Gwangju and South Jeolla International Magazine
Gwangju and South Jeolla International Magazine
June 2021 #232
June 2021 #232 Celebrating 20 Years
Anniversary
th
2001 — 2021
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1 Gwangju & South Jeolla International Magazine
From the Editor
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June 2021, Issue 232 Published: June 1, 2021 Cover Gwangju News 20th Anniversary
THE EDITORIAL TEAM Publisher Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Chief Copy Editor Layout Editor Photographer Copy Editor Online Editor Researchers
Dr. Shin Gyonggu Dr. David E. Shaffer William Urbanski Isaiah Winters Karina Prananto Kim Hillel Yunkyoung Jonathan Moffett Karina Prananto Jana Milosavljevic, 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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Ready to do a bit of traveling? This month, we take you on a tour of an undulated Gwangju amusement park and on a one-day trip to the one-time capital of the ancient Baekje Kingdom in Buyeo [Travel Section]. Our Blast from the Past column features two much-loved foods: one to beat the Korean heat and the other to protect against the polluted Korean air. And try out our “cool” recipe for a hot summer dish: oi-naengguk. While we’re on the subject of nourishment, check out our two restaurant reviews: Sabotage, where you can enjoy a hearty brunch or dinner, and the Lee Lee Nam Studio, where you can enjoy astonishing media art over a beverage and dessert [Food and Drink]. Our Community Section this month takes us behind the curtains of a tattoo parlor where our writer practices on pigskin! We bring you one article on the unhealthy aspects of extra health insurance and another one about caring for our environment by caring about our plastic waste. In Teaching and Learning, we have a lesson on cooking for the Korean learner, and we discuss “funds of knowledge” for the language teacher. And this month’s Gwangju News brings you much more. Check out City News for a new May 18-related movie. Check out our book review: The Last Girl. Check out the newest GFN program: Way Back With U. Check out the latest flash fiction in Gwangju Writes: The Road. And check out “the drop” in new tunes for June in “Top of The Drop.” So much to check out this month! Don’t forget our Photo Essay on a Naju theme park, our Photo of the Month, and our puzzling Crossword Puzzle. As always, stay Covid smart, stay Covid safe, and enjoy the Gwangju News.
David E. Shaffer Editor-in-Chief Gwangju News
June 2021
For volunteering and article submission inquiries, please contact the editor at gwangjunews@gic.or.kr.
May 18 has passed, but is certainly hasn’t been forgotten. Read our feature on the ongoing May 18 Memorial Foundation’s Exhibition: “May Is…” In a somewhat related feature, read about artist Hong Sung-dam and his involvement in both art and May 18. The City of Light has also selected this year’s Gwangju Prize for Human Rights Awardee who is conducting his fight in Thailand.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
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 gwangjunews
his month is June 2021, exactly twenty years after the publishing of the first issue of the Gwangju News, so we thought we would indulge in a little celebrating of the 20th anniversary of this magazine that we take pride in by a feature on the people, present and past, involved in preparing this precious publication to punctually roll off the printer’s printing press. [See “Celebrating 20 Years,” page 6.]
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Photo of the Month By Kim Hillel Yunkyung
Free Your Soul
Singer-songwriter from South Africa, Lizz Kalo, performs her own songs at Loft 28 back on May 1, 2021.
The Photographer
Kim Hillel Yunkyoung is a priest in the Anglican Church and also a portrait photographer. More of his pictures can be found at hillelkim.
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Contents
ISSUE 232, JUNE 2021
NEWS 01. From the Editor 04. Gwangju City News FEATURES 06. Celebrating 20 Years: Gwangju News 11. Anon Nampa: Gwangju Prize for Human Rights 2021 Awardee 14. People in the Arts: Hong Sung-dam – Born into a History of Struggle 18. May Is… – The May 18 Memorial Foundation Archive Exhibition 20. Blast from the Past: Samgye-tang for the Heat, Pork for Pollution TRAVEL 22. Lost in Gwangju: Amusement’s Watery Grave – Songsan Amusement Park Limps Back to Life 26. Around Korea: One-Day Trip to Buyeo TEACHING & LEARNING 28. Language Teaching: Funds of Knowledge for the Classroom 31. Everyday Korean: Episode 42 – 저는 요리를 잘해요 (I Am Good at Cooking) FOOD & DRINKS 32. Restaurant Review: Sabotage – Gwangju’s Newest Dongmyeong-dong Establishment 34. Restaurant Review: Lee Lee Nam Studio – A Museum, Café, … and K-Drama Filming Location! 37. Recipe: Oi-naengguk – Cold Cucumber Soup COMMUNITY 38. Local Entrepreneurs: Hae Um Studio – Tattooing Gwangju’s Zoomers 42. Health: Should You Buy Extra Medical Insurance in Korea? 44. Environment: All That Plastic
02. Photo of the Month 46. Photo Essay: Journey to Naju Image Theme Park – Historical Filming Site 48. Book Review: The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State 50. Gwangju Writes: The Road 52. GFN Radio: Way Back With U 54. GFN Radio: Top of The Drop 56. Crossword Puzzle
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
CULTURE & ARTS
June 2021
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4 In the Name of the Son, a movie released to commemorate the 41st anniversary of the May 18 Democratic Movement, is gaining popularity, ranking first in pre-booked ticket sales among Korean films released around the same time, Gwangju City Hall announced. According to the Korean Film Council’s movie ticket tally, Director Lee Jung-gook’s latest film topped the list of Korean films in number of pre-booked ticket sales on May 11 and was released in 392 movie theaters nationwide the following day.
Gwangju City News
MONTHLY NEWS
From the Gwangju Metropolitan City website (http://gwangju.go.kr)
May 18 Movie In the Name of the Son Is Big Hit
Gwangju City Hall, along with the Gwangju Information and Culture Industry Promotion Agency, supported the production of this feature film last year in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of May 18. The movie follows the story of a man determined to take revenge on those with no remorse in order to keep the promise he made to his son, telling the tale of the perpetrator’s remorse and apology, and the restoration of the victims’ honor. In the Name… revolves around events of May 1980 in Gwangju, whose facts still remain unclear and which is still a topic of heated discussions. The movie drew great attention even before its release also due to the large number of nationally famous actors involved in it, including Ahn Sung-ki, Yoon Yoo-sun, and Park Geunhyung. Prior to the movie’s release, on April 30, special Gwangju previews of the film were held at the Gwangju Terminal’s CGV and the Gwangju Theater. They were attended by the leading actors Ahn Sung-ki and Yoon Yoo-sun, as well as the director, Lee Jung-kook, who also met with Gwangju citizens.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
Director Lee Jung-kook, who made a name for himself through his films The Letter and Blue, debuted in 1990 with the movie Song of Resurrection, which is based on the events of May 18, and also produced the short film Remember and the feature film Reflection on the same topic.
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Director Lee said, “Most movies about May 18 deal with the topic from the victims’ point of view. Therefore, in In the Name of the Son, I began with the questions ‘What were the perpetrators who received those orders like?’ and ‘Why did those in charge at the time not reflect on themselves?’” He also added, “What I intended as the core message of the movie is that a life without self-reflection is not worth living.” Kim Joon-young, head of the Gwangju City Culture, Tourism, and Sports Department, said, “I hope that May 18 will become a milestone of democracy, human rights, and peace while sympathizing with the Gwangju spirit of sharing and solidarity and of historical value through this nationally released film.”
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“Convey Your Heart with Gwangju Jumeokbap”
▲ Gwangju Mayor Lee Yong Sup distributing Korean rice balls to Gwangju citizens at the U-Square Gwangju Bus Terminal.
On May 13, Gwangju City Hall held a “Convey Your Heart with Gwangju Jumeokbap”-themed Korean rice ball-sharing and promotional event for commemoration of the 41st anniversary of May 18 in the plaza in front of the U-Square Bus Terminal. City Hall, along with the Gwangju Jumeokbap Sales Business, the Gwangju Institute of Design Promotion, and the Korea Foodservice Industry Association Gwangju Branch gave out Gwangju jumeokbap (주먹밥, meal-size balls of rice) to around 2,000 Gwangju residents, while at the same time promoting the recently released product and the Gwangju Jumeokbap Sales Business. The event provided an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of sharing by giving out Gwangju jumeokbap, through which the citizens could convey a heartful message of support to their family, friends, and coworkers who have suffered under stress caused by COVID-19 over such a long period of time.
Eight types of Gwangju jumeokbap have recently been launched for sale online, and on May 18 at 2:00 p.m. through a Naver Shopping live broadcast, they launched nationwide sales in a special discount event.
Jumeokbap photograph by Moon Sung-sil.
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In consideration of social distancing, an online video conference system was designed to allow for more than 100 online volunteers and 100 onsite participants and hosts to understand and experience volunteer activities together at the Citizens’ Forest Square. For the Volunteer Practice Challenge Poster Contest, 100 school students (elementary, middle, and high school) expressed through pictures the actions they need to take in order to respond to the climate crisis. Sixteen awards were given for outstanding works in the online drawing contest along with recognition for two hours of volunteer work for all those participating. The submitted works will be used as promotional materials for public purposes to promote volunteer work in the future. Translated by Jana Milosavljevic and Melline Galani.
June 2021
Mayor Lee Yong Sup stated, “We appreciate the cooperation of our citizens, who are sensibly coping even in the prolonged, difficult situations caused by COVID-19.” He also added, “We will foster Gwangju jumeokbap rice balls, a symbol of the Gwangju spirit, as a representative local food, and by spreading them throughout the nation, we will convey the spirit of involvement, sharing, and the Gwangju community’s spirit of solidarity.”
On May 22 Gwangju City Hall held the 2021 Volunteer Fair with online and offline events at City Hall’s Citizens’ Forest Plaza. This fair has been held annually since 2009 to promote the social value and importance of volunteering in the region. This year, the focus was on climate change. Under the theme of “Volunteer Power!” various activities including making natural fragrances using coffee grounds to cope with climate change, reducing the carbon footprint, and an online volunteer challenge poster contest were held together.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
Gwangju jumeokbap rice balls are a food symbolizing one difficult period in May of 1980, when Gwangju citizens stood together expressing love and hope by sharing these rice balls. Jumeokbap, therefore, became a representative food of Gwangju, which anyone can enjoy in various flavors and shapes, wherever they are.
Gwangju City Holds 2021 Volunteer Fair
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Celebrating 2
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“Iconic” Is Not Hyperbolic
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
FEATURE
By Dr. David Shaffer Editor-in-Chief
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can say without reservation that the Gwangju News is iconic. Yes, I know that to be iconic, something must exhibit distinctive excellence. The Gwangju News has the distinction of being the first regular English language publication produced by one of Korea’s international centers. Indeed, it is Korea’s first monthly magazine for the general public to be locally published in English! It is also distinctive in that the magazine is almost totally managed by volunteers – staff and writers. And the excellence, it can be found in the quality of the articles that our contributors write as well as in the editing. My, how time flies! I remember that when the first issue of the Gwangju News came off the press 20 years ago, it was just a couple folded sheets of paper that has grown and grown until reaching its present 60 pages per issue. It is absolutely amazing how our small staff can generate those 60 pages by the first of each month without a noticeable hiccup; I admire their energy, their creativity, their dedication. Yes, time flies. I recall ten years ago when I was first approached to do a language teaching column for the magazine. At the time, I had no idea that, over 100 articles later, I would still be writing for that column. And I had no idea when I was approached almost five years ago to head the Gwangju News staff that I would still be editor-in-chief today. But the people I work with and the satisfaction of seeing the fruits of our monthly toils make it all worth the while. David Shaffer, in addition to being editor-in-chief, pens From the Editor, puts together the Blast from the Past column, and writes the long-running column Language Teaching, as well as an occasional article on an assortment of his other interests.
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A Catalyst for Community Improvement By William Urbanski Managing Editor
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n a day and age when virtually everyone can whip out their phone to check the international headlines about Chinese satellites falling from the sky or vaccine shortages in Timbuktu, we too often forget about all the exciting and important stuff happening right in front of our faces right here in our community. Be they creative initiatives or entrepreneurial endeavors, highlighting these local happenings in the pages of the Gwangju News not only brings them the attention they deserve but also strengthens the Gwangju community as a whole. “Social contribution” is a term that gets thrown around a lot these days, and for good reason. A better community, and a better reality for that matter, is something that doesn't happen by itself. It is the sum total of all the little contributions people make that perhaps have little monetary value but make us stop and think, and perhaps even shift ever so slightly in our easy chairs. That, in a nutshell, is why I feel it’s important to volunteer for the Gwangju News: It is a catalyst for community improvement. On a personal level, the magazine is also a platform for my comedy stylings, which are my attempts to rectify one of the greatest problems facing humanity in this day and age: a serious lack of intellectual witticism.
William Urbanski has been managing editor of the Gwangju News for the past two years, making him now the longestserving person in that volunteer position. In addition, William contributes his witticism to many of the magazine’s articles, particularly in the Opinion section.
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g 20 Years Enhancing the Brand of Gwangju By Dr. Shin Gyonggu Publisher
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he Gwangju News (GN) is of particular value for Gwangju, for the Gwangju International Center (GIC), for our international community, and for me.
GN has enhanced the brand of Gwangju through its high-quality monthly produced by the dedication of the international community since 2001, first published when there was no English monthly in any region of Korea. I have found that many Gwangju citizens feel a sense of pride in our local magazine when finding it available at Incheon and Gimpo Airports. GN’s uniqueness has now been replicated by other cities that are following Gwangju’s lead with their own publications. GN continues to represent Gwangju, both online and offline, in a commendatory way nationally and internationally. GN has greatly contributed to the rapid growth of the GIC. People instantly acknowledge the value of the GIC through its publication of GN. It has been an attraction to the GIC for many years, along with GIC Talk and the Korean language classes.
Dr. Shin Gyonggu is director of the GIC as well as publisher of the Gwangju News. He has been associated with the Gwangju News since its beginnings. Indeed, Dr. Shin is responsible for the conception of the Gwangju News.
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By Kim Minsu Gwangju International Center Executive Secretar y
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ongratulations to the Gwangju News on the 20th anniversary of its publication. In 2003, when I first worked with the Gwangju News, it consisted of only 16 pages in black and white with a little color here and there, which is hard to imagine compared to the stylish look of the magazine today. However, the Gwangju News was still very popular among international residents and English-speaking Korean readers because English content and valuable information was not readily available in those days. The Gwangju News has made a lot of progress over the past 20 years in terms of content as well as appearance and has played a considerable role in contributing to publicizing Gwangju to the world and providing accurate and transparent information to foreigners living in Gwangju. Unfortunately, print magazines throughout the world are experiencing a crisis, as the development of various smartphone-friendly websites such as those of broadcast media and internet newspapers as well as YouTube deliver information and entertainment almost immediately. Over the past several years, I have heard that well-known magazines have decided to stop publishing. The Gwangju News must also prepare for this paradigm change and will have to consider in-depth the future publishing direction for the magazine. I hope many readers explore the values of Gwangju and Korea through the Gwangju News. Special thanks to Dr. Shin Gyonggu, Gwangju News founder; Dr. David Shaffer, present editor-in-chief; and to a great layout designer, Karina Prananto. Kim Minsu served on the staff of the Gwangju News for over a decade in positions that included co-editor and layout designer.
June 2021
GN benefits me personally for my English proficiency. As an English professor, I felt utterly embarrassed by my silence at the editorial meetings in GN’s early days. Now I feel comfortable in most international meetings since GN volunteers “trained” me to be comfortable with their many English dialects.
Two Decades of Progress
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
GN has been functioning as an effective catalyst for social integration by offering a quality opportunity for the international community to get involved in the magazine’s publication in a meaningful way while at the same time enjoying the full appreciation of the local community. I was happy to see some of the editors and writers using their GN experiences as a stepping stone to later career development.
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Celebrating 2
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Gwangju News, My Pride and Joy!
