Korea magazine 1712

Monthly Magazine

December 2017

December 2017

Cover Story

www. korea.net

Traditional Korean Medicine Made Modern From the ‘Donguibogam’ to hanbang cosmetics, Korean medicine goes global

시험 보는 친구에게 무엇을 선물하는 것이 좋아요?

Siheom boneun chinguege mueoseul seonmulhaneun geosi joayo?

Traditional medicine is a living cultural fossil, a body of knowledge and techniques still in use more than a millennium after their development. The writer of this month’s cover story notes, “Traditional medicine may be the only example of an ancient knowledge system that is still widely used in the world’s developed countries.”

That doesn’t mean traditional medicine has remained locked in the past, however. Increasingly, traditional healing is marrying ancient practices and philosophies of holistic health with advanced technology and modern concepts of science.

Also in this issue of KOREA, we visit the historical market town of Ganggyeong, Korea’s capital of salted seafood; talk with cartoonist Yeon-sik Hong of ‘Uncomfortably Happily’; learn about the dramatic history of Central Asia’s Korean community; discover who Korea’s most bankable actors are; and more.

Publisher Kim Tae-hoon Korean Culture and Information Service

What should I give a friend who is going to take an exam?

Executive Producer Park Byunggyu Editorial Advisers Cho Won-hyung, Lee Suwan, Park Inn-seok

나래 씨, 시험 보는 친구에게 무엇을 선물하는 것이 좋아요?

Email webmaster@korea.net

Narae ssi, siheom boneun chinguege mueoseul seonmulhaneun geosi joayo?

Magazine Production Seoul Selection Editor-in-Chief Robert Koehler

한국 사람들은 왜 엿을 선물해요?

Producers Park Miso, Woo Jiwon

Hanguk saramdeureun wae yeoseul seonmulhaeyo?

Illustrator Jeong Hyo-ju Photographers ao studio Kang Jinju, 15 Studio Printing Pyung Hwa Dang Printing Co., Ltd.

Cover Photo Photographed by 15 Studio Stylized by d. Floor (Bae Ji-hyun) (Clockwise, from the left) Cloth and sticks used in decocting herbal medicines; Dried orange peel and magnolia buds, ingredients used in herbal medicines; Mortar used to grind herbal medicines; Dried mugwort used in moxibustion; Model identifying acupuncture points in the hand Product: “Stamped square p plate,” Choi Hong-il, KCDF gallery shop; “Soho small dish and lid,” Lifestyle Total Living & Art Culture Enterprise, Yido

잘 달라붙는 엿처럼 시험에 붙으라는 의미예요.

Jal dallabunneun yeotcheoreom siheome buteuraneun uimieyo.

It means they’ll “stick” the test like a sticky yeot. 밍밍 Mingming

나래 Narae

V + –ㄴ/는다고 하다

Let’s practice!

“V + –ㄴ/는다고 하다” indirectly quotes what others say. This expression is used when quoting from a present tense sentence.

Change the direct quote into an indirect one. 밍밍: “축구하는 것을 좋아해요.”

Mingming: “I like playing soccer.”

ex. 나래: “지금 책을 읽어요.” ⇒ 나래 씨가 지금 책을 읽는다고 했어요.

→ 밍밍 씨가 축구하는 것을 좋아한다고 했어요.

Mingming says she likes playing soccer.

Narae: I’m reading a book. ⇒ Narae says she is reading a book.

아자니: “매일매일 산책해요”

Ajani: “I take a walk every day.”

밍밍: “한국에 사는 것을 좋아해요.” ⇒ 밍밍 씨가 한국에 사는 것을 좋아한다고 했어요.

→ 아자니 씨가 매일매일 _____________________ 했어요.

Ajani says she takes a walk every day.

Mingming: I like living in Korea. ⇒ Mingming says she likes living in Korea.

나래: “매운 음식을 못 먹어요”

Narae: “I can’t eat spicy food.”

V+ –는 것

→ 나래 씨가 매운 음식을 못 _____________________ 했어요.

“V + –는 것” makes the verb a noun to be used as a subject or an object. This expression is used the same way as the English “V+ –ing” construction is used. ex.한국말로 이야기하는 것이 재미있어요.

나래 씨는 사진 찍는 것을 싫어해요.

밍밍: “휴지를 선물하면 일이 잘 풀려요”

Mingming: “If you give someone toilet paper, she will have luck in everything.”

Mingming says if you give someone toilet paper, she will have luck in everything.

아이들은 친구하고 노는 것을 좋아해요.

Children love playing with their friends.

Narae says she can’t eat spicy food.

→ 밍밍 씨가 휴지를 선물하면 일이 잘 _____________________ 했어요.

I like talking in Korean.

Narae hates taking pictures.

_ Editorial staff, KOREA

How about yeot, Korean taffy?

Why do Koreans give yeot to friends?

Creative Director Lee Seung Ho Designers Lee Bok-hyun, Jung Hyun-young

Yeoseul seonmulhae boseyo.

Narae, what should I give a friend who is going to take an exam?

Production Supervisor Kim Eugene

Copy Editors Gregory Eaves, Anna Bloom

엿을 선물해 보세요.

Korean Culture Every year in Korea, students take the Korean College Scholastic Ability Test in the winter. When the exam season approaches, there are many street vendors selling yeot, a Korean sticky rice cake. Many people give students who take the exam toilet paper or forks as a gift. Toilet paper means they hope the student “unrolls” the exam problems as easily as toilet paper is unrolled, and forks mean that they hope the student picks the right answer, just as a fork picks up food. In contrast, people don’t eat seaweed soup before taking an exam because they think that if you eat the sleek, slippery seaweed, you’ll end up failing your exam just like falling down on a slippery floor. Is there anything you try to avoid before important things like an exam? If you have a friend taking an exam, how about giving them yeot or sticky rice cake as a gift?

Co nte nt s

04 Cover Story Traditional Korean Medicine Made Modern From the ‘Donguibogam’ to hanbang cosmetics, Korean medicine goes global

26 Arts & Entertainment 1 The 10 Million-Viewer Actors Korea’s most bankable movie stars put millions of people in the seats

36 Policy Review The Children Are the Future

Government moves to improve childcare and early childhood education

38 This is Pyeongchang Shining Light Olympic flame sparks excitement in Korea and beyond

40 Current Korea Working Together for Peace and Prosperity

14 Travel History in the Land of the Rice Thief

U.S. President Trump’s visit to Korea brings Seoul, Washington even closer together

Ganggyeong charms visitors with its well-preserved past and generous helpings of salted fish

20 People Better Than Happy Cartoonist Yeon-sik Hong of ‘Uncomfortably Happily’ draws an intimate portrait

24 Korea & I A Community of Togetherness An American monk describes life in a Korean Buddhist monastery

42 28 Arts & Entertainment 2 Remembering the Deportation Exhibits, performances and books mark the 80th anniversary of Stalin’s forced relocation of ethnic Koreans to Central Asia

30 Korean Culture in Brief

Global Korea

Korea, Turkey celebrate 60 years of ties, Korean fashion designers shine in Moscow and a Korean bucket list

44 Flavor Ginseng of the Water Lotus root salad is a seasonal remedy for all manner of winter colds and ailments

National Hangeul Museum hosts special exhibition on the calligraphies of Korea, China and Japan; U.S. remake of ‘The Good Doctor’ becomes a hit; Ha Jiwon stars in John Woo’s latest film and more

32 Literature ‘The Impossible Fairy Tale’ Han Yujoo’s ‘fairy tale’ goes to some pretty dark places

46 Learning Korean ‘I Left a Passenger Behind’ A taxi driver helped change Korean history

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 Kim Heejung, Korea Health Industry Development Institute Supervised by Lim Byungmook, Pusan National University School of Korean Medicine Photographed by 15 Studio

Traditional Korean Medicine Made Modern From the ‘Donguibogam’ to hanbang cosmetics, Korean medicine goes global

How many examples do you know of theories and techniques perfected more than a millennium ago that are still in popular use today? Traditional medicine may be the only example of an ancient knowledge system that is still widely used in the world’s developed countries. Moreover, of all the different forms of traditional medicine existing in the world, Korea’s is all the more unique for the way it has become closely integrated with modern medicine systems, all while hewing to a knowledge system that diverges from modern science.

As the health care market evolves, with more and more emphasis placed on prevention and maintenance, global interest is growing in alternative medicine, and traditional medicine – including Korean medicine – in particular. Proponents believe that traditional medicine’s more holistic approach not only complements scientific medicine, but overcomes the latter’s limitations by taking a more “big picture” view of health. Advocates of traditional Korean medicine even see the “traditional bio industry” sector as an important part of the coming Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Holistic and chemical free Korean medicine has three main characteristics. First, it is a holistic form of medicine, in which every part of the body is seen as interconnected and ailments afflicting one part are treated by correcting the overall state of the body.

Second, it is a natural form of medicine. If scientific medicine can be characterized as chemical treatment, Korean medicine attempts to cure using

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non-chemical means.

Finally, it is human-centered. The focus is on healing specific conditions according tothe person’s constitutional characteristics and relationship with nature.

The main practitioners of Korean medicine services today are doctors of Korean medicine, known locally as hanuisa. Hanuisa study in a six-year college of Korean medicine or four-year school of Korean medicine before passing an examination to earn their license to practice. Korean medicine exists on par with scientific medicine in both legal and societal terms in Korea. The roughly 260 modern Korean medicine hospitals and 14,000 Korean medicine clinics (hanuiwon) in existence today see over 100 million visits per year, with national health insurance coverage available for them.

The main techniques used in Korean medicine are acupuncture, moxibustion, herbal remedies, cupping and Chuna therapy.

In acupuncture, needles of various sizes and materials are inserted to stimulate specific parts of the body and adjust the flow of chi. Acupuncture is used to diagnose and treat ailments of all kinds in fields including internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatric medicine, otorhinolaryngology and ophthalmology. It is also used to combat smoking and obesity. It works quickly to treat acute cases of trauma, such as ankle sprains and pulled backs, indigestion, febrile seizures, tonsillitis and fainting, and can even be used on livestock.

Moxibustion involves treating ailments by burning herbs on specific parts of the body or using the smoke to stimulate heat. Cupping therapy uses small cups

KOREA December_ 5

© Choonwondang

that are applied to the surface of the skin. The air inside is removed, and the resulting negative pressure is used to eliminate different elements from the body.

In Chuna therapy, the practitioner’s hands or other parts of the body are used, along with supplementary equipment, to manipulate areas of the patient’s body, including acupuncture points, fascial pressure points, the spine and various joints.

