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LIVING THE KOREAN WAY OF LIFE

Choi Jung-wha Choi Jung-wha is the first Asian to earn her doctorate in Translation Studies in 1986 at E.S.I.T., School of Interpretation and Translation, at the University of Paris III after her undergraduate studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. She is the author of many other books and personal essays including “This is Korea.” She gained insight into Korea’s brand positioning while actively participating in many international events and conferences, and played an important role as a member of the Presidential Council on Nation Branding. She is committed to conveying the true image of Korea to the rest of the world through various events such as the CICI Korea Image Award - an annual award ceremony - or the CCF (Cultural Communication Forum)-a meeting of leading figures in culture and communication, which provides an opportunity for them to get to know Korea. She also plays a bridging role between France and Korea as Secretary General of Korea-France Club, established in 2015. Choi received major awards such as the Palmes Académiques in 1992, and was the first Korean woman to receive the Legion d’Honneur in 2003 from the French government for her contribution to education, communication and cultural exchange. She is currently a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, the president of Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI), and the co-president of the 5 . 4 Club.

LIVING THE KOREAN WAY OF LIFE

â“’ Bae Bien-U

â“’ Bae Bien-U

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Preface page 014

SPRING 1 Entrance Ceremony in March page 018

2 Newlywed Couples in Traditional Wedding Attire page 022

3 Valentine’s Day Chocolate and Couple Rings page 028

4 Carnation Flowers to Give Thanks page 032

5 The “Marching of Strollers” page 038

6 100th Day Celebration and First Birthday Party page 046

7 Grandmothers Carrying Schoolbags page 052

8 Young People on the Street in Hanbok page 056

9 Festival of Flowers and Namul in Spring page 064

10 Lotus Lantern Parade and Buddhist Shops near the Jogyesa Temple page 068

Content

SUMMER 1 Dishes to Help Boost Energy and Overcome the Summer Heat page 078

2 Bingsu Enjoyed All Year Round page 084

3 Mosi Textile; Traditional to Modern Trends page 088

4 Cosmetic Shops in Seoul Packed with Foreign Customers page 092

5 Obsession in Korea for the Perfect Body page 100

6 Seoul Cheongdam-dong, the Mecca of Plastic Surgery page 106

7 Koreans Want to Take Their Vacations Overseas page 112

8 Symbol of Tenacity in Korean Women; Haenyeo from Jejudo page 116

9 Beat the Heat with Fried-Chicken-and-Beer Combo page 122

10 Korea Haunt; Gwisin and Dokkaebi, Scary Creatures in Korea page 128

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AUTUMN 1 People Reading Books in Large Bookstores page 140

2 Food Channels; Eat with your “TV Companion” page 148

3 Autumn Scenery of Buddhist Temples page 152

4 Making a Wish to the Bright Full Moon on Chuseok page 160

5 Statue of King Sejong and Admiral Yi Sun-Shin, Protectors of Gwanghwamun Plaza in Seoul page 164

6 Hanok Village is Now a Tourist Attraction page 172

7 Traditional House of Jonggas page 176

8 Take Photos to Celebrate Longevity page 182

9 Seoul Downtown; Rush Hour Parking Lot page 188

Content

WINTER 1 Seoul Plaza Ice Skating Rink page 198

2 The Salvation Army Kettle, Symbol of Donation at the End of the Year page 206

3 Preparation of Kimchi page 214

4 Unique Scenery of the End of the Year page 220

5 Christmas in Myeong-dong, New Year’s Eve at Bosingak in Jongno page 230

6 Scenes of Lunar New Year page 234

7 Greetings of New Year and Tteokguk page 238

8 Empty Seoul during Holiday Seasons page 244

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â“’ Bae Bien-U

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Special Thanks This book was sponsored by Korean Culture and Information Service, an institution that is taking the lead in developing and spreading the Korean Wave around the world

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The Whys about Korea and Koreans A book of cultural communication that answers questions that always come to mind of foreigners

Over the past 15 years, I have met countless foreigners while working to raise the global awareness of Korea and its culture. I found questions asked by these foreigners, especially the cultural specialists, quite amusing. With almost no exception, their questions mostly started with “Why does Korea …” and “Why do Koreans …”

The questions may concern Korea’s unique tradition and culture, or Koreans’ lifestyle and customs. It may be about something from the past that has been deeply rooted in the depths of Korean minds, or something that has newly emerged in the modern times. It may be about a fleeting trend that will soon disappear, or the backbone of the Korean society that has been an invariable part of the country’s fabric. It may be the face of Korea that everyone feels proud of, or a darker side that is embarrassing and better kept covered. The questions may come from tourists 014

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and temporary visitors to Korea, or long-time residents and those who have had a connection with Korea over a long period of time.

I decided to write this book to give my answers to these questions. This book facilitates cultural communication by offering answers that satisfy foreigners’ curiosity about why Korea and Koreans are the way they are.

In writing this book, I tried to include the past, present, and future of Korea’s tradition and culture based on intuitive images and scenes in foreigners’ encounters with Korea. These encounters may be a direct experience of the country when they are visiting as tourists or business people, or an indirect experience through media or the Korean Wave. A lot of effort was also put into taking pictures that will best portray how Korea’s image and scenery change with the four distinct seasons created by Korea’s unique geographic property.

Compiling a book that contains the culture of a country with a 5,000-year-long history and culture was much more challenging than I expected. After all, I am not an expert on Korean history, tradition, or culture. What is in this book may only be a partial portrayal of Korea. There may also be some deviations from the orthodox perspective toward culture and tradition because my objective was to write a book in a language that is easy to understand for everyone, whether it is a first-time traveler in Korea with no prior interest in the country, or someone who already has a significant background knowledge and experience of Korea.

This is the best I can give since I am specialized in cultural communication and not culture itself. I would be glad to accept and reflect in this book any different opinions of experts or scholars who have professional knowledge of Korea’s tradition and culture.

In writing this book with its own limitations, my goal was to help foreigners who come across Korea to see, feel, enjoy, and talk about Korea in a more objective manner.

I truly hope that this book will trigger a stream of more books published in foreign languages and written by experts across diverse fields, who can tell their own stories about Korea. I believe these books will be able to shape the most accurate image of Korea in the people’s minds across the globe. I look forward to the day when I do not hear any more about the challenges foreigners face to find books in their language that offer a more integral and systematic analysis of Korea.

June 2016 Choi Jung-wha

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â“’ Yangho Cho

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1 Entrance Ceremony in March

A classroom of an elementary school is crowded on the day of entrance ceremony with three to four family members attending per student

â“’ Yang Hyun-moh

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March signals the real beginning of the year!

Today, the solar calendar is the standard for counting days and it is universally accepted that the new year begins on January 1. For many Koreans, however, it is in March that the year really begins.

Though Korea officially follows the solar calendar, its people still use or consider lunar dates for important days. For instance, lunar calculation is used for the two major national holidays, which are Seol (the Lunar New Year) and Chuseok (the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving) as well as important anniversaries such as birthdays and death days. As such, many Koreans feel that the year has not yet turned in the months of January and February. After all, a new year has yet to arrive according to the moon.

In most years, it is only in early or mid-February that the lunar calendar marks January 1, signaling the beginning of a long Seol holiday in Korea. The holiday stretches for three or four days and up to one week depending on the year, which explains why the excitement and restlessness accompanying the turn of a year continues on for some time after January.

When the bitter cold starts to let up after January and February, you start to see signs of spring. Then comes March. In March, all the educational institutions in Korea hold an entrance ceremony and students begin a new school year and a new semester.

In Korea, the new academic year begins in March under the semester system that has been in place since the 1960s and thus, one of the scenes typically associated with March is the entrance ceremony. Entrance ceremonies of kindergartens and elementary schools in particular are big family events that bring together not only parents but also grandparents and even aunts and uncles. Behind the merry celebration, however, lies the lonely face of the Korean society: children are becoming rare. This is the result of more couples choosing to have only one or no child, in addition to a growing number of young people opting out of marriage altogether. One study even found that there is an average of four family members per student attending entrance ceremonies of elementary schools. February and early March is also a time when many businesses and institutions restructure their organizations. Furthermore, new recruits often start their work around March because businesses often align their recruitment schedule with school semesters.

As a result, some parents are unable to attend their child’s entrance ceremony if the day coincides with important work schedules such as organizational restructuring or staff reshuffling. In such cases, it is grandparents who take their grandchildren to the ceremony instead. They are the “Grammies and Graddies,� a new phrase coined 019

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to refer to grandparents who pick up the slack for mommies and daddies. In today’s Korean society where double-income couples have become prevalent, there are many Grammies and Graddies who take over the job of raising children.

In many aspects, March is a cue for new beginnings and changes.

This is the month when people advance to a higher school or take their first step out of school into the real world or start a new school year and semester. Compared to January when the mood is still one of restlessness from greeting a new year, there is more composure and seriousness toward life in March. This is why many Koreans feel that it is only in March that the year really begins.

In the former agricultural society of Korea, March and early spring was a very important time when people began farming for the year. As the frozen earth of the winter began to thaw, people made themselves busy preparing for plowing and planting. It cannot be a coincidence that the month that used to signal the beginning of a year’s farming in the old days remains to this day the month that symbolizes new beginnings and changes.

To buy a house or to educate children Some Korean parents plan ahead for when to give birth because they are worried that several months of age difference may result in their child lagging behind classmates in terms of learning ability. This illustrates the tremendous commitment that parents in this country have for their children’s education, which is already widely known around the world.

Naturally, parents in any corner of the world are like-minded in their aspiration to raise their children as well as possible. In any given country, parents do not stint on their children’s education and are willing to spend a certain amount of money on private education. However, it is only in Korea and Japan where such spending has a significant impact on the grades at school.

In Korea, the exceptional educational fervor is about the only thing that can come before the desire for home ownership; one of the highest priorities for Koreans who believe that buying their own house is an important part of the life plan. Part of the reason why people give up buying a house is because a large part of the household income is channeled to children’s education, making it difficult to save up enough for the house. Even if they have saved up some money, many families give up purchasing their own house so that they can live in a more expensive neighborhood considered more advantageous for children’s education.

Korea has a unique housing rent system that does not require monthly rent 020

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payments. It is called a jeonse contract system. Under this contract, the tenant makes a lump-sum deposit on the house at anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of its market price, which is returned in full by the landlord when the tenant leaves the property upon the expiry of the lease period. This system cannot be found anywhere else but in Korea, and is a product of the country’s volatile real estate prices. In essence, instead of paying the monthly rent, tenants who sign this contract are forgoing the interest for the deposit they place on the house. With this unique system in place, Koreans do not particularly prefer the conventional method of making monthly payments.

There is, however, an exception to this. Korean parents would gladly pay monthly rents if it means they can live in an area that promises good education for children.

Namely, the entire Gangnam-gu district and Mok-dong of Yangcheon-gu district are popular neighborhoods for education and there are lines of parents wanting to move to this area. Especially, Gangnam-gu, a name that became familiar around the world following the massive hit of the K-pop song Gangnam Style, is a district that boasts clusters of high schools that have traditionally sent a large number of students to prestigious universities in Korea. Today, this district, dubbed the “Educational Special Zone,” is also known for street after street of sought-after hagwons, or cram schools, that prepare students for university entrance exams. In particular, Daechidong, a smaller sub-district in Gangnam-gu, is the place to go for the best of the best crammers. Though a monthly rent for one of the apartments in this neighborhood far exceeds the average monthly living expense of a four-member family, there is never a shortage of people who will be willing to pay the expensive monthly rents until their child enters one of the elite universities.

The word “ivory tower” is often used to refer to universities as the center of academic pursuit and intelligence. In the old days, Korean people used the word “ox bone tower” instead. This is because parents who made a living by farming often had to pay for their children’s university tuitions by selling the ox that they had raised with love and care all their life. This was a common practice until the 1960s and 70s before the introduction of farming machinery. Back then, oxen were the most precious and indispensable asset for farming households, serving as both a farm hand and a farming machine. Meanwhile, university tuitions have hiked since then, and selling one or two oxen today will not cover even a semester’s tuition. What remains the same then and now is the back-breaking financial burden on parents. In fact, in addition to the university tuitions, they now also have to pay for private education during the many years before their child enters university. Perhaps today’s excessive boom of private education causes more suffering to parents than should be.

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2 Bride and Groom in Korea’s Traditional Wedding Attire

Traditional Korean-style wedding ceremony

ⓒ Kim Young-jin

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Wedding traffic Spring is also a season of weddings. Of course, people would not hold off weddings because of the seasonal factor alone, but there is a definite preference for spring and autumn weddings over getting married in the smoldering heat of summer or the bitter cold of winter. That does not mean, however, that couples do not get married in summer or winter at all.

The time when Koreans do avoid having a wedding is in a leap month. This is a month inserted in the lunar calendar in order to make up for the gap between the earth’s revolution cycle and the number of days on the calendar. The year with a leap month would have 13 months in total. It takes the earth precisely 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 46 seconds to orbit around the sun once, but the solar calendar counts a year as 365 days and the lunar calendar as 354 days. This means both solar and lunar calendars have inconsistencies between the actual revolution cycle of the earth and the length of a year on the calendar. This inconsistency builds up to a gap of about a day over four years in the solar system and about three months over eight years in the lunar counterpart. In the solar calendar, this difference is rectified by adding one more day in February every four years to create a 366-day-long year. Meanwhile, in the lunar calendar, leap months are inserted to make up for the lack of three months over eight years. There is no set time for inserting the leap month and instead, a leap month formula is used to decide when to repeat a certain month. If January was repeated as a leap month, the second January would be called “Leap Month January.”

Because the lunar leap month does not exist in the solar calendar, having a wedding in a leap month is not preferred among Koreans who still respect the tradition of counting important anniversaries like birthdays and death days based on the lunar system. They do not like the idea of having a wedding, a once-in-a-lifetime celebration, in an extra month thrown into the year. When it comes to the seasonal preference, Koreans see spring and autumn as the more appropriate seasons for a wedding over mid-summer or mid-winter, and many couples choose to set the date in one of these two seasons. As for the day of the week, weddings are more common on weekends than on weekdays. The preferred time of the day is around midday to three or four o’clock in the afternoon. Consequently, the downtown area during spring and autumn is jammed with a heavy traffic of wedding guests in the hours between midday and five in the afternoon. The congestion is a sign that the year’s wedding season has begun.

Sometimes, the roads can look worse than during the rush hours.

For Koreans, marriage means more than a man and a woman in love tying the knot.

Traditionally, marriage in Korea was more about the union of two families than the 023

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joining of two individuals. This is apparent in the list of guests for weddings and wedding receptions. The majority of people on the list are invited by the parents of the bride and groom, not by the actual couple that is getting married. As such, the guests include not just the bride and groom’s friends and acquaintances but also those of their parents.

The wedding invitation shows the names of the bride and groom’s parents as well as the couple’s names, and the guests who receive the invitation are usually wide in scope and large in number. In Korea, an invitation to the wedding is also an invitation to the wedding reception that is usually held back-to-back, and many of the guests at the wedding also stay for the reception. The number of guests can range from several hundred to more than a thousand.

In Korea, weddings can last from 20 minutes up to two or three hours. The shorter cases are when the wedding reception hall is separate from the wedding hall. For the first 20 minutes or so, the bride and groom follow the ceremony’s general order of walking down the aisle and being announced husband and wife, followed by photo shoots with the guests. Afterward, guests move to the reception hall to eat, drink, and talk. The entire event including the reception rarely goes beyond two or three hours.

Sometimes, the reception follows the wedding in the same hall.

Status of the husband, riches of the wife’s parents It has been a tradition in Korea for the bride-to-be to bring bedding, furniture, and other household items for the newlyweds’ home as far as her family can afford. Back in the days when the bride moved into the house of the groom’s parents after marriage, all she had to prepare was bedding, clothes and dishes.

On the surface, this tradition seems to continue to this day in the form of a marriage custom called honsu, which refers to the household goods that the bride buys for the new home. However, along with other marriage customs, honsu has changed significantly from what it used to be both in meaning and form. Unlike in the past, newlyweds in modern Korea leave the nest when they get married and start an independent household of their own. This means honsu today is much wider in scope to include the entire range of furniture, home appliances, kitchenware, and other miscellaneous household goods. While furnishing the new home is the bride’s responsibility, providing the house to live in is considered the groom’s responsibility.

Often, the price of the house that the groom brings for the newlyweds sets the standard for how much money the bride’s parents spend on honsu.

There is another marriage custom called yedan, or the gifts that the bride’s family sends to the groom’s family and close relatives. Yedan (wedding gift by the bride’s 024

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family) is originally a combination of the words yemul (wedding gift) and bidan (silk).

In the old tradition, when the groom’s family sent the bride’s family yemul, or wedding gifts, the bride’s family would return the favor with yedan, or a gift of silk. This was then used to make the family’s garment for the wedding at a time when silk was rare and precious. These days, however, yedan is often replaced with a cash gift. This is both simpler and more useful in the modern days when the groom’s family would buy ready-made clothes rather than having them tailored. Yedan is another example of a marriage custom in addition to honsu that has changed both in meaning and form, reflecting the changes in times.

Another change is the new role of yedan as a barometer of the groom’s class or value.

The bride’s family decides how much yedan to prepare depending on the groom’s job, the value of the house he brings, or the price of yemul that the groom’s family sends to the bride’s side. If the groom is considered a desirable enough husband material, the bride’s family would send gifts of luxurious bedding, clothes, and tableware for the groom’s parents in addition to the cash gift. In Korea, honsu and yedan are indications of the groom’s status, and the groom’s status is often equivalent to wealth of the bride’s family.

It is customary for the groom’s family to return part of the cash yedan to the bride’s family to be polite. The gesture implies that the gift was too generous to accept in whole. Generally, 30 to 50 percent of the original amount is returned and the returned amount increases with how much was given in the first place. If the original amount of yedan was small, the groom’s family may not return any.

In the traditional marriage custom of Korea, the groom went to the bride’s house for the wedding ceremony. Following the ceremony, the groom would stay with the bride’s family as a kind of honeymoon for about three days. After this, the groom returned home alone and after some time, the bride also moved in with her now-husband’s family. The groom’s family and relatives gathered to wait for the bride to arrive. When she arrives, she would officially introduce herself to her new family in a ritual called pyebaek. The bride would perform a deep bow of stooping on the floor and sometimes present small gifts to the groom’s family. The groom’s parents would then offer words of wisdom and blessing for the bride and present her with gifts of their own. They also threw big chestnuts and jujubes at the bride to wish her fertility and abundance.

Pyebaek is still present in modern Western-style weddings of Korea. After being announced husband and wife in a Western-style ceremony, the newlyweds change into traditional wedding attires for pyebaek. This is why a wedding album in Korea would show the couple dressed not just in a white wedding dress and tuxedo but also in traditional wedding costumes. However, the specific details of this ritual have also 025

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changed from the original version. Instead of only the bride bowing to the groom’s family, both the bride and groom bow to both parents. Then, both parents give cash to the bride and groom as an acknowledgement of the bow. This is another instance of cash replacing material gifts as a way of appreciation.

Small wedding boom and Sampo Generation It is often too costly for the newlyweds to afford the wedding on their own because of complicated marriage customs like honsu and yemul, the large number of wedding guests who must be fed, and other entailing expenses of marriage. They have to rely on their parents’ financial support to some degree. However, there are recently a growing number of young people who choose to get married and start a new household by their own means without the parents’ contribution. This means simplifying honsu and yemul, or skipping them altogether. A wedding would also be smaller and plainer. Such couples may also skip or have a simpler pre-wedding photo shoot, which usually involves getting makeup done at expensive salons frequented by celebrities, changing in and out of several dresses and costumes for different scenes, and taking pictures both in the studio and outdoor setting. This can take the entire day and may even stretch over two to three days, producing a fat album, a dozen framed photos, and a video clip. These simplifications are part of what is called the small wedding boom in Korea.

This boom is partly due to the young people recognizing that their marriage is eating away at their parents’ retirement fund, but another critical reason is the skyrocketing housing prices in Korea.

That is not all. In the face of the centenarian age, people have a longer retirement life to prepare for and thus, a larger retirement fund to save up. Meanwhile, job stability is worse than ever. Against this backdrop, it is no wonder that there are few parents with enough disposable money to buy a house for their child who is getting married. As for the young couple soon to be married, no one can expect them to have saved up enough to buy a house in the first four or five years of graduating from school. In fact, it is a challenge in the first place to find an appropriate apartment on the market under a jeonse contract that is located in Seoul or metropolitan area. As a result, many young people give up on owning a house or finding a secure jeonse house.

Naturally, furnishings for the house, or honsu, are simplified. In a way, the reduction in honsu and yemul can be explained as the lack of ability on the husband’s side to bring a respectable house.

Because houses are so expensive, more and more newlyweds are pooling what they have for the house rather than spending it on unnecessary wedding gifts and customs 026

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like yemul and honsu. Many couples now skip procedures and ceremonies that are no more than formalities and tradition. This is the new culture of a practical and realistic marriage that is emerging as the growing ranks of young Koreans recognize that marriage is their own responsibility, not their parents’.

Another trend is the popularity of intimate small weddings instead of a frantic largescale ceremony that invites everyone from distant relatives to parents’ acquaintances, many of whom have never even met the bride and groom before. Many couples now dream of inviting only their closest friends and immediate family members who will sincerely celebrate their union. As a result, there is a rise in house weddings attended only by the family members or intimate weddings at a peaceful holiday spot away from the city. In 2015, a famous celebrity couple of Korea, Won Bin and Lee Na-young, tied the knot in the garden of a humble and rustic guesthouse in Jeongseon, Gangwon Province. This has set an example for many young couples of Korea.

However, the agreement between the bride and groom to have a small wedding is not enough to make it happen. In Korean culture, wedding guests bring cash gifts to the newlyweds. This culture originated from Korea’s tradition of sangbusangjo, or mutual help. This means that whenever a member of the family, relative, neighbor, or friend is going through a tough time, you should help the person in any way you can, and you will be returned with their help in your own difficulty. For this reason, a small wedding is only possible if the couple’s parents, who have already paid a huge sum for cash gifts at all the past weddings they have been invited to, are generous enough to give up the cash gifts they would receive for their child’s wedding.

Then, there is another side to the marriage trends in Korea. A lot of young people in the country are now putting marriage on hold or giving it up altogether because they cannot afford all the expenses. Not getting married usually means not starting a family.

There is even a newly coined word to refer to the young people who opt out of romantic relationships, marriage, and childbirth, the three major milestones of life. The word is “Sampo Generation,” where the word “sam” means number three and “po” comes from the Korean word for “giving up.” Unfortunately, there is a gloomy forecast that the young generation will give up even more in their life. First, there is the Sapo (“giving up four”) Generation who also give up on amicable social relationships under the pressure of a fierce competition for jobs. There are also many who are giving up on home ownership in their lifetime. They are called the Opo (“giving up five”) Generation. The list is likely to go on as the young Koreans are forced to forgo more things in their life.

This shows the dark reality of Korea’s young generation today, who, some predict, will be the first generation ever to be poorer than the parents’ generation.

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3 Valentine’s Day Chocolate and Couple Rings

Korea’s young people give chocolate to confess and show their love

ⓒ Yang Hyun-moh

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Days for everything Spring is the season of romance. As the spring breeze warms up the body and mind that became listless over the winter, the air fills with a tingle of excitement and romance. Spring in Korea is just the right season to start a romantic relationship.

Korea has unique cultural events that mark the beginning of spring: Valentine’s Day and White Day. Valentine’s Day on February 14 was originally a day to remember martyrdom of St. Valentine, a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. In the ancient days when free courtship was not allowed, it is said to have been the only day when a woman could confess her feelings to the man she likes. Then, in the modern era, lovers in Western countries began exchanging Valentine’s cards on Valentine’s Day. In Korea, Valentine’s Day is when a woman gives chocolate to her boyfriend or husband. The chocolate gift can be traced back to a marketing campaign by a Japanese confectionary company. Just as in Japan where people love to celebrate various special anniversaries, the marketing strategy was a big success in Korea. Then, the Japanese who like to make sure that every favor is returned created another culture; a month later, on March 14, the man would give his girlfriend or wife a box of sweets. This was again the result of marketing campaigns by Japanese confectioners and the practice was imported into Korea. In Korea, Valentine’s Day and White Day have become annual events for not just confessing your romantic feelings but also assuring your lover how much you love him or her.

However, not all the chocolate gifts on Valentine’s Day should be interpreted as a romantic approach. A lot of women prepare chocolate gifts for colleagues at work out of obligation without any romantic intentions. Likewise, men may also give out sweets to women at work on White Day in return for what they got a month before.

It is easy to tell a gift of love from a gift of duty. Chocolate or sweet gifts from a lover always come with another gift on the side. Popular gifts for these two anniversaries are accessories like rings, earrings, necklaces, watches, and ties, or cosmetics like lipsticks and perfumes. For the lovers in Korea, giving chocolate and sweets is only part of the protocol and the more important part is giving a meaningful gift that the lover can always keep as a reminder of love.

After Valentine’s Day and White Day became hugely successful in Korea, more of the so-called “Fourteenth Days” were introduced in the late 1990s, each with its own unique meaning and event for lovers or friends. One of the most popular is Black Day on April 14. This is when singles with no one to exchange chocolate and sweets with on Valentine’s and White day share their sadness and comfort each other over a dish of black bean noodles. May 14 is Rose Day when lovers exchange roses and January 14 is 029

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Diary Day when lovers exchange diaries to wish another happy year together.

Then, there is the popular Pepero Day on November 11. Pepero is the name of Korea’s cookie sticks dipped in chocolate that look like the number 11, hence November 11. On Pepero Day, Koreans exchange this snack with lovers and friends.

This leads to a huge spike in sales, which undoubtedly is what the marketing team of the confectionary company had in mind when they first introduced this event.

Every one of these special days has a marketing ploy behind it and there were once attempts by groups of people to drive out such days from the life and culture of Koreans. However, the majority opinion today is that such days, even if they are the products of a marketing ploy, serve as opportunities for lovers, married couples, friends, and families to remind themselves of how important and meaningful their relationships are. Meanwhile, those who want the days to be more in touch with Korea’s tradition suggest replacing gifts of chocolate or sweet with Korea’s traditional taffy, and Pepero with garaetteok, a cylinder-shaped rice cake that also looks like the number 11. Nevertheless, the norm remains to be chocolate, sweets and Pepero for now.

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Korea’s Day Marketing Jan 14, Diary Day: Lovers exchange diaries with each other.

Feb 14, Valentine’s Day: Women give chocolate to men.

Mar 14, White Day: Men give sweets to women.

Apr 14, Black Day: Singles share black bean noodles together.

May 14, Rose Day: Lovers exchange roses with each other.

June 14, Kiss Day: Lovers kiss each other.

July 14, Silver Day: Lovers exchange silver rings with each other.

Aug 14, Green Day: Lovers take a walk through the cool woods to escape the hot summer.

Sep 14, Photo Day: Lovers take a photo together.

Oct 14, Wine Day: Lovers drink wine together.

Nov 14, Movie Day: Lovers watch a movie together. (cf. Nov 11, Pepero Day: Lovers and friends give stick cookies called Pepero to each other.)

Dec 14, Hug Day: Lovers give a hug to each other.

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4 Carnation Flowers to Give Thanks

Koreans give pink or red carnations to their parents to express appreciation

â“’ NewsBank

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May, the Month of Family The air is ripe with spring in May, a beautiful time of the year that shows why spring deserves the title Queen of All Seasons. In Korea, May is also dubbed the Month of Family.

This is because in addition to being a wedding season, May is also filled with family-related anniversaries. Starting with Children’s Day on May 5, there is Parents’ Day on May 8, Teachers’ Day on May 15, and Marriage Day on May 21. Of these, only Children’s Day is designated as an official national holiday. As for Marriage Day, the date of 21 symbolizes two (2) coming together and becoming one (1).

On Children’s Day, which is also a day off from work for parents, roads become packed with families driving out of the city to enjoy a family trip to mountains, oceans, and amusement parks. Of course, traffic congestion is not limited to Children’s Day only. This time of the year is a string of warm spring days ideal for enjoying outdoor activities with average temperature during the day hovering around 20℃. As such, there is a heavy traffic of cars going on family picnics not just on Children’s Day but all throughout the month. During May, department stores and shopping malls are also crowded with children trying to get their parents to buy them toys, game consoles, and smart devices for their Children’s Day gift. Retailers, of course, do not miss the occasion to offer large Family Month promotions and deals on gift products.

On Parents’ Day, the typical gift is a basket of carnation flowers. However, many parents these days prefer cash or material gifts over flowers, and the tradition of giving carnations is slowly turning into a custom reserved for young children only. Children in kindergarten or lower grades of elementary school often fold origami carnations and attach the paper carnation on the chest of their parents. For grown-up children who make their own money, it is more common to prepare a cash or material gift either with or without the flowers.

There is also Teachers’ Day in May, which may seem out of place in the Month of Family. The inclusion of this day in May can be understood as the influence of Confucius, who taught that you should be equally grateful and respectful for the King, teachers, and parents. Therefore, Koreans often give flowers and a small gift to teachers in the same way they show appreciation to their parents. Unfortunately, while most parents send a gift to the teacher of their children as a gesture of sincere respect and gratitude, some who want special attention for their children may abuse Teachers’ Day as a chance to send a gift as a form of bribery.

May, the Queen of All Seasons and the Month of Family, is also a costly month for Koreans. They have gifts to prepare for their parents or their children or their teacher, 033

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or all of them. There are also many wedding invitations in May, which means they have to set aside the cash gifts for these occasions as well.

This also implies good business for restaurants, amusement parks, zoos, department stores, shopping malls, and florists in May. May is the highest of high season that they cannot get enough of. On the contrary, from the average consumers’ point of view, May is a month that they want done away quickly with because it is too busy and crowded everywhere.

What is worse for consumers, they have to hurry the preparation of gifts or the popular items will soon be sold out. Parents in particular have to rush the gift shopping for Children’s Day because there are usually a handful of trendy toys that every child finds desirable. If they sell out, parents are left with grumpy or crying children. Some enthusiastic parents may even go as far as to pay more than the market price to get their hands on the gift to please them.

Koreans’ sense of responsibility about the parents’ life after retirement Koreans have traditionally valued filial piety to parents. They still believe that showing respect and love to parents is one of the most important qualities in a person’s character.

This Korean tradition of filial duty met with the Western custom of attaching a white carnation on the chest in memory of deceased parents to create Korea’s unique culture for Parents’ Day on May 8. For Koreans, the idea of parents may stretch beyond their own mother and father to include everyone else’s parents: the elders of the whole Korean society. Koreans believe it is ethical to respect the broad social spectrum of the elders as they would respect their own parents.

Parents’ Day of Korea was designated in the late 1950s. It was originally Mothers’ Day but was renamed Parents’ Day in the 1970s. On this day, relevant central and local government agencies present awards to recognize and encourage individuals or families that have set an example by taking extremely good care of parents or elders of society. Also, there are agencies and organizations that acknowledge the inspiring work of mothers with the Outstanding Mother Award. Some of the award winners include the mother of the world-renowned ballerina Kang Sue-jin and the mother of the Chung trio who have all grown up to be world-renowned musicians: pianist and conductor Chung Myung-whun, cellist Chung Kyung-hwa, and violinist Chung Myung-hwa.

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residents who are 65 years old or older. Furthermore, some restaurants offer discounts to families with an elderly person and other businesses provide free service for elders above a certain age.

In the Korean society with its deeply rooted values of respect and veneration for the elders, it was traditionally considered ethical to look after the parents when they become old and can no longer support themselves. This is another influence of Confucianism that has long served as the underlying building blocks of Korea’s lifestyle, philosophy, and political ideologies. Confucianism even established itself as the dominant ideology for the nation and governance during the Joseon Dynasty (1392~before the Japanese colonization). Today, however, it is barely surviving in the name of “traditional culture.”

The weakening authority of Confucianism is backed up by a recently published study which found that the percentage of Koreans who believe that people have the responsibility to look after their old parents fell from 90 percent in the late 1990s to the 30 percent range in 2014. People are now starting to think that looking after parents in their old age is not the sole responsibility of the family, but a shared responsibility with the government and society. Also, more and more Koreans are adopting the Western way of thinking that parents have to prepare for their own retirement instead of depending on children financially when they grow old.

However, the decline of Confucian thinking does not mean complete disappearance of Confucian tradition from the social fabric of Korea. In fact, the Confucian tradition remains deeply entrenched in the minds of Koreans. Unlike the study findings on people’s attitudes that suggest otherwise, many Koreans do still bear the burden of financially supporting their parents. Also, many Koreans would feel ashamed to tell others that they have sent their parents to a nursing home even if it was because they no longer had the freedom of movement or ability to lead daily lives due to a severe illness or dementia. This shows that Koreans still feel a strong sense of obligation toward their parents.

Nevertheless, this is most likely a natural mixture of feelings that accompany any transitional phase in a society. There are many social changes unfolding around the family structure of Korea as more women are highly educated with a career, and more people think it is a must, not an option, to have a double income. Such changes could be precursors to more visible changes in Koreans’ idea of filial duty and related traditions by the time today’s middle-aged population of Korea enters the ranks of elders.

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Thinking of parents both alive and dead Koreans value filial piety toward parents not only when they are alive and well but also after they have passed away. People hold a memorial ritual called jesa on the anniversary of their parents’ death and tend to the graves of deceased parents regularly.

These are both considered important responsibilities that they owe to the parents.

In the mornings of Seol and Chuseok, the country’s two biggest national holidays, Koreans perform an ancestral rite called charye for parents, grandparents, and other ancestors who passed away. Back in the days when people lived in a small village community that they were born and raised in, it was customary to hold charye early in the morning and pay a round of visits to the graves of ancestors. A visit to ancestral graves was also made around death anniversaries. In modern days, however, many Koreans live in cities far from their hometown and cannot pay respects to their ancestors as often as before.

Despite the busy urban life, there are one or two days in a year when people try to make the time to visit ancestral graves. The days are Hansik and Chuseok. Hansik is the 105th day after the winter solstice, which is the shortest day of the year, and falls on either April 5 or 6. The weather around this time is ideal for planting seeds or trees, which means it is a good time to tend to the graves. This is also the reason why April 5 is designated as Arbor Day in Korea.

Tending to the graves involves pulling out the weeds and trimming the grass, a work that is called beolcho. You also check whether there is moss in shady parts, wear and tear from wind and rain, or damages by wild animals. If any is found, the problem is mended. Those with more than a few graves to tend to may hire workers to do the job with them. In fact, there are now even grave tending service providers who would go and do the work without the company of family members. Nevertheless, many people put in the efforts to visit ancestral graves themselves on the days of Hansik and Chuseok because they believe seongmyo (visiting ancestral graves) is their rightful duty as children even if they may not do the work of beolcho themselves. This is another face of Confucian tradition that remains to this day.

Hansik in spring and Chuseok in autumn also make ideal seasons for enjoying the pleasant weather outside. Because the actual Hansik is not an official national holiday, the weekend preceding or following April 5 or 6 has highways jammed with people making their way to ancestral graves or simply going on a trip. The Chuseok holiday is another time of the year when highways and local roads spill over with people who make their way to their hometown and ancestral graves, resembling a mass migration of the population.

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A table full of food is prepared when visiting ancestral graves or holding memorial rites such as jesa and charye on death anniversaries and the two major national holidays of Korea. There are special rules for preparing a full jesa table on death days. The rules may differ according to the region or family tradition, but the underlying principle is to honor the ancestors by putting on the table the best of the delicacies including fruits, rice cakes, Korean pancakes, meat, and fish. Compared to the bountiful jesa table on death anniversaries, the charye table on Seol and Chuseok may look slightly simpler. Signature menus of the two holidays are served as the main menu on charye table, which are tteokguk (a broth with thinly sliced rice cakes) on Seol and songpyeon (small half-moon shaped rice cakes) on Chuseok. Food preparation is even simpler for seongmyo visits because the graves are usually located on mountain slopes. Some liquor with or without fruit and dried cod is enough for the occasion.

It is customary for family members to cook and prepare the food for such ancestral rites, but many families these days choose to buy the foods which take more work to prepare such as rice cakes and jeon (Korean pancakes). There are also food delivery services that send the entire assortment of food all cooked and ready to be simply placed on the table for jesa or charye, but the use of such service is not common yet.

Of course, as with any other tradition, the existing practice of food preparation for ancestral rites could look very different in the future.

Influence of Confucian tradition on Korea’s justice system There is recently a movement to legislate a new law for the parents who have gone broke in their old age after all the money they had was used or inherited by the children, or the elderly citizens who are not being adequately looked after by their children. The bill is tentatively called Act to Prevent Ungrateful Children. If the bill passes, parents can file a lawsuit against their child who fails to provide adequate support to parents after receiving inheritance. If the court rules in favor of the parents, the child will have to return all the inheritance. This bill also provides a ground for judicial punishment if the child mistreats or abuses parents. Though the original purpose of the bill was to prevent degradation of traditional filial duties taught by Confucius, there are criticisms that the bill actually goes against the Confucian tradition. The opponents are concerned that it encourages lawsuits between parents and children and determines right and wrong within a family not based on the Confucian values of ethics but on a judicial system.

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5 The “Marching of Strollers”

A group of mothers and babies who became friends while staying at the same postnatal care center, Korea’s unique facility for recuperation after childbirth

ⓒ Yang Hyun-moh

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Baby alumni in strollers As the weather gets warmer, one common sight on the streets of Korea is a small group of young women about the same age strolling babies who also look about the same age. At first glimpse, they may be dismissed as friends and neighbors taking a walk together. Then you may realize what an odd coincidence it would be if a group of half a dozen women who are friends or neighbors all happen to give birth at around the same time.

These groups of women are the so-called “Stroller Squads” and the babies in strollers are the “alumni” of the same postnatal care center. A postnatal care center is a facility unique to Korea where the new mother and baby go to stay for a period ranging from two weeks to a month after delivery at the hospital. Here, the mother can recover and also look after the newborn. Many mothers who entered the same center at around the same time continue their relationships outside until the babies are old enough to go on a picnic together in strollers. These babies become friends with birthdays that are usually a day or two apart, or a week apart at most. This explains why the moms and babies of Stroller Squads all look about the same age.

