201702koreamagazine en by KOCIS

Monthly Magazine

February 2017

Cover Story

ISSN: 2005-2162

www. korea.net

Korea’s Sweet Tooth

People love their desserts, both traditional and exotic

김 선생님 계세요? Kim seonsaengnim gyeseyo?

As we enter a new lunar year, KOREA also begins anew. This year, through our cover stories, we will explore the theme “Discovering modern values through tradition.” In particular, we will examine how long-held values and traditions remain relevant in the modern day through rediscovery and reinterpretation. In this issue of KOREA, we dive into the world of Korean desserts, including traditional delicacies like rice cakes and more modern favorites such as shaved ice and Western-style cakes given a Korean twist. We also explore the beautiful coast of Taean, talk with artisan Choi Byung-in, meet some of K-pop’s non-Korean stars, learn about Bae Suah’s latest translated novel, and even study a bit of Korean through one of Korea’s most popular TV shows.

Excuse me, is Mr. Kim in?

Publisher Ha Hyeon Bong Korean Culture and Information Service Executive Producer Park Byunggyu Editorial Advisers Cho Won-hyung, Lee Suwan, Park Inn-seok Email webmaster@korea.net Magazine Production Seoul Selection

실례합니다. 김 선생님 계세요?

지금 안 계세요.

Sillyehamnida. Kim seonsaengnim gyeseyo?

점심 식사하러 가셨어요.

Excuse me, is Mr. Kim in?

Jigeum an gyeseyo. Jeomsim siksahareo gasyeosseoyo.

Editor-in-Chief Robert Koehler Production Supervisor Kim Eugene Producers Im Ian, Woo Jiwon

He’s not here at the moment. He went out for lunch.

언제 오세요? Eonje oseyo?

When will he be back?

Copy Editors Gregory Eaves, Eileen Cahill Creative Director Lee Yusin Designers Lee Bok-hyun, Jung Hyun-young

한 시쯤 오실 거예요.

그럼 나중에 다시 올게요.

Han sijjeum osil geoyeyo.

Geureom najunge dasi olgeyo. 나래 Narae

I’ll come back later, then.

Around one o’clock.

밍밍 Mingming

Photographers aostudio Kang Jinju, 15 Studio Printing Pyung Hwa Dang Printing Co., Ltd.

Let’s practice!

V-(으)시Cover Photo Stylishly ceramics lend a modern touch to traditional rice cakes, or tteok. Photographed by ao studio Kang Jinju Stylized by Damda Ceramics courtesy of choeunsook art & life style gallery and Havebeenseoul

“-(으)시-” makes a verb or an adjective honorific. 먹다/마시다–드시다 To eat/drink

Complete each sentence by selecting the correct expression from the box. 보기

meokda, masida → deusida

자다–주무시다 To sleep jada → jumusida

갈게요

하실

보러

있다–계시다 To be (in a state or place) itda → gyesida 말하다–말씀하시다 To talk/ speak/ say malhada → malsseumhasida

A: 이 선생님, 다음 주말에 뭐

거예요?

A: Mr. Lee, what will you do this weekend?

V-(으)러 “-(으)러” is combined with a verb to indicate the subject’s purpose. This form is always followed by “가다,” “오다” or “다니다.”

B: 글쎄요. 아직 특별한 계획은 없어요. B: I’m not sure. I don’t have any special plans yet. A: 저희 집에서 한국 영화 감상 모임이 있어요. 영화

V-(으)ㄹ게요

A: We’re going to get together to watch a movie at my house. Come watch it with us.

“-(으)ㄹ게요” is used to form the future tense. This is the first-person form and indicates the intention of the subject to do such and such.

B: 정말요? 그럼 제가 팝콘을 사서 B: Really? Then I’ll go with some popcorn.

오세요.

_ Editorial staff, KOREA

Korean Culture

In Korean, when addressing someone, it is normally done in the form of “name + title,” like “김 (family name) + 선생님 (teacher, polite vocative form),” or “이 (family name) 변호사님 (attorney).” The title is often used alone, with the name omitted. Now, if you imagine yourself at a meeting at the White House with many senators and members of congress in attendance, and consider how you and others would address each other, with the English rule of “title + name,” with “Secretary X,” “Senator Y,” and “Congresswoman Johnson” being the normal forms of address, you can easily understand and adapt to the Korean way of addressing people. When you are speaking in Korean, pretend you are at the White House and that everyone around you is important. For example, if you become a teacher in Korea, and if your name is John Smith, they will call you “선생님 (teacher)” or “스미스 선생님.”

Co nte nt s

04 Cover Story Korea’s Sweet Tooth From traditional rice cakes to Instagram-worthy shaved ice concoctions, Korea has contributed a rich variety of unique desserts to the world culinary scene. As Korean tastes grow more cosmopolitan, Korean bakers and chefs are even challenging, and sometimes surpassing, their Western colleagues at their own game.

24 Korea & I A Place of Human Warmth and Beauty Gyeongbokgung Palace may be a big place, but it’s an intimate one, too.

26 Arts & Entertainment 1 A Tale of Two Cities Mille-feuille de Camélia exhibit examines relationship between Seoul and Taipei.

28 Arts & Entertainment 2 Global K-pop

14 Travel Mud, Sea, Salt and Sun Shaped over millennia by the forces of nature, Taean’s rugged coastline doesn’t just bedevil with its beauty. It shapes the lifestyles of its people.

20 People From Block of Wood to Brand New Life In the old days, carved wooden figurines, or kkokdu, were an important part of traditional funerals. They are rarely seen today, but master craftsman Choi Byung-in is working hard to ensure that this piece of Korean heritage does not disappear completely.

As Korean pop music’s global presence grows, K-pop bands are themselves growing more international. NonKorean stars are proving that you don’t necessarily have to be Korean to succeed in the world of K-pop.

38 This is Pyeongchang Slippery, Tasty Fun Pyeongchang Trout Festival celebrates Olympic host city’s most famous riverine inhabitant.

40 Current Korea Getting Ready for the Games Hello PyeongChang Test Events help Korea prepare for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

42 Global Korea Korean dance troupe takes part in Nigerian street festival, Korean and Japanese art students display work in Tokyo, and more.

44 Flavor Jeonbokcho Abalone is great in soups, stews or porridge. Sometimes, however, it’s even better grilled and savored on its own.

30 Korean Culture in Brief Boy band breaks record, a Korean-American museum opens in New York, and more.

32 Literature An Essay of a Novel Bae Suah’s “A Greater Music” examines language and the desire to possess.

36 Policy Review Boosting the Birth Rate

46 Learning Korean ‘Should I apologize, or should I confess my love?’ “Descendants of the Sun” lives on with a memorable quote.

The government has unveiled measures to boost birth rates and get people marrying younger again.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission from KOREA and the Korean Culture and Information Service. If you want to receive a free copy of KOREA or wish to cancel a subscription, please email us. A downloadable PDF of KOREA and a map and glossary with common Korean words appearing in our magazine are available by clicking on the thumbnail of KOREA at the website www.korea.net. Publication Registration No: 11-1110073-000016-06

Cover Story

Written by Robert Koehler Photographed by ao studio Kang Jinju Stylized by Damda Ceramics courtesy of choeunsook art & life style gallery and Havebeenseoul

Korea’s Sweet Tooth People love their desserts, both traditional and exotic

Like most people around the world, Koreans love their sweets. Korea has a long, rich and tasty tradition of making snacks and sweets, from rice cakes like tteok to more modern creations such as shaved ice and Western-style cakes and pastries. Indeed, in Korea, it wouldn’t be a celebration without the obligatory rice cake, or a New Year’s morning without a bowl of rice cake soup, or a cup of tea without a traditional Korean cookie, or hangwa. Do you want something unobtainable? Koreans call that a “rice cake in the picture.” As Korean cuisine takes off internationally, so, too, are Korean desserts taking off. “Desserts are the next big Korean thing to arrive, from soft-serve ice cream to J-cone to bingsu, a shaven ice treat,” blares Singapore’s The Straits Times. “Diners are heading in droves to Korean dessert cafés and shops selling delectable sweet treats.” In Manhattan, New Yorkers line up for Korean donuts, or hotteok, so “out of control delicious,” writes popular food website Eater, “(they) might just blow your mind.” Korean bakeries like Paris Baguette and Tous Les Jours are expanding to dozens of cities in Asia, Europe and North America. Korean bakers are even winning international baking competitions with delights that put Europe’s best to shame.

Korean traditional desserts: More than just rice cakes In the West, meals are commonly concluded with a dessert: a sweet dish or beverage such as cake, ice cream or dessert wine. Savory items, such as coffee, cheese or nuts, can also serve as dessert. Originally the preserve of only the very wealthy, desserts

became popular after the Industrial Revolution, when mass production of processed foods became possible. In Asia, including Korea, desserts are a different thing entirely. Rather than serving as a conclusion to a meal, desserts are commonly eaten between meals, often as a refreshment with a cup of tea, or as a treat to celebrate a momentous occasion. Chung Kil-ja, the president of the Institute of Royal Korean Dessert, explains, “Korean rice cakes and confections do not correspond exactly to Western desserts. Rice cakes were not an ordinary refreshment, but a separate food served on special days like holidays or feasts.” She adds, “When anyone has a happy event in their home, they shared rice cakes with their neighbors. This is to say, Korea’s rice cake tradition includes a sense of ‘sharing.’” As one might expect, Korean traditional desserts make use of common local ingredients, such as rice flour, rice syrup, red-bean flour and honey, rather than wheat flour, which is a modern import. Unlike the desserts of the West, which are commonly baked, Korean desserts are more commonly steamed or boiled. Korean desserts tend to be more subtly sweetened, unlike their highly sweetened Western counterparts. There are categories of Korean traditional desserts. The most common is tteok. Tteok are rice cakes made from glutinous rice flour and, sometimes, other grains such as common rice. Koreans produce literally hundreds of kinds of tteok in all shapes and colors. Steamed tteok, or sirutteok, are rice cakes made by steaming rice flour in a clay steamer, or siru. Makers sometimes add other grains or beans, such as mung

Tteok is a classic Korean dish that has developed over the course of history. Since olden times, people have shared tteok with their neighbors in commemoration of holidays and at all kinds of celebrations, from parties to weddings. Types of tteok, and its appearance, vary depending on how the treat is prepared. Garaetteok, seen below, is white and long, signifying long life. People often roast it and dip it in honey or grain syrup. 떡은 한민족의 역사와 함께 발전해 온 한국의 대표적인 전통음식이다. 예로부터 조상들은 명절뿐 아니라 크고 작은 연희, 혼례식 등 특별한 일이 있을 때 이웃과 떡을 나눴다. 떡은 만드는 과정에 따라 종류가 많고 형태가 다양하다. 가래떡(아래)은 하얗고 긴 형태의 떡으로 장수를 의미한다. 선조들은 가래떡을 살짝 구워 꿀이나 조청과 곁들여 먹었다.