A Score of Revolutions – Gwangju News at 20
By Karina Prananto Layout Editor
By Isaiah Winters Chief Copy Editor
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lthough I haven’t been with the Gwangju News since its beginning, I am happy to say that I have been with it for much of its life (since 2007), when it was 48 pages and we used an old Macintosh program.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
Of my 15 years of living in Gwangju, 13 of them has been spent with the Gwangju News; it plays a big role in my life. Thanks to it, I have met many wonderful and talented people and have made many beautiful memories with them. Through the magazine, I have met many important figures in the society, from Korea and abroad, even some from Indonesia, whom I would never have had the chance to meet otherwise! With no background in design, I had to work extra hard on the magazine’s layout. As time goes by, I realize how much I love this work and the people I work with. They are amazing! The Gwangju News team members are committed, responsible individuals. I am so blessed to have met them and work with them. We grow very close together and can pretty much discuss anything in a cordial manner. Otherwise, this volunteer magazine would not have lasted these 20 years! I hope the Gwangju News continues to serve the community for another 20 years. And I hope I can stay to witness its continual transformation and its impact on our community. Happy birthday, Gwangju News, my pride and joy!
Karina “Nana” Prananto has been for many years the Gwangju News’s layout editor and online editor, as well as the project’s coordinator for the GIC.
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O
ur fair magazine has reached its twentieth year. We’re now 232 issues deep, the last 40 of which I’ve been a part of mainly as chief copy editor, though also as the regular writer and photographer for the Lost in Gwangju column. How did I first come to be the magazine’s chief copy editor and writer for said column? When applying for one of three openings back in January 2018, I looked over each – managing editor, online editor, and chief copy editor – and rightly figured the latter would best dovetail with my aloof introversion. Lost in Gwangju was also uniquely tailored to my character, as I’ve got a terminal curiosity for anything weird, obscured, or neglected. As for volunteering insights, all I can say is that there’s so much thankless toil going into each and every issue that it’s criminally overlooked. Fortunately, over the years I’ve about halved the amount of time it takes to proofread each article, a benefit of experience. The remaining time goes into the monthly lovechild of all my literary and photographic neuroses – Lost in Gwangju. Why do I stay, given all the time sunk into this project? Like with my proofreading position and monthly column, staying has simply suited me. Volunteering with the Gwangju News is a great way to stay connected with the local community, and given my default reclusion, without the magazine I’d feel gravely disconnected. Therefore, if you’re looking to stay involved while living in Gwangju and South Jeolla, pick up one of our issues or, better yet, volunteer.
Isaiah Winters has been our meticulous chief copy editor since 2018 and at the same time pens the column Lost in Gwangju, which reports on the dark, dilapidated, and disappearing destinations within the City of Light.
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g 20 Years A Goldmine for the Newbie Expat By Melline Galani Layout Editor 2020
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he first time I discovered the Gwangju International Center was in December 2017. At that Adios Party, I also heard about the Gwangju News, and I was so thrilled at being able to get useful information in English that I immediately became a GIC member. Especially for a newbie expat as myself, the Gwangju News was a goldmine.
This year the Gwangju News has reached its 20th anniversary, and I wish it twice as many more in the future. May it bring joy, relief, and help to other people in the same way it has for me. Regardless of whether I am on the staff or not, the magazine’s interesting articles are always a pleasure to read. Long live the Gwangju News!
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By Kim “Hillel” Yunkyoung Photographer
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t has been almost two years since I started working with the Gwangju News (GN) as a photographer. So, my two years of life in Gwangju started with GN. As a photographer, it is so important to be exposed to various events and figures. I would like to share two stories that I covered. The first story was the 18th FINA World Championships Gwangju 2019. I remember I was so excited to have the opportunity to cover such a big sports event. I did not have a telephoto lens at the time, so it was almost impossible to get the right shot. I asked other press photographers if I can borrow their lens, and none of them hesitated to do so. It was such a great experience just to be surrounded by world-class professional photographers. And for the second, I did a photo essay on tattoos. Luckily, I had been shooting a guy with tattoos all over his body, including his face. However, I also needed to know the stories behind his indelible artwork. The guy with the tattoos introduced me to his tattoo shop. The tattooist there told so many precious backstories, allowing me to write real stories related to tattoos, which are still a taboo here in Korea. Through this, we are now planning future collaboration with my photography and his work. In addition to these, I have so many other stories to share. I will do so in upcoming articles and photographs. I am appreciative of GN and proud of my name card: “Photographer, Gwangju News.”
Kim Yunkyoung is known as “Hillel” by the GN staff, and in addition to being “Photographer, Gwangju News,” is a priest in the Anglican Church. As a photographer, his specialty is portrait photography.
June 2021
Melline Galani has contributed many articles for Around Korea, From Abroad, and Restaurant Review in addition to being layout editor during the past year.
“Photographer, Gwangju News”
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
The Gwangju News was my first guide to life in Korea, helping me to learn about this country’s culture, cuisine, and events. I honestly believe I couldn’t have adjusted the way I did without the help of the magazine. Who would have thought that three years later, I would be the layout editor of the magazine? I was offered the opportunity of helping out while Karina was on maternity leave, and even though I had no experience in publication and design, I accepted at once. Though it was for a short time, I enjoyed every moment of it. I met a great team and made new acquaintances among both Korean and international residents, and I realized I was able to write articles for the magazine.
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Celebrating 20 Years Still Sharing the Celebration
A Pillar of the Gwangju Community
By Julian Warmington Former Editor & Editor-in-Chief
By Wilson Melbostad Former Managing Editor
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www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
wenty years ago most of us could not have guessed that we would find ourselves in the second year of a global pandemic. Community is one of those things we might not appreciate until it’s difficult to connect with others. But GN is about more than some simple concept of community. Volunteer staff face the challenge of providing for a dual audience: people “new” to Jeollanam-do and locals who want to read local news in English. GN at its best builds bridges between peoples by sharing issues worth discussing and aspects worth celebrating for both types of readers. We’re going to need more of this positive “can-do” attitude. The COVID-19 pandemic is a precursor to the rapidly developing worst-case scenario effects of the climate emergency. Our governments are not addressing the climate crisis with anything like an adequate response, so it is up to city- and communitylevel efforts to reduce atmospheric pollution, make crisis preparations, and be friendly faces welcoming waves of immigrants that Germany has just discovered actually do bring so many benefits to the entire country. Whether Yemenis in Mokpo or the nicest Nepalese working hard in the countryside or on factory floors, events like the GIC’s annual Gwangju International Community Day and similar services offer valuable time for making connections. Long may GN continue to celebrate and share such vital events.
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big heartfelt congratulations to the Gwangju News (GN) for twenty years of high-quality grassroots journalism! I am so pleased to say that, albeit briefly, I helped contribute to the process of creating this special publication. What I find most impressive about GN is how the magazine seamlessly unites so many diverse parts of Gwangju and the greater Jeollanam-do area. One’s sense of community is this intangible concept, and it is often quite difficult to point to one thing or another as the reason we feel at home in a particular locale. However, over the past twenty years, GN has been a constant presence and undoubtedly has contributed to the coalescence of all peoples united by their ties to the City of Light. Once again, congratulations to those who have spent tireless hours contributing to keep the lights on and consistently churn out story after story. Here’s to twenty more years!
Wilson Melbostad stepped in as managing editor just when that position needed to be filled and served the Gwangju News energetically for a full year back in 2018–2019. In addition to his editorial duties, Wilson “churned out” stories and interviews on a variety of interesting topics. With his JD degree, he is now pursuing a career in law. Compiled by David Shaffer.
Julian Warmington was a Gwangju News editor during its fledgling years, breathing life into a sparsely staffed magazine. As the publication began its second decade of life, Julian returned as editor-in-chief.
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anon naMpa The Gwangju Prize for Human Rights 2021 Awardee By Don Tajaroensuk FEATURE
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WHO IS ANON? Anon grew up in a farming family in Roi Et. He started his career as a human right lawyer in 2006. After the coup of 2014, Anon became a well-known political activist. His activism was in the spotlight all through 2020 leading the unforgettable Thai political movement. Anon is one of the most significant leaders of the “Resistant Citizens” and the “Ratsadorn” group. During his career as a lawyer, Anon mostly took cases defending the vulnerable. During the Red Shirt democratic protests of 2011, Anon was a volunteer lawyer to many Red Shirt political victims. He was a lawyer of the tragic Lese-Majeste 112 case of “Arrkong,” an older gentleman prosecuted under this Section 112 charge for sending an SMS message defaming the royal family. He was also the lawyer for Borkor-Laijot and Jatupat Boonpattaraksa, the latter being the 2017 Gwangju Prize laureate. Anon also politically criticized members of
June 2021
Many Thai democratic activists responded that Anon deserved the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights as the representative of Thai activists. It is important to know who Anon Nampa is and what he did before becoming
the laureate of the 2021 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights. Currently, Anon has been in pre-trial detention for over a month with bail denied by the court, the stated reason being that if released, he would continue to defame the king and lead society back to a state of unrest.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
he past year has become an unforgettable one for Thailand’s democratic movement, with Anon Nampa occupying the frontline of democratic protests, challenging the untouchable taboo in Thailand of calling for reformation of the monarchy. His powerful speech on August 3, 2020 broke the Thai taboo, which no one before dared to speak of in public. “Ceiling-breaking” is the term to describe the democratic phenomenon after Anon’s speech that turned Thai society into one more open to social debate regarding the monarchy. “Speaking freely to reform the monarchy system must be feasible in Thai society in order to reach a better society,” Anon said on August 3. In Thailand, everyone knows that criticizing the monarchy is prohibited. Anyone who frankly blames, defames, condemns, or even shows disrespect to the monarchy could be imprisoned under Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code (Lese-Majeste). Anon was the first person to bravely voice his truth in the public arena, an act for which he most surely must have known what the outcome would be.
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12 society. During his study at university, Anon spent more time being a volunteer teacher at the border schools with Malaysia, joining local development activities and protesting alongside local villagers against macro investment. As Anon was working in the local communities, he saw many injustices and unfairness between the locals and the authorities, including in the business sector. He saw that those villagers did not have much of a voice before the courts. It was necessary to have a lawyer who could argue on their behalf. Those valuable experiences have led Anon to become a lawyer to defend rural residents. He has been legislatively helping locals in some 40–50 cases; in truth, he has lost count. He is happy to be considered a son of these villagers, happily sleeping among the locals in their communities.
▲ Anon delivering his Harry Potter-themed speech on August 3, 2020.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
parliament for not seriously expressing that Section112 was problematic. For over ten years, he argued that it must be constructively discussed in the parliament to reform the criminal code. In November 2011, he called for dignity to be restored from the political stigma and injustice imposed upon political prisoners jailed under the unjust Thai legal system.1 Anon turned to political activism after the coup of 2014, and he has since been charged many times by the authorities. He was first arrested in July 2020 at the “Free Youth” rally at Democracy Monument in Bangkok. Later on, he was released temporarily, but was again arrested in August with Panupong Janok, the leader of Eastern Youth. Then he returned to the stage in September to give a speech in which he said he would not regret it if he were to die along the path to democratization. “Death is not wasteful; it will inspire the next generation, as mine was influenced by Jit Poommisak who passed away several years ago,” Anon said in an interview with BBC Thailand.2 ANON, THE LAWYER Anon grew up with country songs, poets, and literature based on leftist ideologies. He first challenged a high school teacher when he found the criticism of a poet’s writing to be unfair. He imaged himself as a character in a song and sometimes in traditional literature, which inspired him to go to law school to fight injustice in
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ANON, THE ACTIVIST Throughout 2020, and particularly during the last half of the year, Anon was busy making pro-democracy speeches throughout the capital. In his strongly worded Harry Potter-themed speech of August 3, Anon argued that the excessive power of the monarchy had undermined Thai democracy for a long time: “We must concentrate on the root cause of the Thai problem, this means that we must be free to speak in public.”3 After being released from jail, at Peoples’ Park on September 19, Anon bravely spoke of the monarchy’s involvement in politics and called for the reallocation of the monarchy’s budget to support the citizens’ needs.4 In his November 29 speech in front of a military barracks, Anon stated that the monarchy was hand in hand with the military and called for a return to democracy.5
▲ Anon’s family.
ANON AND HIS FAMILY I had the chance to sit with the Anon family one weekend evening. We had a chat nearby Anon’s sister’s milk tea store. Anon’s family related that Anon was just
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13
◀ Anon delivering one of his August 2020 speeches. ▼ Pro-democracy activists in front of the Supreme Court. (Photo by Prachatai)
an ordinary child while growing up in their village. His mother said she was not always aware of what Anon was doing, and that she had just recently become aware of his activism. Anon’s father explained that he recognized that Anon was a lawyer when he was doing things voluntarily to help political victims in 2011 in a court case related to the democratic movement in the Red-Shirt period.
Anon’s sister said that Anon was a leader among his fellow students, and he always volunteered for school and social activities. In his sister’s eyes, Anon is an ordinary person who has fear like others, but she never expected the fearlessness that he exhibits in his recent activism. She respects her brother’s decisions and always supports him.
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Sources 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Diwb3idmWo 2 https://www.bbc.com/thai/thailand-54492602 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6I6oRInN7c 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDGBHpI16tM 5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXelwWU1VzM Photographs courtesy of the Anon Nampa Facebook page (fb.com/arnonnampa.)
The Author
Don Tajaroensuk is a project director for the People's Empowerment Foundation and human rights activist in Thailand, who is working specifically on the rights of the vulnerable at the national to international level. He is also an advocate for democracy and pursues equity in society for all human beings.
June 2021
Anon’s family is very appreciative of Anon receiving the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights 2021, acknowledging his value in promoting democracy and human rights. Even though his family does not know much about his
“DO NOT FORGET” One message that Anon tells almost everyone is “Please don’t forget me when we reach the goal,” showing that he has prepared himself for any circumstance that might happen to him in his activism on the path to achieving democracy. How fitting it is that Anon Nampa has been awarded the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights 2021.
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Anon’s father and mother remembered that Anon once explained to them that the local people should have lawyers who could protect them from social injustice. They never expected that their son would become a famous frontline activist or a lawyer either. Anon’s father remembered that Anon was strong in supporting political fairness since he was young. He would persuade family members to vote but never tried to influence how they voted.
activism, they are proud of Anon, who is frequently seen on the stage of democracy.
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14 People in the Arts
Hong Sung-dam
Born into a History of Struggle By Kang Jennis Hyun-suk
I
These days, Hong Sung-dam is working on opening an art museum on an island in Sinan County, where Hong was born and raised. As there were no middle schools on the islands, Hong went to Mokpo, the nearest city on the mainland, for his secondary school education. Sinan County consists of 1,004 islands in Jeollanam-do, off the western coast of the peninsula. Interestingly, the pronunciation of “1,004” is the same as that of “angel” in Korean, “cheonsa” (천사). Some of the islands in Sinan have now been connected to the mainland by bridges. The islands of Sinan County maintain a store of interesting history. I think that if you are aware of the artist’s background, it will help to understand the artist’s works more deeply.
HOMETOWN HISTORY Have you seen the movie The Book of Fish (Jasan-eobo, 자산어보)? The film, which is gaining in popularity these days, is set on one of the Sinan County islands. The story is about a scholar, Jeong Yakjeon (정약전, 1758–1816) who was exiled from the capital for political and religious reasons to the far western Shinan island of Heuksan-do (흑산도). He observed the fish of the area to make an encyclopedia of marine life and wrote additional books such as Pyohae-simal (표해시말, Adrift at Sea: An Account), the account of a sailor who was swept away by a typhoon while sailing from Japan to China via Macao and the Philippines. This record lets us know of the cultures of these far-eastern regions of the time and makes a comparison of their ship-building skills. Jeong Yakjeon was the elder brother of Dasan, Jeong Yakyong (1762–1836), who was also a famous scholar in the Joseon Dynasty. He was also exiled to Gangjin and remained there for 18 years for the same reasons as his older brother. Since these two scholars came to Jeolla Province, they have left their imprint in the form of many great books.
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June 2021
FEATURE
took an express train bound for Mokpo to meet the artist for the June issue of the Gwangju News. The magazine was eager to have an interview with the artist Hong Sung-dam (홍성담) because he is one of the artists who depicts the spirit of May 18, the spirit of democracy.
▲ From top: “Four Seasons 2”; “Four Seasons, Fall”; and “Four Seasons, Winter” by Kim Geun-tae.
