Koreamagazine1611 en by KOCIS

CONTENTS

Special Issue

Policy Review

Korea’s Popular Cartoon Characters

Legal Advice for Foreigners

Summit Diplomacy

Dutch PM Visits Korea

Cover Story

Inspired Movements

Korean dance blends old and new, near and far

Brand Korea

Products Awarded K-ribbon Brand

18 Travel

Daegu’s Historic Alleys

Creative Economy

Augmented Reality Games

People 1

Choreographer Ahn Eun Me

Global Korea

Korean Cultural Center Activities

28 People 2

Figurine Maker Coolrain

Historic Moments

Opening of World Cup Stadium

30 Arts & Entertainment

Variety Show Remakes Take Off Overseas

Flavor

Muneo Samhap

Korea & I

Korean Keyword

A K-pop Concert

Donggap

34 Korea in Brief

Korea Monthly Update November 2016

KOREA

Publisher Kim Kabsoo, Korean Culture and Information Service Executive Producer Park Byunggyu Editorial Advisers Cho Won-hyung, Lee Suwan, Park Inn-seok Email webmaster@korea.net Magazine Production Seoul Selection Editor-in-Chief Robert Koehler Production Supervisor Lee Jin-hyuk Producers Kim Eugene, Im Ian Copy Editors Gregory C. Eaves, Eileen Cahill Creative Director Lee Seung Ho Designers Lee Bok-hyun, Jung Hyun-young Photographers aostudio Kang jinju, RAUM Studio Printing Pyung Hwa Dang Printing Co., Ltd. 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 photo © National Theater of Korea

Special Issue

ÂŠ Yonhap News

Cute and Relevant Cartoon characters usher in another Korean cultural wave _ Written by Diana Park

ÂŠ Olive Studio

2 KOREA _ November _ 4

On a recent walk through the streets of Hongdae, a major shopping and entertainment area around Hongik University in Seoul, this writer discovered a basement store selling cartoon characters and paraphenalia. It was a collector’s paradise. The shop was filled with novelty items: old and new cartoon characters coexisting in neatly organized cabinets and on shelves, waiting for new, excited owners to take them home. Figurines, posters, magazines from decades past right up to the present day. The musty smell of vintage collectors’ items was familiar, even friendly. It was the smell of nostalgia. Nostalgia for cartoon characters that represent the stories and ideals of bygone generations is translating into a new batch of characters created by the present digital-savvy generation. Whether it’s old-school figurines or digital-age emojis, however, the nationwide love of the cute remains the same. This fascination for cartoons, rooted in history and meshed with creativity and new technology, is taking the world by storm. 4

New wave

Korea is pioneering its own never-seen-before market for cartoon and animation paraphenalia. Just as the Korean Wave brought Korean soap operas and K-pop to a global audience, the market for animation art and collector items may just be set to crest. The licensing market will likely exceed USD 1.7 billion this year, an increase from USD 1.46 billion in 2010. The market successfully merges the engaging storylines of dramas and the marketing power of K-pop endorsements into a world that is relatable, even though it is completely made up. The characters’ traits and visuals have a universal appeal that transcends gender, age and nationality.

1 A young visitor looks intently at a fully costumed Cocomon at the 2015 Character & Licensing Fair. 2 Dolls depicting the popular animated characters Cocomon and Friends. 3 The Pororo Park in China is an indoor theme park devoted to the popular character. 4 “Pororo the Little Penguin” has been released in over 140 countries, including the UK, India and Mexico.

Korea’s Pororo wins the hearts of children worldwide

Do you know the way to halt the cries of a Korean child? Place the child in front of a screen with Pororo. Pororo, the main character in Korea’s popular animation series “Pororo the Little Penguin,” is a friendly blue penguin who always wears an aviator helmet and goggles. At first glance, he gives off the image of an awkward yet curious schoolboy. His charm, however, awakens a sense of fun and adventure in his viewers. After his debut in 2013, he quickly became a child favorite. His face adorns clothes, toys and school supplies, and his presence often results in crying children and agonized parents in department stores. He has even earned the nickname “the children’s president.” Children in over 140 countries now enjoy Pororo. In 2014, Pororo Park opened in Beijing, with many more projected to open in Asia and North America. These parks aspire to be multifaceted spaces merging animation with accessible food and cartoon-inspired products. The blue penguin is already Korean children’s best friend, and he is reaching out to children all over the world.

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Not just for children

1 TUBAn is working with Hollywood to bring a Larva film to theaters. 2 The LINE Friends collection at MISSHA features popular characters. 3 The Robocar Poli theme park is at the Windsor House mall in Hong Kong. 4 The LINE Friends collection at MISSHA has been a big hit with consumers.

The beauty industry meets cartoons

Brown and Sally are two cartoon characters from search engine Naver’s cartoon character set LINE Friends. Brown is a married male bear with small black eyes and an emotionless face. Sally, a female duck, is the smallest in the bunch and Brown’s sidekick while being secretly in love with him. Her tiny black eyes, orange beak and yellow body immediately convey a sense of cuteness. These cartoon characters are not just cute faces, but have occupations as well as families and friends. They’re a reflection of the people we’re surrounded by, or even perhaps our own personae. With 44 stores in 11 countries, Line Friends is one of Asia’s most popular character sets. The brand offers over 5,000 products. 2

If preschoolers hail Pororo as their king, “Larva” caters both to children and adults with a plot reminiscent of the classic cartoon “Tom and Jerry.” The animation series “Larva” signed a contract with Netflix in the United States and released the firstever Korean animation to homes on the West Coast. As a first step into the massive North American market, the move represented a major development for the Korean animation industry. In addition to the animation market, adults engage with cartoon characters through Korean messenger apps like Kakao Talk. The cartoon characters on Korea’s most popular messenger app are more than cute animals that make faces. They provide a way to express emotions and thoughts that can’t be explained in words. They are fun, accessible forms of expression and communication that can also relate to a global audience.

3 © Yonhap News

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In front of LINE Friends stores in Korea, you can see long lines of people waiting to take a picture with the gigantic life-sized cartoon characters. In addition to producing cartoon characters and media content, the company operates cafés that serve baked goods and coffee. Imagine drinking coffee with your favorite characters smiling back at you. In addition to food, LINE Friends has found another way to weave its most-loved cartoon characters into everyday items. LINE Friends partnered with MISSHA earlier this year for the Missha x Line Friends collection. It consists of skin-care and makeup products as well as the hottest beauty items of the hour: sheet masks. The marketing also reflects the playful nature of the cartoon characters with products called “Poptastic Jelly Tint” and taglines like “The cutie in this area is me.” Imagine waking up in the morning and pumping out a best-selling face cleanser with your favorite Line character. You pat on foundation with the face of Brown smiling back at you, and slap on Brown lipstick to pout your inner cuteness. Then finish off with Sally hand lotions and nail decals. Talk about an upgraded beauty routine, injected with fun and adventure. A cartoon character-inspired product isn’t just one among thousands of others. Brown and Sally cushion foundations, for example, reflect the consumer’s personality and tastes ‒ by using one, you can score your new Instagram selfie post

5 In 2014, to the delight of Korean children, the Seoul Metropolitan Government launched buses decorated to look like the characters of the popular animated series “Tayo the Little Bus.”

and gain beauty benefits at the same time. Beauty goods successfully cater to the emotional and entertainment needs of the consumer by merging two or more already coveted items and brands. The LINE Friends buzz is now global: Naver began selling the brand on Amazon in March. By gaining a presence on the world’s biggest online shopping platform, it will have more exposure and leverage in the global market.

6 Pinkfong makes educational content that combines storytelling with singing and dancing.

Only the beginning

Korea’s global-scale market for cartoon characters doesn’t stop at entertainment and fun, but also extends to education. Pinkfong is the leading educational app in the App Stores of 109 countries. Likewise, the character market is full of potential for expansion. Since February 2015, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has pushed a campaign to promote the animation market. The ministry plans to strengthen efforts to produce content like cartoon characters, animation, video games and music. It is investing KRW 130 billion to support the creation of original content like rap, convergence and integration products, and futuristic characters. The Korean Wave continues to rise and won’t be breaking anytime soon. The cartoon character market is paving a unique way for a global audience to learn more about Korea, all the while staying cute, fun and relevant.

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Cover Story

Inspired Movements © National Theater of Korea

__ Contemporary dancing in Korea isn’t divided exclusively into totally traditional and modern styles, imported and indigenous. Instead, there’s been a blending, with contemporary dancers drawing from a range of styles, both local and foreign.

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Korean dance blends old and new, near and far _ Written by Jennifer Flinn

Dance is one of the most universal elements of culture, found in virtually every human society. Korea has a rich dance tradition that can be traced back to early shamanic practices, all the way through to the K-pop dances on your TV today. Throughout the centuries, the desire to express oneself through physical movement has manifested itself in dazzling diversity as people have expressed their innermost selves by moving their bodies. The graceful arching of a court dancer’s arm, the fantastic flips of a break dancer, and the deerlike leaps of a classically trained ballet dancer all work to bring deeply held emotions to vivid, visible life. Remarkably, even as new dance styles from around the world find a home here in Korea, so do ancient and traditional dances from the peninsula find their way into the modern era and around the world for audiences far from home. Contemporary dancing in Korea isn’t divided exclusively into totally traditional and modern styles, imported and indigenous. Instead, there’s been a blending, with contemporary dancers drawing from a range of styles, both local and foreign. It’s not unusual to see K-pop performers use

a move borrowed from traditional dance, and then to see that move spread along with the pop music itself and be embraced in totally new places. At the same time, Korean dancers have become part of different dance companies, from ballet to modern, everywhere from Europe to the Americas.

Shamans, monks and courtiers

To move one’s body in time with music seems to be one of the most ancient and powerful impulses humans know. In early Korea, dance was especially important as part of shamanic rituals meant to connect the physical world around us with the world of the spirits, and to evoke the unseen into the realm of the visible. Dance remains an essential element of contemporary shamanic practice in Korea, with shamans, or mudang, using dance and music to reach an ecstatic state that allows them to communicate with spirits, gods and ghosts. The most famous of these dances is salpuri, a hypnotic solo dance that helps the shaman banish the summoned spirits from her own psyche and end the exorcism ritual. It begins with slow, controlled

“Mukhyang,” a production of the National Dance Company of Korea, uses the Four Gentlemen, a common motif in East Asian art, to evoke the spirit of the seonbi, the Joseon-era ideal of the noble scholar. The production highlights the refined beauty of traditional Korean dance in thoroughlyKOREA modern terms. _ November _9

“Mukhyang”

KOREA November _ 10 of the Yeongsanjae, a Buddhist dance. A _performance

__ In early Korea, dance was especially important as part of shamanic rituals meant to connect the physical world around us with the world of the spirits, and to evoke the unseen into the realm of the visible.