KOREA February _ 5

beans or azuki beans, to the flour. Other ingredients may include a variety of fruits and nuts. Pounded tteok, or chintteok, are rice cakes made by pounding soaked steamed rice in a mortar or on a board with a large wooden hammer. The dough is then molded into shape and often covered in a flavored powder, such as roasted soybean powder as in the case of injeolmi, the most commonly encountered type of pounded tteok. Pan-fried tteok, or jijin tteok, is made by pan-frying globs of glutinous rice flour. One kind, hwajeon, consists of small, pan-fried pancakes topped by a flower petal like an azalea, chrysanthemum or rose. Boiled tteok, or salmeun tteok, is most commonly encountered in the form of the gyeongdan, a delightful little ball of sticky rice coated in colorful powder. Tteok features prominently in Korean culture. During shamanistic ceremonies, or gut, rice cakes are used to represent various spirits. Rice cakes are used at family ceremonies such as weddings and funerals. People often share rice cakes with their new neighbors when they move house. High stacks of rainbow-colored rice cakes are placed on the celebratory table for a child’s first birthday ceremony. No autumn harvest holiday would be complete without steamed, half-moon-shaped rice cakes, or songpyeon. When people begin a new business, they will share tteok. Another form of Korean sweet is hangwa, a general term for Korean confectionery. Like tteok, hangwa come in many different kinds. One type is dasik, a cookie served with green tea. Makers produce dasik dough by kneading fried grain powder, medicinal herbs or flower pollen with honey. Molds are used to shape the cookies, which boast beautiful designs of birds, flowers or Chinese characters, which symbolize longevity, good luck and tranquility. Yumilgwa are hangwa made by frying dough made of grain and honey in vegetable oil. One kind

is yakgwa, made by frying a dough made from wheat flour, sesame oil and honey. Decorative molds are used to shape the final dessert, which is usually round and decorated with a floral motif. Another kind of yumilgwa is gangjeong, made by frying rice, barley, peanuts or other grains, nuts or seeds in oil and coating it in syrup made from boiled sugar or honey. Sweet and crispy, gangjeong are often served at ancestral rites and major celebrations. Yeot is another popular traditional dessert. Yeot is made by fermenting grains into a malt, which is then boiled for a long time before being cooled and sliced. It can take many forms, from a liquid syrup used to make other desserts to a taffy or even hard candy. Due to its chewy, sticky nature, yeot is often given to a student before a big test in the belief that it will help them pass. Korea has a number of traditional dessert beverages as well. One is sujeonggwa, a traditional cinnamon punch served cold after meals. Another is sikhye, a sweet rice punch made by boiling malt water and cooked rice.

More modern creations Korea’s opening to the West at the end of the 19th century led to significant changes in Korean culture and society. Dining was not an exception in this regard. The introduction of foodstuffs such as wheat flour, cold red-bean paste and ice cream, as well as dining practices from the West and elsewhere, had a profound impact on Korea’s dessert traditions in the 20th century. The introduction in the 20th century of refrigeration, ice-shaving machines, condensed milk and, in particular, red-bean paste made from the sweet adzuki bean led to the birth of one of Korea’s most iconic desserts, the patbingsu. A dish of shaved ice topped with fruit, adzuki beans, condensed milk, rice cakes and other sweets, the dessert is a Korean

The process of making tteok requires significant time and energy, as well as a special touch. Despite demanding a high level of manual exertion, from preparing the ingredients to pounding or otherwise shaping the cakes, the tradition lives on to this day. Some tteok shops stick to the old methods of making the cakes by hand, while others have incorporated modern techniques, adopting the use of baking powder and ovens. 떡은 오랜 시간과 정성, 손맛으로 만들어진다. 재료 준비부터 빚는 과정 내내 손이 많이 가는 음식임에도 현재까지 그 명맥이 이어져 오고 있다. 현대에 이르러서는 옛날 방식 그대로 손으로 만드는 떡집이 있는가 하면, 서양식 기술을 접목해 베이킹파우더와 오븐을 사용하는 떡집도 있다.

KOREA February _ 7

Since long ago, people have enjoyed traditional drinks with traditional confectioneries known as hangwa. These include gangjeong, a kind of glutinous rice puff flavored with medicinal herbs and natural ingredients; dasik, a light cookie eaten with gangjeong tea and stamped with geometric shapes or flowers; and yakgwa, a pan-fried or deep-fried biscuit. Hangwa, the origins of which can be traced as far back as the Three Kingdoms period, remains today a popular holiday gift. 예로부터 한국인들은 한약재와 천연재료로 만든 강정, 기하학, 꽃 문양 등을 넣은 다식, 기름에 지지거나 튀긴 약과 등 다양한 한과에 전통 음료를 곁들여 먹었다.

KOREA February _ 9

summertime favorite. The introduction of wheat flour and Western baking techniques gave rise to distinctly Korean breads and cakes. Perhaps the best known is the so-called Gyeongju bread, a pastry made from eggs and wheat flour and filled with red-bean paste that accounts for 70 percent of the cake. The bread is usually imprinted with a chrysanthemum motif on the top. Gyeongju bread was invented by a bakery in Gyeongju’s Hwangnam-dong district in 1939. Today, there are countless shops in Gyeongju specializing in the delicacy, which is incredibly popular with tourists, who typically buy the sweet by the box. Another local specialty is Cheonan’s famous walnut cakes, or hodugwaja. These little balls of goodness are made by baking a mixture of dough, red-bean paste and ground walnuts. Invented in 1934, the cakes are now available everywhere, especially trains, where they have been sold as a snack or gift for decades.

Modernization and globalization Like elsewhere, Western-style cakes and pastries are very popular in Korea. Korean bread and pastries tend to be sweeter and chewier than their Western counterparts, and some toppings - such as sausage - may be a bit unfamiliar to Western diners. Bakery cafés are now found throughout Korea, led by the franchise giant Paris Croissant and its sister brand, Paris Baguette. The company runs over 3,175 shops across Korea with an additional 70 shops in the United States. It also has shops in Southeast Asia. With more and more Koreans traveling overseas and increasing numbers of bakers learning their craft in Europe and North America, tastes are refining and many people take their cakes and pastries very seriously. Korea boasts one of the world’s finest pastry scenes. Go to any of Seoul’s trendier neighborhoods, and you’ll find plenty of high-end dessert shops turning out tasty, visually

appealing delicacies. In case evidence of this was needed, a Korean team of bakers won the 2016 Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie, the world’s most prestigious baking competition. While Western desserts are certainly enjoying a golden age, Korean traditional desserts are keeping up with the times, too. Typical of this trend is the tteok café, a space where you can enjoy a cup of coffee or tea with a dish of Korean rice cakes. One such place is Jilsiru, run by the Traditional Korean Food Research Institute, which also operates a museum in Seoul dedicated to rice cakes. Tteok cafés are even opening up overseas in cities such as Los Angeles. It’s a trend Chung of the Institute of Royal Korean Dessert embraces. “Even in Korea, the tteok industry is quite paltry compared to the bread industry,” she says. “So it’s a good approach to place traditional beverages, tteok and hangwa in a café with a good atmosphere where people can relax and have fun.” One chef leading the charge to bring Korean traditional desserts into the modern era is Shin Yong-il of the Korean traditional confectionary shop Haap in Seoul’s trendy Cheongdam-dong district. Shin learned the art of tteok making in, of all places, France, where he sought to marry French dessertmaking techniques with Korean rice cake-making. By using ovens and other traditionally Western baking tools, he can finely control the cooking environment to produce desserts such as castella injeolmi and honey-coated tteok ginger donuts. Shin thinks there’s a natural need to modernize rice cakes and other traditional desserts. “To develop rice cakes, the thing we need most is to develop the ingredients and modernize the tools,” he says. “Countless chefs are working day and night worldwide to develop breads and cakes, but tteok will disappear if Koreans don’t work to keep it going. As a person who researches and makes rice cakes, I will work even harder with a sense of mission, and I hope to see even more people researching and developing rice cakes.”

Unique desserts that combine the recent trend toward health-conscious living with tradition are a favorite with consumers. Dessert cafés are using tteok as a topping on bingsu (shaved ice), toast and tarts. Tteok cakes and cupcakes adorned with flowers made of sweet bean paste have also become a popular offering. 최근에는 건강을 생각하는 웰빙 트렌드와 전통이 만난 이색적인 디저트류가 호응을 얻고 있다. 특히 디저트 카페에서는 떡을 활용한 빙수, 토스트, 타르트 등을 선보였고, 떡 위에 앙금으로 꽃장식을 한 떡케이크, 컵케이크도 인기를 끌고 있다.

KOREA February _ 11

Koreans, the World’s Best Bakers?

“If you want a fresh crusty baguette, Paris would be the obvious place to shop — but the winners of the world’s premier baking competition...come from a country usually associated more with fermented cabbage than bread.” So proclaimed the BBC in reporting that a team of bakers from Korea had taken first place at the 2016 Coupe du

If there’s one company contributing to the globalization of Korean desserts, it’s Sulbing. Korea’s best-known purveyor of shaved ice, or bingsu, Sulbing opened its first shop in Busan’s Nampo-dong district in April 2013. Despite little in the way of advertising or promotion, it proved a hit. Not long after it opened its Busan branch, it began expanding nationwide. It now operates over 490 shops nationwide. Unlike ordinary bingsu, Sulbing’s bingsu was made from frozen milk rather than ice, and used roasted bean powder instead of sweetened red beans. Its signature dish is the injeolmi seolbing, a shaved ice dessert topped with nutty bean powder and injeolmi, a chewy rice cake made by pounding rice flour. Another popular treat is its injeolmi toast made with the same chewy rice cake. Already a national success, Sulbing has set its sights internationally. In May 2015, the company opened a shop in Shanghai, its first in China. It now runs 11 shops in China, two in Thailand and one in Japan. The chain will soon open a shop in Australia, and it has plans to expand to markets in North America and Europe as well.

