Culture and the Bible

Question: What do the English and Korean cultures have in common in regard to the Bible?

Answer: Both the English and Korean Bibles had to be translated into their respective languages as neither of them was the original language of scripture..... This means that (1) the historical period each were translated in and (2) the language reflecting the particular time period that they were translated in and (3) the religious persuasion of the translators ALL affected the translation and how people read that text in the present.

"Language reflects culture, culture reflects language."

Linguistic Difficulties in Translating
The King James Version of the Bible was translated into English in the early 1600s, the beginning of the age of Modern English, although many people question how modern are such phrases like "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house" (Psalms 45:10) or "Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled" (Psalms 30:7). A reason for another English translation was because earlier English translations had inaccuracies according to the Puritans, a faction of the Church of England; therefore, the new translation was to reflect the ideologies of the Church of England. [hmmmm, wonder what an example would be!] Another reason for the translation was to also make the book more accessible to the commoners who, with little schooling, did not have extensive vocabularies. A contemporary to this era was Shakespeare, who in his broad collection of writings, used between 32,000-33,000 words, so with the KJV Bible only comprising about 8,000 words, a quarter of what Shakespeare used, it was definitely more readable for the less-educated classes.

The Korean New Testament, on the other hand, was first translated into Korean [probably from English] in 1900 by a Bible translating committee with Presbyterian Horace Underwood and Methodist Henry Appenzeller, among others, on the committee. Here's a reflection on how culture clouds translation in similar yet distinct theological difference between 세례 [baptism by sprinkling] and 침례 [baptism by immersion]. In Matthew 3:16 the KJV reads "And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him." While many Protestant religions [Presbyterian, Methodist] believe in baptism by sprinkling, others [Baptist, Seventh-day Adventist] believe in baptism by immersion, but in the Korean translation, Jesus coming "straightway out of the water" has been translated as 세례, baptism by sprinkling, semantics which follow the religious persuasions of the translators. This reflects the problem of words and phrases being imprecise in translation and which unwittinly affect readers' present interpretation of the Bible.

Also, idiomatic expressions that are appropriate in the English language do not have parallels in Korean. For example, I Corinthians 3:2 (KJV) "I have fed you with milk, and not with meat". Koreans were a non-dairy eating culture and until very recently made claims of being lactose-intolerant, and meat was rather a rare tidbit to add to the meal. Korean peasants frequently suffered from beriberi as they were a rice (or grain) dependent nation historically. So in the translation, 'milk' was specifically referred to as 젖, 'mother's milk', and 'meat' became 'rice' the staple of the nation. [Other cultural idioms like "sackcloth and ashes" would be interesting to research, especially as Koreans did not do cremation and their mourning was ritualized like the Jews but extremely different, most notably in that Koreans aimed to both appease and nurture ancestral spirits and the spirit of the dead while the Jews had/have no concept of an afterlife for "the dead know not anything" Ecclesiastes 9:5]

As for the Bible being watered-down via translation through a chain of languages, the concept of "love" most certainly has been watered. The Greek language, the original language of the New Testament, has 4 very specific words for "love": agape (God's love), phileo (brotherly love), eros (erotic love), and storge (love of possessions). However, English basically has "love" and "like", words not showing distinction between people and/or relationships. So, in translating "love" into English, vital relationship concepts were lost. Even more were lost when translating the English Bible into Korean as the Korean language until very recently virtually did not use the word "love" and until the last couple of decades sarang, what English speakers translate as 'love', was translated by Koreans as 'consideration'. Concepts of "love" were felt (and indirectly understood) but not to be put into words. Therefore to explore how much was lost in the translations, a person would actually need to compare the Greek, the English and then the Korean texts!

When the KJV Bible was conceived, the Dark Ages were over but God felt very distant, so in translating the Bible God needed to feel like a familiar friend, especially as He (Jesus) is portrayed scripturally as an older brother. At that time of translation 4 centuries ago, 2 words for 'you' existed: 'you' and 'thou', and 'you' was the pronoun implying respect and of elevated position while 'thou' was the commonplace term for familiars to address each other with. In the KJV, God was to be made accessible, friendly and familiar with people and so in translating the text, the familiar 'thou' (and all its declensions: thee, thine, thy) was used when referring to God. In the subsequent 400 years and very much due to familiarity of God implied in the translation of reference pronouns, the respectful connotations of 'you' and 'thou' became flip-flopped and somehow 'thou' became obsolete in common language while 'you' was retained and now connotes a neutral meaning balancing our familiarity and respect.