Dance performed during the memorial ceremony for the Joseon kings. © Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

movements that increase in tempo and urgency before resolving again into a controlled, serene emotional state. Dancers, usually dressed in white Hanbok, draw attention to their elegant hand movements with the aid of a white handkerchief. The beauty of this dance has made it popular among professional dancers and given it a prominent spot in the canon of traditional Korean dance, helping people understand the emotional arc of shamanic ceremonies. Dance continued to hold an important role in religious expression even after Buddhism became the state religion and the dominant system of belief. To this day, many Korean Buddhist rituals center on dance, many of which are actively performed on important religious holidays at temples around the nation. The seungmu, or “monk’s dance,” is one of the best known, but its historical development took some unusual turns. Originally part of the rites performed by monks, it was adapted as a solo dance, dramatizing the tensions of a monk torn between the spiritual life and everyday pleasures. Dressed in a variant of the traditional Buddhist robes ‒ a garment with a white hood and long, flowing sleeves that accentuate the arm movements for dramatic effect ‒ dancers move through eight rhythmic cycles, with different steps for each cycle. The dramatic costuming and striking combination of moments of stillness and graceful movement draw viewers in and create an otherworldly effect. Other key Buddhist dances, such as the barachum and nabichum, involve groups of colorfully dressed monks using cymbals or dressed as butterflies. Unlike the popularized folk form of the seungmu, these dances are still seen in temples during important festivals like Buddha’s Birthday. One of the most important categories of traditional dance was the court dance, meant to entertain the king and his courtiers and to mark important ritual occasions. Roughly divided into indigenous dances of the Korean court and those imported from China’s Tang Dynasty, they tend to be slow and highly stylized. Many

Re-enactment of Lady Hyegyeong’s 60th birthday feast

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“Bul-ssang,” a production of the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company, was staged at Germany’s Tanz im August and Italy’s Fabbrica Europa and Inteatro Festival in 2015.

The Korea National Contemporary Dance Company’s production of “Already Not Yet” was enthusiastically received at the prestigious dance venue Théâtre National de Chaillot KOREA _ November _ 12 in Paris.

celebrate creatures both real and mystical, like butterflies, phoenixes, dragons, nightingales or lions. Others portray martial arts like sword fighting, or were meant for relaxing boating parties. Restrained, carefully choreographed and refined, these dances help modern people glimpse the incredible sophistication of the Korean court in the Joseon era, reaching back to the Goryeo and Silla dynasties.

Dance prodigy Seok Ye-bin showcases the dances of Korean modern dance pioneer Choi Seung-hee using 3D holograms.

Dances of the common folk

__ In addition to religious and court dances, Korea is home to almost innumerable folk dances, created by the common people as entertainment, for village rituals, and for the sheer joy of movement.

“Into the Pulse” by Korean National Ballet © Seoul International Dance Festival

In addition to religious and court dances, Korea is home to almost innumerable folk dances, created by the common people as entertainment, for village rituals, and for the sheer joy of movement. Some of these are now performed primarily by professional dancers, while others retain a more prominent place in the lives of everyday people. The ganggang sullae, for example, is still danced on the night of the full moon. Women old and young, especially in the southern provinces, gather while wearing bright Hanbok to dance in a circle as they hold hands. No musical instruments are needed, and a single lead singer begins the chorus of ganggang sullae, inviting the others to join in. Composed of simple movements performed in a large group, it helps bring people together to remember their roots and enjoy the fun of dancing, no matter the individual’s skill level. Mask dance dramas are another prominent form of traditional dance. Different in every region and village, these work as entertainment for the masses, and often satirize the elite ruling and religious classes. In most regions, the dancers don colorful costumes and brightly painted paper masks to adopt a wide range of roles, from monks to maidens to grandmothers to mythical animals and characters. Often, these plays also contain ritual elements meant to cast out evil spirits and diseases and welcome good fortunes and good harvests. Full-length plays were performed in several different acts, and often contain beautiful dance moves that drew both on

“Deep Peel” at the Seoul International Dance Festival

elite forms and bawdy humor. One of the most famous of these is the “Hahoe Byeolsingut,” which uses wooden masks instead of paper and contains many scenes that would have been familiar to villagers in times past, including an attempted seduction, an elderly grandmother at work, rivals courting the same maiden, and the butchering and auction of a cow. While these masks have been passed down over time, in most traditions the masks are burned at the end of the performance and made anew for the next. Farmer’s dances are also still popular, and widely performed. Combining simple percussion instruments like gongs and drums with rhythmic movements, nongak is still performed not just in rural villages but even in big cities. It’s been one of the most important forms of music and dance to connect diasporic communities, and has become a common way for ethnic Koreans across the world to connect with their roots. Performers play and dance at the same time, wearing bright sashes and headgear decorated with paper flowers or long streamers that flow and create shapes as the dance becomes faster and faster. While there are patterns for both the drumming and the dancing, they are meant to be improvisational and fluid, responding to the crowd and the other dancers. The best dancers will engage in gravity-defying twirls and spins, leaping into the air and turning their bodies almost parallel to the ground as they whip the ribbons on their hats around, while others bob their heads in time with the music to create languid patterns with their own streamers or flowered hats.

Modern innovations and traditional patterns

The devastation of the Japanese colonial period meant that many traditional dances were in danger of being lost. Many of the traditional dance schools were destroyed, and the political and cultural disruption meant fewer occasions for

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The American Ballet Theater’s Seo Hee performs in a rehearsal of “Giselle.” © Yonhap News

Kim Ki-min was the first Korean dancer to win the Benois de la Danse. © Ahn Eun Me Company

the performance of traditional dances. While some have been preserved through continuous practice and research, other dances have been revived or reimagined using traditional elements to create new dances that draw on tradition without being fully grounded in the past. Fan dances, now a mainstay of traditional dance performances, are a modern interpretation of shamanic dances in which the shamans used leaves or other natural items. By using variations on those traditional techniques and movements, dancers create vibrant patterns using oversized fans in a thrilling display that dates back to the first half of the 20th century. Similarly, the spectacle of traditional Korean drumming has been harnessed and reinterpreted. Today drumming is a central part of traditional dances performed in Korea both for locals and international visitors. Whether new, recreated, or traceable back through the ages, Korean traditional dances share some important characteristics. Dance in the West is characterized by thrusting, leaping, and expansive outward movements. Because traditional clothing in Korea covered most of the dancer’s lower body in voluminous garments, there was more emphasis on the upper body, especially arm movements. Dancers use their legs and feet to glide forward, rather than prance. Movements tend to be oriented as if the dancer were embracing the earth instead of trying to jump away and escape it. Most dances follow a rhythmic pattern that starts slow, then accelerates in tempo before slowly returning to a more sedate pace toward the end, bringing the dance full circle and encompassing a full range of emotional expression.

Embracing new forms and entering new stages

Ahn Eun Me’s performances in France met with an enthusiastic response.

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In the modern era, Koreans have worked hard both to preserve traditional dances and forms and to learn new ones. The National Dance Company of Korea was

2016 Seoul Dance Festival @Seonyudo Park: Seoul Groove Night © Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture

founded in 1962 and over the years has helped preserve traditional dances while creating modern forms. Performing at the National Theater of Korea, it remains one of the premier centers for training in traditional performance, educating the public, and public performance of traditional dances old and new. In recent years, the company has put on important productions with fresh new choreography. Smaller dance companies can be found all over the country, and dancers who have settled overseas have established companies as far away as Los Angeles and Budapest. Korean dancers don’t just perform traditional Korean dances. Professional ballet and modern dance companies abound on the peninsula, and Korean performers have found success in troupes across the globe. Domestically, the first ballet company to be established was the Korean National Ballet in 1962. It works with the best domestic and international choreographers to stage the largest ballet productions in Korea, and has toured more than 23 countries, including Italy, the United States and Japan. The pool of talent has spilled far beyond the borders of Korea, and Korean ballet dancers are now part of companies across the globe. The best known of these include Kang Sue-jin, a recently retired principal dancer with the Stuttgart Ballet who is now the artistic director of the National Ballet of Korea. Initially trained in Korean traditional dance, she went to Monte Carlo for further training before settling in Stuttgart and has won many prestigious awards for her dancing, including the German title of Kammertänzerin, or “Royal Court Dancer.” Seo Hee, principal dancer for the renowned American Ballet Theater, was the first Korean and one of the youngest dancers ever to achieve such a prominent position. Amazingly, she didn’t start studying dance formally until the age of 12, making her meteoric rise in the ABT even more amazing. Park Sae-eun, a solo dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet, is quickly rising through the company’s ranks.

2016 Seoul Dance Festival @Seonyudo Park: Seoul Groove Night

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Likewise, several Korean ballerinos have gone on to make their mark in international ballet, such as Kim Ki-min, who is a principal at Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg and has received numerous international awards, including the Benois de la Danse. He also emerged as a winner in the 2016 Russian TV project “Grand Ballet.” Contemporary dancers and companies have made their mark both in Korea and internationally, with several major groups in Seoul. Broadly speaking, there are two trends in Korea’s contemporary dance scene. Some groups strictly adhere to Western dance traditions, while others attempt to fuse Western and Korean elements into something new. The Korean Contemporary National Dance Company creates new and exciting dances full of experimentation. In addition to nurturing new and mature talent and performing new works for the public, these companies work to harmonize international dance trends with Korean dance trends.

Dance troupe Modern Table performs at the Seoul International Dance Festival.

The pleasures of pop __ K-pop dances are meant to be enjoyed with more than the eyes. As a viewer, you are asked to learn the moves and try them out for yourself.