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15 Another famous person from Sinan County is the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, former president Kim Daejung (김대중). He was born on the island of Haui-do (하의도). Long ago, there were three islands in Ha-eui Township in Sinan County. The three islands have a history of various farmers’ uprisings for over 300 years. After the Japanese Invasions of Korea (1592–1598), the Joseon Dynasty realized the importance of keeping its islands and therefore encouraged its people to move to the islands. If someone reclaimed and cultivated barren land on the islands, the government would transfer the ownership to the farmer. But the king broke his word. In 1623, the three islands of Ha-eui were given to the princess Jong-myeong as a wedding present and the farmers on the land were taxed. This led to the beginning of the Farmers’ Uprisings of Haui-do. The descendants of the islanders fought for their rights, generation after generation, for over 300 years. Finally, the first National Assembly of Korea returned the land to the descendants of the farmers. At last, it all ended with a victory for the farmers. The Memorial Hall of the Farmers’ Uprisings was built in 2009 on the island to honor the spirit of the resisters. At the inauguration of the Memorial Hall, Kim Dae-jung said in his speech, “I’ve come back from the edge of death five times, I was imprisoned six and a half years, I’d lived under surveillance for more than 20 years, and I lived in exile for three and a half years. But I fought with the indomitable spirit of the Farmers’ Uprisings of Haui-do.” So with this in mind, what kind of artwork and impact has Hong Sung-dam made?
HONG, THE ACTIVIST On April 16, 2014, the ferry Sewol tragically sank with 304 causalities, mainly students who were on a school trip to Jeju Island. President Park Geun-hye was absent on that day, and the citizens were outraged by the government’s slow response and incompetence. At the 20th anniversary of the Gwangju Biennale in September of that year, Hong Sung-dam satirized Park Geun-hye as a scarecrow. Resultantly, Hong’s exhibition was canceled by the government and his name was put on the list of blacklisted artists. In July 1989, the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Pyeongyang, North Korea. Lim Soo-kyung, a university student of South Korea, joined as a representative of the South Korean University Association of Student Unions. It surprised both Koreas and the world. In Seoul, 80 artists of the Student Art Movement Association, which included Hong Sungdam, portrayed the history of Korea’s National Liberation Movement on a huge hanging painting. The painting was 77 meters wide, depicting the Donghak Peasant Uprising, the Korean War, and the May 18 Gwangju Uprising. The painting itself was destroyed by the police, but a video of the painting had been made. The video was sent to Pyeongyang via a third country, and the young artists in Pyeongyang recreated the painting to display at the World Festival of Youth and Students. Hong was arrested for his interaction with North Korean artists, tortured, and jailed for three years. It was on this topic that our interview began.
▼ Sewol, Owol by Hong Sung-dam, comparing the Sewol Ferry disaster to May 18, (2014).
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June 2021
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▲ Jeju, April 3 by Hong Sung-dam (2014).
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June 2021
THE INTERVIEW Jennis: What was your life like after getting out of prison? Why do you still paint satire? Hong Sung-dam: Amnesty International helped save my life. After my release from prison, I was invited to many countries to give talks. In order to repay Amnesty International for its kind help, I thought that I should report various forms of state violence across borders with artists in East Asian countries who were opening their eyes to civil rights. Jennis: I heard you exhibited at the Insa Art Center in Seoul in 2018. What kind of artwork did you exhibit there? Hong Sung-dam: They were paintings depicting various states of violence and citizens’ movements. I painted candlelight vigils, the Japanese military sexual slavery case, the Sewol Ferry case, and violence by the military government. My paintings were exhibited at one of the biggest commercial galleries in Korea. I think it means that the scope of people’s art and realism has expanded. Jennis: Would you tell me about the Museum of Human Rights and Peace for East Asia in Sinan County that you are working on these days? Hong Sung-dam: We are working towards the goal of opening the museum in 2023. We are planning to open a residency program so that East Asian artists can paint for human rights and peace at ease. And we are also planning to open a Human Rights and Peace Camp so that parents and children might participate during their vacation. Above all, the local residents should be the owners of the museum. So, our team is recording the movements on human rights and peace in Sinan County, including the
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Amtae-do tenant dispute and the Farmers’ Uprisings of Haui-do. Jennis: What are your plans for your next art projects? Hong Sung-dam: Sometimes I take a walk along the beach. After heavy winds, I spot trash that has washed up on the beach. The snack bags and PET bottles are from India, Australia, China, and many other countries. Since last October, I have been working on a coastal environment art movement with several artists who have agreed to be part of the project. Our environmental art exhibition, which started in Jaeun-do, in Sinan, will travel around Incheon, Samcheok, Ulsan, Busan, and Yeosu, and then will be held as an archive exhibition in Mokpo in about a year. Jennis: What is your personal definition of “art”? Hong Sung-dam: Art should create controversy. Common sense is not art. Art must always go beyond social taboos. As a nation moves towards dictatorship, there will inevitably be more satire. Art must be at odds with power. Jennis: And what kind of person is an artist? Hong Sung-dam: A person with imagination, who evokes the seriousness of events with humor and satire. I think it is the role of the artist to act as a fermentation enzyme to depict for the public the breathtaking impact events have on society. AFTER THE INTERVIEW During the May 18 Uprising, Hong Sung-dam participated in the “citizens’ army.” He witnessed the deaths of innocent lives and afterwards devoted his
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17 passion to telling the truth about the Gwangju Uprising. Hong was selected as one of the world’s top three prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International in 1990. And he was selected by the American news publication Foreign Policy as one of the “Leading Global Thinkers of 2014: A Disrupted World.” Hong is working with other artists and activists in East Asia and making efforts across borders to restore human rights, advance de-nuclearization, and protect the global environment.
“Art should create controversy. Common sense is not art. Art must always go beyond social taboos." After our interview, Hong gave me something that he wrote for a friend. It was the preface of a book by Yamaguchi Izumi, a Japanese writer, artist, and denuclearization activist. I will close with that preface:
The people of the world have suffered from the Pacific War instigated by Japan. The trauma is still ongoing, but Japan has never sincerely apologized, even though the people of Asia have sent condolences and encouragement to the Japanese people who have suffered from the disastrous earthquake in Fukushima in 2011. We believed that Japan would change after the Great Earthquake. However, Japan has announced that it will hold the Fukushima Revival Olympics and release Fukushima radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean unilaterally. I still cannot forget the despair in my friend’s eyes when he noted the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. But I hold a ray of hope because there are activists like Yamaguchi in Japan. Photographs courtesy of Hong Sung-dam.
The Author
Kang Jennis Hyunsuk is a freelance interpreter who loves to read books, take photos of nature, and walk her dog. She has lived in Gwangju all her life and is surely a lover of the City of Light.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
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▲ Park Geun-hye Must Go by Hong Sung-dam (2006).
June 2021
▲ Hair Clippers 1: We Are Yusin Reform Style by Hong Sung-dam (2012).
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18
May Is…
The May 18 Memorial Foundation Archive Exhibition By The May 18 Memorial Foundation
T FEATURE
he May 18 Memorial Foundation has prepared an archive exhibition, “May Is…,” regarding the entire history of the May 18 Democratic Uprising as well as the Foundation. “May Is…” is the first exhibition being held in the May Recollection Archive Hall after the Citizens’ Sarangbang (Community Center), located next to the May 18 Memorial Foundation’s office, has been remodeled into an exhibition hall.
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June 2021
The exhibition consists of eight sections in total: May, History, Truth, Memory, Records, Songs, May 18 in My Life, and Solidarity. You can view the data collected and donated by the May 18 Foundation, the May 18 TruthSeeking Movement, and the current commemorative projects related to education, culture, solidarity, and academic research, which have all been used to spread the May 18 spirit since the establishment of the May 18 Memorial Foundation in 1994. 1. MAY… The month of May contains the city’s own history written along with the establishment of the May 18 Memorial Foundation in 1994, in collaboration with the May 18 Democratic Associations for Honorable Persons and Victims’ Families, the Association for the Injured People of the May 18 Democratic Movement, the May 18 Association for the Arrested and Injured, and citizens. On view in this exhibition are different photographs and documents prepared by these three organizations, in addition to those of the May 18 Memorial Foundation. Leaning towards each other, the triangular pillar at the entrance is the shape of the former 1980 structure and the current Jeonnam Provincial Office building. Displayed at the entrance are photographs from the 1980s; at the exit are photographs from the present. The conception and design of this exhibition progresses from how to remember to commemorating and passing on the memories of May 1980.
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2. HISTORY The history of the May 18 Democratic Movement in 1980 has become the nationwide history of the Korean democratic movement. The brief history of May and the activities of the May 18 Memorial Foundation can be viewed at a glance through the exhibited photographs. 3. TRUTH In 1980, Gwangju citizens fought back against the military dictatorship to reveal the violence of martial law. Gwangju citizens and the whole nation have fought together for May 18 against opposition forces denying the violence and distorting the truth. On display in this exhibition are pictures donated by Wi Jung-cheol from 1980 and the oral project carried out by the May 18 Memorial Foundation. The bullet marks in Jeonil Building, which were recreated on one side of the exhibition hall, take the viewer back to the time of May 18. 4. MEMORY The records of the May 18 Democratic Movement were selected in 2011 as a UNESCO Memory of the World, which humanity should preserve and remember together. The testimony of Gwangju citizens at the time of the May 18 Democratic Uprising is on display here and will remain in memory. Also available for watching is the video Without Your Name, a special documentary produced by Gwangju MBC commemorating the 40th anniversary of May 18. 5. RECORDS On display in this section are photographs taken by German news photographer Jürgen Hinzpeter in May 1980 and articles describing the events of May 18 in chronological order. Also exhibited in this section are various articles related to the Foundation’s commemorative projects and other articles containing the May 18 fact-finding process since 1980, all provided by the The Hankyoreh newspaper.
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Clockwise from top left: A photograph from the collection in May Hall, a brief history of May and the May 18 Memorial Foundation through photographs in History Hall, pictures taken during the uprising in Truth Hall, and various articles containing the May 18 fact-finding process in Records Hall.
6. SONGS Music encapsulating the spirit of May, including “March for the Beloved,” can be listened to in this section of the exhibition.
Visitors to the exhibition can find the May Greetings Postcards at the May Recollection Archive Hall of the May 18 Memorial Foundation. The May Greetings Project
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EXHIBITION INFORMATION Address
152 Naebang-ro, Seo-gu, Gwangju 오월기억저장소 (inside the May 18 Memorial Foundation office, May 18 Memorial Cultural Center, 1st Floor) Visiting Hours: Mon.–Fri., 9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. (Closed Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays) Inquiries: 062-360-0543 / 062-360-0518 Website: www.518.org
June 2021
8. SOLIDARITY Koreans living in Germany, the United States, and Japan also fought with Gwangju to reveal the truth of May 18 as well as for the democratization in Korea. Through the archival materials and photographs that aid in remembering this time, one can see how solidarity for the movement spread to foreign countries.
Photographs courtesy of The May 18 Memorial Foundation.
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7. MAY 18 IN MY LIFE This section features the documentary May 18 in My Life, which highlights the stories of people whose lives have been affected by the incidents that took place in May 18. The documentary, contributed by Gwangju MBC, can be viewed in separate kiosks. Regardless of status, all have lived together in May.
welcomes everyone to send postcards under the theme “Sending May Salutations from Gwangju.” The postcards, which link May in Gwangju 40 years ago with the current Gwangju, can be placed into the “May Mailbox” and will be sent either within Korea or overseas free of charge. These postcards will serve to link the May in Gwangju from 40 years ago with today’s May in Gwangju. Please put your postcard into the May Mailbox, and the May 18 Memorial Foundation will forward it to anywhere in the world.
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20 Blast from the Past
Samgye-tang for the Heat, Pork for Pollution
blast from the past
The heat of summer is quickly approaching, and the air quality index for Gwangju is outside the “good” zone for most of the year; indeed, it was high in the “moderate” zone at the time of this writing. The weather is beginning to heat up. The seasonal term, Ipha (입하, Entrance of Summer) fell on May 5 this year and the summer solstice (Haji, 하지) is on June 21. And following soon after that are the three Boknal (복날, Dog Days) of summer. To endure these climatic conditions, Koreans have turned to foods: samgye-tang, a chicken stew to beat the heat, and pork to protect against the ill effects of polluted air. Here we bring you articles on the medicinal qualities of these Korean foods: “Beat the Heat with Samgye-tang,” written by Stephen Redeker (Gwangju News, April 2012) and “Does Eating Pork Protect You from Pollution?” penned by C. Adam Volle (Gwangju News, April 2014). — Ed.
BEAT THE HEAT WITH SAMGYE-TANG Samgye-tang (삼계탕) is a popular dish in Korea consisting of a whole boiled chicken filled with rice, ginseng root, jujube, and garlic, and served in broth. It is eaten all year round, but Koreans especially enjoy eating it on the three “special” days occurring in July and August, the three “dog days” (Boknal, 복날), called Chobok (초복), Jungbok (중복), and Malbok (말복). These days symbolize the three hottest days of summer. Traditionally, samgye-tang is eaten for the purpose of restoring stamina and health to a person exhausted from the summer heat. On the days mentioned above, crowds now line up outside restaurants just to have a bowl of samgye-tang. Is samgye-tang really the best thing to eat on a hot summer day? Is the Korean belief that it recharges the body and mind really true, or is it just a tradition that continues today without real proof that it works? In Western culture, some people believe eating chicken soup will help cure a person of the common cold. Science leans more towards vitamin C as the
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common cold killer, but people still make a habit of eating delicious chicken soup when they get sick. In Korea, people also believe that a whole chicken, usually a pullet, combined with other healthy ingredients, can prevent sickness and revitalize the body. However, there are a number of different items that can be eaten to better relieve the body on a hot day than Korean chicken stew. In the old days, escaping the summer heat was a difficult task, so naturally people turned to food for relief. Originally, boshin-tang (보신탕, soup containing dogmeat) was served to eager Koreans looking for health benefits during the dog days of summer. This meat is full of protein, low in cholesterol, and generally softer than beef, pork, or chicken, which makes it easier for the body to digest. However, these days dogmeat has lost its popularity as a dog-day delicacy and has been replaced with boiled chicken soup. We should ingest a variety of proteins, carbohydrates, and vitamins when our bodies are drained. Obviously a must-have on a hot summer day is a glass of water because the body perspires much more and becomes dehydrated. When it comes to protein, whole grains are a good source and also contain iron and vitamin B. Brown rice and wholegrain bread are ways to get that into your system.
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21 The same content can be obtained from meats like beef or pork liver, turkey (unfortunately rare in Korea), and seafoods such as clams, shrimp, and fish. Steering clear of meats with high fat content will strengthen the health benefits of the proteins and essential vitamins. Vegetables also play a major role in supplying the body with much-needed nutrients. Cooked soybeans contain a large amount of protein, iron, and vitamin B. This also extends to other soy products like soy milk and tofu. Kale, broccoli, and collard greens are all good sources of energy-boosting nutrients, but none can top spinach. Cooked spinach boasts the highest iron content among plant-based foods. It also delivers vitamins A, C, and E, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and dietary fiber. So, even though samgye-tang is not the most potent way to revive a tired, energy-depleted body on the hottest days of summer, there is little doubt that it is a healthy food to eat all year round. Reserving special days to eat something so delicious should continue, regardless. If we really wanted to make a meal super-powered enough to charge our bodies with what it needs, it would probably look like this: Take the traditional samgye-tang recipe but switch the white rice to brown rice, stuff the skinless chicken full of spinach, broccoli, and tofu, with sides of fish, beef, and pork, and serve it with two glasses of soy milk. Now that is a hearty meal worth sweating for! PORK FOR POLLUTION PROTECTION With lead-laced fog continuing to roll into South Korea from China, some people are hoping that eating pork does have the effect of protecting one from pollution. According to a story published in The Korea Times, E-Mart alone sold 48.3 percent more pork from February 14 to 27, which is within the seasonal peak air pollution period.