In the Korean language, the king held the highest position in the land. There was no concept of God or a creator as the king, 王, was the link between heaven (the sky and cosmos), people, and earth as represented by the 3 respective parallel lines. People did not address the king, the king addressed the people and gave them orders. Society was very hierarchical and so to say 'you' to a person having higher rank, when the Bible was first translated into Korean, did not exist; however, 5 forms of 'you' did exist: taek ('you' polite but to equals or strangers), tangsin ('you' blunt to lower adults), chane ('you' familiar), chagi ('you' intimate) and nuh ('you' plain as to a child). The respect for God, thus, could not be adequately portrayed through available words but had to be culturally taught when preaching or teaching Biblical concepts. The Korean language did, however, allow for respect to be built into the language via the verbs. At that time, there were 6 distinct verb endings which reflected the hierarchical relationships of Korean society. When speaking to or of God, the highest verb form ~나이다, for example, 하나님께 기도하옵나이다 (do prayer to God), was used. [This form is still used but only in religious prayers, poetry and classics.] At present, the highest respect offered is now 하나님께 기도드리옵니다 (give prayer to God), which uses the most respectful of the 4 distinct verb endings in present use.

Cultural Differences in Translating
Translating the Bible into Korean must have been taxing as 'God' did not exist to the Koreans and 'heavens' was the cosmos which foretold good or evil. Religion itself did not exist although there were some tiny isolated pockets of Catholicism. The religion of the land was a philosophy in fact, Confucianism, and one of the greatest books of Confucianism was I Ching (The Book of Changes) purportedly written by one individual between 2800-2737 BCE while the Bible was God-inspired and written over 1400 years by more than 40 individuals. The concept of 'sin' did not exist in Korea at that time because if people followed correct behavior then they were 'good' people. I Ching was a book about correct behavior and the great book, the Bible, was a book about building relationships with the Creator God and His created man. Respect and egalitarianism were combined in the English Bible, but with the latter being nearly non-existent in the Korean society of the strictly vertical Confucian society, cultural concepts of equality with a God, the King of kings, who is a brother must have been perplexing indeed.

The Korean Diaspora in the Far East

More than 6 million Koreans are scattered worldwide although the largest number of the diaspora remain in the Far East (China, Russia and Japan) and US. To be thought of as a diaspora implies that though they no longer remain in their native country their hearts and minds are still connected as well as facets of their identity are still tied to their homeland.

Joon Lee, Fulbright fellow from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, discusses historical migrations and events (March 1st 1919 Movement and the Korean War) through the eyes of the diaspora to portray a fresh, transnational view of Korean history and how reasons for migration/displacement, migration/displacement location, economic and social status, among other significant aspects, affected ideologies of the diaspora which affected their political persuasions in what became key historical events within Korea itself. [Only included here are the periods and politics for border crossing and the nomenclature of the dispersed ethnic Koreans.]

Migrations/Displacement of the Diaspora
The migration of Koreans can be said to have started in the 1860s and 1870s. [Migration here discusses when large numbers of Koreans moved or were relocated. This in no way suggests that Koreans did not migrate or were not displaced before the 1860s, only that those going earlier were much smaller in number.] Although the Chinese-Manchurian border was officially closed until about the 1880s, due to droughts and famines as well, the Koreans living in what is North Korea now looked across the Yalu River into Manchuria, which was then an off-limits area allocated for the Manchurians, and took the risk of entering the underdeveloped remote territory. These early migrants called themselves the Chosun-jok [조선족, the tribe of Chosun, the name of the Korean dynasty when they emigrated]. They brought with them wet-rice farming methods which produced two-times the rice as the Manchurian Chinese's dry-rice farming method, and due to their contribution and productivity, they were welcomed. The largest number still lives in Yanbian (China) where they have continued to speak in Korea, eat Korean food and educate their children in the homeland language.

In 1864, Koreans started to emigrate to Russia across the Tumen River. This group called themselves the Koryeo-saram [고려사람, the people of Koryeo]. Relgion per se did not exist in the Koreas when they emigrated, so of significant note, this particular group adopted the Othodox church but could still retain many of their cultural living practices. In 1906, however, the Siberian Railroad was completed and Russians from the west began pouring into the newly accessible Far Eastern reaches.