The strollers themselves are quite impressive. A lot of these baby carriages are pricey and loaded with state-of-the-art features one would expect in a car such as vibration damping, shock absorption, and tilt prevention, in addition to the basic features of keeping out the wind and cold.

As with many Western nations, Korea is also steadily progressing toward an aged society and there are fewer children across the country. Many newlyweds postpone childbirth until they have secured a decent house and some young couples even decide to go childless. Couples who do decide to have a child may settle for having only one due to the pressure of raising and educating multiple children.

Given such difficulty of the decision to have a child, there is nothing parents would not do to give the best of everything for their precious child. Parents are not the only ones who feel this way. Because children are rarer across society, all the family members shower a single child with immense interest and attention, including grandparents who do not have dozens of grandchildren any more or aunts and uncles who do not have dozens of nephews any more. Such love and care often take the form of expensive childcare products, a typical example of which would be a high-end stroller. Parents are willing to buy the best and the most expensive for their child because after all, there is only one or two in the family at most. It is this changing mindset towards children that contributed to the rise of baby alumni in luxury prams that can cost as much as several thousand U.S. dollars.

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Then, where are the Stroller Squads headed? Moms may go to coffee shops or restaurants to share the joys and challenges of raising a baby, but many more head to Kids’ Cafés that come in diverse themes and concepts. They are theme cafés that are charged by time and furnished with a playground, toys, and picture books for babies below five years of age. The café also offers snacks and refreshments for babies and mothers at an extra charge.

Conversely, some coffee shops and restaurants are putting up a sign that says No Kids’ Zone to limit the entrance of children under a certain age. This is in response to a growing number of customer complaints about young children making too much noise or causing safety accidents.

Korea’s unique postnatal care In Korea, it is customary for new mothers to undergo postnatal maternity care for at least three weeks after childbirth. Korean women are put under special attention and care unlike the Western women who return to their daily life as early as 30 minutes after delivery, such as taking a shower or drinking a cup of cold juice. Asian women require extra maternity care because of their physical structure which makes it more difficult to give birth. As such, Korea in particular has a strong culture of maternity care.

In the past, Korean women usually depended on their mother or other female family members with the experience of childbirth for such care. After delivering the baby, they would stay at their parents’ place with the baby for three to four weeks where they were looked after by their mother before returning home feeling somewhat recovered. Sometimes, depending on the circumstances, the caregiver may be their mother-in-law or other female relatives.

In the late 1990s when commercial care centers for the new mothers were first introduced, these facilities were merely an alternative for women who could not get the help from family members, which was still the typical form of maternity care at the time.

This is not the case today when most mothers prefer checking into prenatal care centers, saying such professional care is a must, not an option. The facilities and programs of these centers have also evolved greatly to include a wide array of services including a massage to facilitate recovery, exercise program, skincare, and even a photo shoot.

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and different families may have their own rules. But the basic principle is to ensure that the body is not cold and prevent too much stress on joints and muscles. The body has to be warm for good blood circulation, which in turn accelerates recovery in all parts of the body. Meanwhile, too much stress on joints and muscles is harmful, especially for Korean women, because they need longer time to recover their musculoskeletal structure, which is inherently less suitable for giving birth.

Another rule for prenatal care in Korea is to eat a lot of health foods that improve the body’s resilience from the impact of delivery and also reduce the swelling and weight gain from pregnancy and childbirth. One favorite among the health foods is pumpkin juk, or porridge. The soft porridge boiled with the inside of a yellow and ripe pumpkin and glutinous rice flour is known to bring down the swelling after giving birth. Pumpkins also have a diuretic effect and are rich in iron and calcium, which are all useful properties for maternity.

Another staple food in Koreans’ prenatal care is seaweed soup. All throughout their maternity care from the day they give birth, many Korean women eat seaweed soup boiled down to an opaque color with plenty of seaweed for almost every meal, every day. Seaweed that is rich in calcium, iodine, and amino acids facilitates the bloodforming process to replenish the lost blood from childbirth and also helps produce breast milk in nursing women.

In addition, new mothers avoid any food that is too spicy, salty, or harsh in flavor and mostly eat soft foods that are easily digested. This is not just for the sake of the mothers but also for the newborns because Korean women, who generally prefer to breastfeed, believe that the ingredients in the food they take in are passed onto the newborn through breast milk. Thus, women who breastfeed often stay away from food with too much red pepper powder, spicy or salty food, as well as alcohols and caffeinated drinks.

Prenatal care is a period of recovering from the damage inflicted during childbirth but also a period of learning childrearing lessons from the more experienced mother.

Women who have just delivered a baby can really use the help of a reliable and experienced woman with the long list of unfamiliar tasks from breastfeeding to giving the baby a bath.

Early education that begins in the belly With the shift in Korea’s postnatal care culture toward commercial maternity centers from the traditional reliance on mothers or mothers-in-law, pregnant women now have to find and book the right care center for them early in pregnancy.

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The prenatal care centers that are known to have had celebrities or daughters of wealthy conglomerate tycoons as customers become so popular that a booking must be made five or six weeks into pregnancy at the latest. Not surprisingly, such centers are quite costly and are equipped with premium facilities. For instance, a high-end maternity center that a famous Korean actress called Lee Young-ae is known to have stayed charges over 10,000 U.S. dollars for two weeks of stay. This is four times the price of average prenatal care centers and the extra cost is justified by the top-tier facility, extra pampering, and excellent service. In these luxury facilities, all products for the new mother and baby are organic and there are in-house gynecologists and pediatricians round the clock. Such premium centers are preferred especially by public figures or celebrities who want strict privacy.

However, it is not only the rich people who plan their maternity care in the luxurious centers. Many ordinary mothers also aspire to enter one of the celeb centers and this is not only because of their quality of facility or service. Though the facility and service are, of course, important criteria in the choice of prenatal care center, there is a real reason why many pregnant women like to check into a center that is a tier higher than what they can afford: the people you meet and become friends with while you are there.

The so-called “maternity center alumni” who stayed in the same center at around the same time become the very first network in the life of these newborns. This group of babies will grow up together as classmates at culture center programs and other activities while the mothers become friends who exchange information on how to raise and educate the children. This is why pregnant women’s choice of maternity center is influenced by the type of network that is promised. This, again, reflects the Korean mothers’ commitment to give their child the best of everything, including friends, from the moment the baby sees the light of the world.

The networking that starts when you are still a toddler shows the immense attention that Koreans pay to parenting. The very first private education in a child’s life often begins even before the age of one at a culture center where the classmates usually include friends from the same maternity care center. Many of the programs claim to stimulate the five senses in a baby, but they are usually nothing more than a playtime packaged in the name of education with games and activities that can be enjoyed with their own mother at home. Many Korean babies start such education when they are about six months old, which is probably the world’s earliest education.

But there is an education that begins even earlier, in the belly. Taekyo literally means prenatal education and refers to a set of efforts by the pregnant mother to speak, 042

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behave, and think in a manner that helps fetal development in the womb. Korea has traditionally valued taekyo and there are records that the royal family and yangban (noblemen) of the Joseon Dynasty already had books that compiled various ideas and methods for taekyo.

It is a universal belief regardless of time or place that a fetus is influenced significantly by what the mother feels, thinks, speaks, and does, as well as the overall environment. Accordingly, every society has an orally passed down list of things that an expectant mother must do or not do. Korea also has numerous do’s and don’ts for the health of the mother and fetus. In the old days when there was a preference for boys over girls, there were even rules to make sure a boy was conceived. Most of these rules, of course, were completely groundless with no scientific evidence.

The tradition of samchil-il and straw rope that continue to date The logic behind taekyo is that a fetus is emotionally, psychologically, and physically influenced by the mother-to-be from the moment it is conceived until the moment it is born. This is why a pregnant woman has to be careful with everything she thinks and does in addition to keeping herself calm and peaceful without any bad thoughts or wild behaviors.

In Korea, expectant mothers believe they should not see, eat, or think anything bad throughout pregnancy. There is also a myth that if a pregnant woman hates someone while she is pregnant, her baby will look exactly like that person. So once pregnant, the mind should be emptied of any negative feelings of hate. On the other hand, a mother can expect a beautiful baby if she looks at beautiful things and thinks beautiful thoughts. In fact, many pregnant mothers place photos of adorable babies and goodlooking celebrities around their house, thinking this will influence the physical appearance of the baby to be born. Also, during meals, the prettiest and soundest food is given to the woman who is expecting as a gesture of good wishes for her to have a beautiful and healthy baby. Furthermore, people see to it that a mother-to-be does not sit at the corner in the hope that she will stay safe and well throughout pregnancy.

Recently, Korea introduced parking slots designated for pregnant women and priority seats in the subway to promote the social support for them. The government is also giving out name tags that expectant mothers can wear in public transport to signal they can sit in the seats reserved for the elderly or disabled, and also to encourage people to give up seats for them. These name tags for bags are also intended to make sure that women in early pregnancy who do not show external signs of pregnancy do 043

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not have to experience any awkward situation while sitting in the priority seats for the elderly and disabled. These policies reflect Korea’s strong tradition of prenatal care, as can be seen in taekyo, as well as the need to promote pregnancy among Koreans who are increasingly opting out of childbirth for social and economic reasons.

In the old days when women used to deliver at home, the family with a newborn would let the neighbors know the good news by hanging across their gate geumjul, or a straw rope tied with charcoal and other symbolic items. Straw was believed to ward off evil spirits while charcoal was supposed to suck in toxicity and keep away harmful germs. Hanging the rope across the front gate was believed to protect the baby and mother from everything harmful. If the baby is a boy, red pepper was slotted in and if it is a girl, pine leaves were attached to the rope.

It was an unwritten rule not to enter the house that had geumjul at the gate because it sent the message that the family declines any unnecessary visits. Even though women today deliver at the hospital and take a full rest at the postnatal care center before coming back home, it is still considered polite to refrain from visiting a family that has just had a baby. Though the physical geumjul is almost never seen on the doors nowadays, it seems to remain as an invisible message in people’s minds.

In the old days, the new mother and baby were not allowed to be seen by outsiders for 21 days or three weeks after the childbirth, and the mother had to stay inside the house doing nothing. She was only allowed to eat, sleep, and spend time with the baby so that she could fully recuperate. Today, the number of days when the new mother stays in the hospital (three to seven days) and postnatal care center (two weeks) also add up to around 21 days. This period of 21 days after giving birth is called samchilil (sam meaning “three” multiplied by chil meaning “seven”). Samchil-il is considered a period of recovery not only from childbirth but also in terms of the ability to resume daily activities. This is, again, the remnant of a traditional practice in modern days.

After samchil-il, both the baby and mother are considered to have recovered sufficiently to go back to daily life, beginning with simple household chores for the mother.

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Culture center, a meeting place for alumni in strollers Most of the department stores and hypermarkets in Korea run a culture center. Culture centers are popular among Korean housewives as a place that offers high-quality classes at an affordable price. Courses are wide-ranging and include practical skills such as cooking and sewing; artistic and cultural activities such as drawing, handicraft, photo, and musical instruments; as well as sports such as yoga and ballet.

In particular, the courses for infants are so popular that all the slots fill up as soon as they open. There are a variety of programs on offer from fun courses that combine games, physical activities, and music, to more specialized courses such as ballet, taekwondo, and English. The mothers and babies who have become friends at the postnatal care center often attend the same class at the culture center. Because babies of similar age are assigned to the same class, a new circle of alumni is born at the end of the program. They are the so-called “culture center alumni� and their relationships often carry over to the daycare center, kindergarten, and elementary school.

Porridge that heals the body and mind: juk Juk or sloppy porridge boiled with grains like rice and various other ingredients is a health food that reflects the wisdom of Korean ancestors. Juk is both tasty and nutritious.

It is a balanced food that can contain any of the various types of grains like non-glutinous rice and glutinous rice mixed with your choice of ingredients whether it is meat, seafood, or vegetable. Furthermore, it is easy on the system and makes a great get-well food for healing and soothing the body and mind.

Juk is a signature slow food of Korea because it takes a lot of care and time to cut up and mince all the ingredients and slow-boil it with water for a long time. Due to the cumbersome process of making it at home, there are restaurants dedicated for juk. The food court of department stores and delis in hypermarkets also sell juk, which can be eaten in or taken away. Despite the convenience of eating out, as with any other food, it is still the homemade juk cooked by mom that tastes the best and richest.

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6 100th Day Celebration and First Birthday Party

Doljabi is a ritual for telling the baby’s fortune

â“’Kim Kyung-mi

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The true meaning of celebrating the 100th day of birth The mother is usually well enough to resume simple daily activities 21 days after giving birth, but a 21-day-old baby is still a fragile toddler that requires full care and attention. Especially, back in the days when nutrition was poor and medical technologies were not as advanced, many toddlers died of no known cause.

This high child mortality rate is the root of baekil janchi, or 100th day party, to celebrate the baby’s survival through the first hundred days and wish for his or her health in the many more years to come. At the janchi (party), the family gave out susupat-tteok (layered red adzuki bean rice cake) to chase away evil spirits and baekseolgi (rice cake as soft and white as snow) to make sure the baby grows with a clean body and healthy mind. People believed that the more people ate the rice cakes to celebrate the baby’s 100th day, the healthier the baby will grow up to be, and this custom of giving out rice cakes continues to this day. However, instead of sending them to neighbors, it is more common to share them among colleagues at work in modern days because there is much less communal spirit in today’s Korean society, where most people live in apartments.

On this day of celebration, the family prepares a praying table called samshinsang (samshin table) to make offerings for Samshin, the Korean goddess of childbirth believed to have control over conception, birth, and growth of life. The food that is placed on samshinsang includes non-glutinous white rice, seaweed soup, and vegetables in the colors of green, black, and white. The offerings were made to thank Samshin for protecting the baby for the first hundred days and to invoke her to give health and longevity to the baby in the future.

After the 100th day, both the baby and the mother undergo many changes. First of all, the baby gains weight, becomes plump, tries to lift the head up, and starts to move arms and legs. The baby can also flip from front to back and stretch the hand to grab or pull at an object. Moreover, instead of spending most of the time in sleep as a newborn, the baby starts to spend more time awake and begins to grow a rhythm of day and night.

The mother also experiences a lot of changes around this time. This is when they really begin to return to the physical state before pregnancy. Also, as they start to slowly distribute their attention away from the baby to other aspects of life, the invisible string that ties the mother and baby gradually starts to loosen. This is partly due to the fact that the baby is past the stage of extreme fragility and instability, but there is also the medical reason of hormonal changes in the mother’s body.

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When a baby is born, the placenta that used to connect the mother and the baby is cut off. However, it is only about a hundred days after the birth that the baby becomes completely separated from the mother. This is the mystery of life that was celebrated in the traditional event of baekil janchi.

What is amazing is that it is around the 100th day after birth that marks a year from conception of a baby because the baby usually spends approximately 280 days in the womb before being born. In this sense, baekil janchi is more than just a celebration of the 100th day anniversary of birth.

In Korea, a baby is one year old from the moment life out of the womb commences.

This unique method of calculating age perhaps has its origin in the belief that life begins before birth, at the point of conception.

One year old as soon as you are born?

Koreans use two different methods of counting age.

First, there is the Korean way of calculating age. According to this method, a baby is automatically one year old at birth and gains one year at the turn of every year. This means that a baby born in December turns two in Korean age about a month after being born. This is a big difference from the Western way of counting age where the baby turns one year old only after a year has passed since birth and adds one year every birthday.

However, there are situations when Koreans also use the Western age, called man age, which counts from the actual day of birth and adds one year on birthdays. The man age is used when applying law or providing medical services. Generally, however, people count their Korean age or a year minus the Korean age when asked how old they are. This is because children who enter school in the same year and become classmates are considered the same age and an academic year starts in March instead of January. The number of candles on a birthday cake is also determined by the Korean age.

In Korea, it is not considered bad manners to ask the age of a person that you meet for the first time. Actually, it is necessary to know the person’s age and understand the age hierarchy within a group so that the necessary etiquette for elders can be followed.

The criteria for deciding who is older depend on the year of entering school. People who entered elementary school in the same year are considered the same age.

In the case of babies under the man age (Western age) of four, it is more customary to say the number of months when asked how old they are because a couple of months’ difference can have a significant difference in the size and growth of babies.

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The first birthday that marks the Western age of one year old is called dol, meaning “round”, to express that the baby has made a round of the year.

Parents hold a bigger party for the baby’s dol or first birthday than baekil janchi.

Again, they share susupat-tteok (red adzuki bean rice cake) to ward off evil spirits and baekseolgi (snow white rice cake) with neighbors and relatives. While baekil janchi, a 100th day party, is usually a more intimate event of only the immediate family members, dol janchi on the first birthday is often bigger in scale, inviting not only immediate family members and relatives, but also friends and colleagues.

Those who are invited to the dol janchi bring a present for the baby. Popular presents include a gold ring or bracelet so that the baby may grow up to be as precious as gold, or baby clothes to wish the baby health. Because babies usually start to toddle at around dol, people also give shoes as a gift so that the baby may not fall down.

The highlight of dol janchi is called doljabi, which literally translates into “first birthday’s grab.” This is an event to forecast the future of the baby who is just starting to perceive and feel curious about different objects. In this event, a set of objects is placed in front of the baby and what he or she grabs first is supposed to tell the baby’s future.

Traditionally, the items for doljabi included thread, writing brush or pen, rice, and money. Thread represented longevity, writing brush or pen meant the baby will grow up to be a scholar, and rice and money symbolized wealth. Recently, parents also place a stethoscope, judge’s gavel, golf ball, or microphone, which stand for the jobs that many young parents of Korea want for their children these days like doctor, lawyer, pro golf player, or TV anchor.

Nowadays, dol janchi sometimes even has a professional MC to add more fun to the party, in which case doljabi can be indeed a very enjoyable experience for all the guests.

Hwangap and hoehon to celebrate the 60th anniversary Traditionally, Koreans had two dol janchi in their life. The first is to mark the first birthday and the second called hwangap janchi is to mark the 60th birthday. The first birthday party is prepared by the parents for the child, but the 60th birthday party is prepared by the child for the parents.

Hwangap has its origin in Korea’s 60 gan-zhi system or sexagenary cycle of counting years. This system is part of the Eastern laws of nature that counted years using 10 gan (divine stems) and 12 zhi (earthly branches). Under this system, a particular year has both a gan that rotates around a cycle of 10 years and a zhi that rotates around 049

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a cycle of 12 years. This means that the cycle repeats itself every 60 years. Thus, the 60th birthday or hwangap is the first year in a person’s life when the gan and the zhi are identical to those of the birth year. Because the person has made a round of the 60 gan-zhi combinations, it is considered a second dol (“round”) party. In the old days when not many people survived past the age of 60, the tradition of hwangap janchi was meaningful as a ceremony that wished longevity beyond 60 years of age. To celebrate their parents’ hwangap, people would traditionally prepare the same food that their parents prepared for their own dol janchi.

Today, the average life expectancy is much longer and living to be 60 years old is no longer considered anything special. As such, Korea has a new culture of holding a bigger celebration for chilsun (70th birthday in Korean age) or palsun (80th birthday in Korean age) than hwangap. Because chilsun and palsun are counted in Korean age, they fall on a year that is the birth year added by 69 and 79 years respectively, while hwangap falls on a year that is the birth year added by 60 years. Chilsun janchi is also called gohee-yeon where the word gohee means “age” in Eastern philosophy.

In the past, it was customary for Koreans to hold a huge feast for their parents’ hwangap, chilsun, and palsun, inviting families, relatives, and neighbors. In modern days, it is much more common to plan an intimate meal and trip with immediate family members.

This is because older people have greater health until much later in life compared to the past when living beyond a round of 60 gan-zhi was taken as a lucky dose of extra life. In fact, there are even those who celebrate 100th birthday now.

As opposed to hwangap, which is the 60th year after birth, hoehon marks the 60th year after wedding and some people hold hoehon-shik or diamond wedding ceremony to celebrate the occasion. Koreans celebrate wedding anniversaries in Western style and sometimes hold silver weddings or gold weddings to celebrate the 25th and 50th wedding anniversary respectively. However, Korea’s tradition of hoehon is much more than just a wedding anniversary because not every couple that has been married for 60 years gets to have the ceremony of hoehon-shik.

Hoehon-shik is a party to celebrate the love and trust that the couple has had for each other in building a family over the past 60 years. As such, the ceremony can be held only if both the husband and wife are healthy and if all of the children are married and healthy. If either the husband or wife has passed away first or any one of the children is not married, there would not be a ceremony to mark hoehon.

In a traditional hoehon-shik, there was a feast resembling that of hwangap or chilsun janchi, and the couple would dress in the same attire they wore for the wedding. It is 050

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similar to a Western remind wedding.

Even though the average life expectancy has been extended, not every couple gets to celebrate hoehon together because people get married much later today compared to the days when it was common to marry in one’s late teen years or early 20s.

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7 Grandmothers Carrying Schoolbags

Grammies and Graddies are grandparents who take care of their grandchildren instead of the parents

â“’ Yang Hyun-moh

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Korea’s silver generation that raises children as well as their children’s children Young Koreans prefer to make a double income after marriage. However, it is realistically difficult for women in the Korean society to successfully juggle between parenting, housekeeping, and work at the same time because childrearing and household chores are still considered largely the female’s role. Unless the woman has an academic degree to hold down a professional job or works in a place that guarantees job stability, it is difficult to resume work after a career break from childbirth.

As a result, after they take a break from work to give birth, many women eventually end up quitting work altogether and becoming a full-time housewife partly out of choice and partly because they are not accepted back at work. Some of them are highly educated and used to work in professional jobs. These women are, in essence, giving up their social accomplishment in order to raise children. Dubbed the “Career Breakers,” these women often take a break from work thinking they will go back after their children grow to a certain age. However, it can take at least four years and up to seven or eight years for a child to grow to an age when he or she does not require as much care and attention from the mother.

By then, these women have been away from work for so long that they are not welcomed by the employers. This means that the Career Breakers have the choice of either remaining a full-time housewife or looking for a job that is not related to their previous career. In the latter case, the new job would most likely be a downgrade from the career they used to have in the past.

On the other hand, there are women who have no choice but go back to work because of economic necessities rather than the motivation of self-fulfillment or social accomplishment. In addition to the burden of work, they also shoulder the burden of childrearing, an eternal homework for every mother. They send their child to a daycare center or sign up for after-school classes or private tutoring academies so that the child does not have to spend too much time alone, but there are so many other daily needs of a child that require a caregiver’s attention before the age of puberty. In particular, children in the first several years of elementary school can adjust much faster to school life if they have a stay-at-home mom instead of a working mom.

The reason why many working mothers can maintain their career despite such challenging circumstances is none other than the help of grandparents who find themselves parenting again in their twilight years. It is now a common sight to see a grandmother or a grandfather coming to pick up a grandchild from school bus. Also, there are quite a lot of children at the culture center, a gathering place for the alumni 053

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of maternity care centers, to be accompanied by grandmothers instead of mothers.

Indeed, there are now grandparents who read parenting books and take parenting courses, wanting to do a good job on raising their children’s children. There are even those who take English classes so that they can answer questions by their grandchildren who go to the English kindergarten. In response to such enthusiasm by grandparents to learn, there are a growing number of institutions that offer courses for this new generation of caregivers.

At the end of every year, daycare centers and kindergartens organize school plays.

These days, after the play, the children on the stage say in a chorus, “Thank you, grandma, granddad, mom, and dad” instead of “Thank you, mom and dad.” This is a snapshot that shows how parents are no longer the only parents in the Korean society.

Korea is now familiar with the “Grammies and Graddies” holding a schoolbag in their hand and dropping off children at school or attending entrance and graduation ceremonies instead of the actual parents.

Eight Pocket Kids at the center of consumption “Eight Pocket Kids” is a new word introduced by a marketing research institution, which found that there is an average of eight grown-ups (two parents, four grandparents, an uncle and an aunt) opening up their “pocket” or wallet per kid. This is a new consumption pattern that is attributable to the extremely low birth rate of Korea. It means one or two children in the family monopolize all the attention and a large part of consumption by the rest of family members.

Indeed, children represent a significant share of consumer base in the Korean market.

A few years ago, Korea saw the emergence of the “Gold Miss” population, which refers to single women who earn a lot of money as professionals. This was followed by a flood of products for kids targeting the Gold Miss aunts. As these single women who have money but no child gladly opened up their wallet for nephews, they became the new and powerful consumer base in the market for children’s products.

Now, it is not only the Gold Miss aunts as grandparents and uncles have joined the spending. At the end of the day, the real consumers behind this spending are none other than the children themselves.

There is an African saying that goes “It takes a village to raise one kid,” which points out the great social attention and care that go into raising a child. But the Eight Pocket Kids of Korea has a different context. It stands for a new consumption structure 054

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where at least two generations spend money on a single child in this era of low birth rate. Such cross-generation spending is not limited to buying kids’ products like toys.

Grandparents are also engaged in the financing of their grandchildren’s education, so much so that Koreans jokingly say grandparents’ wealth is one of the factors that determine the child’s school grades.

On the other hand, there is another newly coined word “Edupoor” to refer to those less privileged households that barely manage to cover all the expenditures for raising and educating children. This is a variation of the word “House Poor,” which means people who barely manage to make interest payments after taking out an immoderate amount of debt to buy a house because home ownership is a high priority for many Koreans. There are even families that are already in debt from buying a house getting additional loans for children’s education. Also, there are a growing number of mothers who seek miscellaneous part-time jobs in order to pay for the private education costs that increase as the child grows older.

Many investment and finance companies of the country report that the reason why many Koreans fail to save up enough for retirement is because they have spent excessively on buying their own house and educating their children. Regardless of such reports, no Korean parent would compromise their child’s education for their retirement plan. It may not be a uniquely Korean phenomenon for parents to value their children’s future above their own well-being, but Koreans’ parental commitment is, without a doubt, extraordinary.

Some of Korea’s silver generation grew old with the regret that they had to give up school when they were young because they were too poor to afford it and had to start working as early as possible. They found out after they became adults that more learning meant a better chance at success. They made up for the regret of not being educated by ensuring their children grew up with as many educational opportunities as possible. These children have become the mothers and fathers of today.

One may wonder why they would be so fixated with their children’s education when they did not experience any shortage of educational opportunities growing up.

It is probably because Koreans today have come to the conclusion that education is the only thing that does not betray hard work in this country of limited resources and opportunities. This is also the reason why more and more people expect learning and education to be a passport for getting a better job rather than finding value in the knowledge itself.

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8 Young People on the Street in Hanbok

Trying out hanbok has become a new trend among the young Koreans in their teens and twenties

â“’ Yang Hyun-moh

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Girls in hanbok on the streets Recently, Korea is seeing a movement to re-appreciate the value of the country’s traditional culture and incorporate it in the daily life. Interestingly, such initiatives are led by the young people instead of older people.

It is easy to see young people wearing hanbok, or Korea’s traditional costume, in and around the ancient palaces of Seoul. They are mostly teenagers who have come to see the palace and young couples enjoying a walk around the palace or other popular dating sites nearby such as Buk-chon, Seo-cheon and Samcheong-dong. They take pictures in hanbok and enjoy their time in cafés and even Italian restaurants wearing the colorful outfit. Groups of giggling teenaged girls wearing traditional costume and taking selfies show that it may not be such a challenge to achieve a harmonious coexistence between tradition and modernity.

Indeed, SNS channels such as Instagram and Facebook have a ton of pictures uploaded by young people wearing hanbok in the downtown area and tagged “hanbok” or “hanbok experience.” Experiencing hanbok seems to have become a trend among the young Koreans.

This trend began in the Hanok (traditional Korean-style house) Village of Jeonju City in September 2012. Back then, hanbok used to be one of the declining traditional cultures that became detached from the life of Koreans because it was difficult to move in and considered awkward to be the only one wearing it in a daily setting for no special occasion. The only occasion when people bought hanbok was as honsu (wedding gift) ahead of a wedding. Even then, many chose to rent the costume instead of buying it because they knew they would not wear it much once they were married.

Until the 1970s, hanbok used to be equivalent to a suit for married women. A lot of women wore the traditional clothes for their commencement ceremony. However, it was slowly forgotten and replaced by ready-made clothes that became more popular for their affordable price and ease of movement. Losing its place for lack of practicality, hanbok gradually disappeared from the life of Koreans.

This is when Jeonju City organized a Hanbok Day event at its Hanok Village with the aim of having a good time in hanbok at least on that one day out of 365 days in a year. This event was initially led by local youths and spread to other cities including Busan, Ulsan, Daegu, and Daejon, where the event was held simultaneously in October 2014. Since then, Jeonju has been organizing diverse events at Hanok Village every Saturday of the month, which is the designated Hanbok Day. The city of Busan has also been holding Hanbok Festivals since 2014 at Gwangalli Beach and Haeundae Beach during the low season as well as at Gamcheon Culture Village.

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This new popularity of hanbok soon landed in downtown Seoul. Hanbok rental shops and experience centers, which originally targeted visitors from abroad, now has more Korean visitors. Furthermore, people wearing hanbok are now allowed free entrance at all ancient palaces year-round, a policy that was expanded from a limited number of palaces and a limited period of time. As a result, people wearing the beautiful Korean traditional attire can be seen in ancient palaces all year round. They are not tourists or tourist guides, but average citizens enjoying themselves. Most of them are in their teens or 20s.

Koreans eat special rice cakes on special days Another tradition trending among young people of the country is to eat traditional Korean dessert. The signature traditional dessert of Korea is tteok, or rice cake. Tteok, together with juk (porridge), is a popular health food of Korea that is part of the country’s trend of slow food and well-being.

At one time, tteok, like hanbok, also used to be one of the traditions that largely faded from the lives of Koreans. Because it takes a lot of care and time to make, which is also why it deserves the title of slow food, the food was saved for special days only such as Seol and Chuseok. On Seol, Koreans eat garaetteok, a thin and long cylindershaped rice cake made with non-glutinous white rice. Tteok-guk, the main menu on Seol that translates into rice cake soup, contains flat oval-shaped slices of garaetteok.

Meanwhile, people eat a different type of tteok called songpyeon on Chuseok. Songpyeon translates into rice cake steamed over pine needles, which have a sterilizing effect and prevent the rice cake from going bad quickly. This reflects the wisdom of ancestors who wanted to prevent the holiday food from spoiling because there is still some latesummer heat left over on Chuseok that falls on August 15 in the lunar calendar.

Baekseolgi is another type of tteok made with rice flour and the name translates into “snow white.” It is a food eaten to wish longevity of a baby on his or her 100th day after birth. To celebrate a baby’s 100th day and first birthday, people also eat susupattteok, which is a round rice cake ball covered with red adzuki crumbs, meant to drive away evil spirits. There was a custom of eating susupat-tteok on every birthday until the child grew up to be ten years old to make sure he grows healthily. This is why this particular type of rice cake is also dubbed the “birthday cake.”

Meanwhile, for ancestral memorial rites, or jesa, people made siru-tteok where the word siru refers to the earthen pot used to cook this rice cake. For regular ancestral memorial services, siru-tteok is covered with crumbled white beans; if it is a ritual to chase away vile and harmful spirits and pray for good fortunes, it is covered with red 058

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adzuki bean crumbs because red beans were believed to have such effect. To this day, Koreans maintain the custom of sharing tteok covered with red adzuki beans with neighbors when they move to a new house or start a business, giving the food the nickname of “moving tteok” and “inauguration tteok.” It is believed to keep out bad energy while bringing in good energy to a new house or new business.

There is also tteok for weddings called chapssal-tteok made with glutinous rice flour.

This is to wish the married couple a strong bond as sticky as glutinous rice. There is a Korean expression, “like a sticky rice cake,” to refer to couples, partners, or friends who have a good chemistry and strong bond.

Another time of the year when chapssal-tteok becomes popular is around the university entrance exam season. People often give the sticky rice cake as a gift to those who have the exam coming up to wish them good luck so that they will stick to (synonym for the word “pass” in Korean) the exam and get accepted to the school they want. Retailers start to sell tteok gift packages around this time named “acceptance tteok,” and the rice cakes of different colors and shapes in the package are all made with sticky rice flour. Another gift that is popular around the exam season is taffy, or yeot, because it also has a sticky property.

Though tteok is a deeply embedded part of Korea’s dietary life, it is often disregarded as a food because it is too trouble to make. These days, households rarely make their own tteok and it is only on special occasions that people eat tteok. To order tteok for such special occasions, they go to tteok-jip, or rice cake shops, usually located in the far corner of a marketplace or shopping district Korean-style dessert cafés that threaten Starbucks and Coffee Bean These days, however, tteok is enjoying a new popularity as more young people are falling in love with Korea’s traditional desserts including tteok.

It has already been more than a decade since the first introduction of tteok cake in the place of Western-style cakes for birthdays. Traditionally, Koreans have always prepared tteok for joyous occasions like birthdays and weddings. This tradition met with birthday cakes of the West to create a new food called tteok cake. It looks like any other Western cake, but tteok is used instead of the bread and adzuki bean toppings or nuts are used for decoration instead of whipped cream or fruit jam. Some cakes have two or three layers of different tteok in them.

This modernized version of traditional tteok has become a familiar part of Korea’s daily culture and its popularity peaked alongside a boom in Korean-style dessert cafés.

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Korea’s dessert market used to be dominated by global coffee franchises like Starbucks dubbed “star café” and Coffee Bean dubbed “bean café.” Then, fusion dessert cafés entered the scene with modernized versions of Korea’s traditional desserts such as bingsu (shaved ice), patbingsu (shaved ice with red adzuki bean topping), toasted garaetteok (long cylinder-shaped white rice cake), injeolmi (rice cake covered with dry bean power) toast, or baked sweet potato.

Though there were already traditional teahouses and tteok cafés selling traditional confectionery in the past, they were not very accessible because most were located in areas that were meant specifically for experiencing traditions such as Insa-dong in Seoul or Hanok Village in Jeonju. Also, these traditional cafés were either too expensive or did not taste true to the tradition.

Then, the situation took a new turn when Korea introduced government policies to boost the national brand by internationalizing Korean food. Other social sectors followed suit in the efforts. Some young Koreans with overseas experience started businesses to transform Korea’s traditional snacks into more sophisticated desserts that are pleasing to the Koreans’ palate and at the same time, healthier than Western cakes or cookies. Soon, cafés that offer fusion-style traditional snacks started to pop up around the country, drawing young people away from “star cafés” and “bean cafés.”

Today, Korean dessert cafés are not just some symbolic icons in Insa-dong or Hanok Village, but a major part of Korea’s food culture.

After being pushed out of people’s lives for a while for being too much hassle, tteok is finally proving its true worth as a traditional food that has been enjoyed by Koreans for hundreds and thousands of years. Now, Koreans face the task of promoting this delicious Korean dessert into an international food. The challenge would be how to adapt the chewy and sticky texture of tteok, which so many Koreans like, so that it can appeal to foreigners who may find it too unfamiliar for their liking.

Kopan, another Korean Wave While tteok still has some way to go in addressing its limitations to become a global food, there is another Korean dessert that has already had some success with people overseas. It is called Kopan.

Kopan, meaning Korean bread (pan in Korean), is enjoying popularity even among the local people in France known for their picky taste when it comes to bread, their staple food.

Historically, Korea’s bread culture did not come directly from Europe, its birthplace.

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from the country until Japanese colonization. It was only after the country became a colony of Japan that the culture of eating bread entered the country through Japan.

This is why Koreans eat more of the sweet breads like those found in Japan rather than breads that serve as meals. Unlike the European people who eat bread as a staple food, Koreans perceive it more as a snack or dessert.

The signature bread of Korea is danpat-bbang, a bun stuffed with sweet red bean fillings. The filling can also contain steamed sweet potato, sweet pumpkin, or chestnuts to add sweetness, or nuts and cream cheese to add diversity to the taste. Other popular breads of Korea are also sweet and soft like a cream bun or soboro bread, a Korean streusel with peanut crumble topping. There are also sweet doughnut variations such as fried doughnuts with sweet red bean fillings or sticky rice doughnuts made with a mixture of flour and sticky rice flour for a chewy texture.

A Korean-style brioche—a traditional French bread made with egg, butter, and a little bit of cream—filled with Korea’s unique sweet red bean was first served for dessert at dinner when the French president visited Korea. The sweet red bean bun soon became popular in France. For the French who were only used to eating salted red beans, the sweet-flavored red bean filling was a new and interesting discovery that was delightful to the mouth.

There are some Korean-style breads that qualify as meals, not just snacks. Examples include a croissant as a sandwich with sausage or ham in the middle, or a crisp croquette stuffed with japche (sweet potato starch noodles) or mashed potato salad.

There are also rice breads that contain Koreans’ staple rice flour instead of wheat flour.

Many of the boulangeries in Korea look like a mixture of a bakery and a café. They have tables and chairs so that people can eat sandwiches and Kopans (sweet dessert or snack breads) with a cup of coffee or tea. These places feel cozy enough for people to sit and chat over bread and beverage. Of course, take-out is also possible.

Recently, a major bakery franchise of Korea opened a Korean-style bakery café branch in France, the cradle of breads, to win over the Parisians known for their pride in French tradition. The franchise already has several chains in China, the U.S., and Vietnam.

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Hanbok on streets, clothes that people like to wear There are rows of hanbok rental shops near Gyeongbokgung Palace as well as in adjacent districts like Samcheong-dong and Buk-chon. They offer various styles of hanbok for rent from the traditional designs to the reformed designs for modern wear. The rental cost is around 10 U.S. dollars per hour. Some shops even come with a makeup room and photo zone. Hanok Village in Jeonju also has a center that offers hanbok experience and Busan has its own hanbok gallery that organizes programs, events, and exhibitions that provide experiences tailored to the city’s local characteristics.