Proponents of the cure have attempted to explain scientifically why they think pork works. One livestock
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The main reason has to do with the source of pork, the pig. Unlike many other animals (and people), pigs do not spend much time digesting their food, so there is little chance for the pigs’ bodies to remove the toxins they have ingested. Moreover, there is no place for the toxins to go; pigs do not sweat, so everything they absorb goes into their tissues – which we eat. And while a grill full of samgyeop-sal will not create new acne, it may worsen any pre-existing skin conditions. Like all meat, pork will raise the body’s insulin levels and its acidity, both of which can cause inflammation, which aggravates acne. Rather than eating pork, one would be better off eating a pear, another Korean home remedy against pollution. The pear will not protect against the Chinese dust either, but it will be healthier for you, and it will not worsen your skin. Arranged by David Shaffer.
June 2021
◀ Previous page: Samgye-tang (chicken stew) a favorite on the hot days of summer. ▶ Samgyeop-sal (grilled pork belly), believed to purify the body.
Respectable nutritionists unanimously agree, though, that the opposite is true: Eating pork introduces more toxins into the system, can block already-present toxins from escaping, and is certainly not good for people’s skin. Not eating pork at all might be much healthier than eating the amount of pork consumed by the average Korean.
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The idea of eating pork to purify the body is a uniquely Korean home remedy, an idea born of tradition rather than science. The Korea Times’ story suggests that the belief became popular when Korean miners – frequent inhalers of unhealthy dust – supposedly started eating pork after they emerged from their tunnels.
supplier suggested to the Seoul Economic Daily that unsaturated heavy acids, of which pork has many, help to expel the heavy metal particles that make Chinese air so concerning. In a December 2013 story, the South China Morning Post wrote that many Koreans believe samgyeopsal (삼겹살, grilled pork belly) is a “health food rich in vitamin B that can lower cholesterol, detoxify the lungs, and cleanse the skin.”
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www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
TRAVEL
22 Lost in Gwangju
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23
Amusement’s Watery Grave Songsan Amusement Park Limps Back to Life By Isaiah Winters
A
s we near the upcoming rainy season, many of Gwangju’s riverside residents and businesses are eyeing the calendar with a sense of foreboding. Last year’s torrents, swelled by prolonged and abnormally heavy rains, were absolutely devastating for them. Though some warily stayed put, others already hobbled by the pandemic and then flattened by the floods salvaged what they could and moved on. The sporadically derelict banks of local waterways still tell some of their horror stories today. One striking remnant of last year’s floods is etched alongside Gwangju’s Hwangnyong River (황룡강, or Yellow Dragon River). Flowing south along the backside of Eodeung Mountain before curving east in the direction of Honam University, this river completely inundated a nearby island known as Songsan Amusement Park (송산 유원지), precipitating its now nearly year-long closure. If you had the chance to visit the area over the last year, then you probably saw what I saw: a jumble of beady-eyed duck boats wallowing in a watery grave.
◀ A horizontal duck boat drowns on dry land.
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June 2021
That nearly everything has been brought up to dry land suggests our little island amusement park may be coming back to life almost a year after its ruin. Most crucially, the dock will have to be entirely rebuilt and the island’s pleasant, kilometer-long promenade formerly made of wooden planks will have to be stripped out and redone to return the halcyon parkland to its antediluvian prime. This could all take quite some time, given the one-truck skeleton crew I saw there on duty. How the work truck even got there beats me, as there’s no road in and the bridge connecting the park to the trail up Eodeung Mountain remains cordoned off behind layers of police tape.
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During the deluge, these and the waterfront cafeteria where they docked were battered beyond belief and then left to fester. The cafeteria eventually collapsed into the water and remained half-submerged for nearly ten months, while the duck and turtle boats lay nearby in various states of sunken dejection until the beginning of May. That’s when I finally managed to visit, apparently just a day or two after the cafeteria had been demolished and dragged out of the water. I feel a little remorse over not getting to see it up close, but that’s life.
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24
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
▲ The last submerged paddle boat sits with Eeodeung Mountain as its backdrop. ◀ A walleyed turtle boat stares into the void.
Among the many others who’ve helped clean the area up are the ladies of the Gwangsan Lily Rotary Club (광산 백합 로타리 클럽). After forming in 1992, these Rotarians have basically been social capital angels who volunteer at nursing homes, assist workers living in rural areas, and even offer beautician services to those without the means to take care of themselves. By their side were a few male representatives from the local Democratic Party who also volunteered to do some of the heavy lifting.[1] Given that the Gwangju News is similarly the sum of its many unsung volunteers, I thought a little shoutout to these good citizens was apropos. As an aside, there was another amusement park in Gwangju quite like this one that wasn’t so lucky following its demise: Jisan Amusement Park (지산 유원지). The oldest of its kind in Gwangju, today it retains just a few of
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its former facilities, like the ski lift and monorail. Plans to revivify the old park seem to have fallen through, with the ongoing pandemic doing the place no favors. With nobody to care for it, nature is quickly reclaiming the surrounding valley. Still, the heavily forested road through the park is open to the public and leads to a nice trail up the foothills of Mudeung Mountain, so it’s worth a visit. However, if you do decide to venture off-road to scope Gwangju’s one-and-only permanently abandoned amusement park, be sure to look out for snakes. (For more on that, see Lost in Gwangju in our September 2018 issue). Resurrecting Songsan Amusement Park, by contrast, is a lot more feasible for a few reasons. For one, it lacks the huge rides that Jisan Amusement Park used to have, making it easier to maintain but also not much of a real amusement park. It’s actually more of a nature park with a few sports fields, a boardwalk, and a dozen or so of paddle boats for rent. The park’s location atop a sediment deposit in the middle of a dangerous river confluence means it’ll likely get destroyed every few years, but the nature of its “amusements” also makes it easy for the place to bounce back. Thus, there’s no reason to doubt a speedy return just in time for this year’s rainy season.
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25 Not surprisingly, since its founding in 2000, Songsan Amusement Park has in fact been destroyed at least twice, with the earlier episode occurring in July 2009. Then the flooding was so extensive and sudden that seven people got trapped on the island and had to be airlifted out by rescue helicopter.[2] To get a sense of how powerless even emergency services can sometimes become in natural disasters, you can see in one of my pictures a rescue boat (구조선) that stood little chance against last year’s surge. The mudline running down its center suggests it first listed to its starboard side before sinking into the mud, where it stayed for nearly a year. To my grim delight, at the bow a severed duck boat head lies in a state of vacant distress as if it were about to be run over. It’s an image that’s got 2020 stamped all over it. As it claws its way out of the rush of last year’s runoff, I wish ill-fated Songsan Amusement Park all the best. I’ll be one of the first visitors to return once it officially reopens, provided it survives this year’s rainy season. With the last two biblical floods occurring at roughly ten-year intervals, maybe the area can relax a little until the early 2030s. Or maybe not.
Resources Gi, B. (2020, August 15). 수해복구 나선 여성 로타리안 …
[1]
광산백합로타리클럽 송산유원지 침수피해 식당 복구 활동.
[2]
Gwangju Internet News. http://www.gjinews.kr/news/ articleView.html?idxno=1243 Shin, J., & Jang, D. (2009, July 07). 광주전남 폭우피해 속출…6 천500㏊ 침수. Hankyoreh. https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/ society/environment/364388.html Photographed by Isaiah Winters.
The Author
Originally from Southern California, Isaiah Winters is a Gwangju-based urban explorer who enjoys writing about the City of Light’s lesserknown 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 on Instagram. @d.p.r.kwangju
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
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June 2021
▲ A muddy rescue boat takes aim at a severed duck boat head and the side of Eodeung Mountain.
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26 Around Korea
One-Day Trip to Buyeo By Emmanuela Sabatini
H TRAVEL
ave you heard about Buyeo? Buyeo is a rural area in South Chungcheong Province, the home of the Baekje Kingdom in the Korea of two millennia ago. My friend and I visited Buyeo in the middle of April this year. So, through this article, I would like to share my one-day-trip story. Please enjoy! Trip Course: Gungnam-ji Pond → Lunch → Baekje Cultural Land & Museum → Café. If you have time, you also can go to Jeongrim Temple, a UNESCO Cultural Heritage site. And if you travel by car, I recommend you also go to Seongheung-san Sarang-namu (성흥산 사랑나무) to see the famous “Love Tree.”
LUNCH While walking around the area, we found a restaurant called Mirak-won (미락원), near Gungnam-ji Pond (but you need to cross the field to get there). Anyway, they say this restaurant is famous for its steamed rice wrapped in a lotus
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June 2021
GUNGNAM-JI POND After we arrived at Buyeo Intercity Bus Terminal at around 10:30 a.m., we went directly to Gungnam-ji Pond by taxi. It
is not far from the terminal, but you need to walk about 30 minutes. I thought the pond was a touristy place or part of a palace and that it required an entrance fee, but it was not so! The pond is part of Seodong Park, so it is surrounded by the park and a field. During our visit, we saw that many people had come to have a walk around the area with their families. We made a good choice to come before lunch, because we were able to take as many photos as we wanted. I came to know of this place because of the Korean drama Mr. Queen (2020–2021), the biggest inducement for me to visit Buyeo.
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27
▲ Baekje Cultural Land and Museum ▶ Gungnam-ji Pond ▶ Lunch: steamed rice wrapped in lotus leaf.
leaf, which is a healthy meal. So, we chose this rice set with pork backbone stew and ripe kimchi. It was delicious!
OLD-STYLE CAFE STREET We then moved on to the Guam-ri area in Buyeo, where
Photographs by Emmanuela Sabatini.
The Author
Emmanuela Sabatini is originally from Jakarta, Indonesia. After graduating with a master’s degree in South Korea, she did an internship at the Gwangju International Center during September–December 2020. Since March 2021, she has enjoyed a career in one of the many educational institutions in South Korea. You can follow her life journey at www.emmasabatini.com. @emmasabatini
June 2021
In addition, we visited the Baekje Cultural Museum, which is located in a separate area and thus requires an entrance ticket. It was a real treat to enjoy a complete package related to the Baekje Kingdom all in one place. The Baekje Cultural Museum is also the filming location of historical Korean dramas such as Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo (2016) and The Last Empress (2018).
The trip to Buyeo took me back two millennia to the Baekje Kingdom – to the king’s palace, to village life, to Baekje culture, to delicious cuisine, and to scenic beauty – and all in one day! I recommend that, when you have time for a one-day trip, you consider experiencing the Baekje Kingdom in Buyeo. You’ll be glad you did!
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
BAEKJE CULTURAL LAND & MUSEUM For its connection to the Baekje Kingdom, I recommend you visit Baekje Cultural Land. It took about 30 minutes to get there by bus. There you can find Sabi-gung (사비궁, the first restored royal palace of Baekje), Neungsa (능사, the royal temple), Gobun-gongwon (고분공원, the tomb park), Living Cultural Village (communities of varying social classes in Baekje), and Wiryesong (위례성, the capital of early Baekje). Plus, we experienced the traditional clothes of the Baekje Kingdom and sat on the king’s throne!
there is a café street with old-style buildings. It may not seem like much, but it is perfect to have a vintage photo concept. We visited one of the cafés there named Suwol-ok (수월옥), designed as an old-fashioned, traditional-style Korean home.
◀ Old-Style Cafe Street.
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28 Language Teaching
Funds of Knowledge for the Classroom
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June 2021
TEACHING & LEARNING
Inter view with Maria Lisak It is obvious that knowledge is related to education and teaching EFL, but it is not so obvious what “funds of knowledge” is. Although the concept has been around for nearly three decades, the average classroom EFL instructor and others in the field of EFL education may not be familiar with the term “funds of knowledge” or the concept it refers to. To broaden our insight into funds of knowledge and its application to classroom teaching, the Gwangju News arranged an interview with longtime Gwangju resident and university professor Maria Lisak, who is researching the concept in relation to her ongoing doctorate studies. What follows is that interview. — Ed.
G
wangju News (GN): Thank you, Maria, for consenting to do this interview for the Gwangju News. To begin with, could you give us a brief overview of what “funds of knowledge” refers to? Maria Lisak: Funds of knowledge is a theoretical practice in education to understand knowledge as constructed from the socio-cultural experiences we live. While we organize knowledge by things like job or skills, it often is very hierarchical and tends to respect some knowledge more than others. A good example might be to think about a stay-at-home mom. As these are unpaid positions and are demanded of women as part of their historically biological role, there are so many “funds of knowledge” required to be a stay-at-home mom. Childrearing, homesteading, community building . . . when we think of the knowledge required to parent and caretake, the list of jobs and duties really add up. Additionally, we can think of other contextual elements such as “ondemand services” and “multitasking” as special skills that require different cognition practices in order to read the contextual cues for immediacy and kind of response. These types of knowledge are often not explicitly stated but implicitly “intuited,” yet really it comes from the repetition of experience within finely nuanced contextual shifts.
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GN: Knowledge gained from lived experiences is funds of knowledge. This next question may seem like a frivolous one, but I am wondering why terms related to education employ money-related terminology. In addition to “funds of knowledge,” I am thinking of “educational capital” and “banking model.” Maria: I had to go back and re-read my core source, González, Moll, and Amanti (Eds.) Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing Practices in Households, Communities, and Classrooms. The originating theoreticization was influenced by a study on rotating credit associations in central Mexico and the southwestern United States. Social justice education practices often have to start within the dominant discourse. For 21st century education, the language of capitalism and neoliberalism as globally organizing economic frames for nearly all forms of knowledge creation and perpetuation is co-opted to serve the liberating objective of social justice education by being within and against the dominant power system. This is a way to take money-related terminology and recenter its power to liberate knowledge construction from its hierarchical systemic and structural imbalances. Janks (2000) talks about being within and against the system simultaneously; the unconscious adaptation of funds as a conceptualization may come from the implicit system imbalances that the teachers and researchers (Gonzales, et al.) were coping with in the southwestern United States where the school system is more to train learners to be good workers instead of scholars. I like to think of it as people using language instead of language using people.
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29 GN: “People using language” – that applies to the language teacher, the second language learner, and actually anyone who speaks a language. How did you get interested in the area of funds of knowledge? Did your doctorate studies pique your interest, or did your interest in funds of knowledge lead you to pursue the area further in your doctorate studies? Maria: I ran across this conceptualization in my doctoral studies and felt that it really addressed the interests I had at the time in older adults’ resistance to digital technology. Adult education theory treats learners as fully formed human beings with a myriad of experiences and knowledge. While reading the literature, I came to realize that we need to engage with all learners, no matter how small, to assist them in realizing that they have knowledge and experience, and that they are busy making meaning simply by being active agents expressing their identity within some sort of existing power structure. GN: So, how can we “engage with all learners”? Specifically, how can the concept of funds of knowledge best fit into content-based instruction, which I know that you do a lot of, and into EFL instruction? Maria: I teach administration welfare, and my students often come to my class thinking they are inexperienced in these areas. Yet my students are already experts in both welfare and administration; they have lived within these systems their whole lives. Oftentimes in an ESP or CLIL course, teachers think they need to teach the textbook, often because they do not consider themselves experts in that particular area. What is a better approach is to crowdsource knowledge – from the teacher, the students, the textbook, and the internet. This repositioning of knowledge as something to be constructed, when doublechecked, sets up transferable skills for any content area. Critical thinking, content validation, a survey of current issues, and student-led inquiry projects all allow for hitting the different levels within Bloom’s taxonomy of learning.
times in their life: now, in five years, and when they retire. A popular lesson is also making a book jacket based on a picture. I ask the students to interpret the picture, making a title, author bio, and abstract to go on the inside cover. Additionally, they take other viewpoints such as reviews and endorsements to add to the back cover. This interpretive exercise generates some rich and sophisticated storytelling, especially around social issues that are taboo or problematic to discuss in class. Keeping a portfolio of learner-made materials – Padlet is great for this – learners can then add work there, give feedback to others, and finally have a chance to reflect back on these artifacts to see how or if they have changed or grown.
GN: Could you give us some specific examples of classroom activities, lessons, or projects that are based on the funds of knowledge concept?
GN: You teach at the university level. How feasible is it to apply the funds of knowledge concept at the secondary school or primary school level?