Time passed and politics determine policies of nations on peoples seen as "foreigners" within their borders. Remembering that Russia was defeated in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, Russia was again fearing the growing power of Japan in the Far East. Bolsheviks were pouring into the Russian Far East. The newly arrived Koreans, 여호인, in their poverty-stricken landless state tended to side with the Bolsheviks whereas the Koreans who had immigrated earlier, 원호인, as established businessmen and professionals productive to society sided with ?[not sure of the factions here]?. However, due to fear of the Japanese in the Far East and fear that the Koreans would strengthen Japanese numbers, in 1937, Stalin ordered the Koreans (고려사람) living in the Russian Far East to be rounded up, put into cattle cars and transported to Central Asia [mostly Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan], where many died but where many applied their farming skills in rice and cotton fields to scratch out a living. The time of gulags and ethnic cleansing had arrived. [An interesting point, after the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1990, some of the 고려사람 went back to the Russian Far East. Ironically or perhaps due to difficulties in returning to the motherland of the diaspora, they did not return to Korea.]

In 1910, Japan forcefully annexed Korea and referred to it in colonial jargon as Chosun. Due to involuntary conscription of both men's labor and women's (often sexual) labor as well as others seeking economic or other opportunities, by the 1920s Koreans were crossing over to Japan. This group was called the Chosunjin [조선진] by the Japanese. The term is insulting and connotes 'dirty' and 'low-class', partly due to their colonial status but also due to the segregated hovels on the edges of villages and cities where their reduced economic means forced them to live. They remained in Japan, however, as they could earn twice the income obtainable in Korea although it was half the income the ethnic-Japanese received. The positive point on their penurious living conditions is that they were left alone by the Japanese and so could speak Korean and eat their own food [another derogatory insult on the Koreans was "garlic-eater" due to ubiquitous garlic in their diets and eminating from their very persons.] The negative point concerning their perimeter living was that they were isolated from Korean networks and so in Japan could not organize as could the other groups of the Korean diaspora.

By the late 1930s the Chosunjin had earned another appelation, Zainichi meaning "staying in Japan". Parsing the meaning a little more, 'nichi' means 'second generation' so this name suggests that the immigrants had expanded in number within the border of the foster country. As is unfortunately true of foreigner-status in some countries, the Zainichi were treated as second-class citizens in Japan. Example: they had to carry a residence card with their thumbprint on it and the only other group requiring fingerprinting was the criminal ... this practice only became defunct in 1992.

Conclusions
From the fascinating discussion of Koreans as represented by a diaspora that remains connected with Korea but not homogenous in thought to Koreans remaining in the homeland, it becomes very apparent that ideas are porous across national boundaries. The diaspora, as a diaspora and not ethnically connected to their foster countries, does not have to accept unconditionally the culture of the birthland. Wars, revolutions, movement and changing ideologies have affected their choice of birthland but this is not synonymous with affecting their idea of their homeland.

June Lee highlights the unique spin-off identities that [the diaspora] created as the result of straddling national and cultural borders. As the diaspora became "Americanized," "Sinicized," "Russofied," and "Japanized," these identities have challenged Korea’s traditional belief in a race-based concept of ethnic identity. Today there is much debate in Korea over how the diaspora should be treated legally and socially.

Joon Lee draws the conclusion that the diaspora should not be separated by their distances but reach beyond the learned culture to grasp mutual cultural roots. For though they are displaced from the ethnic homeland, the homeland still pulls at the 마음, the non-English entangled concept of the heart, mind and soul.

On the Haegum

Haegum plays a key role in Korean traditional instruments nowadays with their ethereal netherworld wafting tones, which are sustained and mellow. The instrument was introduced from China in the 12th century during the Goryeo Dynasty, but it underwent transformation from the Chinese instrument ho gung to a more Koreanized instrument and has undergone continuous change since its introduction, one of which was to remove its nasally sound to hear more clearly the flowing mellow alto timbers. The haegum is an indispensable percussion bow-string instrument in court music and folk music. It has no fingerboard, is strung with 2 silk strands and played with a horsetail-stringed bow while resting the base of the instrument on the knee for stability, much as the violin rests lightly on the shoulder. Its stem is usually of bamboo, which I believe is the more traditional wood used in order to achieve the rich alto sounds, but a hardwood stem is a possibility too.