Traditional yet modern The pinnacle of the traditional clinical technique came with the publication in 1613 of the “Donguibogam,” an encyclopedia of traditional medicine composed by the renowned court physician Heo Jun. Its 25 volumes comprehensively and systematically review traditional medicine in not only Korea, but in China and elsewhere.

The late 19th century establishment of Sasang typology brought with it historic advancements.

Systematized in 1894 by the physician Lee Je-ma in his book “Dongui Susebowon,” which translates to “Longevity and Life Preservation in Eastern Medicine,” Sasang typology categorizes people into four body types based on their external appearance. Each category comes with its own set of inherent traits and pathologies, both psychological and physical.

Traditional medicine came under intense pressure after scientific medicine was introduced at the end of

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the 19th century. During the colonial era, traditional medicine was denied public support, but it continued to develop in the private sector. Practitioners of traditional medicine formed several national and regional associations, published journals and even opened schools. These efforts continued after Korea’s liberation from colonial rule in 1945. Kyung Hee University’s absorption in 1965 of Dongyang College, founded in 1948 to train practitioners of traditional medicine, was especially important as, for the first time, a prestigious private university began offering classes in traditional medicine.

Cooperative efforts between Korean and scientific medicine have been under way in Korea since the 1980s, with guidelines calling for the establishment of scientific medicine departments and physicians at Korean medicine clinics and vice versa. It’s an approach that is forging a new model for traditional and scientific medical cooperation in Korea.

Current efforts to develop traditional medicine focus on further integrating it into modern medicine by realizing the former’s medical and philosophical values in a scientific way. Developments in information technology, robotics and biotechnology are helping this endeavor in significant ways. The Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, founded in 1994 as the nation’s only state-operated research institute for traditional medicine, has led the effort to go high-tech, developing several technologies to improve traditional medicine, including an Integrated Constitutional Health Diagnosis and Stimulation System, a futuristiclooking booth that integrates and analyzes the Sasang constitution of patients, provides general health information for each constitution and stimulates acupoints by simulating acupuncture and moxibustion stimulations, such as laser acupuncture, magnetic acupuncture and RF moxibustion. The institute even digitized the content of the “Donguibogam,” providing modern Korean and English translations and releasing apps for iOS and Android.

Globalization of traditional medicines The World Health Organization (WHO)’s Alma Ata Declaration of 1978, which addressed the importance of primary health care, led to renewed interest in and support for traditional medicine. The potential of traditional medicine was highlighted in 2015 when the Nobel Committee awarded Chinese scientist Tu Youyou the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine

Yangnyeongsi were specialized traditional markets for oriental herbal medicine, held twice a year in the spring and fall during the Joseon period. The longest-running yangnyeongsi is the Daegu Yangnyeongsi, whereas the Seoul Yangnyeongsi is the largest, making 70 percent of the herbal medicine sales of the entire nation. 조선 시대에는 한약재를 전문적으로 다루는 시장인 ‘약령시’가 해마다 봄과 가을에 두 차례씩 열렸다. 가장 오래된 대구 약령시는 현재까지도 명맥을 이어오고 있으며, 서울 약령시는 전국 한약재 거래량의 70%가 유통되는 최대 규모의 시장이다. (page 6) A Joseon-era illustrarion of meredians and acupuncture points related to the circulatory system and flow of energy

KOREA December_ 7

The Korean medicine hospital Choonwondang, established in 1847, constructed a second building in 2008 to house the Museum of Korean Medicine and its facilities for manufacturing traditional medicines. These facilities include an ingredient inspection room as well as a manufacture and boiling room and a packaging room. The manufacture and boiling room, where the medicine is made, has glass walls to promote transparency. The hospital is also working to integrate its traditional methods with science by establishing a computerized system.

1847년부터 지금까지 170여 년간 8대에 걸친 역사를 가진 춘원당한방병원은 2008년 신관을 준공하여 잔류농약 및 중금속을 검사하는 약재실험실, 탕전실, 한방박물관을 개관했다. 특히, 탕약을 제조하는 탕전실 외벽을 유리로 하여 투명성을 높이고, 시스템 전산화를 통해 과학성을 더하는 등 한방의 과거와 미래를 잇는 노력을 하고 있다.

for her discovery of the anti-malaria drug artemisinin, a discovery based on 2,000 years of Chinese herbal medicine.

The WHO itself has led the charge, issuing strategy papers for 2002–2005 and 2014–2023 that attempt to facilitate the integration of traditional medicine into national health care systems and create guidelines and standards to promote the proper use of traditional medicine. The WHO estimates that by 2050, the global market for traditional medicine will grow to USD 5 trillion. The growth of the market has nations around the world taking notice. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, began making fiveyear plans to develop complementary and alternative medicine in 2001. China, too, is bolstering investment into research and development related to traditional medicine, a sector in which it has long played a leading role.

Korea is also making efforts to globalize traditional medicine. Kyung Hee University, long a pioneer in local traditional medicine, operates the Korean Medicine Hospital, where over 1,000 non-Korean patients a year receive treatment in its international clinic.

Kyung Hee University’s Korean Medicine Hospital is establishing a global presence, too. In 2016, it agreed to set up a Korean medicine clinic at an army hospital in Qatar.

The United States, where traditional medicine has received a relatively warm welcome, is a favorite destination for practitioners of Korean medicine.

Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine, one of Korea’s most international practitioners of traditional health,

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operates clinics in Fullerton, Irvine, San Jose, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.

Food and cosmetics Korean medicine has long been a part of people’s lives in traditional terms. Indeed, traditionally, people made little distinction between food and medicine, viewing them as one and the same.

Hanbang foods, also known as yakseon, are made with herbal ingredients used to treat disease.

The process involves an organic mixture of herbal medicine with food that has medicinal value, based on theories of medicine and pharmacology. More recently, traditional medicine is leaving its mark on the cosmetics industry. Cosmetics using herbal ingredients, or hanbang cosmetics, are increasingly popular in the local and overseas market. Two of Korea’s most popular hanbang cosmetic brands, Amorepacific’s Sulwhasoo and LG Household and Health Care’s the History of Whoo, both posted sales in excess of KRW 1 trillion in the third quarter of 2017 alone. Both have proven popular with non-Korean customers, with each posting over KRW 350 billion in sales at duty-free shops. Sulwhasoo currently operates 220 shops overseas, including 131 in mainland China, 17 in Thailand, 13 in Taiwan and 11 in Hong Kong. It also opened an independent store at the Galeries Lafayette, France’s largest department store chain. The History of Whoo runs about 250 shops in Asia, including 150 in mainland China alone. LG Household and Health Care also makes the popular Sooryehan brand, which uses herbal medicine, too.

In addition to disease treatment and health maintenance, Korean medicine is also extensively used in the beauty industry.

Cosmetic products and soaps employing medicinal ingredients such as red ginseng, dried orange peel and pine consistently account for the top sales in duty-free shops, and they appear in department stores around the globe. 한의약은 일반적인 질병 치료와 건강증진 뿐 아니라 미용에도 활용되고 있다. 홍삼, 인삼, 적송, 진피 등 한방 원료를 활용한 한방화장품이나 한방비누는 면세점 매출 1,2위를 기록하고, 해외 백화점에 입점하는 등 국내외에서 높은 인기를 누리고 있다.

(Bottom) 1. Chunsam Sanghwang Mushroom Cream, Sooryehan 2., 3. Black circular case, hand towel featuring Sin Saimdang’s painting “Chochungdo,” KCDF Gallery 4. Herbal Soap, Sulwhasoo 5. Tea scoop, KCDF Gallery 6. Wood grain mat, Yido pottery 7. Hyo Bidam Fermented Cream, Sooryehan 8. Capsulized Ginseng Fortifying Serum, Sulwhasoo 9. Seonyu Gold Ampoule, Sooryehan (Page 10) 19th century acupuncture manual in the Choonwondang Museum of Korean Medicine (left) Acupuncture procedure at Choonwondang (right)

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KOREA December_ 11

Korean Medicinal Teas Images courtesy of imagetoday

condition: energy, or gi, and blood, or hyeol.

Like daechucha, it is deep brown in color, but with a bitter flavor.

People commonly drink ssanghwacha in the winter, especially when they’re suffering from colds. Indeed, nearly every convenience store in Korea carries small bottles of the tea. When you order the tea in a teahouse, it is sometimes served with an egg yolk.

Daechucha

Saenggangcha

Daechucha is a tea made from jujubes. The tea, deep brown or maroon and sweet, is rich in iron, potassium and vitamins A, B1 and B2. Accordingly, it has long been used as a medicine for conditions such as neurasthenia, anemia, lack of appetite and lethargy. It’s also good for the skin.

To make the tea, boil dried jujubes in water. You can also prepare it by adding a syrup of concentrated jujubes to boiling water. To make the syrup, simmer dried jujubes on low heat for a up to a day. You can garnish the tea with pine nuts.

Saenggangcha, or “ginger tea,” is just what it purports to be – tea made from ginger, usually by boiling slices of ginger in water or by adding sweetened ginger concentrate to boiling water. Sweeteners such as honey or sugar can be added to mask the pungent flavor of the ginger.

Ginger root is very high in vitamin C, making it good for preventing or curing colds. It’s also a digestive aid, stimulating the appetite and soothing the stomach.

Ginger also helps relieves nausea.

Maesilcha

Ssanghwacha

Ssanghwacha, or “double harmony tea,” is made by boiling a variety of herbs, including Japanese Peony, Rehmanniae radix, Angelica gigas, Cnidium officinale, cinnamon and Glycyrrhiza uralensis. It is sometimes called ssanghwatang, or “double harmony soup.”

As the name suggests, the tea brings into harmony the two elements of the human

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Maesilcha is a sweet, sour tea made by mixing a syrup of concentrated plums with hot or cold water, depending on whether you’d like to serve the tea hot or cold. To make the syrup, mix ripe plums and sugar in equal measure and leave them for 100 days. The one-to-one ratio of sugar to plums is important as it prevents the mixture from fermenting into wine.

Maesilcha’s sour flavor gets the digestive organs moving, making it a remedy for indigestion. It also promotes the excretion of gastric juices, helping to alleviate heartburn.

Yujacha

Yujacha is a sweet tea made from the Korean citron, or yuja. The yuja is a citrus fruit with a flavor similar to that of a lemon. Like the lemon, it’s also very rich in vitamin C – three times as rich in the vitamin as lemons, in fact. Not surprisingly, therefore, the tea prepared from the fruit is good for fighting

off coughs and colds as well as for alleviating indigestion. According to the “Donguibogam,” it also freshens the breath of heavy drinkers.

