creator and cohost of Spacious and White Label Radio on WNUR in Chicago.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
While Kamen might not be based here in Gwangju since moving to Jeju, the brilliant Berklee College of Music grad is absolutely considered family here forever. In a new development, the artist is releasing her debut solo album, the scintillating classical piano-based instrumental collection I Dreamt We Fell in Love, due out September 9. This single drops July 7, and we’ll have Kamen on The Drop for an exclusive interview and playlist selection on Friday to talk about the new album and the sounds that inspire him as an artist. Don’t miss it!
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56
CROSSWORD PUZZLE
Created by Jon Dunbar
Look for the answers to this crossword puzzle to appear in August in Gwangju News Online (www.gwangjunewsgic.com).
DOWN
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
July 2021
ACROSS 1 5 8 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 21 22 26 29 30
Good grief! Animated image file Horse hoof sound Former Yugoslavia ruler or Jackson 5 member Gramophone maker Sang-soo or Seok-cheon Gwangju Prize for Human Rights awardee Nampa Jangeo-gui ingredient Not in harbor A chicken dish to beat the heat River in Seoul Buddy Island county near Mokpo where 33 down is from “The Princess and the ___” Opposite of cheer
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31 32 33 34 35 36 37 39 40 45 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55
“What ___ you so long?” NASA R&D center Found at beaches and deserts Female sheep “What you ___ is what you get” Gungnam-ji Pond location Go to by foot (2 words) Hyundai Staria or Kia Carnival Korean cucumber dish Ground-based ski lift Goes with relief or Burger “___ the Explorer” “In the ___ of the Son” Banned political party “___ retentive” Past confederacy centered in Gimhae Korean carmaker Prefix for drama
1 Arrival times 2 Gershon or Carano 3 Astro Boy’s name in Asia 4 Cheondoism’s 19th-century movement 5 Partnering for ___ Growth and the Global Goals 2030 6 Tracy Lauren Marrow 7 Middle Eastern street food 8 Traditional Korean outdoor game “jegi ___” 9 “Dia de ___ Muertos” 10 Fifty minus forty-nine 11 Men’s golf event 19 Chinese American celebrity chef Martin 20 Gun rights org. 23 E-commerce corporation up for sale in Korea 24 “Jack of all trades, master of ___” 25 Extinct bird 26 Jjigae, tang, and jjim are all like this 27 State east of Montana 28 Liam Gallagher’s brother 29 KDCA’s required equipment 32 Province south of Chungnam 33 Artist Hong 35 Venereal disease 36 Politician Ki-moon 38 Land east of the Yellow Sea 39 Italian scooter brand 41 Korean Americans belong to this classification 42 “___ with the Wind” 43 Eurasian mountain range 44 South African singer-songwriter Lizz 45 It aired between TOS and DS9 46 Uttered by 34 across 47 Winehouse or Poehler
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