If nothing else, Korea’s bakers are ambitious. In 2014, Paris Baguette, a major Korean bakery chain, opened a branch in, of all places, Paris, a city with arguably the world’s proudest baking tradition. To help put at ease the local market, which takes its bread very seriously, the Paris branch joined the Chambre Professionnelle des Artisans Boulangers-Pâtissiers, which requires its members to follow French traditional baking standards. Paris Baguette has a robust international presence. It opened its first overseas shop in Shanghai in 2004. It now has dozens of shops in the United States, China, Japan, Singapore and Vietnam. It opened its 200th overseas shop in Shanghai in December 2015, and has plans to expand to 60 countries over the next couple of years. Not to be outdone, fellow Korean bakery-café Tous Les Jours has been hard at work bringing the joys of baked goods to a hungry international audience. After opening its first overseas shop in the United States in 2004, it now has a presence in eight countries, including China, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia and Malaysia. Its decision to combine the functions of a bakery and a café has

proven popular, especially in Southeast Asia. When the chain recently opened its 214th overseas branch, in Indonesia, 800 people visited on the first day. Tous Les Jours even opened two shops in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in November 2016.

Sulbing Takes Korean Desserts Global

Korean Bakeries Go International

Monde de la Boulangerie, the world’s most prestigious baking competition. Lee Chang-min, Kim Jong-ho and Park Yong-joo beat teams from 11 other regions, including France, the United States, China, Canada, Japan and Taiwan. They won over the judges with a sculpture representing the Korean sport of horseback archery — one that integrated, among other elements, miniburgers and salted viennoiseries. They also prepared challah, an Israeli bread, and kanelbulle, a Swedish-style cinnamon bun.

Ogada was founded in 2009 as the world’s first takeout café that specialized in Korean medicinal teas, or hanbangcha. Its signature “Korean blending tea” line consists of tasty and healthy concoctions made with ingredients like ginseng, ginger and jujube. It now has 140 shops in Korea, as well as overseas branches in China, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam and, now, the United States.

rt Koeh

Cold Desserts Get Hot in Canada

Café Ogada Opens in United States

Starbucks might be bringing the American-style coﬀeehouse scene to Korea, but Ogada is bringing Korean traditional tea to the United States. The Korean traditional tea café Ogada opened its first U.S. branch in the southern California city of Fullerton in July 2016. Ogada CEO Choi Seung Yoon expects big things from the branch. On its opening, he told newspapers, “Since the United States, and southern California in particular, is a place where several cultures coexist, I expect Ogada’s menu, which harmoniously blends Korean and modern elements, will receive a warm reception.”

Snowy Village is a Korean dessert café specializing in shaved ice, or bingsu, and fish-shaped pastries, or bungeoppang, filled with red bean, sweet potato, injeolmi rice cakes or custard and prepared with croissant dough. It is a foodie favorite in Vancouver, where the café opened a branch in the suburb of Richmond in 2015. Its picturesque, Instagram-friendly creations proved such a massive hit that the most common complaint is that the café is perpetually packed. In 2016, the company opened two more branches in the Vancouver area, including one on Robson Street in the heart of downtown Vancouver. It also expanded to the United States, opening three locations in the Los Angeles area and another in Dallas, Texas.

Fish Bread Gets Luxury Makeover in Britain

The “goldfish bread,” or bungeoppang, is an age-old wintertime favorite in Korea. Introduced to Korea in the early 20th century, the pastry is made by pouring batter into a cast-iron mold shaped like a crucian carp. Red-bean paste is added to the batter to make the filling. The batter is then baked like a waffle. In Korea, the treat is very cheap. Just KRW 1,000 is usually sufficient to buy a bag of three or four. Overseas, however, it’s a different story. Bibigo is an international Korean restaurant chain run by conglomerate CJ. Bibigo’s Soho, London, branch offers its exclusive Bibigo Goldfish, a creative take on the bungeoppang. The carp-shaped waffle, filled with red-bean paste, is picturesquely presented with almond crumble, blueberries and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It sells for GBP 5, or roughly KRW 9,000. Despite the price, the restaurant sells over 20 servings a day. Bibigo Soho also serves a hotteok, a sweet pancake served with vanilla ice cream and maple syrup. It too sells for GBP 5. In Korea, you can buy one for KRW 1,000 or about USD 1, albeit without the ice cream or the maple syrup.

Fo o

KOREA February _ 13

ille

Travel

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Written and photographed by Robert Koehler

Mud, Sea, Salt and Sun Taeanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s scenic coastline is a gift of nature

Mudflats extends almost to the horizon near Daeyadohang Harbor.

KOREA February _ 15

Low tide uncovers the mudflats near Kkokji Beach.

The sky above the sea in the predawn hours is a deep purple. The winter wind blows in from the water, jolting you out of your morning haze like a strong shot of espresso. It’s low tide, and great mudflats, shimmering slightly in the early morning light, stretch out almost to the horizon. A silhouette appears, and then another, shovels and buckets in hand, walking slowly into the giant black that is the tidal flats. A man, bundled up in winter work clothes and clad in high rubber boots, scours the mud, searching for bubbling holes. The tiny holes, almost imperceptible to the untrained eye, betray that the mud — almost lunar in its seeming desolation — is in fact teeming with life. Spotting a hole, the man begins to dig. Deep below the surface, he finds what he’s looking for. A worm — plump, pink, smooth, and almost completely devoid of features save for a single hole at its tapered end — hangs from the fisherman’s hand. Aesthetically, it’s a revolting creature, and its common English name, the “penis fish,” captures its aspect fairly. The man dumps the worm in his bucket, where it is soon joined by dozens of its fellow annelids. “They make good eating!” the man assures you, perhaps sensing your curiosity. “Just slice it up and serve it with soy sauce and vinegar!” That such a creature should make its home here, in the rich alluvial mud of Taean, is completely appropriate. The seashore of Taean, shaped over the centuries by water, wind and ice, is almost prehistoric in its rugged splendor. It’s a land of jagged cliffs, gnarled forests, imposing sand dunes, sprawling tidal flats and, most famously, spectacular crimson sunsets. This is where the natural forces that gave rise to Korea are thrown into sharp and often majestic relief.

(Top) Taean is home to Korea’s only large system of sand dunes. (Bottom) Taean’s mud and sand is full of life, including shellfish.

The rias of Taean

Located about two hours’ driving distance southwest of Seoul, the West Sea town of Taean comprises two distinct zones. In the north is the Taean Peninsula, a craggy, rocky mass that juts out from the mainland into the waters of the West Sea. To the south is the island — formerly a peninsula — of Anmyeondo, which is separated from the mainland by a narrow channel. The 239-kilometer-long coastline of the peninsula and Anmyeondo Island was designated Taeanhaean National Park in 1978. The park includes 72 offshore islands as well. Taean’s coastline is highly irregular, characterized by countless fjordlike estuaries called rias. These rias were formed after the last Ice Age, when melting ice caused the seas to rise and flood coastal river valleys. This not only

TIP_ Where to eat As you’d expect of a seaside destination, Taean’s culinary delights tend toward the aquatic. Of particular renown are its fresh blue crabs. Gaegukji, a hearty stew of crab and kimchi, is a local specialty. You can score it at many of the restaurants near Kkotji Beach — give Seungjin Hoetjib (T. 011-9923-6616) a try. Another local specialty is baksok milguk nakjitang, a savory noodle soup made with small octopuses. This dish isn’t for the squeamish — the octopuses are placed in the boiling broth very much alive, in front of the diner. Most of the places that specialize in this meal are located in the fishing communities in the north of the Taean Peninsula — Iwon Sikdang (T. 041-672-8024) in Iwon-myeon and Wonbuk Baksok Nakjitang (T. 041-672-4540) in Wonbuk-myeon are quite well known. TIP_ Getting there Buses to Taean depart from Seoul’s Central City Bus Terminal (travel time: about two hours). Central City Terminal also has direct buses to Anmyeondo Island (travel time: about two and a half hours).

KOREA February _ 17

produced an incredibly beautiful landscape, but also gave birth to a rich ecosystem as well. Taean’s sandy beaches, mudflats and coastal swamps are home to some 2,000 animal species, 17 of which are endangered.

Dune

Boiled Salt The mudflats of Taean also gave rise to an important local tradition. Prior to the 20th century, locals would boil the very salty brine of the mud to produce a high-quality, highly concentrated salt. Aristocratic families preferred to use this salt to make soy sauce, soybean paste and other foodstuffs. The practice largely disappeared during the colonial era, but it is now making a comeback.

In the northern part of the Taean Peninsula, hidden in one of the coast’s many rias, is the village of Sinduri. A popular seaside resort during the summer, the village attracts pensive travelers with its winter sea. Sinduri’s real draw, however, is its sand dunes. The giant hills of sand that overlook Sinduri’s coast comprise Korea’s only large-scale sand dune system. The dunes were created some 15,000 years ago, when the strong winds of the last Ice Age blew mountains of sand from the sea to the coast, where Sinduri now lies. Once threatened with destruction by local developers, the sand dune system is now a protected natural monument and a popular attraction in its own right. Not so long ago, you could actually scale the dunes, but the authorities now strongly discourage that. Instead, an extensive system of wooden boardwalks allows visitors to observe the dune while keeping off its precious sand. Also worth seeing is the Duung Wetland, a freshwater sand marsh located just behind the dunes and a marsh holding several rare species of frogs.

Rich mud, blazing sun

Korea’s Yellow Sea coast experiences some of the world’s most dramatic tides, with water levels fluctuating between 4 and 8 meters. The mudflats of Korea’s western coast are, in fact, among the world’s largest and date back as far as 7,000 years ago, when sediments began building up along the coastline of western Korea. Locals earn a living by harvesting clams, crabs, and other economically important creatures that thrive in the flats. Mongsanpo Beach, on the mainland, is a good spot to explore in the early morning and late afternoon, when the waters recede. If you’ve got a bucket and a good pair of rubber boots you can head out onto the mud to search for crabs and clams, including razor clams. The island of Anmyeondo, best known for its romantic sunsets, also has many mudflats that visitors can experience. Its most famous sunset spot is the spectacular Kkotji Beach, a sandy strip dominated by two craggy, weather-beaten stone pillars thrusting out from the sea. At low tide, you can walk all the way out to the rocks, but you’ll want to make sure you return before the waters rise again.

The sun sets over Kkokji Beach.