â“’ Yang Hyun-moh

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Tteokbokki, favorite snack and street food of young Koreans Tteokbokki, which translates into pan-fried rice cakes, originated as a food to use up the leftover garaetteok (long cylinder-shaped white rice cake) that did not make it into tteok-guk (rice cake soup) on Seol. At first, tteokbokki used to be a dish of chopped garaetteok simmered in soy sauce with other ingredients like vegetables and meat. These days, more people simmer it with red pepper paste instead of using soy sauce to season. When people hear the word tteokbokki today, the first image that comes to their mind is this modern version of a red and spicy dish seasoned with red pepper paste, sold in street food stalls or eateries that sell bunsik (street snack). The more traditional tteokbokki seasoned with soy sauce is called “royal court tteokbokki� because it was enjoyed by the Kings in the old days. There are some Korean restaurants that offer this royal version on the menu.

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9 Festival of Flowers and Namul in Spring

Spring namul is an ingredient for Korean-style salads

â“’ Choi Su-yon

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The exciting and festive spring months of April and May As spring flowers like Japanese apricot flowers, cornelian cherry flowers, magnolia, and cherry blossoms begin to bloom, people flock outside to enjoy a spring flower picnic. Around early April when cherry blossoms reach a full bloom, any walking trail with cherry blossom trees swarms with throngs of cars and people. Yeouido, a financial and banking district of Seoul, is one of the most popular destinations for its cherry blossom festival. Both the roads and sidewalks in Yeouido spill over with people who have come to enjoy the cherry blossom path that stretches along the Han River.

It is not only on the weekends that Koreans like to enjoy the spring flowers. Spring is also a season when students at elementary, middle, and high schools go on group picnics, usually on the weekdays. This is why Korea at this time of the year bustles with people both young and old, enjoying a picnic whether it is during the week or on the weekends.

Korea’s kindergartens and schools often have two big picnics in a year, one in spring and the other in autumn. In the past, many schools chose nearby historical sites, parks, or other places with nature that are close enough to go together on foot. This is reflected in the Korean word for picnic, sopung, which can be interpreted as “walking in the wind.” However, school picnics have undergone some changes in the recent years. A growing number of schools choose amusement parks, museums, or galleries far from school as the destination now, and the name sopung is sometimes replaced by “field study.” The fact that “study” has become part of even picnics shows just how much focus Koreans place on education and learning.

Students in elementary, middle, and high schools go on a so-called “learning trip” in the last year of school before graduation. However, for high school students, it is more common to plan the trip a year earlier, in the sophomore year, because they would be too busy preparing for their university entrance exam in the last year of school. This trip has always been both about traveling and learning, as the name suggests. In the past, the trip was usually organized as a four to five-day schedule in Gyeongju City, home to various ancient remains and historical sites of Korea. However, schools these days head for Jeju Island or even neighboring countries like Japan instead. To reflect this new trend of having less of a “learning” element in the trips, there are schools that are beginning to call the trip a “graduation trip” instead of learning trip.

Spring is also the time of the year when university students go on group trips with people in the same class or school club. In addition, there are many businesses and institutions that plan a workshop or excursion for the employees. Consequently, throughout April, the whole country is animated with people enjoying spring flower 065

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picnics, students on group trips, and office workers having workshops and excursions.

The excitement in the air makes it feel like a nationwide spring festival. This is also the month with the most local festivals and events around the country. The buoyant atmosphere continues until early May, dubbed the Month of Family.

Just as living things come to life in spring, so do the people and streets of Korea become lively with laughter and excitement. This is what makes the spring of Korea truly beautiful.

Spring greens and bibimbap, Korea’s traditional food for healing and restoring energy Though spring marks the beginning of vibrant new life, it is also when people can feel a drowsy fatigue due to the warming weather. The inevitable sleepiness after a pleasant lunchtime under the spring sun is as unwelcome as the springtime yellow dust. One way to fight the springtime fatigue in Korea is to eat spring namul, or spring greens, which are known in Korea as “healing food.” The spring namul that sprang through the frozen ground of the winter represent the power of life.

Ssuk, or mugwort, is Koreans’ favorite spring namul, also known to have been the first plant that sprouted its buds in the spring after Hiroshima of Japan was destroyed by the atomic bomb during the World War II. Ssuk has a distinctive odor that is so strong that it is known as Korea’s native herb. Koreans associate this smell with the fragrance of spring. Other examples of spring greens include naeng-i (shepherd’s purse) that is eaten in whole with the roots and dallae (wild chive) that tastes both like an onion and scallion.

Spring namul dishes are usually seasoned the traditional Korean way with soy sauce, soybean paste, red pepper paste, or with just salt and sesame oil. Sesame seeds and garlic are also some of the healthy ingredients that go in the dish. The end result looks quite similar to Western salads and the nutritional benefit is also as good.

Namul is a generic term that refers to any type of seasoned raw or parboiled vegetables. It has traditionally been an important source of vitamins and minerals in Koreans’ diet. It also makes medical sense to eat namul in the spring because the drowsiness at this time of the year is partly caused by the loss of vitamins and minerals over the winter.

Koreans enjoy namul not just in the spring but throughout the year. In the winter when fresh vegetables are hard to come by, people eat the namul that they had already parboiled, sundried, and kept in storage over spring, summer and winter. In the wintertime, the stored namul is soaked in water to add back the moisture and then 066

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cooked. Water-soluble vitamins may be lost in the process of parboiling the greens, but Vitamin D is replenished while they are being sun-dried, making namul an excellent food for health.

Namul is one of the daily dishes for Koreans and people say it tastes the best when it is homemade by their mothers. This is because although the recipe is quite simple, it is difficult to bring out the rich flavor. Also, there is an extremely wide variety of namul dishes, each made in a distinctive style of each region and household.

One of the foods that contain a harmonious blend of namul is bibimbap, which translates into “mixed rice.� Already a global food that is enjoyed by people around the world, bibimbap is a bowl of five major nutrients, including vitamins and minerals in namul, carbohydrates in the rice, proteins in beef, and fat in sesame oil and seeds.

The best known version of bibimbap around the world is Jeonju-style bibimbap, but there are many different types of bibimbap in Korea.

Bibimbap is actually a food without a recipe. They say that the number of recipes for kimchi, another traditional Korean food, is as numerous as the number of mothers in Korea. This is because each person making kimchi, usually the mother of the family, can modify the basic recipe in countless different ways to suit the taste of the family.

Likewise, bibimbap can vary according to who makes and eats it. Basically, any type of food that involves adding and mixing pre-cooked namul, meat, and seasoning in a bowl of cooked rice qualifies as bibimbap. The meat can be skipped if it is not available. The seasoning can be done with soy sauce or red pepper paste or both.

Sesame oil and seeds can be added for the savory and mild flavor, or not, depending on the availability. Egg yolk, fried egg, or pan-fried tofu can also be added for extra taste and nutrition.

April brings a full bloom of cherry blossoms in Yeouido, Seoul

â“’ Yang Hyun-moh

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10 Lotus Lantern Parade and Buddhist Shops near the Jogyesa Temple

Lantern decorations signal that Buddha’s Birthday is near

â“’ Yangho Cho

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Celebrating Buddha’s Birthday with lanterns May has two official national holidays, Children’s Day and Buddha’s Birthday.

Children’s Day is May 5 every year but Buddha’s Birthday falls on a different day every year in the solar calendar because it is April 8 in the lunar system. Most of the time, it comes after mid-May. The most common religions among Koreans are Christianity and Buddhism.

Those with a religious faith represent a slightly larger share of the population than non-believers. Among the believers, the number of Buddhists and Protestants is approximately similar. If you count all Christians including Protestants and Catholics, the number of Christians slightly exceeds that of Buddhists.

There also seem to be more churches than temples in the country. This is because the former are usually located more noticeably in the most accessible places of the neighborhood while the latter are often located in more isolated places like the suburbs instead of downtown, or in nature such as deep in the mountains.

The fact that Buddha’s Birthday is relatively quieter than the festivities of Christmas shows that Christianity has a larger influence on the Korean population than Buddhism.

Around early May, ahead of Buddha’s Birthday, streets start to be decorated with lanterns, which are the equivalent of Christmas tree lights in Christianity. However, the mood on Buddha’s Birthday in mid-May is relatively more calm than that of Christmas at the end of December.

Christmas season is a meaningful time of the year regardless of religion. It amplifies the festivities that everyone feels as they wrap up the year. In December, the overall Korean society encourages people to care for the less privileged neighbors and show the virtue of sharing regardless of their religious belief. This coincides with the Christian values of loving and sharing, creating the typical year-end atmosphere of Korea. As opposed to Christmas that is perceived as a celebration for all, Buddha’s Birthday feels more like an occasion for Buddhists only. One of the reasons could be that there are so many other special days to celebrate in May such as Children’s Day, Parents’ Day, and Teachers’ Day. As Buddha’s Birthday approaches, large temples and Buddhist organizations prepare a host of events. The most popular event is a lantern festival that is not just for Buddhists but open for all. Anybody who wishes can write a wish on a paper tag and hang it from the lantern. The lantern march hits its peak on the night of Buddha’s Birthday and there are many other events held in conjunction. Colorful lotus-shaped lanterns and magnificent lanterns in the shape of the Four Guardian Kings, elephants, 069

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and dragons decorate the busy downtown area of Seoul, including the Seoul Plaza where a giant Christmas tree would be erected in December.

Buddhist culture in Koreans’ everyday life If Myeong-dong is a district that represents Catholics of Korea, Buddhists are represented by a district called Jongno. Myeong-dong is home to Myeong-dong Cathedral, the sacred base of Korean Catholics, and Jongno has Jogyesa Temple that is the headquarters for the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. Meanwhile, Protestants have no such iconic hub because there are many large-scale churches of various sects scattered around the entire Seoul.

The area near Jogyesa Temple in Jongno-gu, Seoul is a place with the strongest Buddhist color in downtown Seoul. First of all, there are stores clustered around the temple that sell a range of Buddhist supplies and products. Then, there is Insa-dong Street about a block away, an antique street filled with Korea’s Buddhist-influenced traditions and cultures. Actually, it was in as early as the 14th century during the Joseon era that Buddhism gave its place to Confucianism, which has since then served as the foundation for the people’s traditional ethical values. Meanwhile, in modern days, Buddhism is behind Christianity in terms of religious influence. Nevertheless, Korea’s traditional culture could never be discussed without the role of Buddhism, which boasts a 1,700-year history in the country.

An important Buddhist influence on Koreans regardless of their religious faith is the belief in yunhoe, or Samsara, commonly translated as “a cycle of existence.” It is the Buddhist idea of what happens in the afterlife. For instance, Koreans say that married couples were enemies in the previous life. They also say that a parent owes the child a big favor in the previous life, which is why the person was born as the parent to repay the kindness. Children are told they will reincarnate as a cow if they lie down right after eating or that they will be reborn as the animal that they hurt and bully. These are all obscure beliefs rooted in Koreans.

Another Buddhist influence is the people’s tendency to cherish even the tiniest of human connections. In fact, the word inyeon meaning “human connection” is a Buddhist term in itself, but many people use the word daily unaware of its origin.

There is an idiomatic expression, also influenced by Buddhism, used to describe a situation where two people are meant to be: “A mere brush against each other’s clothes creates a human connection that lasts for a million geop.” Geop is a unit of time that indicates an indefinite length of time that cannot be expressed with numerals of the human world. It refers to how long it takes for a big rock to wear down to nothing 070

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when a Taoist fairy in heaven who descends to earth once every thousand years brushes against the rock lightly with her clothes. The idiom, thus, means that even the briefest of the human encounters in the present life is the result of countless past encounters and connections in the countless previous lives.

For Korean people who place such an important value on human ties, hakyeon, or relationships based on school ties and jiyeon, or relationships based on regional ties are important as well. Two strangers who meet for the first time can feel a strong bond with each other when they learn that they graduated from the same school or come from the same region, believing they were meant to be and connected by inyeon. It is needless to say how close the relationships based on blood ties are. In Korea where even a brush against clothes implies inyeon, going to the same school or being born in the same region is considered a very powerful inyeon. It seems that the Koreans’ great concern with networking based on school and region has its root in Buddhism.

A magnificent lantern in the shape of a stone tower is installed at Gwanghwamun Square to mark Buddha’s Birthday

ⓒ Yang Hyun-moh

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Korea’s hot places in springtime

â“’ Yang Hyun-moh

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Yeouido and riverside park of Han River

There are big and small cherry blossom

Nearby, there is a riverside park next to

festivals in Korea around the time when

the Han River, which is also animated with

flowers start to bloom. Even if there is no

people until late at night during this time of

official festival or event in the area, if there

the year. There is a unique culture of Korea

is a walking trail with cherry blossom trees,

that you can get a glimpse of in this park:

whether long or short, there are always

delivery food. Korea’s delivery food is known

crowds of people at this time of the year.

for its speed. A simple phone call will have

Yeouido is a district in Seoul that

chickens, pizzas, black bean noodles, pig’s

experiences the heaviest traffic and crowd

trotters, and other favorite late-night snacks

in Seoul in the cherry blossom season.

of Koreans delivered to your door. The

Nevertheless, it is worth visiting if you are

food can also be delivered anywhere in the

on a trip to Korea and it happens to be the

riverside park and people can be seen sitting

flowering time. It will be a rare opportunity

on the grass and waiting for the delivery

to see Korean families and lovers relaxing

motorcycle to arrive. If you find a nice

outdoors in the middle of a city that is

Korean friend to go to the park with, you

always busy and in a rush. Yeouido is Korea’s

could also experience this special delivery

financial hub equivalent to the Wall Street

food culture of Korea.

of America, and it is both an unfamiliar and heartwarming sight to see people enjoying their time in the bustling roads and sidewalks.

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â“’ Yang Hyun-moh

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Dumulmeori in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province

Dumulmeori is where the North Han

Dumulmeori is beautiful in whatever

River that starts from Mt. Geumgang in the

season and at whatever time of the day.

north of Gangwon Province meets the South

It is also a dynamic place with an ever-

Han River that starts from Mt. Daedeok in

changing face from the rain fog in the early

the south of Gangwon Province. It is a place

hours of the dawn to sunrise in the morning

where the iconic Han River of Korea actually

and sunset in the evening. It is, however,

starts. There is beautiful scenery year-round

during the spring that the place looks the

with clear water and untouched nature.

most impressive with a stretch of spring

It is also a popular date site due to good

flowers. Driving to Dumulmeori along the

accessibility from the city of Seoul.

national highway lined with colorful spring

The sight is especially breathtaking

flower blossoms is a highly recommended

during sunrise and sunset on clear days. If

experience.

you ever saw a memorable sunset or sunrise

Semiwon, an ecological park near

in a Korean drama or movie, it was most

Dumulmeori, is also worth dropping by.

likely shot here in this town of Yangsuri

Visitors can experience the ecology of various

where the Dumulmeori is located. There are

seasonal flowers at this “Park of Water and

both walking trails and cycling paths so that

Flower.” The best time of the year to visit

people can enjoy Dumulmeori both on foot

the park is between mid-July to early August

and by bicycle. It is Korean’s favorite getaway

when lotus flowers are in full bloom.

destination to find “healing,” as the Koreans say.

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1 Dishes to Help Boost Energy and Overcome the Summer Heat

People line up to eat samgyetang

â“’ Yang Hyun-moh

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Beating the heat with heat Koreans are particularly drawn to the hot and spicy. This preference is most evident in the foods they like to eat.

Regardless of country of origin, hot food always tastes best when hot and cold food tastes best when cold. This standard culinary rule also applies to Korean cuisine. In fact, Korea’s hot dishes are much more steaming hot than those of other cultures. This is because they are usually served while still boiling off the stove, to be eaten before they have had a chance to cool down.

The Korean diet is known for the variety of fermented foods that get better with age and can be stored for long periods of time such as kimchi (fermented vegetable, typically napa cabbage, seasoned with red pepper powder) and jang (fermented paste and sauce). However, the main dishes are almost always freshly prepared, which explains why there are so many hot dishes in Korea.

Koreans’ love of hot dishes is also reflected in their language. When Koreans offer or serve food, they say “Eat up before it gets cold.” Treating a person to a hot, freshly prepared meal represents the cook’s sincere respect for the person.

On the other hand, “like cold rice” is an idiomatic phrase used in Korea to describe persons or things that are treated poorly and considered insignificant. Back in the days when patriarchal thinking was at its worst, the warm bowl of freshly cooked rice was always served to the men or the elders of Korean households. Naturally, the old and cold bowls were left to the women or the young. Warm rice was for the important people and cold rice was for the less important. Although the current Korean society no longer considers women and children to be insignificant, warm and cold rice bowls still embody the meaning of good versus poor treatment.

Koreans are experts at eating hot and spicy food. As they gulp down hot and spicy meals, they blurt out, “How refreshing!” This may confuse foreigners because the word for “refreshing” is synonymous with “cool” in Korean. What may be even more surprising is that Koreans enjoy hot food as boyangsik, or health food that invigorates the body, on the hottest days of the year to revive themselves in the scorching summer heat.

The absolute favorite summertime boyangsik for Koreans is samgyetang, or ginseng chicken soup. The Korean summer consists of the three bok days (also called three Dog Days), which fall between June and July of the lunar calendar at 10-day intervals. The days come in the order of chobok (First Dog Day), jungbok (Middle Dog Day), and malbok (Last Dog Day); the sweltering heat of the summer is known to begin around chobok and subside around malbok. Samgyetang is one of the foods that people eat on 079

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these bok days. Koreans have a traditional belief that eating certain health foods on these days will soothe the heat in the body and provide the vigor needed to survive the summer in good health.

Samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup) is the perfect traditional dish for beating the summer heat. Even in Western culture, chicken soup is the go-to food when feeling sick or under the weather. So it is not very surprising that Korea’s traditional version of chicken soup is just as nourishing. Chicken is believed to have a cooling property that cools the body down according to traditional Korean medicine, which believes that each food has a cooling, warming, or neutral property. Samgyetang combines chicken with ginseng that helps restore energy, glutinous rice, and various medicinal herbs that are supposed to cool the body down and replenish the minerals that are lost through perspiration. However, despite such nutritional qualities, eating a steaming hot pot of chicken soup to fight off the sweltering summer heat may not sound very logical to those who are new to this culture.

What is at play here is Korea’s traditional belief called yi-yeol-chi-yeol, which means “beating heat with heat.” The principle is that one must fight fire with fire, similar to the idea of homeopathy that became pervasive across Europe after the 19th century.

This is why Koreans fight off the summer heat with something even hotter: a hot pot of samgyetang. In fact, you will notice feeling cooler and refreshed after sweating over a hot bowl of samgyetang as the sweat evaporates.

Spicy croaker fish soup is another example of the hot and spicy food that Koreans eat on hot summer days. It is a fish soup that contains croaker, a white meat fish that tastes light and clean, together with vegetables like zucchini and scallion, and seasoned with red chili powder and red chili paste. Few Koreans can resist its hot, spicy, and refreshing taste.

However, the younger generations of the country who are much more accustomed to take-out rather than homemade food have given rise to a new trend in the foods to be had on the bok days. Instead of seeking out samgyetang, which requires a visit to restaurants, they prefer to simply get fried chicken on delivery. Either way, summer in Korea is not a good time to be a chicken.

Koreans love the heat Another way for Koreans to treat heat with heat is to go to jjimjilbang, the Korean sauna. The jjimjilbang is one of Koreans’ favorite summertime getaways. It may be difficult to fathom why anyone would go to a hot sauna in the already hot summer, but it is a natural part of life for Koreans who understand the charm of fighting heat 080

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with heat.

In fact, the seasonal factor is not a consideration in Korean people’s decision to go to the jjimjilbang. In wintertime, the sauna is a perfect place to thaw out from the blistering cold. In the summer, it is the go-to place to relieve heat with more heat. As for spring and fall, the weather is just pleasant enough or chilly enough to spend some time at the jjimjilbang. In other words, it is Koreans’ favorite place throughout all four seasons. They are accustomed to the traditional heating system called ondol, which is the underfloor heating that warms up the air in the room by heating up the floors. No matter what the weather or the temperature is, Koreans love heat.

Jjimjilbang is a resort facility that is unique to Korea, and includes various rest areas and dry sauna rooms, as well as spas and baths. It is furnished with saunas of different temperatures from moderately warm to extremely hot, and the temperature can be as high as 70℃. It also has saunas with different themes such as those that have the walls lined with minerals like ocher soil, crystals, and salt, or those that are decorated with herbs like mugwort. All of these features have healing properties by emitting natural far-infrared rays and sulfur that are good for the body.

Some jjimjilbangs offer home-theater features where the visitors can enjoy television and films. This makes the facilities extremely popular when there are major sports events playing overseas because the games would broadcast live late at night in Korea due to the time difference. Few could resist having a good time and enjoying both the sauna and a good game of sports with friends and family.

Jjimjilbang is also equipped with rest areas for simple meals, snacks, and beverages as well as aesthetics centers for facial and hair care. They charge extra fees for such services but people are drawn to the convenience of having an assortment of different services all in a single place.

Some of the popular menus at the rest areas of jjimjilbang are seaweed soup, saunastyle baked eggs, and sikhye, or rice punch. Seaweed soup is the perfect dish to eat after sauna because it helps restore the minerals lost from sweating and facilitates blood circulation. Eggs cooked with the same heat that fires up the saunas and Korea’s traditional beverage of cold and sweet sikhye make for great nutritional snacks as well.

In particular, sikhye made with fermented rice is a great natural remedy for indigestion, so it goes well with baked eggs.

Jjimjilbang can be found anywhere in Korea, and people have various reasons for going to this place. Koreans go to the jjimjilbang with friends and family for a little R&R, or with lovers on a date. For office workers, jjimjilbang is a convenient place to spend the night after burning the midnight oil at the office until there is no public 081

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transport available to get home. In such cases, they crash at a nearby jjimjilbang to save time and taxi fare, and freshen up before going to work the next morning. Likewise, these saunas can be a great alternative for tourists who are unable to find available accommodations. As such, there are quiet and cozy slumber rooms for those who are looking for a place to get some shut-eye.

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Samgyetang became popular outside of Korea thanks to the K-drama series called “Descendants from the Sun”

ⓒ Yang Hyun-moh

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2 Bingsu Enjoyed All Year Round

Bingsu became a favorite dessert in all four seasons, not just in the summer

â“’ Yang Hyun-moh

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Colorful toppings on shaved ice: from traditional sweet red bean paste to exotic tropical fruits Some days are just too hot to fight the heat with heat, and this is when Koreans look to cold foods. Naengmyeon, or chilled noodles, and bingsu, or shaved ice dessert, are a couple of Korea’s favorite cold foods that are supposed to cool you down to the core.

Naengmyeon, which has its origin in North Korea, comes in two different styles of chilled noodles: the Hamheung-style and the Pyeongyang-style, depending on which area of North Korea it is from. The Hamheung-style naengmyeon uses chewy sweet potato starch-infused noodles that are difficult to cut with teeth alone. On the other hand, the Pyeongyang-style naengmyeon has noodles that are easy to cut because there is buckwheat flour in them. Each of these styles then divides into two types.

One is mul-naengmyeon, which is served in cold meat broth or radish water kimchi broth, and the other is bibim-naengmyeon, which is served with spicy red pepper paste sauce instead of broth. This bibim-naengmyeon is further divided into two styles: goginaengmyeon, which is served with slices of meat, and hoe-naengmyeon, which is served with slices of raw fish.

Naengmyeon is a popular dish that restores the appetite of Koreans who are exhausted from the summer heat.

Recently, another summer favorite has risen above the popularity of naengmyeon. It is none other than bingsu. This icy dessert of shaved ice has become a year-round menu instead of being a summer special. It is shifting the paradigm in the Korean dessert market, which has previously been dominated by coffee, cakes, and cookies for the last decade.

Bingsu originates from the Eastern culture’s traditional ice snacks made with snow or ice mixed with honey or fruit juice. Records of such ice snacks even appear in the Italian explorer Marco Polo’s The Travels of Marco Polo according to which “The frozen milk that began in Beijing, China, was introduced to Venice.” This proves that the Eastern culture started enjoying ice snacks much earlier than the Western culture, where it is believed ice cream was invented.

Back in the days when there were no refrigerators, Koreans kept enormous blocks of ice in storage during the winter and broke them into small bits to use year-round. In fact, the Dongbinggo-dong and the Seobinggo-dong in Seoul’s Yongsan-gu district is where these ice storages used to be located during the Joseon Dynasty. The dongbinggo (East ice storage) was for ice that was used in official events such as national ritual ceremonies, whereas the seobinggo (West ice storage), was for ice that was used in the 085

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royal court. In other words, ice solely belonged to the royalty. However, it was the job of the ordinary people to collect and transport huge blocks of ice all the way to the ice storages in the blistering cold of winter. This is why the ice used in the royal court during the summer was referred to as “tear ice,” meaning it was made with the tears of the people. The King did open up his ice storages for his people if the summer heat became unbearable, but it was nearly impossible for the ice to make its way to the ordinary people after passing through a number of administrative bodies, making ice an aristocratic and luxurious ingredient for food.

Then, the refrigeration technology was developed in Germany in the 1870s and it was no less than a revolutionary innovation, enabling a mass production of ice and its popularization. Japan was the first country to make and sell today’s form of bingsu using the mass manufactured ice and the ice dessert entered Korea during the Japanese Occupation between 1910 and 1945.

Korean bingsu uses red beans and rice cakes as its toppings, whereas Taiwan with its abundance of tropical fruit uses fruits like mango for toppings. The traditional form of bingsu in Korea is topped with a pile of red beans simmered in sugar.

Then, starting in the 1990s, different variations began to be introduced. Summer fruits like strawberries and watermelons were added to the traditional red bean paste and some bingsu even came with ice cream topping. However, immense popularity of coffee houses soon pushed bingsu to the backseat as limited edition products available only in the summer season.

In the year 2013, a café opened that specializes in bingsu year-round called Sulbing, and the evolution of the shaved ice dessert began. After the first store opened in Busan, the bingsu café rapidly grew into an enormous franchise with some 500 branches all over the country in just two years. It became a threat not only to the existing bingsu cafés but also conventional coffee shops by bringing to the scene a wide range of bingsus and Korean-style desserts that target the Korean youths.

More bingsu cafés followed suit after Sulbing and the Korean market for bingsu has now become saturated. Thanks to these cafés, bingsu as well as other traditional desserts of Korea have greatly diversified. There are exotic fruit bingsu varieties using mango, coconut, or melon, as well as the time-honored traditional bingsu of fine-shaved ice topped with dollops of sweetened red bean paste and served in a traditional brassware.

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3 Mosi Textile; Traditional to Modern Trends

Jukbuin is Korea’s traditional handicraft that leverages the cooling property of bamboo to soothe the heat of mid-summer nights

â“’ booknfoto

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Ramie fabric lets in the cool wind and lets out the summer heat During summers, Koreans traditionally liked to soothe and avoid the heat instead of confronting and chasing it.

That is why Koreans countered heat with hot foods rather than cold foods. It is also why they prefer to be fully dressed in clothes that are breathable and absorb perspiration instead of wearing short sleeves and short pants.

Ramie (moshi) is the perfect fabric that is breathable and resistant to perspiration.

The traditional Korean fabric dubbed the “Asian linen” is produced by weaving threads of ramie, a perennial plant that belongs in the nettle family.

The texture of the fabric is coarse to the touch and the fibers are hollow in the middle, which keeps the fabric from sticking to the wearer’s body. Furthermore, it is the perfect material for summer attire because it absorbs perspiration and dries rapidly.

Besides ramie fabric, there are other fabrics also known to be refreshing and cool, such as linen made from flax plants or hemp cloth made from hemp plants. Of these, ramie fabric is definitely the most refreshing to wear. This fabric is also called kyeonma, which means “linen as soft and white as silk,” because the ramie fibers turn milky-white through the scouring and bleaching process.

Because ramie has an excellent absorption characteristic, it dyes vividly and evenly when submerged under a natural dye several times. However, Koreans have traditionally preferred to wear ramie in white. In the ancient times, Korea has been referred to as the “nation in white,” and the white in this phrase came from the white ramie clothes that the people wore.

High-quality ramie fabric boasts a cooling touch, translucency, and subtle hues. The crisp sounds that it makes as it rubs against each other amplify the elegant beauty of Korea’s traditional costume, hanbok.

With the onset of accelerated global warming, the Korean climate is shifting towards a subtropical climate with hot and humid weather. This is gradually inspiring some Koreans to lean more towards ramie fabric. Many Korean designers are using this refreshing fabric in new fashion designs other than the traditional hanbok. There are also efforts to develop more affordable new material fibers that mimic the texture and breathability of ramie.

As a result of these efforts, special undergarments commonly referred to as moshimeri were invented to imitate the texture of ramie fabric. Also, there are women’s blouses and men’s dress shirts that modified the design of Korea’s jeoksam, a traditional unlined summer jacket made with ramie that is done up with buttons instead of the 089

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traditional breast-ties. The sales for the moshimeri underwear have risen significantly in the recent years, and there is an increasing number of people wearing blouses or dress shirts made with ramie fabric in the summer. Evidently, ramie clothes have become a necessity for surviving the hot and humid Korean summers, which also come with rainy seasons and tropical nights that can stretch for 10 to 15 days.

The wisdom of soothing the heat instead of chasing it Ramie clothes are often ironed stiff with starch made from rice or sticky rice. This way, the fabric does not hug the body tightly, making the garment even more cooling.

However, even the starched ramie clothes can become damp and sticky in the humid summer. In order to address this problem, Koreans wore a sleeveless vest and arm covers made by weaving thin strips of rattan underneath the ramie jeoksam (summer jacket). This secured enough airway between the skin and ramie fabric to prevent dampness and stickiness from perspiration, which in turn meant less creasing.

It was common for the elderly to wear the rattan sleeveless vest and arm covers under their jeoksam even until the 1980s when hanbok was still considered daily wear.

Unfortunately, both items have become rare nowadays.

Jukbuin, which translates into “bamboo wife,” is another traditional craftwork that fends off the heat with the same principle as rattan vests and arm covers. This tubular bamboo body pillow is meant to be hugged under the covers on hot summer nights, which gives its name of “bamboo wife.” Hugging jukbuin will prevent covers from wrapping around the body and the cool touch of the bamboo helps to cope with the heat. Because this handicraft is called a bamboo “wife,” there is a witty custom of not lending it to others. Especially, a father and his son are not supposed to share the same jukbuin.

At one point, the jukbuin also seemed to disappear from Koreans’ daily lives as did the rattan vest and arm covers. However, it has reappeared in Korean households in the recent years and one of the reasons is the increase in tropical nights during summertime that are so hot and humid that people cannot get to sleep.

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4 Cosmetic Shops in Seoul Packed with Foreign Customers

Korea’s cosmetic brands draw global attention as the secret behind the fair and flawless skin of Korean women

â“’ Amorepacific

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The secret behind the clear complexion of Korean women Clear and healthy skin plays a huge role in a person’s first impression. When two people have similar facial features, the one with clean and flawless skin is usually the more beautiful.

Korean women are very sensitive about blemishes, but more generous toward wrinkles compared to Western women. For Korean women, expression lines that come with age may be considered beautiful, but there is no such thing as a beautiful blemish.

Korean women’s relatively lower concern with wrinkles may be attributable to the fact that Asian women tend to have healthier and thicker skin with relatively less wrinkles than Western women.

Korean women are deeply committed to achieving a fair complexion. They apply sunscreen meticulously to prevent blemishes from forming in the first place and also put a lot of efforts into removing existing blemishes and dark spots. Moreover, cosmetic products in the country are all about making the skin appear clear and flawless, ranging from skincare products with whitening qualities to multi-functional base makeup products that can cover up blemishes. Korean women also like to keep their skin blemish-free through dermatological procedures, such as laser treatments. All these dedications lie behind the flawless skin that Korean women are known for.

The biggest secret to Koreans’ skincare that women around the world want to know is fastidious sun protection routine.

Some Korean women do not stop at applying a generous layer of sunblock with a high SPF. They also wear a broad-brimmed cap that casts a shade down to their lips or a mask covering the nose and cheeks made of a special fabric to block UV rays. There are also women walking in the streets with gloves reaching up to their elbows to block UV rays. Sun caps, masks, or gloves are near necessities when taking a walk in the neighborhood park or along the riverside. Some even carry a parasol in addition to the above.

Foundation, a base makeup product that makes Korean women’s fair skin look even whiter, also comes with some SPF. Also, the Korean makeup industry introduced a new and innovative format of foundation that allows for easy reapplication because Korean women believe reapplication every two to three hours will maximize protection from the sun. This new type of foundation has become an international boom.

This mega-hit product is called “cushion foundation compact.” The compact has a sponge, or cushion, soaked with foundation and a puff is used to take and apply this product onto the face anytime, anywhere. It is an innovative product with an SPF that 093

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blocks the sun as effectively as a sunscreen and creates a luminous and glossy skin that is as moisturized as if it has just been washed even after multiple applications.

The very first cushion foundation was developed over a decade ago by Amore Pacific, Korea’s leading cosmetic company, but there are now dozens of brands in Korea that have launched their own cushion foundation products. The world’s leading cosmetic companies such as LancÔme of France, the motherland of cosmetics, are also following suit in releasing the new type of foundation.

The beauty of Korean women is widely recognized around the world. Although the country is sometimes the target of jealous criticisms with its nickname of “The Republic of Cosmetic Surgery,” it is undeniable that the women in Korea are on average, beautiful.

The secret behind beauty found in natural ingredients, whether eaten or applied The clear, healthy, and flawless skin of Korean women is an envy of women around the globe whether the secret behind it is DNA, meticulous skincare, or frequent visits to the dermatologist. This interest and envy is the driver of a new Korean Wave called K-beauty, which follows K-pop and K-drama.

Recently, a new cosmetic brand was launched in France through collaboration between Korea and France. The brand is called Erborian and it is drawing immense attention from the women living in the world’s traditional fashion and cosmetics powerhouse. It is the result of collaboration between an herbal cosmetic brand launched by a small company in Korea and L’Oreal, a French cosmetic brand. The name Erborian was derived from the French pronunciation of “Asian herb.” The brand launched in 2006 was recently acquired by a prestigious French cosmetic company, expanding its sales network all over the world including Europe, the U.S., and Russia.

The Erborian branch that opened in front of Opera Garnier in Paris is packed with Parisian women.

The popularity of this brand attests to the global interest in the so-called Koreanstyle skin therapy that uses traditional herbal ingredients like ginseng, mugwort, and green tea. The K-beauty boom does not end there. In the U.S., a book about Koreans’ skincare knowhow became popular recently.

One of the greatest secrets to Korean skincare is the use of natural ingredients.

There are a number of ingredients that are healthy when consumed orally and have similar effects when applied onto the skin.

Several natural ingredients have traditionally been used for skincare in Korea. For 094

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example, rice bran has a whitening effect. Green tea is an anti-oxidant that sterilizes and prevents inflammations. Mugwort, or ssuk, is a type of herb that is said to be good for the female health, and ginseng helps strengthen the skin by improving its natural healing processes. When there are signs of blemishes after spending time under the sun, a facial pack made with finely grated rice bran mixed in water can brighten the spots. Meanwhile, inflammations such as breakouts and acne can be soothed with wet tea leaves. Also, ginseng is scientifically proven to be beneficial for skin whether it is orally consumed or applied on the skin.

Such skincare know-how that passed down generations of Korean women has now combined with modern cosmetic technologies to make women beautiful all around the world. Korean brands that contain functional natural ingredients extracted from native and medicinal herbs instead of chemicals are attracting tourists who have previously looked to Japan for cosmetics.

Tourist spots such as Myeong-dong, Samcheong-dong, and Garosugil Street have become sacred places for foreigners who are interested in fashion and beauty. For female tourists, these places offer everything they need in terms of fashion and beauty.

These are the places to go for anyone wanting a snapshot of fashion and beauty trends in Korea because there is a cosmetic store in every other building and the rest of the stores are fashion and accessories boutiques.

In order to make it more foreigner-friendly, many stores have employees speaking different languages such as English, Japanese, and Chinese. Even advertisements and signage are written in both Korean and foreign languages. Some Korean cosmetic brands are now considered even more premium than foreign prestige brands. Their high prices do not put a dent in their popularity.

K-beauty and Korea’s cosmetic brands are enjoying such a large wave of popularity that foreign tourists are now a customer base that is as important as, if not more than, the Korean women themselves in the domestic cosmetic market.

Metrosexual men at their best Women are not the only ones who seek to be beautiful. In Korea, men wearing makeup is not too uncommon. They are the so-called “Grooming Men,� who are just as interested in tending to their looks as women.

Men who use facial masks, sunblocks, or BB creams are under-qualified to be part of the Grooming Men. To join their ranks, you would at least have to trim and fill in the eyebrows to suit the facial shape, contour the nose, and use some eye shadow to add depth to the eyes. Getting regular facial massages and laser treatments to remove 095

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blemishes and unwanted hair are no longer exclusive to women. Especially, laser treatment for hair removal has become popular among men who want smooth legs for summer shorts or hairless silky facial skin.

Until about a decade ago, men’s cosmetic routine consisted of just a toner and lotion, which worked more like an aftershave. Since then, men’s consumption of cosmetics has increased significantly in Korea. Today, Korean men spend the largest amount of money on cosmetics in the world, four times that of the second largest spender, Denmark. Many men use serum or eye cream products that promise whitening, wrinkle reduction, and anti-aging. There are even military camouflage products that are made with a more hypoallergenic formula on the market. In fact, it has become common for male soldiers to begin their skincare routine after their training using moisturizing or brightening products.

Many cosmetic brands are manufacturing separate product lines for men, but there is actually no need to distinguish these products by gender. Different skin types and age groups need to use different cosmetics, but the scent and texture of products are personal preferences that vary only slightly between men and women.

Thus, some of the men who are more particular about skincare turn to women’s cosmetics for a greater variety of products compared to the men’s. BB creams or cushion foundations that go on thin with natural coverage are the base makeup products that men find to be suitable for their gender. BB creams with an SPF are especially popular among men because they can skip the process of applying a sunblock and foundation separately.