Burial Practices of the Joseon Kings

Composition of a Joseon Royal Tomb
The royal tombs were laid out in time-prescribed order, according to the laws of pungsujiri based on the 5 directions. [Center is also a direction, represented by the color yellow, the king's royal color.] Punsujiri is the life force as circulated by water but subtly affected by wind, which blows in healthy energy and carries away the bad energy. In the same manner of circular movement, the universe flows constantly around us, and so people, as mini cosmos themselves [traditional belief], must summon and channel energy of the macro cosmos, the universe.

Burial Goods for the King
Although there was no traditional belief in the after-life or a happy hunting ground, Korean royalty were for some reason buried with essential goods for performing daily functions: clothing, dishes for meals and rituals as well as eating utensils, musical instruments, weapons and various useful tools. These royal burial essentials were then carried in the Confucian behavior-regulated, ritualized funeral procession according to their functions and inherent cultural values.



State Funeral in the Joseon Dynasty

When a sovereign of the Joseon kingdom passed away, he was buried in his tomb following a series of court-regulated funerary rites. The state funeral for the king or queen was one of the five major state rites - the inauspicious rite - that was held with utmost respect. It took about five months from the moment of royal death until the departure of the coffin for the tomb site, and the mourning period lasted three years until it officially ended with the enshrinement of the spirit tablet into the royal ancestral shrine. The end of the state funeral was immediately followed by publication of the funerary procedures in an account called uigwe, the royal protocols.

Building the Royal Coffin
The coffin wood for a king was of carefully selected grained wood and fashioned into a rectangle. To line the bottom of the coffin, an image of the Big Dipper (북두칠성), having great portentous significance in Asia, was first laid and then the coffin was relined with geometric symbols and ready for the body. Once the wooden coffin was occupied, it was placed into a larger coffin, one which was painted on the inside walls with Celestial Animals, which also represented constellation groups in the sky with each groupings only seen in its entirety in its respective representative season:

Black Tortoise - north; represents longevity and endurance; rules water; yin; winter
Green (Blue) Dragon - east; augurs good fortune; rules wood; yang; spring
White Tiger - west; stimulates courage and patience, the always admirable characteristics; rules metal; yin; fall
Red Phoenix - south; engenders high virtue and grace; rules fire; yang; summer

Maintenance of the Joseon Royal Tomb

Once the tomb was built, the Joseon Dynasty annually held state memorial services and carefully maintained the site with utmost respect. Joseon kings with a strong sense of filial responsibility made frequent visits to the tombs and encouraged ['demanded' or 'required' might be better words] upkeep on the tomb.
A temple was designated for prayers blessing the deceased royals, and keeping the tomb was entrusted to an official with some age and experience. Consistent attention by the Joseon kings themselves followed by elaborate maintenance have preserved the original form of these royal tombs in excellent condition to this day, as well as the intangible royal tradition of annual graveyard rites for over 600 years [sic].

Royal Tomb Museum at Taegangneung

The royal burial grounds are sacred resting places where traditional architecture and nature are harmonized. The 40 burial sites of the 27 generations of kings and their consorts spanning the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), a period of 519 years, were recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage in June 2009 as a cultural legacy surviving the dynasty and extending beyond it into a century of war, modernization and cultural revision.

The 27 Generations of Kings (Joseon Dynasty)






In the mounds of Taereung [Historic Site No. 201] and Gangneung rest several 16th century political leaders of the Joseon Kingdom. Taereung was occupied by Queen Munjeong (1501-1565) [interestingly in the Confucian dynasty known for persecuting Buddhists, she was a devout Buddhist and trusted the monk Bou; she also introduced a state-administered examination for monks], the consort of the eleventh king Jungjong, and Gangneung by the thirteenth king Myeongjong (r. 1545-1567) and his consort Queen Insun (1532-1575).

Taereung and Gangneung mounds are located through means of pungsujiri in front of Buram Mountain, the guardian mountain, only about one kilometer apart from each other, and arranged and structured in similar styles. Both mounds show the scale and grandeur of the mid-Joseon period tombs, adorned with retaining stones and stone railings and guarded by three-meter-tall stone officials.Evolution of the Stone Carved Officials

Inside the museum are copies of some of the stone statues used to guard the tombs through the Joseon Dynasty. Stately, dignified and sometimes grosteque statues are shown in evolutionary contrasts to one another to depict a transition in thought and the virtue of appearances in guarding the royal ones.