KOREA February _ 19

People

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Written by Kim Jinwoo Photographed by 15 Studio

From Block of Wood to Brand New Life Kkokdu maker Choi Byung-in crafts companions for the journey to the afterlife

Kkokdu are blocks of wood used to decorate the biers that carry the bodies in traditional Korean funerals. The Korean word kkokdu means “summit” or “top,” referring to the uppermost part of this life as one passes from it to the next. The use of kkokdu to decorate biers as guides and companions on the journey to the next world is intended to allow the departed to proceed comfortably and correctly on the road to the afterlife – and to ensure that he or she will not be lonely on the way. But in a day and age when funerals are no longer held in the traditional style, it has become difficult for ordinary people to encounter biers, let alone kkokdu figurines.

First encounter with kkokdu Choi Byung-in is doing invaluable work to keep the dying art of the kkokdu alive. He is a man of great talent who has been recognized as a master artisan in wood carving. His first encounter with a kkokdu bier happened around a decade ago at the National Folk Museum of Korea. Immediately enchanted by the figurines’ beauty, he began

making his own whenever the chance arose. Choi was especially struck to learn that the bier on display had been donated after use by his own family clan, the Jeonju Chois. Curious to learn more about kkokdu, he sought out related books to study as he enthusiastically carried on with his work. “While other sculptors make them on commission, I was making kkokdu out of pure love for them, which allowed me to rediscover the joy I felt when I first started sculpting,” he recalled.

Origins and varieties of kkokdu When asked about the origins of kkokdu, Choi answered with a question. “Do you know the origin of mandu dumplings?” he asked. “There’s a story that they were invented by the Chinese politician Zhuge Liang because of a barbaric ancestral rite where the heads of 49 people were placed on the ancestral table. To replace them, he created the dumplings in the shape of human heads.”

KOREA February _ 21

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Peonies represent wealth, while the bluebird represents hope and joy. Together, they express hope that the deceased will live well in the next life. Kkokdu such as these decorated the funeral biers until relatively recently.

According to this kkokdu craftsman, kkokdu had a similar origin. “You know there used to be a practice of burying servants and other attendants alive with the deceased?” he said. “I think it’s similar to dumplings - they first began making kkokdu biers to replace living people.” In general, biers were known to be decorated chiefly with flowers, a practice that continued into the 20th century. For members of the ruling class, kkokdu were used in place of flowers. Because it cost so much more time and money to make the figurines, it was typically wealthy members of the ruling class who had funerals with kkokdu biers. Indeed, the kkokdu that survive today belonged to people of high status. Sculpting was sometimes done on special commission by skilled carpenters in advance of the funeral to prepare for the unexpected. Kkokdu come in a variety of forms, including humans, real and imaginary animals, and plants. In terms of human figures, types included guardian warriors to drive away evil spirits, attendants to guide the deceased on his or her journey, and musicians to give pleasure. Guardian warriors would sometimes be mounted on the backs of dragons, haetae (a type of mythical beast) or tigers; musicians held instruments like the piri (a type of oboe) and daegeum (a bamboo flute). The most common creatures were the dragon and phoenix: The former served to ward off evil spirits, while the latter guided the departed to heaven. Plants included the lotus, a flower with religious significance.

Kkokdu work: A painstaking process Kkokdu are made from wood. In the hands of an artisan, wood from the pines so commonly seen in Korea’s mountains is reborn as a new kind of organism. The keen-eyed craftsman spies the coarse life concealed in the winter mountains and the white flesh of its barren pines. He whittles and polishes, adding colors and expressions to produce his own unique kkokdu. In this way, a figurine emerges from a block of wood as a brand new entity to serve as a final companion in life. Pine and ginkgo wood are common materials for making kkokdu. Commonly used in building, pine is soft and cuts well. Nut pine and ginkgo can also be found easily and are commonly used for their oily wood. Linden wood was frequently used in the past, but is very difficult to find today - perhaps because it is also a material for

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The phoenix leads the spirit of the deceased to the next world. The knot hanging from its beak is a ladder to heaven, while the small bell beneath it warns if the bier is shaking.

high-end baduk boards. To prevent cracking, the wood has to go through a process of drying for several years after sawing to produce the right materials for kkokdu work. Choi has spent the last several years meticulously preparing materials exclusively for the figurines.

Wooden kkokdu: Playthings for the modern day People working in the traditional arts often complain of the difficulties. This has been especially true for the traditional craft of making kkokdu, which are part of funeral culture rather than daily essentials. The vanishing of traditional funeral practices and the use of biers has all but erased both kkokdu and biers from modern consciousness. Perhaps the only way to keep the figurines alive today is to somehow allow modernites to experience traditional funeral services. It’s a matter of creating kkokdu biers and allowing visitors to pick them up and produce the characteristic bier sounds - an experience that would not only share the knowledge of kkokdu, but also encourage people to think about death and what lies beyond. For foreign visitors, it’s a chance to learn about Korea’s unique traditional culture. Choi Byung-in continues his solitary work of researching and reproducing traditional kkokdu. But as the figurines were always created to reflect their times,

the work can be expanded into a truly unlimited range of types, he says. It’s this characteristic that allows for the crafting of uniformed, gun-toting soldier kkokdu and others wearing modern dress and hairstyles. But Choi doesn’t stop there: His future plans involve making kkokdu for all the people and articles seen in parade images from the murals of Goguryeo-era tombs - an effective way of showing all the different aspects of the times, from their cultural characteristics to costumes, entertainment and ornaments. He also plans to initiate a student activity program, giving an opportunity to learn about history while making figurines. Death is an ineluctable force in everyone’s life, be it a beggar on the streets or the loftiest of nobles. It’s this quality that makes it an object of fear and sorrow. But the Koreans of old believed in a new life beyond it, decorating their biers with the blissful paradise world of their dreams. Kkokdu too occupied a place on those fields, traveling with the departed on the long journey to the afterlife. By resurrecting this precious yet forgotten part of Korea’s cultural heritage, Choi Byung-in is realizing his own dream of sharing Koreans’ hopes for the afterlife - and their artistic attainment - with people around the world. ●

The three-footed toad symbolizes domestic safety and prosperity, while the fairy is a prayer for the deceased to enjoy wealth and freedom in the next world.

KOREA February _ 23

Korea & I

Written by Jennifer Flinn Illustrated by Kim Min Ho

A Place of Human Warmth and Beauty Gyeongbokgung Palace may be a big place, but it’s an intimate one, too

If, as poet Robert Frost once mused, good fences make good neighbors, then Gyeongbokgung Palace is an excellent neighbor. I’ve lived in the Seochon area, just to the west of the palace, for several years. And nearly every day during that time, I’ve passed by the palace on my way to work, to play, or just for a jaunt around the neighborhood. Its tall, placid stone and tile walls help give the neighborhood some of its historic charm. They are grand without being imposing, a stately but friendly marker cradling the neighborhood between its own stones and the granite rise of Mt. Inwangsan to the east. Some days, I do more than just pass by on the bus to work in the mornings and evenings, or on my way somewhere else. As all good neighbors ought, I like to pay occasional courtesy visits to see how my old and venerable friend is doing. I usually let myself in the side door, ducking in one of the small western gates and winding my way around the National Palace Museum. Even on a damp winter morning, there are always plenty of tourists and visitors crowding the main courtyards between Gwanghwamun Gate and the throne hall, Geunjeongjeon Hall. On a recent January day, the lack of foliage around Gyeonghoeru Pavilion and the iced-over pond did nothing to deter sightseers. Young couples and friends enjoying the new trend of dressing up in bright traditional clothes make bright spots of color across the massive spaces of the outer court. © Robert Koehler

Intimate places of a space in flux First built in 1395, Gyeongbokgung Palace has always been a place in flux. Buildings were destroyed, rebuilt, moved, removed, and moved back. Only a fraction of the original structures can be seen now, and sensibly, emphasis has been on rebuilding and restoring the monumental structures of the Joseon state apparatus, giving people at least a partial sense of its importance and grandeur. Some of the most intimate and interesting buildings have only just been rebuilt as part of an ongoing project, and it’s these more private parts of the palace that interest me most. If you want to have a friendly chat with your neighbor, you don’t hang out in the parlor. By heading east off the main courtyards, I first slip into Donggung, the small complex that housed the crown princes and princesses as they patiently waited for their turn to rule. On this morning, there are only a few stray couples strolling hand in hand, and in the inner courtyard surrounding the crown prince’s rooms, Jaesongdang Hall, there’s no one at all for a few minutes. Turning north from Donggung, I walk into three interconnected sets of buildings that formed the royal kitchens: the

Sojubang. Also known as the Suragan, these three kitchens are very newly rebuilt, and have only been open to tourists since last year, but to me they form a vital part of the new construction project. Armies march on their stomachs, and the population of Gyeongbokgung Palace when it was an active palace must have seemed like a small army. These kitchens turned out meals that helped the royal state perform its duties by keeping the king fed. The three kitchens each had its own separate purpose: The Naesojubang (the inner kitchen) was responsible for the king’s meals, the Oesojubang (the outer kitchen, also known as Nanjidang Hall) was for preparing banquets and feasts, and the Saengmulbang (or Bokhoedang Hall) where fresh fruit and vegetables were prepared. On this grey morning, there’s no one in two of the kitchens, but the Saengmulbang, which has been transformed into a café, is buzzing with people enjoying its new purpose as a café serving traditional teas and snacks.

A human touch Their inclusion is incredibly important to me, because it helps make the palace feel human. It wasn’t just a place where the king and court made decisions, but a place where people lived. The daily life of the palace depended on the women of the Sojubang, and the women excelled by creating a unique and elegant cuisine that stood apart even within the grand traditions of Korean food as a whole. It was a distinctly female space, where women made the decisions and performed the main work, bringing in male chefs only for large banquets and events. A king ruled the country, but women ruled his kitchen. Inspired by these women, I continue through the feminine territory of Gyotaejeon Hall. The queen’s quarters are beautiful, but particularly so behind the main building in Amisan, an elegant terrace garden. Adorned not just with plants but with twisted stones and several decorated terra cotta chimneys with floral and animal designs, it’s a delicate masterpiece of design. Before I say goodbye to my neighbor, I skirt some of the newer rebuilding projects around the exterior. The funky, Chinese-influenced Jibokjae library, the understated and sad eloquence of the bare wood of Geoncheonggung, where Queen Min was assassinated, are quiet, with a few intrepid visitors braving the cold and damp, and more intrepid magpies looking for seeds and snacks around the puddles along the paths. On another day or another time I’ll return to find every corner filled with laughing people, but today, I’ve been happy to hear the echoes of the lives of my ghostly neighbors long past.