To be fair, the men who wear makeup are mostly in their teens or 20s. In particular, young job seekers looking for the first job in their life think makeup is essential for their job interviews. They believe they can project a neat and confident first impression by creating an even complexion, covering up their flaws, and accentuating their strong features such as eyebrows, eyes, and nose.

Leo J, a male beauty YouTuber, is popular for his videos that offer makeup and skincare tips for men. He also offers tutorials for women who are in need of makeup techniques.

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The original cushion foundation

by Amore Pacific There are currently countless varieties of cushion foundation products in the Korean market. In addition to Korean brands, global cosmetic brands such as LancÔme, Bobbi Brown, Mac, and Yves Saint Laurent have also launched the product. It is no exaggeration to say that cushion foundation has become one of the most sought-after beauty items, not just in Korea but around the world.

Cushion foundation is a breakthrough from the previous foundation lines that came mostly in liquid form. This new sponge-type foundation is easy to carry around and reapply anytime, anywhere. The innovative product was first developed by a leading Korean cosmetic company called Amore Pacific, which launched IOPE Air Cushion in 2008. Amore Pacific has since been releasing various cushion foundations topped with moisturizing, anti-aging, and brightening effects across most of its product lines.

Cushion foundation by Amore Pacific, a Korean cosmetic company that is now a global prestige brand

â“’ Amorepacific

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Korean men’s makeup know-how for job interviews Base makeup is essential for a good first impression at job interviews. Korean men take great care to achieve a clear and fair complexion by covering up blemishes and dark circles under the eyes just like the women. However, the most important tip is never to use a shade of foundation that is too light or too dark. Men’s makeup for job interviews must look as natural as possible because it can be counterproductive if the makeup looks too obvious.

The eyes, the most prominent feature of a face, should be accentuated, yet look natural.

Too much eye makeup should be avoided. Simply touching up the shape of the eyes with a pencil eyeliner is enough.

A lip balm with matte texture should be applied just enough to moisturize the lips.

Although chapped lips do not make a good first impression, greasy lips with too much lip balm are not pleasant either.

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5 Obsession in Korea for the Perfect Body

Koreans work hard for a fit and slim body

â“’ Yang Hyun-moh

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Women aspiring to be a size 44 As much as Koreans are dedicated to their skincare, they are also dedicated to having a great-looking physique.

On average, Koreans have a petite and slim figure. However, most Koreans believe that they are heavier than the average and in need of a diet. In fact, it turns out 80 to 90 percent of Korean women think so.

The ideal body for Korean women is a skinny figure with the height of over 165cm and weight of below 45kg. Size 44 in Korean women’s clothing is equivalent to just below the U.S. size 2. In Italy and the U.K., the size is an XS below size 34 or size 8, respectively. Realistically, size 44 is a good fit only for skinny women who are underweight and it is an unattainable dream for most average women in Korea.

Nonetheless, Korean women who wear size 55 or 66, which are respectively equivalent to the size S or M, believe that they are fat because they are not a size 44.

In fact, Korean women start to desire a slender body from around the age of 10, and weight-controlling diet becomes a part of their daily lives.

This diet fever peaks around the summer season when there is more bodily exposure, and there are numerous diet programs that come and go with this fever. The hottest weight-control exercise right now is pilates that is known to be effective for improving the posture and body line. Yoga, especially flying yoga, is just as popular among women.

Korean men are as dedicated as women to building a great physique and their favorite workout is cardio exercise and weight training for toning the muscles.

However, there are also a lot of men who want to have a slimmer body rather than a big muscular build. These men prefer pilates and flying yoga just like the women.

Regardless of the gender, moderately toned muscles are a prerequisite for a beautiful and healthy physique.

In the past, the muscle that symbolized masculinity used to be biceps. Nowadays, it is all about the abs. Koreans even have a nickname for the beautifully toned abdominal muscle that looks like a flat chocolate bar: “chocolate abs.�

As for women, there is a preference for slim and toned abs as opposed to the chiseled look of male abdominal muscles. Therefore, they take greater care in building lean and long abs that are slightly visible below a flat stomach or tight and toned thigh muscles that look both healthy and beautiful.

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Wanting to look younger and slimmer The words dongan (baby face) and momjjang (hot body) are the very reflection of recent trends in Korea. In a more recently coined term “Bagel Girl,” the word “Bagel” is a combination of “baby face” and “glamorous.” In other words, Bagel Girls are women who qualify for both dongan and momjjang, the ideal type for almost all Korean men.

Words like Bagel Girl that describe a woman by her physical and sexual appeal may be deemed preposterous in the Western culture. The expressions can be interpreted as commercialization and objectification of women, and even degrading of women.

However, such expressions regarding women are still acceptable to a degree in the Korean society.

That is not to say that it is acceptable to use expressions that can make women feel sexual humiliation. However, the line is very ambiguous and customary, and some women may feel offended by expressions that are deemed socially acceptable. In fact, quite a few public figures have been socially censured for using an expression that crosses the line, showing their lack of awareness.

This is a sensitive issue that Korea needs to tackle with greater care going forward.

The wide use of words like Bagel Girl in media and newspapers may be a part of the problem. But perhaps, the word may be the best compliment for the Korean women, who all desire to look younger and slimmer.

Korean society has traditionally been a male-driven society. However, much has changed. Now, boys and girls have equal opportunities in education and there are more and more women who are highly educated and participate in the workforce.

Despite the appearance of gender equality, people’s awareness and mindsets lag behind.

Some women think it is only fair that society puts men before women, and there are some who actually believe that men should have the upper hand over women.

For example, Korea still perceives childcare and housekeeping as female responsibilities despite the growing workforce participation by women. Moreover, the Korean language singles out the female gender by adding the prefix “woman” in front of professions, such as “woman actor,” “woman teacher,” or “woman employee” while no gender-indicating prefix is used for the male counterparts. These prefixes have no grammatical purpose because the Korean language does not need to differentiate between masculine or feminine nouns. These are cases in point that show men and women are not yet on a level playing field.

At the end of the day, the burning desire of Korean women to be youthful and slimmer remains unchanged and the amount of effort they put in to fulfill this desire 102

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is just as fiery. Perhaps, such commitment coupled with Korea’s traditional culinary culture is what gives most Korean women their slim, healthy, and attractive physique.

Summer exposure and the illusion of going bottomless Koreans’ dream of a slimmer body is often based on the desire to feel confident and comfortable about exposing parts of body as appropriate. In other words, it is related to the desire to keep up with fashion trends that involve some flesh exposure or to wear swim suits and bikinis at beaches and pools. Regardless of the gender, an appropriate amount of exposure at an appropriate occasion and place can look beautiful with a slim and fit body.

Korean youths today have become more generous and bold when it comes to bodily exposure. This trend has produced a new expression called “bottomless” fashion. This refers to people wearing a skirt or shorts that are so short that they are almost invisible under the top, making it look like the bottom is missing. In addition, more women now also wear low-cut tops that expose cleavage in daily life, possibly influenced by the celebrities on TV whose job is to look glamorous and spectacular. A sleeveless shirt in the hot summertime has now become common for both men and women.

Korea has traditionally expressed beauty by veiling it rather than revealing it. People believed that something looks much more poignant and beautiful when it is “barely” visible rather than “outright” visible. Showing too much skin was considered to be against the etiquette and even a taboo, especially with women for whom modesty was the utmost virtue. In fact, the traditional attire of hanbok for both men and women covers just about everything except for the face and the hands. Women were also forbidden to show their bare feet and there was even a time when they covered their entire face except for the eyes when going out. There was even a time when the women in Korea did not have the freedom to leave their home in the first place.

With the changes in times, people’s mindsets toward female exposure also changed significantly. There are still people who frown upon the “bottomless” look with short shorts and short skirts, but there are also many people who appreciate their youthful confidence with their body.

However, as in any given society, fashion that shows too much skin is not considered formal. Sleeveless shirts or open-toe shoes are suitable for a formal dress code. For example, it would not be sensible to sport sleeveless shirts or open-toe shoes to a formal business meeting no matter how hot the weather is.

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occasion without regard to the etiquette as if to reflect the increasing social generosity toward exposure. Moreover, during the hottest days of the summer, shorts, short sleeves, and sandals are accepted as an informal business attire to save energy and promote public health. Thus, it would be difficult to fully respect the Western fashion etiquette in Korea. Nevertheless, dressing sensibly should be an act of consideration for others if not for the global manners because too much exposure can make others uncomfortable. There is certainly no argument in saying that it is more difficult to look good while exposed than look good while covered up.

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Super Coolbiz looks The word “Coolbiz” is a word that combines “cool” and “business.” It refers to a newly accepted form of business wear with no tie or no jacket during the summer season. In Japan, it was reported that the movement to spread Coolbiz saved over 1.7 billion U.S. dollars in air conditioning in the summer of 2005.

For several years, Korea also allowed the no-tie, no-jacket Coolbiz look in July and August when the heat wave was at its highest during the summer. More recently, this expanded into a so-called “Super Coolbiz” movement because Korea’s climate is turning increasingly subtropical and summers are becoming more humid and sticky. The movement was first initiated in the Seoul City Hall. The Seoul Metropolitan City Government announced the Super Coolbiz movement in 2012 to save energy with the goal of reducing one nuclear power plant from the energy mix of the country. In the Super Coolbiz look, men do not have to wear a jacket or tie and they are allowed to wear to work shorts, sandals, or shortsleeved shirts with a collar. This applies for public officials of most departments in Seoul Metropolitan City Government between the months of June and August when the heat is the most unbearable. As for the women, sleeveless shirts or sleeveless dresses are allowed.

The Super Coolbiz movement of Seoul City Hall has now spread to some of the large conglomerates including Samsung. This implies that Koreans’ dress code during the summer is likely to become freer and bolder in the years to come.

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6 Seoul Cheongdam-dong, the Mecca of Plastic Surgery

A street in Gangnam district of Seoul filled with plastic surgeons

â“’ Yang Hyun-moh

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The Kingdom of plastic surgery?!

Although Koreans are fond of being the first in everything, the title of being number one in the world for the number of people that underwent plastic surgery makes them uneasy.

Until as recently as the early 1990s, Korean celebrities confessing that they have had cosmetic surgery were worthy of news coverage. However, after a while, speaking out about having a surgery started to be viewed as an act of confidence and responsibility rather than something to be ashamed of. The consensus was that it was a necessary part of celebrities’ job, which is to look beautiful and always remain so before the public.

Led by the celebrity circles, the changing attitude toward plastic surgery soon trickled down to the general public. According to a recent survey, half of the female population above the age of 18 in Korea have underwent cosmetic surgery, which places them right at the top of the world ranking.

These days, an increasing number of men go under the knife, believing it will help them land a job or improve social relationships. Not only that, there is a rising number of teens having plastic surgery. In fact, it has been a while since cosmetic surgery has become the best gift that parents can give their child to congratulate college entrance.

Plastic surgeons work overtime into the night during school breaks to make slots for strings of students. Meanwhile, office workers take days off work to make time for the surgery and they also plan their surgery during long national holidays. Thus, the busiest time for plastic surgeons is during vacation seasons and long national holidays like Seol and Chuseok when it is time off for the rest of the country.

A growing number of Koreans want to go under the knife, feeling unhappy about how they look. So it is not surprising to see reports of people with body dysmorphic disorder who believe that there is something seriously wrong with their appearance and seek to become perfect through surgery. Furthermore, there are people who undergo more than three rounds of plastic surgery and still want more because they are addicted. Despite these social problems, it appears that the Korean fever for cosmetic surgery is set to continue indefinitely.

Young Koreans in their 20s give their all to building their spec, which is a Korean expression for padding their resume with more certificates, experiences, degrees, qualifications, and other merits that will appeal to employers. For them, appearance is no longer an option but a must in the list of specs. This is testament to how much value is placed on one’s appearance in today’s Korean society.

The word spec is short for “specification,” which originally means a manual that describes the features and functions of an electronic device. It is not normally used to 107

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describe a person and Korea is the only country in the world that uses this word to refer to a person’s qualifications or credentials. Foreigners are bewildered when they learn that Koreans consider physical appearance a part of the spec and would even go as far as to undergo plastic surgery to upgrade themselves and their looks. The word “upgrade” is also inappropriate to be used for a person, and Korea is again the only country to use the word in this context.

Perhaps, the indiscriminate usage of words like spec and upgrade that equate a person’s ability to the features of an electronic device reflects the ills of modern society that treats a person as a mere component of a larger mechanism. It is regrettable that Korea, a country that boasts a rich history and culture, is at the forefront of such phenomenon.

It is a mystery as to why Korea has become so obsessed with people’s looks as to be dubbed the Plastic Surgery Central. It is true that Koreans have to compete more fiercely than others if they are to get ahead and seize opportunities in a country with limited land and natural resources. Appearance has become one of the criteria for evaluating a person in such fierce competition. The pervasive preoccupation with appearance is also largely attributable to medical institutions that encourage plastic surgeries in blind pursuit for profit, exacerbating the unhealthy social fixation with one’s look.

The colorful signage for cosmetic surgery clinics that cover the building exteriors in Gangnam-gu district show the country’s culture of lookism, egged on by strong temptations of plastic surgeries everywhere. Now, these promises of beauty through plastic surgery are even drawing women from outside of the country because Korea offers excellent cosmetic surgery techniques at more affordable prices than Western cultures like the U.S. or Europe. In fact, every year, there is a growing number of tourists who visit Korea to get plastic surgery as part of medical tour programs that combine medical service and tourism in a single package.

In major tourist destinations in Korea such as Gangnam-gu, Myeong-dong, Samcheong-dong, and Itaewon, it is a common sight to see women shopping with their face hidden under hats, sunglasses, and masks. A lot of them are medical tourists.

Although they have most of the face covered, the awkward swelling of the forehead, knife-sharp jawline, and bruises that are yet to heal on the artificially high bridge of the nose are hard to miss. There are, of course, many Koreans among them and they are often mocked and dubbed as the “Gangnam Girl” because they are often spotted in Gangnam area, or the “Plastic Clones” because they all end up looking alike.

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All about the class and dignity of appearance Korean society has traditionally assessed a person based on his or her appearance (shin), speech (eon), penmanship (seo), and the ability to understand and make judgments about the world (pan). Together, these four criteria were called shin-eon-seopan. They were actually the basis for selecting administrative officials during China’s Tang Dynasty, and Korea, which was deeply influenced by the Chinese culture before modernization, also used these criteria to appoint personnel.

It is noteworthy that the very first criterion on the list is shin, which concerns one’s physique and appearance. When a person makes an assessment about a stranger, appearance is usually the very first marker that is considered. However competent a person may be, the first impression cannot be very good if he or she has a small build or an ugly face. Of course, the less-than-impressive preliminary assessment could change over time as the person proves his or her true worth. Unfortunately, a bad first impression can strip a person from the opportunity of being reassessed over time to begin with.

Does this mean that the Korean society has always been so concerned about how people look on the outside?

It is true that the Confucian tradition of the Korean society taught people to take care of their outer appearance as much as they took care of their internal self and wisdom. However, appearance in this context did not mean physical beauty. The “appearance” that the Korean society has traditionally focused on was closer to a sense of dignity or class.

Koreans often use the word chemyeon, often translated into “face” as in saving face, to mean “dignity.” Whereas “dignity” implies one’s status and nobility, chemyeon is wider in scope to include dignified speech and action, thoughtful consideration for others, as well as fulfilling one’s social responsibility. In the ancient Korea, one of the ways for the yangban class (the ruling elite) to keep chemyeon was to practice noblesse oblige, or the social responsibilities of the wealthy. This illustrates that saving “face” was only a small part of chemyeon in Korea’s Confucian tradition.

Thus, the appearance element that was so integral to the traditional appointment process in Korea did not mean one’s physical features but rather one’s attitude and actions that befit the position’s dignity and chemyeon.

The most significant requirement for successful operation of an organization, group, or even nation, is having talented human resources. There is even a saying that goes, “Everything starts with human resources.” Thus, the most important driving force in maintaining and developing an organization is to discover capable talents and place 109

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them in appropriate positions.

Nowadays, many Korean corporations are contemplating ways to introduce a new system for assessing prospective employees from various angles based on cover letters, essays, oral statements and presentations, as well as in-depth or unorthodox interviews.

However, in reality, they are not making a successful break from the conventional employment method centering around the so-called spec such as the job seekers’ educational background, transcripts, and language proficiency. In reality, job seekers still have no choice but to build their specs regardless of where their true aptitude and passion lie.

The traditional idea of assessing one’s appearance (shin) was about examining the person’s overall attitude as a mature member of society. Speech (eon) was related to one’s communication ability as well as language proficiency itself. Penmanship (seo) was aimed at evaluating the person’s knowledge and wisdom in the humanities as well as in the respective area of expertise. Based on these three abilities, a person can demonstrate the ability of pan to understand the odds and ends of the world, and also have the wisdom to react appropriately in given situations. Let us hope for the day when these abilities become a bigger priority than the spec or the “golden spoon” in the Korean society.

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Spec and the “golden spoon” In Korea, the word spec is used to refer to all the items that a job seeker would write on his or her resume. This includes educational background, licenses, certificates, official test scores for English proficiency, awards, overseas experience, internship experiences, and various other barometers for one’s competence and ability. Physical appearance is also considered by many to be one of the important specs.

Recently, another item seems to have been added to the list of specs and that is the socioeconomic status of parents. With this idea came the word “golden spoon,” which refers to people who are blessed with rich and powerful parents. The word has its origin in the old expression, “born with a golden spoon in one’s mouth.” The opposite of “golden spoon” is “soil spoon,” which refers to those who have to make it through their own means because they have nothing to benefit from the financial or social status of their parents.

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7 Koreans Want to Take Their Vacations Overseas

Koreans leaving abroad on summer vacations

â“’ NewsBank

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Korea’s favorite summer getaway, the beach The trend is shifting in Koreans’ traveling style. A trip no longer means going to many different places and seeing many different things. The timing is also changing.

Whereas everyone seemed to take a vacation during the hottest time of the year between the end of July and mid-August in the past, the timing of vacation is distributed more evenly throughout the year these days. More people are seeking relaxing trips that are customized for their own lifestyle and traveling preference instead of going to famous tourist destinations and being swept this way and that amidst a crowd of tourists with nothing to show for it but photos.

Still, it is in the summer, especially around the end of July to mid-August, that the vacation season is in full swing. Korean vacations look and feel like the long national holidays of Seol or Chuseok. On these two national holidays, there is a so-called “Great Movement of the People” as a large part of the Korean population visit their hometown to spend the holiday with families. Such nationwide mass movement can also be seen during the summer vacation season.

Korea’s mass vacation season is in early August. Many stores and restaurants close during this time because owners of stores and restaurants decide to take this time for their own vacation. After all, business is not good when so many people are away visiting their families. Of course, this is when shops and restaurants around vacation spots enjoy the highest sales in the whole year. Also, the metropolitan area feels rather empty after people left on vacations, just like during the two major national holidays.

So where do these people go to take a break from it all, away from their homes?

There is a wide range of destinations both at home and abroad that Koreans like to go according to the changing travel trends. However, the place that immediately pops into people’s minds when they think of summer vacation in Korea is the beach. In fact, the most frequently searched word under the travel/tour category every summer is “beach.”

Beaches all across Korea become packed. Some of the most popular beaches in Korea are Haeundae Beach in the South Sea of Busan, Gyeongpodae Beach in the East Sea of Gangneung, and the beaches in Jeju Island, which is still a special vacation spot for Koreans.

There is a total of 334 beaches in Korea. Among them, the most famous one is Busan’s Haeundae Beach. It has a beautiful sandy beach that stretches for 1.5km in length and 30 to 50m in width. This 58,400m2-wide beach has gentle tides, shallow water of about 1m deep, and a beautiful coastline, making it a perfect vacation destination.

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Haeundae Beach is also one of the first things that Koreans associate with the city of Busan.

The beach in Busan is also used as a reference to measure how many people have taken a vacation that summer because it is where the largest number of people flock for vacation. Every year, at the peak of summer vacation, TV news would show clips of Haeundae Beach spilling over with people. It is almost absurd to see both water and sand almost invisible with so many people. Nevertheless, the scene may give Koreans some sense of stability in this ever-changing world as one of the very few things that repeat unchanged every year.

Haeundae Beach is also famous for its modern and sophisticated atmosphere thanks to the tall buildings and luxury hotels along the coastline. It is a popular travel destination not just during the summer vacation season but year-round, and is popular with young people in particular. attracting a lot of younger people. It is also wellknown among foreign tourists as the place where the Busan International Film Festival is held.

More Koreans traveling overseas than in Korea Interestingly, there is a decrease in the number of Koreans traveling in the country in contrast with a growing number of foreign tourists visiting Korea.

According to a report by a Korean organization that analyzes big data, all top 10 tour destinations that saw the largest fall in the number of tourists in the year 2015 were located in Korea. In contrast, seven out of 10 vacation spots that had a greater buzz among Koreans in 2015 were all located overseas. The place that had the largest decrease in buzz was the city of Jeonju in North Jeolla Province and the place with the highest rise in buzz was the Boracay Islands in the Philippines.

Furthermore, for the first time since 2008, there was a decrease in short trips of less than five days, and more people were found to be going on mid- to long-term trips of six days or more. This shows that the tourism trend in Korea is changing significantly.

The busiest month for Incheon International Airport is from mid-July to midAugust every year because this is when tourists rush to the airport to go on summer vacations.

All around the airport, there are excited tourists standing next to a large suitcase in comfortable clothes with passports and boarding passes in their hand, engrossed in discussions on what they would do during the trip. Lovers, families, and friends go on vacations together, but there are also people who decide to go backpacking alone.

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The shift in the traveling pattern from short domestic family trips to longer overseas trips, sometimes alone, can be explained by the emergence of a new consumer base in Korea called FORME. FORME refers to people who do not hold back on spending for themselves, or “for me.” At the same time, FORME is an acronym for people who like to spend “For health,” usually a “One”-person household, who also value “Recreation,” “More convenience,” and making “Expensive” investments for themselves.

The FORME first appeared in Korea around the year 2009, most of them in their 20s or 30s. From small luxuries to bold spending, they do not hesitate to make investments for themselves and prioritize their own comfort and satisfaction over anything else. Products or services that mainly target this group of consumers will enjoy good sales even during economic downturns. This is why Korean companies are introducing various marketing strategies to attract the FORME. However, it would be a big mistake to assume that the FORME will easily open up their wallets for anything and everything just because they do not hesitate to invest in themselves. They reject any pretentious luxuries for only showing off and instead, concentrate on their own personal satisfaction and reward. Such individualistic emphasis on self-satisfaction actually makes them a more challenging consumer base to win over.

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8 Symbol of Tenacity in Korean Women; Haenyeo from Jejudo

Haenyeo of Jeju Island is the world’s only female professional job of its kind

â“’ Yang Hyun-moh

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The living landmarks of Jeju Island For Koreans who now like to travel overseas rather than within Korea, the most popular domestic vacation spot remains to be Jeju Island.

Jeju Island is known for preserving its unique lifestyle that lives and breathes with the island’s exceptional natural environment. One of the most special cultures of Jeju Island is haenyeo, or female divers. Haenyeo¸which literally translates into “sea woman,” is unique to Korea and there is no other profession like it anywhere else in the world.

Haenyeo refers to women who make their living by collecting seafood like sea cucumbers, abalone, and seaweed from the ocean without any special diving equipment. They are sometimes called jamnyeo, which translates into “diving woman.”

They take one big breath and dive down 10 to 15m below the sea level and collect seafood as they hold their breaths for one to two minutes.

The act of diving to collect seafood is called muljil, and these female divers do not stop muljil even in the freezing winter. Though Japan also has their own female divers, they are different because they do not dive for muljil when the water temperature drops to a certain degree. This is what makes the haenyeo a special job that is unique to Korea.

In Korea, there have always been haenyeos who make their living through muljil in the coastal areas of the East Sea, South Sea, and nearby islands. However, most of the haenyeo population was concentrated in the Jeju region, which is why the island is considered to be the cradle of this profession. Modern day haenyeos are equipped with rubber diving suits that help them maintain the body temperature and insulate them from the cold seawater, but haenyeos of the past had to dive in diving suits made up of fabric, even in the wintertime. Even today, the only the professional equipment that the haenyeos use is water goggles and flippers.

They dive wearing a belt lined with heavy lead weights to prevent them from floating back to the surface. They take a bucket and net with them, which they leave on the sea surface to keep the collected seafood, and they also hold onto them for short breaks. Another tool they bring into the water is a small hook for harvesting shellfish stuck on rocks. These fearless women dive with minimal tools and say that they forget all about the chronic pain they had on land and even their age when they are out in the ocean. In fact, on Jeju Island, there are many old haenyeos, some as old as their 90s, still diving and collecting seafood to make a living.

The Jeju haenyeo is a symbol of a strong woman. In the past, the women of Jeju Island thought it was their calling to work the fields or to dive. They learnt how to swim and dive from the age of six or seven, and became divers capable of muljil at the age of 15 or 16. By the age of 17, they became full-fledged haenyeos and continued 117

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muljil for more than four or five decades on average.

These women had no specific reason for choosing to be a diver. From primitive times, humanity has searched for food in the ocean, and it was the same for the Jeju haenyeos. They entered the ocean empty-handed and came out with a basket full of seafood. They made ends meet by selling the seafood they collected, and that is how they provided for their children. For women in Jeju, muljil was not a life choice but life itself.

The way Jeju haenyeos work seems almost superhuman. They sometimes dive more than 20m below sea level and can hold their breath for more than two minutes while collecting seafood. They could dive for over 15 consecutive days per month, but this is not common either in Korea or anywhere else around the world. All of this is only possible because they are the Jeju haenyeos.

Haenyeo, a culture worthy of World Cultural Heritage The work of Jeju haenyeos is something that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. In the past, the Jeju haenyeos advanced beyond the coast of Jeju Island into Japanese, Chinese, and even Russian seas. The profits made from their hard work were what supported the Jeju economy. During the Japanese Occupation, the haenyeos organized a large-scale resistance in protest against Japanese exploitation of the country. As many as 17,000 Jeju haenyeos took part in the movement, organizing 238 rallies over the course of two years.

Such resilient and strong quality of Jeju haenyeos is the reason why there is a popular belief that the women of Jeju Island are the real breadwinners instead of the men who are incompetent.

Korea is recently making multi-faceted efforts to register the unique profession of Jeju haenyeo as UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage. As part of these efforts, photographer Kim Hyeong-seon, who specializes in taking pictures of Jeju haenyeos, is holding photo exhibitions around the world in order to promote international awareness of these special women.

His <Jeju Haenyeo> exhibition held in Korean Cultural Center New York in 2015 was greatly acclaimed by New Yorkers. This was the beginning of a series of other wellreceived exhibitions around the world, including those held in France with invitations from Festival de Photo de Mer in Vannes and the Toulouse Festival in 2016.

However, there is a problem: the number of Jeju haenyeos is dropping dramatically every year. According to the statistics by Jeju City, the number of Jeju haenyeos stood at a total of 2,404 at the end of 2015. This is a year-on-year fall of 81 persons. On 118

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the other hand, only eight people joined the diving profession. The biggest reason for the decrease is the retirement or death of the haenyeos against the backdrop of aging society. Also, diving has become a declining industry on Jeju Island, pushed to the backseat by the expanding industries of tangerine farming and tourism. Moreover, haenyeos’ work is physically challenging, sometimes causing decompression sickness, and not many young women want to join the profession.

This is why Jeju Island is rolling up its sleeves to foster a new generation of haenyeos by establishing the world’s first haenyeo school in order to pass on this worldly cultural heritage to the younger generation. The Hansupul Haenyeo School established in 2007 hires experienced haenyeos as trainers and trains women under the age of 50. The school is open not only to women in Jeju Island but also those from other regions, and even foreign immigrants. Men can join the class as well. Also, Jeju City is rolling out policies to prevent any further decrease in haeneyos such as providing diving suits in vivid colors to prevent safety accidents or distributing tailored water goggles for sight correction.

Currently, the age distribution of haenyeos is as follows: 0.4 percent are those in their 30s, 2 percent in their 40s, 13.0 percent in their 50s, and 84.5 percent are those aged 60 or above. Older haenyeos in their 80s or above represent as much as 13.4 percent, which shows the seriousness of the aging issue in this profession.

Korean women have the worst glass ceiling of all OECD nations One way to describe Korean women would be “gentle on the outside, tough on the inside.” Even though they may seem delicate and gentle on the outside, they are just as strong and forward-thinking as the male counterparts on the inside. The compassion and determination of a mother who sacrifices for the family and children are also some of the virtues that characterize Korean women who are gentle on the outside and tough on the inside.

However, today, Korean women are changing. They are now enjoying the same opportunities to be educated like the men. With these changes, the women’s power in Korea is growing stronger day by day. Working has now become a must, not an option, for women and there are many who continue to work even after getting married and having children. These working moms represent a large demographic of the married women in Korea.

Moreover, Korean women are just as capable and competent as their male counterparts. Women are outscoring men in the exams to become teachers and public 119

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servants, which are known for stiff competition. Also, more and more women are taking on professions that have traditionally been male-dominated, such as doctors, lawyers, and military officers. In Korea, a prefix meaning “woman” is added to these words to single out women who have one of these professions, but that no longer seems necessary.

Unfortunately, upon closer examination, these confident women are faced with gender inequality in wage and disproportionate responsibilities such as housework, childbirth, and childrearing. Korean society has traditionally been male-dominated and this still holds in many companies that prefer male workers and are male-driven.

Even if a female worker starts her career at the same time as her male counterpart, her promotion is often delayed and it is very difficult to climb up to a high-ranking position. Not only that, even though women have the same responsibilities as the men at work, married women are expected to do most of the housework and childcare when they come home.

Recently, there are many young Korean men who are doing their part at home, but the social atmosphere is still to leave these responsibilities to the women. Childbirth, for which the responsibility cannot be shared, is also a factor that prevents women from fully concentrating on their career. Thus, many women are giving up childbirth for the sake of their work, which leads to the serious social problems of low birth rate and reduced population. Unfortunately, Korea’s social awareness and institutions are not changing much. The glass ceiling is much higher and harder to break for Korean women.

Most Korean young men whose wives also work think that they must share the responsibility of housekeeping and childcare with their spouse. However, their actual contribution is quite small in most cases.

This is because Korean men are uneducated when it comes to the responsibilities at home. The school subject related to housework, which used to be only offered to girls, is now being taken by both genders, but students pay little attention to this class because the subject is not part of the university entrance exam. Furthermore, mothers often prepare their grown-up daughter to become a good mother and a wife, but fathers rarely prepare the son to be a good father and husband. It is also hard to see mothers teaching their son the skills required for doing house chores. This is why there is little progress made in improving the culture of gender inequality in Korea.

Thus, most Korean men realize that they have suddenly become a husband or a father one day, completely unprepared. Most of them cannot share women’s responsibilities at home even if they want to because they do not know how to.

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Men are to be manly, women are to be womanly Korean men grow up with the traditional idea of what it means to be manly driven into their minds. A man is not to enter the kitchen. A man meant for great things shall not bother with little things. Of course, Korean women are also taught to be womanly in a traditional sense. She has to cook well to be loved by her husband. She should be virtuous in speech and action. She must be obedient.

Hence, being bold to the point of being gruff and tough has become a symbol of manhood in Korea, whereas being meek and obedient has come to represent womanhood. Traditionally, women in Korea were expected to be virtuous and obedient to a gruff and tough man. On the other hand, men were expected to be the absolute beings that women could fully trust and follow. Even if a man was not actually so strong and tough, he had to at least pretend he was in front of his woman. This is why many Korean men appear rather brusque and insensitive toward women.

Surely, there have been many changes in Korean men recently. There are now even those who put on skincare products after training during military service. This shows that the rise of the so-called “Herbivore Men” is not exclusive to Japan. Herbivore Men refer to men who are more interested in investing in themselves rather than dating women. In fact, there is a growing number of young men in Korea who give off a plant-like impression with their well-tended appearance and physique that is sometimes even slimmer than average women. More men smell of perfume instead of cigarettes and there are even some who walk as gracefully as women instead of the tough and rough body language typically associated with masculinity.

Nevertheless, the general trend among Korean men is still “masculinity,” and it seems the idea of masculinity is different in Korean and Western cultures. The Korean sense of masculinity is lacking the small, daily thoughtfulness for women. This is because Korean men grew up under the pressure to be masculine, but were never taught what it means to be really “masculine.” They know they have to protect the vulnerable women in dangerous situations. They roll up their sleeves whenever there is heavy-lifting to be done. This is all instinctive. However, there are no thoughtful gestures like letting the women walk on the inner side of the sidewalk or not walking too quickly ahead of them. Often, Korean men cannot be expected to wait and hold the door open for a woman they do not know. All of this is not because they look down on women but because they were never educated on how to be considerate for women.

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9 Beat the Heat with Fried-Chicken-and-Beer Combo

Chimaek is Koreans’ favorite energizing food that relieves the day’s fatigue

ⓒ Yang Hyun-moh

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Crispy fried chicken with cold beer is the best remedy for summer heat One of the favorite ways for Koreans to enjoy a summer night is to enjoy a cold glass of beer with crispy fried chicken.

In 2013, the Wall Street Journal introduced chimaek, or fried chicken and cold beer (maekju), as Koreans’ favorite menu for eating out. The article mentioned that chimaek is also popular overseas. Koreans have traditionally enjoyed chicken, but it was not a readily available food back in the old days. When there was an important guest, the family killed one of its chickens to prepare a bowl of baeksuk, or whole chicken soup boiled with rice. When there was a visit by the son-in-law, considered one of the most important guests, the mother-in-law would kill a brood hen to serve him. This all shows how valuable chicken was as a food. Chicken is also used to prepare samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup) to help survive the summer heat and nourish the body.

However, traditional Korean cuisine did not have fried chicken. For instance, Koreans mistakenly perceive dakgangjeong (crispy fried chicken glazed in stick, sweet, and spicy sauce) as an old traditional Korean food, but in fact, it has only been around for a few decades.

The original version of Korean chicken dish is a chicken rotisserie called tongdak, which roasts the chicken in whole and drains the grease. It is often roasted in an electric heater, so it was often referred to as “electric-roasted tongdak.”

The first to serve electric-roasted tongdak was a restaurant called Myeongdong Yeongyang Center. The owner of this restaurant was inspired by fried chicken dishes in many different countries and introduced his version of electric-fried tongdak, which became a nationwide sensation. As chicken was always considered a nutritional health food, the owner named the restaurant Yeongyang Center where yeongyang means “nutrition” in Korean.

Many similar chicken places opened following the Myeongdong Yeongyang Center, and they were all named after “** Yeongyang Center.” In the past, roasted whole chicken (tongdak) was a delicacy that could only be eaten once a month on dad’s payday. The yellowish paper bag that held the tongdak was enough to wake any child up from sound sleep.

Chimaek is a favorite menu associated with sports. This association was first established during the 2002 FIFA World Cup when the Korean national soccer team advanced to the quarter-finals. Virtually all of the chicken places in Korea were sold out at the time, and ever since, the Korean fried chicken industry anticipates killer sales whenever there is an important national sports event. Of course, no game has 123

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ever matched the sales of 2002 yet.

National teams are not the only ones getting nervous during big sports events.

Owners of fried chicken places also get nervous because the sales fluctuate depending on the result of the game. If the Korean national team does not show satisfactory performance, the demand for fried chicken drops and the stock piles up.

Everyone knows that any food tastes better when fried. This is also true for fried chicken, which used to be made with poor quality chicken meat. Fried chicken was once even considered one of the signature junk foods. Not only that, fried chicken and beer make a terrible couple because the grease from the chicken and the cold beer are bad for the digestive system.

Another pair of menus that goes hand-in-hand is samgyupsal (pork belly) and soju (traditional Korean distilled liquor). Koreans often associate soju with pork belly, but it turns out that pork belly is better coupled with wine. This is because the alkali quality of wine neutralizes the acidity of meat. It is indeed peculiar that Koreans, who usually stress the harmony among foods, make an exception with chicken-beer and pork bellysoju combinations.

Nonetheless, the fried chicken and beer combination is one of the national favorites in Korea, and it is even dubbed Korea’s “soul food,” a huge step up from being called junk food.

Korean-style fried chicken leads the globalization of Korean cuisine There are mixed opinions regarding the origin of Korean-style fried chicken, but one thing that is certain is that it was the American-style fried chicken that first arrived in Korea and has since then evolved into veracious different cooking techniques and methods.

In 1969, foreign media outlets called the compressed growth of the Korean economy “the Miracle on the Han River.” In that year, the production of broiler chickens, which grows three to four times faster than Korea’s native chickens, grew by 13 times. The dominant theory is that this was around the time when the Korean-style chicken dish was first introduced. Despite the larger supply of broiler chickens, chicken meat was still considered a rare and valuable food ingredient. Nonetheless, there was enough supply for “Yeongyang Centers” that sold electric-roasted tongdak. Then, a food company introduced cooking oil in 1971. Soon, the entire Korean market saw a huge rise in the consumption of tongdak. This is because the use of cooking oil made fried food taste better and crispier compared to those that were previously fried with 124

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shortening.

Eventually, the first franchise for fried chicken opened in the Shinsegae Department Store. Various fried chicken franchises sprung up ever since until an American franchise parading a white-haired old man stormed into the Korean chicken market in 1984. It was the introduction of KFC, or Kentucky Fried Chicken, that served chicken so crispy that it almost hurt the roof of the mouth. Since then, the Korean fried chicken switched its gear from thinly breaded fried chicken to generously breaded and crispy fried chicken with added seasoning.

Then one day, Koreans started to outgrow KFC fried chicken. A Korean who opened a fried chicken place in Daejeon in 1981 made an ambitious move of seasoning the fried chicken with sweet and spicy chili sauce in a true Korean style. This Koreanstyle “sauced-chicken,” or yangnyeom chicken, became a national hit that changed the paradigm of the fried chicken market.