 

Pictured to the left are 3 stone civil officials and to the right are 3 stone military officials taken from the tombs of:

* King Taejo at Geonwolleung (1408)

...military official - 222cm [far right]

...civil official - 231cm [far left]

* Queen Munjeong at Taereung (1565)

...military official - 337cm [middle]

...civil official - 333cm [middle]

* King Jangja at Yungneung (1789)

...military official - 230cm [far left]

...civil official - 220cm [far right]

Of cultural interest here is that in the earlier Joseon Dynasty the civil official was given more stature, symbolizing more importance within society at that time, but with the development of the dynasty, the military official surpassed the civil offical in status. As the infamous Imjin War did not take place until 1592, three decades after the visible rise in military standing as depicted here, I find the heightened status and importance of the military official rather premature to historically-known cultural need, especially as the Joseon Dynasty lauded the scholar (the brain) and not the brawn of the warrior.

Ethnomusicology: Pansori and Sanjo

Dr. Byeon Gyewon opened my eyes to the interpretation and audience involvement of two kinds of traditional music - pansori and sanjo. Her background is rich in musical composition and musical performance, and as a token of typical pansori "involvement" by the audience, she gave two CDs and a book that she had made to reward 3 active participants when we as an audience "sang" pansori at the end of her lecture.

PANSORI
Pansori, a form of traditional music drama that originated in Jeolla Province, is not only a well-known genre of music but is also popular today. In fact, it is the most popular of the traditional musics which include court music (탕악/향악), shaman music, Confucian temple music (아악), military music (추이타), among others. In the 18th century the musical genre was developed by folk musicians to be performed in open spaces like market places, courtyards or sitting rooms of wealthy patrons; hence the name "pan" referring to the space where people gather and "sori" meaning sound or the singing voice.

To sing pansori, the singer must be dressed in cultural character, that is, attired in Korea's traditional clothing, the hanbok. The pansori singer can then deliver a dynamic story through 3 means: the song (sori), dialog and narration (aniri), and gesture (pullim) while using one of 2 traditional props, either a fan or a handkerchief. The pansori singer is accompanied by a drummer (kosu) on the traditional chango [pictured], but actually the drummer plays a more significant role in the performance as the drummer accompanies with more than 20 different styles of rhythmic cycles and makes the all-important supportive or emphasizing comments like 좋다 (good), 얼씨구 (fantastic) and 그렇지 (perfect/that's right) throughout, hence the old saying, "일 고수, 이 명창" or "first the drummer, second the singer."

Since pansori is the people's music, the audience is not to be passive but must actively participate in the performance. By having a reaction, the audience is actually a cause for encouragement, so like the drummer, they shout their contributing comments, and these comments can even flow over into comment-exchanges with the performers.

Traditionally for the pansori singers there were 12 stories which were part of Korea's oral musical history. However, only 5 have been passed down as the other 7 did not follow the strict principles of Confucianism with their ribald vulgarity detailing explicitly private, daily life practices with anatomical particulars and sexual contents. They therefore have been lost.

The Principal Repertoire of 12 Distinct Pansori Pieces
(1) 'The Song of Ch'unhyang' 춘향가
(2) 'The Song of Shim Cheong' 심청가
(3) 'The Song of Hungbo' 흥보가
(4) 'The Song of Underwater Palace' 수궁가
(5) 'The Song of the Red Cliff' 적벽가
(6) 'The Song of Pyeongangsoe' 변강쇠 타령
(7) 'The Song of Official Pae' 배비장 타령
(8) 'The Song of the Cock-pheasant' 장끼 타령
(9) 'The Tale of the Stubborn Man' 온고집전
(10) 'The Song of the Tomboy' 왈자 타령
(11) 'The Tale of Maehwa in Kangnung' 강릉매화전
(12) 'The Song of the Bogus Mountain God' 가짜 신선 타령

(A Pansori Storyline - "The Tale of Chunhyang"

The Tale of Chunhyang is a favorite in Korea as it epitomizes the deep Confucian values of filial duty to parents, honor, and most importantly, feminine virtue to one's husband:

On a beautiful spring day Yi Mongryong, a son of the magistrate of Namwon prefecture, meets Chunhyang at the Gwanghan Pavilion and falls in love with her. They are unofficially married by Chunhyang's mother, Wolmae, since it would have been impossible for the daughter of a female entertainer (기생) to become the wife of an aristocrat's son through the legal marriage procedures of that time. Their happiness is shattered, however, when Mongryong's father is summoned to Seoul, the capitol, and Mongryong has no choice but to follow his family, leaving Chunhyang behind in Namwon. A new magistrate, Byeon Hakdo, demands that Chunhyang be his concubine, refusing to recognize her marriage.