Festivals and events abound

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Jinjo Crew is the first b-boying crew in history to win all five major international b-boying competitions. © Yonhap News

Koreans love to celebrate with dancing, and several major dance festivals and competitions are held throughout the country. The largest is the Seoul International Dance Festival, which runs every October. Established in 1998, this festival has grown quickly through collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the city of Seoul, and the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Tourism, as well as with other international festivals from as far afield as Mexico, France and Singapore. The festival brings local talent and international dancers together at several venues in Seoul, with troupes from Europe, the Americas and Africa. Korean dance companies have likewise found success at festivals based abroad. At the 2016 Hong Kong Arts Festival, the National Dance Company’s performance of “Mukhyang” won an award as part of the main program, and both performances sold out. In Paris this year, the Korean

National Contemporary Dance Company performed “Already, Not Yet,” a creative work that incorporates elements of Korean shamanism, at the Chaillot National Theater as part of a three-week focus on Korean and Korea-related work. During the same period, a National Dance Company of Korea performed “Shigane Nai,” a KoreaFrance coproduction. Three independent Korean contemporary dance troupes performed as well.

Of course, the biggest international impact on dance from Korea may come less from the classical world than from the massive phenomenon of K-pop. It merges ebullient rock, pop, R&B, hip-hop, and popular styles of music from around the world. From Psy’s “Gangnam Style” to Girls’ Generation to Big Bang, Korean pop groups have exploded onto the international scene. Nevertheless, their popularity lies not just in the music, but in the dances that go along with it. K-pop dances are meant to be enjoyed with more than the eyes. As a viewer, you are asked to learn the moves and try them out for yourself. While much of the dancing seems very Western, local styles of choreography have both internationalized the styles to incorporate a range of influences and also localized it by incorporating local rhythms and moves to create a unique and fascinating hybrid. Meant to simultaneously show off one’s ability but also provide a fun group experience, this genre combines ideas of choreography with a social impulse to do things together. _ Lee Jong-ho, the president of the Seoul Section of the International Dance Council CID-UNESCO, reviewed this article.

Brazilian girl group Phoenix perform on stage during the finals of the K-Pop Cover Dance Festival.

Interview

Korean and Contemporary Dance should express Korea’s identity, says Korea National Contemporary Dance Company Artistic Director Ahn Ae-soon _ Written and photographed by Robert Koehler

For Korea National Contemporary Dance Company Artistic Director Ahn Ae-soon, the biggest task facing Korean contemporary dance is finding its identity. “At first, modern dance came to Korea through Europe and Japan, and there are teachers who learned dance in the United States,” she says. “These influences from outside are important, but at the same time, the most important task is to discuss with writers how to interpret and express Korea’s stories, traditions and present.” A profound respect for tradition has characterized Ahn’s entire career as a choreographer, from her founding of the Ahn Ae-Soon Dance Company in 1985 to her elevation as artistic director of the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company in 2013. The Korea National Contemporary Dance Company’s performance of “Already Not Yet” at the hallowed Chaillot National Theater in Paris in June as part of a series of events celebrating 130 years of Korea-France ties was typical in this regard. The production, a meditation on the Korean traditional view of death, incorporates elements of Korean shamanism and funeral customs such as wooden puppets that

traditionally decorated Korean biers. “If you see a Korean funeral, you see that the living and the dead exist together in one room, separated by a silk screen,” she explains. “This is to say that people view death not as a separate world. We traditionally have had the capacity to sublimate death through humor.”

Experimentation and repetition

By tearing down the conventional boundaries between the world of the living and the world of the dead, “Already Not Yet” calls on the viewer to re-embrace the traditional view. Despite the distinctly Eastern philosophical underpinning of the performance, French audiences took to it surprisingly well.

“I was curious and worried how Western viewers might understand the show, but according to one dance official, nobody left the theater in the middle of the performance,” she says. “Many people leave in the middle of a modern dance performance if they can’t understand or don’t like it, but I heard nobody did that to us.” As artistic director of the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company, Ahn has worked to make its performances speak to today’s audiences. “The Korea National Contemporary Dance Company has a spirit of experimentation, of continuously creating and trying new things,” she says. “We also have a duty to consider how to include the current era in creative productions.” The company’s role is to reconsider and reinterpret work from the past, she says. It also tries to turn new productions into repertoire items by repeatedly performing and polishing them. She says, “In that regard, along with making creative and experimental works, it’s important to perfect what has been made and reinterpret (it) with a contemporary sensibility.”

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Travel

History Lives On Daeguâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s old alleyways are a time machine to the recent past _ Written and photographed by Robert Koehler

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The historic March 1 Steps mark where Daegu high school students gathered to protest Japanese imperial rule KOREA _ November _ 19 during the March 1 Independence Movement of 1919.

Daegu cityscape at night, seen from Mt. Apsan.

Exploring Daegu’s historic alleyways can sometimes be like walking onto the set of a classic film. It’s just after lunch, and the regulars begin to pour into Mido Coffee Shop, an old-school teahouse, or dabang, in a claustrophobically tight alleyway just off the Herbal Medicine Market. The decor is an eclectic mix of the traditional – works of calligraphy, a few watercolor paintings, some gnarled stones and surreally shaped pieces of wood – and the titillatingly kitsch, including an old poster or two of swimsuit models. The pungent, bittersweet scent of herbal medicine, an ingredient in the café’s herbal tea, permeates the entire establishment. Groups of elderly men sit back on vinyl sofas and chat over cups of coffee or tea and a heaping tray of rice cookies. The

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Gyesan Cathedral

Old missionary home on Cheongna Hill

owner, dressed in her Korean traditional Hanbok attire, floats across the room, greeting many of the customers by name. Every once and a while, she’ll sit with a group and join the conversation. If only the walls too could talk, you think to yourself. What stories they could tell. Home to 2.5 million people, Daegu is Korea’s fourth-largest city and a major industrial center, famous for its apples, extreme weather, textiles, fashion and influential politicians. Along with nearby Busan, Daegu avoided capture in the Korean War, making it through the conflict largely unscathed. This means the city’s downtown core, with its narrow backstreets lined by old shops, grand churches, stately homes and timehonored cafés and restaurants, remains better preserved than those in many

other cities. To boost awareness of the city’s precious historical heritage, many of the alleyways and culturally significant sites have been linked through a web of urban walking trails that take travelers back to simpler, more rustic times a century ago.

Preserving and utilizing the past Much as Seoul’s old downtown was once lined by city walls, Daegu’s old downtown, the central district of Junggu, was once surrounded by castle walls. Most of the old city wall disappeared long ago, but its legacy is found in the district’s streets, which trace the outline of the old wall. The names of the main boulevards - Namseong-ro (“South Wall Road”), Seoseong-ro (“West Wall Road”),

Yi Sang-hwa House

Daegu Herbal Medicine Market

Bukseong-ro (“North Wall Road”) and Dongseong-ro (“East Wall Road”) reflect this history. A strategic spot on the old SeoulBusan road and a local transportation junction, Daegu served as the regional capital of Korea’s southeastern Gyeongsang-do province during the Joseon era. In 1896, when the province was broken in two, Daegu became the capital of the newly created Gyeongsangbuk-do province. Since 1981, the city has been a self-administered metropolitan area, the administrative equivalent of a province. While most of Daegu is thoroughly modern – it even has a futuristic light-rail system – the Jung-gu district still exudes a vintage charm. Many of the district’s historical sites date from the early 20th

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century, when Western missionaries and other foreigners began bringing an international influence to the city. Local authorities have created five history trails throughout the district. Clearly signs show the trails, and English maps and guides can easily be acquired from information booths and at major tourist sites. Most visitors walk the trails on their own, although if you prefer, you can take a guided tour provided by the district. Just sign up at Jung-gu’s tourism website (www.jung.daegu.kr).

Missionaries and medicine merchants

(Top) Samdeok Sanghoe, an old Japanese townhouse turned into a café (Down) Daegu Tool Museum

While most of Daegu is thoroughly modern – it even has a futuristic lightrail system – the Jung-gu district still exudes a vintage charm.

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Of the five trails, Course 2, which links some of the city’s best-known historical sites, is the most popular. The trail, which begins at the missionary compound on Cheongna Hill and ends in the city’s old Chinatown, takes about two hours to walk. It could take considerably longer, however, if you take the time to savor each site. Western missionaries first arrived in Daegu at the turn of the 20th century. American Presbyterian missionaries set up a compound on a hill overlooking the old city wall. In fact, as the wall was demolished, some of its stones were used to build the missionaries’ homes. The hill, now the site of Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center, itself founded in 1899 by an American missionary, is still home to three old missionary houses, built in the California bungalow style from the 1910s. The red-brick homes are now museums where visitors can learn the history of modern medicine in Korea and missionary activities in the Daegu area. Also on the hill is a small graveyard where some of the missionaries and their family members are buried. Leading down the hill toward Gyesan Cathedral is a flight of 90 steps. This is where local students gathered to take part in the March 1 Independence Movement protests in 1919. The steps are lined with

old photographs, and the steps themselves are a popular backdrop to photos. Gyesan Cathedral, erected by French missionaries in 1902, is a dual-spired Gothic masterpiece that was one of the city’s most prominent buildings for decades. Near the cathedral are the stately Korean-style homes of two major independence activists, poet Lee Sanghwa and businessman Seo Sang-don. For many visitors, the highlight of Course 2 is the Daegu Herbal Medicine Market, a sprawling network of herbal medicine sellers and clinics that dates back to the late Joseon era. The distinctive aroma of herbal medicine hangs everywhere, and the many colorful herbs, roots, mushrooms and other ingredients on display are fascinating. There’s a museum if you’d like to learn more about herbal medicine too. Other shops, including trendy coffee shops and popular bakeries selling buns filled with red bean paste and cream, are opening in the market too. Just off the market is a long, narrow alleyway called Jin Alley. In the early 20th century, the alley was lined by aristocratic mansions built in Korean, Chinese and Japanese fashion; some still survive. Near the end of Jin Alley is the Chinese Residents Association Building in the city’s old Chinatown.

Machine tools and hipsters

Course 1, which follows the old northern wall of Daegu, sheds light not only on where the city has been, but also on where it is going. In the days of the Japanese occupation, the Japanese built many homes and businesses in the neighborhood, which at the time was the city’s most prominent. After the Korean War, many of the Japanese-style homes and offices were converted into tool factories that helped fuel Korea’s postwar economic development. The neighborhood still has a vintage,

WHERE TO STAY As a large city, Daegu has a wide range of accommodations. For most travelers, however, the motels and boutique hotels near Dongdaegu Station are clean, comfortable and affordable places to stay.