Moreover, this was around the time when beer pubs where customers can enjoy chicken and beer together started to become popular. Soon came the popular association of fried chicken and cold beer. It was the dawn of the chimaek era.

However, as the types of food available in Korea became increasingly diverse, fried chicken lost its popularity as Koreans’ soul food for a time. Then, new chicken franchises were launched that had their own unique identity. Charcoal barbecuedchicken was introduced in the late 1990s, soy chicken seasoned with soy sauce and fiery buldak (heavily spiced super-spicy chicken) appeared in the early 2000s, and padak (chicken heaped with slices of spring onion to make it less greasy) became popular in the mid-2000s. Moreover, as chicken began to be perceived as an overnutritional food rather than a nourishing food, oven-baked chicken with less calories also became very popular. This, of course, reflects Koreans’ desire to look slim and fit.

Meanwhile, some independent local fried chicken diners started to open branches in the metropolitan area and expanded into a nationwide franchise network. These local brands were propelled into national brands thanks to the chicken-lovers who made a “chicken pilgrimage” to different local fried chicken brands and posted pictures on the Internet and social media services.

Korea is currently seeing a fierce competition among the numerous fried chicken brands. There are about 50,000 fried chicken places in all of Korea, and it is actually harder to find a street or an alley without one. Fried chicken continues to be Korea’s favorite snack and the perfect food to go with beer. When there was a soccer match of the Korean national team during the 2010 World Cup, one of the chicken brands posted sales of 400,000 chickens in a single day, which demonstrates that chicken is 125

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now one of the foods that represent the country.

Fried chicken is now making its way to different corners of the world. Although fried chicken originated from the West, a new, Korean version of the chicken is now being exported back to other countries.

Chicken lovers overseas who learn about Korean-style chickens are impressed by the sheer variety of the menu and the excellent taste. For instance, a Korean drama titled “My Love from the Star” that became phenomenally popular in China sparked a chimaek boom. Before then, Chinese never thought about eating chicken with beer. But the main character in the drama played by Gianna Jeon has an avid passion for chimaek and there were soon Chinese tourists visiting Korea to have a taste for themselves in the motherland of chimaek.

Korea’s special chicken cuisine culture is being introduced by foreign media outlets as well. Recently, Chicago Tribune published an article that introduced Korean-style yangnyeom chicken (chicken covered in sticky, sweet, and spicy red sauce). Then, a cooking magazine Modernist Cuisine released a newsletter that introduced the recipe for Korean-style yangnyeom chicken.

Moreover, Korea’s large fried chicken brands are venturing into other countries to promote Korean-style chicken. In South East Asia, fried chicken is already popular as one of the “Korean foods.”

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10 Korea Haunt; Gwisin and Dokkaebi, Scary Creatures in Korea

Dokkaebi punishes the bad people and brings blessings to the good people

â&#x201C;&#x2019; booknfoto

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Ghosts looking for closure and goblins that play pranks and bring blessings There is nothing like a horror movie to forget the summer heat. No one has time to feel hot or sticky when fearing for the next jump scare moment on the screen.

Korea’s traditional idea of the supernatural is ghosts called gwinsin and goblins called dokkaebi.

In particular, gwisin (ghost) embodies the very essence of han, an overwhelming feeling of resentment and lament that is a representative and unique cultural trait of Korea.

Gwisins that appear in Korean traditional folktales do not directly harm or harass people. In fact, they have become apparitions only to plead their unjust death and resentment to the living. Sometimes, they appear before their killers. However, this is not to seek revenge by killing but to scare the killer into realizing and repenting his or her wrongdoings. To be fair, people who encounter a gwisin sometimes do die from fear.

Strangely enough, Korean gwisins are often in the form of a woman. Typically, a gwisin would wear white clothes with long hair draped down, and she always has a pale, ashen complexion. You cannot tell the age of gwisins, but they are often called cheonyeo gwisin, which translates into “a young maiden ghost.”

The reason why most Korean gwisins are women is because women, who are physically weaker than men, are more likely to die an unjust death. As such, female gwisins make a better material for folklores on how they came to remain in the living world, unable to get over the injustice done to them at their moment of death.

There are many different stories about gwisins and many different ways to soothe their resentment, but the typical plot is as follows. When the gwisin meets a person who is as bold as to be not scared of her and righteous enough to punish the injustice done to her, the gwisin would pull her hair back neatly and suddenly look benign. Not only that, she offers her words of gratitude and disappears. In this moment, the gwisin is even beautiful. Finally, the gwisin that found peace and justice will be able to leave the world of the living and move on to jeoseung¸the place for the dead.

Therefore, Koreans do not view gwisins as spirits with no identity but rather as souls of dead people who have not been able to move on. It is up to the living to ease their sorrow and help them find their place in jeoseung where they belong.

Some Koreans today still believe in the existence of gwisins that they only hear about in folktales, or rather, they believe that the souls of the dead remain with them.

That is why Koreans hold jesa, an ancestral rite, to pay respects to their deceased 129

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ancestors who are still looking out for them. Koreans also perform gut, which is a ritual in Korean shamanism called mu, and it is a religious worship of ancestors to implore gwisins and spirits to solve problems and resolve grievance in the living world.

Because Koreans believe that spirits of people who died with unfinished business will come back to get closure, they are generally generous toward a dying person.

On the other hand, dokkaebi, or goblins, are comical and mythical creatures. When people hear “dokkaebi,” the associated image is an aggressive and violent goblin with a horn sticking out at the top of its head. However, these horned creatures are actually Japanese goblin called oni that is different from the Korean dokkaebi. The most striking feature of Korea’s dokkaebis is the curly fur that covers their bodies. They are bigger than people and usually have a “kind-uncle-next-door” look.

In contrast with their likable look, ddokaebis have a fondness for the dark and the damp, so they appear in front of people and lure them when it is dark or drizzling outside. When Koreans have an experience that does not make sense or too unrealistic, they often say that they have been “bewitched by a dokkaebi” or “possessed by a dokkaebi.” The dokkaebis are armed with mysterious powers, including the ability to morph into something else, and they engage in mischievous pranks to frighten and harass people. However, it is also believed that they can bring good fortune. The bat that they carry around called dokkaebi-bangmangyi is a magical bat that can create wealth. Thus, there are folktales of people who became wealthy with the help of this bat and the word dokkaebi-bangmangyi is used in a similar context as “the golden goose.”

Where there are dokkaebis, there is always dokkaebi bul (goblin light). This is an unidentified flame that flickers in the pitch dark mountains deep in the night. Based on this notion, Koreans believed that forest fires were also the doings of ddokaebis.

Testimonies of people who claim to have witnessed this flame in cemeteries or wetlands on rainy nights continue to this day. However, the scientific explanation for this is that it is phosphorus emitted from the bones of buried bodies in the form of light. lament and humor, traditional sentiments that are unique to Koreans The Korean ghosts called gwisin are a symbol of han (resentment and lament) whereas goblins called dokkaebi stands for haehak (humor). The word han refers to a collective feeling of unresolved resentment and sorrow against the injustice and it is understood and felt only in the Korean culture. Though it may sound similar to “grudge,” the two are slightly different. Grudge is only one of the starting points of the sentiment of han.

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Han is the aching feeling of unresolved resentment and helplessness from a buildup of profound loss and injustice caused by another person, accident, disaster, or fate.

Han may be comforted and soothed but it is never resolved until a direct reconciliation with what caused the feeling. If han was caused by a certain person, it can be brought to closure through forgiveness, reconciliation, or revenge. On the other hand, if the feeling has its root in inevitable disasters or fate, there is no way to come to terms with it and the feeling of han stays in the person’s heart, forever unresolved.

The sentiment of han is a unique emotion and culture of Korea where women had to live a life of conformity and obedience when faced with personal hardships. They often lived with a passive and defensive attitude toward their fate and life.

On the other hand, the haehak symbolized by the dokkaebi is a rather creative kind of humor that twists the reality to make people laugh and feel a catharsis. In haehak, the subject of the humor is not attacked or ostracized. Rather, the subject is coaxed into joining the humor and becoming part of the communication. Such characteristics make Korea’s haehak clearly distinct from Western humor.

Haehak is defined in the Standard Korean Language Dictionary as “humorous yet dignified speech or action.” This shows that its prerequisite is the harmony between comedy and dignity. In this definition, “humorous” means any remark or action intended to make the other laugh. This makes it clear that haehak has to be expressed explicitly through words or action, with a clear intention of making someone laugh.

To sum up, Korean gwisins seek to find closure for the han in the world of the living and Korean dokkaebis criticize and communicate through words and action meant to make the other laugh. These two traditional supernatural beings of Korea are distinctive in that they do not harm people like the ghosts in other cultures. They are the products of Korea’s unique sentiments and feelings that cannot be found anywhere else.

Interesting Korean expressions Watching a horror film to forget the summer heat makes you feel on edge with sweaty palms. The body gets tense without knowing it. The same tension is felt also during a close sport match. Koreans describe this tension with the phrase, “making somebody hold sweat in the palms.” People usually make a tight fist when they feel tense with expectation and the palms soon become covered with sweat. This is where the expression comes from.

The Korean language has many other idioms related to body parts. These words and phrases can be particularly difficult to understand for foreigners. This is because they 131

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have little background knowledge about the different feelings that body parts represent or the mimetic words that imitate a movement or attribute as onomatopoeia imitates the sound.

When a man and a woman develop romantic feelings for each other or become lovers, it is said that “their eyes matched.” After their eyes match, they “go blind” with love, an expression that seems to be universal.

Eyes are not the only body parts that can match. The expression “matching hands and feet,” is used to describe perfect teamwork. The expression “matching the mouth” can mean kissing or many people saying the same thing or making the same sound as if it is one person. People’s mouth can “be matched” while singing or shouting, or when sharing the same opinion about a particular situation or issue. Sometimes, the expression is used when people conspire together to deceive someone.

Another idiomatic phrase related to the mouth, “like the tongue in my mouth,” is used to describe people who are unusually friendly, amicable, and ingratiating. These people know exactly what you want them to do before you say it, just like the tongue in your mouth.

There is another relatively new expression to describe words or actions that are excessively ingratiating, flattering, or trying too hard to please. When a person feels awkward and uncomfortable around such people, he would say “my hands and feet are shriveling.” This idiom is more commonly used among the young people.

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Korea’s hot places in summertime

ⓒ Choi Su-yon

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Jeju Saryeoni Forest

Saryeoni Forest in Jeju Island is true to its

Also, the hikers can enjoy well-preserved

name, where saryeoni is a word in Jeju dialect

nature because the forest is located within

that means “sacred” and “like deity.” The

the Jeju biosphere reserve designated by

forest trail with a dreamy and mysterious

UNESCO. Located at high altitude of 450

atmosphere stretches over 15km. When

to 650m, the air is clean and refreshing, even

visitors enter the forest, they are enraptured

in the summer.

by the surreal and hazy atmosphere and

There are four different walking trails in

when they leave, they feel healed, revitalized,

the forest path that starts from the Bijarim-

and more resilient both in their body and

ro in Gyorae-ri and extends to the Saryeoni

mind.

Oreum in Hannam-ri. Each course leads to

The Saryeoni Forest is a dense forest

many different oreums, which translate into

with a blend of natural and artificial forests.

“hill” or “mountain” in Jeju dialect, such as

The Saryeoni forest path opened on May

Mulchat Oreum, Red Oreum, and Saryeoni

17, 2009 and is a major attraction in Korea

Oreum. There are actually some 360

visited by more than 10,000 people per

parasitic volcanoes that were formed from

day. A walk along the 15km trail offers an

the volcanic eruption of Mt. Halla.

exciting experience of the forest’s historical and ecological resources including a cedar wood forest, Hinoki cypress tree forest, base camp of the April 3rd Jeju Resistance, charcoal kiln site, and the nursery for shiitake mushroom.

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â&#x201C;&#x2019; Yang Hyun-moh

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Jeju Olle Trail

In order to fully appreciate Jeju Island’s

420km-long paths. Each path is about 15km

oreums, you are well-advised to visit the

long and takes about five to six hours on

Olle Trail. It was a Korean journalist who

average. There are even people who visit Jeju

came back from his visit to the Way of St.

Island every weekend in order to explore all

James (the Camino de Santiago) in Spain

21 courses of the Jeju Olle Trail that connects

who first introduced the idea of laying down

alleys, mountain trails, fields, coastlines, and

the Olle Trail of Jeju. The trail is currently

oreums along the island’s coastal line.

managed and maintained by the Jeju Olle

The Olle Trail triggered a boom of

Corporation.

walking and walking tours in Korea. It

Olle means “narrow alley” in Jeju dialect,

became the catalyst for creation of other

or narrow roads extending from the gate of a

walking paths for travelers, including the

house to the big streets. As the name suggests,

Mt. Jiri Dulle Trail and the Seoul Fortress

the Jeju Olle Trail is a narrow and peaceful

Trail. The know-how of the Olle Trail is now

street that can take you all the way around

being exported overseas as well. The Olle

the entire island. Walking the Olle gives you

Trail in Kyushu, Japan is the first result of

an up-close experience of the island’s culture

such know-how sharing, established through

and lifestyle addition to its beautiful nature.

consultation and participation by Jeju Olle

Since the first walking path of the Olle

Corporation in 2012.

Trail first opened in September 8, 2007, 20

The Jeju Olle Trail is also making many

more were laid until November 2012. There

Koreans dream of moving away from the city

are also five “alpha paths” that are optional.

to the island to enjoy a slow, meaningful,

The Olle Trail allows visitors to walk

simple, and healthy lifestyle even if it may be

round the entire island of Jeju along its

a little more inconvenient than the urban life.

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AUTUMN

â&#x201C;&#x2019; Yangho Cho

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1 People Reading Books in Large Bookstores

A large bookstore in Seoul with a table for reading

â&#x201C;&#x2019; Yang Hyun-moh

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The season of books, food for the soul Korea has four distinct seasons and each one is beautiful and special. During the spring, a symphony of colorful flowers and new greens is in full swing. Summer offers its own array of beautiful sights and activities to be enjoyed in Korea, a country that is surrounded by water on three sides.

Among all four seasons, autumn in Korea is especially beautiful. The leaves change color with the wide daily temperature range, and the beautiful autumn foliage can be seen all across the country where 70 percent of the land is covered with mountains.

The autumn season is also a high time for food as fruits and grains become ripe.

There is an old saying that perfectly describes the Korean autumn: “The sky is high and the horses become fat.” Koreans love the clear autumn sky that looks higher and bluer than in any other season, but complain that they get fatter than the horses. They owe their weight gain to the voracious appetite that comes back as the summer heat cools down as well as the abundant food in this season of harvest.

To “fatten up” their soul instead of the body, many Koreans like to read in the autumn, which is why Koreans call autumn the Season of Books. People seem to find the season’s cool weather and peaceful atmosphere ideal for reading, but the irony is that book sales are the lowest this time of the year. In fact, books sell the best during the summer season—15 percent higher compared to other seasons.

Every year, Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism conducts a survey on Koreans’ reading habits. The survey of 5,000 adults aged 19 years and above and 3,000 students in elementary, middle, and high schools found that as of 2015, adults read an average of 9.1 books per year whereas students read an annual average of 29.8 books.

The study also showed that people spend a similar amount of time for reading on weekdays and weekends; adults read an average of 22.8 minutes on the weekdays and 25.3 minutes on the weekends, while students spend an average of 41 minutes during the week and 45 minutes on the weekends reading.

In a self-assessment of reading habits, 64.9 percent of adults and 51.9 percent of students felt that they were not reading enough. Both older and younger respondents attributed the insufficient hours of reading to “not having enough time due to work/ schoolwork” and “not liking reading and not being used to reading.”

According to this annual survey, the number of people who read decreases yearly while the average number of books that a reader reads increases every year. This means people who do not read are reading even less whereas people who do are reading more and more.

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In the past, six or seven out of ten Koreans pegged reading as their favorite pastime when asked about their hobbies. It seemed reading was the official Korean hobby.

However, this was when people did not have any other means of enjoying leisure after spending most of their time working hard to create the so-called “Miracle on the Han River” from the ashes of war in just two decades. This was also when there were not enough books available for the reading population. Publication of new books was rare and people often shared a book by passing it around. Books were just as rare as other resources at the time.

Korea has since grown into a member of the OECD and a host of international events like the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup games. People now have more activities to enjoy in their leisure time and the country is richer in resources. As a result, a large part of the reading population heads to the cinemas, golf courses, and computer screens instead, even as more and more books are being published. Dozens of new books are published daily and people can now afford to buy as many books as they want. As a result, the Korean society has an oversupply of books. Meanwhile, reading has become a pastime for only a handful of bookworms.

Koreans flock to large bookstores, not libraries Unlike the survey results that show Koreans are not big readers, large bookstores across the downtown city are always crowded with people. In particular, bookstore franchises such as Kyobo Book Centre, Youngpoong Bookstore, and Bandi & Luni’s that expanded nationwide in the 2000s are often more packed than libraries. In fact, they house more books than an average local library.

People flock to these bookstores mainly in the beginning of a year and immediately before the new semester starts for elementary, middle, and high schools.

The reason why bookstores become busy at the beginning of the year is because reading is a popular New Year’s resolution in Korea. Meanwhile, students and their parents crowd bookstores before a new semester starts to purchase study guide books.

As for the weekends, bookstores are always packed regardless of the time of the year.

These large bookstores are popular because most of them sell not only books but also stationery and toys, as well as fashion and lifestyle goods. Many are also equipped with restaurants, cafés, and bakeries, which makes them a multipurpose cultural center rather than a place to simply buy books.

It was in the 1990s that Korean bookstores started to grow in size. The popularity of large bookstore franchises led to many small-scale local bookstores shutting down.

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Now, small neighborhood bookstores are rarities in Korea.

The emergence of bookstore franchises that transformed into a multipurpose cultural space was not the only factor threatening small-scale neighborhood bookstores.

The rapid rise of online shopping was also a contributing factor. The convenience of online bookstores such as speedy delivery within one or two days with a simple click of a button catered perfectly to the impatient Koreans. Discounts of up to 10 percent that came with online shopping were another appeal for the Korean population with their long history of bargaining.

Some say that there are not many among the crowds in large bookstores who actually buy books. Large bookstores are for reading and checking out the books whereas actual purchases occur online. In response, Korea’s large bookstores are reinventing themselves into a cozy place where people could stay for a long time and read books. The purpose of people’s visit to bookstores is no longer to buy books and thus, a large catalogue of books is no longer a sufficient attraction for people. The bookstores’ new survival strategy is to transform into multipurpose culture centers with books.

Despite such efforts by the bookstores, book sales continue to decline every day and the publishing industry is now considered one of the dying industries in Korea.

The highest sales that the country saw in books recently were in coloring books— coloring books for adults to be exact. These books have little to no text and look like a compilation book of illustration designs.

Scottish illustrator Johanna Basford’s “Secret Garden” was the first to trigger the boom of coloring books in Korea. By coloring in Basford’s illustrations with coloring pencils and pens according to their own tastes, people could spend some quiet quality time on their own to reflect and concentrate on their inner self. It meant a brief escape from their hectic lives to find peace and stability in the mind, which is why bookstores marketed the books as “anti-stress books” and they flew off the shelves. Various coloring books have been published since, and they have become a form of therapeutic pastime in Korea.

Along with coloring books, transcription books are also on the rise. In these books, readers literally transcribe the writer’s words. Transcription was often a practice for aspiring writers to learn how to write good sentences by copying existing works of good authors. Recently, Koreans found out that transcription also has a calming and therapeutic effect, making transcription books yet another type of anti-stress book.

The popularity of such books has meaningful implications. It shows that people no longer perceive books merely as a tool for gathering information and that the biggest 143

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interests of Koreans these days are therapy and de-stressing.

This is an age when information can be acquired through more convenient and diverse channels other than books. The high penetration rate of e-books translates into little need for heavy and bulky books, and this is a global phenomenon, not limited to Korea. Therefore, people only buy print books if they have a good reason and if the books are deemed valuable and functional.

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The age of coloring and transcription books <Folk art blooms in Garden of Hope: Flowers, Birds, and Feast> Artist Jo Yeo-yeong, an illustrator and minhwa (folk art) artist, is the author to this coloring book containing Korea’s traditional minhwa. This book consists mostly of drawings of birds and flowers, which are the themes found in Korean traditional folk art. The book stands out for the illustrator’s unique and creative sensibility in her modern re-interpretation of Korea’s traditional minhwa. The book is Korea’s very own coloring book that delivers the country’s traditional beauty while relieving stress. <Sky and Wind and Star and Poetry Transcription Book> This is a transcription book with extracts of “Sky and Wind and Star and Poetry” by one of Korea’s most beloved poets, Yun Dong-ju. He wanted to compile and publish his poems written in Korean at the time of Japanese Occupation when people were prohibited from using Korean language or doing any creative work in Korean language. He eventually passed away without seeing his works published. The transcription book reproduced the original design of the revised and enlarged edition of his book of poetry, “Sky and Wind and Star and Poetry,” and people can now keep a copy in their own handwriting. The book is also recommended for anyone who is interested in or currently learning the Korean language.

ⓒ Le ciel, le vent, les étoiles et la poésie

ⓒ Yang Hyun-moh

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â&#x201C;&#x2019; Yang Hyun-moh

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â&#x201C;&#x2019; Yang Hyun-moh

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2 Food Channels; Eat with your “TV Companion”

For Koreans, eating is a social and communal act.

ⓒ Yang Hyun-moh

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Korean chefs become stars Nowadays, the most popular keyword in Korea other than “healing” and “anti-stress” is “food” and “cooking.” In fact, the sales of food or cooking-related books are also on the rise.

Koreans’ love for food and cooking is the most apparent on television. Every TV channel is airing meokbang and cookbang shows related to food and cooking. Meokbang is a newly coined word that combines the Korean words meokda (to eat) and bangsong (broadcasting). Cookbang is another new synthetic word created by combining the English word “cook” and the Korean word bangsong (broadcasting). In other words, meokbang is a show where the host eats and cookbang is a show where the host cooks.

More recently, the popular show format is one that mixes these two types so that the host cooks and eats the cooked food.

This new trend of meokbang and cookbang has propelled the profession of owner chefs to stardom.

Before meokbangs and cookbangs became popular, the majority of food- or cookingrelated shows in Korea were hosted by the so-called “cuisine researchers.” As is evident in the title of their profession, they took an academic approach in studying food while organizing and delivering recipes for viewers. They were well-versed in food and cuisine, and also very good at cooking, but most of them did not own their own restaurants. In fact, their primary role was to train future cuisine researchers in universities or teach people how to cook in cooking classes. Naturally, their shows also followed the format of a cooking class.

However, this paradigm changed when these shows started to star owner chefs who run their own restaurants with their own recipes tailored to the palates of the general population. Secret recipes were revealed that encapsulate each of the chefs’ unique personalities and know-how, instead of standardized and quantified recipes. They introduced super-simple recipes that anyone can try, simplified mock recipes that omit or replace unavailable ingredients, as well as recipes for luxurious restaurant dishes.

These chefs also captivated the viewers by demonstrating the entire process of food preparation as if it was a performance.

A cooking competition show called “Please Take Care of My Refrigerator” brings personal refrigerators of famous celebrities to the studio and the panelists, who are owner chefs, prepare dishes with the ingredients inside the refrigerator within a given amount of time. The show became a cradle of celebrity owner chefs, and the show’s popularity at home and abroad resulted in the program format being exported to China. The owner chefs on this show are now as famous and popular as any other 149

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Korean celebrity, and their restaurants are packed with so many customers that it has become impossible to get reservations. The chefs are also incredibly busy with their TV appearances and product endorsements, all of which were unimaginable until a few years ago.

The origin of meokbangs and cookbangs that hit Korea by storm in the year 2015 is Afreeca TV. Afreeca TV is an online personal broadcasting service, and the first of the meokbangs was introduced on this online medium back in 2009. It eventually became a major genre among other personal broadcasting shows on Afreeca TV and remains one of most popular to date.

Most of the Afreeca meokbang shows star beautiful and slender female hosts or BJs, which is short for Broadcast Jockeys, who show off their enormous appetite as they consume a mountain of food on the screen. Viewers obtain a certain surrogate pleasure by watching someone else eat as well as Koreans’ unique guilty pleasure of sneaking a peek.

The economic context of the meokbang and cookbang craze Korea’s meokbang and cookbang trends were featured in foreign media outlets. They introduced BJ as a novelty profession that makes profit by eating an enormous amount of food before the general public. The articles also discussed the fundamental reasons behind the popularity of these shows in Korea. The BJs on Afreeca TV receive icons from their viewers called “star balloons,” and these balloons can be exchanged for cash.

Each of the balloons costs 100 Korean won, which is equivalent to about 10 cents in the U.S., and the BJs get 60 to 80 percent of the cash. Viewers encourage BJs with the star balloons so that they get can a closer look at the BJs consuming various foods in various ways.

These trends are also related to the steep rise in the number of people living alone in Korea, as this means more people are eating by themselves. Thinking of what to eat for each meal can be a stress for one-person households, and this led to a demand for simple recipes that people living alone can make using everyday ingredients found in their refrigerator. Moreover, it seems that watching others eat behind the screen give these people a sense of companionship as if they are eating with someone else, which may also have contributed to this craze over meokbang and cookbang. In other words, the increase in one-person households and the resulting sense of loneliness were major drivers behind the popularity of these food shows.

Eating is a social and communal act in Korean culture. This is also reflected in the 150

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Korean language where the word sikgu that means “family” literally translates into “people who eat together.” Therefore, the peculiar trend of meokbang and cookbang is the result of the contradiction between increasing number of people eating alone and the unique Korean culture of enjoying and sharing food with others. Koreans seem to experience a kind of augmented reality by watching the shows. These shows give an indirect experience of dining with others, which soothes people’s loneliness.

Furthermore, the recent economic recession in Korea has accelerated the fever of meokbang and cookbang. When the economy is booming, people would naturally have more occasions to eat out with others, but under financial strain, such gatherings can be burdensome. Eating with others in economically challenging times can be particularly stressful for Koreans because there is a custom of a single person paying for the rest instead of splitting the bill. Also, it is customary for the person who was treated to pay the next time. Thus, socializing meals can place additional pressure on those with financial concerns.

Today, Koreans are slowly leaning toward a more individualistic culture, a shift from the tradition of doing everything in a group rather than alone. This new culture is especially noticeable in eating, which happens to be the most basic and instinctive act in life.

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3 Autumn Scenery of Buddhist Temples

A stone tower made with intricate stone craftsmanship at a Buddhist temple in Korea

â&#x201C;&#x2019; Yang Hyun-moh

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Korean temples look their best in the autumn Korean mountains paint a beautiful landscape in the autumn as they become covered in autumn foliage. It is as if someone meticulously arranged the colors of the leaves to create the most stunning autumn scenery in harmony with 1,000-year-old temples in the mountains.

Buddhism was first introduced in Korea at the end of the fourth century, which was the era of the Three Kingdoms in Korean history. This era stretched from around the end of the 4th century to the 7th century during which the Three Kingdoms— Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla—were in dispute over the rule of the Korean Peninsula.

Buddhism that began in India spread to China and then to Korea, a country that was divided into the Three Kingdoms at the time. Each of the Kingdoms developed its own Buddhism by creating and establishing different styles of temples, towers, and Buddha statues.

Korea’s Buddhist temples have over 1,700 years of history, as well as a unique culture and tradition that are unlike any other in the world. First, most traditional temples in the country are located deep in the mountains away from the cities. The aim was to escape the miscellaneous affairs and anguish of the secular world and be entrusted with the order of nature. In the same context, they are built faithfully to the teachings of Buddha, who found meaning of life in the simplest form of nature.

Among Korea’s traditional Buddhist temples, there are three temples that are dubbed the Three Jewel Temples for having the three jewels of bul, beop, and seung.

Bul means Buddha, represented by the Tongdosa Temple in Yangsan of South Gyeongsang Province that enshrines the small crystals supposed to have been found among the remains of Buddha. Beop means the teachings of Buddha, represented by the Haeinsa Temple in Hapcheon of South Gyeongsang Province, where the Palman Daejanggyeong, the complete collection of Buddha’s scripture that has been carved on over 80,000 woodblocks, is kept. Lastly, seung means the disciples of Buddha, represented by the Songgwangsa Temple in Suncheon of South Jeolla Province.

Meanwhile, the Jeondeungsa Temple in Ganghwa Island, Incheon is known to be the oldest temple that currently exists in Korea. It was constructed in 381 during the Goguryeo era, and it encapsulates the tradition and culture of Korea and Korean Buddhism from the time of the Three Kingdoms through the Joseon Dynasty.

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Korea’s stone towers, the pinnacle of Korean tradition and culture that transcends faith The beautiful Korean stone towers that were built all across the Korean Peninsula are based on Baekje’s remarkable stone building culture, and they are distinctive from China’s brick towers or Japan’s wooden towers. Baekje is recorded as South Asia’s very first nation to have erected stone towers, and the towers were built with Baekje’s unmatched stone building techniques and style that defy imitation. The ancient empire also produced stone Buddha sculptures that brought to life the elegant and dignified expression of Buddha’s face.

Korea’s tower, or tap, was originally an object to enshrine Buddha’s crystals for worship. The origin of these towers is the eight stupas built by eight countries to keep the cremated remains of Buddha after he died.

Tap, the Korean word for “tower,” is assumed to have originated from the ancient Indian word for tomb, “stupa.” The word then became known as “tappa” in the process of Buddhism’s dissemination, and then shortened to “tap.”

The towers were originally constructed in the style of India’s traditional tombs.

However, as Buddhism spread to different cultures, they evolved to suit the characteristics of the environment and soil in each of the countries. The towers were built with different materials that were readily available in each respective country.

Thus, Indian towers were made in the style of traditional tombs, Chinese towers were made by layering bricks, Korean towers were made from granite that had minimal risk of damage from war or fire, and Japanese towers were made from wood. Because Buddhism entered Korea through China, the earliest forms of Korean towers were made from bricks. However, people soon learnt that it was inconvenient to make bricks from clay, and that wooden towers were at a high risk of being lost to disasters like fire. This is why Koreans started to make towers out of granite, which was a relatively easy material to acquire.

The marvelous culture of Baekje’s stone construction had a great influence on Silla and Japan as well. Baekje’s stone construction techniques were first introduced to Silla, influencing its style of wooden towers. These techniques also became the foundation for Japan’s traditional Asuka culture. When Silla united the Three Kingdoms, Baekje’s stone building culture was entirely absorbed by the United Silla. The aesthetic sensibilities and craftsmanship of Baekje stonemasons coupled with the dedicated support by the United Silla produced the largest and the greatest stone relics of the Korean people—the Seokgulam Cave and the Bulguksa Temple. They mark the pinnacles of the 1,000-year-long history of stone tower construction.

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The Seokga Tower was built in the mid-8th century, and it was around then that Korea’s signature architectural structure of stone towers became established across the nation. Stone tower is one of Korea’s most representative architectural features, distinctive from towers of other cultures such as tomb towers, brick towers, and wooden towers in terms of appearance, materials, and construction style. This makes them true embodiments of Korea’s tradition and culture.

The stone towers were made from granite, a material that resembles the resilience and strong discipline that characterizes the Korean people. They are special because they preserve the fundamental ideals of Korea’s time-honored history and tradition in their most original form. Moreover, they have had the least amount of transformation compared to other traditional cultural or artistic works of Korea. Therefore, Korea’s stone towers transcend the ideals of faith and stand as an embodiment of a nation’s culture.

Time to reflect upon your inner self, a night in a temple away from worldly matters Another part of the Korean culture that is drawing growing global attention is the idea of Temple Stay, which is a product of marriage between traditional Buddhism and modernity.

In the recent years, Koreans have embraced Temple Stay as a new type of vacation or trip beyond the boundaries of religion. There are also a growing number of foreigners who want to experience Temple Stay that is a unique culture of Korea.

Staying overnight in a peaceful temple in the mountains away from the hectic life and taking some time for self-reflection may be exactly the kind of therapy that everyone can use in this modern day and age regardless of nationality.

People find themselves feeling surprisingly healthy in body and mind when they experience the Buddhist culture that help people to reflect on their modern lives, such as mugeon (practicing silence), chamseon (Zen meditation), and balwoo gongyang (communal Buddhist meal service). People who are exhausted from the tumult of the secular world may find peace and calm through practicing silence, which is all about staying silent for a certain amount of time, and meditation. The modern society often suffers from an excess of things instead of deficiency. People who are having a hard time coping with such an excess may find themselves feeling strangely more replete through balwoo gongyang, which is a humble act of communal eating from an alms bowl. After finishing the meal, the bowl is rinsed with water and the water is drunk to the last drop so as to not waste a single grain of rice.

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A couple of days at the temple cannot completely transform people’s lives but it can make their body and mind feel healed from the daily fatigue like magic. The time spent wallowing and reflecting on oneself is never in vain. It is because such selfreflection and self-understanding become the source of strength to move forward when you are shaken and thrown down in the turbulence of worldly matters.

There are varying opinions as to why Korean temples have moved deep into the mountains away from where the people lived. Whatever the reason may have been, it is very fortunate that these temples are located deep in the mountains, considering the draining lifestyle of people in modern days. Thanks to their detached location in the mountains, Korean temples were able to form a simple and humble community that is completely assimilated to nature. Moreover, their location allowed Korean Buddhism to develop its quiet and elegant culture and practice.

Temple Stay is available every day at Korea’s major Buddhist temples. Each temple has different programs. There are regular Temple Stays, which are run by each temple on fixed days of the week, as well as shorter one-day Temple Stays. A regular Temple Stay is often offered as a one-night stay and costs about 60 to 90 U.S. dollars per person, which is much more affordable than five-star hotels.

For more information about Temple Stay, you can visit the public relations office, which is on the first floor of the Temple Stay Information Center in Jongno, Seoul. It provides detailed information on Temple Stay programs as well as the Buddhist cuisine in different languages.

The ultimate healthy slow food: temple food “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.”

This is a famous quote by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, a famous French gourmet.

It means that a person’s diet is one of the most important elements that make the person who he is. The origin of the Buddhist cuisine was also based on a similar idea.

The Buddhist cuisine refers to the everyday food eaten by Buddhist monks and believers at the temples. In Buddhist temples, people do not eat oshinchae, or the five spicy vegetables—scallion, garlic, Asian chives, wild chives, and Asian squill—as well as meat and fish, which are all prohibited in the religion.

Furthermore, Buddhist temples recommend eating seasonal food because ingredients in food have different effects according to the season. The human body is exposed to different illnesses in each of the four seasons and they should be countered appropriately with seasonal ingredients. Food also tastes better when eaten in the right season.

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Foods that can be stored for long periods of time have also been developed so that they can be enjoyed through different seasons. In Korean temples, any lack in nutrition is supplemented by consuming fermented foods including different types of kimchi as well as jang (fermented paste and sauce) like fermented bean paste, red pepper paste, and soy sauce. Seasoning is used minimally to maximize the natural flavors of each ingredient. Condiments are also made with natural ingredients such as kelp, mushrooms, perilla seeds and fresh bean powder. Condiments made with natural ingredients complement the nutritional imbalance of the vegetarian diet in temples while bringing out simple, clean, and refreshing flavors. The ingredients are lightly blanched or cooked over low heat to maximize the natural flavors.

As the Buddhist cuisine does not include any instant food, which seems to be doing the most harm in the modern diet, it helps with allergic ailments such as atopic dermatitis and even weight loss. Thus, there are now more Koreans eating at restaurants specializing in the Buddhist cuisine and they even want to learn how to cook the dishes. Of course, none of this has anything to do with religion.

In Buddhist temples, food means more than what you eat. The entire process of procuring ingredients, preparing the food, and cleaning the dishes after the meal is considered to be a practice of asceticism. Thus, the Buddhist cuisine not only makes for a healthier body, but a healthier mind as well. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that the temple cuisine that represents slow food is the secret behind healthy diet.

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Temple Stay

â&#x201C;&#x2019; Choi Su-yon

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Ganghwa Island, a roofless museum The Ganghwa Island in Incheon is called a “roofless museum” because there are historical and cultural assets scattered all over the island. It is home to the largest dolmen site of the entire Korean Peninsula as well as numerous historical relics. One of them is the Chamseongdan Altar, which is said to have been built by Dangun to perform rites of prayer to the Heavens—Dangun is the figure in Korea’s founding mythology who first built the nation. The island also has the Samrang Fortress said to have been built by Dangun’s three sons, the Jeongdeungsa Temple—the oldest temple that currently exists in Korea,—and the site for Goryeo’s old palace. Furthermore, the island still has traces of defending against external invasions including the Mongol Invasion during the Goryeo Dynasty and countless invasions near the end of the Joseon Dynasty. These examples illustrate that this island has beautifully preserved Korean history from the prehistoric times to the modern age. Thus, any foreigners who want a closer look into Korea and its history would be well-advised to visit the Ganghwa Island.

Simple Temple Stay programs in the city Thursday Temple Stay at Bongeunsa Temple The Thursday Temple Stay program at Bongeunsa Temple is a one-day program that does not require reservations and is accessible for foreign tourists as well. All you have to do is register at the information desk at the entrance of Bongeunsa Temple by 1:50 P.M. every Thursday.

Location : Bongeunsa-ro 531 (Samsung-dong), Gangnam-gu, Seoul Contact: 02)3218-4826 / www.bongeunsa.org

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4 Making a Wish to the Bright Full Moon on Chuseok

Songpyeon steamed with pine needles that have a sterilizing effect

â&#x201C;&#x2019; Choi Su-yon

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May it always be as good as Chuseok A person’s favorite season is solely a matter of personal taste. However, most Koreans would agree that autumn is a beautiful and pleasant season. One of the reasons is because autumn in Korea is the most bountiful season in the whole year.

Korean autumn is all about the harvest. It is the season when rice, a staple food in every Korean household, is ripe and ready to be harvested. Thus, Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) is probably one of the most important and enjoyable holidays in Korea.