Maria: I always get an interest inventory from my students about their personal interests as well as their academic interests. I think it is also important for them to start imagining themselves in their future job, so I ask them what their dream job is. This then allows me to choose and create materials for my learners that are inherently interesting, while also getting them to start seeing their role in our discipline. Other lessons include the students making resumes for themselves at different
Maria: My understanding is that the funds of knowledge concept was originally developed for young learners. Hispanic families living in the southwestern portion of the US were interviewed by teachers.
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Korea already does a lot of info gathering about learners and their families. But part of the problem that can be encountered is that family knowledge may be considered more as “dark” funds of knowledge (the movie Parasite
June 2021
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30 to society, LGBTQ+ people, single parents, and school dropouts will continue to spend their energy on safety issues instead of mainstream society learning from them and their resilience, giving the world a more holistic way to approach society’s problems, such as climate change and the low birthrate problem of South Korea. GN: Social change is often slow here, but on the bright side, change that is gradual is often change that sticks, rather than reverting back to its former self. Thank you, Maria. I now feel a lot better informed about funds of knowledge and think our readers will, too. Interviewed by David Shaffer, Gwangju News’ editor-in-chief. ▲ What additional funds of knowledge can you think of?
is a good example of this complexity) because Korea is so status conscious. When initial questions in social situations about affiliation (military service, school, home location) are combined with detailed knowledge of family background, a toxic cocktail of classism can emerge. Korean education is very idealistic and aspirational, focusing on transformation from deficit stances. It does not necessarily see some life experience as relevant or respectable to anchor education goals. While Korea does a lot to “even the field” for lower socio-economic families, there are shocking holes in the welfare system to support those who drop out of school. For instance, multicultural families have high dropout rates, being in the double digits for elementary schoolaged children. Until Korea widens its value of different kinds of knowledge – traditional and untraditional – we will continue to see socio-economic henpecking in the soil-spoon/gold-spoon system.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
GN: Looking into your crystal ball, what do you see as the prospects for Korea “widening its value of different kinds of knowledge,” especially as it relates to education? Maria: South Korea is still pretty conservative, and as long as the government leaders make policy decisions that do not address the diversity around gender, parenting, and social stigmas, things will not change much. However, the younger generations are expressing more open-mindedness about gender issues. A big win for parenting would be for single-parent families to receive a monthly income equivalent to the amount that an orphanage provides for taking care of a child. While education, especially life-long education, is celebrated in Korea, there is still a stranglehold on qualifying for job positions in the form of personal connection or qualifications such as certifications or licenses. Until seeing the funds of knowledge of these marginalized individuals and communities as valuable and enriching
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References González, N., Moll, L. C., & Amanti, C. (Eds.). (2006). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms. Routledge. Janks, H. (2000). Domination, access, diversity, and design: A synthesis for critical literacy education. Educational Review, 52(2), 175–186. Zipin, L. (2009). Dark funds of knowledge, deep funds of pedagogy: Exploring boundaries between lifeworlds and schools. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 30(3), 317–331.
The Interviewee Maria Lisak teaches administration and welfare at Chosun University in Gwangju. She is a lifetime member of KOTESOL, and she is currently working on her EdD from Indiana University in literacy, culture, and language education.
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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31
Everyday Korean By Harsh Kumar Mishra
Episode 42
TOPIK GUIDE (topikguide.com) is the most comprehensive website devoted to the TOPIK exam. It’s been helping Korean language learners pass TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean) for more than seven years. On our website, you can get all the TOPIK updates, grammar and vocabulary materials, and study tips, or visit our TOPIK YouTube channel to improve your Korean and reach your goal on the TOPIK test.
저는 요리를 잘해요
Grammar Points
I Am Good at Cooking
at something. Add “을” when the noun ends in a final consonant and “를” when it ends in a vowel. Ex: 저는 수영을 잘해요. I am good at swimming. 제 친구가 축구를 잘해요. My friend is good at football.
네하:
저 오늘 일찍 가도 돼요?
Neha:
Can I go early today?
정민:
네 네. 약속 있어요?
~을/를 못해요: This is the opposite of the previous expression and is used with a noun to express that you are not good at something or cannot do something. Ex: 저는 운전을 못해요. I cannot drive. / I am not good at driving. 민지 씨는야구를 못해요. Minji can’t play baseball. / Minji is not good at baseball.
네하:
친구들을 집에 초대했어요. 가서 요리할 거예요.
Neha:
I have invited my friends over. I will go and cook for them.
정민:
네하 씨는 요리를 잘해요?
Jeongmin: Neha, are you good at cooking?
네하:
인도 요리는 잘하지만 한국 요리는 못해요.
Neha:
I am good at cooking Indian food but not Korean food.
정민:
만들어 보면 잘할 거예요. 어렵지 않아요.
Jeongmin: I think if you try, you will do well. It is not difficult.
네하:
그럼 다음에 한국 요리도 도전해 볼게요.
Neha:
Then, I will try making Korean food next time.
정민:
좋아요. 나도 초대해줘요.
Jeongmin: Sounds good. Invite me, too.
Vocabulary Items 일찍 약속 있다 초대하다 요리 집 만들다 어렵다 도전하다
early to have a plan / an appointment to invite cooking, cuisine house to make to be difficult to challenge
다음
next
TEACHING & LEARNING
Jeongmin: Sure. Do you have plans?
~을/를 잘해요: Use this expression with a noun to say you are good
Additional Activities exercise hiking baseball
농구 노래 노래하다 탁구 태권도 배구
basketball song to sing table tennis / ping pong taekwondo volleyball
볼링
bowling
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
운동 등산 야구
June 2021
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32 Restaurant Review
SABOTAGE
Gwangju’s Newest Dongmyeong-dong Establishment Quickly Asserting Itself as One of Korea’s Best Brunch Spots
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
FOOD & DRINKS
Reviewed by Wilson Melbostad
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SABOTAGE (사보타지) Address: Donggyecheon-ro 95-beon-gil 12, Dong-gu, Gwangju 광주 동구 동계천로 95번길 12
Operating Hours: Daily 10 a.m. - 10 p.m. (last order: 9 p.m.) Phone: 062-227-1101 @sabotage.archive
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33
I
am an American dude who casually possesses an aggressive penchant for brunch. Expressed differently, if a hypothetical sorcerer cast a spell on you and the only antidote was a phone call with an hombre with an uncompromising gastronomical respect for brunch, lord have mercy, I should hope you have me on speed dial. Despite these highly rational and totally acceptable desires for good “brek,” I had actually long given up on the prospects of really throwing down with a reliable brunch in Gwangju. The brunch gods briefly sent blessings in 2016 with the surfacing of Mcleod, a Dongmyeong-dong diner headed by Jin Seong-pyo (covered by the Gwangju News in August 2017). Yet, as often can happen in the industry, the restaurant was a little too ahead of its time. Gwangju struggled to pull its tongue away from the Jeolla classics, and Mcleod ultimately closed its doors in 2018. However, Jin Seong-pyo, undeterred by previous failings and channeling a Steve Jobs-ish understanding on what his customers really wanted, struck gold with his latest contribution to the Dongmyeong-dong scene: Sabotage. Where there was once darkness, there is now light. Packing a revamped finger-licking brunch lineup, Sabotage flaunts motifs straight out of your mom-anddad’s sock hop American diner with an eye towards the neighborhood’s youth movement via bumping rap music and well-placed rebellious art on display. When I asked about starting up another restaurant post-Mcleod, Jin responded, “I was actually quite nervous about rolling out a menu that had largely failed previously, but I worked really hard to learn from previous mistakes and hope that Sabotage can become a representative brunch restaurant in Gwangju.” Truth be told, the restaurant seems to be well on its way to achieving such status and becoming a long-term staple in the City of Light. Since opening at the beginning of 2021, Sabotage boasts huge crowds on weekends and weekdays alike, with folks coming from near and far to get a taste of the spellbinding carte du jour.
Photographs by Wilson Melbostad.
The Reviewer
Wilson Melbostad is an attorney originally hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area. Despite being currently located in Seoul, Wilson’s heart and stomach remain in Gwangju, as the city represents the location of not only his wife but, perhaps more importantly, his wife’s parents’ seafood restaurant. @willmelbo
June 2021
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So, what now? After getting your bottom down to Dongmyeong-dong to have some eggs-benny and help curve Korea’s National Happiness Index, it is our responsibility as members of the community to keep the good times rolling and continue to support establishments such as Sabotage that push the limits of Gwangju’s culinary arts. When asked if he had a particular message for the citizens of Gwangju, Jin provided a succinct but important message: “When you see a new restaurant, new food, new culture, or new people, please welcome them with an open mind. In doing so, you’ll be supporting innovation, and we’ll all be able to experience more wonderful places as a result.”
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
While the special ambiance certainly sets the stage for a unique dining experience, it is beyond question the food has been the driving force in keeping customers coming back again and again in droves. As Jin admits, brunch is not terribly difficult to learn at first; kids can hop onto YouTube and learn how to slap together some eggs and toast in no time at all. However, mastering the classics of eggs Benedict, French toast, or hash browns is not for the fainthearted. Case in point, many brunch places in Hannam-dong and other bourgeois neighborhoods of Seoul have resorted to winning over their customers with flowery and photogenic dishes that look like they were built by the landscaper from the Tuileries. Despite the dishes procuring gaggles of Instagram likes, most of these establishments fail to deliver the hearty portions and punch in taste that for decades have inspired hungover
Americans to forego those extra hours of sleep on a Sunday morning just to participate in the brunch-boogie down. Meanwhile, Sabotage greets your hunger with a leviathan of sensational food and, with extraordinarily reasonable prices, does so without breaking the bank. In addition to the classics, Sabotage also throws in delightful curveballs such as rich and thick coffee milkshakes or even champagne for those who venture over with the dinner-time crowd.
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34 Restaurant Review
Lee Lee Nam Studio
A Museum, Café, … and K-Drama Filming Location!
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
FOOD & DRINKS
Reviewed by Jana Milosavljevic
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35
G
wangju’s neighborhood of Yangnim-dong located in Nam-gu has been gathering more and more attention recently, and the Lee Lee Nam Studio surely one of the reasons. The Yangnim-dong area, also referred to as a “modern historical and cultural village” where past and present coexist, is a collage of the most interesting fusion of the contemporary and the traditional, both visually, through architecture, and in stories that these places keep alive. Buildings and monuments that symbolize the modernization period of Gwangju can take you down the path of history as far back as 100 years, when the first Christian missionaries from the West came to Gwangju, while at the same time, the Lee Lee Nam Studio can transport you to the future where art and media are one. This creative studio that Lee Lee Nam, a world-renowned contemporary media artist born in Damyang, had been preparing for three years, opened in November last year and emerged as what Korean modern slang defines as a “hot place” (핫플레이스) as soon as it opened. The artist mentioned in many interviews that he had always been dreaming of a place where he would be able to exhibit his own work as well as a place where Gwangju citizens could come and truly experience media art. Furthermore, Lee was adamant about keeping the foundations of history when creating the studio, quite literally. The building that
used to be the residence of missionaries Barbara Peterson and her husband, the late Arnold Peterson, as well as a pharmaceutical company building, were witnesses to helicopter shootings during the Gwangju May 18 Democratic Movement. Therefore, in order to preserve the history of Yangnim-dong, a treasure trove of modern culture, the building that is now home to the studio was only renovated and redesigned. The studio consists of three areas – the writer’s studio, the Media Art Museum (M.A.M.), and the media café. The building catches one’s eye even before entering. Some of Lee’s works are displayed even in front of the remodeled building. Through one of many windows installed instead of a wall, a wall-sized LED screen – the Media Wall – presents Lee’s art so that visitors can experience the studio’s media art from the outside as well. The moment you enter the ground floor, the feeling of becoming one with the art overwhelms you, since both the building’s exterior and interior feel like works of art themselves. Wherever you may roam while enjoying Lee’s works throughout the exhibition, small café tables and chairs are scattered about, and you can order coffee or dessert immediately on your left-hand side upon entering, however, it is not compulsory – you are free to just look around and appreciate the Media Art Museum.
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June 2021
▲ The cafe, a place for enjoying a cup of coffee. ◀ Previous page: “Lovestruck in the City” autographed poster. ◀ Previous page: Lee Lee Nam Studio front.
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36
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
▲ Jesus is floating high above in mid-air in Lee Lee Nam's version of The Pietà.
▲ The rooftop, where you can enjoy the panoramic view of Yangnim-dong.
Some of Lee Lee Nam’s representative works juxtapose old European master paintings and traditional Asian art with modern-day imagery through digital and video mediums, and many of them can be seen right here in the studio. Among many other works, a series of “Traditional Painting – Happiness” (고전회화 – 해피니스) displayed on eight monitors is installed on the ground floor. Also, works inspired by the Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer’s famous painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” can be seen on the walls. The “centerpiece” of the first floor, however, is undoubtedly “Reborn Light” (다시 태어나는 빛), an homage to Michelangelo’s famous sculpture “The Pietà.” Lee’s piece shows the Virgin Mary at the bottom of the studio’s spiral stairs; however, the body of Jesus is not spread across her lap as in the original but floating high above in mid-air near the rooftop. The natural light that shines down on the sculpture through the glass ceiling creates the effect of a halo that gives this piece of art an even more ethereal feel. The rooftop area of the studio is also open, and apart from Lee’s sculptures, you can enjoy the panoramic view of Yangnim-dong from there. Lee Lee Nam said that he wished to create “a place for exchanging a cup of coffee and media art,” and judging by the number of visitors that enjoy viewing the various digital screens presenting Lee’s take on traditional Asian motifs or European classic works of art laid out between coffee tables over a cup of coffee, he has succeeded. Nevertheless, the visitors do not only enjoy the art and coffee when they visit the Lee Lee Nam Studio. Many of the visitors, especially the younger generation, take countless photos to upload on social media (known as the trend of taking a “proof shot” – injeungsyat, 인증샷, in Korean) against the unique backdrop of Lee Lee Nam’s art and studio spaces.
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Finally, there is one extra piece of information for all the K-drama lovers. Even though the story of last year’s popular Netflix release Lovestruck in the City (도시남녀의 사랑법) takes place mostly in Seoul, the party that happens in Episode 16 of Season 1 was actually shot in none other than Gwangju’s Lee Lee Nam Studio. For those who have seen the drama, this might be one more reason to visit, and for those who have not seen it yet – do not worry – I am not revealing any spoilers, but I am sure you will enjoy the experience of visiting the Lee Lee Nam Studio even more after watching the drama! Sources https://www.leeleenam.com/ http://www.kwangju.co.kr/ article.php? aid=1609117200711407317
Photographs by Jana Milosavljevic.
Lee Lee Nam Studio (이이남스튜디오) Address 10 Jejung-ro 47-beon-gil, Nam-gu, Gwangju (Yangnim-dong) 광주 남구 제중로 47번길 10 (양림동 228-11) Operating Hours: Tue.–Sun. 11:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. (closed on Mondays) Phone: 062-655-5030 @leeleenam_studio
The Reviewer
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
2021-05-26 �� 9:30:41
Korean Recipe 37
Oi-Naengguk Cold Cucumber Soup By Joe Wabe
FOOD & DRINKS
C
ucumbers are exceptional! They are low in calories but packed with nutrients and water, ideal to promote hydration during the hot months of the year. The fact that they are composed of about 96 percent water will help you battle the heat of summer.
Oi-naengguk reminds me of ceviche. It is sour with a pinch of sweetness, fresh, elegant, and easy to prepare. There is not much history or information regarding where it might have come from – I assume because of its simplicity – but without a doubt, this refreshing and icycold soup will make you feel as cool as a cucumber!
Joe Wabe is a Gwangju expat who has been contributing to the GIC and the Gwangju News for more than ten years with his work in photography and writing.
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• • • • • •
(Serves 4)
2 medium-sized cucumbers julienned ¼ cup of dried seaweed 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds 1 red pepper thinly sliced 1 or 2 tablespoons of white vinegar (depending on the acidity you desire) 1 tablespoon of sugar ½ tablespoon of regular soy sauce 1 teaspoon of minced garlic 1 teaspoon of salt 3 cups of chilled water Some ice cubes
Preparation
The first step is to soak the seaweed in cold water for about ten minutes. Drain and squeeze the water, but do not throw it out. Set it aside. In a bowl, combine the seaweed with the minced garlic, pepper, salt, sugar, soy sauce, and vinegar until it is all well blended. Add the cucumbers, sesame seeds, and the water last, and if needed, you can adjust the saltiness to please your taste by sprinkling in a bit more salt. Add some ice cubes to chill the soup even further, but be sparing with it since it will melt and could dilute some of the savory tones you had created.