WHAT TO EAT One of Daegu’s best-known specialties is makchang-gui, or barbecued chitterlings. The Anjirang Gopchang Alley is the best place to find this dish. Makchang-gui, seasoned with a bit of soybean paste, is best enjoyed with a shot of soju. Another local favorite is jjamgalbi, or spicy beef short ribs served in a tin pot. Dongin-dong is home to an alleyway of restaurants serving this dish. Fans of spicy food will love it.

Dongin-dong-style jjimgalbi

Independent bookstore The Pollack

GETTING THERE KTX trains to Dongdaegu Station depart from Seoul Station. The trip takes less than two hours.

Kuku Ona, a café in Daegu Herbal Medicine Market

Daegu

almost ramshackle charm. Many of the old structures are still small-scale factories producing tools and other industrial goods. Slowly, however, the factories are being joined by young creatives who are transforming the district into a space for art and culture. Some of the colonial-era buildings have been transformed into coffeehouses and galleries, including Samdeok Sanghoe, an old Japanese-style townhouse that is now a popular café. Another old building is now an independent bookstore and craft shop selling wares by local artists.

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People 1 ÂŠ Lee Kyuyeol

Unblocking the language of life Choreographer Ahn Eun Me wins over audiences worldwide with a fanfare of creativity and color _ Written by Ben Jackson

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“In the beginning, our genes told us to climb the trees and run in the fields. We’re losing that freedom, but dance brings back the memory of it. That’s why, when you dance, your face brightens up. When you shake your body, something happens.”

Dancing: as old as the hills, as universal as the belly button. Birds of paradise do it on the forest floor in New Guinea, aristocrats do it at Vienna Opera Ball. Religious zealots ban it. In Korea, a large variety of traditional dances are still performed, loved by natives and foreigners alike for their skill, poise, beauty and energy. But choreographer Ahn Eun Me stands at the forefront of contemporaneity, the moving seam where the future constantly becomes the present. With a string of achievements and awards to her name, she thrives on bringing out the innate dancer in everyone.

A glimpse of heaven

As a young child in Seoul, Ahn Eun Me came across dancers on the street and was won over straightaway. “It was so colorful. I said, ‘What’s this?’ and they answered ‘Dance.’ I told my mother I wanted to learn, but we couldn’t afford lessons, so I had to keep it as a desire in my heart at first.” The dancing Ahn witnessed seemed to offer a glimpse into another world. “It was so happy,” she says. “I thought to myself, ‘Something’s happening over there. If that’s dance, I want to learn it.’ At the time, the whole city, were black, gray, dark ‒ so dark. The world of dancing, however, felt like a sweet place, full of smiles. In Korean, we could call it cheondang: kind of like heaven, but not quite the same. I was only young, but it felt like another, fantastical world.” After years of learning to dance alone, in front of a mirror, Ahn began taking dancing lessons in high school. At Ewha Womans University, she majored in modern dance, with a curriculum that focused on Western and American styles. In 1988, she founded Ahn Eun Me Company and directed part of the Olympic opening ceremony the same year. “I spent about a year teaching

mass games to 500 male students from Dongdaemun Commercial High School. In the ceremony, they came together to form the word ‘WELCOME,’ and the Olympic rings.” Available on YouTube in 1980s technicolor, the ceremony remains impressive even today, the coordination of its hundreds of dancers truly something to behold. “Paper Steps,” Ahn’s first long production, was also produced in 1988. In 1992, Ahn traveled to the United States, studying at New York University and producing more performances. She was later recognized for her activities with an Artists’ Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts in both 1998 and 2002. In 2002, she returned to Korea after being scouted by Daegu City Dance Troupe, where she served as director for almost four years. Since then, she has traveled back and forth between Korea and several European countries, gradually increasing the size of her unique repertoire.

A blocked language

As might be expected for someone whose life is dedicated to dance, Ahn believes passionately in its importance. “Dance is another language of life,” she says. “Usually in modern society, you can see everybody sitting at a desk, or laboring, using their brains and always trying to produce money, things, food. We need happiness and freedom in our lives. Most people go to a club to dance, where they pay money and drink. We have to pay to dance! We can’t dance on the street, because people will say we’re crazy. Society has blocked the human body. On the street, you just walk in order to get where you’re going. Society operates according to a manual. Even buildings are designed according to it, with standard positions for doors, corridors, stairs and so on. Humans, however, are an animal species. In the

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beginning, our genes told us to climb the trees and run in the fields. We’re losing that freedom, but dance brings back the memory of it. That’s why, when you dance, your face brightens up. Even shy people give a small smile. There’s no goal to dancing. It’s not like a sport. There’s no manual. When you shake your body, something happens.” Ahn sees her role as helping people to bring out their inner dancers. “I’m saying to them, ‘You still have this information inside you, wake up!’” she says.

International success

“Dancing may not be their job, but I want to show people that dancing is beautiful.”

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Ahn’s novel approach captivates audiences in the West as well as in Korea. “I'm not making pieces to sell,” she explains. “Everything is part of a market these days. I didn’t care about becoming famous. I have a repertoire of 160 long pieces ‒ a lot. I didn’t run my company in order to sell works. I just loved it. I believed in it. I believed people would like my work if they saw it. Some people plan their way to success. But I just thought, ‘If people need my work, they’ll call me. I don’t care!’ “I work in a different way. First of all, I have to be happy. When I work that way, it leaves a big impression on people. Some of them feel as if they’re on a trip, transported somewhere else, even if they haven’t taken anything. One German lady told me that her body felt transformed after watching my performance. I think it helped awaken a hidden energy.”

Infectious energy

If anybody can bring out others’ inner dancer, surely it’s Ahn. Even over the telephone, the positive energy she exudes is palpable. She cuts a larger-than-life figure, with a distinctive shaved head, brightly colored clothes, and booming voice. Much of her recent work has

a man in Korea. We call them ajeossi. I filmed men aged between 40 and 50. They are just men, but they are expected to be supermen. They have to do well: a good father, a good employee, earning lots of money, being a big success. When they danced, they just smiled. You could see some personality. They had fun.” Ahn describes these spontaneous performances as makchum. Improvised, unrefined dancing. Current projects include “1:59,” a community art project where Ahn and her colleagues provide support, but not prescriptive teaching, to amateurs with the aim of producing an almost-twominute YouTube video in any genre of their choice, and “Safety Dance,” a collaboration between Ahn’s team and six visually impaired nonprofessionals. The latter, she says, was a challenging and very moving experience. “At the end of the performance, they all cried together,” she says. Ahn was delighted when many audience members failed to recognize which of the dancers on stage could see and which could not.

Hunting for new material

In the near future, Ahn is engaged with a project in Korea’s eastern mountains. “I’m researching a village in the PyeongChang area, on a mountain called (Mt.) Hwangbyeongsan,” she says. “It’s very cold, with long winters and little food, so it developed a tradition of hunting. There’s less hunting now, but they’re trying to preserve it as a tradition. I’m preparing a piece based on this, to be performed at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in 2018.” In the longer term, she is keeping her options open. “The earth is getting old, and we are getting old,” she says. “It’s going to be a tough time for everybody. I will think about my future day by day. What I do know is that I’ll hang out with people, not just be alone.”

involved nonprofessional dancers, including old ladies, middle-aged men and teenagers. “Dancing may not be their job, but I want to show people that dancing is beautiful. We need to make people dance more in society. In Korea, especially, dancing is almost the opposite to the conventional definition of living well. It’s the opposite of labor. We’ve been blocked. The view of dancing is as something evil, something dark. It means you’re not studying. You're just ‘doing nothing.’ “I'm trying to bring back the idea that to dance is to be a human being. To make people look at their own bodies. With the old ladies, especially, you see the female body in Korean history. They were born in the 1930s, when Korea was still a Japanese colony. Then there was the Korean War. Then they got married, and often had six or seven babies. Then they saw economic hardship, and now they’re living with IT in the 21st century. I try to keep their memories in my camera, with dance. Not just interviews. So my original idea was to film them to produce a record, rather than to produce a dance performance with amateurs.” With such wide differences between generations, each age group’s amateur dance style is unique. “The old ladies never learned to dance. They didn’t study at school. Their only information comes from their parents, or neighbors, or TV. But the teenagers I worked with the following year had learned all their dance moves from the media. Most young people know K-pop dances. They asked us for specific music to dance to. Then I worked with middle-aged men, because to become middle-aged is a sad time for

KOREA _ November _ 27

People 2

No Mere Toy Maker Coolrain raises figurines to an art form _ Written by Robert Koehler Photographed by RAUM Studio

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A.Iniesta (2012)

“People started calling illustrators artists when they began holding exhibits in galleries. Designers, too, became artists and designer toys became art toys.” © Coolrain

Astromax (2014)

Many people call Lee Chan-woo - better known here and abroad by his trade name Coolrain - an artist. That’s not necessarily what one of the world’s most renowned creators of “toy art” calls himself, though. “I call myself a designer,” he says. “People started calling illustrators artists when they began holding exhibits in galleries. Designers, too, became artists and designer toys became art toys.” A true artisan who has rejected the world of mass-produced toys in favor of art, he has collaborated with some of the world biggest companies, including Nike, Reebok, Puma, Converse, Samsung, LG and Aardman Animations, known for Wallace and Gromit. His recent collection of 7-foot-tall renditions of basketball stars such as Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry and LeBron James, a collaboration with the NBA, sell for a cool USD 10,000 each. The man himself, however, is unassuming and soft-spoken. His office in a quiet corner of Seoul’s Mapo district, not far from the trendy Yeonnam-dong neighborhood, is cluttered with tools, materials and, of course, toys, but it also possesses a sort of meditative calm, the smell of resin, paint and other chemicals notwithstanding.

From animation to figurines

Coolrain was studying chemical engineering at university when he saw the groundbreaking Japanese anime film “Akira.” This inspired him to abandon science and to go into animation. Unlike many of his colleagues, however, he was not a trained artist, and, indeed, had little training in the arts beyond what he taught himself through teach-yourself books and through the sheer force of will. At first, he worked on making 2-D figures for animated films, but he soon realized that many of the same skills needed for 2-D animation could easily be applied to making 3-D figurines as well.