There is an old proverb that goes “May it always be like hangawi. No more, no less.”

Hangawi is a traditional Korean word for Chuseok, when food is the most abundant and people’s mind is at ease. Han means “the biggest” or “the best” and gawi means “middle.”

Thus, hangawi refers to the middle of the best month of the year, or August 15th in the lunar calendar, which is the day of Chuseok. Jungchugajeol, another Korean word that refers to this holiday, means “the beautiful time of the year in the middle of autumn.”

A full moon can be observed on the 15th of every lunar month, which means there is a big beautiful full moon on Chuseok as well. Koreans traditionally made a wish to the big white full moon on a clear autumn night. However, if the weather is cloudy or foggy, the full moon cannot be seen clearly. Therefore, when Chuseok approaches, news programs always start with whether a clear full moon will be visible on the night of the holiday that year. Chuseok is also the day when people make offerings to their deceased ancestors with rice cakes and drinks that were made from the year’s first harvest as a way of showing gratitude for a rich harvest. This ritual is called charye.

The food that always makes it to the table for charye on Chuseok is songpyeon, which is a half-moon rice cake made with freshly harvested rice. It is shaped like a half-moon today but it was originally supposed to look like the full moon in the sky. The name songpyeon implies the way it is steamed with pine needles in between every layer— song means “pine.” The pine needles had a decorative purpose of leaving patterns on songpyeon and they also kept the rice cakes from sticking to each other. Most importantly, songpyeon would be infused with the fragrant scent and the beneficial substances of the pine needles. One of the most beneficial substances in pine needles is phytoncide, which helps eliminate harmful pathogens like germs and fungi from the air. Terpene, which is the main component of the phytoncide, works as a preservative that prevents pathogens, vermin, and fungus from surviving, and in turn prevents food from going bad. The use of pine needles with such beneficial properties is no less than a great demonstration of the wisdom of Korean ancestors.

Another traditional germicide, insecticide, and deodorant used by Koreans was sut, or wood charcoal. It is a carbide produced by burning wood in a kiln. Sut, or burnt 161

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wood that is a step away from turning into ashes, has purifying properties of cleansing the air and water. It also absorbs smells, controls humidity, radiates beneficial negative ions, stimulates plant growth, and blocks electromagnetic waves. It also has antibacterial and detoxification qualities.

Koreans have traditionally harnessed such beneficial properties of charcoal by placing several pieces in pots that hold fermented pastes in order to remove harmful substances, impurities, and foul smell. Charcoal was also put in drinking water to purify it. A piece of charcoal has countless minute pores on it, which add up to as much as 300m2 in area per 1g of charcoal. It is said that regular water turns into gentler alkaline water when it passes through these pores by combining with watersoluble minerals in the charcoal.

Taro soup, another seasonal food of autumn, is also included as a menu for charye on Chuseok. The ripe, round-shaped taro is also reminiscent of the full moon. It is rich in substances that help digestion, thus preventing indigestion and upset stomach that are common around the food-rich holiday of Chuseok. This is another demonstration of the ancient wisdom of the Korean people.

Foods that are included on the charye table vary from region to region, but they are traditionally the first harvests of fruits, alcohol, or tea befitting a ceremony for paying respects to the ancestors. The charye ritual was also a way to show gratitude and joy for the yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rich harvest while praying for another great harvest in the next year.

After the charye ritual is over, the food that was offered to the ancestors is shared among family, relatives, and neighbors. Traditionally, Chuseok was a day that brought together the entire family, who were usually all busy with farming.

The Great National Movement on Chuseok In the past, dozens of young maidens from a village would come outside on Chuseok, and dance all night in a circle under the full moon holding hands. This dance is called Ganggangsullae and it is registered under UNESCOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Important Intangible Cultural Heritage. In this dance, people hold hands in a circle and go round and round while chanting the song called Ganggangsullae following the lead of a person who starts off the song. The song and the dance are both simple enough for everyone to learn in no time. This dance was also a way for people to pray for an abundant and rich harvest. There were other traditional games played on Chuseok such as bull fights, but today, they have been reduced to special events under the name of preserving traditional culture.

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symbolize today’s Chuseok. It is the heavy traffic congestion on roads as people head hometown from the city, and back home to the city at the end of the holiday. Chuseok is the time of the year when the largest number of people go to their hometown, so it is no exaggeration to call this the “Great National Movement.”

Until only a decade ago, downtown Seoul would become virtually empty while freeways and national highways turned into parking lots during the Chuseok season. It took up to 10 hours to drive down to some regions, which attests to the nightmarish traffic jam that people had to experience every year. At the same time, it was a rather a romantic notion to be a part of this mass movement en route to your hometown during the Chuseok break.

The only way to avoid such terrible traffic on the way back was to hold the charye ritual before the sun is up on the Chuseok day and immediately head back to Seoul. If people got delayed in their joy of reuniting with relatives, they were in for another long ride of the Great National Movement. Naturally, predicting the hours with least traffic was a big concern for all Koreans so that they would have to suffer the least congestion on their way back to Seoul.

Thanks to the cutting-edge information technology, people are now able to predict the traffic situation on an hourly basis. This helps distribute the traffic volume better, which eases the congestion during this season. Another contributing factor to the lighter holiday traffic is the cultural change in the way Koreans spend their holidays.

In the past, children living in Seoul always traveled to their parents’ place hometown.

Nowadays, there is a two-way movement as some parents choose to visit Seoul to see their children instead. Some even plan overseas trips in time for the long holiday break, adding diversity to the Korean holiday culture.

How to use sut, a natural de-germing deodorant Wood charcoal can be used as a natural humidifier as well. First, it should be washed under running water to remove any dust or other impurities. The washed charcoal is then dried under a shade where it is well ventilated. The dried charcoal should then be set with pebbles or a string in a broad bowl so that it does not move, and then submerged halfway underwater. This natural humidifier made with charcoal is safe to use and keeps the right indoor humidity while decontaminating the air. A pot of dracaena or bowstring hemp that grows well in a clean environment can also be planted with charcoal. Not only do they look pleasing to the eye, they are also great at controlling the humidity level and cleansing the air.

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5 Statue of King Sejong and Admiral Yi Sun-Shin, Protectors of Gwanghwamun Plaza in Seoul

Statues of King Sejong and General Yi Sun-shin are symbols of the Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul

â&#x201C;&#x2019; Yang Hyun-moh

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Koreans’ pride, Hangul Korea is one of few countries that use an indigenous alphabet system.

There are different standards of counting how many countries there are in the world. According to the world map, there are currently 237 countries. Under international law, 242 countries are recognized as nations. There are different peoples within these countries that have their own language. Currently, it is said that a total of 6,809 languages are being used on planet Earth. This means that there are at least 6,809 different ethnic groups out there.

Among these languages, some 2,500 of them are considered to be dying languages with the speaking population of below 1,000. Also, 553 languages are considered to be in danger of disappearing with a speaking population of below 50 to 60. These statistics show that more than 3,000 languages will become obsolete in the near future.

It also means there are about 3,000 languages that are currently in active use.

However, only 28 languages out of these 3,000 have their own unique written characters. Some languages with their own characters such as English, French, and German use altered variations of the same alphabet system, and Japan’s Katakana system is an altered form of Chinese characters. Therefore, it is said that the number of languages with their own unique alphabet system amounts to about six—and Korea’s Hangul is one of them.

Moreover, most alphabets have an obscure history, making Hangul the only text in the world that has a clear history of creation, proclamation, and usage.

The Korean people take great pride in the fact that the Korean language can be written in its own characters. At the same time, not enough people appreciate how beautiful, scientific, and original Hangul truly is even though they grow up hearing and learning about the writing system’s excellence. There are probably more people who do not know that Hangul is one of the very few unique indigenous alphabet systems that exist in the world.

Before the invention of Hangul, Chinese was considered the language of yangban, or the ruling elite. It is regrettable that due to the advent of the global era, there is now a social tendency to consider another language to be a higher class than Korean; this time, the international lingua franca of English. There seems to be not enough respect or appreciation for the masterpiece that is Hangul. English has only become an official language in the international community for its convenience of use. Whether a language is high class or low class is determined only by how each individual uses it, not by the language in itself.

The Korean language with its Hangul system is one of the 10 greatest languages 165

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in the world selected based on practicality, international awareness, and range of applicability. What is more surprising is that the Korean language ranked higher than Chinese, the language used by the biggest population in the world, and Arabic, which is used in almost all countries of Southwest Asia.

There has recently been a steep increase in the number of people in China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Europe who are trying to learn Korean. It is thanks to the influence of K-drama and K-pop that is leading the Hallyu, or the Korean Wave.

Another appeal of the Korean language is that everyone can learn and use it easily.

This is also why Korea’s illiteracy rate is the lowest in the world.

The great teacher of the Korean people, Sejong the Great Hangul consists of 24 phonogram letters—14 consonants and 10 vowels—that can be combined in more than 10,000 different ways. Thus, it is possible to write almost any sound, and Hangul is the only one of its kind to be able to do this.

Recently, there has been an active movement in Korea to export Hangul. What does it mean to export Hangul? Some may find this concept odd, but it is not as strange as it sounds. The idea is to teach Hangul to nations or people who do not have the letters to write their spoken languages with, so that they can use it as their official written language.

For those that have their own spoken languages but no alphabets, there is no written text that would be as useful as Hangul because it can denote almost any sound with just 24 letters.

The original name for Hangul was hunminjeongeum, which translates into “the proper sounds to teach the people.” This original name was given by Sejong, the fourth King of the Joseon Dynasty, who spearheaded the invention of Hangul.

Before the invention of hunminjeongeum, the Korean language was written using Chinese characters only, which meant that Korea’s spoken and written languages were mismatched. Thus, the name implies that both spoken and written languages were matched properly thanks to this writing system.

Then, Korean linguists and scholars of Korean literature decided to rename it, thinking it unfortunate that the name for Korea’s own written language was Chinesebased. Thus, it began to be called Hangul from the 1910s. The han of Hangul is the Korean word for “the best” and “one” while gul means “text.” Therefore, Hangul is a purely Korean word that means “the best and only text.”

Under the order of King Sejong, the invention of Hangul was led by scholars of Jiphyeonjeon, which was an academic research facility of King Sejong’s court.

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Koreans give credit for the invention of Hangul to King Sejong himself because the entire project would not have been possible without his commitment and leadership when there was resistance to the creation of alphabets by the yangban, or the ruling elite. At the time, Chinese characters were considered the language for the privileged, and Korea’s Confucian scholars thought highly of the Chinese culture. Against this backdrop, the yangban strongly resisted the King’s initiative out of toadyism for China.

They said that there was no need to make Korea’s own text when there were Chinese characters already.

Koreans call King Sejong “Sejong the Great” and respect him as the nation’s teacher.

Not only did he lead the efforts to invent Hangul, but he also contributed greatly to the advancement of science. He led and participated in the invention of the rain gauge that can measure precipitation, sundials that measures time with the location of the sun, and an automatic alarm device that tells the time. It is amazing that all of these inventions came as early as in the 15th century.

Sejong the Great’s portrait is on Korea’s 10,000 won bill. He is also a symbol of the Sejong-ro, a street in front of Seoul’s Gwanghwamun that is main front gateway to the old palace of the Joseon Dynasty.

The gold statue of Sejong the Great stands in the middle of the Gwanghwamun Square, which was established in 2008. The statue first appeared on Hangul Day of 2009. Hangul Day is on October 9, a date that was selected based on the record that “Hunminjeongeum was first proclaimed at the end of the first ten days of September, 1446.” This date on the lunar calendar was converted to the regular calendar and October 9 was designated as Hangul Day. Currently, Hangul Day is one of the official national holidays.

The symbol of the Sejong-ro in front of Gwanghwamun used to be General Yi Sunshin before 2009. His statue had been there ever since it was first built in 1968.

General Yi Sun-shin is another person that Koreans admire as one of the greatest figures in the Korean history along with Sejong the Great. Whereas Sejong represents the study of humanities, Yi Sun-shin represents the military aspect of the Korean history.

King Sejong invented Hangul and propelled scientific progress to ensure the internal stability of the nation. On the other hand, General Yi Sun-shin took responsibility for the nation’s security by warding off the invading foreign powers despite the weak military strength and unfavorable circumstances of Korea at the time.

He is legendary for having never lost a battle. These two great men now sit at the Gwanghwamun Square, the heart of Seoul, as its great symbols.

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Major roads in Seoul named after important historical figures Major roads across Seoul have unique names, and most of them take the names of the country’s great historical figures.

The Sejongdae-ro where the Sejong the Great’s statue stands is obviously named after King Sejong. King Sejong, the first King of the Joseon Dynasty, was crowned at the Gyeongbokgung Palace and lived there until his passing. Therefore, the road that lies in front of the Gyeongbokgung Palace was named after him.

Chungmu-ro refers to the neighborhood that served as a cradle of Korean films in the past, and its name comes from General Yi Sun-shin’s posthumous title. It would make sense for Yi Sun-shin’s statue be standing on Chungmu-ro as King Sejong’s statue stands on Sejongdae-ro, but it does not. It stands on Sejongdae-ro along with Sejong the Great. Actually, the Blue House, Korea’s Presidential Office, is located behind the Gyeongbokgung Palace. Thus, it is assumed that the General’s statue was erected here, in front of the Blue House, to emphasize a sense of national security.

Whereas General Yi Sun-shin is symbolic of the Korean Navy, winning the battles on the sea such as the Battle of Myeongnyang, General Eulji Mundeok of Goguryeo is the symbol of the Korean Army for leading the victory in the battle against the Sui Dynasty in China. The road Eulji-ro was thus named after General Eulji Mundeok.

Toegye-ro was named after the prominent Confucian scholar Toegye Yi Hwang, Wonhyo-ro was named after the prominent Buddhist monk Wonhyo, and Chungjeong-ro was named after the posthumous title of the first Korean independence martyr Min Chungjeonggong, whose original name was Min Yeong-hwan.

On the other hand, the biggest road in Gangnam district of Seoul, a neighborhood that became famous with Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” is Teheran-ro. It stretches from Exit 1 of Gangnam Station to Samsung-dong, and it was renamed to celebrate the sisterhood relationship formed between Korea’s capital city of Seoul and Iran’s capital city of Tehran in the mid- to late-1970s. When the Mayor of Tehran visited Korea in 1977, the street was renamed and a memorial stone was put up near Exit 1 of Gangnam Station. It is said that there is a street named Seoul in Tehran as well.

However, one misfortune is that no road was named after female figures, which shows that Korean society is still very much male-driven.

Female historical figures have long been excluded from portraits to be put on Korean banknotes. Sejong the Great is on the 10,000 won bill, Joseon’s scholar Yulgok Yi I is on the 1,000 won bill, and General Yi Sun-shin is on the 100 won coin.

Until the 50,000 won bill was issued with Shin Saimdang’s portrait on it in 2009, 168

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Korean banknotes depicted various relics and natural objects such as the Mugunghwa flower, the Turtle Ship, the Dabo Tower, rice, and cranes, but never a female figure. A banknote was issued in the early 1960s with a portrait of a mother and his son, but it was not a woman on her own. Moreover, the banknote quickly disappeared from peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s memories due to a currency reform that was carried out in just 25 days after the issuance.

Surprisingly, when it was decided that the new 50,000 won note would have the face of Shin Saimdang on it, there were oppositions from various parts of society.

Male-driven organizations opposed the idea of a female figure being put on a larger bill than the one with Sejong the Greatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s portrait on it. Female organizations strongly opposed the decision as well, but for a different reason. They did not think Shin Saimdang was fit to be the one to represent female figures of Korea because she embodies an anachronistic image of womanhood: an obedient wife and a wise mother.

Nonetheless, the 50,000 won bill with her portrait was issued eventually and is still being used today.

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Korean calligraphy and its master, Kang Byung-in Seoye, or Asian calligraphy, is a formative art that uses letters as subject matter. It is an artistic practice that maximizes the formative beauty of the text and also an act of discipline that calms the mind and adds depth to the thoughts and spirit. This explains why calligraphy is written as seoye or seodo in Chinese characters, which mean “art of text” and “spiritual training through art of text” respectively.

Once considered an old-fashioned tradition, seoye is now gaining popularity in Korea in the English name of “calligraphy.” Modern calligraphy is different from its traditional form as it focuses more on the beauty and form of the hand-written text, emphasizing the design element of the experience.

Hangul, which has perfect formative beauty in itself, has a great potential for development in calligraphy. One of the most prominent calligraphers in Korea is Kang Byung-in. He studied modern design and worked as a designer before he started calligraphy. He is famous for his works that have perfect forms while being faithful to the true meaning of calligraphy: beautiful handwriting. He is garnering attention from both home and abroad with his unique calligraphy works that use symbolic imagery to deliver the intuitive meaning of Hangul, which consists of phonograms.

His artworks are so intuitive and beautiful that the words’ meaning is clear even to those who cannot read Hangul. There is also a unique aesthetic value in what he writes. Even foreigners with no background in Hangul can appreciate the beauty of Korean alphabets in Kang Byung-in’s works. They may even feel the urge to learn the language.

ⓒ CICI

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Artistic homage to Sejong the Great, ‘King of Signs’ Sejong the Great was the only ruler in the world who invented the nation’s unique lettering system in order to make it easier for all his people to write and read their language.

This made it easier for the people to communicate with each other. An artwork was made in honor and respect of this great King. It is called “King of Signs” and was made by worldclass artist and designer, Jean Charles de Castelbajac. Deeply moved by the design of Hangul and its practicality, he installed neon signs around the King Sejong statue in Gwanghwamun Square in the spring of 2016 in celebration of the 130th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and France. His work was inspired by what enabled King Sejong’s invention of Hangul, expressed with four signs. The signs means “If you see,” “If you do,” “If you love,” and “If you fly,” respectively. Castelbajac intended to convey a message to the youths of Korea and those around the world that “You could be King” by embracing these four beliefs.

ⓒ Yang Hyun-moh

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6 Hanok Village is Now a Tourist Attraction

Tourists from Korea and overseas visiting hanok houses that are now tourist attractions

â&#x201C;&#x2019; CICI

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Traditional hanok, from a house to a tourist destination Another ingenious culture of Korea is hanok, or the traditional Korean-style house.

In fact, a hanok may not seem particularly Korean to foreigners, especially to those from Western cultures. This is because it is hard to tell the difference between the architectural styles of Korea, China, and Japan at a glance.

Indeed, the exterior of hanoks may not look very different from that of China’s traditional housings. This is because many countries in Asia have a long history of Chinese influence, and Korea was no exception.

Hanoks were influenced by Chinese traditional houses in terms of style. Does that mean that hanoks are a mere replica of its Chinese counterpart? This is not true.

Although the two architectural styles are similar on the outside, the internal structure of hanoks is notable for its ingenuity and scientific value.

Hanoks have developed into a unique structure to suit Korea’s blend of continental and oceanic climate. Its structure strikes a perfect balance between air-conditioning facilities for the hot summer and heating facilities for the cold winter. Therefore, this architectural work is cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

The air-conditioning facility refers to the wooden floor called maru that optimizes the air flow so that the cool air enters while the warm air leaves. Meanwhile, the heating system is called ondol, which makes the air warm by heating the floors. The maru, located in the center of the house, is similar to the Western concept of a living room. However, unlike the living rooms of the West, the maru is an open space with no walls. The ondol is laid under the floors of the bedrooms, and it is Korea’s very own indigenous and scientific heating system. A fire is built in the furnace outside of the rooms, and the heat from the fire is transmitted along the floors of the rooms.

Thus, Koreans were able to cope with both the summer heat and the winter cold by spending most of the time on the maru during the hot summer, and in the ondol rooms during the cold winter. Usually, the wood that is used to make maru and the fire that burns in the furnace for ondol make a bad pair; in all likelihood, the meeting of a fire and wood result in ashes. It is not surprising that no architectural style around the world ever combined these two elements together.

However, hanoks were able to house both wood and fire in a single structure because the maru made of wood was placed where there was no need for ondol, and the floors of the rooms heated with ondol were made with hardened soil and clay. This is why Korea’s traditional housing is completely different from that of China or Japan.

However, 90 percent of existing hanoks were demolished in the process of urban development as well as residential renewal and reconstruction. Today, 60 percent of 173

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Korea’s residential facilities are apartment buildings. Thus, hanoks are no longer a place of living for Koreans. To preserve the tradition, Seoul designated special zones to preserve hanoks such as the Bukchon Hanok Village, Seochon Hanok Village, and the Namsan Hanok Village. There is also the popular Jeonju Hanok Village in North Jeolla Province. However, most of the hanoks in these zones are no longer residential homes but tourist destinations where visitors can experience the architecture. Some are also used as guest houses. Some of the old hanoks that have been built over a century ago are even being occupied as restaurants or cafés.

Ondol culture that will never leave Koreans, yet is no longer used by Koreans Over the past century or so, Koreans have lost most of the traditional ways of living that have been passed down generations of ancestors. Most of the lifestyle choices have become westernized, including what they wear, eat, and where they live. However, there are some things that Koreans did not let go of, and one of them is ondol, Korea’s traditional means of heating.

Even the ultra-modern apartment buildings topped with cutting-edge information technologies and Western names like “** Palace” or “** Castle” are equipped with ondol.

Moreover, even though most Koreans today live in Westernized residential buildings and apartments, none of them wear their shoes in their homes like the people in the Western cultures do. The reason is simple enough. Koreans know from experience that it is better to heat the rooms with ondol and not to wear shoes in the house.

It is healthier to keep the extremities warm while keeping the head cool. In this context, the ondol makes for the healthiest residential environment by heating the floor until it is almost hot while keeping the air in the room cool and refreshing. Meanwhile, not wearing shoes inside the house also makes sense from the health perspective. By loosening up the feet that have been constricted in socks and shoes all day outside, people can recover their body from fatigue and stimulate blood circulation. The warm floors also make it possible for Koreans to live in their homes with no shoes on.

Moreover, ondol has high heating efficiency, making it an economical choice that saves heating bills. This is another reason why Korea, an energy importer, cannot abandon ondol.

Koreans may have kept ondol, but they do not actually use it for heating. The current version of ondol in use is technically a modernized form of floor-heating that is different from the traditional ondol. The traditional ondol had an intricate mechanism; tunnels were laid to let in the hot smoke from the fire in furnace and this was topped with the floor heating system that stored and radiated heat for a long time.

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Unfortunately, Koreans failed to adapt and modernize the ondol system with its many benefits. Meanwhile, other countries like Japan developed a new heating system inspired by the efficiency of Koreaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s traditional ondol and it became the current floorheating system that is used in Korea. This is an odd situation of importing the floorheating system that was inspired by their own tradition.

Dongdaemun Design Plaza, the landing of a spaceship in Seoul The Dongdaemun Design Plaza, otherwise known as the DDP, was built in 2014 with the design of a world-class architect, Zaha Hadid. Hadid had been both hailed and criticized for her provocative designs. Before the Dongdaemun Design Plaza was constructed, the Dongdaemun Stadium used to stand in its place as a witness to the lives and hardships of Seoulites for decades. The historical stadium was replaced by the silver streamlined structure that looked like a spaceship making an emergency landing in the city rather than a building.

Hadid herself evaluated her work as an ingenious piece in which the structure itself becomes the lay of the ground. As shocking as this structure is, there are mixed opinions regarding this building even among Koreans. Zaha Hadid, an Iraqi architect, probably wanted to make a structure that represents the future vision of Seoul rather than the tradition of Seoul. That is why she used curved aluminum that blends in best with the scenery of the 21st century Seoul with its dense concrete forests. However, for some Korean critics, the DDP seemed too alien and detached from the traditional sense of Korean aesthetics.

Nevertheless, the DDP is one of the most sought-after tourist spots in Asia, visited by more than 17 million tourists from home and abroad already. It is also one of the most famous works by the late Zaha Hadid, who recently passed away on March 31, 2016 from an asthma-induced heart attack.

â&#x201C;&#x2019; Yang Hyun-moh

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7 Traditional House of Jonggas

Hyangdan, a hanok in Yangdong Village in Gyeongju City, was designated as UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It is an old jongga house that has maintained its ancestral tradition for hundreds of years

â&#x201C;&#x2019; Choi Su-yon

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Jongga, the pinnacle of centuries-old history and traditional culture There is a traditional hanok that has not completely lost its role as a residential building and that is jongga, or a family head house of a clan.

Jongga refers to a household that can trace back its line of descendants to a single distinguished ancestor. The eldest male of each generation passes down this tradition to the next generation, and the house is also inherited together with the tradition. Thus, family head houses are often as old as the clan itself, making them historical structures.

There are some old jonggas with an extensive history that are also famous overseas, such as those located in Hahoe Folk Village in Andong and Yangdong Village in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. In fact, they have been registered as UNESCO World Cultural Heritages. In particular, the Hahoe Folk Village drew international attention when it was visited by the Queen Elizabeth II of the U.K. and the former U.S. President Bush even before it was designated as a cultural heritage. The Hahoe Folk Village is where the members of the Pungsan Ryu clan live together in jonggas.

The patriarch of a family head house is called jongson. As Korea is traditionally a patriarchal society, having no son in the head family meant the end of the family lineage. Thus, these families would go so far as to adopt a son to continue their paternal ancestry. It was common to adopt a nephew of a distant relative as a son, and the family took comfort in the fact that he would not be a stranger but one of the family by blood.

This illustrates the great value that the Korean society place on kinship by blood. All families kept a detailed record of how their family lineage continued down generations.

This record is called jokbo.

Jokbo is a pedigree of people with the same family name and ancestral clan. It shows records such as the wifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s family name, the number of children they had, the names of their children, the family name of these childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wives, the number of children they had, and so it continues down the generations. Women were practically excluded from the traditional jokbo and the only records of women were the family names of daughters-in-law, or women who married the sons. The names of daughters were never even included in the jokbo.

There are still a considerable number of families that continue to record their jokbo, but the modern day jokbo includes both males and females. However, the records of married daughters are simpler than that of the sons. Some families document their pedigree in a digital format instead of the traditional form of books.

The most common family name in Korea is without doubt, Kim. People called Kim 177

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constitute nearly 20 percent of the entire Korean population. Kim is followed by Lee, Park, Jeong, and Choi, in this order. People with these five family names represent half of the Korean population. However, just because people share the same family name does not mean that they all belong to the same ancestral clan. Bon is another important element in the pedigree and it refers to the “roots” of a family. In other words, bon is the domicile where each of the families came from. Therefore, bon reveals which region or village a family originates from.

Thus, two people with the same surname of Kim may belong to completely different families if they do not share the same bon. There are about 130 bons under the family name of Kim, which means there are 130 different families called Kim. Blood relatives are not always close relatives. In fact, most of the people who share the same family name and bon do not know each other because they have branched out so far apart in the family tree throughout the long history of descendants. Yet, there was once a time when it was illegal for two people with the same family name and bon to marry.

People were not allowed to marry if they belonged to the same family lineage, regardless of the degree of their kinship. However, today, marriage is prohibited only between the blood relatives within the eighth degree of kinship, which means third cousins or closer. Beyond that, blood relatives with the same family name and bon are free to marry.

People who maintain the jongga tradition and culture The patriarch of jongga (family head house) is called jongson and his wife is called jongbu. The jongbu’s primary duty was to serve the guests who visited the house and to pay respects for the ancestors by holding jesa (ancestral rites). Needless to say, they also had to carry on the family legacy by producing a male heir.

The most important part of serving guests and holding jesa is preparing food. Thus, one of the requisites to be a jongbu was excellent cooking skills.

A jongbu is a woman from another family with a different family name, and it is only natural that her palate is accustomed to the food that she had with her family since a young age. However, daughters-in-law of Korea are expected to follow the traditions of their husband’s family. They had to re-learn all the recipes from their mother-in-law and abandon the recipes and familiar tastes of their own mother’s food that they grew up with. Such tradition gave birth to the unique cuisine of family head houses, called jongga food.

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In the old days, Korea had many communal villages besides the popular Hahoe Folk Village and the Yangdong Village of today, where blood relatives and direct relatives of the same family name, same bon, and same families lived together. These villages had numerous jonggas, each with its jongson and jongbu continuing the family lineage.

However, the modern Korean society does not acknowledge the value of preserving and following the tradition as much. Preserving the tradition and culture of jonggas requires sacrifice and commitment by the jongson and jongbu. However, such sacrifice is no longer appreciated in the modern society. Jongsons and their wives, who were supposed to remain in their family head house, left their hometowns to live in the city just like other people. As a result, many jonggas are at risk of disappearing and becoming a mere footnote in history books. Surprisingly, all of this happened in the course of just a century since Westernized houses were introduced under the name of regional development to replace traditional hanoks.

Fortunately, in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Korean society, there is greater acknowledgement of the excellence of Koreaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s traditional culture as well as the value of its preservation. The government is creating new hanok-themed tourist spots, supporting the maintenance and repair of old hanok houses, and encouraging the establishment of modernized hanoks. With this new social recognition, there are now groups of people who are working to restore jonggas that have disappeared or protect those that are at risk of disappearing.

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Interesting Korean proverb There is a Korean proverb that goes, “Do not tell others to offer persimmons and jujubes in their jesa (ancestral rite).” This refers to nosy people who like to meddle in other people’s affairs. Just as each jongga has its own recipes and tastes of food, each family has its own rules for preparing the jesa table. A jesa is a Confucian tradition and there are rules on the types of food and fruit that can be offered as well as the order and placement of food on the table.

Some of these rules are common across most families whereas others vary by each household.

This is because, as with any tradition or culture, the rules of jesa also evolved and changed according to the respective region’s culture and customs. Thus, commenting on another family’s jesa custom as in the proverb is unnecessary and unhelpful meddling.

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â&#x201C;&#x2019; Yang Hyun-moh

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8 Take Photos to Celebrate Longevity

Koreans believe taking the funeral portrait while still healthy will bring longevity

â&#x201C;&#x2019; Choi Su-yon

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Preparing the funeral portrait and shroud when healthy to wish for longevity The popular belief in Korea is that you will live long and healthy if you take a funeral portrait while still healthy and strong. So instead of calling the picture a “funeral photo” that connotes death, it is often referred to as a “longevity photo,” implying the expectation that the portrait will bring longevity.

Most of time, grown-up children are the ones who suggest these photo shoots to their old parents. By taking a portrait of their parents, they pray for their parents’ longevity and also prepare for their unforeseeable death.

The funeral portrait leaves a lasting impression on the mourners as the last trace left behind by the deceased. Thus, a good portrait is essential for preserving the class and dignity of the deceased. The photo shoot not only prepares the children for their parents’ death one day, but also gives an opportunity for the elderly to slowly come to terms with their inevitable death. Thus, some seniors take the initiative to prepare their own funeral portraits. There are various groups and organizations that take the “longevity photo” of low-income senior citizens for free.

There is also a belief that preparing the shroud to be put on the dead body while still healthy will also bring long and healthy life. In essence, these beliefs are all based on the need to prepare for the unforeseeable passing of a parent’s death. These practices also reflect Koreans’ filial love for their parents, wishing them longevity and health even while getting ready for their death.

It is commonly believed that the shroud is best prepared during the leap year. A leap year refers to the year with an extra month artificially inserted in order to make up for the gap between the Earth’s revolution cycle and the lunar calendar. The leap month was traditionally referred to as the “mock month” or the “rotten month,” and Koreans have superstitions about which activities are allowed and not allowed in leap months.

A leap month is an extra repeating month in addition to the existing twelve months of the year. Thus, Koreans believed that the mean spirits would not notice anything people did during this month, which meant that there would be no bad luck in this month. Traditionally, Koreans had a folk superstition that there was a spirit that interfered with the living people’s affairs as it moves around all four directions of north, south, east, and west. This spirit was called son, and there is an old custom of choosing a day free of son for important affairs such as moving to a new house, bringing something big into the house, or doing any other special activity.

It is simple to figure out which days are free of son. This spirit is believed to move east on the days with the number one or two on the lunar calendar, west on the days 183

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with the number three or four, south on the days with five or six, and north on the days with seven or eight. Finally, the spirit moves to the Heavens on the days with nine and ten, making them the son-free days. Meanwhile, the entire leap month is free from the influence of son because it is an extra month thrown in that is not noticed by the spirit.

This is why it was believed that preparing shrouds, relocating graves, or any such unpleasant procedures were best taken care of in leap months to prevent any ill fortune.

Birth and death in a hospital According to a survey, 98 percent of Koreans who were born after 1998 were born in a hospital. Furthermore, most Koreans these days take their last breath in hospitals, or at least spend some time at the hospital after their death. This is because a doctor’s legal declaration of death is needed in order to proceed with the funeral and other procedures. Therefore, most of the Korean funeral halls are auxiliary facilities to a large hospital.

Therefore, a hospital that symbolizes the birth of a new life is also where people part with their life. Korean funerals involve the entire processes and ceremonies from the moment of death to the body’s burial or cremation. Korea traditionally followed the Confucian tradition in the procedures following a person’s death, which were collectively called sangrye. The sangrye began from the moment of death, after which a funeral was held, and ended by the bereaved family taking off their mourning clothes, which was called talsang. The whole process traditionally took 100 days at minimum and one to three years at maximum. During this period after the funeral, the deceased person’s close relatives within the eighth degree of kinship wore mourning clothes and held regular sangrye ceremonies to pray for their souls so that they may rest in peace.

However, Korea’s custom of sangrye has become dramatically simplified in the modern day. Now, the entire procedure ends with just the funeral. All the family members take off their mourning clothes after they come home from the funeral and return to their normal lives.

In the old days, the funeral itself used to stretch for five, seven, ten, or fifteen days after death, but it only lasts for about three to five days now. During this period, the family in mourning solemnly engages in the funeral proceedings in deepest sorrow and respect for the deceased. A funeral is a ritual to pray for a peaceful, beautiful, and clean departure of the deceased, as well as a ceremony to honor and remember the deceased person’s dignity and life.

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The most traditional method of dealing with a dead body in Korea is to bury it.

Although some chose cremation to follow the Buddhist tradition, most people used to choose burial.

Today, however, more people are opting for cremation. This does not mean that cremation is preferred over burial from a traditional perspective. Rather, cremation is considered a practical choice in light of the increasing number of cemeteries across the country and the difficulty of managing and maintaining graves.

In the past, families lived and stayed in the same village as their ancestors, and each family had its own private land in a nearby mountain or forest. Part of this land was used as a family burial ground, or seonsan, and it was customary to bury the dead family members here. Nowadays, however, people live in cities away from their hometown and it has become increasingly difficult for them to manage and maintain their ancestral graves in the family burial grounds. As a result, some families resorted to exhuming the graves in order to cremate the remains and put them to rest in charnel houses.

In Korea, there is a profession called the “funeral guide.” It refers to a person entrusted by the bereaved with the responsibilities of managing and running the entire procedures after the death of a person.

Funeral guides start with consulting the bereaved about the funeral procedures.

They then take care of preparation for burial or cremation of the corpse, setting up of the mortuary for the mourners, and the entire funeral process that can go on for three to five days. They are also responsible for all the administrative work involved with the funeral. They were once referred to as undertakers, but are now called “funeral guides” because they can provide practical guidance regarding the entire funeral procedure from the moment that the deceased passes away until the deceased and the bereaved depart for the burial or cremation sites.

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Royal worship rituals for the late Kings and Queens, designated as UNESCO’s Important Intangible Cultural Property Jongmyo, located in Jongno, Seoul, is a royal shrine that holds the ancestral tablets of all the Kings and Queens of the Joseon Dynasty. It is where the Kings held memorial services for their preceding Kings and Queens during the Joseon Dynasty. This national ceremony is called Jongmyo Jerye, and the court music that was played during the ceremony is called Jongmyo Jeryeak. Both were designated as the UNESCO Important Intangible Cultural Properties in 2001.

Jongmyo Jeryeak is a court music based on the Confucian ye-ak (meaning “ritual and music”) ideology, which is about paying full respects in a ritual accompanied by music. The Jongmyo Jeryeak is both reverent and solemn like the requiems of the West.

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â&#x201C;&#x2019; Yangho Cho

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9 Seoul Downtown; Rush Hour Parking Lot

During rush hours, roads in the downtown area become packed with people commuting by car

â&#x201C;&#x2019; Yang Hyun-moh

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Car tells the driver’s status and class The cool breeze of autumn makes it the perfect season for enjoying tea. The Korean word cha originally refers to a hot tea brewed from roasted tea leaves, but it is also used as a generic term to refer to any beverage that is not a soft drink, fruit juice, or vegetable juice.

Korean people like to say “Let’s have tea sometime,” when talking about a future plan to meet up. Here, the word cha, or tea, refers to everything from actual tea brewed from tea leaves to Korea’s traditional beverage made by pouring hot or cold water on thin slices of sugared fruit, to herbal teas, and even coffee. Koreans also use the word cha for water boiled with roasted barley, dried matrimony vine, cassia seed, or burdock, which they drink instead of drinking water.

Evidently, it seems Koreans are very fond of tea and have a close relationship with the drink. However, the Korean word cha can also mean “car,” and this is what Koreans feel even closer to than the other cha, or tea.

For the Korean people, a car means more than just a mode of transportation. It is also a means to show their social status and wealth. A car is usually considered a symbol of the driver’s class in Korea.

Naturally, many Koreans have a tendency to purchase cars that are above their income level or financial capacity. They have the urge to boast or exaggerate their status through their choice of the car, which they think is one representation of their identity.

Therefore, many people base their car purchase decision on the cars that others in their age group, friends, co-workers, or neighbors drive, instead of considering their own financial status or budget. The Koreans’ desire to show off or exaggerate their status by the car they drive seems to be an issue of the entire Korean society rather than an issue of individuals because it is actually common to be treated differently at hotels or restaurants according to the car you drive.