June 2021
The Author
• • • • •
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
Although cucumbers are more suitable to grow at warm temperatures, the fact remains that the help of green houses and LED lights allows them to be produced all year long in Korea. This creeping vine that sprouts from the ground originated in South Asia but is now grown and loved worldwide.
Ingredients
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▲ The man, the myth, the legend and his studio. ◀ My porcine masterpiece.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
COMMUNITY
38 Local Entrepreneur
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2021-05-26 �� 9:30:44
39
Hae Um Studio
Tattooing Gwangju’s Zoomers By Isaiah Winters
A
mong my most novel experiences in Gwangju was the chance to learn the rudiments of tattooing in a cozy jutaek home-turned-tattoo studio in the Sangmu area. My instructor was young tattoo artist Kim Jinu, a fellow novelty seeker whom I’d recently met online. He first reached out to me after taking an interest in some of my odd findings, like human bones in a local graveyard, so the first time we met up, I thought I’d drive him to Songsan Amusement Park to see the sad, animal-themed paddle boats sloshing half submerged along the shoreline. Their sorry state of placid distress would be a fun way to start our photo journey, I imagined. However, I was dead wrong.
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Isaiah: Not too shabby! Some friends of mine back home got their start as tattoo artists by practicing on themselves and then later on a few thrill-seeking friends. In our earlier conversations, I asked you how you made the nerve-racking leap from drawing on paper to tattooing people’s skin, and your answer fascinated me: Some artists use pigskin! I admit I became way too curious about this. Jinu: Yes, I’m interested in why you love this pigskin detail so much. Anyway, today I’ll teach you how to tattoo a pigs' skin. — It was at this point in the interview that Jinu produced three cuts of pigskin slightly larger than a smartphone. These he procured online before our interview for about 4,000 won each, knowing how keen I was to practice on them myself. Of course, Jinu and his peers get their practice on far more sanitary rubber pads, so this whole pigskin thing was just for my twisted pleasure. To reimburse him
June 2021
Isaiah: You know, the first thing people will likely notice is that you’ve opened a tattoo studio at a very young age. You’re only 26 in international age! What inspired you to start your own business so early on? Jinu: I started out at Rosetattoo, another tattoo studio in Gwangju. There I met a colleague, and we learned
Isaiah: Wow, you were lucky to find each other. I was just going to ask whether it was hard to find a studio and register your business as a young entrepreneur. Is he also young like you? Jinu: Yeah, he’s two years older than I am. He offered me everything for free at first, but now I'm paying him 200,000 won a month plus a separate electricity bill.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
Upon glibly mentioning the park as our first destination, Jinu floored me with the sobering account of someone from his middle school who’d died there. Some idiots had thrown the poor kid’s shoes into the nearby river and, not long after wading into the shallows to retrieve them, he drowned. At that point in our conversation, it was as if all the oxygen had been sucked out of the car. I saw this as a bad omen and thought maybe I’d screwed up big, but that’s not how Jinu operates. He explores everything in conversation – the good, the bad, and the ugly – and doesn’t shy away from sensitive topics. This has made him a lot of fun to hang out with, to interview, and to learn the basics of tattooing from. What follows is our recent interview at his secondfloor parlor, Hae Um Studio.
tattooing together for seven months. Eventually, he asked, “Shall we do business together?” I had no reason to refuse, especially since I didn’t have to spend much money, seeing as he’d already invested in the business. So, I followed him, and we went into business together. He then opened another tattoo shop while I continued running his first one, which I’m now fully in charge of.
2021-05-26 �� 9:30:44
Inter view by Arlo Matisz
40 for the cost of each cut, I surprised Jinu with four expensive specialty beers that are hard to find in Gwangju. To begin, he showed me how to clean the cuts of skin and then how to stick any pen-written message or drawing to them. Basically, with a pen you first write or draw whatever you want on a small sheet of paper, slather the skin with a stick of deodorant, and then apply the paper and press down. After a few moments, the ink sticks and you can remove the paper, revealing a clear ink line to trace with the tattoo gun.
Isaiah: Since you have more experience tattooing the youth of Gwangju, what kinds of tattoos do young men and women typically want these days? In addition, how do these men and women actually reach out to an artist like you? Jinu: Linework tattoos are the most popular among Koreans these days because tattoos have a bad image in
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
As for the tattoo gun I used, Jinu said it ran him about $1,000 plus another $200 in taxes, and that the power supply was an additional $500. He had me use Dynamic black ink for all three sheets, but the amount of ink actually required for all the work I did was surprisingly small – just a few drops, in fact. What really stood out during the process was just how much practice you need with a tattoo gun before you can become proficient. Even if you’re an excellent artist, the feel of a buzzing tattoo gun is very different from more traditional art instruments, so mistakes are easy to make. What’s more, when you make contact, ink tends to run down the needle and bleed all over the area you’re working on, obscuring the precise point of contact. As a result, between wipes I found myself feeling my design more than seeing it. But enough about my pigskin fetish – let’s return to the interview.
Isaiah: Another thing I’m curious about is what your average clientele is like in terms of age, gender, and socioeconomic status. Also, I wonder, have you tattooed any foreigners yet? Jinu: Most of my clients are in their 20s, but rarely are they in their 40s. The younger you are, the more you tend to get tattoos, so I’d estimate that those in their 20s are about 70 percent of my client base, while those in their 30s, 40s, and of other ages are about ten percent each. As for gender, when I first advertised small tattoos on our company’s app, I had 90 percent female customers because I advertised a lot of cute tattoos. But these days, big tattoos are being advertised more and more, so male customers have skyrocketed. In terms of socioeconomic status, most people who get tattoos are working class. I’ve only had a rich client once. My clients have had a variety of occupations, like hairdresser, soldier, student, office worker, teacher, artist, model, and many others. I’ve had just two foreigners so far.
▲ View outside Jinu’s second-floor studio.
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41 Korea. So small, simple, and cute tattoos are in fashion. That’s why linework without color is the most popular. Many men also like bigger, bolder, thicker tattoos with dark outlining called blackwork tattoos. Even still, tattoo styles are as diverse as musical genres. Just as someone prefers hip-hop and someone else prefers ballads, the style of tattoo is set according to one’s taste. In terms of generating business, 80 percent of my clients come to me through application advertising. The other 20 percent are usually introduced by someone. I’ve gotten very little return on advertising through Instagram. Instagram is meaningless. Isaiah: Although it’s a cliché at this point, I figured I’d ask – has COVID-19 been bad for business? Jinu: Our tattoo shop has no worries about COVID-19 because customers and I are always wearing masks and taking the usual precautions. Overall, the virus hasn't reduced the number of tattoo customers. Isaiah: Good to hear. On a personal note, I remember you saying you had a few tattoos yourself. It’s not apparent that you have any just by looking at you. How do your customers view this? Jinu: Yes, I do have a few tattoos, one on each leg and one on my ribs. To be honest, I want to remove the tattoos on my legs because, although I like the designs, they’re not balanced and I don't like the positioning, so I’m gonna erase them later. However, my arms are clean, so a lot of customers look at my style and ask questions like “Are you sure that you’re a tattoo artist? Show me your tattoos!” I definitely want more tattoos on my body, but my family doesn’t want me to get more. I’ll probably get more in the future anyway though.
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There was a lot more to this interview that isn’t published here, including whether Jinu plans to get the Sputnik V vaccine in Russia, what his artistic influences are, what impact majoring in architecture has had on his style, and what countries his cosmopolitan, novelty-seeking vibe has led him to over the last few years. If you’re curious about any of the above topics, feel free to reach out to Jinu for his services and find out for yourselves. Peace! Photographs by Isaiah Winters.
Hae Um Studio (해엄 타투 스튜디오) Address 14 Shinjiri (2nd floor), 876-beon-gil, Sangmu-daero, Seogu, Gwangju 광주 서구 상무대로 876번길 14 신지리 (2층) Tattooshare (타투쉐어) App & Website: Search for 보배타투 (this is Hae Um Studio’s official name there and on the tattooshare.co.kr website). @studio_hae.um
The Author
Originally from Southern California, Isaiah Winters is a Gwangju-based urban explorer who enjoys writing about the City of Light’s lesserknown 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 on Instagram. @d.p.r.kwangju
June 2021
— This would normally be a great point to end the interview and simply sign off by promoting Jinu’s studio, except that by the time this interview gets published, Jinu will have been long gone on a two-month trip to Siberia, visiting a certain romantic interest of his. This means he won’t resume his tattooing craft here in Gwangju until August. Rather than seeing this as a missed opportunity, I find this summer hiatus rather encouraging, as zoomers and many millennials are especially keen on work–life balances that allow for more unorthodox life experiences
– doubly so for young Koreans looking to break free from longstanding cultural strictures on said balances.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
Isaiah: Regret is often a part of the experience for some, I imagine. Speaking of which, do you have any warnings or advice for young people who want to start a business? Jinu: I’d say save enough money because you’re gonna need more than you think. Also, being nice to customers is a crucial requisite that requires a lot of communication skills. The tattoo business may look like a blue ocean, but it’s actually a red ocean. There are too many competitors, so don’t take it so easy.
▲ A rubber pad used for practice, with myriad sample tattoos in the background.
2021-05-26 �� 9:30:46
42 Health
Should You Buy Extra Medical Insurance in Korea?
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
COMMUNITY
By William Urbanski
I
f you have ever found yourself in any sort of Korean hospital, clinic, or in particular, a specialized medical practice, you have probably noticed something quite peculiar, namely, that they are almost always stuffed-tothe-gills busy. Koreans are not more prone to sickness and injury than anyone else, and Korea has a high number of hospitals per capita, so I think I speak for all of humanity when I say, “What gives?” KOREAN MEDICAL INSURANCE AT A GLANCE Korea has a very comprehensive and mandatory healthcare plan, so over the last couple of months, I was very surprised to learn about the high percentage of Koreans who purchase and carry supplementary health insurance. The next time you meet your Korean friends, try bringing up the subject and you will almost certainly find that they either have an extra healthcare plan or someone in their immediate family does. I am not going to get into the fine details of the available plans (there are too many to list), but they range from somewhat affordable to quite expensive (to the tune of a few grand a year) and cover the whole gamut of medical conditions up to and including terminal diseases. This sounds all well and good, but considering the medical plan that is in place, it is kind of curious why so many people in Korea feel the need to carry extra insurance. Further digging into this topic reveals a possible answer and an “inconvenient truth”: the Korean private insurance system is rife with fraud and abuse as a great deal of people buy insurance policies with the explicit intention of milking them for everything they are worth. There is even a special term in Korean for fakers who pretend to be sick or injured just so that they can cash in on their policies: “nylon patients” (나이롱 환자). This term is a reference to both the dubious quality of garments made with the material and the even dubious-er claims made by “patients.”
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THE PURPOSE OF INSURANCE Why should anyone buy insurance in the first place? Well, simply put, it is so that if something catastrophic happens, your life, property, or livelihood will be protected. Being insured is like wearing a helmet or fastening your seatbelt in a car: It is something you do with the express hope that you never have to use it. To account for the prevalence of nylon patients, I would like to introduce a metaphor: If someone has a phone plan with 1GB of data, that person will probably be somewhat conservative on how they use it. If a person pays for a “big” data plan that has 10GB, 20GB, or unlimited data per month, he or she will certainly use it more just because it is available, and to not use it will seem like a waste. They may even be bitter about the high price they pay for it. It is the same way with insurance: If someone has a big policy, it is very tempting to use it just because it is there. “PAY TO PLAY” HEALTHCARE My home country, Canada, is well known for having free and universal healthcare. In theory this sounds like an excellent system, and I am not one to dispute that it is. Although Canada’s free healthcare system is the envy of many other nations (cough, cough, USA, cough, cough), it is not without its drawbacks. Namely, wait times can be long, especially for non-urgent conditions, and if you do not have a family doctor as your first point of contact, good luck navigating the complex, bureaucratic system. Instead of debating the merits of a free healthcare system, I think it is important to draw attention to one of the most salient features of Canadian society: the fact that most Canadians do not enjoy visiting hospitals and generally do whatever they can to not visit one. Now let us compare that to Korea, which has excellent healthcare and the marvelous National Health Insurance
2021-05-26 �� 9:30:46 ▲ If you break your ankle, you might still be able to go out for burgers.
Plan (NHIP) in which enrollment is mandatory. As anyone reading this surely knows, the NHIP is definitely not free (in most cases it is paid for by means of a stiff deduction out of every paycheck), but its benefits are pretty snazzy: Visiting a doctor and even the dentist is very cheap. The big drawback to this system is that a patient will almost always have to pay a certain amount “out of pocket” with every visit. This is a major reason why supplementary private insurance, which covers these out-of-pocket expenses, is extremely popular. This “two-tiered” healthcare system (which, by the way, has faced vigorous opposition in Canada at virtually every level of society), without question, clogs up hospitals by encouraging the truly lowest rung of society: the abovementioned “nylon patients.” To understand how this works, consider the following example: If a person falls off their bike and needs a few stitches, they will wait a few hours at the hospital, pay a couple hundred bucks, get sewn up, get a prescription for painkillers, and be on his or her way. But, if the same person had comprehensive (and expensive) supplementary insurance coverage, he would start crying the blues about how hurt he is so that he can get a private hospital room for a few days and get reimbursed for missing a few days of work, in addition to being compensated for his “pain and suffering” (read: stupidity). As this example illustrates, those with supplemental insurance are eager to take advantage of the “benefits” that their insurance packages offer. Depending on how you look at it, pretending to be sicker than you are could or could not be considered “fraud,” but it is at the very least unethical and definitely abuse of a system that is supposed to provide adequate care in extreme cases. It also represents a misunderstanding of the purpose of insurance and a normalization of unscrupulous behavior. Roughly speaking, buying insurance and then pretending to be hurt is equivalent to buying a bike helmet, then riding into a wall head-first on purpose so that your mommy will give you a kiss to make it better.
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TAKING A DIVE In hockey, arguably the most universally despised technique of gaining an advantage is to “take a dive.” Otherwise known as “drawing a penalty,” it involves lying on the ice and crying like a big baby until the referee punishes the opposing team (sometimes by allowing a penalty shot – an almost surefire way to score a goal). Taking a dive is sportsmanship at its worst and is best left on the soccer field where it belongs. In many ways, there are many direct parallels between nylon patients and athletes who try to win by taking advantage of a system that assumes people are acting in good faith. Like hospital fraud, taking a dive in sports can be notoriously difficult to prove, especially under time pressure, something hockey referees and doctors are all too familiar with. IN CONCLUSION To answer the question at hand, as to whether or not you should buy supplementary insurance, perhaps I could offer a guideline, a kind of mental flow chart to help you with your decision, if you will. If you are in Korea for only a couple of years and in reasonably good health, then no: You do not need extra heath insurance and the NHIP will cover you just fine. If you are getting up there in years and planning to stay in Korea for the long term, it might be worth considering, but keep in mind you probably need much less insurance than you think, and do not be tempted into buying an expensive plan just because your coworkers have it. As a final thought, on the topic of overall health, if you do not engage in regular and rigorous physical exercise at least a few days a week and cannot resist the temptation to gorge yourself on fried chicken every other day while smoking and binge drinking, then the question of which health insurance plan is best for you should be the least of your worries.