Yujacha is made by mixing yuja marmalade, or yujacheong, with hot water. To make the marmalade, mix thinly sliced yuja with honey and sugar and let it sit for three to four months.

name roughly translates as a “soup made from 10 medicinal herbs that wholly protects the body. ” The 10 ingredients can include ginseng, angelica root, kneeling angelica, peony, milk vetch root, cinnamon, white atractylodes, deer antler, hoelen and foxglove. These are boiled for a long time in hot water with ginger and jujubes. The result is a potent, if perhaps a tad bitter concoction that boost the immune system and invigorates the body. It’s especially good for people with weak constitutions – people who have been ill for a while, for instance.

Omijacha

Gugijacha

Gujicha is made from the dried goji berries or leaves of the Korean boxthorn, or gugija. The sweet tea – rich in betaine, methionine, lecithin, rutin and potassium – helps relieve nightsweats, pneumonia, cough, hematemesis, inflammation, and diabetes mellitus.

Preparing the tea involves boiling dried gogi berries in water. If you’re preparing the tea from the leaf rather than the berries, just place the dried leaves in hot water and wait for them to infuse. You can also add honey to sweeten the beverage.

Omija is made from the wonderful magnolia berry, or omija. The Korean name, which translates as “five flavor berry,” reflects the berry’s flavor, which includes sweetness, sourness, bitterness, saltiness, and pungency. The tea, which can be served hot or cold, possesses a bright red hue. The beverage is said to be good for your liver. It is also good for fighting colds.

Like many other teas, omijacha is prepared from a syrup of concentrate.

To make the syrup, mix the berries with sugar and store it for at least five days.

Alternatively, you could steep dried omija berries for several hours.

Sipjeondaebotang

Sipjeondaebotang may be the most “medicinal” of Korea’s herbal teas. Its

Gukhwacha

Gukhwacha, or chrysanthemum tea, is made by drying chrysanthemum flowers and preserving them in honey for about a month. The flowers are then brewed in tea. Chrysanthemum tea is visually spectacular, with the rehydrated flowers seeming to spring back to life in a cup of bright yellow tea. The beverage has a delicate, slightly sweet flavor.

According to Korean medicine, chrysanthemum tea was said to cool down the liver when the organ is overheated from continued stress. The tea is also good for relieving headaches and eye strain, improving circulation, fighting colds and preventing gastrointestinal disorders, including stomach inflammation and stomach cancer. The tea is also anti-inflammatory and a detoxifier.

KOREA December_ 13

Travel

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Âť

Written and photographed by Robert Koehler

History in the Land of the Rice Thief Ganggyeong charms visitors with its wellpreserved past and generous helpings of salted fish

The sun sets over the Geumgang River and the Nonsan Plain, seen from Ongnyeobong Hill.

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The former Yeonsudang Herbal Medicine Shop is a beautiful two-story Hanok shophouse built in the 1920s.

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Many people liken a trip to a historic town to stepping into a time machine.

In the case of Ganggyeong, however, they really mean it.

The small town on a bend in the Geumgang River exists in a sort of time warp, its narrow alleyways, weathered facades and general air of genteel lethargy suggesting a town that hasn’t quite managed its way out of the 1970s. This is a place where life moves slowly like the meandering waters of the Geumgang, where church spires are still the tallest buildings in town. Gangnam Style it isn’t.

Not so long ago, however, Ganggyeong was an important commercial center that hosted one of the three largest markets in the country. Surrounded by fertile agricultural lands and connected to the sea by way of the river, the town thrived on a rich trade in seafood, livestock and rice, trade that drew merchants and boatsmen from as far away as Jeolla-do and Gyeonggi-do. The opening and subsequent development of the port of Gunsan by imperial Japan ended Ganggyeong’s role as western Korea’s primary commercial gateway, but the connection of the city to the country’s nascent railway system at the turn of the 20th century allowed it to remain a bustling trading center until the end of the century, when urbanization and industrial development elsewhere left the old market town behind.

Though Ganggyeong’s glory days as an entrepot have long since passed, the town is reinventing itself as a travel destination. Past affluence and subsequent neglect have left behind a rich architectural heritage and a cityscape more authentically vintage than you might find in other historical burgs. Moreover, some of the town’s old commercial mojo lives on in its thriving market for salted seafood, or jeotgal, the fermented condiment for which the hamlet is best known today.

(Top) A mural depicts the Ganggyeong of old.

(Bottom) In Ganggyeong, vintage buildings are ubiquitous.

Old alleyways where business flourished

In the 16th century, Ganggyeong was little more than a village. By the 19th century, however, it was a market town so prosperous it rivaled the giant markets of Pyongyang and Daegu. In the early 20th century, the town’s thriving commercial activity gave rise to other ventures, including banks. Movie theaters, schools, Western clothing stores and other architectural symbols of the good life took root along the streets. Prosperity also attracted a large number of Japanese settlers who left an imprint on the cityscape.

Walking around Ganggyeong’s old downtown is like walking around a museum of 20th century Korea. The more impressive structures include the old Hanil Bank, a sturdy European style edifice of red brick built in 1913; the old auditorium of Ganggyeong Central Elementary School, a

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hulking structure of red brick erected in 1937; the former residence of the headmaster of Ganggyeong Commercial High School, a pretty brick home built in 1931 in an eclectic mix of Korean, Western and Japanese styles; and the former Yeonsudang Herbal Medicine Shop, a beautiful two-story Hanok shophouse built in the 1920s that is especially important because it is the only surviving building that we can see in old photos of Gangyeong Market.

Ganggyeong has a long history with Christianity, too.

Kim Dae-geon, Korea’s first Catholic priest, stayed here for two weeks after smuggling himself into Korea from Shanghai in 1845. The town also hosted Korea’s very first Baptist service in 1896. Ganggyeong Catholic Church, built

by French missionaries in the 1960s, is a lovely piece of modernist architecture looming over Ganggyeong’s Jeotgal Market. Much smaller, but nonetheless beautiful, is the former Ganggyeong Evangelical Holiness Church, now a Methodist church, built in traditional Korean style in 1924.

Ganggyeong’s best known scenic point is Ongnyeobong, a hillock overlooking the old port of Ganggyeong, now a park filled with reeds, and the Geumgang River. It’s a good spot to take in the sunset.

The town that jeotgal made

(Top) The Daeheung Market is Ganggyeong’s largest covered market.

(Bottom) Jeotgal baekban is a tasty way to enjoy the local specialty.

Where to eat Several restaurants around Ganggyeong’s Jeotgal Market serve jeotgal baekban, including Dalbong Garden (T. 041-745-3070).

Where to stay Thanks to high-speed rail, Ganggyeong is now just a day trip from Seoul.

Getting there Trains for Ganggyeong depart Seoul’s Yongsan Station (travel time: about two hours)

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If Ganggyeong’s past was built on riverine trade, its present rests on a heaping pile of jeotgal.

Jeotgal is salted fermented seafood, commonly eaten as a side dish or used as a condiment in dishes such as boiled pork slices. It’s also used as an ingredient in soups, stews and, most commonly, kimchi. Jeotgal can be prepared from a countless variety of shellfish, fish, fish innards and future fish, i.e., roe. The salty flavor is so intense you don’t realize how much rice you’re eating, hence the foodstuff ’s moniker: “rice thief.”

Ganggyeong’s burgeoning trade in jeotgal began in the days of the old Ganggyeong Market, where much seafood went unsold. Rather than leaving it to rot, locals salted the unsold seafood and stored it deep underground to ferment. They got good at it, too, so much so that today, up to 70 percent of the salted shrimp, or saeujeot, a common ingredient in kimchi, comes from Ganggyeong.

Ganggyeong’s sprawling jeotgal market occupies several blocks north of the Ganggyeong Stream. The best time to visit is October, when the market hosts the annual Ganggyeong Jeotgal Festival ahead of the winter kimchimaking season. If you’re looking to eat rather than buy, a local specialty is jeotgal baekban, a spread of rice and soup served with about 10 kinds of jeotgal.

Ganggyeong is best known today as Korea’s capital of salted seafood, or jeotgal.

KOREA December_ 19

People »

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Written by Hahna Yoon Photographed by 15 Studio

Better Than Happy Cartoonist Yeon-sik Hong of ‘Uncomfortably Happily’ draws an intimate portrait

It’s easy to imagine Yeon-sik Hong’s family at dinnertime.

With one look at the four empty chairs surrounding his white kitchen table, a reader of the cartoonist’s graphic novels can immediately envision Hong, his wife and their two children sitting here, digging into a bubbling stew.

Hong’s memoir-esque work often details mealtimes with the family, or at least when it’s not examining weightier subjects such as the insecurities of a freelance artist, husband and father. The poignancy has won fans in Korea and abroad. An English edition of his graphic novel “Uncomfortably Happily,” translated by Hellen Jo and published by Canada’s Drawn and Quarterly, was released in 2017 to critical acclaim. U.S. pop culture website Vulture called it “a mix of pathos and buoyant humor,” while Canadian daily Winnipeg Free Press praised its “unusual beauty and stunning honesty.”

How does Hong see these revealing self-portraits, though? Surrounded by his children’s artwork and a slew of books in his home studio, Hong opens up about becoming a cartoonist.

“I’ve loved to draw ever since I was young. I guess it’s the same for most artists,” Hong says. “I would draw, get in trouble, make a cartoon, get in trouble and be scolded for not studying.”

Society didn’t always encourage young people to become cartoonists. Older people – his parents, for instance – were biased against the arts, favoring professions that provided more stable incomes. Hong recalls a time when his father railed against his elementary school teacher for suggesting that Hong should become a painter. “Art is only for the rich,” his father said.

Instead, Hong secretly resolved not to become a painter, but a cartoonist. Though his parents wanted him to go to college, he had no desire to go, his artistic soul being incompatible with the academic environment of the university. “One time, my mom beat me so badly because I didn’t even want to finish high school,” he says with a chuckle. “Once I got it into my mind that I would draw, all I could see was drawing.”

© Yeon-sik Hong, Woorinabi

Hong’s graphic novels “Mr. Madang’s Table” (left) and “Mr. Madang’s Happy Days” (right) are autobiographical.

One-track mind

KOREA December_ 21

Back to school

After his discharge, Hong decided that if he really wanted to succeed, he should go to college. He entered school at the age of 32 with a group of students 10 years his junior.

Though mingling with different age groups is rare in Korea, Hong really liked it. Initially majoring in animation, he found he had a lot to learn from his younger colleagues. He was able to broaden his artistic horizons despite disliking his actual major. Animation, he discovered, consumed a lot of energy and time. “I thought that for the amount of energy I’d spend on animation, I’d rather write dozens of books,” he says. “I wanted to free the details of my drawings from rigidity, to revitalize them as I saw my classmates do.” He switched majors, concentrating instead on cartoons. He developed a personal aesthetic, a “hand-drawn look,” as he describes it, the result of his minimal use of digital tools.