With the car being a symbol of the driver’s identity, people who own cars tend to drive to most places instead of using other transportation modes. This is the reason for an incredibly chaotic traffic jam during rush hours in the main streets of metropolitan cities, including Seoul. The worst of the traffic jams occurs in the morning rush hour on Monday and the evening rush hour on Friday. Obviously, this is not because the population of office workers suddenly increases on Monday mornings or Friday afternoons. Rather, the worsening congestion during these two times of the week is attributable to the lifestyle of Korean office workers. First of all, almost all companies have an official meeting on Monday morning, when a new week starts, leading to a heavy concentration of the commuting population in the morning time. Meanwhile, 189

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there are more people who drive to work on Fridays so that they can leave on trips or other weekend plans right after they get off work, which explains the chaos on the roads of Friday evenings.

Recently, the young people of Korea are beginning to view their vehicles as more than a tool to show off their social status or wealth, but also an important representation of their unique personality and lifestyle. This is what a car means to most of the Korean men.

In truth, a car is a man’s favorite toy regardless of the culture he is from.

Considering that a car is usually the very first favorite toy of boys, men’s love for cars may be written in their DNA. If so, what is it that women fall for as the men do for their cars?

Presumably, it is luxury handbags. Many women in Korea want to buy handbags that are beyond what they can afford, or they decide on a luxury handbag to buy based on the purses of their friends, co-workers, and neighbors instead of their budget. This is an obvious resemblance with what cars mean to men. Luxury bags are also similar to cars in that they represent the woman’s lifestyle and personality in addition to the original function of holding the holder’s belongings.

Koreans’ favorite tea is coffee?

Another favorite cha of Koreans is coffee, because the word can refer generally to any beverage, not just the original meaning of brewed tea. According to a recent survey, Koreans are consuming coffee more frequently than napa cabbage kimchi or rice. Korea’s annual coffee consumption amounts to 338 cups per person, and this is only covering Americanos. The number suggests that every Korean person drinks about one cup of coffee every day. When all types of caffeinated drinks are included, Koreans were found to consume coffee more than 12 times per week, which is the highest weekly consumption than any other type of food, including napa cabbage kimchi and rice—the staple foods in Korea. These results are also relevant to the fact that the number of coffee shops spiked from 8,000 in 2010 to 20,000 in 2015. These results can be interpreted in two ways: either more coffee shops opened to meet the increasing demand for coffee, or people have a limited choice other than coffee due to the increasing number of coffee shops.

Whichever the case may be, coffee has become a necessity for any social gathering since the 2000s. The volume of coffee imported into Korea recorded the highest in history in 2013, and people’s love for coffee is still going strong.

There are many reasons behind why Koreans drink coffee. They may drink coffee 190

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over conversations, to shake off the sleepiness, or as a dessert after the meal. However, drinking two or more cups of coffee is an excessive intake of caffeine above the recommended daily intake, which is about 400mg. Excessive caffeine consumption can cause insomnia, heart palpitations, and even heart burn. Moreover, coffee loaded with syrup, milk, or cream is high in calorie, which can be a cause for obesity. All of this means that the growing coffee consumption has its list of problems.

“Let’s have coffee some time.”

Koreans often say this when they say goodbye or end a phone call, but when exactly is this “some time” that they are referring to? Actually, when Koreans say “some time,” there is no set time limit. It just means one day in an unforeseeable future.

This expression is used not only with coffee but also with other types of drinks or food. Koreans say, “Let’s grab a bite some time,” or “Let’s have a drink some time.”

None of these are promises of a specific point in time. This is a cultural difference in conversations that foreigners may have a hard time understanding.

Perhaps, when you hear “Let’s have coffee some time,” or “Let’s go for drinks some time” from a Korean, it can be interpreted as “See you again.” It is an expression of the speaker’s wish to have a cup of coffee or a drink if circumstances allow one day. Then, there would be no need to wait around and feel curious about when “some time” is.

An average Korean drinks 338 cups of Americano per year

ⓒ Yang Hyun-moh

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Korea’s hot places in autumn

ⓒ Gyeongwonjae Ambassador

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Gyeong Won Jae Ambassador, a brand new hanok hotel by a Korean architect registered as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

Gyeong Won Jae Ambassador is a

All of the rooms have beds, which are

hanok hotel located in the international

special considerations for foreigners who

city of Songdo, Incheon. The Incheon

are not used to sleeping on the floor. The

Free Economic Zone invested more than

rooms also have double-pane windows and

43 million U.S. dollars in order to make

systemized air-conditioning and heating

this guesthouse, which was completed in

facilities that make up for the innate

2015. It is a hanok hotel built by Choi Ki-

weaknesses of the hanok. The international

young Daemokjang (a traditional Korean

hotel chain Ambassador, which is entrusted

wooden architect) registered as UNESCO’s

with management of this hotel, ensures that

Important Intangible Cultural Heritage.

the service quality is as high as that of other

The hotel is surrounded by skyscrapers

hotels. The hotel also offers a hotel tour

such as the Northeast Asia Trade Tower,

program at 10 A.M. every morning, which is

which is the second tallest building in Korea

another reason why it has become Songdo’s

at 305m, and this offers a view that befits

tourist spot.

this international city of Songdo. The Royal Suite, which is 150m2 wide including the

Location:

yard, is the hotel’s most prized room. It

Technopark-ro 200, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon

comes with two bedrooms, a bath, and even a sauna. Guests can enjoy the view of the

Telephone :

Songdo Central Park through the window as

032) 729-1101

they enjoy a hot bath.

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â&#x201C;&#x2019; Gurume

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Gurume, a special night on the clouds that transcends 400 years in time

Korea is recently seeing a steady rise in

a yangban (ruling elite) family, and a house

the number of hanok lodgings. As of 2013,

that was used to keep a lookout over graves.

the number of hanok accommodations across

They all differ in size as well. The smallest

the country reached 767.

house can accommodate three people and

One of them is Gurume (“On a Cloud”),

the biggest one is spacious enough for

a luxurious traditional hanok hotel that was

sixteen people.

built by renovating seven traditional hanoks,

All rooms are equipped with modern

each with a rich history ranging from 200

bathrooms and toilets, and although the

to 400 years. Many foreigners have been

rooms have a refrigerator, they do not

impressed with its beauty.

have television. This is because the hotel

Following the construction of the Andong

encourages the guests to enjoy a quiet and

Dam, old hanok houses scattered across the

peaceful night in this old and historical

Andong City in North Gyeongsang Province

structure. Traditional Korean meals are

were at risk of being submerged underwater.

served for breakfast, allowing guests to fully

This triggered the large-scale relocation of

enjoy a day as one of the yangban of the

these hanoks over about three decades from

Joseon Dynasty.

1975 to 2003. Andong City and Korea’s SK Group collaborated to remodel the neglected

Location :

old houses, and they revamped into the

Minsokchon-gil 190, Andong City,

hanok resort hotel called Gurume in 2014.

North Gyeongsang Province

All seven houses are structured differently depending on the purpose. They include a

Telephone :

pavilion that used to serve as a cottage for

054)823-9001

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â&#x201C;&#x2019; Yangho Cho

WINTER

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1 Seoul Plaza Ice Skating Rink

Seoul Plaza in front of Seoul City Hall turns into an outdoor ice rink for Seoul citizens every winter

â&#x201C;&#x2019; Yang Hyun-moh

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Winter starts in Seoul Plaza in front of Seoul City Hall What can be more exciting and dynamic than sledding or skating on the ice? It is not just the children who fall in love with these two winter activities which are only possible during the cold winter with both a heavy snowfall and sub-zero temperatures that create a thick enough layer of ice. Whether young or old, male or female, skating and sledding are some of the first things that come to mind when it comes to winter sports.

They are indeed the signature sports and activities of the winter season. People feel alive, not caring even as their cheeks turn red as they glide across snow and ice on sleds and blades through the frosty winter wind.

So it is no wonder that the sight of people sledding and skating is what marks the real beginning of winter in Korea. The excitement of ice skaters is a sign that winter is in full swing even in the middle of downtown Seoul with towering rows of skyscrapers that may feel dreary as the weather gets cold.

Ice skating in the heart of the city is possible because the lawn at Seoul Plaza, established in 2004 in front of Seoul City Hall, is revamped into an outdoor ice skating rink in the winter.

Originally, there was a busy tangle of roads in front of Seoul City Hall. The place, however, also served as a gathering place of Korean citizens for major events as well as rallies and protests. For example, this was where the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Red Devils,â&#x20AC;? or Korean soccer fans in red T-shirts, flooded the streets to cheer for the national soccer team during the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup. Every time there was a mass assembly, cars were restricted from entering the area. Following the 2002 World Cup, the roads were removed altogether and a square was created in their place.

Every winter, Seoul Plaza builds a temporary outdoor skating rink that is open to the public on what is a lawn at other times. This popular winter attraction is open for about 70 days from early December to early February and has been running every winter since the year it first opened when Seoul Plaza was established.

Admission to the skating rink run by Seoul Metropolitan City costs only 1,000 won per hour, which is equivalent to less than 1 U.S. dollar, including skate rental. The facilities are excellent despite being nearly free of charge. Storage lockers are available for free and there is even an emergency service for possible injury. In 2013, a separate rink for younger children was added to the facility so that parents can be reassured of the safety of their children.

In the past, temporary outdoor skating rinks were established in the outskirts of 199

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Seoul because most neighborhoods had an empty lot or a large garden. However, dramatic urban development and reconstruction across Seoul took up much of the empty land. Any empty lot that is too small for an apartment complex or building but large enough for a temporary ice rink in the winter is now occupied as a paid parking lot.

As such, skating became a sport that can be enjoyed only in indoor rinks, most of which were reserved for professional ice skaters or people taking lessons anyway.

This is why Seoul Plazaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ice rink has become one of the most popular winter attractions as a place people can casually drop by for an hour of fun on the ice with family, friends, or lovers at the price of 1 dollar. It is open from 10A.M. to 9:40P. M. every day and nighttime skating against the beautiful city lights can be a special experience as well. In the evenings of Friday, Saturday, and national holidays, it does not close until 11P.M. so that Seoul citizens who did not have time to go anywhere special outside the city on the weekends can still enjoy their time off.

The lawn in the square that transforms into an ice skating rink during the winter turns green once again in mid-March.

Seoul Plaza, befitting its reputation of a signature landmark for Seoul citizens, engages average citizens when re-turfing the 6,400m2-wide lawn. Around mid-March, people can be seen carrying heavy rolls of turf and they are all volunteers living in Seoul.

The Han River of Seoul is known to have become a giant ice skating rink until the 1960s. Even now, the river starts to freeze up from the riverside and the surface water turns into a thin layer of ice in the middle of the river when the temperature plummets, but it used to freeze harder several decades ago. The ice in the river was thicker and harder back then, probably due to less global warming, lower temperatures in the winter, and less pollution and impurities in the crystal-clear river water.

As such, people could cross the frozen Han River on foot, children could sled under the bridge, and skaters could skate on the ice along the riverside. There were also quite a lot of safety accidents as a result.

Today, the Han River rarely freezes over as hard as then due to global warming and pollution, making it impossible to skate or sled on the ice. Furthermore, the riverside area, which can still freeze hard enough to be safe for these winter sports, has been mostly renovated into parks. Consequently, the Han River ice rink only remains as a nostalgic memory for the citizens of Seoul today.

In its place, however, there is now a new venue that brings back the memories of people who used to skate on the Han River back in the 1960s. It is the sledding slope 200

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at Ttukseom Hangang Park and Yeouido Hangang Park. The new experience would not be exactly identical to skating through the biting wind of the Han River in the old days, but a ride down the snowy slope overlooking the Han River is nevertheless a thrilling experience.

Birth of Kim Yuna Kids and its social implications The year 2004 was a special year for skating because it heralded the birth of a figure skating queen, Kim Yuna. It was in this year that a young girl from Korea, a country that meant nothing in the world of figure skating, began her rise to stardom at world championships. In 2010, she won a gold medal at the 21st Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, Canada, followed by a silver medal at the 22nd Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia four years later. She is now dubbed Queen Yuna for her accomplishments in figure skating and this young global athlete certainly contributed to the rising popularity of Seoul Plaza’s skating rink among Koreans.

The queen of the rink Kim Yuna also triggered the birth of the so-called “Yuna Kids.” They are a growing number of young girls who want to become the next Kim Yuna. They learn figure skating of their own volition or out of their parents’ expectations.

Indeed, the number of registered figure skaters rose dramatically from 229 in 2008 to 348 the next year, and the upward trend continues to date.

In fact, the “Yuna Kids” phenomenon is nothing new in Korea. There were “Seri Kids” who looked up to the professional golfer Park Seri or “Taehwan Kids” inspired

by Park Tae-hwan, the very first Korean Olympic gold medalist in swimming. Of course, his popularity was also partly attributable to the fact that he was somewhat of a heartthrob: handsome, with likeable features, and with the grace of a gentleman.

Meanwhile, Park Seri, whose name is in the World Golf Hall of Fame, rose as a national heroine during the worst economic crisis in Korean history. She imbued the Korean population with courage and comfort when they were demoralized from the IMF bailout of 1998 following the Asian financial crisis.

Koreans remember her as an icon of determination, never giving up in the face of any adversity. She is remembered as a barefoot golfer with dark, tanned calves and contrasting white feet, a person who would walk into the water to save the ball that barely managed to stop on the slope of a water hazard. The image of her holding the U.S. Women’s Open Cup at the end of a close match and several play-offs became an international symbol of Koreans’ perseverance and drive to pursue a goal in the face of 201

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obstacles. Indeed, she became a national figure through golf alone.

Park In-bee is one of the “Seri Kids” who grew up under her influence and became a successful pro golfer. She was followed by other “Seri Kids” like Kim Hyo-joo and Baek Kyu-jung, who were then followed by the “Little Seri Kids,” some of whom have become top players in the LPGA tournaments.

When it comes to figure skating or swimming, the world has yet to see the rise of successful “Yuna Kids” or “Taehwan Kids” because these sports are the domains where national commitment and social support are as important as the individual’s talent and ability. Nevertheless, the wave of athlete wannabes demonstrates that the Korean society is starting to define social success in a broader term as opposed to the past when it was only about becoming professionals like doctors, lawyers, and professors.

It is not only the rise of global sports stars that influenced Korea’s traditional criteria of social success and popular occupations. More people are turning their eyes to new professions, many of which are recognized in Europe, such as a patisserie who makes desserts that delight both sight and taste; a barista who brews coffee with the richest tastes and aromas; a sommelier who can appreciate the different flavors of wine; or a perfumer who creates fragrances.

Recently, quite a few people are trying out these less familiar professions while planning a new career after leaving their white collar job or preparing for a second chapter of life after retirement. This trend also appears to have a significant impact on the dreams and academic plans of Korean youths.

Perhaps the most popular job among Korean teenagers as of 2016 is an owner chef with his or her own restaurant. This is largely because of the popularity of meokbang (shows featuring hosts eating food) and cookbang (shows featuring hosts cooking) that is still sweeping the nation since it began several years ago.

To go to university or not to go Until as recently as the mid to late 1990s, Korean high schools were divided into regular high schools for those who will go on to university and commercial or technical high schools for those who wish to start working immediately without going to university. Graduates of commercial high schools mostly got jobs as bankers or office workers while those who graduate from technical high schools became technicians.

There were also special-purpose high schools such as art high schools, science high schools, foreign language high schools, and sports high schools that were not regular high schools and nurtured graduates toward specific majors at universities.

For those students who decide not to go to university, the best option has 202

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conventionally been to become a banker, a regular office worker, or a technician.

However, career paths for those who opt out of college are much more diverse today.

First of all, commercial high schools that used to focus on accounting and bookkeeping have started to teach a wider range of skills in response to automation of work. Furthermore, new types of specialized high schools were introduced that are targeted for specialized jobs such as hoteliers and sailors. There are also high schools that teach specialized skills in beauty, car maintenance, and baking among others.

Furthermore, students in these high schools now have the option of continuing onto higher education because there are two-year colleges offering these majors. Of course, they can start working straight away with the specialized knowledge and work skills they acquired at high school.

Students’ preference for such specialized high schools reacts quickly to social trends.

For instance, in the year when a main female character of a popular TV drama series was a patisserie, baking high schools rose in popularity. Beauty high schools would get calls asking for admission requirements in the year when a founder of a major hair salon franchise publishes a biography containing the secrets behind his success. All of this resembles the phenomenon of athlete wannabe “Kids.”

In spite of these changes, the Korean society still values academic background. It is every parent’s wish to send their child to an elite university. In Korea, universities of medium-to-high tiers located in Seoul are collectively referred to as “In-Seoul Universities.” This reflects the parents’ hope that their child will be admitted to at least one of these schools if not to Seoul National University, which is the top public university of the country.

Naturally, there is a preference for high schools that are helpful for entering one of the elite universities. Art high schools, science high schools, and foreign language high schools that were originally intended to foster specialized talents in each respective field became a passport to prestigious universities. In addition to these schools, there are now new types of elite high schools such as international high schools and gifted high schools that focus more on sending students to good universities than nurturing specialists.

Korea has a policy called High School Equalization, which aims to bridge the gap between high schools in order to prevent excessive concentration of prestigious high schools in metropolitan cities. However, this policy is largely meaningless because elite high schools are so popular among the parents. In addition, there are concerns that the old system of middle school entrance exams may come back after it was abolished several decades ago. This is because there are now a rising number of international 203

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middle schools or middle schools for gifted students in science and math that are considered more elite than the conventional middle schools, which have been enrolling students by drawing lots instead of administering exams since 1968.

Amidst such heated competition to get into a better school, there are some parents who take a step back. They decide that there is nothing to gain from the public education system that prioritizes test scores and university entrance above everything else, and make the bold decision to opt for alternative education. That is, they send their child to an alternative school or choose homeschooling. Among the many alternative schools scattered across the nation, there are more that are not qualified as a public educational institution than those that are. This means that the students who opt for an alternative school or homeschooling have to take a separate High School Graduation Equivalency Examination. This is an inconvenience that these parents and students are willing to accept so that they can avoid the excessively competitive education system of Korea that revolves around getting into the best university possible.

An alternative school literally means an alternative to conventional education with the aim of overcoming the issues of existing schools in Korea. Among these issues, the biggest is assessing students based only on test scores and classifying the majority of students who are not at the top of the class as “sidekicks” or “losers.”

The first alternative school in Korea is Gandhi School, founded in 1997. The educational mission of this school is to promote happiness in students by focusing on three aspects of life. The first is a holistic life where the body, mind, and spirit are all mature and in harmony; the second is a communal life of love and cooperation with neighbors; and the third is an ecological life of caring for nature and becoming part of nature. The school offers subjects such as farming, sewing, cooking, and woodwork, which are disregarded in the public education system. Also, reading and other activities that are in the domain of private education are offered as part of the regular curriculum.

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2 The Salvation Army Kettle, Symbol of Donation at the End of the Year

The Salvation Army’s pots appear in streets at the end of every year

ⓒ Yonhapnews

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The red thermometer of love in front of Seoul City Hall Making donations to people who are in need of help is no longer an act of kindness exclusive to wealthy businessmen like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, or Warren Buffet.

Thanks to charity organizations such as World Relief, donation is now a culture open to everyone.

Every December, Seoul Plaza in front of Seoul City Hall has another installation symbolizing the beginning of winter. It is the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thermometer of Love.â&#x20AC;? This megascale thermometer is a visual representation of the contributions made for an annual campaign organized by Community Chest of Korea, a social welfare corporation, to help the neighbors who are less privileged. The mercury level on the thermometer is designed to rise a degree every time the donated amount reaches a certain amount.

Unlike many Western societies where individuals have incorporated donation as a daily part of their lives, Korea still has some way to go. For instance, it is only at the end and beginning of the year that most Koreans think about participating in fundraising events to help the less fortunate people in community. In fact, 70 percent of donations by Koreans are made around the turn of the year.

Koreans generally perceive donation as an act of helping those who are financially worse off than themselves. This is why most of the contributions go to the socially marginalized class of people such as children, low-income households, and the elderly living on their own. The channel of donation is also limited mostly to religious organizations and voluntary welfare organizations. More than half of the population thinks that donation is only for those who have enough financial room in their lives to spare some for others. Meanwhile, there is a growing appreciation for donation as a stylish act among young people who hear stories on the news about celebrities who have been charitable without letting anyone know about their good deeds. Many Korean Wave celebrities have won the favor of fans overseas when they became known for sending relief goods or money to disaster-hit areas around the world. On the other hand, there are Koreans who do not understand why these celebrities would donate big sums of money to other countries when there are many people here in Korea who can use the help. This is, again, a manifestation of the Korean peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mistaken perception that donation is about giving away what can be spared.

Korea became the 24th member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee at the Ad Hoc Assembly in 2009. Korea is the second Asian country to join the ranks following Japan. Korea is also the first country to turn from foreign aid recipient to donor in the short span of just half a century. As a responsible member of the 207

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international community, Korea is expanding its international assistance to address challenges faced by developing countries such as food shortage and disease. Korea’s foreign aid can also be interpreted as an act of paying back what it owes in the past.

This is why Korea has to offer a helping hand to foreign countries even though there are many unprivileged and marginalized people in Korea who also need help. After all, Korea has grown sufficiently to help both sides.

In Korea, there are new and innovative methods of making a donation these days instead of the traditional cash or in-kind donations. These are the results of efforts to break the stereotype of donation as something that is irrelevant or disconnected from everyday life. The Internet and smartphones are playing a big role in changing people’s attitude toward donations and introducing new formats of helping others that are more fun, convenient, and familiar. Some charities disclose where the donated money goes in order to simultaneously promote participation and transparency. This new emerging trend of philanthropy in Korea is expected to justify Korea’s status as the 24th member country of the Development Assistance Committee and further elevate the country’s status on the international scene.

Anonymous givers of hope add warmth to the world As the year-end approaches, Korean media outlets start to report news about the “faceless donation angels” who give anonymously.

There is a story of a generous silver-haired gentleman who put folded notes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in the donation box and disappeared without a word or a little kid who came with his mother and donated part of his allowance in the Salvation Army’s red kettle. This is proof that there are generous givers hidden in every corner of the Korean society who give hope and courage to neighbors without taking credit for it, even if Korean society as a whole may not yet have incorporated donation as a part of everyday life.

The moving story of the late Kim Woo-su, a Chinese food deliveryman who died in an unfortunate car accident, is a case in point. He lived in a small room in Gangnamgu with just enough space to lie down, barely making ends meet by delivering Chinese food. It was only after the accident that people learnt he had been contributing 50 to 100 dollars every month out of his meager salary of less than 700 dollars for poor children.

When he was alive, he always used to say, “Poverty can never be an obstacle to sharing.” These words ignited a spark in the minds of many Koreans who had 208

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previously thought they could give to others only when they were well-off enough to spare what they have for others.

There is another moving story of an anonymous donor who has been making donations for eight years in a row to a center for senior citizens in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province. The good deed started with ten watermelons that were delivered to the center’s doorstep one summer in 2009. They were a welcome gift for the elderly people at the center who were exhausted from the summer’s heat wave. On the Chuseok holiday in the same year, more gifts were delivered including rice cakes, fruit, and pork. People at the center thought the gifts were part of an election campaign by a politician wanting to win the votes of older citizens in the upcoming election.

But the gifts kept arriving as the seasons changed and years turned. For eight years, the doorstep of this center was filled with gifts every national holiday and bok days, which are the three hottest days of the summer when Koreans eat health food for nourishment. But it is still unknown who the gifts are from.

There was also an anonymous middle-aged man who left a phone call at a community center in Jeonju, North Jeonju Province to come and get a bundle of cash worth approximately 20,000 U.S. dollars and a piggybank full of coins from the flower garden in front of the center. Then, there was the head of a small village, who saved up what little allowances he received and donated the entire sum to the village center to be used for the less fortunate neighbors. These extraordinary stories about ordinary people doing good deeds are slowly moving the hearts of Koreans who are yet to fully embrace the culture of donation as part of their life.

In fact, there is a reason why Koreans feel that donation is irrelevant to their life.

Koreans have traditionally valued modesty as a virtue under Confucian influence.

Flaunting or showing one’s possessions was considered immodest and ostentatious.

Likewise, people who always like to take the lead were criticized as being immodest.

This is one of the reasons why Korean people do not generally like to come forward to help others, but rather prefer to do good deeds without anyone’s knowledge.

As such, Koreans are sometimes unnecessarily concerned that their generosity may be wrongly interpreted as conceit. Such concern is also partly due to people’s perception that donations are made by people who have enough to spare for others.

On the other hand, there is another side to Koreans. They have traditionally been characterized by their strong bond and special sense of connection with those around them. This sentiment is also evident in the Korean word “neighbor cousin,” which refers to a close neighbor who is more dependable than a distant cousin.

Back in the days when neighbors were so close that they knew what the people next 209

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door were having for dinner, everyone in the village community knew which house ran out of rice, which house had a patient, or which house had troubles. For each of the situations, neighbors offered their share of help, whether big or small. Such small bits of help and interest came together into big support for the family in need. This was a time when people were not afraid to walk outside late at night even though there were no surveillance cameras on the streets.

This culture of sangbusangjo, or mutual help and interest, between “neighbor cousins” still remains to date. An example is the custom of giving a cash gift at weddings or condolence money at funerals. Nevertheless, the scope of “neighbor cousins” has drastically narrowed down today and the cash gift or condolence money is exchanged between friends, colleagues, and other close acquaintances only.

The broken bond between neighbors is one of the negative impacts on people’s lives brought on by rapid economic and social growth coupled with urbanization.

Realizing the long-cherished dream of studying in twilight years There was once an old lady who was so frugal that she would walk long distances with all her baggage instead of riding a bus to save the bus fare. People told her that she should spend more generously on herself now that she saved up enough, but she was not persuaded. Then, one day, she donated her entire assets to a university scholarship. Then, there was another old lady who donated 5 billion won—equivalent to 5 million U.S. dollars—to a university after living a humble life selling gimbap (seaweed rice rolls).

These touching stories of older donors shed light on the generation that lived a life of deep regret for not having been able to study and learn, because they were born at a time when everyone was poor and resources were scarce. Today’s older Korean population who are 70 years old or older will all relate to the times when learning at school was a privilege for those who could afford it. At the time, feeding the family was more important than studying, and even if there was enough food on the table, many women had to give up opportunities of learning for their brothers. This is why many of these stories feature old ladies rather than old men.

While some choose to make a generous contribution to a university that they were never able to go to, others realize their long-cherished dream of studying in their twilight years. We call them manhakdo. These are people who start studying late in their life, only after they have grown much older than their classmates. All their life, they felt insecure as if it was a crime to be uneducated, even though it was poverty, not 210

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their shortcomings, that prevented them from studying when they were young. Every university entrance exam season, there are old men and women who make the news for finally realizing their long-cherished dream of going to school.

In Korea, the record for the oldest person to enter university was set by a man aged 74. He studied with classmates who were young enough to be his grandchildren and went on to set another record when he entered graduate school four years later, followed by yet another record when he completed his master’s degree two years later.

He is still following his dream as a manhakdo to this day.

“Isn’t it a pleasure to study and practice what you have learnt?”

This is a quote by Confucius that expresses the joy these people must feel as they make their lifelong dream of studying come true. Age is nothing more than a number for these brave people who decide to begin chapter two of their life in their twilight years instead of writing a closing chapter.

Several years ago, there was an international scandal when a Korean girl who was rumored to have been accepted at Harvard University and Stanford University was found to have fabricated everything including the letters of admission. Her father wrote an apology to Korean news publications, blaming himself for all the lies. The success story of a prodigy that was hailed by every Korean parent turned out to be a hoax by a girl who should be seeing a psychiatrist. This scandal is a sad portrait of the overwhelming anxiety that the girl was feeling as she faced college entrance, and her compulsive fixation with being admitted to one of the prestigious universities. The delusions of this insecure teenage girl were coupled with the greed of her parents who spread and reproduced what their daughter said without fact-checking to make sure it was true. This scandal drew the global attention once again to Korea’s national fervor for education that led to this blind obsession with schools and exams.

In Korea, studying is all about a cutthroat competition. The primary root of this problem is the tradition of ranking students according to their test scores. Korea is the only country in the world where the applicants of college entrance exams are lined up from number one to the last by their scores. Koreans are also the only people in the world to write in their resumes that they graduated summa cum laude. The number one, which can only be one person, is celebrated by all, while number two stays out of the spotlight.

In Korea, getting good test scores is considered a road to success. If a person does not manage to get into a university in Seoul or land a regular full-time job out of school, the person is considered a failure. It is every student and every parent’s dream to graduate from one of the elite universities and enter one of the large conglomerates.

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Education is aligned with such social criteria of success but all that it guarantees is yet more competition after graduation. This means people have to continue studying even after graduating from school and getting a job.

Salarymen, or those who work for a salary, are now better described as â&#x20AC;&#x153;Saladentsâ&#x20AC;? as they have to keep studying like a student even as they work. Koreans cannot seem to free themselves from the distorted obligation to keep studying even after leaving school.

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“Talent donation,” sharing the intangible assets of knowledge and talent for the public good If sharing is only the realm of the wealthy, most people may not have the opportunity to share in their lifetime. Some people may ask bitterly why they have to think about helping others when they are busy making a living for themselves. But that is equivalent to failing to see the wood for the trees. Sharing and donation are not limited to the haves. Even the smallest of donation is valuable.

Furthermore, donation does not have to be in cash. People can share their knowledge, experience, talent, and even time. They can also share their thoughts and their hearts. In this context, “talent donation” has become popular in Korea as a form of participatory donation.

It is an act of sharing your knowledge and talent for the public good. Everything is shared for free, of course, since it is a donation.

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3 Preparation of Kimchi

A kimchi refrigerator uses advanced science and technology to modernize the traditional method of storing kimchi, which used to be buried underground in jars to maintain a constant low temperature

â&#x201C;&#x2019; booknfoto

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A refrigerator for kimchi in every household Just as France has wine cellars and Japan has fish fridges, Korea has fridges for kimchi. Kimchi, spicy fermented napa cabbage, is a deeply ingrained part of Korean diet and eaten at almost every meal. The refrigerator dedicated to fermenting and storing this traditional food is different in function and usage compared to conventional refrigerators. But the kimchi refrigerator is not used exclusively to store kimchi. It can also store side dishes and pastes that should be preserved for a long time like kimchi, as well as fruits and vegetables. Temperatures and settings can be customized for each compartment depending on what it contains. However, on the outside, it looks no different from an ordinary refrigerator.

The kimchi refrigerator is a byproduct of Koreaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kimjang culture. Kimjang is the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s old tradition of making kimchi ahead of winter when fresh vegetables would not be available, and sharing it with others. Kimchi is made by fermenting salted vegetables such as napa cabbage and white radish. Kimjang refers to kimchi itself or the act of making and storing various types of kimchi using various ingredients in order to last the winter.

Kimchi, a major part of Korean diet, should be fermented at a specific, cool temperature. In the old days, Koreans buried jars of kimchi underground where the appropriate low temperature could be maintained. They sometimes wrapped the jars in bundles of straw before burying them or dug a pit to protect them from snow and rain. This was possible because most Koreans lived in their own independent housing.

Then, with urbanization, apartments became the prevalent form of residential housing and kimjang became a nuisance for the women in Korea. Apartments were not the right place to keep alive the tradition of preparing as many as 100 to 200 napa cabbages for a family of four or five. There is not enough space to prepare so many cabbages or other ingredients in the first place, let alone a backyard to bury jars of kimchi. That is why the kimchi refrigerator came along.

There are still many households in the country that do kimjang in November and December every year. Getting ready for it takes some time. First, there has to be various types of salted seafood and enough quality rock salt as well as red pepper powder made with ground, dried chili pepper. Garlic and ginger are also included as ingredients and they should be bought in advance during the harvestings season. The actual act of making kimchi may take place in November or December, but the process of getting all the ingredients ready starts as early as the beginning of autumn.

Making kimchi involves brining napa cabbages with salt water, massaging salt 215

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into the leaves, and leaving them to ferment for eight hours or more. The process is similar to the process of pickling in Western culture. Next, so is made for seasoning cabbage, which is a mixture of various different types of vegetables according to the type of kimchi, such as garlic, scallion, and white radish. This means that it can take two whole days to make kimchi, starting with preparation of ingredients. The entire process including storage and fermentation stretches over three months and even up to a year. It is no wonder kimchi is called a slow food.

These days, there are less Koreans who make their own kimchi at home. With the rise in double-income families especially among the younger generation, people do not have family meals as much and thus, do not feel the need to go through all the hassle of making kimchi. As a result, more young people are buying the kimchi they eat instead of eating homemade kimchi.

Jongga Jip Kimchi, a globally exported brand of kimchi, is the first brand of kimchi to be sold ready to be eaten. Now, there are many more kimchi brands other than Jongga Jip Kimchi as well as the so-called “homemade” or “handmade” kimchi brands advertised by cuisine experts or popular actresses who usually star as mothers in Korean dramas. These numerous kimchi brands are sold on the Internet and TV home shopping channels among others. Unfortunately, unlike what the brands claim, massproduced kimchi cannot fully reproduce the deep flavor of true “homemade” kimchi.

Even the households that make their own kimchi do not follow the old way. People do not need to make so much kimchi at once anymore partly due to the rise in small nuclear families and availability of fresh vegetables year-round thanks to greenhouses.

Furthermore, there are brined napa cabbages on the market that are already salted and ready for kimchi, making kimjang at home much simpler.

It is ironical that while the world recognizes and hails kimchi as a healthy food, the people in Korea are not only making less kimchi at home but also consuming it less overall as the years go by.

Korea’s jang, cooked at home VS bought Jang refers to an array of pastes and sauces used in Korean cuisine. It can be classified largely into three types: yukjang (meat jang) that uses fermented meat, eojang (fish jang) that uses fermented fish, and dujang (bean jang) that uses fermented beans.

Korea has one of the most advanced techniques for making bean jang in Asia.

Almost every Korean dish includes some type of jang¸which plays an especially critical role in the flavor of Korean soups or stews. That is why there is a saying that “A 216

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tasty food needs a tasty jang.” Here, the word jang refers to the most frequently used condiments in Korea, which are soy sauce, soybean paste, and red pepper paste. There is also a proverb that goes, “Friends and jang get better with age.” This is because jang tastes deeper and richer the longer it is fermented.

Making jang starts with steaming soybeans to make meju, a block of dried fermented soybeans. Firstly, newly harvested yellow beans of autumn are soaked in cold water for a day and further softened by boiling them in an iron pot. The beans are then mashed and ground in a mortar and shaped into square blocks of meju. Meju then goes through a process called dduiugi, which involves drying the surface and fermenting the inside, so that it is ready to be used as an ingredient for jang. It takes about five to six months to make the final jang, which is then stored and eaten over a long period to bring out the fully fermented flavors.

Meju is separated into soy sauce and soybean paste. Soy sauce is a clear brown liquid extracted when meju is soaked in salt water for about a month, and soybean paste is made with the solid residues of ground meju. The clear soy sauce freshly made is usually used to season namul (seasoned vegetables) or to make guk (soup) while the darker-hued soy sauce fermented for a year is used to make jorim dishes, which are essentially foods boiled down in soy sauce. Soybean paste, meanwhile, is kept and fermented under heavy objects and used for jjigae (stew) or muchim (seasoned vegetables).

These days, cheonggukjang, or a quick version of fermented soybean paste, is popular as it helps with constipation and weight loss. It is fermented for a shorter period of time than the typical soybean paste. When making cheonggukjang, the process of soaking soybeans in saltwater is skipped and beans are boiled right away in an iron pot. The boiled beans are then fermented in a basket with rice straws for two to three days until web-like extracts form. Then, salt and red pepper powder are added and the mixture is ground to make the final jang. It is known for the characteristic strong rotting smell, much more intense than that of the typical soybean paste. This smell, which can be unbearably stinky for many foreigners, is described as the smell of hometown by Koreans. Of course, there are Koreans who do not eat cheonggukjang because of its smell as well.

Meanwhile, red pepper paste is made by grinding well-dried meju into a powder form and mixing it with glutinous rice flour or non-glutinous rice flour fermented with malt, as well as red pepper powder. Red pepper paste is Koreans’ favorite jang, which creates the deep and spicy flavor found in many of the country’s dishes, including tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes).

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The taste of jang can vary largely depending on the ingredients and method. Jang made with the same ingredients on the same day can taste different depending on whether it was made by the mother or the daughter-in-law. Mothers used to pass on the family recipe and know-how for making jang to their daughters and daughters-inlaw. However, just like kimchi, making jang is a time-consuming process that requires a lot of work. As a result, most Korean households now consume mass-produced jang products.

All you need is some ripe kimchi and leftover rice to make kimchi fried rice In one of the hit pop songs in Korea at the end of the 1980s, the lyrics are a man’s monologue about his ideal type of woman. According to the song, one desirable property in a woman is to be good at cooking kimchi fried rice, or kimchi-bokkeumbap. For a while after this song was released, it became all Korean men’s fantasy to taste kimchi fried rice made by their girlfriend. In truth, it is one of the low-effort dishes in Korea. All one needs is some ripe kimchi and the dish will taste good even if it is made by an inexperienced cook.

The recipe for kimchi fried rice is very simple. All you need to do is to chop up wellfermented or ripe kimchi and stir fry it with some rice on an oiled pan. Salt and soy sauce can be used to add taste. Finely chopped scallion, onion, and other vegetables can also be sprinkled in the pan, as well as sugar, red pepper powder, or sesame oil depending on the ripeness and saltiness of kimchi. The dish can be dressed up both in appearance and flavor with a fried egg or shredded kim—dried seaweed sheets—on top.

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â&#x201C;&#x2019; Ki Soon-do Traditional Jang

Jars for storing jang made by Ki Soon-do, master of making traditional pastes and sauces

Meju, the main ingredient for making soy sauce and soybean paste, is a rectangular block of ground steamed soybeans and it is hung for fermentation

â&#x201C;&#x2019; Ki Soon-do Traditional Jang

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4 Unique Scenery of the End of the Year

Koreans often go home late at night in December due to year-end gatherings

â&#x201C;&#x2019; Yonhapnews

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Koreans’ year-end gatherings December, the last month of a year, is a busy month for Koreans as their diaries fill with schedules for year-end gatherings. There are get-togethers for team members at work or people in the same communities such as alumni’s community or social clubs.