A labor of love

Making art figurines is a time consuming and sometimes agonizing process. Coolrain spends hours on end in his chair, scalpel in hand, marking the finest details into the plastic, leather or whatever material he is working with. “Projects take, at a minimum, three months, and sometimes up to six months,” he explains, adding that if something goes into factory production, it can take an additional three months. Much of his effort goes into making the clothing, which collectors widely praise for their realism and detail. Designer toy making began in the 1990s, in large part thanks to the efforts of Hong Kong artists like Michael Lau, whose deconstructed “G.I. Joe” figures clad in hip-hop clothing helped give birth to a global movement of limited edition collectibles. Soon enough, designer toys were a proverbial thing, with celebrities boasting of their toy collections and collectibles selling at auction for thousands of dollars. In Korea, the rise of the so-called “kidult” market has sparked interest in designer toys and other collectibles. Coolrain isn’t a fan of the term “kidult,” though, nor does he appreciate how the media seemingly focuses on everything other than the artists themselves. “Personally, I don’t like the word ‘kidult.’ It’s provocative,” he says. “And the media likes to run stories about how much a toy costs, not how it was made.” About half of Coolrain’s work is gallery-oriented, while half is more commercial. He works almost exclusively with companies and individuals he likes. He notes, “I’ve never proposed a collaboration.” Instead, the brands come to him. The NBA, for instance, contacted him after seeing a previous series of basketball- and footwear-related figurines. “If you do something well, work naturally comes.”

KOREA _ November _ 29

Arts & Entertainment

TV Shows Get an International Makeover U.S. remake of popular Korean variety show marks a new adventure for Korean broadcasting _ Written by Hahna Yoon

“Better Late Than Never” is about celebrities in their elder years traveling and checking things off their bucket lists.

Although the average fan of Korean dramas may not know the numbers off by heart, loyal viewers should be pleased to learn how much Korean material has been crossing borders. In Asia, it’s no secret that Korea is the top global distributor of broadcasting content – especially when it comes to Korean dramas. The KBS drama

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“Better Late Than Never” maintained the No. 1 rank for the first three episodes.

“Descendants of the Sun” was sold to Israel and 30 other countries this past May, and Korean export sales at MIPTV, a global distribution market for broadcasting content, showed a 16 percent increase from the previous year. The rights to OCN crime drama “Squad 38” was sold to 10 countries in Asia as well as Australia and New Zealand

The soap opera “Producer” looks at life at a broadcast company. © Descendants of the sun SPC, NEW

“Descendants of the Sun” has been exported to 27 countries.

this past summer. Last year, thanks to the popularity of actor Kim Soo-hyun, KBS sold its rights to the 12-episode drama “The Producers” to China for a whopping USD 2.5 million. One could trace the boom back to 2012, which was a great year for Hallyu and the rights to various dramas such as “Love Rain” and “Dr. Jin” were all sold abroad. Namely, in 2012, MBC sold the rights to its incredibly successful drama, “Moon Embracing the Sun,” to Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Phillippines for over KRW 200 billion. This past August, however, a first was achieved when a major U.S. network premiered an adaptation of a Korean variety show originally called “Grandpas Over Flowers” with the new title “Better Late Than Never.” With comedy being exponentially more difficult to translate, both literally and culturally, could a variety show really reach the same heights that a drama could? The prestigious network NBC took that risk and bought the rights for “Grandpas Over Flowers” from CJ E&M back in 2014. Originally shown on Korea’s tvN network, the program featured the adventurous travels of senior celebrities Lee Soon-jae, Shin Goo, Park Geun-hyung and Baek Il-seob alongside younger comrade Lee Seo-jin. For a Korean cable series, the show was surprisingly popular, even giving birth to two spin-offs: “Sisters Over Flowers” and “Youth Over Flowers.”

Reclaiming their youth

The Korean original of “Grandpas Over Flowers” © skyDrama

Veteran talent on both sides of the lens

Industry big shots Jason Ehrlich, Tim Crescenti, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron handled the production of the U.S. remake. It was overwhelming to see how much of a hit it turned out to be, with the first episode drawing 7.35 million viewers and topping all other shows in its time slot. The show maintained the No. 1 rank for the first three episodes.

“Better Late Than Never” stars legends in the industry. Henry Winkler of “Happy Days” fame is a cast member as well as a producer and takes the lead in wrangling up the crew. The first episode starts off with Winkler making a phone call to pals and fellow actors William Shatner (best known for his appearance in “Star Trek”), former heavyweight champion George Foreman and former American football quarterback Terry Bradshaw. As all of them are in th eir golden years, Winkler picks a younger counterpart to help move their adventures along: comedian Jeff Dye. The five journey to six cities in four countries: Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand. They do their best to experience each city to the utmost, without breaking their budget. Dye picks out activities for his older friends. In the third episode, they make the trip to Korea. For their adventures here, they do everything from trying live octopus to visiting the DMZ and making a music video at SM Town with famous K-pop group Girls Generation.

The Korea episode of “Better Late Than Never” included things like learning a K-Pop dance, going to the sauna with just USD 6 and visiting the Demilitarized Zone.

The show brings with it friendship, a sense of resonating nostalgia and universal longing for the past. As George Foreman so eloquently puts it, “I’m tired of being a grown-up. I’ve lived my whole lifetime since I was 15 … trying to make a dollar. Now, for the first time, I can reclaim my youth.” With “Better Late Than Never” already being renewed for a second season and plans for the show to be featured on Netflix, audiences are patiently waiting to see where the five men will go to next. Those in the world of Korean broadcasting, too, are closely watching for more opportunities to expand globally.

KOREA _ November _ 31

Korea & I

No Ordinary Concert A K-pop concert is a spectacle so huge it must be experienced to be believed _ Written by Kristina Manente Illustrated by Kim Yoon-myung

I am one of 14,000. I’ve never seen such a concentration of women in my entire life. The stadium is buzzing with excitement: Light sticks are being tested, selfies are being taken, and my heart is suddenly racing. I’m here in Seoul, and I’m finally about to see Kim Junsu in concert. Better known as XIA, the singer, dancer, and all-around performer was once a member of the legendary TVXQ quintet that broke

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records for the largest fan club in the world. After some legal drama that had him and two other members split from the group to form their own, he’s been doing solo activities ever since. Every time he tours, tickets are gone in 10 minutes. Believe me, I know. I tried to get them. I had six people in three countries try to get me concert tickets. We all failed. It was only through a friend of a friend that I managed to snag a pair to the first of two shows in Seoul. Sure, they were marked up, but victory was mine. I was going to a K-pop concert. K-pop concerts are war. You fight the first battle when tickets go on sale, the second when the price of said tickets hits your bank account, and the third when you get to the venue. However, this third battle is a good one. You have to contain yourself as lasers and lights flash around, the bass thumps in your chest, and you try to judge how much of

your chosen artist you’re actually going to be able to see as you stare at the sprawling stage in front of you.

Epic scale

The moment the lights went down, thousands upon thousands of red light sticks began to shake and the roar of fans filled the stadium. A video began to play on the large screens flanking the stage and we were introduced to a day in the life of XIA. Rehearsals to meetings to recording ‒ and then, finally, as he walked down a long hallway ‒ the video stopped and there he was. I consider myself a pretty subdued person. I internalize a lot of my emotions, but at a K-pop concert that just doesn’t work. It’s a treat for the senses. The music is loud, the visuals are spectacular and bright, and you feel overwhelmed trying to see everything. All the while there is this frenzied and joyous atmosphere. A favorite

or popular song is next and everyone just freaks out. You can’t help but be swept up in the madness. I find myself cheering, screaming and flailing in my seat as Junsu comes bounding up the long thrust stage. I can see his face! From show-stopping dances when everyone is dancing and jumping in their seats to ballads so beautiful and wonderfully sung the entire 14,000-strong audience is dead silent, the concert is a delight and a half. In a unique segment he takes three wishes from the audience, picking people at random and doing whatever they ask of him. One has him wear bunny ears and sing their favorite song. Another gives him a pillow and asks him to take a rest. It’s wonderfully wacky, and his charm and charisma bleed out into the crowd. It’s suddenly clear why there are so many people here, why tickets were so hard to come by. I instantly fell in love.

The scale of it is what impressed me the most. The stage is huge, there are special effects ‒ confetti and fire ‒ and the entire performance is a grand production. Junsu’s concert wasn’t just about promoting his new album ‒ it was about creating an experience. Perhaps that’s because he’s been doing this for a decade and the numbers are no longer his sole focus. He’s an old pro. He’s out there to dance his butt off, sing some pretty songs, and create an interactive experience. He does a damn good job. After it’s over and my heart has stopped racing, I find myself buzzing. Until now I never understood what a “concert high” was, but as I wander down the long path from the Olympic stadium and two illuminating balloons with the name “XIA” on them float above … well, I think I get it. Call me a K-pop convert.

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Korea in Brief

Korea Monthly Update © Gwangju Biennale

Gwangju Biennale Kicks Off

Lizard Footprint Fossil Answers Mystery Fossilized lizard footprints dating from the Cretaceous Era (145 million to 66 million years ago) have been discovered in the southern town of Namhae. While fossilized lizard footprints from earlier and later eras are plenty, no such fossils from the Cretaceous Era had ever been found prior to the discovery in Namhae. A team from Chinju National

University of Education unearthed the fossils during a dig in 2013. A joint team composed of researchers from Korea, the United States, Spain and China then studied the find. Scientists have given the lizard species the name Neosauroides koreaensis, which means, “a new kind of lizard found in Korea.”

Over 20,000 people from all over the world attended a festival and K-pop concert in Seoul to mark 500 days until the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. The event, held at the Gocheok Sky Dome on Sept. 9, featured performances by some of the country’s top pop bands, including Shinee, Beast, Wonder Girls and Boys Republic. Some

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10,000 overseas tourists from China, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Americas attended, as did 2,018 local fans selected through an online competition. A special team of volunteers composed of international residents in Korea assisted foreign visitors by providing information and interpretation services.

Festival, K-Pop Concert Mark 500 Days to PyeongChang Olympics

The Gwangju Biennale, Asia’s biggest biennale and one of the world’s top celebrations of art, officially opened in the southwestern city of Gwangju on Sept. 2. This year’s biennale showcases over 250 works of art by 120 artists and teams from 37 countries. The theme, “Eighth Climate: What Does Art Do?” emphasizes art’s imaginative capacity and its connection with the future in the midst of daily life and struggles for survival in the present. Swedish curator and critic Maria Lind, the director of Tensta Konsthall in Stockholm, is this year’s artistic director. She told U.K. newspaper The Guardian that, “Visitors will enjoy a meditative experience. It’s not about what art is, but about what art does. It creates rings on the water… All the artists have something to say about the future.” The 66-day exhibit continues until Nov. 6.