Bundles

Hong sketches out an idea in his work room.

The journey to debut

Hong did finish high school, but instead of going to university right away, he apprenticed under a professional cartoonist for two and a half years. Describing the period as a “time of learning,” Hong says, “I lived life as I pleased, staying nights at the studio because I couldn’t get along with my father.” He made his debut as a professional cartoonist at 22 in a new magazine called Comic Champ. His debut as an artist was well received; it also led to uncertainty, however.

“Debuting had been my lifelong goal, so I wasn’t really sure what to do after that,” he recalls. “I had no idea what kind of cartoons I should be making.”

Think of the children

Not long after his debut, Hong found himself with plenty of time to consider the direction of his craft when he began his two years of mandatory military service. “By the time I had finished, I was itching to draw again,” he says. “It was at this point that I started making children’s stories based on my personal experiences.”

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“They say that hardships come in bundles,” says Hong about the difficulties of returning to school. “I had a lot of family problems at the time and I couldn’t work as I had before, of course. I got myself into so much debt that creditors came to my school to look for me.”

That wasn’t all. “The mother of who was then my girlfriend opposed us getting married,” says Hong. “I got married while in school and took a year off to try to make some money. We moved to a house in the Pocheon countryside and I suppose it got even lonelier, even harder.”

He laughs the laugh of a man lucky enough to have made it through the hardships in one piece. He credits his wife for encouraging him to go on, finish his projects and graduate from school. “At the worst of times, it was my wife who was my salvation.”

Happily working on ‘Uncomfortably’

Hong’s first memoir-esque story was for a college project in which he wrote about his parents. It was a good experience.

“I had a lot of fun,” he says, “so I thought I should start recording the story of my life in the countryside for my children to read someday.”

The result was “Uncomfortably Happily.” Hong initially began storyboarding the book in 2007, continuing to work on it simply because “it gave him joy.” It was a timeconsuming labor of love. There were nights, right before the birth of his firstborn in 2009, that he slept only four hours in a desperate struggle to balance the project with his paid

work. Despite the long nights and the loss of his mother during these years, the project reminded him of why he loved drawing so much.

Hong wasn’t particularly interested in publishing “Uncomfortably Happily,” at least initially. A friend of his, however, suggested pitching the novel to publishers. The book was picked up almost immediately.

Opinions of the inner circle

Published first in 2012, “Uncomfortably Happily” has now been translated into English and French. Two sequels to the book, 2015’s “Mr. Madang’s Table” and 2017’s “Mr. Madang’s Happy Days,” continued the personal narrative, both works unfolding in similarly mundane fashion. Although Hong admits that it may be slightly taboo to publish such stories in a country where personal lives are kept scrupulously private, sharing his life with the world seems to be of little concern. “Honestly, I never thought of my life as special,”

says Hong. “I knew couples that were facing the same troubles, even if the details of their problems were slightly different.”

When asked what his own family thought of the book, Hong hesitates. His brother and uncle on his father’s side have read the book with no comment, he says. His father now has such poor eyesight he can’t really read the book, but the son wonders what his reaction would be. “Before ‘Uncomfortably Happily,’ I used to send him every book I published, but since then, I have wondered what good it would do,” he says. “Would he understand? There are many parts of the book where I even lament my father.”

His wife, on the other hand, has read every single word he has written. “I always confirm story lines with her first.

She checks the stories – and my memories – for errors. Did I really do what I remember I did? Sometimes she’s right.

Sometimes I am. She also gives me her opinion on whether it’s fun to read. She’s my first reader.”

KOREA December_ 23

Korea & I

»

Written by Wonil Sunim Illustrated by Kim Min Ho

A Community of Togetherness An American monk describes life in a Korean Buddhist monastery

Musangsa Temple is a residential Seon training facility in Gyeryong, an international hub of lay and monastic practitioners founded by Seon master Seung Sahn. We are unique in that we live and practice together: men, women, monastics and laypeople. It’s a wave that began in the U.S., where residential centers are largely populated by laypeople. We use the structure as the foundation of our practice, as we don’t have our own. We support and learn from each other: to live in a practice environment magnifies the effort of the individual. We come together to practice, to celebrate the dharma. Those of us who’ve chosen to ordain eventually find our way to Korea. The monastic lineage doesn’t exist elsewhere.

Gimjang: an old tradition

An old tradition, what was once a necessity, still lives on in the Seon monastery. We depend on the gimjang, the yearly kimchi production, to supply us until the next harvest. It ties us to the community, brings us together. It’s part of the training, the heritage of Korean Seon. It isn’t confined to the meditation hall, but resonates throughout society.

Kimchi is ineluctably tied to the harvest. With the winter chill in the air, the cabbages nearly ready to harvest, gimjang looms. Everything in the Seon center is prepared by the staff, but this is a large undertaking.

We planted 600 cabbages this year. At the first frost the community rallies. Everyone works together. The

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cabbages are roughly cleaned and cut in half. These are rubbed with a coarse salt and left overnight in large tubs. Early in the morning the locals arrive, largely lay women. The specialist, an elder in the community, orchestrates the entire process. Though the recipe is simple, the proportions measured by sight, by feel, it’s difficult a thing. When it is determined that the cabbages have soaked in the brine long enough to soften the right amount – the leaves must bend easily but still snap – they’re rinsed in clear water and stacked to dry. Some salt must remain in the cabbages to prevent the kimchi from going sour, so the specialist decides whether to rinse three or four times. This is crucial. Meanwhile great tubs of dried red powder are combined with a homemade soy sauce that’s fermented year-long outdoors. A broth from boiled seaweed is mixed together with puréed persimmons from our own trees, apples and pears, along with a small amount of starch to thicken the sauce. The fruit takes the place of garlic and green onions, anchovies and fish sauce, as these aren’t allowed in a Buddhist monastery. When the cabbages are dry enough, they’re stacked in rows on tables, where a small army of volunteers rub the leaves with the pepper sauce, stacking them together with carrots; minari, a benign cousin to the green onion; and mu, the Asian radish, in containers to ferment. One of the pleasures of gimjang is to taste the fresh kimchi. Everyone loves it.

Adapting to one another

It’s not just the kimchi. Laypeople come out of their busy lives to join the community, live and practice with us. Sometimes they stay a few days, or join a class or program. We follow the schedule, the way handed down, a thread to a distant past unknown to us, adapted to allow non-Koreans to live and practice together. The place we hold in Korean society is both historical and unprecedented. Those who interact with us have a familiar environment in which to operate: the traditional architecture of the buildings, painted in the primary colors and psychedelic patterns seen throughout Korea. We also perform the sasi maji, the rice offering, every day before lunch and chant together the same sutras heard elsewhere. We are not Korean, however. Their chants are merely sounds we intone. Most of us can’t speak Korean, and the Korean people hardly speak English. We know each other through the practice of meditation, and the things we do together. We’ve adapted to each other out of a mutual need. Koreans have a warm, family-oriented society that has much to offer an increasingly alienated world. We put flesh and bones on the myth of the foreign barbarian. With none of the fetters of Confucian culture, we are a spark of new life. We are a Seon community.

“Together action” is integral to the lineage. It’s very difficult to practice on your own. The nurturing and support of a community is crucial. It’s much easier to learn with the example, both good and bad, of fellow practitioners. The community also serves as a repository of dharma, the continuation of a Zen master’s dream to bring peace to the world. It’s like a flame that burns between us that we introduce into society again and again. We inculcate, foster the dharma, so that it grows into the society, the mindset, the fabric of humanity.

Our responsibility is to first attain enlightenment, then to help others – under a greater lens is to provide a repository of dharma that others can contact and bring into their lives – the wisdom of the path, that it be something living, apparent, easy to connect to, to incorporate into this great complicated world in which we live. If it is not a living thing, then it does not exist. If it is not renewed again and again and witnessed and known, it is a thing of old libraries and dusty books.

KOREA December_ 25

Arts & Entertainment 1

» Written by Jason Bechervaise Photos courtesy of CJ E&M

The 10 Million-Viewer Actors Korea’s most bankable movie stars put millions of people in the seats

Jun Ji-hyun played a sniper in the Korean Liberation Army in the 2015 film “Assassination.”

In the U.S., where the box office is generally understood in monetary terms, a film’s success is interpreted based on its box office sales and budget. In Korea, however, the industry standard, which is also readily understood by local audiences, is to look at how many people see a film. This makes marketing a film and its popularity easier.

When a film crosses one million admissions, a press release is sent out. They will often compare it to similar films to determine how quickly the film has reached certain milestones. © NEW

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When a film has hit the 10 million viewer mark, like “A Taxi Driver” did earlier this year, it becomes a major news story. In a country with just 50 million people, 10 million means one out of five have seen the film, a statistic that conveys mega-hit status.

Song Kang-ho A total of 15 Korean films have entered this club. Of these, 10 have done so in the past five years, illustrating how the local film industry has grown since 2012. The most

recent film, the aforementioned “A Taxi Driver,” stars Song Kang-ho, one of Korea’s most bankable actors. He is the only leading actor in Korea to have three films hit the 10 million viewer mark: “A Taxi Driver” (2017), “The Attorney” (2013) and “The Host” (2006). He became the first leading actor whose films have collectively surpassed a whopping 100 million admissions, earning him the title “100 million-viewer actor.”

In 2013 alone, the three films in which he starred – “Snowpiercer,” “The Face Reader” and “The Attorney” – sold almost 30 million tickets, underscoring his popularity.

Interestingly, Song also starred in Korea’s first majorly successful blockbuster, 1999’s “Shiri.”

That film was the moment Korean cinema decided to follow Hollywood’s example in adopting the studio system and blockbusters, but tailoring them for local audiences.

Hwang Jung-min Also featuring in “Shiri” but in a much smaller role was Hwang Jung-min who has gone from strength to strength and starred as the lead in two gargantuan hits released in 2014, “Ode to my Father” and “Veteran”, which amassed 14.2 million and 13.4 million admissions, respectively. Hwang, too, has earned the “100 million-viewer actor” status, having starred in numerous hits including “The Wailing” (2016), “A Violent Prosecutor” (2015) and “The Himalayas” (2015).

“The Admiral: Roaring Currents,” staring Choi Min-sik, drew a record 17 million viewers.

When a film has hit the all-important 10 million-viewer mark like “A Taxi Driver” did earlier this year, it becomes a major news story.

Ryu Seung-ryong and Choi Min-sik Another major actor, Ryu Seung-ryong, has featured in three films that have exceeded 10 million admissions, including the most successful Korean film of all time, “The Admiral: Roaring Currents” (2014), which pulled in over 17 million viewers and stars Choi Min-sik as admiral Yi Sun-shin. The year 2014 was a particularly successful year for Choi as he also played a sizable role in Luc Besson’s “Lucy,” which was a global hit.