The Author
William Urbanski is the managing editor of the Gwangju News and a proud owner of a new electric bike, which is very handy since he has not been able to walk lately. He also recently learned the value of holding the door open for each and every injured person he sees. @will_il_gatto
June 2021
THE ROBIN HOOD DELUSION Something that no doubt factors into a nylon patient’s mental calculations is the notion that insurance companies are rich and greedy and that the nylon patient is some sort of Robin Hood-like figure for relieving them of their money. This whole Robin Hood Delusion conveniently obscures a dirty truth: Scamming the system makes everyone worse off. Think about it carefully: Even if nobody gets hurt directly, money and resources are being allocated improperly. Another scummy aspect of this whole practice is that it is the very people who can afford
expensive supplementary insurance in the first place that seek to gain benefits from it. So, people with enough money to pay insurance premiums are also the ones who start feeling entitled to expensive, special treatment and are willing to cry in order to get it. Clearly, it is not so much “taking from the rich and giving to the poor” as much as it is just “stealing because you feel like it.”
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
r burgers.
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44 Environment
COMMUNITY COMMUNITY
All That Plastic By Chung Hyunhwa
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
THE REALITY OF RECYCLING It was only in 2021 that I was awakened to see where we were. My closest friend pleaded with me about our environmental status. She had read several books about environmental issues and started using bamboo toothbrushes and waste-free shampoo bars. I took the future of our next generation seriously and started reading books, listening to lectures, and participating in campaigns. Many of us are fed up with the trash problem, but not many doubt it will be recycled. In the 65 years of recent plastic history, it is known that only 9 percent of it was recycled. In Korea, the recycling rate of plastic has increased, but it is still estimated to be about 30 percent, according to Dr. Suyeol Hong, an expert in the recycling field. Also, in 2020, 1 Korean person used 67 kilograms of packaging plastic according to EUROMAP, ranking the second in the world. This may improve in 2021 because Korea has just implemented the separate collection of transparent PET water bottles for recycling. Considering all this effort to wash the material at home for recycling, it is still disappointing to confirm the numbers. The Gwangju Sangmu Incineration Plant is not running at the moment, so using the landfill is the only option. Reportedly, there will be no land available for landfills in 2030. Then what?
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MANUFACTURERS AND CONSUMERS I feel relieved to know that a lot of consumers are into recycling. However, considering that we are all busy people and how much effort we are making to recycle, manufacturers should pay attention to product/package design to leave no trash. They should use a single material as much as possible, and if this is not possible, the design should allow people to separate the materials with ease, while ensuring the sanitation and protection of the products. It may mean that products should be designed to maximize their functions but minimize the unnecessary plastic decorations. Consumers should also change their attitude toward packaging. I sometimes read complaints about packaging or wrapping even though the product was delivered with no problem. If consumers keep this attitude that packaging shows the manufactures’/sellers’ care for them, then the manufactures will want to continue overpackaging and overwrapping. WHY GO PLASTIC-FREE? Plastic lasts 500 years, and incineration of plastic releases 90 times – 90 times!!! – more carbon-dioxide than paper. Besides, hazardous gas including dioxin is released into the air as a result of incomplete combustion. Plastic is
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45 broken down into microplastics or nanoplatics that can be absorbed into the brain or the placenta even when not burned. In the sunlight, the process speeds up, so now we should not use plastic in the first place and instead pursue a plastic-free lifestyle. Biodegradable plastic breaks down only at the right temperature – higher than 58°C – and under certain other conditions. In addition to being pricier, it is not strong enough for multipurpose uses, is not recyclable, and is not entirely safe after decomposition. If it were buried or burned in the wrong condition, this plastic would also definitely release carbon-dioxide. There are many categories that plastic is separated into: PP, HDPE, LDPE, PS, PET, PVC, and Other. Apartment complexes separate plastic into only transparent PET bottles and all the rest together. PET that is not transparent water bottles may not be recycled. At the separation facility, workers select materials manually, so small pieces will all go into the incinerator or a landfill. It is necessary to increase the recycling rate so as not to use petroleum, a fossil fuel, and to decrease the use of plastic that will turn into greenhouse gases or microplastics. Advanced technology or public jobs can help do this.
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If we do not act now, as in the movie Interstellar, our future generations may not have any other career options but to become farmers to produce their own food for survival, while corn may be the only food that grows on the crisp, dry land. Scientists may also have to search for a way to evacuate humankind to another planet, which is probably impossible to find. Or, as in the movie 2012, only the people who have proven the value of their genes would be accepted on the “Ark,” and the rest of us may face a destiny of death outside of said “Ark.” We all breathe the same air, drink the same water, and face the same climate crises, no matter what religion or ideology we have. It is now high time that the “Candle Protest for the Environment” should ignite. Illustrations by Wi Hunho. Note: This piece originally appeared on the blog https://blog. naver.com/icanfly2you/
The Author
From Gwangju, Chung Hyunhwa is currently leading Gwangju Hikers, an international ecohike group at the GIC, and getting ready to teach the Korean language. Previously, she taught English in different settings, including Yantai American School and Yantai Korean School in China, and has 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.
June 2021
There should be a system to give benefits such as carbonfree bonuses or “green marks” to package-free product manufacturers or their distributors. Nowadays, AIassisted recycling machines are on the market to reward people directly with credit card points. The government should install such machines everywhere to encourage recycling. There should be a lot more collection areas
TAKING ACTION AND BANDING TOGETHER Korea declared its aim to become a carbon-neutral society by 2050, but Gwangju declared that it would reach this goal by 2045, which is five years earlier. Gwangju is well known for its citizenry that contributed greatly to Korea’s democracy. There were people who fought with their lives, and the citizens banded together to overcome the May 18 uprising in 1980. Now, is it not time once again to use our citizenry as a beacon to protect our earth from this climate crisis? I hope more citizens will come to the fountain on Fridays in front of the ACC – which once was the rallying plaza for our people to keep Gwangju safe from a brutal military dictatorship – to campaign voluntarily and to spread solidarity throughout the country.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
THE LAWS AND THE SYSTEM Manufacturers should design goods using a single material. If they want to make goods using more than two kinds of materials, they should explain this, justify the reasons, and design them to allow easy separation. Eventually, they should attain design permits to do this sort of packaging legally. As we put warning labels on cigarette packs, the law should force manufacturers to mark the kind of materials used for the product and the packaging very visibly on the front side so that consumers cannot avoid seeing the mark and can separate the materials accordingly. (Many of us need magnifying glasses to find these marks now.) In addition, distributors and retailers should stop wrapping vegetables in styrofoam dishes and plastic wrap. The stickers on bottles should be easily removed or the product should go entirely label-free. Anything that is not recyclable should be marked “Not for Recycling” clearly so that buyers can decide if they want to purchase goods that include trash. It is magnificent to see some manufacturers starting to go minimal on their packaging and show that they care about the trash issue, but pertinent laws and an efficient system are the shortcut.
for recycling materials for more efficiency in every neighborhood. There should be a webpage and/or an app to report whether goods are easy or not easy to recycle. It is important to educate the citizenry and encourage the manufacturers, but it is way more important to create the necessary laws and efficient systems for more comprehensive and effective recycling.
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CULTURE & ARTS
4646Photo Essay
Journey to Naju Image Theme Park: Historical Filming Site
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021 May 2021
By Emmanuela Sabatini
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47
N
aju is a cultural heritage city in South Jeolla Province with a lot of historical places to visit. I went to the city to visit the Naju Image Theme Park, the filming site for many historical Korean dramas and movies. There have been a lot of Korean dramas and movies filmed there; among them are the highly popular Jumong (2006), and my personal favorites Goblin (2016) and Joseon Exorcist (2021). They even have Jumong’s picture painted on the floor of the gate entrance. Through these photographs, I hope you feel, as I did, the sensation of historical drama at Naju Image Theme Park!
The Photographer
Emmanuela Sabatini is originally from Jakarta, Indonesia. She did an internship at the Gwangju International Center in September–December 2020. You can follow her life journey at www.emmasabatini.com. @emmasabatini
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
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2021-05-26 �� 9:30:59
48 Book Review
The Last Girl
My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State
CULTURE & ARTS
Reviewed by Michael Attard
T
his memoir of a young woman covers a short period of her life, yet the roots of the story date back to ancient Mesopotamia and the later 7thcentury rise of the Islamic Caliphate.
letting emotion distort the facts, although she makes it clear: “It was chaos.” Most of the men were killed, although two brothers, while badly wounded, managed to escape from the pile of corpses laying upon them.
Nadia is Yazidi, a Kurdish-speaking people living in northwestern Iraq who have practiced their monotheistic religion for millennia. Their peaceful life was destroyed with the emergence of ISIS, or the Islamic State, whose goal was to militarily re-establish the political-religious state that existed shortly after the time of the Prophet Muhammad. In ISIS thinking, the Yazidi were pagan nonbelievers and thus could rightfully be enslaved.
The women were separated into groups – married and unmarried – with the ISIS fighters more interested in the single women. Nadia had no idea what happened to her mother. It was on a bus to Mosul – the ISIS capital – that she was first molested. Her complaints were answered with, “What do you think you are here for?”
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
Nadia recounts recent historical details that may not be interesting or seem of importance to some readers, but they are significant in understanding the formation of Nadia’s thinking. This is not a story of forgiving one’s enemies. There are a lot of family members, and it can be difficult to keep track of them all. However, through the horrors suffered by these individuals, Nadia elucidates the breadth of the evil. In the summer of 2014, when Nadia was 19 years old, ISIS came to her town of Kocho, south of the Yazidi holy Mount Sinjar. The Kurdish soldiers had fled after having sworn that they would protect the Yazidi. Still many Yazidi from nearby were able to escape to Mount Sinjar, although conditions were terrible. “Life in Kocho stopped as people stayed inside for fear of being seen by ISIS.” On August 12 came the ultimatum to convert or suffer the consequences. With a calm voice, Nadia relates the details of what happened next as if she does not want to be accused of
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The slave market “was like the scene of an explosion,” as the women “moaned as though wounded.” Her use of simile and description is sparse throughout the book; her initial purpose is to relate the truth of her story. At the home of an ISIS guard, Nadia met the man’s mother, thinking that surely here she might find sympathy. The closest she came to it was “It’s not your fault that you were born a Yazidi.” This woman knew that she was separated from her family by force, that all the men in Kocho had been killed, and that she, like others, was suffering the violence and humiliation of rape. Nadia said, “I hated her.” During the first week of her captivity Nadia tried to escape. She thought that if she could get onto the street, she would look like every other woman, dressed in the black abaya and niqab. Who could tell the difference between “a Sunni woman going to market or a Yazidi girl escaping?” Apprehended going out a window, punishment was swift. She was whipped. Later six men came into the room. She remembers how one man so carefully folded his glasses and put them on a table not wanting them to get broken before his turn at raping her.
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49 Eventually, “You stop thinking about escaping or seeing your family again.” At one point, Nadia relates, “He came in and locked the door. He had a gun attached to his belt, and I imagined grabbing it and putting it to my head.”
At the final Kurd checkpoint, Nadia could have made things much easier for herself by simply telling the Kurds that she was Yazidi. “The Kurds want us to forgive them for abandoning us.” But she would not do so, still holding the Kurds partially responsible for the Yazidi massacres in Sinjar.
“What do you think you are here for?”
Finally, safe in Kurd-controlled Iraq, Nadia no longer needed the clothes she had been forced to wear. “I got ready to throw my abaya in the garbage, but stopped at the last moment, deciding to keep it as evidence of what ISIS had done to me.”
Although in constant fear, Nadia kept her wits about her and on a second attempt escaped successfully. Wandering the streets, she worked up the courage to knock on the door of a house in a poorer neighborhood. Nadia knew that ISIS was largely homegrown and that “there was no reason for me to think that behind any of these doors lived a sympathetic person.” An older man let her in. “For a moment my heart stopped … the men had beards and were wearing baggy black pants.”
It is generally accepted that ISIS has been defeated, but for Nadia the fight goes on. Through the United Nations and Yazda, a Yazidi rights organization, she has spoken to the world and won the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts. Her purpose is clear: to bring ISIS and all those who supported them to justice.
Much more happens in the last 100 pages of the book as Nadia struggles to escape ISIS-run Mosul, enter Kurdcontrolled Iraq, and find remaining family members. Nadia more strongly declares her views. Even of the people who helped her, she wants to know why they had done nothing before. In 2016 when Mosul was liberated, citizens claimed that they were glad ISIS was gone. How is it, then, Nadia wants to know, that when she was there, life seemed so normal? She says, “I think they did have a choice.”
“I want to be the last girl in the world with a story like mine.”
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.
Support the GIC! Be a Member!
Annual Membership Fee
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June 2021
General: 40,000 won Students: 20,000 won Groups: 20,000 won per person (min. 10 persons) Inquiry: member@gic.or.kr / 062-226-2733
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The Gwangju International Center (GIC) is a non-profit organization established in 1999 to promote cultural understanding and to build a better community among Koreans and international residents. By being a member, you can help support our mission and make things happen! Join us today and receive exciting benefits! • One-year free subscription and delivery of the Gwangju News magazine. • Free use of the GIC library. • Free interpretation and counseling services from the GIC. • Discounts on programs and events held by the GIC. • Up-to-date information on GIC events through our email newsletter.
2021-05-26 �� 9:31:00
50 Gwangju Writes
The Road CULTURE & ARTS
By Boipelo Seswane
R www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
eoratile stared out the window.
They had been on the road for an hour or so – at least, that is what it seemed like with the sun beginning to dip low in the blue dusted with wispy, ghostlike, candy-cotton clouds. It felt good to see them again after such a long time. Hot air collected sand from the similarly scorching earth, slowly swirling it around like a child waving ribbons excitedly overhead. Whip — this way. Whip — that way.
Picking up momentum and collecting more grains, the dust devil snake-dancing across the veld rose higher and higher. Whip — this way. Whip — that way.
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Even the dancing dust devil rose poetic as it danced further away from the road. She must have dozed off when the taxi began moving. The long-distance taxi rattled along the dusty dirt road, heaving and creaking as it carried its occupants. The taxi’s joints rattled, tires speeding along the long road, fire at its feet, racing away from the devil. Except it was going in the wrong direction. She sat up slowly, tired beyond measure. Like one who had been pushing away a giant thumb intent on crushing her. She was spent, catching her breath after the thumb had disappeared with no idea if it would come back. Restless and weary, she was catching this breath but felt as if she was becoming even more exhausted as each second passed. It was too quiet in the taxi and her own thoughts were too loud. Leaning into the warm glass, she thought of the letter that had arrived at her door two weeks before on a sunny day after a week of rain. The sky was boasting blue on that day, too. The crisp, white envelope in her window was anything but expected and served to unravel the careful excavation she had been doing. Seeming a joke at first, she realized
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51 it somehow arrived almost two years too late, yet exactly when she needed it most. Jay had sent her an email a few weeks after he had left, saying to expect something in the mail soon, but he had no idea when. Sending each other letters, poems, scribbles from whatever tiny corner of the world they found themselves in had become a tradition of theirs. It was always a joy finding on her doorstep a postcard or tiny scribbled note of greeting in an envelope from some far-off place he had traveled to on her doorstep. R, if you had told me If you had told me, as we stood by the window and time crystalized to nothingness, that all would be what it is now, I would have been astounded. The sky shook and turned a sickly orange as we stood watching. Even the misunderstood parts of us looked on in awe – for once a similar thread held us together, and we drew breath in the same way. I am grateful for all the poetry I have lived out with you beside me. To say I love and loved you once is an understatement. I ask myself what it is I know of love when too often I am unable to find the words necessary to describe it. You held my hand once – that felt nice. You felt nice. Time was on our side. Yet now it fades beyond our grips even as our fingertips circle each other’s palms filled with hope. Do not let go, you say. Do not let go either, I say. But nothing is holding us together except those very words. Weak threads.
Nothing else except those words.
Even though she had told herself she was penning those words for him, in truth she had written them for herself, too. For the parts they had allowed themselves to share
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There are things – moments that look like love. Like the hold of a hand or some other memory of tenderness you assumed you did not deserve as you closed yourself away from it all. It also looks like the day you decided you were worthy and let yourself hold every feeling. You held the door open and let it rush upon you. There is a multitude of places that mean love, and each one is a kindness you deserve. —R Reo smiled watching him walk away. It felt warm inside her heart. He disappeared behind the glass doors into the gleaming blue of the day, into the red bus and set on his journey towards home. For all the fears she might have had about starting over, she could not deny the magic of his letter arriving two years later, just as she was packing away her life to set out on the road as he had all that time ago. Or that of the sunny spoekasem-filled skies. Or the dancing dust devil and the way it held her time like the stolen glances and leaning-in dances they had been too afraid to dance before those few summer days. Reo closed her eyes, leaning deeper into the warmth of the glass window. The taxi rattled on along the road no longer with a devil fire at its wheels but with the fearless dance of the dust devil ready to rewrite her fears. Photograph by Hector Ramon Perez on Unsplash.