Korean Designers Take the Stage in New York

Korean Cultural Center Opens in Ottawa

magazine Billboard. The Korea Creative Content Agency and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, working in partnership with New York Fashion Week, have hosted the Concept Korea show twice a year since 2010 with the aim of showcasing up-and-coming Korean designers and promoting Korea’s fashion and style scene. In addition to fashion, the show also featured K-pop and a performance by the New York Orchestra.

Three of Korea’s hottest designers showed off their stuff at a special show held during New York Fashion Week, one of the world’s biggest fashion events. Held on Sept. 8, Concept Korea featured designs by Kim Tae-geun of Yohanix, Kim Hee-jin of KimmyJ and Park Yoonhee from Greedilous. “The three designers presenting at Concept Korea offered a general representation of Korea’s populist attitude toward fashion through their highly accessible clothing lines,” wrote U.S.

The world’s 30th Korean Cultural Center opened its doors in the Canadian capital of Ottawa on Sept. 28. Over 100 official representatives from Korea and Canada, including Deputy Minister of Canadian Heritage Graham Flack, Korean Ambassador Jo Daeshik and Director of the Korean Cultural and Information Service Kim Kabsoo, attended the opening ceremony. The new center celebrated its opening with a week of special events that included taekwondo demonstrations, film screenings and musical performances. The 328-squaremeter space is home to an exhibition hall, a Korean language learning center, reception halls, a multipurpose auditorium and an office.

Sports Ministers from Korea, China, Japan Meet in PyeongChang The sports ministers of Korea, China and Japan met in PyeongChang, the host city for the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics, on Sept. 22 to discuss ways to bolster cooperation between the three nations. The three ministers adopted the “PyeongChang Declaration,” in which the three nations pledged to promote future-oriented exchanges in sports and to strengthen mutual understanding.

They also agreed to expand sports opportunities for women, children, the elderly and the disabled, and to promote social development through sports. The meeting was the first in a planned series of get-togethers of the three nations’ sports ministers. Tokyo will host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, and Beijing will host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

KOREA _ November _ 35

Policy Review

Advising Those in Need Legal support program extends a helping hand to international residents _ Written by Lee Kijun

ÂŠ Ansan City Multicultural Policy Support Headquarters

The Ansan Migrant Community Service Center provides assistance to foreign residents of the city in 11 languages, including Mandarin, Vietnamese and Tamil.

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Foreigners Residing in Korea Source: Ministry of the Interior As of January 1, 2015 millions of people

2 1.5

3.4%

2.3%

2.8%

2.5%

1.45

1.41

1.27

1.57

3.0 2.0

0.5 0

4.0

3.1% 1.74

1 1.14

2.8%

1.0

2010

2011

2012

Number of foreign residents

2013

The Korean Support Center for Foreign Workers provides assistance to foreigners living and working in Korea. © Yonhap News

A Seoul Town Meeting for foreigners was convened in 2014 on the topic of starting a business in Seoul.

2014

2015

0.0

Foreign residents as a percentage of total population

Thùy Chi, an expat from Vietnam, was in trouble. She had moved to Korea to marry her husband and worked at a small company as a bookkeeper. Her boss assigned too much work, so she had to work late at night. Once, she dozed off at work and accidentally spilled hot water from a tea kettle all over herself. She immediately went to a hospital and underwent minor surgery. What she didn’t know is that her boss had followed her to the hospital. He demanded compensation, saying her accident had incurred a major loss for the company. Thùy Chi couldn’t afford her hospital bills, let alone the compensation her boss was demanding, so she asked the Immigration Contact Center for help. The center introduced her to a legal counseling center that provided free legal consultations. Thanks to the service, she fought back and won compensation from her company. Last year, the Ministry of Justice set up legal counseling centers for non-Koreans in 10 places with large immigrant communities. Five are in Seoul: Yeongdeungpo, Yongsan, Jongno Hyewha, Jongno Changsin and Jung-gu. The other five centers are in the province of Gyeonggi-do: Ansan, Bucheon, Osan, Suwon and Yangju. The move is in response to the growing demand from expats for legal services. With assistance from translators and interpreters, their lawyers answer questions through fax, phone and the internet in English, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Thai and 15 other languages. Anyone who needs legal advice can access translation services via the Immigration Contact Center by dialing 1345 between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. The caller can then set a date and time for the consultation, which takes the form of a three-way conference call facilitated by an interpreter. Any foreign national residing in Korea, regardless of his or her legal status, is eligible to use the service.

Bringing legal advice where it’s needed most

The service is an extended version of the state-run Village Attorney system launched in June 2013. The ministry asks the Korean Bar Association for referrals to volunteer lawyers who can provide free legal consultations for people living in areas with few legal experts. As of August 2016, there were 1,514 village lawyers in 1,413 villages throughout the country. The number of consultations stands at 2,689. Then Justice Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn praised the Village Attorney system as one of his most memorable accomplishments during his two-year tenure. “The original system focuses on aiding Koreans who had difficulty accessing legal services, but we’ve found that non-Koreans often have trouble communicating and have difficulty acquiring necessary information on legal help,” said a ministry official. The system was designed to help exchange students, migrant workers

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“Village Attorney” Services for Foreigners Sources: Ministry of Justice, Ministry of the Interior, Korean Bar Association

Five locations in Seoul Yeonbyeon Geori Daerim 2-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu Large Filipino community Hyehwa-dong, Jongno-gu Large Nepalese community Changsin 1-dong, Jongno-gu Large Mongolian/ Central Asian communities Gwanghui-dong, Jung-gu Area with diverse foreign population Itaewon 1-dong, Yongsan-gu

Aspiring foreign entrepreneurs receive business coaching at the SBA Seoul Global Center.

“We’ve found that nonKoreans often have trouble communicating and have diﬃculty acquiring necessary information on legal help.”

KOREA _ November _ 38

and migrant wives. It includes undocumented aliens. According to data from the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, as of January 2015, nonKoreans made up more than 3 percent of the nation’s population. Out of the total population of more than 51 million, 1.74 million are non-Koreans. In Gyeonggido, more than 32,000 non-Koreans live in Ansan, another 23,000 in Hwaseong, and 16,000 in Suwon. In Seoul, 25,000 non-Koreans live in Yeongdeungpo-gu, in the southwestern part of the city, and another 15,000 live in Guro-gu, also in the southwestern part of the capital.

Local initiatives help, too

Seoul has its own version of a legal consultation service for non-Korean residents. Since 2007, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has provided free legal consultations as part of its

efforts to uphold human rights. The service, offered through the Seoul Global Center, covers various areas such as administrative, civil and criminal cases. It also seeks to protect and support knowledge-based industries by upholding intellectual property rights and supporting technology transactions by small- and mid-sized enterprises. “There are numerous cases where non-Koreans are often mistreated because they do not fully understand the law,” reads the Seoul Global Center’s website. “Therefore, Seoul Global Center provides expert counseling services in order to prevent any further mistreatment from occurring.” The center also provides on-site counseling and administration services with professional counselors on weekends and holidays in areas where there are high concentrations of non-Korean residents. Seoul Global Center is a one-stop comprehensive support center for foreign residents in Seoul. Recently, the center began offering an incubation service for promising foreign-owned startups. It includes office space at three locations and other kinds of guidance, such as counseling and startup mentoring. “The Seoul Global Center will help you with incubation programs,” Paul Carver, head of the center, said in his opening speech. “We provide what new entrepreneurs want to do.” To promote startups in Seoul, the center held the Foreign Startups Business Fair at the Convention and Exhibition Center last month. A total of 15 teams of international entrepreneurs from across the world pitched business ideas. Steve McKinney, president of Seoulbased McKinney Consulting Inc., told local media, “We did not have this kind of support when I started the business. It is wonderful that we have this support.”

Summit Diplomacy

Two Nations Connected by Creativity Korea, Netherlands celebrate 55 years of ties with Dutch Prime Ministerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visit to Seoul _ Written by Lee Kyehyun Photos courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae

ÂŠ Yonhap News

President Park Geun-hye shakes hands with Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands during a bilateral summit at Cheong Wa Dae on September 27, 2016.

KOREA _ November _ 39

The visit was a chance for the two countries to reminisce on the deep friendship built up over half a century, and to lay the groundwork for even deeper partnership and cooperation in the decades ahead. President Park Geun-hye takes part in a Korea-Netherlands MOU signing ceremony.

KOREA _ November _ 40

century, and to lay the groundwork for even deeper partnership and cooperation in the decades ahead.

Paying respects to the fallen

The first stop on Prime Minister Rutte’s schedule was the southeastern port of Busan, where the leader visited the U.N. Memorial Cemetery in Korea on Sept. 26 to pay respects to the Dutch troops who fell in the Korean War. More than 4,700 soldiers were sent to Korea between 1950 and 1954 as part of the Netherlands Detachment United Nations, and of those, 123 were killed. Some 117 of the dead lie in the memorial cemetery in Busan. Prime Minister Rutte was accompanied on the visit by Minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs Park Sung-choon, Korean Ambassador to the Netherlands Choe Jonghyun, U.S. Ambassador to Korea Mark Lippert and four Korean War veterans. “Here, we remember with deep respect all those men and women who gave their

Korea and the Netherlands enjoy much shared history, from 17th-century traveler Hendrick Hamel, one of the first Westerners to visit Korea, to Guus Hiddink, the coach of Korea’s legendary 2002 World Cup football team. During his recent visit to Seoul, however, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte pointed to what really connects the two countries. “We are creative,” he said. “We think in terms of solutions, not problems, and we are focused on cooperation. That’s what truly unites us.” Prime Minister Rutte paid a four-day visit to Korea, Sept. 26–29, to celebrate 55 years of official ties between the Republic of Korea and the Netherlands. While in Korea, the Dutch leader met with not only President Park Geun-hye, but also business leaders, local officials, citizens and even students to strengthen mutual understanding and promote opportunities in both countries. The visit was a chance for the two countries to reminisce on the deep friendship built up over half a

lives for freedom and democracy,” said the Dutch leader. “For a safer world and for human dignity, we will not forget them.” Minister Park thanked the Netherlands for its support during the Korean War, and for its help in maintaining peace and freedom in Korea today.