KOREA February _ 25

Arts & Entertainment 1 »

Written by Colin Marshall Photos courtesy of Mille-feuille de Camélia

A Tale of Two Cities Mille-feuille de Camélia exhibit examines relationship between Seoul and Taipei

“Working History,” mixed media, Chou Yu-Cheng

Since it first appeared in 1982, Koreans have grown up playing the same board game: Blue Marble, a Monopoly-style deal-making contest that takes place not on an abstracted version of Atlantic City, but across the entire earth. Its players can develop properties in the major cities of countries all across the Blue Marble of the name, from New York

to London to Berlin to Tokyo – but, just like in Monopoly, they have to do it along a one-way path. It starts on the Taipei square and ends, after having gone all the way around the board, on the Seoul square. The rules thus render those cities, despite their immediate proximity on the board, the hardest two to travel between.

That provides a ready-made metaphor for Mille-feuille de Camélia, a group exhibition running from December 2016 to February 2017 at Seoul’s Arko Art Center Gallery. Its works deal with the distinctive relationship between the Korean capital and Taipei, so close to each other in one sense yet so far in others. Half of the 10 participating artists come from Korea, and half from Taiwan. Each of the works, ranging in form from photographs to videos to installations, deals in its own way with the often troubled relationship between Seoul and Taipei in modern history, dealing with themes like nature, myth, censorship, politics, economics, labor, housing, development, food and family.

Shared circumstances, complicated stories

“Hill, Hill and Hills,” mixed media, Gu Minja

Documenting, analyzing history The photographs of Kang Hong-goo document the loss of a village called Jongchon-ri, a village demolished to make way for the construction of Sejong City, a special administrative region built 121 kilometers outside Seoul and opened in 2012. Gu Minja’s “Hill, Hill and Hills” takes her to Taiwan in search of the origins of her family name, and into the homes of those who share it to prepare the traditional cuisine of their common ancestors. Kim Joon has turned a rooftop water tank, once an extremely common sight in the Korean cityscape, into a space visitors can enter and listen to. Na Hyun’s Searching for Big Foot makes connections between the eruption of Mount St. Helens in America, that same year’s Gwangju Democratization Movement in Korea, and the eponymous forest-dwelling beast. In “Sugar Mandala,” Shin Jehyun turns candy back into sugar, making a statement using that substance so sought after in the era of colonialism, an important historical phenomenon indeed in the case of both Seoul and Taipei.

Searching for Big Foot, video and archive installation, Na Hyun

“The Camera (36),” two-channel video, Musquiqui Chihying

“Landscape of Energy,” single-channel video, Yuan Goang-Ming

Today, of course, the major colonial powers in 20th-century Asia don’t seem as mighty as they once did. Japan, for example, has in many ways yet to recover from 2011’s Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear disaster. Yuan Goang-Ming’s video “Landscape of Energy” taps into the anxiety provoked by that disaster not just across Asia but throughout the world, asking how safe we can ever really feel in our familiar surroundings. Chou Yu-Cheng looks farther back in “Working History,” making art out of the peripatetic life story told by a middle-aged laborer from southern Taiwan. Liu Yu and Chen Chieh-jen examine the lives of the even more unfortunate of the Taiwanese capital, the former centering on the homeless in Taipei Central Station and the latter on the sanatorium patients harshly treated by the Japanese colonial government of the 1930s. Musquiqui Chihying’s twochannel video “The Camera (36)” involves not just Taipei and Seoul but Berlin as well, taking as its central characters Sohn Ki-jeong, the Korean who ran under the Japanese flag in the 1936 Olympics, and Taiwanese K-pop singer Chou Tzu-yu, who was made to apologize last year after waving the flag of her birthplace in a performance. These and other narratives of Korean and Taiwanese history form the layers that make up the image that gives the show its title: the mille-feuille, that many-layered pastry also known as the Napoleon, named for the early 19th-century emperor of France who sought to dominate the whole of Europe; and the camellia, a flower that has symbolized imperial Japan, which once sought to dominate the whole of Asia. The sun may have set on both of those empires, but the stories of Seoul, Taipei, and everywhere else have only grown more complicated, and thus there is a greater need than ever for artists like these to tell them.

KOREA February _ 27

Arts & Entertainment 2 »

Written by Joanne Jung

Global K-pop Are more foreign members the answer to K-pop’s big break into the global market?

Three members of the seven-member boy band GOT7 are foreign-born: BamBam, Jackson and Mark.

With major entertainment companies like SM, YG and JYP in the forefront and a host of other talent agencies following suit, we’re seeing a flood of K-pop idols burst onto the scene as of late. Quite a number of these new groups were created especially for foreign markets, with the fact that they are Korean-

Chinese or Korean-Japanese-Chinese collaborations made evident from the start. Other groups aren’t collaborations per se, but they have a number of key nonKorean members who are sometimes more popular than their Korean counterparts. GOT7, Twice, I.O.I, Black Pink, Cosmic

and was ready for the opportunity that was given to her. Then came “We Got Married,” “Video Star” and now she is part of the lineup on the show “Strong Girls.”

Girls, Seventeen, F(x), Miss A and Fiestar are classic examples. To the general public, these foreign members may have appeared out of nowhere, and their appearance stands out before the rest of them catches our attention. They’ve been years in the making, however, working just as hard as their fellow group members. Some of them got their start after traveling to Korea for an audition. Others may have auditioned in their home countries. Still others underwent training programs that would have entailed traveling back and forth between home and Korea for a number of years while they attended school. Then you have the open TV auditions, where your audition is watched by millions across the globe. Those who entered the business this way may have the advantage in that they already have a following, but being chosen through an audition is only the start of a long journey.

How do non-Koreans go from being K-pop idols to K-pop stars?

Cosmic Girls’ Cheng Xiao hails from China.

You must speak Korean, no exceptions

Unlike past generations, non-Korean K-pop idols these days must be able to speak Korean properly, or at least show that they’re trying. Otherwise, they risk being silent backdrops for the rest of their teams. F(x) member Victoria revealed on the TV talk show “Radio Star” that she studied Korean whenever she could by reading children’s books out loud because people would always point out that her pronunciation wasn’t good enough. Before her Korean improved, every TV show she went on wanted her to show off her gymnastics skills and flexibility and she didn’t do much talking. Cao Lu from Fiestar, meanwhile, knows more Korean sayings and proverbs than your average Korean, because that’s how she studied. Her Korean is excellent, a testimony to her efforts. She appeared as a panelist on a number of shows in 2012

Boy band Seventeen’s The 8 comes from China.

There are annual events and special broadcasts to discover hidden talent. The annual Chuseok special “Idol Star Athletics Championships” realized that there were many talented gymnasts on various teams and decided to add gymnastics to the lineup. Cheng Xiao from Cosmic Girls stood out, and she was quickly called by other shows. She then continued to gain popularity by displaying an exceptionally flexible windup on a baseball pitching show special. Jackson from GOT7 is from Hong Kong, and he’s unique in that he was a fencing athlete before he became a K-pop idol. He’s also extremely outgoing and unabashed and his openness has made the audience fall in love with him. Twice had a huge following before the group even debuted thanks to the audition program “Sixteen,” and its foreign members each have their own charm. Korean and nonKorean fans alike affectionately refer to them as Mi.Sa.Mo.Tzu. Mina does ballet. Tzuyu is known for her aloof charm. Sana probably has Super Junior member Hee-chul to thank, since he drew attention to her cute accent and dance in the song “Cheer Up.” Momo, meanwhile, is the group’s best dancer. For stars like Nichkhun from 2PM and BamBam from GOT7, their handsomely cute looks were enough to grab everyone’s attention. They now play a key role in reaching out to a Thai audience, and GOT7’s first concert in Thailand, “Fly in Bangkok,” was a major success with the group performing to a sold-out crowd of 22,000. Fans also got themselves and their favorite group into the Guinness Book of World Records by making and flying the most paper planes — 1,942 to be exact.

KOREA February _ 29

Korean Culture in Brief »

Boy Band BTS Breaks Records © KOCIS

Korean-American Heritage Museum Opens in New York © The Korean American Association of Greater New York

Think you have to learn English to be an international star, or at least sing in English? Look at BTS and you’ll think again. An article from Billboard’s October issue noted that this sevenmember K-pop boy band’s achievements had broken U.S. K-pop chart records even without any songs in English. So what does BTS offer that audiences abroad can’t seem to get enough of? How did the band get to where it is, and how can it go even further? Known in full as the Bangtan Boys, short for a Korean name that translates to “Bulletproof Boy Scouts,” the group debuted in 2013 with the smaller record label Bit Hit Entertainment. Although the band was a success domestically

right from the start with the debut track “No More Dream,” which won several Best New Artist of the Year awards that same year, making its name in the international world took longer. Beating out even Psy and G-Dragon, BTS is the first in K-pop to have three consecutive songs listed on Billboard’s top 200 with “HYYH Young Forever,” “HYYH Pt 2.,” and most recently its second full-length album “Wings.” In an article in Billboard, editor-inchief of Soompi Grace Jeong comments on the secret of the band’s success. “BTS has something to say, and has a great marketing strategy that doesn’t alienate non-Korean-speaking fans,” she writes.

Global internet television network Netflix will run its first original Korean series. Netflix announced Jan. 5 that it was making “Love Alarm,” based on the webtoon by popular comic author Chon Kye-young.

Lee Jamoon of production company Hidden Sequence is producing the 12-episode series. The webtoon already has a large and enthusiastic fan base in Korea. The series will premiere on Netflix in 2018 to its members in 190 countries.

Netflix Produces First Korean Original Series

The Korean American Association of Greater New York will open a small museum honoring the first wave of Korean immigrants to the United States. The Museum of Korean American Heritage, covering 557 square meters in the association’s building, will open in conjunction with the 114th anniversary of Korean emigration to the United States, when the first Koreans made their way to Hawaii in 1903. Visitors will be able to learn about different aspects of Korean-American history including the Korean War and the freedom fighters who worked against Japanese colonization in Korea. There will also be a reunification hall addressing the situation with North Korea.

Cho Seong-Jin Holds First Recital Since Chopin Win © Lotte Concert Hall

Pianist Cho Seong-Jin held his first solo recitals in Korea since winning the prestigious 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in 2015. Cho gave back-to-back recitals at the Lotte Concert Hall on Jan. 3 and 4. The 23-year-old musician is so popular in his homeland that tickets for both shows sold out in just 10 minutes. After one of the shows, he signed no fewer than 600 autographs. On Feb. 22, Cho will make his debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Korean Art Makes Global Splash © Gallery Hyundai

Visitor takes in the Kim Gilin exhibit at Seoul’s Gallery Hyundai.