She steadfastly refuses and is cast into prison after brutal torture. One the day of his birthday celebration, the magistrate orders that Chunhyang be executed unless she yields to his demands. In the meantime, Mongryong has passed the highest civil examiniation in Seoul, and is appointed a royal secret inspectator whereupon he returns to Namwon in the guise of a scholar wearing worn and tattered clothes. After discovering the situation, Yi Mongryong punishes the wicked magistrate and rescues Chunhyang.

The story put into music as we sang it [this selection is taken from a segment called "Disheveled Hair"]:

Chunhyang weeps bitterly in jail, missing Mongryong.
Chunhyang's hair is disheveled like that of a ghost. In the quiet and lonely cell she can do nothing but miss Mongryong. "I want to see him, I want to see my love in Seoul. Since he left, I haven't received a single letter. Has he been busy serving his parents and studying? Or has he gotten married and already forgotten me? I hope I can shine as the fairy in the moon does. Now that there is no letter, I know nothing about my husband. Now that I can hardly sleep, how can I meet me darling in my dreams?

SANJO
Sanjo is also one of the most popular genres of traditional music, and is decidedly present in national and international performance tours. Originally designed for the gayagum [pictured], a traditional 12-stringed instrument similar to the zither, its music was later extended to the somewhat larger 6-stringed geomungo, an instrument made in the late Joseon Dynasty, and now the flute and 2 other instruments can play sanjo. A single sanjo can last one hour, but it is often broken up into segments, which build in pace. The first half of the performance is typically slow, but in the second half the segments increase in vigor and passion.

Korean Desserts

To the Westerner, desserts signify closure to the meal, that last morsel of utmost sweet satisfaction .... cakes, pies, cookies, ice cream, all to satisfy the "sweet tooth" and finalize on the meal. To Koreans, however, desserts traditionally and for the most part even now are a slice or two of fruit - example, watermelon, pear [aka Asian pear], a mandarin orange - or perhaps a somewhat sweet drink like sujunggwa (persimmon-cinnamon punch - pictured), mesil tea (a sweet tart plum tea) and very frequently now a cup of coffee, but could also be a nibbly-snack like some nurungji (the sheet of crisped unsalted rice from the bottom of the rice cooker). Desserts were not to be heavy or to over-balance the meal. Unlike Western desserts which were for a final heightened experience in taste, Korean desserts were to aid with the digestion of food; they were simple, palate cleansing and soothing to the digestive tract.

Some Winter Foods

In Korea particularly, foods are culturally identifying, not only by location but also by season. In the winter time many cultural foods appear but patjook (red bean pottage or gruel), ddeokguk (rice cake soup) and ogokbap (5-grain rice) are three that come to mind.

Patjook is particularly a winter food, and probably one that is for bidding farewell or greeting the lunar new year as it was traditionally eaten due to its color: red. Red is the color that demons hate and so by the timely eating of this food, belief was that the demons would be expelled and bad effects would be defeated.

Ddeokguk was and still is the food eaten on Seolnal, the lunar new year's day. This food I am told signifies solemnity and cleanliness of ceremony and when the food is eaten on Seolnal, everyone "eats one year", that is, each person can now say that he or she is one year older. [Traditionally, Koreans didn't celebrate individual birthdays but had a collective birthday on the lunar new year. This has changed and Koreans long ago picked up the concept of celebrating one's birth day. Caution needs to be taken when attributing westernization to age in all aspects for when asking a Korean his or her age, the person might answer '21 in western age', which means (s)he is at least one year older in Korean age because at birth Koreans are one year old. This is based on the belief that life starts at conception and, which is a very viable belief based on time because pregnancy to Koreans is thought to be 10 months in duration, nearly a full year.]