The last couple of years have been good

to Ryu, too, the actor having featured in the extremely successful films “Miracle in Cell No. 7” (2013) and the period feature “Masquerade” (2012).

Jun Ji-hyun The only leading actress to feature in more than one film that surpassed 10 million viewers is Jun Ji-hyun, who starred in “Assassination” (2015) and “The Thieves” (2012), both directed by one of Korea’s most successful commercial filmmakers, Choi Dong-hoon. Only Choi and JK Youn of “Ode to my Father” and “Haeundae” have two films in this club. Bong Joon-ho came close with “Snowpiercer,” which came up just short with 9.3 million admissions in 2013. Bong’s “The Host” (2006) starring Song Kang-ho was the most popular Korean film in history until “The Admiral: Roaring Currents” sailed past it in 2014.

Ryu Seung-ryong played in the period film “Masquerade.”

KOREA December_ 27

Arts & Entertainment 2 » Written by Robert Koehler

Remembering the Deportation Exhibits, performances and books mark the 80th anniversary of Stalin’s forced relocation of ethnic Koreans to Central Asia © Kim Iillya

The National Museum of Kazakhstan in Astana hosted an exhibit of 100 photographs by photographer Kim Jin-seok recording the lives of Koreans in Kazakhstan.

© Kim Iillya

Photo exhibit at the National Museum of Kazakhstan

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In 1937, 170,000 ethnic Korean residents of the Soviet Union were unceremoniously rounded up into railroad box cars and deported from their homes in the Soviet Far East to Kazakhstan and elsewhere in Central Asia, where they were put to work turning arid, unpopulated regions into collective farms. The forced relocation, carried out on the order of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, resulted in the deaths of roughly 10,000 people. The survivors initially struggled to establish themselves in an alien land, but

before long, they were making the dessert bloom, and the Koreans – or koreitsy as they were called in Russian – became an integral piece of Central Asian society.

This year represents the 80th anniversary of the forced relocation. To mark the anniversary, museums, artists and institutions in Korea and Kazakhstan have hosted a range of events, from the hosting of photo exhibits to the publishing of books. The events aim to commemorate a painful but little-appreciated chapter in the history of the Korean people

© Arirang Museum & Arirang Archive

and celebrate the Korean contribution to Central Asian society through the medium of the arts and literature.

‘Crossing the Arirang Pass’ In September, the Jeongseon Arirang Museum in Jeongseon, Gangwon-do, hosted a special photo exhibit entitled “Ethnic Koreans in CIS: Crossing Over the Arirang Pass.” On display were about 50 photographs, collected over the course of two decades, that depict the history of Central Asia’s Koreans.

Jin Yong-seon, the director of the museum, told local broadcaster YTN, “To the Soviet Koreans, Arirang wasn’t simply a song. It irrepressibly contained the DNA of the Korean people.”

The Asia Culture Center in Gwangju commemorated the relocation with exhibits, performances and symposiums related to the Koreans of Central Asia. The Cultural Festival to Commemorate the Forced Relocation of the Soviet Koreans, held in September, included a multi-media performance celebrating in theater, music and video the lives of Soviet Korean artists

over the decades, from Korean-born Soviet poet Jo Myeong-hui, who was executed in 1938 during Stalin’s purges, and 1980s Russian rock icon Viktor Tsoi to Gwangju resident Vladimir Kim, a poet and Korean from Uzbekistan. The festival also includes an exhibition of artifacts related to Soviet Koreans collected by poet Kim Byeong-hak during his 25 years living in Kazakhstan.

Central Asia remembers, too The Jeongseon Arirang Museum’s “Ethnic Koreans in CIS: Crossing Over the Arirang Pass” documents the history of ethnic Koreans in Central Asia.

The events aim to commemorate a painful but littleappreciated chapter in the history of the Korean people and celebrate the Korean contribution to Central Asian society.

Central Asian Korean artists are marking the 80th anniversary of their ancestors’ deportation with exhibits of their own.

Painter Victor Moon, one of Kazakhstan’s most renowned artists and a third-generation Central Asian Korean, shared 15 of his paintings through exhibits at Gwangju’s Woo Jaeghil ART MUSEUM and Seoul. The exhibitions, entitled “Painful Memories, Dreaming Hope,” expressed not only the suffering inflicted by the deportation, but also the tenacity of the Korean people.

Speaking to YTN, Moon said, “We may be OK now, but we never know when we might have to fly away again like a bird. Who will take us in? That is the question I want to ask through my paintings.”

The National Museum of Kazakhstan in Astana hosted from Oct. 25 to Nov. 8 an exhibit of 100 photographs recording the lives of Koreans in Kazakhstan. The photos were taken by Korean photographer Kim Jin-seok, who met with over 1,000 ethnic Koreans of all ages in Kyzylorda, Ushtobe, Almaty and Astana – the Kazakh cities with the largest Korean populations – over the course of two months. The show will travel to Kyzylorda, Ushtobe and Almaty through the beginning of December.

The association of ethnic Koreans in Kazakhstan has also released an encyclopedia of 1,500 Koreans who have contributed in the fields of science, culture, education and business.

This work by Victor Moon uses cubism to express the tragedy of the forced relocation.

KOREA December_ 29

Korean Culture in Brief »

© Taeuk Kang

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Actress Ha Ji-won stars alongside Chinese actor Zhang Hanyu and Japanese actor Masaharu Fukuyama in “Manhunt,” the latest film by legendary Hong Kong movie director John Woo. Ha plays Rain, a trained assassin who works with her similarly trained assassin sister, Dawn,

played by the director’s daughter, Angeles Woo. Though assassins, hitmen and other takers of human life are a staple of Woo’s films, Ha represents his first female killer.

The film appeared at this year’s Busan International Film Festival.

Jay Park’s H1GHR Music Records to Get Showcase at SXSW 2018 © H1ghrmusic

The prestigious Konzerthausorchester Berlin, one of Europe’s top concert orchestras, has named flutist Kim Yubeen its permanent principal flutist after a vote by orchestra members.

Kim, who at age 20 is the youngest member of the orchestra, was named principal flutist on a provisional basis in December of last year. Although most principal musicians undergo a provisional period of one to two years, Kim was elected to a permanent spot after just 10 months.

The Konzerthausorchester Berlin, originally named the Berliner SinfonieOrchester, was founded in 1952 in what was then East Berlin. Though briefly threatened with dissolution after the unification of Germany, the ensemble is now one of Berlin’s three leading orchestras along with the Berlin Philharmonic and Staatskapelle Berlin.

Ha Ji-won Stars in John Woo’s Latest Film © Poong Kyung So Ri

Kim Yubeen Named Permanent Principal Flutist of Konzerthausorchester Berlin

H1GHR Music Records, the hip hop label founded by Korean-American rapper Jay Park and Seattle-based singer, songwriter and producer Cha Cha Malone, will get its own showcase at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas in 2018. This is the first time a Korean label has gotten its own showcase at SXSW. The six-hour showcase will feature performances by the artists under the label, including Sik-K, pH-1, Woodie Go Child, Phe Reds, Avatar Darko, Yultron, Raz Simone, Jarv Dee and Cha Cha Malone.

Fantasy Film Presold to 103 Countries

The National Hangeul Museum has joined hands with the National Museum of Japanese History to host a joint exhibition of Korean, Chinese and Japanese calligraphy to mark the upcoming PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and the 571st anniversary of the proclamation of the Hangeul writing system. The

exhibition celebrates shared traditions, such as the writing brush and Chinese characters, while at the same time exploring what makes each nation’s calligraphy unique. The Korean section of the exhibit looks at the development of styles of Hangeul, Korea’s indigenously developed alphabet.

© Lotte Entertainment

© National Hangeul Museum

The upcoming fantasy film “Along With the Gods: The Two Worlds,” based on cartoonist Joo Ho-min’s popular webcomic, is generating a lot of buzz.

The film, set to debut in Korea on Dec. 20, was pre-sold to 90 nations at the American Film Market (AFM) in Santa Monica, California, in early November.

This builds on the 13 countries in which the film was pre-sold during the Asian Film Market in Busan in October.

The film boasts an ensemble cast that includes Ha Jung-woo, Cha Tae-hyun, Lee Jung-jae and Do Kyung-soo.

National Hangeul Museum Hosts Special Exhibition on the Calligraphies of Korea, China and Japan

© Sony Pictures Television & Disney

U.S. Remake of ‘The Good Doctor’ Becomes a Hit U.S. broadcaster ABC’s series “The Good Doctor,” based on a Korean series of the same name, has become the biggest TV hit of the autumn in the United States.

The show is averaging 17.8 million viewers, topping established hits such as “The Big Bang Theory” and “This Is Us.”

Starring British actor Freddie Highmore as Dr. Shaun Murphy, a young surgical resident with autism and savant syndrome, the series has proven so popular that ABC has ordered a full season. The Korean original, which ran in 2013, also performed strongly.

KOREA December_ 31

Literature

»

Written by Chang Iou-chung Illustrated by Kim Yoon-myung

‘The Impossible Fairy Tale’ Han Yujoo’s ‘fairy tale’ goes to some pretty dark places

© Robert Koehler

In the modern, adult world of fairy tales, there are no talking animals or enchanted princes. Instead, there are athletes who win medals in spite of physical handicaps or illnesses. There are millionaire entrepreneurs who succeed with businesses that everyone else said would fail. The world of fairy tales, when you’re an adult, is full of challenges to the impossible.

In that sense, Han Yujoo, a contemporary Korean writer, is qualified to be the protagonist in a modern-day fairy tale. She attempts

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to create something that is impossible, to write something impossible that cannot be expressed with words or through prose.

Nothing is impossible “It was when I was a university freshman. I was a German major and I heard this Wittgenstein quote that said, ‘If there’s no word for “sick,” you’re not sick.’ This is still quite vivid to me. I wanted to write something that couldn’t be put into words. Though

I knew that it was impossible, I just wanted to give it a go,” said Han in an interview with the Kyunghyang Shinmun in 2009, just after publishing her second short story collection.

Han Yujoo, born in Seoul in 1982, started her writing career in 2003 with her short story “To the Moon.” She wrote for a university project, but the story won a new author’s award from a quarterly literary magazine, “Literature and Society.” She has published three short story collections, including “To the Moon,” “Book of Ice” and “My

Han is qualified to be the protagonist in a modern-day fairy tale. She attempts to create something that is impossible, to write something impossible that cannot be expressed with words or through prose.