Comprehensive, future-oriented partnership

From Busan, Prime Minister Rutte traveled to Seoul for a summit with President Park Geun-hye at Cheong Wa Dae on Sept. 27. During the meeting, the two leaders agreed to elevate the current friendship between the countries to a “comprehensive, futureoriented partnership.” They also adopted a joint statement to that effect. President Park noted that cooperation between Korea and the Netherlands extended beyond purely bilateral matters, such as trade and investment, to include working together on global issues like terrorism, development and climate change. In particular, she expressed her appreciation for the Netherlands as a partner in future-oriented sectors such as nuclear energy, smart farming, new and

renewable energy and the creative industry. The two leaders signed several memorandums of understanding related to cooperation on big data and statistics, investment, employment and tourism. Cooperation between the two countries in technology development has been brisk, with eight ongoing joint technological development projects underway in the biotech, IT and electronics sectors, all part of the Eureka Project, a European-led initiative involving 44 nations. The new MOUs pave the way for the two countries to expand mutual investment in a way that makes the most of each country’s strengths. On a more person-to-person level, the two leaders agreed to expand the trial working holiday program to allow 100 citizens from each country between the ages of 18 and 30 to work in the partner country for a year.

Taking care of business

Prime Minister Rutte’s visit to Korea had a strong business component. The Dutch leader was accompanied by a delegation that included representatives of 65 Dutch

President Park Geun-hye takes part in a bilateral summit with Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands.

companies in several sectors, including agriculture. Bilateral trade amounted to USD 8.37 billion in 2015. Korea is the Netherlands’ second-largest partner in Asia, with some 70 Dutch businesses operating in Korea, while around 135 Korean businesses operate in the Netherlands. The Netherlands is the EU’s largest investor in Korea, with the Dutch investing over USD 25 billion last year. Prime Minister Rutte attended an investment seminar in Seoul and spoke at the opening of Korea-Netherlands Business Day on Sept. 28. He emphasized the opportunities that robust economic cooperation could bring. “A major part of the Dutch trade delegation comprises agriculture-related companies and organizations,” he explained. “In the Netherlands, agriculture is a high-tech business. Technology has turned our small country into the world’s second-biggest exporter of agricultural products and services. Korea is the ultimate high-tech nation. Together, we can create great opportunities for farmers, research institutions, students, importers and exporters.” On his last day in Seoul, Sept. 29, the Dutch prime minister met with Korean university students, where he touted the Netherlands as a place to study and work. “There is no hierarchy in the Netherlands,” he told the students. “Much like the space we are in, professors look up to the students, and so do the prime minister and secretaries to the people. This has allowed our country’s creativity, openness and venturing spirit.” While in town, Prime Minister Rutte was also named an honorary citizen of Seoul. At the ceremony, the prime minister donated 220 bicycles to the city’s public bicycle system. The bikes, sponsored by the Dutch government and Dutch firms based in Korea, are to be painted in the Dutch national colors to commemorate the friendship between the two countries.

KOREA _ November _ 41

Brand Korea

Mark of Excellence K-ribbon conferred on 35 outstanding cultural products _ Written by Eugene Kim Photos courtesy of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs

Ceramic tea set by In Hyun-sik, Donong Doye

Some 35 exemplary Korean foodstuffs, traditional clothing items, handicrafts, and other artisanal crafts have gotten the K-Ribbon seal of approval. On Sept. 19, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced a new batch of outstanding cultural products to be given the K-ribbon Selection brand for 2016. Launched on a trial basis in March, the

KOREA _ November _ 42

The winners will carry a distinctive logo in the shape of a Hanbok knot, signifying that the product in question exhibits Korean values.

mark, which the ministries award to products following an evaluation process, assures consumers of the highest quality. The announcement marked the first formal addition of products to the list. The competition to earn a K-ribbon was fierce, with aspiring products facing nine-to-one competition among 328 products submitted for consideration. The winners will carry a distinctive logo in the shape of a Hanbok knot, signifying

Support both locally and abroad

that the product in question exhibits Korean values. The government created the mark as part of its “Korea premium” concept, which it is working to promote through systematic management and brand marketing activities.

Quality products in four categories

The products fell into four categories: Korean food, foodstuffs, handicrafts and Hanbok. Some 11 handicraft works made the cut, including a beautiful cera stone wine cup set by designer Jiwoon that represents a modern reinterpretation of traditional ceramic techniques. A brassware set by design shop Auroi, meanwhile, brings together a mastery of traditional craftsmanship and a sleek modern design. The others include spectacular metalwork, ceramics and woodworking. In the Hanbok category, 13 works received the K-ribbon honor. One was a ramie overcoat by Geumhwa that combines a light, minimalist design with traditional aesthetic charm. For something more modern, try CGNE’s oversized padded coat, a giant of a garment that incorporates into its design the traditional craft of ramie weaving. Several children’s Hanbok products are on the list, as are several accessories, including a traditional hat featuring a floral pattern and a clutch that incorporates Hanbok design. Ten foodstuffs were selected, including brewery Boksoondoga’s craft makgeolli rice beer, brewed according to a generations-old family recipe, the banquet beverage of the Korea Pavilion at the 2015 World Expo in Milan. There was also Korea House’s Haerin Jeongsik, a banquet meal based on the palace cuisine of the Joseon era (1392-1910). As visually appealing as it is tasty, the meal is a favorite of both local and overseas visitors.

Hanbok jacket by Ccomaque

Products selected during the trial period gained access to KOTRA’s online shop, the Korea ON-Line E-Procurement System and Kakao’s “Makers with Kakao” site.

Recipients of the K-ribbon mark receive distribution and promotional support from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, both locally and overseas. This support includes distribution through government-run shopping sites, production of directory books, local and overseas exhibits, and networking with buyers. Products selected during the trial period in March gained access to KOTRA’s online shop for overseas buyers, the Korea ON-Line E-Procurement System and Kakao’s “Makers with Kakao” site. The government also promoted the products at the KCON conventions in Paris and Los Angeles. “With this formal selection, we will bolster substantive and effective support for outstanding cultural products and develop the K-ribbon Selection as a representative brand for Korean cultural products,” an official from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said. “We are planning a touring overseas exhibit, expos by category and expanding online marketplaces through cooperative support with small and medium-sized enterprises and overseas cultural centers.” An award ceremony was held in Seoul on Oct. 18 and commemorative popup stores opened up across the country for eight days after the event. Venues included Seoul, Busan and Gwangju.

Brass tableware by auroi

Traditionally brewed makgeolli by Boksoondoga

Rice snacks by Damyang Hangwa Myungjin Food

KOREA _ November _ 43

Creative Economy

An Augmented Future AR-based game ‘Crayonpang’ points the way forward for the Korean gaming industry _ Written by Colin Marshall Photos courtesy of AIARA Co., Ltd.

With AR-based mobile coloring game Crayonpang, you can turn 2-D drawings into virtual 3-D figures with a quick scan of your phone.

“Crayonpang” has caught on in Korea, but childhood imagination knows no national boundaries.

KOREA _ November _ 44

Last year at Seoul’s Digital Media City, the Creative Center for Convergence Culture hosted an exhibition of projects using new technology in innovative ways, and named as the top convergence creator a company called Aiara, which works only on augmented reality products. Whether or not you’ve heard the term, you’ve seen the technology in action if, this past summer, you spent time in Australia, New Zealand or the United States. Thousands of people roamed malls, parks and city streets in those countries, pointing their phones here and there on the lookout for monsters all around them. Whether or not they caught any, they’d certainly caught “Pokémon Go” fever, becoming hooked on the new game that combines the popularity of Nintendo’s 20-year-old Pokémon franchise with the latest capabilities of the computers in nearly all of our pockets. Though unavailable in Korea, “Pokémon Go” offers a glimpse of things to come in this country with developers already hard at work harnessing the potential of augmented reality. Technologists of the 1980s and 1990s worked on virtual reality, the computer-driven creation of wholly artificial but convincingly realistic environments that people could experience through an interface using goggles, gloves, and a host of other devices. Augmented reality, which entered the realm of possibility only in the 21st century and requires nothing more than a phone, involves not creating whole artificial environments but drawing data from the real world and integrating computer-generated elements back into it. In “Pokémon Go,” this means scattering a vast menagerie of sometimes adorable, sometimes menacing, and always imaginary creatures throughout the real built and natural environment.

From child’s play to a new form of perception

With their mission of creating new experiences at the intersection of analog and digital media, Aiara has created applications including “GorealAR,” which enables nonspecialists to create augmented-reality environments of their own, and more recently the younger-user-oriented Crayonpang. All of us in childhood drew the people, animals and fantastical beings in our imagination on paper, and at one time or another fantasized about them jumping off the page. “Crayonpang” brings that universal childhood dream much closer to reality. After coloring in a two-dimensional character on paper, the user simply snaps a photo of that character with a phone. Within moments, that character springs to digital life on the screen, walking, talking, dancing, and even flying as well as interacting with its creator. “Crayonpang” has caught on in Korea, but childhood imagination knows no national boundaries. Already, Aiara has signed a deal to bring the application out in Frenchspeaking countries. The company’s CEO, Woochul Choe, also clearly has his sights on long-term goals that go well beyond breathing life into crayon drawings and into transforming how we receive information itself. “Today we are enjoying information only in 2-D places like computer monitors,” he said in a recent interview. “However, if we combine the data of reality and the data online, consumers can perceive information more vividly and comfortably.” That is, in a manner tailored not just to who they are but where they are.

Developed by Aiara, Crayonpang GoGo is a GPS-based AR game.

An augmented world

They can also perceive it more creatively. “I think the point of creativity itself is ‘point of view,’” said Choe. “We should have the thing we love: the music you love, the picture you love, the film you love. When people have something they love, they try to see it with the viewpoint they love.” Augmented reality makes it possible not just to experience your favorite things digital from a new point of view, but to bring them into your real-life surroundings in ways that, not long ago, would have seemed more like magic than technology. Walk around Seoul, even without a smartphone, and you’ll clearly see how extensively the city has already integrated its traditional, physical, analog elements with its newly developed, high-tech, digital ones. Augmented reality will open up whole new vistas not just for playing games or finding your way around, but for learning about and gaining

Aiara demonstrates the GorealAR program for attendees at Creative Korea 2015.

a deeper appreciation of the environment around you, not to mention seeing it in ways you’ve never imagined. If Aiara and the other Korean developers working with this technology succeed in providing these new experiences to everyone in this country’s tech-loving population, Choe guesses that, “The whole world would make the move to augmented reality.” What will that look like? Not even the most imaginative child can guess.