In addition to pop music and soap operas, Korea is making waves in the world with another aesthetic form: the visual arts. More and more, Korean art is making international headlines prominent pieces include “How Korean Minimalism Stormed the West” in Blouin Artinfo and “Why South Korea’s monochrome painting movement is the art world’s latest obsession” in the South China Morning Post. A New Yorker article back in 2015 exclusively featured “Koreans at the Top of the Art

World.” This year looks to be a great one for Korean art, as exhibitions featuring Korean artists are taking place all over the globe. Korean art could not be discussed without mentioning Kim Gilin, known for his projects “Inside, Outside” and “Black and White.” These monochrome artworks will be on display at the Lehmann Maupin Gallery in New York in February. The late Kwon Young-woo, who was known for his experimentation with traditional mulberry paper, or

Hanji, will be featured at Art Basel in March. Another artist with a show coming up in March is minimalist and monochrome painter Chung Sang-hwa, one of the biggest names in the category of dansaekhwa, a monochrome painting genre that dates back to the 1970s. Chung’s works are in the permanent collections of Gallery Hyundai and the Leeum Museum of Art, just to name a two. This March, Londoners will be able to feast their eyes on these works at the Dominique Levy Gallery.

KOREA February _ 31

Literature

Written by Chang Iou-chung Photographed by 15 Studio Illustrated by Kim Yoon-myung

An Essay of a Novel Bae Suah’s “A Greater Music” examines language and the desire to possess

Bae Suah’s “A Greater Music” was published in the United States in October 2016.

What makes a written work “fiction”? According to the Chambers dictionary, it’s supposed to have “imaginary characters or events.” What makes an essay? The same dictionary defines it as “a short formal piece of writing” that deals with “a single subject.” Bae Suah’s “A Greater Music” raises the question: Is it a novel or an essay? The publisher says it’s a “novel,” and the author says she “wanted to write a novel,”

but “didn’t want it to be presented only as a novel.” So it seems like Bae wrote a long essay in a vaguely literary form. Or, she might have written a short novel in the form of memoir. Whatever she wanted to write, she created a confusing but charming piece of writing that has moments of insight wrapped in words, like the music of Olivier Messiaen, or like Shostakovich’s “Sonata for Viola and Piano,” which the

author said had inspired her to write this work. Or perhaps I began to write this piece at a certain place that winter. There’s a strong possibility that it began as a letter to M. Only while it was still possible, in my mind if nowhere else, for me to write something to M did my desk, the potential site of such an act, seem the most wondrous spot on this earth. (p. 122)

Bae simply might have wanted to test whether words and the written or spoken language would be able to deliver what she thought as a writer, to prove that written work can still do its work of communication, as much as music does.

For some people, this can be read as a novel of personal sexuality. For linguistic nerds it will be read as an essay in which the author shared her thoughts about the capabilities and limits of language. The narrator in this novel is a Korean writer living in Germany. She currently lives with Joachim reading books, listening to music and sometimes going out for a walk with his dog, Benny. On New Year’s Eve, “I” heads for a party with Joachim, but leaves the party early before the countdown. Joachim, who is not happy about leaving the party early, tells her that her habit of not socializing with others is nothing good for her, especially since she wants to learn German. However, the narrator doesn’t really care about learning German after she broke up with M. Conveniently, Joachim asks about M to the narrator, giving the narrator to flashback.

Limits of language

M was a former tutor who taught the narrator German. Her linguistic pedagogy was unique. She didn’t teach grammar or “survival German 101.” The part-time tutor who studies linguistics simply let her students read books written in the German language; any book. The narrator doesn’t feel very comfortable about her pedagogy, but obviously was attracted, as she starts a relationship with M. At the same time, the narrator

finds a new tutor, Erich. The relationship between the two heads toward an end when M says, casually, that she had sex with the narrator’s new tutor, Erich. Plagued with doubts, love slowly lost its vitality, became an enfeebled shadow of its former self. Fear of suspicions becoming reality, fear of revealing too much of myself without this being reciprocated. (p. 89) The main plot of this so-to-speak “novel” is the relationship between M and the narrator. However, this not-reallya-novel reads more like an essay, as the author lets the narrator’s, or maybe the author’s, thoughts flow, or sometimes explode. When the narrator goes through an accident in which the narrator nearly drowned to death, she recalls her memories with M, but also that she’s relieved that she was not executed, even though she didn’t do anything seriously wrong. In other parts, the narrator starts talking about a café she likes. At the end of that part or section, it ends up with her reviews about a book written in German.

Author memoir?

In addition to this, what also confuses the readers is the fact that Bae Suah stayed in Germany a couple times in the early 2000s. The author, who debuted in the late 1990s and was considered one of the most unconventional writers of her generation, and who often talked about the fact that she stayed in Germany and studied the German language, as she wanted to read books being sold there in Germany. Later, she was able to translate German writers into Korean, such as Martin Walser and W. G. Sebald. Though she might not have been the most well-known writer among Englishonly readers, such readers have been able to read her writings “Highway With Green Apples” and or “Nowhere to be

KOREA February _ 33

Found.” She actually is considered as one of the most successful writers of her kind, one of the new Korean-language authors who appeared in the 1990s. For those readers of Korean who remember her “newcomer status” and who have followed her over the years, this so-called “novel” was more like an “essay” that shared her thoughts in a sort of fictional form. In other words, this makes the readers feel as if they’re reading some memoir of a celebrity, even though there aren’t any drugs or groupies. The narrator’s voice also overlaps with the author’s. Both their insights often appear. There’s a description of Joachim’s mother being a “working class” woman, creating a class difference between Joachim, who we think is her current partner, and M. There’s also an issue about the social skills required among young people, beyond the language ability. They shine brightly in the middle of the writer’s stream of thought. Representation—this, after all, is what language and music have in common. Music, though, cannot say all; or even, in fact, anything. Its lips are sealed. Understanding music is not a gradual process. And yet, all of this gets collapsed into that trite expression “listening to music.” As M said to me, that time in my rented flat with her own gaze holding me rapt, “Music is the one thing which, of all humans’ so-called ‘creations,’ will never belong to them.” (p. 106)

Are words enough?

In a memoir of her relationship with M, the narrator thinks that their relationship would have been different if they have tried to communicate with a different communication channel. It would have been better if they had communicated with music, not with language and words. She considers music to be the absolute

and ultimate communication channel, one which overcomes the language barrier and the supposed limit of words. However, the way in which she delivers her thoughts, that words are not enough to communicate with your loved ones, is her written word: that’s how she writes. She simply might have wanted to test whether words and the written or spoken language would be able to deliver what she thought as a writer, to prove that written work can still do its work of communication, as much as music does. As time passed, I became seized with doubt. What could have made me freeze like that? Lying in the bed beside M, I listened to the night spreading itself around us, feeling like the end of something. I waited until M was sleeping, but couldn’t fall asleep myself. There were no questions I could ask, and besides, I didn’t even want to listen to whatever she might have to say. So I began to interrogate myself instead. What was this desire for possession that had taken hold of me? Where had it come from, and could I really carry on being burdened by its oppressive weight? Beauty,

delicacy, concern and generosity, peaceful solution, reading, music, and writing… and the union of two souls, found after so long; was it right to have betrayed and destroyed all those things in the work of an instant? Why do humans have this desire for possession and why do we grow savage when we cannot satisfy it? The strains of a single melody, slowly and agonizingly teased from among a thousand other sounds only for its sublime order to be destroyed by a moment’s anger, tearing it down and trampling it underfoot so that it can never be made whole again, calling down clichéd curses on itself and displaying its ugliness to the world as it rends its flesh like a crazed chicken, who can we simply remain indifferent to all this? Why can we do nothing about it? Where does the desire for possession come from? Why does it spit at and ridicule all the ethical questions proposed in the course of long reflection, a journey undertaken within our innermost selves? If it can’t be controlled, then what is there that’s left for us to do; no, given that it can’t be controlled, what else of value can human beings ever hope to achieve? (pp. 95-96)

KOREA February _ 35

Policy Review

Written by Lee Kijun

Boosting the Birth Rate With Koreans delaying marriage and childbirth, the government seeks ways to get people reproducing

The Korean government is pursuing a number of policies to boost the birth rate.

“The government prepared such emergency measures with a desperate mind that we must exert all possible efforts to block the current low birth rate that continues to decline.”

There is some good news for Koreans who want to have a child in 2017. Starting in July, those receiving infertility treatment will be guaranteed three days of unpaid leave per year. At the same time, paternity leave pay will increase from KRW 1.5 million to KRW 2 million for fathers staying home to care for their second children. The government plans to have infertility treatment covered by health insurance as of September, and as of October will provide health insurance benefits for premature babies born weighing less than 2.5 kilograms. These measures were announced in August by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The ministry has decided to set aside some KRW 65 billion in this year’s

budget to implement the changes - more than 150 percent of last year’s budget for the program, which amounted to KRW 42 billion. “The government prepared such emergency measures with a desperate mind that we must exert all possible efforts to block the current low birth rate that continues to decline,” said Minister of Health and Welfare Chung Chinyoub. “But these (measures) still fall short of (the real solution of) transforming the sense of defeat felt by youths into a sense of hope, or to console the working moms who shed tears during our policy debate.” Chung also urged for cooperation from social welfare activists and from the business and religious communities. “I ask of you, the business leaders, to make the workplace somewhere that employees can take child care leave without feeling like they are doing something wrong. … I ask of you, religious leaders and civic activists, to continuously broach the topic so that our society can contemplate more deeply the values of life and family.”

Late marriage means fewer children Korea’s birthrate has been declining. According to a report by Statistics Korea published last month, the lifetime fertility rate in 2035 is expected to be 1.35 per woman, down from the 2011 projection of 1.42. The estimated total birth rate for 2050 also fell, from 1.42 to 1.38. That means the population will begin to decline in 2031 and

Ensuring a happy pregnancy and delivery BEFORE PREGNANCY IN CASE OF INFERTILITY

Health insurance coverage for fertility treatment expenses (’17)

Time off for fertility treatments (’17)

Opening of specialized fertility counseling centers (’18)

PREGNANCY TO DELIVERY

2015

2017

Reduction of health insurance copayments

20% Medical Out-of-pocket insurance expenses

80%

20%

Lower burden of out-of-pocket medical expenses

Actual Burden

5% Medical Out-of-pocket insurance expenses

95%

Use of multiservice voucher card

AFTER DELIVERY

Integrated care for high-risk mothers and newborns

Increased paternity leave stipend

Increased adoption of flexible/home working arrangements © Ministry of Health and Welfare

reach 43.02 million by 2065, putting it on a par with levels recorded in 1990. In 2065, the economically active population will decrease from 37.63 million today to around 20.62 million and the older population, which numbered 6.54 million in 2015, will grow to 18.27 million. One of the main reasons for this trend is the tendency to marry later in life.