Ogokbap is the representative food for the first full moon of the new year. The five grains usually comprise rice, two kinds of millet, red beans and another larger bean. By eating ogokbap on the new year people were wishing themselves health and a good harvest. Also on this day was the eating of nuts - chestnuts, walnuts, gingko, peanuts, pine nuts and others. By cracking the nuts, not eating pre-cracked nuts from the modern-day supermarket, people but particularly children augured good fortune for the coming year.

Hot and Cold Foods

Back in the States the "Five a Day" campaign is strong. The concept behind "Five a Day" is for people to eat a healthier, balanced diet by incorporating five food colors in their meals: red, yellow, green, white and black. Each color represents an aspect of health. Red is good for circulation, yellow for digestion, green for metabolism, white for cardiopulmonary function, and black for growth and reproduction.

Hot and Cold Foods
In Korea food colors always seem to fall under the "red" category, namely due to the ubiquitous red pepper paste, red pepper powder and now red pepper oil added to the vast majority of foods and side dishes. Eating the color range is therefore obviously not a value of Korean society; however, Koreans have another unique system of classifying their foods, as either "hot" or "cold", with "hot" referring to the temp and not the spiciness of the food. The source of these temp-related food beliefs originates from two contrasting Chinese proverbs: 이열치열(以熱治熱) which translates loosely into English as "fight fire with fire", "beat the heat with heat" or as one of my students more accurately put it "stoke the furnace within you to burn the heat out of you" ... and the opposing proverb, 이하치하, which equates to "fight cold with cold".

Cultural eating traditions on 이열치열 are most apparent on a hot summer day when Koreans line up to eat samgyetang, a piping hot soup bowl concoction of a whole chicken stuffed with rice, jujubes, ginseng, ginger and garlic (all heat-promoting foods) and served bubbling in a stone bowl. Also, the three "dog days" or the hottest days of summer as faithfully recorded on the lunar calendar (초복, 증복, 말복) are for Korean men to go and eat dog to maintain their virile manly stamina in the exhausting heat which drains the power from the body.

이하치하 is not a current spoken concept in South Korea although traces of it exist. One example is the eating of naengmyon, cold buckwheat noodles in iced broth, in the winter to rid the body of excessive coldness caused by the outside chill. Even a decade ago, naegnmyon wasn't readily available in the summer but surprisingly to the westerner, the cold noodle bowl appeared on the winter menu posted on the wall. Even more ironic to the westerner, eating cold to eliminate cold was much more prevalent in the northern part of the Korean peninsula than in the southern, and the noodles and how they are served are named after regions of present-day North Korea: Pyoungyang naengmyon [pictured left], which has a more watery broth over the noodle and Hamheung naenmgmyon [pictured right] which has a spicy red pepper sauce. On Sakhalin Island, Russia, which has strong Asian influences, ice cream kiosks thrived in the winter time and rather frequently close their shutters in the summer. Perhaps too, in Michigan long ago, the eating of real snow cones made from the snow had some origins in "fight cold with cold" and wasn't strictly related to the availability of snow only in the winter.

In just the past 5-6 years, I've noticed the excessive usage of ice by westerners has made inroads in the Korean culture as, before when I went to a restaurant even in the summer, I was served warm or lukewarm water. At that time, Koreans were still shaking their heads at the concept of cooling the body too fast with ice-water and so shied from using ice cubes believed to upset the body balance. Nowadays, summer or winter, when I go to a restaurant and take a seat at a table, the little metal cup of lukewarm or hot water filled from an oversized tea kettle always kept on a giant heater or stove has been replaced by a chilled water bottle from an oversized fridge accompanied by the little metal cup ... now, not only does the customer no longer get body-harmonizing warmth but he or she must serve him- or herself.

Demonstration in Yongsan

This afternoon a moving parade of peaceful demonstrators, registered through the Seoul city office according to pre-planned time and exact route not to be deviated from, took place. The first signs in the Yongsan area of the demonstration were the streets lined with riot police buses and their accompanying fully uniformed soldiers with each bus having a special designation of uniform specifying the soldiers style of fighting. When in the distance a crescendo~ing cacophony of blaring 5-key traditional percussion ensemble with accompanying pansori (traditional narrative music sung with great ululation and feeling) and its most assuredly political message is heard, the busloads of soldiers jump into formation to line the streets and ensure that the demonstrators do not deviate from their registered route and do not incite the crowds to react.