Koreans are characterized by their sense of jeong, or strong bonding with people, and they value the lasting relationships they form in society. December is the high season for reinforcing the bond with friends, acquaintances, and colleagues.

Friday night is the ideal time for a year-end party because there is no need to worry about getting up early the next morning. Because December has only five Fridays at the most, gregarious Koreans who belong to many different communities would have at least one year-end event every Friday during the month.

These get-togethers are held on other days of the week as well to accommodate the schedule of everyone, but because there are only so many days in December, some people find themselves having to attend two or more get-togethers in one day. Then, the hectic month full of parties and gatherings soon gives way to a new year. For Koreans, December is an especially frantic and busy month of the year.

Sometimes, another get-together may be organized in less than a month after the year-end event, this time, in the name of New Year’s party. It is a chance to pick up where they have left off in the restless atmosphere of the year-end gathering, as well as an excuse to meet once again to mark the beginning of a new year.

As a result, the excitement accompanying the year-end season tends to linger on until January. Again, this is a unique culture born out of Koreans’ people-loving nature.

Whether it is a year-end or a New Year’s event, alcohol is a must. The frequent drinking in December has long had a detrimental effect on people’s health, causing the build-up of fatigue and stress. Waking up with a hangover is a typical morning scene associated with the year-end season.

In response, some Koreans are attempting to revamp year-end gatherings into more meaningful events instead of a drinking party that causes nothing but harm to the body. For instance, some enjoy cultural activities in year-end events such as watching a movie, musical, concert, or sports game together with a dinner. There are also participatory events where people give a performance or organize a special event.

Another example is experiential year-end events to strengthen the sense of connection, such as going to a haunted house, exploring dark places at night, or accomplishing missions together.

Many Koreans also meet regularly with members of the alumni to build school ties.

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There are alumni associations for elementary, middle, high schools, and universities.

Seniors and juniors get to know each other in alumni meetings organized by these associations. These alumni meetings boast greater participation and influence than that of almost any other communities.

Among the different types of networks including blood ties, regional ties, and school ties, school ties wield the heaviest influence on Korean society. Of course, blood ties or kinship is important for Koreans, who have strong family values, but the blood ties are naturally narrower in scope and thus have limited social influence. Regional ties among people who were born in the same area also fall behind school ties in terms of social influence.

Relationships among alumni not only satisfy Koreansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; emotional desire for bonding with others, but also serve as a useful network of mutual help.

About 16 years ago, a Korean website called I Love School became immensely popular. It was a service that allowed people to look for members of alumni from the same school. Similar online alumni services such as Damoim and Cyworld were launched afterwards and also attracted a large number of users. Today, there is another service that facilitates alumni networking online. It is a closed social network service called Band, introduced by Naver, a major portal website of Korea. Band was initially developed as a platform for university students to share information, coordinate each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s schedules and contact each other for group assignments. However, it has transformed into a service that connects and reunites old friends from 30 years ago as if they have met just yesterday.

In this closed social network service, people can share photos and have conversations only with those that have been admitted to a group, and this private nature appealed to families, friends, lovers, colleagues, and many other communities. There are now as many as 6.9 million communities on Band.

Thanks to its simplicity of use and functions, Band has a large user base in their 40s and 50s. This is one of the reasons why Band became a widely used platform for alumni groups of Korea.

Year-end party of celebrities, award ceremonies There is another typical year-end scene in Korea.

During the last week of December, each public broadcasting TV channel airs its own year-end award ceremony for celebrities. While average Koreans are busy attending year-end gatherings every week throughout December, singers, comedians, 222

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actors, and actresses of Korea would wish they could make clones of themselves because all the award ceremonies are jammed into a single week. These ceremonies are the year-end parties for celebrities.

Though celebrities may not like the frantic week filled with ceremonies, it is a special year-end entertainment for Koreans. The entire family sits in front of the TV in the living room every night to watch their favorite celebrities wearing fancy dresses and walking down the red carpet.

The morning after the award ceremony, Korean media outlets report on every detail of the event. There are inexhaustible stories about winners, winning films and shows, and winners’ speeches. But the biggest buzz of all is, of course, fashion. Some less well-known celebrities may seize the opportunity to garner the limelight by wearing outrageous dresses. Some female celebrities receive public censure for showing too much skin, a reminder that Korea was once dubbed the Eastern Country of Courtesy in the old days.

There are four main channels that shape foreigners’ image of Korea. The first is the government’s promotional activities. Second, there is the role of media and entertainment industries, which created the Korean Wave. Another source of Korea’s international image is experiences by foreign students or expatriates living in Korea.

Lastly, North Korean issues that make international news influence the country’s image abroad as well.

Of these, the Korean Wave is key to driving and promoting Korea’s image across the world these days. It is literally a large wave of Korea’s culture and image that swept across the globe.

Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, refers to the popularity of Korean culture, especially popular culture, outside the country. The word was newly coined after the Korean culture became popular around the world. The early Korean Wave was focused on the Asian region, triggered by cultural content such as K-dramas and K-pop music.

“Winter Sonata,” a drama that aired in Korea in 2000, became a mega-hit in a number of countries following its first export to Taiwan. This was also the first drama that brought foreign tourists to Korea to visit places where a K-drama was shot.

“Jewel in the Palace,” aired in 2003, is another drama that drew international fans.

The drama was especially meaningful in that it introduced Korea’s traditional culture such as food, hanbok (traditional costume), and medicine, unlike other types of content that are mainly based on popular culture.

One of the weaknesses of the typical format of Korean Wave content featuring K-pop idol groups is that it can produce distorted images about Korea. Often, there is 223

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an excessive emphasis on appearance and style, and this can result in stereotypes about all Koreans. This may also have contributed to Korea’s disgraceful title as the Republic of Plastic Surgery.

Strengths and weaknesses of successful K-dramas The Korean dramas that had the biggest craze abroad are “Winter Sonata,” which aired in 2002; “Jewel in the Palace,” which aired in 2004; and “My Love from the Star,” which aired in 2014. “Descendants from the Sun,” a 2016 drama, was also a huge hit at both home and abroad.

The Korean Wave, sparked by dramas and music, heightened the international community’s interest in Korean culture and provided a stepping stone for Korean actors, actresses, and musicians to venture beyond Asia into the world stage. On the other hand, it led to a mass production of K-dramas targeting the Korean Wave and the subsequent deterioration of their quality.

In Korea, it has been a common practice to outsource drama production from the early 1990s. This meant that there were a lot of uncertainties about when the drama was going to be aired and scriptwriters never had enough time in advance to complete the script. Furthermore, the overall plot and concept of the drama could change when the producer or actors were cast late or replaced in the middle, requiring frequent revisions to the script. In addition, there were frequent interventions by production companies including the broadcasting station, and scriptwriters had little creative control of their own work. This adversely impacted the quality of the content in many ways, one of which is the increase in PPL or product placement—that is, indirect advertisement of a brand or product on TV shows, dramas, or movies.

In the end, scriptwriters ended up writing a large part of the script scene by scene rather than episode by episode in order to accommodate the constant changes and requests from the production side. The resulting page-by-page style of script became a symbol of the poor production environment for Korean dramas.

Recently, however, this practice is slowly disappearing. There are even dramas that have the entire script completed before the first episode airs.

In the case of such advanced production, tested and proven celebrity scriptwriters, star actors or actresses, famous production companies, and broadcasting stations partner together in order to reduce risks in production. Dramas produced this way are inevitably of high quality.

As the advanced drama production method replaces the old piecemeal scriptwriting 224

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practice, the quality of dramas may have improved, but flexible tailoring of content has been sacrificed. In other words, dramas that air after the script is all written out cannot reflect viewers’ responses to the plot in the course of airing episodes, which makes it impossible to adapt the drama to best suit the viewers’ tastes.

The almost real-time drama production of the past had the advantage of being able to immediately adapt the plot and production in line with viewers’ opinions. Also, it was possible to revise the script to adjust the proportions of different actors and actresses depending on their acting capacity. This contributed to the quality of dramas in a different sense.

As a result, there are some who argue that the old way of production is better than the new advanced production method. Some viewers complain that their opinions and thoughts are not reflected in the drama production.

Korean dramas are also criticized for lacking differentiation in stories, formats, and casts. Some people say that they can immediately tell which scriptwriter wrote a drama by checking the name of casts and listening to the first few lines of dialogue in the first episode. There are also criticisms that the plot development is too contrived.

Most Korean dramas can be categorized as melodrama, featuring love and breakups.

Often, a drama is devoted to a single end-goal: the culmination of love between the male and female protagonists. Under the name of love, anything is forgiven and understood. As such, it almost feels like the entire universe is working to bring the two lovers together through numerous coincidences. These repeated miraculous coincidences make the plot feel too artificial.

The lovers are almost always faced with the obstacle of different socioeconomic status. The concept of a female protagonist “marrying up” is a provocative element found in almost all Korean dramas. As a result, the lovers always encounter strong opposition or even revenge on their bumpy road to marriage.

It has been some time since Korean dramas stopped being experimental. Various genre dramas were replaced with clichéd dramas with familiar plots and themes.

Cookie-cutter characters include the Cinderella-type female protagonist, a company’s second-in-command who is more ambitious than competent than his boss, and a mean mother-in-law coupled with an obedient daughter-in-law.

Regular themes in Korean dramas based on blood ties Korean dramas have some regular themes including birth secrets—such as two people turning out to be relatives or turning out to be not relatives,—the protagonist’s 225

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incurable disease, or memory loss.

The reason why the birth secret of the protagonist is featured so frequently in Korean dramas is because the Korean society has traditionally had powerful ties based on blood relationships. Because blood ties were valued, marriage between blood relatives was strongly forbidden. In fact, until as recently as about a decade ago, there was a law that explicitly prohibited marriage between people who shared the same surname and ancestral clan. Even now, Korean law prohibits two people who are second cousins or more closely related from getting married. Even if the relationship posed no legal problems, Koreans rarely accept marriage with those whom they share kinship.

As such, the birth secret of the protagonist can be a useful tool in the plot to propel it forward. Parents agonize over the knowledge that the child they raised was not their real child and lovers find out that they are siblings. Coincidences and relationships branch out to form an intricate web of the plot.

Sometimes, the dramas are extended by a few more episodes to untangle all of the knots between characters and events. The last episode is more often than not an anticlimax where everything is forgiven, resolved, and reconciled.

Against this backdrop, it is welcome news to Korean viewers that the dramas on cable channels are trying to make a break from the existing clichĂŠs. There are an increasing number of genre dramas such as mystery, investigation, and medical genres that have already developed a devoted fan base. One of the new attempts found in Korean dramas is a greater variety of professional jobs in characters. What used to be limited to doctors and lawyers has now diversified into a wider range of jobs such as patisseries, chefs, baristas, perfumers, therapists, or soldiers.

Regardless of these strengths and weaknesses of Korean dramas, it is without doubt that Korean dramas serve as the main driver of the Korean Wave. It is an ideal means for people around the world to gain an overall picture of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s culture. Koreans are also starting to recognize the role and importance of dramas as a way to promote international awareness of Korea and its culture across the board.

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Korea’s musicians draw global attention <Cho Sung-jin, a prodigy pianist who made it in the prestigious International Chopin Competition> Cho Sung-jin is a 21-year old prodigy who became the first Korean to win the grand prize at the International Chopin Piano Competition. He is deservedly Korea’s best pianist and one of the world’s best. The live recording of his award-winning performance drew attention from both home and abroad, so much so that it even turned some people with no prior interest in classical music into devoted fans of the genre. When the album containing his performance at the competition was released, the first batch of 50,000 copies sold out in just a week. His Gala concert in February sold out an hour after the ticket sales opened, setting another record. This is especially unprecedented in Korea, where interest in classical music is generally low.

<99 percent inspiration and 200 percent hard work: pianist Kim Sun-wook, a Korean Wave star in classical music> Kim Sun-wook is another Korean Wave star in classical music who became the first Asian to win the UK’s prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition at the age of 18 and grew into a world-renowned pianist by his mid-20s. From young age, he looked up to director Chung Myung-whun as his role model and fostered a dream of becoming a great musician one day. One time, he even skipped school to go to a charity event so that he could buy Chung Myung-whun’s baton in the auction, which demonstrates his exceptional passion for music even as a child. Even now, he says he always thinks about music when awake and lives with the music. Considering the amount of efforts that Kim Sung-wook has made to be where he is today, “a born piano prodigy” may not do him enough credit.

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<Clara Jumi Kang, a young violinist capturing the ears of the world> Clara Jumi Kang is a young next-generation violinist whose extraordinary talent has captivated the international community of classical music. She was recognized as a child prodigy when she enrolled at Mannheim Musikhochschule at the age of four and made a debut with Hamburg Symphony the next year. Currently, she is performing in Europe, the U.S., and Korea, and has collaborated with the world’s top orchestras such as Germany’s Leipzig Gewandhaus, Dresden, Kapellsolisten, and Tokyo’s Metropolitan Orchestra.

<Nah Yoon-sun, Korea’s jazz singer who sings with European sentiments> The history of jazz music in Korea is not very long and the genre itself is not very popular.

But there is a Korean jazz vocalist with her own unique color, who is building up a reputation not just in Korea but also on the international stage. Her name is Nah Yoon-sun. She graduated from the first European jazz school in France and is known for her sophisticated expression of jazz music based on European sentiments.

ⓒ Cho Seong-jin

ⓒ Kim Sun-wook

ⓒ Clara Ju-mi Kang

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ⓒ Nah Youn-sun

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5 Christmas in Myeong-dong, New Year’s Eve at Bosingak in Jongno

Koreans mark the end of a year and the beginning of another with the New Year’s Eve bell ringing ceremony

ⓒ Yonhapnews

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Myeong-dong for Christmas Eve and Jongno for New Year’s countdown December is a festive and restless month with rows of year-end events throughout the month, but there are two days that feel more festive than others. They are December 24, Christmas Eve, and the last day of December.

On December 24, any place where young people like to hang out are packed full of people, especially a lot of lovers. Nice restaurants and cafés are filled with people who booked seats in advance.

On this day, the most crowded place of all is Myeong-dong in Seoul. This may be because it is where Myeong-dong Church, the heart of Korean Catholicism, is located, but this is only a small part of the reason since Koreans think of Christmas as a special and joyous day that transcends religion. Myeong-dong, which is said to have been swarming with people even as early as in the 1960s, is a must-go destination in Seoul for feeling Korea’s unique Christmas atmosphere. Of course, you have to be ready to be pushed and pulled in all directions amidst the crowd of people and confident enough to not panic when your companion is lost in the crowd.

If Myeong-dong is the place to be on December 24, Jongno in Seoul is the place to be on December 31. The place bustles with people who have come to see the New Year’s Eve bell-ringing ceremony. People crowd near Bosingak Belfry to greet the New Year with the ring of the bell. Jonggak is a Korean word meaning “belfry” and the subway station of this name on Subway Line 1 refers to this Bosingak Belfry.

This bell-ringing ceremony originated from a Buddhist ritual where each temple rang its bell 108 times in order to purge the 108 evil passions. In Korea, this has been replaced with the New Year’s Eve ceremony of ringing the Bosingak Bell 33 times at midnight of December 31. The number 33 comes from the bell-ringing practice called paru in the Joseon Dynasty where the bell rang 33 times every dawn to signal the opening of the four Main Gates and the lifting of the night curfew.

Before the invention of modern clocks, people relied on the sun to guess the flow of time. After the sundial was invented and distributed by King Sejong, it became much easier to measure time during the day but this natural clock was no use after sunset. That is why it was an important responsibility of the country to signal time to the people. The bell ringing also had Buddhist implications of wishing peace for the country and people.

It was in 1953 that the New Year’s Eve bell-ringing ceremony established itself as a symbolic new year’s event of Korea. Since then, until 1985, the Bosingak Bell was used for the ceremony together with the Emile Bell in Gyeongju. Then, the government 231

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decided to make a new Bosingak Bell to replace and preserve the old one that had been damaged in sound and shape by national disasters throughout history such as the Japanese invasion of the country and the Korean War. The new bell was made with voluntary contributions from the Korean people and the original rests in the National Museum of Korea.

The bell-ringing ceremony at Bosingak Belfry is the New Year’s countdown event for Koreans. The first ring comes at the exact moment that December 31 ends and January 1 begins.

The ceremony is broadcast live across Korea. Koreans who do not go to the Belfry would watch the ceremony at home to greet the New Year.

The throngs of people who come to the New Year’s Eve bell-ringing ceremony are unmatched even by the crowds in Myeong-dong on Christmas Eve. This is because while there are places other than Myeong-dong where people can enjoy the Christmas mood, Bosingak Belfry is the only place where people can see the bell ring on New Year’s Eve. In order to ensure a safe trip back home for the people, the operation of public transportation such as subway and bus is extended to later hours. However, this is often insufficient to accommodate the large wave of people. Sometimes, it is impossible to walk in the intended direction and people often find themselves drifting in crowds and ending up in strange places. Nevertheless, the ceremony is definitely a unique and special event of Korea that any Korean would want to experience at least once in their lifetime.

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The most beautiful bell of the country Korean bells make the most beautiful sounds in the world. But this is not truly appreciated even among Koreans. In particular, the Sacred Bell of King Seongdeok, which is the second oldest bell of Korea made during the Silla Era, can still produce beautiful sounds more than 1,200 years after it was made. The bell used to be struck on New Year’s Eve together with the Bosingak Bell until December 1992, but not any more for preservation purposes. It is indeed mysterious how the giant bronze structure, which is 3.4m high, 2.4cm thick, and weighs 19 tons, still maintains its original look.

The Sacred Bell of King Seongdeok is known for its poignant sound reminiscent of a young child calling for his mother, which gives it the nickname of Emille Bell—“Emille” was the Silla term for “mother.” It has beautiful angel engravings on the surface.

The bell is so mysterious and beautiful that there is even an account of a German scholar who saw the Emille Bell and said, “If Germany had such a wonderful antiquity, there would be a whole museum dedicated to it.”

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6 Scenes of Lunar New Year

Koreans visit fortunetellers to learn about their New Yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fortune

â&#x201C;&#x2019; Yang Hyun-moh

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Happy Blissful New Year!

The first day of the new year holds a special meaning in any country. Korea is no exception. Since Koreans celebrate Seol (Lunar New Year’s Day) and Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) based on the lunar system, they can feel the New Year’s mood on January 1 of both the solar and lunar calendars.

Though the first page of the new calendar opens when the year official begins on January 1 in the solar calendar, many Koreans consider the lunar Seol as a second opportunity to greet the year. If the New Year’s resolutions made on January 1 lasted for only a few days, Seol can be a chance to renew the commitment and begin again.

On the first day of the year, Korean people make a wish to the sun that rises for the first time that year. It is opposite from Chuseok, when people make a wish to the full moon. On both of these days though, there is a common wish that people like to make, and that is to stay healthy without any accidents and live “days full of bliss.”

Bok, or bliss, is closer in meaning to happiness than good fortune. The word is also used in the Korean New Year’s greeting remark, which translates into “I wish you a new year filled with bliss.” This is the equivalent of “Happy New Year” in English.

When the year turns, Koreans want to know about their fortune for the new year.

Many Koreans visit fortunetellers to learn what the year beholds for them.

The most popular way to tell the year’s fortune is to refer to a book called To Jeong Bi Gyul. The book’s title translates into “Secret Reading of To-jeong,” who was a scholar and astronomer from the Joseon Dynasty in the 16th century. The book tells the year’s fortune based on the gan and zhi combinations of that year and of the hour, day, month, and year that the person was born. You do not have to be a fortuneteller to use this book because all that is needed is your birthday and birth hour.

Meanwhile, saju is the collective term for the hour, day, month, and year of birth, and it is considered by Eastern culture to be a critical element that determines a person’s fortune. The word saju-palja, meaning four pillars and eight characters, refers to the person’s destiny and fortune determined from the moment of birth depending on the hour, day, month, and year of birth.

In the Eastern calendar, every hour, day, month, and year is represented by one of the twelve guardians of the earth, or animals. In order, they are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. Each year is assigned an animal and there is a repeating cycle of 12 years. The animal that represents a person’s birth year becomes his or her ddi. 2016 is the Year of the Monkey and people born in 2016 have the ddi of monkey. The year 2004, which was 12 years ago, and 2028, which is 12 years later, are also Years of the Monkey.

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As for the hours, every two hours beginning from 11 oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;clock at night is designated one of the twelve animals in the above order.

Koreans like to have their fortune told for the day or for the month even if it is not New Yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Day. Again, the basis for fortune-telling is the ddi, or the animal that symbolizes the birth year. Newspapers and magazines often publish the monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fortunes of different ddis. All is good if the fortune is good, and if it is bad, people try to forget about it.

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Eastern calendar counts years with twelve zhis and ten gans The Eastern calendar counts the hour, day, month, and year using twelve zhis (meaning earthly branches) represented by twelve animals and ten gans (meaning heavenly stems) represented by the Chinese characters without English equivalents. This system is called twelve-zhi-ten-gan. Everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s destiny, or saju-palja, is determined by this intricate system.

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7 Greetings of New Year and Tteokguk

Sebe is Korea’s traditional New Year’s greeting

ⓒ Kim Young-jin

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A bowl of rice cake soup means a year older in age Like Chuseok, Seol is a day when food is plentiful because offerings of food have to be made in charye (ancestral memorial rite).

While songpyeon, or half-moon shaped rice cake, is the signature food for the charye table on Chuseok, tteokguk, or rice cake soup serves that role on the Seol’s charye table.

Eating a bowl of tteokguk on the first day of the year signifies getting a year older. In the past, when Koreans wanted to ask a person’s age, they sometimes said, “How many bowls of tteokguk did you eat?”

The white rice cakes in the soup are slices of garaetteok, a white cylinder-shaped rice cake. The name has its origin in the Korean word of gallae, which means branch or offshoot, referring to the unique rope-like shape of the rice cake. Its snow-white color symbolizes a new beginning and birth while the long shape signifies longevity.

Garaetteok is chopped into round and flat slices for tteokguk. People wished for wealth as they saw coin-like rice cake slices piling up to be put in tteokguk. Some add dumplings to the soup as well. People thought that eating a dumpling, which is basically a filling wrapped in a thin sheet of dough, was comparable to eating all the blessings wrapped into one bundle.

Koreans have the tradition of performing a deep bow or sebe on the morning of Seol. Sebe is a type of jul, which is the Korean manner of making a bow to show respect and gratitude to a person. Depending on who is receiving the bow, the body should be bent to a certain degree in a certain method. The higher the status of the counterpart, the lower the body should be bent to express greater respect.

Jul in the broadest sense includes a light tilt of the head as well as a deeper bow of stooping the body to a right angle. However, jul more conventionally refers to a deep bow where the body is prostrated with the forehead touching the floor. In modern days, this deep bow is saved only for special occasions in Korea, which used to be known as the Eastern Country of Courtesy. One of the occasions for the deep bow is when performing sebe on Seol.

Sebe is usually performed by the young to the old. People perform the big bow to older family members in the order of their age. People who are about the same age bow to each other in a show of mutual respect. Traditionally, siblings also bowed to each other. It is considered courteous to bow nearer to the person the closer the relationship is. This meant that some people bowed inside the door and others outside the door depending on the relationship.

Sebe is a way to wish good fortune for the new year with family members, relatives, 239

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and neighbors. The elder person gives the younger person who performed sebe some allowance money, together with words of wisdom and blessings.

In the old days, it was food like rice cakes and snacks, new clothes, or new socks that were given in return for sebe. This was a heartwarming culture of thoughtful sharing by the better-off people who shared what they had with those who were less well-off in order to enjoy a bountiful and merry holiday together. Grown-ups of wealthy families did not stop children of poor neighbors from coming to their house for sebe and always sent them back with something in their hands.

These days, neighbors almost never perform sebe to each other. Instead, they exchange words wishing each other a happy and blissful new year. Consequently, sebe and sebe allowance became a practice within only family members and relatives.

The allowance money one receives on Seol is sometimes called bokdon, which means “money that brings bliss.” Parents and grandparents go to the bank ahead of Seol to exchange their banknotes to new ones because they want to give the sebe allowance in crisp new bills. The value of the money does not change whether the bill is new or old, but it does feel more special to hold crisp and clean banknotes on the first day of the year instead of crumpled ones. Because there is a lot of demand for new bills on the day before Seol, banks set an upper limit for the amount a person can exchange in order to prevent shortage of banknotes.

Wearing hanbok for the New Year’s bow Seol is one of the days when it does not feel awkward to wear hanbok, Korea’s traditional costume. The elderly, newlyweds, and small children are often seen wearing hanbok on this day.

Korea’s traditional outfit is ideal for performing sebe. When a woman in hanbok makes the deep bow in good form, it looks as beautiful and graceful as a butterfly folding its wings and gently landing.

As for young children, it is customary for them to wear hanbok for doljabi (grabbing an object to tell the child’s fortune) event in their first birthday party, as well as every Seol until they outgrow the outfit. They also wear it at kindergarten plays and graduation ceremonies.

Little boys and girls wear saekdong jeogori, a traditional jacket with colorful stripes of patchwork on the sleeves. The beautiful harmony of traditional colors on saekdong jeogori is already widely recognized around the world, including the fashion industry of France and Italy.

In July 2002, Miuccia Prada of the Italian fashion brand Prada made a non-official 240

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visit to Korea. On this first visit to Korea, she took back with her three pieces of hanbok by Lee Young-hee, a hanbok designer with a global reputation. Apparently, she was very impressed with the subtle harmony of colors on the sleeves and cuffs, a colorful yet elegant hairpiece, and the formative beauty of the bride’s headpiece.

Therefore, it came as no surprise when Prada introduced designs influenced by hanbok after 2007.

Designers of France, the world’s fashion power house, including the head designer Karl Lagerfeld of Chanel and Jean Paul Gaultier known as a fashion maverick, have also been inspired by the colorful sleeves and headpieces of hanbok.

For instance, one of the annual Cruise collections by Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel’s creative director for 34 years, was inspired by the traditional beauty of Korea including hanbok. This octogenarian used elements of the traditional Korean style in his design such as a dress with the voluminous silhouette of hanbok, high heels with the winged tip of Korea’s beoseon (padded socks), or hairpieces that are modified versions of Korea’s jokduri (bride’s headpiece) and gache (wig).

It is regretful that the hanbok, which is even inspiring the world’s most prominent fashion designers, is slowly disappearing from the daily lives of Koreans. This is because the costume restricts movement, is difficult to put on and take off, needs a lot of care to maintain a good condition, and is quite pricey. It is fortunate that trying out hanbok has recently become a trend among the younger generation of Korea.

It would be great news if there was a new, modified version of hanbok for the 21st century that keeps intact the traditional beauty while addressing the demands of modernity such as practicality and convenience.

Korea’s lifestyle that combines standing up and sitting down on the floor Western people find it uncomfortable and difficult to make a deep bow or sit with their knees and buttocks on the floor. Koreans, however, are used to sitting down on the floor and often sit cross-legged even on chairs.

Though beds, sofas, and tables are now necessities in most Korean households, Koreans still have the culture of sitting on the floor. Even though most apartments are designed in the Western residential style, Koreans use a mix of Western furniture, which does not require a person to sit on the floor, and Korean traditional furniture used while sitting or lying on the floor. A bed, dining table, and chair would be examples of the former as opposed to yo (floor futon), sang (low table used without chairs), and bangseok (sitting mat), which are examples of the latter.

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Most rooms have a thick yo or bamboo floor mat in addition to the bed because people sometimes like to lie with their back on the floor instead of on the fluffy bed mattress. When the body throbs and aches all over from a bad cold, lying on the warm floor and sweating it out can be half the cure. On the hot and humid summer nights, people spread a cool bamboo mat where there is draft and sleep under a thin blanket made of hemp to feel cool.

Even though most Korean households have a raised dining table, they also have an additional sit-down table called sang in case they have to host a large number of guests.

Especially, on major national holidays when the entire family and relatives come together to eat and drink for many hours, Koreans prefer to sit on the floor around the sang instead of sitting on chairs around the dining table. Bangseoks, or sitting mats, make sure that the buttocks do not become sore from sitting on the floor.

There are also many Korean restaurants that allow customers to choose either a Western-style table or a Korea-style sang. These places have separate zones for those who like to sit on chairs with shoes on and others who prefer to take off their shoes and sit inside on the floor. Some restaurants may only have sit-down tables. There are also a few cafĂŠs that provide cozy partitioned areas for people who like to sit on the floor with their legs stretched.

Of course, restaurants without Western-style tables would be nothing but bewildering to Western people who are not used to sitting on the floor. In fact, such a setting is uncomfortable for many older Koreans as well who have bad knee joints from spending their whole life in a sit-down culture.

There is another dining culture that is as unfamiliar and incomprehensible to Western people as sitting on the floor. Unlike Western people, Koreans do not talk much when they eat. These days, there is much more friendly conversation over meals, but it used to be considered good manners to stay quiet during meals. Some older generations in Korea are still reticent when they eat, perhaps because eating in silence has become a habit for them.

At places like banquets where strangers have to share the same table, Koreans are often seen focusing on their dish without speaking. Western people find it odd that people look sullen and almost angry as they concentrate only on eating without any conversation save for occasional eye contact with the person sitting next or opposite to him.

This unexpected side of Koreans, who are known for their affinity for people, originated from the tradition of valuing modesty and polite manners as the highest virtue and dignity.

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Koreans think that smiling to a complete stranger can offend the person. Those who come from the Western culture where people would smile at each other even while waiting for the traffic light to change at crosswalk may interpret Koreansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; dry facial expressions without a hint of a smile as a sign that they are upset about something.

On the other hand, Koreans become perplexed when a complete stranger from the Western culture smiles at them for no reason.

Koreans give some money in return for sebe to wish good luck for the year

â&#x201C;&#x2019; Kim Young-jin

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8 Empty Seoul during Holiday Seasons

Almost all stores are closed on the days of major national holidays

â&#x201C;&#x2019; Yang Hyun-moh

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Where are restaurants that are 100 percent open on major national holidays?

Yeon-jung-mu-hyu is a Korean phrase that means â&#x20AC;&#x153;open 365 days a yearâ&#x20AC;? and is used as if it was an old idiom. This may not be so surprising considering that Korea is one of the most labor-intensive countries of the world.

However, there are two days in a year when everyone takes a break from work, which is unusual in a country that takes yeon-jung-mu-hyu as granted. The two days are Seol and Chuseok.

On the actual day of Seol and Chuseok, most Korean stores close and people spend time with families in their hometown away from Seoul. The downtown area that is always busy feels almost peaceful on the days of Seol and Chuseok. These days, however, a growing number of Koreans choose not to go to their hometown or have their parents come to Seoul instead. As a result, some of the busy districts such as Myeong-dong remain as crowded as ever with people and tourists.

There are also those who have nothing to do during these holidays. Though the television shows highways jammed with cars and the streets that have emptied out, there are people who have to spend the days on their own for various reasons such as family members all living abroad. For them, the national holiday simply means a day off from work and nothing more.

For these people, the two national holidays often associated with family feasts are actually when food is the scarcest. They do not have anyone to cook a warm bowl of tteokguk (rice cake soup) for them and most of the diners are closed for the day. So they would come back home after a lonely tour of closed restaurants and make do with instant noodles. Instead of tear-stained bread, they make do with tear-stained noodles.

Even for those lucky ones who have prepared enough holiday food in advance, eating the same microwaved holiday food throughout the long holiday stretch of four to five days can be cloying. Also, preparing new food would be wasteful and produce extra food wastes when there is so much leftover food. It would be inappropriate as well to ask this of women in the family who are already burnt out from preparing all the holiday food.

As a result, more Koreans these days like to eat out over the long holiday and there are more places that resume business one or two days after the actual day of Seol or Chuseok. However, on the actual days of Seol and Chuseok, there are almost no restaurants that are open. This is because there are not enough customers to be profitable and the stronger Labor Standards Act prohibits work on these days to promote employee welfare.

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Therefore, the only options on the days of Seol and Chuseok are hotel restaurants that are open year-round, large franchise restaurants that take turns operating over the holiday, fast food chains, or food courts in department stores or hypermarkets. Of these, the safest option is hotel restaurants because other restaurants may have variable schedules, at least on these two days of the year.

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Korea’s hot places in winter

ⓒ Yonhapnews

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Hanok Village of Jeonju that offers winter’s style and taste

One of the most “Korean” cities in

Walking from the tourist information

Korea is Jeonju. Jeonju is a city where

center of the village along a road called

people can experience traditional cultures

Taejo-ro will take you to Omokdae Pavilion.

that are uniquely Korean, including hanok

This is where King Taejo, the first King

(traditional Korean houses), hanbok

who founded the Joseon Dynasty, stopped

(traditional Korean costume), hanshik

to host a feast on his way back from the

(Korean food) and hanji (traditional Korean

victory against the Japanese invaders in the

paper). It is also home to pansori, which

Battle of Hwangsan. Next to the wooden

is a Korean genre of musical story-telling,

stairs that lead to Omokdae Pavilion, there

as well as ye, or Korean decorum. The

is a signpost made of rock that says “Jeonju

diverse offerings have been recognized when

Hanok Village.” The stairs will take you to

UNESCO designated Jeonju as the World

the top of Omokdae where you can get a full

Cultural Heritage.

view of the black giwa (Korea’s traditional

The Hanok Village in the city is a

roof tiles) roofs covered with white snow and

community of about 700 hanok buildings.

neat lines of hanok houses. The view is both

The Jeonju Hanok Village, located in

refreshing and cozy at the same time. It is

Pungnam-dong, is the country’s biggest

a picturesque scenery that can be seen only

traditional hanok village.

during the winter in Jeonju.

People are well-advised to walk slowly when

Jeonju is also a city of gastronomy.

in Jeonju. This will help you appreciate the

Korean tourists say that they can never fail

Hanok Village with grace and dignity as if you

with any restaurant or menu in Jeonju,

are one of the yangban (noblemen) or gyusu

which offers a wide variety of Korean food.

(unmarried maiden) of the ancient Korea.

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Walking in the cold winter weather and

However, this seemingly simple food

feeling the chilly wind on the face gives

has an incredibly deep and refreshing flavor

Koreans cravings for a hot steaming bowl

beyond imagination. Paired with its perfect

of soup. After a tour of the snow-covered

partner, moju (Korea’s crude liquor), it

Hanok Village, a bowl of hot soup would be

will make a truly memorable meal. Moju

more desirable than ever. Jeonju’s signature

does not make you drunk because all the

bean sprout and rice soup will thoroughly

alcohol evaporated in the process of boiling

satiate this craving.

the mixture of makgeolli (unrefined rice

It is made by first putting a generous

wine) with cinnamon, brown sugar, jujube,

amount of rice in a blunt ttukbegi (unglazed

ginger, and ginseng for three to four hours.

earthen pot) and adding parboiled bean

Additional herbal ingredients can be added

sprouts and chopped kimchi on top, which

for health benefits. In fact, it may be more

is then boiled with anchovy or pollack

correct to call it a health drink rather than

broth to add a deep flavor. It comes with

an alcoholic drink.

side dishes of napa cabbage kimchi, cubed

Once a person tastes Jeonju’s bean sprout

radish kimchi, salted shrimps, and poached

and rice soup, there would be no doubt

egg, which are the simplest and most basic

about why it is one of the three delicacies

side dishes of Korea. Considering it is one

of Jeonju alongside the city’s hanjeongsik (a

of the signature foods of Jeonju—the city

full-course Korean meal) and bibimbap (rice

of gastronomy—it is rather humble without

mixed with meat and assorted vegetables).

any frills.

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The bean sprout and rice soup is

Recently, Sambaekjip and Pungnyun

categorized into either sambaekjip type or

Bakery opened their branches in Seoul and

nambu-shijang type according to how it is

people no longer have to go all the way to

cooked. The former consists of rice, parboiled

Jeonju to taste the delicacies. However, the

bean sprouts, chopped kimchi, and broth

tastes in Seoul do not seem to quite match

boiled in ddukbegi, and an egg is added to

the original experience of Jeonju. Of course,

the bowl at the end. The name comes from

it may be only a feeling and nothing more.

the first and the most famous restaurant for the dish, which was Sambaekjip. Meanwhile, the nambu-shijang style is slightly different because the egg comes in a separate dish to be added to the ddukbegi containing rice, parboiled bean sprouts, and chopped kimchi.

This style originated from nambu-shijang, or the North Market of Jeonju. It is not too hot and brings out the refreshing flavor.

When you feel warm and full from the steaming bowl of soup, the recommended finishing touch is a dessert of hand-made Choco Pie, another signature food of Jeonju.

Pungnyun Bakery, which opened in 1951, first introduced this pie.

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â&#x201C;&#x2019; Bae Bien-U

â&#x201C;&#x2019; Bae Bien-U

Published by Korean Culture and Information Service(KOCIS) Director Kim Kabsoo Address Government Complex-Sejong, 14-1, 408, Galmae-ro, Sejong-si, Korea Telephone +82-44-203-3300 Homepage www.kocis.go.kr

Author Choi Jung-wha Photography Yangho Cho, Bae Bien-U, Yang Hyun-moh, Choi Su-yon, Yonhapnews, NewsBank and booknfoto English Translation Lee Sang-won, Kim Hanna Title Calligraphy Kang Byung-in Edit & Design Designhouse ISBN 978-89-7041-689-2 (03380)

Choi Jung-wha reveals the great and unique cultures of Korea. Secrets of its language, cuisine, love, landscapes and rituals are finally unveiled to not only Koreans, but also for the first time to Westerners, allowing them to see how extraordinary Korea is. Beyond the economic success and K-pop we know today, the author demonstrates how Koreans have preserved their souls without resorting to the West. Choi Jung-wha succeeds in this remarkable challenge by combining her vast knowledge in culture with a rare clarity of style.

K-style is set to become a â&#x20AC;&#x153;classicâ&#x20AC;? in the study of culture.

Guy Sorman

ISBN 978-89-7041-689-2 (03380)