The Impossible Fairy Tale Written by Han Yujoo Translated by Janet Hong Published in 2017 by Graywolf Press 216 pages

Left Hand the King, My Right Hand the King’s Scribe,” and the novel “The Impossible Fairy Tale” in 2013.

Her writing bibliography is short because of her many other talents and interests in other fields. While giving lectures and translating books into Korean to pay the bills, she runs her own micro-press, Oulipo Press, and she even sings in a band, The Chop.

The fact that she sings in a band, in a way, helps readers understand her writing style. Her writing is often described as being “lyrical.” Some say her writing is somewhere between poetry and prose.

Sometimes, the “musical” elements stand out in her works, when she repeats some phrases like lyrics often do.

‘The Impossible Fairy Tale’ So how can her musical and lyrical style be adapted to a narrative-centered novel?

Han published her first full-length novel, “The Impossible Fairy Tale,” in 2013. First serialized in a quarterly literary magazine between 2011 and 2012, the novel has a narrative arc and then a critical event that involves journals.

The novel starts with the story of Mia. Mia is a friendly, cute fifth grader who still wants to go to bed with her mom sometimes. She has two dads, though she calls only one of them “dad” and the other one “uncle.” Because she can get more gifts with two dads, she’s mostly happy with the situation, until she finds, one day, her two dads fighting out in front of her apartment building.

Mia has to keep a journal for school.

She and her classmates have to write in their journals and have it checked by the teacher as homework. One day, the teacher finds that someone has added sentences to all the class’s journals. The teacher waits until someone confesses to it. Later, all of the journals suddenly disappear. The culprit hurries home

with all the journals. She encounters Mia and her mother, who ask what the child is carrying. The child is now terrified that Mia will find out. She approaches Mia. Now, Mia and the child are at Mia’s home, alone. What is the child going to do?

Fairy tales that aren’t for children?

Is this a crime novel? For children?

There are detective novels for children, but a crime novel for children? Is such a thing possible? What was the author thinking when she was working on this novel?

“I think I use the word ‘impossible’ a lot, repeatedly, in all my works. I also use ‘think’ a lot, and I guess this must be a reflection of my attitude toward writing a novel,” said Han. She wanted to write something that was impossible to write, as she has said, but the author’s creative intention for the novel is still vague.

In an interview with Cine 21, a weekly movie magazine, in 2015, she further elaborated. “I learned this much later, but when I started writing I heard that people thought I wouldn’t be able to continue writing. So I published my second book and they said I wouldn’t be able to publish short story collections any more. They also said that I wouldn’t be able to write a novel, as I recall. I think I wrote this novel in a way to claim that, ‘this is a novel,’ and to tell people who would question whether or not my book is an actual novel.”

However, this book has a storyline and climactic events, like other novels.

The question for this book is not “Is this a novel?” but “Is this a fairy tale?”

Pippi Longstocking wasn’t for children, people thought. “Where the Wild Things Are” seemed like a horror

KOREA December_ 33

Art & Entertainment

»

Written by Robert Koehler Photographed by Hong Gil-dong

book, at first. Now they’re classics.

Hwang Sun-mi, author of “The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly,” also fights against the preconception that children’s books or fairytales should always be bright and cheerful or teach a moral lesson. In that sense, “The Impossible Fairy Tale” qualifies as a fairy tale.

However, Lindgren, Sendak and Hwang had talking animals and creatures and included elements of fantasy. This book doesn’t have any of that. Han’s fifth-grade characters live

34

in the real world. Mia has two dads because her mother is cheating on one of them. Her friend is envious of her and steals her things. A classmate brags about killing baby chicks. Another child kills a stray kitten with a box cutter. A mentally handicapped boy is viciously beaten by his older brother and their mother doesn’t even know about it.

An artist’s sensitivity This is the greatest achievement of this novel. Like many sensitive artists, Han captures the moments that most people have inattentively forgotten, and she has embodied these into a form of art. Han focuses on describing the

darkest emotions of 10-year-olds, who are often considered to be the sweetest or most innocent of children. Children are not innocent, and childhood is not a rainbow, the author claims.

“Every young child can be unhappy and abused. Whether you’re in such an environment or not, children can’t manage or control the environment surrounding them. Thus a child’s psychology is exposed to violence.

They’re defenseless,” She said to the Kyunghyang Shinmun in 2013.

In the later part of the novel, the author herself starts to speak. As a creator of a cruel story with a child suffering from horrible domestic violence (though this is not detailed in the book itself), the author says that she felt guilty and that the later part of the novel was her own remedy to resolve the pain she suffered from writing the first part. Because of this second part, breaking the fourth wall, the novel becomes some sort of ironic

tale that denies the fictional world that it created in the first part of the story.

However, this doesn’t make it any sort of “impossible fairy tale.” As Douglas Adams noted, “There’s no point in using the word ‘impossible’ to describe something that has clearly happened.”

Do you girls want a snack? Inju’s mother goes to the kitchen. Inju and Mia, who has picked up the dog, go to Inju’s room.

Mia puts him down on the bed and uses the bathroom while Inju hurriedly puts away an object from the top of the desk.

The picture of the woman who had been England’s princess gets hidden between books on the bookshelf. Inju had ripped it out from the book in Mia’s living room. Inju’s face turns red. Deep inside Inju’s desk drawer is a brooch. Inju had taken it from the bedroom of Mia’s mother. Inju’s face turns a deeper red.

Mia washes her hands and comes back to the room. Inju hugs Mia awkwardly.

What are you doing? It tickles, Mia says, giggling. I’m just happy to see you, that’s all, Inju says. Inju opens her wardrobe and takes out a once-treasured satin dress. Do you want to try it on? Inju

asks. It’s pretty, says Mia, but inside, she thinks the dress is childish and unsophisticated. ...

Inju looks blankly at Mia. And suddenly, Mia’s milky skin, her long hair, and slim body irritate Inju. (I hate you.)

Inju’s face turns red once more. Mia, wearing the dress that no longer fits Inju, wields the fork with a prim expression.

Inju recalls the sentence in her journal, written in an unfamiliar hand. (I hate you, I hate you. I hate you so much I can’t bear it.) Inju puts her fork down and shakes her head furiously. They said that hating someone, being jealous of someone, being prejudiced against someone, without reason, was bad.

But the older Inju grows, the worse her thoughts become. Bad thoughts generate bad behavior. Inju has no reason to hate Mia. There is no room in Inju’s heart for bad thoughts. Not yet. Much later, when she is a grown-up, she will suddenly recall this afternoon. While wearing the white dress, Mia nibbles at a rice cake.

The dog sits at Mia’s and Inju’s feet like a sculpture. Inside Inju’s desk drawer is a pearl brooch with a broken clasp, and hidden on her bookshelf is a picture of Princess Diana, as beautiful as a movie star. In a corner of her mind, the older

Inju will think about the memories formed on this day, stored layer upon layer. Ten years from now, she will possess even more memories, memories that are both sinister and dangerous.

Memories come to life once again. When that happens, there is nothing she can do. Everything collapses. Everything is collapsing. Inju is secretly jealous of Mia. However, Inju doesn’t yet know the word jealous, or even if she did, she doesn’t know how to use it properly. And so, Inju has no way to describe her own feelings. And even if she could express her feelings in words, Inju can’t speak them. To anyone. Because it would be embarrassing. (p. 69-71)

KOREA December _ 35

Policy Review

»

Written by Lee Kijun Photos courtesy of Yonhap News

The Children Are the Future Government moves to improve childcare and early childhood education

Nurses look after newborns at Cheil General Hospital in Seoul.

Childcare was the hottest issue of the past presidential election. Earlier this year, leading presidential contenders competitively pledged to expand public childcare facilities and increase subsidies, saying the government must take greater responsibility for childcare.

Fulfilling pledges President Moon Jae-in vowed to increase the number of trustworthy public childcare centers and kindergartens and pledged an extra KRW 100,000 allowance per family during his

36

presidential campaign. Though many welcomed the pledge, some questioned its feasibility.

President Moon is now proving his doubters wrong. On Aug. 16, The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that a childcare allowance would be given to parents of children aged six and under, regardless of household income. “It’s time for the government to make a hard decision for the future of the country,” the ministry said in a press release. “Children are the future of Korea, and we believe the government’s job is to give children

Children experience farming using traditional agricultural implements.

A childcare allowance will be given to parents of children ages 6 and under, regardless of household income.

equal opportunities.”

The ministry said that approximately 2.53 million people are expected to benefit.

According to the plan, parents with a child up to 6 years old will receive KRW 100,000 extra each month starting July 2018. If a woman has a baby next August, she will receive KRW 300,000 from the government per month.

Currently, families with children 6 years old and under receive between KRW 100,000 and KRW 200,000 per month, depending on the age of the child and whether the child is enrolled in a childcare center. The new subsidies will be offered in addition to the existing childcare allowance.

Improving preschool education To receive the allowance, parents need to register online or through a community center.

They lose their eligibility if their children stay outside Korea for more than 90 days.

The central government is also taking more responsibility for preschool education. It will fully bear the cost of the Nuri curriculum at kindergarten from next year. The Nuri curriculum is designed to promote the

development of children aged 3 to 5 in five key areas – physical exercise and health, communication, social relationships, artistic experience and nature exploration – with the aim of promoting balanced growth of both mind and body.

Over the past few years, local authorities have fought with the national government over funding for the Nuri curriculum. This year, the central government provided only 41.2 percent of the budget, or KRW 860 billion. Starting next year, the Ministry of Education has put KRW 2.58 trillion into the budget to run the Nuri curriculum at childcare centers entirely on its own. The government will spend KRW 64.1 trillion on education next year, up 11.7 percent from 2017.

The government will also expand the capacity of national and public kindergartens from the current 25 percent to 40 percent and mandate the admission of preschoolers from low-income families. “The plan is to change private kindergartens to public ones to increase the number of classes by 1,330 and create 2,431 classes at national and public preschools,” said a spokesman for President Moon.

The most ambitious plan is the integrated management of kindergarten and daycare services. The goal of this policy is to raise the qualifications of preschool teachers to the level of four-year college graduates, like teachers at kindergartens. To accomplish this, the government will spend about KRW 2 trillion per year.

Kindergarten teachers require a degree in preschool education, but anyone who takes online lectures and obtains a certification can be a preschool teacher. For these reasons, the working conditions of preschool teachers are much poorer than kindergarten teachers. The quality of preschool education is likewise poor.

According to a 2015 report, preschool teachers work more than nine hours a day and rest only 18 minutes. Most of them work overtime, but more than 30 percent of the teachers do not receive overtime payment. The government plans to improve both the quality of preschool teachers and their working conditions.