KOREA _ November _ 45

Global Korea

Korean Chef Introduces Korean Cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu

Chef Yim Jungsik of the Seoul- and New York-based restaurant Jung Sik Dang showed off his talents at Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa Culinary Arts Institute’s Signatures Restaurant in the Canadian capital on Sept. 20 and 21. He wowed diners with a seven-course meal that included signature dishes such as octopus served over red pepper sauce, sea urchin rice flavored with seaweed-sesame puree, galbi served with buckwheat pancakes and white kimchi, and ginger panna cotta with cinnamon soup and pear sorbet. Oliver Bartsch, the former chef for Canada’s prime minister, and top-ranked Canadian chef Marc Lepine attended the event. Le Cordon Bleu students, for their part, appreciated the chance to experience Korean cuisine in the presence of a master.

Program Brings Korean Traditions to Rural South African Schools The Korean embassy in South Africa brought a bit of Korean tradition to rural schoolchildren there. The 2016 School Cultural Partnership Project @Limpopo, held Sept. 7–9, involved three elementary schools in the northern province of Limpopo. A children’s theater group staged the Korean legend “Princess Pyeonggang and Stupid Ondal.” Demonstrations of taekwondo, a popular sport in South Africa, drew an enthusiastic response. The biggest hit, however, was a program that allowed the students to make Korean traditional masks.

Exhibit Shows Beauty of Korean Palaces to Filipinos

An exhibit at the Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines reveals the beauty and luxury of Seoul’s Joseon royal palaces. Running through Nov. 18, “Opulence: The Art of Korean Royal Palace,” features works of art that once adorned the royal palaces, as well as works of art that look at the palaces from a modern perspective. An opening ceremony, held Sept. 1, featured Korean traditional music performances as well as seminars on Korean traditional architecture and Korean painting.

Concert Delights K-pop Fans in Kazakhstan

A special concert hosted by the Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange and the Korean Cultural Center in Kazakhstan brought K-pop fans from across the Central Asian nation to the capital city of Astana. The 2016 Feel Korea in Kazakhstan event boasted a lineup that included VIXX, Kim Tae Woo, Seo Kang Jun, Dal Shabet, Hanbyul, 2MAX and December. The show also included autograph sessions, Korean craft classes and other side events. Fans’ anticipation was so intense that tickets sold out in a single day.

KOREA _ November _ 46

The Daejeon Metropolitan Dance Theater held a Korean traditional dance performance at Madrid’s Teatro Rialto on Sept. 21. The performance commemorated 50 years of cooperation between the two countries’ maritime industries, which began in 1966 when a Korean fishing vessel arrived in Spain’s Canary Islands. Lines gathered at the door a full two hours before the show, and over 90 percent of the spectators in the nearly packed theater were locals. The dance troupe performed spectacular set pieces such as the fan dance and traditional drumming. The latter was a particular favorite, with the audience clapping and shouting along in excitement.

The Korean Cultural Center in Hungary has published a new magazine to introduce Hungarians to Korea and to bolster exchanges between the two countries. The magazine, written in Korean and Hungarian, shows off the many sides of Korea. Its writing staff includes a former Hungarian ambassador to Korea and pro-Korean opinion leaders in Hungary. Officials at the Korean Cultural Center expressed hope that the new magazine would be a comprehensive information source about Korea at a time when there’s a dearth of information on the country in the local language.

Spanish Audiences Experience Korean Traditional Dance

New Magazine Brings Korea to Hungarians

Historic Moments

Opening ceremony for the 2002 FIFA World Cup

Field of Glory Opening of Seoul’s World Cup Stadium was the prelude to a legendary moment in sports _ Written by Robert Neff

(Top) Soccer fans hold up cards that spell out “Dreams Come True” in Korean at the Korea-Germany semifinal match of the 2002 World Cup, held at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on June 25, 2002. (Bottom) Crowds gather for the Korea-Italy game during the 2002. FIFA World Cup.

For most Koreans who are old enough to remember the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the World Cup Stadium, also known as Sangam Stadium, holds a special spot in their hearts. Located in the western part of Seoul near the Han River, it is the second-largest stadium in Korea, with 66,704 seats and is said to be one of the top 10 in the world, not only for its functionality but also for its architectural aesthetics. The stadium’s field resembles traditional Korean serving trays and symbolizes the hope, devotion and enrichment of the 21st century. The semi-open roof resembles a kite, which, according to the stadium’s administration, “stands for Koreans’ aspiration for peace.” There are also large support poles on the roof that represent the masts of the traditional Korean boats that traveled back and forth from the river ports of Yangwha, Mapo and Yongsan, and the main seaport of Jemulpo, now part of the modern city of Incheon. According to popular belief, it was at Jemulpo in 1882 that soccer was introduced to Korea by sailors aboard a British warship. The stadium cost nearly USD 185 million and was opened to the public on Nov. 10, 2001, just in time for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. It was the first and last World Cup to be jointly hosted by two countries: Korea and Japan. It was also the first to take place in Asia, and provided Korea with the opportunity to show the world just how well it had recovered from the financial difficulties of the late 1990s. Few could imagine just how successful the games would be for Korea. The World Cup’s opening game was held in this stadium on May 31, 2002, when Senegal shocked the footballing world by defeating France, the defending champions. It has been suggested by some that France’s loss was partially caused by some of its players having been injured during a friendly match with the Korean team a week earlier. Roger Lemerre, the coach for the French team, later explained, “When a team like Korea is playing in front of their home crowd they are a very difficult team to beat. We had a difficult time with their strength and spirit.” The strength of Korea’s spirit was apparent throughout the country. Crowds of people, all wearing bright red T-shirts, gathered at the stadiums, in bars and restaurants or in front of Seoul’s City Hall, where large screens had been set up. They cheered when their team got a goal and groaned when the opposing team did. Korea soon found itself in the semifinals. It was at this stadium that, despite the enthusiasm of the spectators, the national team lost to Germany. The games had been a stunning success and exceeded the expectations and dreams of the citizens of Korea and are still remembered fondly by those who were there.

KOREA _ November _ 47

Flavor

Muneo Samhap Trio of flavors is a seasonal favorite in eastern Korea _ Written by Cynthia Yoo Photographed by ao studio Kang Jinju Stylized by 101recipe

With the start of the octopus season this month, here’s a unique dish called muneo samhap, popular not only in coastal regions, but across the country.

The scholar’s favorite cephalopod

Mention samhap and most people bring up hongeo samhap, a dish featuring fermented skate, but in coastal Gangwondo, the octopus is the centerpiece of any celebration. People associate many important ideas with the octopus. Its eight arms represent the eight family branches, they say. Its suction cups help students to “stick to” or pass the national exams. The way the cephalopod crawls around the deep seafloor describes how scholars humble themselves. Most large octopuses are caught in Gangwon-do but what’s surprising is that the inland Gyeongsangbuk-do region is the industry’s biggest customer. In the past, tradesmen would go on long treks to deliver the octopus from the coast to inland cities like Andong and Yeongju. Some believe that the Hanja character

KOREA _ November _ 48

mun, meaning “character” or “culture,” found in muneo or octopus made it special to yangban and in the scholarly areas of Andong and Yeongju. Others believe that Gyeongsangbuk-do people appreciated the practical benefits of a food that didn’t go bad easily, even on the long journey from Gangwon-do.

Chewy. Savory. Good.

The fact that octopus didn’t go bad during treks through the Gangwon-do mountains also explains the origins of muneo samhap. The octopus was first steamed and then it would age nicely into flavorful muneo sukhoe during the trip. Even today, octopus is first steamed before being stored in a cool place for a day or two. The resulting muneo sukhoe may have lost some moisture, but now it has its chewy elasticity and savory flavors that make it so popular with fans. Wrap up the sukhoe with some mukeunji or aged kimchi and boiled pork slices and you’ve got muneo samhap.

__ How to make muneo samhap: First, if the octopus has not already been cleaned, clean it now, removing all the innards from its head. Shake some flour or salt over the octopus and rinse in order to remove impurities. Once the octopus is nice and clean, boil up a pot of water. You should add onions, pear peels, mandarin oranges, radish or other seasonings for taste. Finally, throw the octopus into the water and boil it for five minutes over a high flame. Then lower the flame and boil for an additional 10 minutes. Don’t boil it for too long, however – it will make the meat tough. After the octopus has been boiled, slice it thinly and serve with sliced pork and oysters.

KOREA _ November _ 49

Korean Keyword

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

Being the same age means being equal

동갑 | Donggap

To be the same age in Korea means to be equal in Korea’s hierarchical seniority system. The question “Are you two friends?” is essentially a way of asking if you were born in the same year; that is, if you’re donggap. Anyone who is even remotely familiar with Korea knows the importance of age in forming social relationships. First encounters in Korea involve clarifying who is older than whom so that proper forms of address can be decided. The senior person, even if just a single day older, is addressed with the honorifics eonni (what a younger woman calls an older woman), nuna (what a younger man calls an older woman), oppa (what a younger woman calls an older man) or hyeong (what a younger man calls an older man). It takes time for Koreans of different ages to get over social boundaries and bond. After bonding, however, the younger party might be able to drop the honorifics and adopt a friendlier, more casual manner of speech. However, when the two parties are donggap, which literally means “born in the same year,” the social walls are nonexistent from step one. When two donggap meet and find that they share many of the same concerns because they’re going through similar struggles in life, they immediately lighten up, empathize with one another and treat each other as if they have been friends since kindergarten. Kim Soo-yeon, a 25-year-old law student, said that while there were people of varying ages in her class at graduate school, she feels more comfortable around donggap because she can put herself in their shoes more easily and talk with them more freely. “For those who are my age, I don’t have to kowtow or assume seniority as I do when I’m with older or younger people,” Kim said. “I think there is an immediate click that makes forming close relationships faster and easier.”

KOREA _ November _ 50

Korean Art Through Coloring

An embroidered chest insignia from Korea’s Joseon Era Hyungbae

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November 2016