“Fewer people are getting married and the average age of women when they get married continues to rise compared with (women of past generations),” said Lee Jiyeon, a director at Statistics Korea. “Major economic indications, including the labor market, remain weak and a greater number of people are postponing marriage or simply don’t get married because of that. Housing prices also have soared when compared with the past, and this puts a greater financial burden on young Koreans.” Mun Jiyeon, 33, married her husband in 2014, but she never considered having a child because she believed she had married too late. “I wanted to concentrate on my job for at least several years because I got married right after I became a teacher,” said Mun. “If I give birth now, I’ll be a retiree when my child goes to college. I don’t think I could afford all the costs such as tuition and wedding expenses.” Mun’s case is a typical example of late marriage in Korea. It usually takes two to three years for young people to find stable jobs. Mun graduated from university in 2009 and passed the teacher certification examination three years later. The difficulty in landing jobs leads to late marriages. Most developed countries display the same pattern, but in a country like Korea, where unmarried women account for a very low percentage of total births (1.9 percent, as opposed to 40.3 percent in the United States), late marriages inevitably lead to low fertility rates. So far this year, the government has focused more on dealing with the late marriage trend. To solve the problem, the government will expand tax and financial incentives for married couples in 2017. The government offers a tax credit of up to KRW 1 million to newlyweds this year in the face of growing single-member households. It will also lower interest rates for newly married couples by 0.2 percentage points during the first quarter of this year.

KOREA February _ 37

This is Pyeongchang »

Written by Ian Im Photos courtesy of the Pyeongchang Trout Festival

Slippery, Tasty Fun Pyeongchang Trout Festival celebrates Olympic host city’s most famous riverine inhabitant

Visitors catch trout barehanded at the Pyeongchang Trout Festival.

Oncorhynchus masou masou. Better known as the cherry salmon or by its Korean name, the songeo, the fish is renowned both for its flavor and nutritional value, especially when eaten raw. The cold, crystal clear waters of Pyeongchang provide the perfect habitat for this most prized of fishes. In fact, the salmon has helped make Pyeongchang’s rivers and streams, flowing fast through rough-hewn valleys cut deep in the mountain landscape, a major destination for sports fishermen nationwide. Every winter, Pyeongchang pays tribute

to the cherry salmon - or cherry trout, as it is also called - with the Pyeongchang Trout Festival, one of the 2018 Winter Olympic venue’s biggest wintertime festivals. Held this year from Dec. 31 to Jan. 30, the festival gave thousands of visitors an opportunity to not only catch, prepare and savor Pyeongchang’s delectable river salmon, but to also experience the rugged beauty of Pyeongchang’s winter landscape. As an added bonus, visitors to this year’s festival were treated to special Olympic-related events, including virtual reality programs

The cherry salmon is a notoriously picky fish. It lives in only the purest cold-water streams, with average water temperatures between 7 and 13 degrees Celsius.

Catching trout with your bare hands

Visitors could take part in various hands-on programs, including tent fishing and catching trout with their bare hands.

and visits by Soohorang and Bandabi, the mascots of the upcoming PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

A special fish for a special place While often called a trout, the cherry salmon is, as its English name would suggest, a salmon. It lives throughout the Western Pacific region, including the Russian Far East, the Korean Peninsula, Japan and Taiwan. In Korea, it lives primarily in the waters of the East Sea, where it survives on shrimp and smaller fish. In autumn, however, it makes its way up the rivers and streams of Gangwon-do to spawn in the cold, deep waters. The cherry salmon is a notoriously picky fish. It lives in only the purest cold-water streams, with average water temperatures between 7 and 13 degrees Celsius. With many such rivers, Pyeongchang is the fish’s largest breeding ground in Korea. Raised in ideal conditions, Pyeongchang’s cherry salmon is also exceptionally tasty, with tender, chewy flesh that grows richer in flavor the more you chew it.

The festival featured an ice sculpture exhibit.

Participants could take part in a range of leisure sports, including ice biking, cart riding and snow rafting.

Marking its 10th year, the Pyeongchang Trout Festival featured a wide range of events. Unfortunately, one of the highlight events, ice fishing, had to be canceled due to unseasonably warm weather, which prevented Pyeongchang’s rivers and streams from icing over to an appropriate thickness. On the other hand, the festival’s other main events went off without a hitch. Special tents and pools were set up to allow friends, lovers and families to fish in relative warmth and comfort. You could buy fishing equipment on site, and best of all, you could eat your catch almost immediately, either raw and sliced or grilled. For the more stout of heart, another pool was set up that allowed the brave to wade knee-deep in the cold water and attempt to catch the trout with their own bare hands. Participants were provided T-shirts and shorts imprinted with the festival logo. The fast, slippery fish are not the most willing victims, but the extra effort required to subdue them makes the post-catch feast all the more savory. Visitors could also take part in other fun winter games, including sledding, ice skating, snow rafting, ATV rides and bobsledding. For children, organizers set up a special fishing pool where the very young could fish in complete safety. They were also guaranteed to catch at least one fish. As a special extra treat, organizers of the upcoming PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games set up four “zones” at the festival where visitors could learn more about the games. By using virtual reality, visitors could experience Olympic events such as the ski jump and wheelchair curling. They could also try their hands at real-reality sports such as curling and Nordic skiing. Soohorang and Bandabi, the mascots of the upcoming games, were also in attendance, trying their own hands, so to speak, at trout fishing and posing for photos with visitors.

KOREA February _ 39

Current Korea

Written by Colin Marshall Photos courtesy of the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games

Getting Ready for the Games Hello PyeongChang Test Events help Korea prepare for 2018 Winter Olympics

The International Skating Union World Cup Short Track Speed Skating event was held at Gangneung Ice Arena in December.

Korea emerged from the Gangneung races at the top of the medal table by a wide margin, with 12 gold, nine silver and four bronze medals.

Made maximally aerodynamic by both their sleek suits and their poise perfected through years of training, dozens of speed skaters descended on Gangneung from Dec. 16 through 18 to make dizzyingly fast circles around the coastal city’s brand new ice arena, inaugurated just two days before. The PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games may still be more than a year away, but an international sporting event of its proportions requires vast amounts of organization, preparation, and construction, of which the $85 million raising of the 12,000-seat, two-rink Gangneung Ice Arena constitutes just one part of many. Along with all the work, however, comes a great deal of excitement, including quite a few athletic spectacles that precede the main event. Many of those latter are happening as a part of the “Hello PyeongChang Test Events,” a series of 29 competitions that take place in the very same venues that will be used for the Olympic Games, all promoted as a chance for the estimated 3,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes and 1,000 volunteers involved to get a feel not just for the facilities, but for the region of Korea’s east coast that has spent more than five years and counting preparing to host them.

Fifteen disciplines, including some firsts The 2018 Winter Olympics will feature competitions in seven different sports, broken down into 15 disciplines, including, for the first time, snowboarding big air, curling mixed doubles, an alpine skiing team event, and speed skating mass start, a new event in a long-standing Olympic sport that comes in two varieties: long track and short track. The latter, first recognized in 1967 by the International Skating Union and introduced as a full Olympic event in the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, has, with its single and relay races ranging from 500 to 3,000 meters, proven a thrilling watch for speed skating fans and an impressive showcase for Korean skaters. The Hello PyeongChang Test Events

have included two days of the International Skating Union’s Short Track Speed Skating World Cup, a seasonlong tournament taking place between November 2015 and February 2016, its first races held in Calgary, Salt Lake City and Shanghai before arriving in Gangneung. It tests the skills of speed skaters from all over the world, including the United States, Canada, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, China and Japan. In the Gangneung races, Korea’s own skaters won seven medals: Shim Suk-hee a bronze in one 1,000-meter race and a gold in the 1,500-meter race, Choi Min-jeong a silver in one 1,000-meter race and a gold in the 500-meter race, and the South Korean skaters a collective gold in the 3,000-meter relay.

Ready and enthusiastic

Shim Suk-hee takes gold at the women’s 1,500-meter race at the International Skating Union World Cup Short Track Speed Skating event.

The World Cup Short Track Speed Skating event recorded the highest attendance yet for the PyeongChang test events.

Korea emerged from the Gangneung races at the top of the medal table by a wide margin, with 12 gold, nine silver and four bronze medals as compared with second-place holder Canada’s four gold, five silver and four bronze. Whether the skaters selected for Korea’s Olympic team will do as well in the real Olympic Games remains to be seen, but their participation in the test events, like the Short Track Speed Skating World Cup, ensures that, come February 2018, the facilities and staff will be well-prepared to execute what ranks by most any measure as the largest, most complex and most important winter sports event of them all. It also does its part to ensure robust and enthusiastic attendance. Attendees of the Short Track Speed Skating World Cup events at the Gangneung Ice Arena enjoyed not just a foretaste of the intensity of competition, the spectacular skills (and occasional spills), and the glories of victory all to be displayed in the Olympic Games, but DJ and traditional gugak fusion musical performances as well as other sideshows meant to heighten the celebratory atmosphere.

KOREA February _ 41

Global Korea

Nigeria

Cultural Center

Korean Dance Troupe Performs at Dance, one of Korea’s best-known folk Africa’s Biggest Street Celebration dances, by a troupe from the Bongsan The Korean Cultural Centre in Nigeria hosted a “Korea Culture Day” as part of the 2016 Calabar Carnival, one of Africa’s biggest street celebrations. The event, which marked the 10th anniversary of the Korean embassy’s relocation from Lagos to Abuja, was held Dec. 26. The highlight of the celebration was a performance of the Bongsan Mask

Tokyo

Carnival every year since 2004. This year’s carnival featured shows by performing Mask Dance Drama Preservation Society. troupes from 10 countries, including The 17-member team also took part in a Korea, Spain, Brazil, South Africa, Turkey Dec. 28 street parade, the carnival’s biggest and Mexico. Some 1 million people event, and demonstrated the beauty of attended the celebrations, including locals Korean traditional music and dance and tourists. through peasant dances, mask dances and Gabe Onah, the head of the carnival’s even the lion dance. organizing committee, said he was pleased The southern Nigerian city of Calabar, that the Korean dance troupe had been Cross River State, has hosted the Calabar invited to join the festivities.