KOREA December_ 37

This is Pyeongchang

»

Written by Miruh Jeon Photos courtesy of POCOG

Shining Light Olympic flame sparks excitement in Korea and beyond

Singer and actress Suzy carries the Olympic torch across Incheon Bridge.

The Olympic flame arrived in Korea on Nov. 1, signaling the start of the 100-day countdown to the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Soccer legend and PyeongChang 2018 Ambassador Park Ji-sung carried the flame to Incheon from Athens, where he received it from Greek crosscountry skier Apostolos Angelis at a handover ceremony. Upon arriving at the Incheon International Airport, the flame was passed to former figure skating champion Kim Yuna and Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, who kicked off the Olympic torch relay here in Korea by lighting the ceremonial cauldron.

38

‘Let everyone shine’ The torch relay is being held under the theme, “Let Everyone Shine,” a slogan that the Olympic Committee is promoting to bring the world closer together. A total of 7,500 torchbearers, who represent the 75 million people residing in Korea – South and North – are participating in the relay, and they are being accompanied by 2,018 support runners who are in charge of guarding the torch and sharing memorable moments of the relay with the world. The entire route covers a distance of 2,108 kilometers, a distance chosen to represent the year in which the games will be

The Olympic flame will pass through nine provinces, eight major cities, and 151 counties and districts.

© Yonhap News

chosen to carry the torch as part of this campaign. Some of the other torchbearers include speed skater Lee Sang-hwa, 1996 Olympic marathon silver medalist Lee Bongju, and acclaimed designer Kim Young-se, who designed the Olympic torch.

The sleek white-and-gold torch was specially designed to withstand extreme weather conditions in order to prevent the flame from going out during the 101-day journey across the country. An air tunnel inside the torch helps provide more oxygen, and a pentagon-shaped hole at the base drains any water that may enter the torch.

1

2

3

4

5

1. Greek actress Katerina Lechou lights a torch with the Olympic flame during the handover ceremony in Athens.

2. The diving women of Jeju, or haenyeo, carry the Olympic flame. 3. An individual in a wheelchair carries the Olympic flame. 4. Two torch carriers exchange the OIympic flame. 5. The Olympic flame lights a temporary cauldron.

held. The route passes through nine provinces, eight major cities, and 151 counties and districts.

Thirteen-year-old figure skating prodigy You Young began the relay by running the first 200 meters across the Incheon Bridge before passing the flame to TV personality Yoo Jae-suk. On Nov. 11, which marked the national day of people with disabilities, former paralympic swimmer Kim Se-jin, also known as the “robotic leg” swimmer, carried the flame through the streets of Gimhae in Gyeongsangnam-do, as part of Samsung’s #DoWhatYouCant campaign, which was launched to inspire people to go for the impossible. Korea’s first visually impaired news anchor Lee Chang-hoon and aspiring swimmer Kim Dong-hoon have also been

Around the country in 101 days After commencing the relay in Incheon, the torchbearers carried the flame to Jeju Island on the second day. On Nov. 4, the flame returned to the mainland and has made its way around various major cities, including Busan, Ulsan, Gwangju and Tongyeong. In the following weeks, torchbearers will pass through many more provinces and reach Seoul in January, making a few more stops before completing their journey in Pyeongchang on Feb. 9, in time for the opening ceremony.

This 101-day marathon passes through five major points: Incheon, Suncheon, Daejeon, Seoul and the northernmost point of South Korea. According to the PyeongChang Organizing Committee, these five regions are symbolic of the five different aspects that the committee hopes to highlight about Korea: the economy, environment, IT, heritage and peace.

Another interesting thing is that the torchbearers will not simply be traveling on foot. The flame will make its way around the peninsula by various means of transport. For instance, during a special event on Hansando Island in Tongyeong, the flame was carried aboard a geobukseon, the famous warship used

by Admiral Yi Sun-shin during the Joseon era.

Other interesting means of transport include a cable car in Yeosu, zip-wire in Jeongseon and even a robot in Daejeon.

For more information about the relay and the upcoming games, visit www. pyeongchang2018.com.

KOREA December_ 39

Current Korea

»

Written by Eugene Kim Photos courtesy of Yonhap News

Working Together for Peace and Prosperity U.S. President Trump’s visit to Korea brings Seoul, Washington even closer together

President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands during a joint press conference at Cheong Wa Dae.

“The Republic of Korea is more than a longstanding ally of the U.S. We are partners and friends who have fought side-by-side in a war, and, really, worked very hard and prospered toward a great and lasting peace.”

Making the first state visit to Korea by an American leader in 25 years, U.S. President Donald Trump emphasized the importance of his nation’s long-standing partnership with Korea. An opportunity for Korea and the United States to strengthen their already solid alliance, the visit also allowed the leaders of

40

the two nations to discuss matters of critical concern, including trade and North Korea. It also gave them a chance to get acquainted with one another personally.

“After spending a day with the president and first lady within Cheong Wa Dae, I feel a sense of intimacy, as if we were old friends,” said President Moon Jae-in.

Blood allies President Trump arrived in Korea on Nov. 7.

“The Republic of Korea is more than a longstanding ally of the U.S. We are partners and friends ... who worked very hard and prospered toward a great and lasting peace.”

Cooperation continues

President Moon Jae-in welcomes U.S. President Donald Trump at Cheong Wa Dae.

First Lady Kim Jung-sook and First Lady Melania Trump stroll in the garden of Cheong Wa Dae.

On his first day, the U.S. leader visited United States Army Garrison Humphreys, a large U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul.

He was accompanied by President Moon, who praised Korea’s alliance with the United States.

“The U.S. military servicemen and women are our ‘friends indeed,’ who bled together when our nation was in need. You are the firm cornerstone and the future of the Korea-U.S. alliance,” he said. “I hope that we can work together for peace and security, not only on the Korean Peninsula, but also across Northeast Asia.”

President Moon then welcomed his U.S. counterpart to Cheong Wa Dae, the Korean presidential mansion, for summit talks.

During the summit, the third between presidents Moon and Trump, the two heads of state reaffirmed their nations’ time honored alliance, both sides agreeing to strengthen their combined defense posture and to enhance cooperation in bolstering Korea’s ability to defend itself. They also presented a united front against North Korean provocations. President Moon said, “Against escalating nuclear and missile threats from North Korea, we reaffirmed our principle that we must maintain a strong stance toward North Korean threats based on an overwhelming superiority of power.”

The two also discussed trade. They agreed that economic cooperation was important to developing the alliance. “We reaffirmed that economic cooperation is an important pillar of the ROK-U.S. alliance,” said President Moon.

“In order to together enjoy the benefits of free, equitable and balanced trade, we agreed to have the relevant authorities expedite the process of ROK-U.S. FTA consultations.”

In the evening, the Korean president hosted a state dinner for his U.S. counterpart.

‘From total devastation to among the wealthiest nations on Earth’ The next day, Nov. 8, President Trump addressed the National Assembly, making him the first U.S. leader to speak before Korea’s parliament in 24 years.

In his address, the U.S. president praised Korea’s post-war rags-to-riches story. “Much of the great city of Seoul was reduced to rubble,” he said. “But as the entire world knows, over the next two generations something miraculous happened on the southern half of this peninsula. Family by family, city by city, the people of South Korea built this country into what is today one the great nations of the world.

In less than one lifetime, South Korea climbed from total devastation to among the wealthiest nations on Earth.”

KOREA December_ 41

Global Korea »

Turkey

Korea, Turkey Celebrate 60 Years government officials, foreign diplomats, Turkish veterans of the Korean War, of Ties Korea and Turkey marked six decades of diplomatic relations with a grand display of Korean culture. The Korean Cultural Center in Turkey hosted the event, entitled “Korea-Turkey 60 Years of Friendship: The New Era Together,” at the Congresium Ankara on Sept. 22.

Some 3,000 people, including Turkish

fans of Korean pop culture and Korean expatriates, attended the evening, which boasted performances of traditional Korean and Turkish music and dance, a fashion show of traditional Korean clothing, a taekwondo demonstration and a concert by the K-pop boy band Mfect.

Though Turkey recognized the Republic of Korea on Aug. 11, 1949, the two nations didn’t establish full diplomatic relations until March 1957.

During the Korean War, Turkey was one of South Korea’s staunchest allies, contributing over 20,000 troops to the U.N. effort between 1950 and 1953.

Russia

Korean Fashion Designers Shine Kwon Mun-soo. Also on display was in Moscow work by Slava Zaitsev, the renowned

Metropolitan Government to promote the arts, boost tourism, assist the local fashion industry and encourage youth Young Korean fashion designers recently Russian fashion designer who stood at the vanguard of Soviet fashion design. employment. The program is a series of showed off in Moscow. The Seoulfashion shows held throughout the city, Moscow 365 Fashion Show, hosted by the The show ran videos about similar fashion shows in Korea and about Korea’s often in up-and-coming parts of the city Korean Cultural Center in Russia at the traditional clothing, the Hanbok, too. such as the newly opened Seoullo 7017 Lotte Hotel Moscow on Oct. 2, featured The Seoul-Moscow 365 Fashion Show overpass. In addition to the runways, work by three of Korea’s rising fashion was part of the 2017 Seoul 365 Fashion the events also have pop-up stores and stars: Charm’s Kang Yo-han, Yonhanix’s Show program, an effort by the Seoul performances.

Kim Tae-keun and Moonsookwon’s

42

Written by Korea.net Honorary Reporter Amarynth Sichel

Peaks and Ends An American expatriate compiles a Korea bucket list before leaving the country

© Robert Koehler

The bucket lists we compile when leaving a city that we’ve called home hold a unique place in the taxonomy of to-do lists and itineraries. A hybrid between a favorite weekend routine and a vacation agenda, they tend to be a mix of activities we’ve done a thousand times, and those we’ve planned but failed to do a thousand times.

I found out that I would be leaving Seoul, where I’d lived for two years, several months before my departure, so I had ample time to compile an ambitious bucket list. I wanted to do all the classically “Korean” things I’d never found time for, like cycling Korea’s eastern coastline, visiting Korea’s many islands, and taking cooking classes.

However, I also wanted to re-climb my favorite mountains, return to my favorite noodle shop, and re-hike my favorite trekking trails. Predictably, by the time I

started checking things off my list, only a handful of weekends remained, so I was forced to choose between creating new memories and reliving old ones.

This calculus was tricky - some of the new things I wanted to do provided mediocre immediate experiences, but created lovely memories. For example, ever since I first noticed tourists wandering downtown Seoul in traditional Korean Hanbok dresses, I wanted to rent a set myself and visit the city’s palaces. Wearing a big skirt and long sleeves in Seoul’s stultifying summer heat was a punishing prospect, but for the sake of the memories - and the photos - I convinced a friend to sacrifice bodily comfort for an afternoon to traipse around Seoul in the billowing costumes.