The Author
Boipelo Seswane is a Seoul-based South African artist. She is a teacher, performer/creator (actor, model, painter), and writer with experience in multiple facets of creativity, including writing, editing, theater, and film. She has always been interested in interrogating life through words and other forms of expression. @bopzybee
June 2021
In the days before he left, they had filled each day with all the things they enjoyed doing together. She had insisted they find and make time. It felt nice. Talking about the fears they had held onto, walls they had built separating themselves from the world, and all the ways they had not been able to make their ways to themselves. It felt like an unburdening. Embracing in the bus terminal, she had thrust her own envelope into Jay’s hand.
J, all about love
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We lie together against the bitter cold of the wintertime night and howling wind outside. I thought the stars were aligned for us, you say. Yes, they were. But we lost sight and moved to free will. The stars figured we knew what we were doing and left us to our fate. —J
and for all the time they had poured into all the love they could.
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52 GFN Radio
Way Back With U Inter view by William Urbanski
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
CULTURE & ARTS
GFN, the Gwangju Foreign Language Network, has a brand-new radio show that has hit the airwaves this spring: Way Back With U. The cohosts of the station’s newest project are Aline Verduyn, who is new to GFN, and Woong Tae Ryu, a veteran GFN host. The Gwangju News was fortunate to be able to interview the show’s cohosts recently. — Ed.
G
wangju News (GN): The first thing I would like to know about is this YouTube Live initiative you are doing. Why did you decide to go with a “multimedia” approach to your show? Aline Verduyn (Aline): Ah, you must be referring to the Birthday Special we did on April 1! We streamed our show live on YouTube and interacted with our listeners live for the first time. It was a lot of fun, and we are now thinking of making this a regular practice. We are still working on it but would love to interact more with our listeners. Woong Tae Ryu (Tae): Before we even mention it, I think you all know it. Although radio is one of the most profound broadcasting mediums out there, it is handing over its position to new platforms, like YouTube. It is a general consensus in the radio industry that it would be very difficult for radio to survive without merging or using the power of YouTube in one way or another. Also, after a couple of months of piloting, we are planning to promote our show on other platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. So, sit tight and be ready for it! GN: How did both of you get involved with GFN? Did you have previous experience in broadcasting? Tae: You know, when you read this kind of interview, the interviewees often say things like “I never dreamed of doing this kind of thing for a living.” Well, welcome to my life! Before doing this, I was just working for conventional Korean companies in overseas marketing. But the passion for leveling-up my English proficiency, combined with a crucial push factor from a near life-threatening office drama, made me crazy-brave enough to dive into the completely new realm of radio broadcasting. Oh, one more fun fact about me: I landed my job here at GFN six
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years ago by doing an impersonation of Agent Smith in The Matrix during the interview. Aline: Well, I miraculously rolled into my position only six months ago, when I was interviewed by GFN for Gwangju People. In awe of the experience, I said I was willing to come back for anything else they would need me for! They took me seriously, and I then did a little segment called “Lost in Translation” with our favorite host, Arlo. So, this new show is not only a new adventure but a massive promotion and a great honor for me! GN: How would you describe the “radio chemistry” between the two of you? Tae: Absolutely off the charts! I really could not have asked for a better cohost, coworker, secretary, teacher, communicator, friend, or more simply, a better human being! In the very first week of the show, some listeners told us that they thought we had known each other for a very long time because we were just telepathically synchronized (if you have ever watched the Japanese animation series Evangelion, you would get this reference instantly), but we basically just met at a brainstorming meeting, without even having a chance to formally or informally introduce ourselves to each other, less than a week before the show was launched. Considering that, our chemistry is even more miraculous, on a cosmic level, I would say. Aline: [Flattered] I agree! Absolutely superlative! I do not know whose idea it was to pair us up, but I could not have asked for a better cohost, partner in crime, and mentor. We are two peas in a pod. Thanks to our different backgrounds and talents, we are constantly learning from each other. We understand each other (including our sense of humor!) so well and have so much fun on the
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53 show together. My favorite messages that we get from the listeners are the ones saying our chemistry is good, so I am happy that listeners have picked up on that and the positive vibes transmitting through our microphones. GN: Listening to the show, I noticed that it switches between English and Korean pretty seamlessly. How do you find a balance between the two languages? Also, why is this an important feature of the show? Aline: Yes, we love the bilingual aspect of our show! Creating a bilingual environment starts with considering it to be normal to switch between languages. And that is how we are – all the time! Listeners can pick up on a few words in the other language while still following the gist of our news items. Before you know it, you will all be bilingual! Tae: For GFN, up until recently, the target audience was expats in the Jeollanam-do area. However, a lot of factors started to seep in that required rethinking our strategy. Those include both a decreasing number of international students on government scholarships and of English teachers, and the rise of YouTube. So, GFN set the new direction of embracing more local Korean listeners. Also, another underlying factor could be that South Korea seems to be in the entry stages of becoming a multicultural society, with more multicultural families in rural areas and more expats getting media exposure. Hence, the bilingual show – to answer the call of the era. GN: Talk about the importance of your time slot: 6:10 to about 8:00 p.m. Aline: Well, it is an honor to be on prime-time radio every day! We have big shoes to fill following Arlo’s seven-year tenure. We say that we are “responsible for your evening” and a “companion on your way back home from work.”
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Aline: In the first half of the show, we cover a lot of news updates in the show’s different segments: “What’s Up Today,” “Hello World,” “Today’s Korea,” and “Eyes on Gwangju.” Unfortunately, it is not always positive news. A lot of sensitive topics are addressed, but we try to keep an open and positive mindset. To keep things upbeat, our team always finds quirky news that makes us chuckle or smile, like that article about the bear entering a house and being chased out by two small barking dogs! Tae: We keep the best for last: “In Your Letter.” That is where we read the heart-warming stories of our listeners. They have made us laugh, tear up, and ponder. So, if you have a story you would like to share with us, be it happy, sad, or funny, please do not hesitate to submit it to gfnwayback@gmail.com! Include a song request, and it will make for an excellent end to our show. So, stay tuned!
Woong Tae Ryu loves genuine conversations with people from different walks of life and loves them even more when they require learning a new language. This human golden retriever spent five years in the U.S. trying to study numbers but instead ended up making lifelong friends and mastering their language. Marking his sixth year at GFN, Tae started hosting the new flagship show Way Back With U with Aline, the best cohost on Planet Earth. Aline Verduyn has lived in Korea for five years across different cities and is now happily settled in Gwangju, where she is co-hosting Way Back With U on GFN Radio and working on her master’s thesis. @gwangjumiin
June 2021
GN: There have been a lot of shake-ups at GFN lately – program changes, etc. When you were developing the show, what lessons did you take into consideration?
GN: With so much happening in the world today, how do you decide what to talk about every day?
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
Tae: As Aline said, prime time! That is when most of our target audience tunes in: expats, students, office workers, anyone trying to learn English or Korean by listening to both an informative and fun radio show. So, here is our selling point. Unlike other so-called news shows, these key words are what we are all about: informative, fun, homey. On your way back home from a long day, you would not want to tune in to something overly serious or critical. You want to relax, but you kind of want to know what has been happening around the world while you were at work. So that is where we come in. Just like good old buddies, with a pat on the back, we talk to our dear listeners, saying, “Hey, I know it’s been another long day, but you did good. Now, just sit back and relax, and we’ll tell you what’s been happening today.”
Tae: When it comes to radio station shake-ups, or reshuffling, I think there are two kinds. The first is seasonal or yearly shake-ups – the regular ones – and then there are the “earthquake” shake-ups where programs are either terminated or created. When Way Back With U was first conceived, it came from the latter, as it was the first time in GFN’s history to put a bilingual show in its prime-time slot, where the show City of Light had been for over seven years led by our veteran host Arlo. Arlo’s show and his style of conducting a show is tailored towards more traditional radio listeners and, it can also be said, for more of the intellectual types. Now, for our Way Back With U, Aline and I try to inherit the informative element of Arlo’s show and mix it up with our golden retriever and poodle-like reactions to keep it relaxing and fun on everyone’s way back home after work. So, informative and fun – two birds with one stone.
The Authors
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54 GFN Radio
Top of The Drop By Daniel J. Springer
CULTURE & ARTS
Czarface & MF Doom – “Mando Calirissian”
In only the second release and first full-length since the untimely death of Daniel “MF Doom” Dumile was announced on December 31 of last year (he’d passed exactly two months before, true to his supervillain style, on Halloween), Super What? just dropped on May 7 in collaboration with Czarface. The latter is a supergroup project formed in 2013 between Wu Tang’s Inspectah Deck and Brooklyn-based underground duo 7L & Esoteric. True to that ethic and the general penchant hip-hop artists have for albums full of collabs, Super What? features a bevy of oldschool heavies on the LP, with features from Del The Funky Homosapien, DMC, and more up-and-coming artists like Kendra Morris and Godforbid. Not a mind-blowing album but a fun and quality listen.
St. Vincent – Daddy’s Home
For those of you looking for that album of the year, St. Vincent's (true name: Annie Clark) sixth career studio LP is both a departure for the artist stylistically and surely one for those that love the power of the human voice. It’s a mellow, funky journey through some quite dark memories for the Bowiesque shapeshifting chameleon, and an album that surely reflects its own meticulous construction in illuminating ways. However, it’s the vocal arrangements and the power of Clark’s voice that stands out above all the other qualities, with wicked shrieks, howls, and very long carries that make this album a must high in the running for album of the year.
Porter Robinson – “Unfold” feat. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
Known mainly as a dance music producer since his debut seven years ago, the North Carolinabased producer and DJ’s previous work has been an interesting meld of ebullient escapism and cinematic pop, with the confidence of youth shining through. On his latest album Nurture, we see the artist taking a bit of a different track, at least thematically, exploring the difficulties of finding any kind of positive permanence, most notably tranquility and closure.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
Yazmin Williams – “Sunshowers”
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In a tremendous slept-on LP from late January that has gotten rave reviews from the likes of Pitchfork and a feature piece in The New York Times, the artist's latest Urban Driftwood has been a delightful sneaky surprise in the first half of the year. This is the 24-year-old guitarist’s sophomore LP, and while 2018’s Unwind felt a bit like a technical skills showpiece, Urban Driftwood has much more of a progression and overall narrative than that, culminating in a blissful final piece that features for the only time a bit of rhythm from some koras and hand drums that punches the end to this fantastic album.
Paul McCartney – “Find My Way” (Beck remix)
The Beatles veteran, now 78, has been a very active presence in the last handful of years, and it seems he finally hit his stride last year with his latest LP III. Well, to show that the old man still knows who’s hot stuff on the modern scene, he released McCartney III Imagined, a remix compilation and showcase of some of the established vets and young artists he’s been enjoying. Remixes and covers from the aforementioned St. Vincent, along with Phoebe Bridgers, Anderson. Paak, Khruangbin, and Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien make for an album that’s not to be missed.
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55 Lord Huron – “Long Lost”
The Los Angeles-based band that was originally the solo project of Michigan native Ben Schneider had long been hinting that their fourth LP was in the works, but fans were kind of left in the dark as to what exactly was going down. However, with the release of this languid, glorious bit of strings and desert soul, the band released this, the title track to their latest full-length. “Long Lost” dropped on May 21 via Whispering Pines/Republic Records.
Tony Allen – “Stumbling Down” feat. Sampa the Great
It’s hard to fully emphasize and describe the forwardthinking eminence of the man who created the afrobeat sound in the early 70s as the main percussion behind Fela Kuti’s Africa 70 band. Unfortunately, the great spirit called him back last year, but There Is No End defies even the almighty with 45 minutes of scintillating collabs.
Kowloon – “Hollywood Is Under Water”
In what might be the most on-the-nose of the deluge of post-Covid prognoses to be commercially released, this one muses on the not-so-hypothetical of what might happen when Hollywood reaches irrelevance with a dreamy, funky accompaniment that has become the singer’s trademark.
Local Focus Sanchez. – “Don’t Go Wasting My Time (No More)”
In the latest single from Gwangju-based (supervilain) Oisin Magee, we finally get an irreverent video shot at Daein Market along with a look at the young maven of mystery for those of us that aren’t super local. Produced and arranged by Gwangju’s percussion master Dan Lloyd, the song itself is a perfect bit of sun-splashed rock for a summer drive or barbecue.
Lizz Kalo – “Shoot Me”
If you’re talking about the local expat music scene here in Gwangju, Andrew Vlasblom is surely one of the men in the middle. Vlasblom has released a follow-up LP to 2019’s Boardwalk City Blues with another quality mix of folk, soul, and jazz in Hitchhiking for Love, a semiautobiographical album about his travels across North America as a young man.
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May 14 Sons of Kemet – Black to the Future St. Vincent – Daddy’s Home Jorja Smith – Be Right Back The Black Keys – Delta Kream May 21 Lord Huron – Long Lost May 28 Black Midi – Cavalcade k.d. lang – Makeover
Watch Out for These June 1 Lana Del Rey – Baptize June 4 Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee Black Pumas – Capitol Cuts: Live from Studio A June 11 Garbage – No Gods No Masters June 12 V/A – Truth to Power June 18 Kings of Convenience – Peace or Love June 25 Lucy Dacus – Home Video Faye Webster – I Know I’m Funny haha
The Author
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. You can find “The Damyang Drop,” his monthly collaborative playlist with The Damyang House, on YouTube and Spotify. @gfnthedrop
June 2021
Andrew Vlasblom – “Windmills of Iowa”
May 7 Nancy Wilson – You and Me
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
It could be interpreted as kind of weird to muse (even effusively) how lucky we are in Gwangju to have Johannesburg, South Africa, native Lizz Kalo gracing our scene, but it’s not off the mark. The artist, who made her solo debut last year in November with Y.O.U., is making a big mark on the local scene with a tremendous new monthly event in “Creative Social.” Check out the second “Creative Social” monthly on June 5 and moving forward as this is a landmark event not to be missed!
May Releases
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56
CROSSWORD PUZZLE
Created by Jon Dunbar
Look for the answers to this crossword puzzle to appear in July in Gwangju News Online (www.gwangjunewsgic.com).
6 7 8 9 10 12 13 17 18 19 20 23 24
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2021
ACROSS 1 4 7 11 13 14 15 16 18 21 22 25 29 30 32 34 35 37
Stomach muscles 77 Sunset Strip actor Byrnes Females Country suffering military coup Former island for lepers Sri Lanka capital Pond scum ___ Relaxing Afternoon Eun Sung-soo’s agency Electric sea creatures One of SK Group’s interests Handbag ___ Asset Daewoo Cozy corners ___ New Guinea SK Innovation’s arch rival World’s longest river What KOTRA does
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38 44 45 49 50 51 52 53
Gwangju witnesser Paul Tyler of Criminal Minds and Archer Paris’ Grand horror theater Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf playwright Edward Caleb Sekeres’ business Coupang’s IPO market Gwangju’s dir. from Hampyeong ___ Americana
DOWN 1 2 3 4 5
HBO rival Potluck rule Actor Mineo Stone or Thompson 9 to 5 actor Coleman
26 27 28 31 33 34 36 38 39 40 41 42 43 46 47 48
UAV First prize at Olympics Greek hero Jason’s ship Taken out at a bank Surfboard fin Hong-chul or Woong-rae Apple’s rival A European mountain Not masc. Cut with scissors Superbad actor Michael Hip-hop Artist Kim who painted 100-meterlong work Taiwan Found in West End of London and Lower Manhattan Scraped out a living ROK-USFK deal Goes with force or conditioning Author Ursula K. ___ (2 words) Measurement unit for buttons Scott or James Covered in grease Memory sticks President Syngman Employ French bullet train Quick sleep Ants ___ log (2 words) Very casual
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