Cultural Center

Korean, Japanese Art Students Show Off Work in Tokyo

the exhibit served to give young artists an opportunity to be recognized. This Art lovers in Japan recently got a chance year, however, the exhibit featured work to see works of modern art by Korean and by not only Korean art students, but their Japanese art students. Japanese peers as well. Planning for the The Korean Cultural Center in Tokyo show began in May. has hosted the “Challenge Art in Japan” Held at the Korean Cultural Center’s exhibit every year since 2012. Focusing Gallery MI from Nov. 8 to 26, the exhibit exclusively on work by Korean art students, featured 25 works by Korean and Japanese

students at Tokyo University of the Arts. Some 60 people attended the opening ceremony, including Ryohei Miyata, Japan’s Commissioner for Cultural Affairs. As a side event, two lectures were given on the history of Korea-Japan cultural exchanges.

Argentina

Cultural Center

Party Marks 10th Anniversary of Opening of Korean Cultural Center in Argentina

hits. About 100 people, including Choo Jong-youn, the Korean ambassador to Argentina; Lee Byeong-hwan, the head of the local Korean residents’ association; The Korean Cultural Center in Argentina celebrated its 10th birthday in style and joy. local experts who helped promote cultural exchanges with Korea; and the heads of The center hosted its garden party, local Korean pop culture fan clubs attended called a janchi, at its outdoor courtyard the celebration. Dec. 2. Janchi is the Korean word for a The party got underway with a celebratory banquet. The party included performance of samullori, a modernized tons of food, including fried chicken form of traditional Korean peasant music and beer, and a DJ pumping out K-pop

Vietnam

Cultural Center Celebrates a Decade in Vietnam

and dance. Later, volunteers who had helped with the previous year’s events donned traditional mask dance outfits and performed the mask dance. The volunteers, who had contributed so much to events such as the center’s Latin American K-pop contest, finally got a chance to be the stars themselves. Ambassador Choo thanked people for their support, which he said was necessary to effectively promote cultural exchanges.

Cultural Center

The center’s official commemorative event was held Nov. 25 at Hanoi’s Viet Xo Friendship Labour Cultural Palace. The The Korean Cultural Center in Vietnam recently held a series of events in Hanoi to highlight of the event was an invitational performance by the taekwondo mark the 10th anniversary of its opening. demonstration team K-Tigers. The crowd The events, held from Nov. 18 to 26, loved the show, which merged the Korean included “Layers of Time,” an exhibit of Korean and Vietnamese lacquerware at the martial art of taekwondo with K-pop. The following day, a Korean cultural Korean Cultural Center’s gallery.

celebration was held in the plaza in front of Viet Xo Friendship Labour Cultural Palace. Locals had a chance to experience Korean traditional clothing, Korean traditional paper, Korean food and even Korea’s indigenous alphabet, Hangeul. Vietnamese singers Erik and Hanh Sion, Korean magician Kim Jong-su and K-pop singer K.Will took to the stage as well.

KOREA February _ 43

Flavor

Written by Cynthia Yoo Photographed by ao studio Kang Jinju Stylized by 101recipe

Jeonbokcho Fabled treasure of the sea at your table

How to make jeonbokcho: Brush the flesh of the abalones and wash with water thoroughly. Remove the flesh from the shells and separate out the teeth and intestines. Cut a lattice grid pattern into the flesh to allow the seasoning to seep in. Thinly slice the ginger for the sauce. Cut the dried pepper lengthwise in half and shake out the seeds. Slice green onions. Boil water with soy sauce, matsul, plum syrup, ginger and black peppercorns. Bring the sauce to a boil. When it simmers, add abalone and stir. Make sure the abalone is not fully submerged in the sauce. Finally, add honey for the glaze and finish off with sesame oil. Remove from heat. Make sure the braise doesn’t take longer than 10 minutes. Serve the abalone in the shells and garnish with dried chili pepper, jujubes and pine nuts.

Jeonbokcho, or abalone braised in soy-sauce glaze, prized among Koreans for its nutritional value, is served usually on very special occasions. Abalone is not only celebrated in Korea but across Asia. The Chinese rank abalone first among their four treasures of the sea, above sea cucumber, shark’s fin, and fish swim bladder. The Japanese associate abalone with the elixir of life and some believe that eating abalone during pregnancy will give children beautiful eyes. Koreans also have many stories about the fabled mollusk. It’s said that the tears of abalone turn into pearls, quite similar to tales about the mermaid. Add to it the tears and lives of the haenyeo, or female free divers, who search deep, treacherous waters for the precious abalone, and it’s clear that abalone is valued not only for its nutrition benefits but also for the difficulty of securing it. There’s a Korean word sumbisori, and it describes the gasp for air that the haenyeo take in as they come to the surface after a long dive. These days, though, many people can enjoy abalone because of commercial abalone farms that have led to greater production and lower prices. In fact, overfishing and pollution have drastically reduced wild abalone populations so much that farmed abalone now accounts for most of the abalone consumed. There is some debate over the virtues of wild versus farmed abalone, but farmed abalone is an excellent source of nutrients such as omega 3, iodine and phosphorus. People enjoy abalone in a variety of dishes and the miracle mollusk can be served in a multitude of ways. It can be steamed, boiled, salted, braised and fried up in all manner of seasonings from soy sauce to butter. Most Koreans prefer abalone as fresh as possible. Shelled abalone is cut into thin slices and then served in the shell with vinegared gochujang sauce, soy sauce with wasabi, or just good-quality sesame oil. Abalone is added to soups, stews, juk and yeongyangbap to add that extra bit of flavor and nutrition. Jeonbokcho is essentially dried abalone that is rehydrated in broth and then braised slowly in a seasoned soy sauce mixture. In the past, abalone, like sea cucumbers and shark’s fin, was dried before transport to inland markets. However, these days, fresh farmed abalone is easily available and most jeonbokcho recipes use fresh abalone. The key to the dish is the glaze that results from the simmering braise. This recipe can be used with other seafood ingredients as well such as sea cucumber, mussels and squid.

Learning Korean

Written by Lim Jeong-yeo Illustrated by Kim Yoon-myung Script provided by Descendants of the Sun SPC

‘Should I apologize, or should I confess my love?’ ‘Descendants of the Sun’ lives on with a memorable quote

“Descendants of the Sun,” KBS’ 16-episode TV show, was the unrivaled hit of 2016 that had reverberating effects on the economic and cultural fronts. Set in the fictional war-torn country of Uruk, the story dealt with the love between a soldier and a surgeon, both there on humanitarian missions. Actor Song Joong-ki played the charismatic and charming army captain Yoo Shi-jin and actress Song Hye-kyo the passionate and warmhearted surgeon Kang Mo-yeon. The drama was simulcast in Korea and China between February and April - and by April it was sold to over 32 countries including the United States, France, Russia and Saudi Arabia. An especially memorable scene occurs in the fifth episode, when Capt. Yoo declares his love for Dr. Kang. In the episode, Yoo is ordered to wrap up his mission in Uruk and return to Korea as punishment for disobeying a superior’s command. A farewell party for the departing captain takes place. Kang, the last one to find out that Yoo is leaving, is visibly shocked and confronts him over keeping the news from her. Since Kang has never acknowledged her feelings for Yoo, Yoo asks Kang if her reaction means she doesn’t want him to go. “I need to ask you one thing,” Yoo begins, “because this might well be the last time we speak. “You know when I kissed you before, without your approval? What is it that I should do? Do you want me to apologize or confess my love?” In the Korean script, that last line reads, “사과할까요, 고백할까요?” (Sagwa halkkayo, gobaek halkkayo?). The word sagwa means “apology,” while gobaek means “confession.” The construction –lkkayo, meanwhile, means “Shall I … ?” Accordingly, the question “Sagwa halkkayo?” means, “Shall I apologize?” Meanwhile, “Gobaek halkkayo?” means, “Shall I confess?”

Korean Art Through Coloring

Traditional ceremonial crown Hwagwan

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February 2017

김 선생님 계세요? Kim seonsaengnim gyeseyo?

Excuse me, is Mr. Kim in?

실례합니다. 김 선생님 계세요?

지금 안 계세요.

Sillyehamnida. Kim seonsaengnim gyeseyo?

점심 식사하러 가셨어요.

Excuse me, is Mr. Kim in?

Jigeum an gyeseyo. Jeomsim siksahareo gasyeosseoyo.

Editor-in-Chief Robert Koehler Production Supervisor Kim Eugene Producers Im Ian, Woo Jiwon

He’s not here at the moment. He went out for lunch.

언제 오세요? Eonje oseyo?

When will he be back?

Copy Editors Gregory Eaves, Eileen Cahill Creative Director Lee Yusin Designers Lee Bok-hyun, Jung Hyun-young

한 시쯤 오실 거예요.

그럼 나중에 다시 올게요.

Han sijjeum osil geoyeyo.

Geureom najunge dasi olgeyo. 나래 Narae

I’ll come back later, then.

Around one o’clock.

밍밍 Mingming

Photographers aostudio Kang Jinju, 15 Studio Printing Pyung Hwa Dang Printing Co., Ltd.

Let’s practice!

“-(으)시-” makes a verb or an adjective honorific. 먹다/마시다–드시다 To eat/drink

Complete each sentence by selecting the correct expression from the box. 보기

meokda, masida → deusida

자다–주무시다 To sleep jada → jumusida

갈게요

하실

보러

있다–계시다 To be (in a state or place) itda → gyesida 말하다–말씀하시다 To talk/ speak/ say malhada → malsseumhasida

A: 이 선생님, 다음 주말에 뭐

거예요?

A: Mr. Lee, what will you do this weekend?

V-(으)러 “-(으)러” is combined with a verb to indicate the subject’s purpose. This form is always followed by “가다,” “오다” or “다니다.”

B: 글쎄요. 아직 특별한 계획은 없어요. B: I’m not sure. I don’t have any special plans yet. A: 저희 집에서 한국 영화 감상 모임이 있어요. 영화

V-(으)ㄹ게요

A: We’re going to get together to watch a movie at my house. Come watch it with us.

“-(으)ㄹ게요” is used to form the future tense. This is the first-person form and indicates the intention of the subject to do such and such.

B: 정말요? 그럼 제가 팝콘을 사서 B: Really? Then I’ll go with some popcorn.

오세요.

_ Editorial staff, KOREA

Korean Culture

Monthly Magazine

February 2017

Cover Story

ISSN: 2005-2162

www. korea.net

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