Conversely, some of my bucket list activities were enjoyable, but utterly

unremarkable. Going alone for the umpteenth time to my local bouldering gym does not provide a memorable experience. In fact, my visits there are all blurred together. However, I ticked bouldering off my bucket list because the immediate experience was fun.

To borrow the words of psychologist Daniel Kahneman, I went to the bouldering gym to satisfy my “experiencing self,” though the commonplace trip gave my “remembering self ” no new material. On the other hand, my Hanbok excursion was purely for my remembering self. My experiencing self did not like sweating through a summer afternoon in layers of silk, but my remembering self still loves looking at the photos.

Given the outsized role conclusions play in determining how we recall entire experiences, bucket lists, and in particular the activities further down the list, influence our overall memories of a place. Fortunately, for my final weekend in Korea, I found an adventure that appealed to both my remembering and my experiencing selves. I traveled to picturesque Jeju Island, where I hiked the ancient volcanic Hallasan Mountain, South Korea’s tallest mountain. My experiencing self relished the long, gradual ascent through the mountain’s shifting mists, and my remembering self got a true peak experience - the highest South Korea has to offer, in fact - and still loves reliving it. Having ended on a high, I look forward to returning to Korea, to revisit my favorite haunts, and to tick off the remainder of my bucket list.

KOREA December_ 43

Flavor

»

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

Ginseng of the Water Lotus root salad is a seasonal remedy for all manner of winter colds and ailments

How to make yeongeun salad: 1. Mix together wild sesame seasoning and chill.

2. Peel the lotus root and slice into thin pieces.

3. Blanch the lotus root with vinegar.

4. Slice red onion into thin pieces.

5. Chop water parsley.

6. Mix the lotus root, red onion, and water parsley with the wild sesame seasoning.

44

Prized as the “ginseng that grows in water,” the lotus is a remarkable plant. The roots are planted in the soil of a pond or river bottom, and the lotus plant can, on average, grow to about 150 centimeters tall and about 3 meters wide. This extraordinary plant can live over a thousand years, and its seeds can revive and germinate even after centuries of stasis.

It’s no wonder that the plant is considered a sacred religious symbol of beauty, purity and grace, celebrated in both Buddhist and Hindu literature.

Indeed, the lotus plant occupies a significant religious and cultural space in Korea and across Asia. Is also delicious.

Every part of the plant – its flowers, leaves, seeds and roots – are edible and can be used in a wide array of dishes. The large leaves are steamed as fragrant wrappers for stickyrice balls. The petals and leaves are dried into herbal teas that fight stress and insomnia. Young stems are often used in salads, but the lotus root is the most versatile ingredient.

It can be steamed, pan-fried, deep-fried, boiled and braised into many appetizing dishes. The root can be pickled, too, with rice vinegar and chilies, making it an excellent side dish.

Its seeds can be boiled and mixed with sugar into a sweet paste, used in a number of desserts and pastries.

The lotus plant is also renowned for its health benefits.

The “ginseng of the water” is famous for its ability to improve digestion, reduce cholesterol, boost the immune system and relieve depression. It’s rich in vitamins and minerals, including winter cold-fighting vitamin C. An excellent source of copper and iron, the lotus root provides dietary fiber and potassium. It’s so highly regarded that the root is dried and powdered for use in traditional herbal medicine.

At this time of the year, the immune-boosting properties of the lotus root make it a popular herbal remedy. Unlike most cold medicines, however, this rhizome is delicious and adds a piquant taste to salads. It has the texture of a potato and retains a sweet, tangy flavor, enhanced by seasoning like soy sauce, wild sesame or chilies. It works well with vegetables, but also pairs well with seafood or shellfish. The only caveat concerns eating raw lotus root, because it may lead to bacterial infections or parasites. Always cook this singular plant before eating.

Learning Korean

»

Written by Lim Jeong-yeo Illustrated by Kim Yoon-myung

‘I Left a Passenger Behind’ A taxi driver helped change Korean history

Based on a true story, the movie “A Taxi Driver” directs light on the unsung heroes of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement in 1980. These ordinary heroes played vital roles in exposing to the world the massacre of civilians by the military junta.

The protagonist of the story is a taxi driver from Seoul, played by Song Kang-ho, who drives a German journalist to and from Gwangju, a city about 268 kilometers from the capital, when roads and telecommunications coming in and out of Gwangju were cut by the military. The journalist, Jürgen Hinzpeter, played by Thomas Kretschman, forces open the story of the violent suppression of civilians, alerting more non-Korean journalists to report on the case.

In the movie, Kim Sa-bok, the widowed father of a young girl, takes up what was originally a one-day job to chauffer the German journalist for the money that would help him pay his overdue rent. Faced with the unexpected violence and killings of civilians in Gwangju and the prospect of a longer stay inside the city, however, Kim decides to flee, fearing his daughter would be made an orphan. Hinzpeter insists on staying behind.

On his way back to Seoul, Kim sees how the people in the neighboring city are completely oblivious to the bloodshed happening beyond the military barricades blocking access to Gwangju. Major newspapers and TV stations claimed that the Gwangju people were rioting communists. Kim, tormented, makes a long distance call to his daughter, apologizes for not taking her out that day as he had previously promised, and says the line, “Appaga sonnim-eul dugo wasseo (아빠가 손님을 두고왔어).”

Appa is Korean for dad, sonnim is passenger, and dugo oda is the verb meaning to have left behind something. Naega yeolsoe-reul dugowasseo would be, “I left the keys.” Cheolsuga chaegeul dugo wasseo would be, “Cheol-su left the books.”

46

Korean Art Through Coloring

© National Folk Museum of Korea

Traditional Korean winter cap

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December 2017

시험 보는 친구에게 무엇을 선물하는 것이 좋아요?

Siheom boneun chinguege mueoseul seonmulhaneun geosi joayo?

Traditional medicine is a living cultural fossil, a body of knowledge and techniques still in use more than a millennium after their development. The writer of this month’s cover story notes, “Traditional medicine may be the only example of an ancient knowledge system that is still widely used in the world’s developed countries.”

That doesn’t mean traditional medicine has remained locked in the past, however. Increasingly, traditional healing is marrying ancient practices and philosophies of holistic health with advanced technology and modern concepts of science.

Also in this issue of KOREA, we visit the historical market town of Ganggyeong, Korea’s capital of salted seafood; talk with cartoonist Yeon-sik Hong of ‘Uncomfortably Happily’; learn about the dramatic history of Central Asia’s Korean community; discover who Korea’s most bankable actors are; and more.

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Hanguk saramdeureun wae yeoseul seonmulhaeyo?

Illustrator Jeong Hyo-ju Photographers ao studio Kang Jinju, 15 Studio Printing Pyung Hwa Dang Printing Co., Ltd.

Cover Photo Photographed by 15 Studio Stylized by d. Floor (Bae Ji-hyun) (Clockwise, from the left) Cloth and sticks used in decocting herbal medicines; Dried orange peel and magnolia buds, ingredients used in herbal medicines; Mortar used to grind herbal medicines; Dried mugwort used in moxibustion; Model identifying acupuncture points in the hand Product: “Stamped square p plate,” Choi Hong-il, KCDF gallery shop; “Soho small dish and lid,” Lifestyle Total Living & Art Culture Enterprise, Yido

잘 달라붙는 엿처럼 시험에 붙으라는 의미예요.

Jal dallabunneun yeotcheoreom siheome buteuraneun uimieyo.

It means they’ll “stick” the test like a sticky yeot. 밍밍 Mingming

나래 Narae

V + –ㄴ/는다고 하다

Let’s practice!

“V + –ㄴ/는다고 하다” indirectly quotes what others say. This expression is used when quoting from a present tense sentence.

Change the direct quote into an indirect one. 밍밍: “축구하는 것을 좋아해요.”

Mingming: “I like playing soccer.”

ex. 나래: “지금 책을 읽어요.” ⇒ 나래 씨가 지금 책을 읽는다고 했어요.

→ 밍밍 씨가 축구하는 것을 좋아한다고 했어요.

Mingming says she likes playing soccer.

Narae: I’m reading a book. ⇒ Narae says she is reading a book.

아자니: “매일매일 산책해요”

Ajani: “I take a walk every day.”

밍밍: “한국에 사는 것을 좋아해요.” ⇒ 밍밍 씨가 한국에 사는 것을 좋아한다고 했어요.

→ 아자니 씨가 매일매일 _____________________ 했어요.

Ajani says she takes a walk every day.

Mingming: I like living in Korea. ⇒ Mingming says she likes living in Korea.

나래: “매운 음식을 못 먹어요”

Narae: “I can’t eat spicy food.”

V+ –는 것

→ 나래 씨가 매운 음식을 못 _____________________ 했어요.

“V + –는 것” makes the verb a noun to be used as a subject or an object. This expression is used the same way as the English “V+ –ing” construction is used. ex.한국말로 이야기하는 것이 재미있어요.

나래 씨는 사진 찍는 것을 싫어해요.

밍밍: “휴지를 선물하면 일이 잘 풀려요”

Mingming: “If you give someone toilet paper, she will have luck in everything.”

Mingming says if you give someone toilet paper, she will have luck in everything.

아이들은 친구하고 노는 것을 좋아해요.

Children love playing with their friends.

Narae says she can’t eat spicy food.

→ 밍밍 씨가 휴지를 선물하면 일이 잘 _____________________ 했어요.

I like talking in Korean.

Narae hates taking pictures.

_ Editorial staff, KOREA

How about yeot, Korean taffy?

Why do Koreans give yeot to friends?

Creative Director Lee Seung Ho Designers Lee Bok-hyun, Jung Hyun-young

Yeoseul seonmulhae boseyo.

Narae, what should I give a friend who is going to take an exam?

Production Supervisor Kim Eugene

Copy Editors Gregory Eaves, Anna Bloom

엿을 선물해 보세요.

Korean Culture Every year in Korea, students take the Korean College Scholastic Ability Test in the winter. When the exam season approaches, there are many street vendors selling yeot, a Korean sticky rice cake. Many people give students who take the exam toilet paper or forks as a gift. Toilet paper means they hope the student “unrolls” the exam problems as easily as toilet paper is unrolled, and forks mean that they hope the student picks the right answer, just as a fork picks up food. In contrast, people don’t eat seaweed soup before taking an exam because they think that if you eat the sleek, slippery seaweed, you’ll end up failing your exam just like falling down on a slippery floor. Is there anything you try to avoid before important things like an exam? If you have a friend taking an exam, how about giving them yeot or sticky rice cake as a gift?

Monthly Magazine

December 2017

December 2017

Cover Story

www. korea.net

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