The purpose of the demonstration is very political - the Yongsan area people are protesting the 재개발 (restructuring or redeveloping) plan of President Lee Myung Bak in their Yongsan area. If the 재개발 gets enforced, the people will basically become homeless as they are too poor to afford alternative housing in the Seoul area. As the plan is now, the people are to be oosted from their homes because the President has decided to restructure the Yongsan area for more economic development. The people feel disregarded and unrepresented in the government, and so are demonstrating and have been doing so for a full year now.


However, today there's a new element in their demonstration. This demonstration is the funeral ceremony of the 5 men who died while demanding to be heard and refusing to be dislocated from the building where they lived. The five men, on the principle that they have inherent rights and those should be heard by the government, refused to leave their building and climbed to the top floor where riot police aggressively came at them; as one jouralist said, the actions of the riot police was "MB style" [MB being short for (President Lee) Myung Bak. These events were all reported to me at the demonstration by 2 journalists who wanted me to understand the dynamics at play on the street today]. Although the 5 men reportedly remained peaceful, the fray of aggression and confusion resulted in the accidental lighting of a flammable substance similar to alcohol which ended up claiming the 5 men's lives and one riot police's.

Due to the political situation, the bodies of the 5 men remained in hospital custody for a full year [while protesting family members are in jail]. Only today were the bodies released for burial purposes. The demonstration, a peaceful one, is the parade of Yongsan residents marching the 5 men's bodies through the streets to the final burial site. Mourners not related to the family wear white arm bands in respect to the deceased. The long unrolled bolts of white silky cloth preceding and accompanying the hearses with their unfortunate cargo are the color of death; that is, mourners wear white and not the black of the west.

The 5 men have now become icons in the battle against redevelopment. Their collective pictures in clouds of red smoke stylizing the fire that caused their death is carried solemnly. Following the hearses, each carrying a body of the deceased 5, is also a great picture of each man who died the death of a martyr to the cause.

The marching civilians are chanting. A van with massive mounted loudspeakers and a lady standing boldly amongst them, passes, loudspeakers blaring her rallying persuasions and shouts. Traffic cops walk along unconcernedly. Riot police surround the very distant tail of the marching mass to hem it in and "control" it.

Though the demonstration comes to an end, the cause still baldly lies across the lap of the economically-focused government with resolution incomplete.

A Big Burst of Cloud Fluff

Winter came this year in a blast of snow. At 2am I awoke to the creak and groan of cold water pipes in my apartment building, a rather uncanny noise to awaken to. Feeling wide awake I thought a quick stroll outside in the early morning air would put me back to sleep more quickly than if I stayed inside and listened to the creaks. Outside it wasn't as quiet as I had imagined. Yes, no creaks from cold water pipes but surprisingly at 2:30am there were a few people around, and in the little area that I walked, I saw two large tent kiosks open for business; one even had a massive blaring plasma TV, which I'm sure cost more than the vinyl tent that housed it. Of course there were the all-night 24/7 convenience stores but also another mom-and-pop shop that stayed open all night and had quite a number of clientele (men only) drinking and watching another large TV. The night was snowless - clear, cold and crisp. And there was a peace on the streets that can't be heard during the rush of the day.

At 8am I was ready to leave for another day of work ... but the clear, cold and crisp night of a few hours before was replaced by a foggy whiteness - a delightfully beautiful but definitely unwanted snowstorm was descending on unprepared Seoul. In the 3 hours since it started, the world had turned to a robed whiteness. Cars were sliding, traffic delayed, subways packed, and scheduled overruled. While it was beautiful to some, Seoul was in a quandary about how to deal with the continuously increasing blanket of "heavy" snow [ultimately only 6-8 inches]. For being in such a northern country, Seoul as a heat island in recent years has had little snow and so to clear the streets, front-end loaders served as the impromptu snow plows, janitors and service men and women, as well as a number of youngs guys serving in the mandatory two years of military service were part of the road and sidewalk clearing teams.

Unfortunately for me, some of those creaking pipes heard in the early a.m. were mine and they didn't augur good fortune. The piping along the water meter broke so pipes froze and my water was cut off for an indefinite period of time. The indefinite period of time, as observed by a friend, is related to a response of 'endurance' rather than 'adaptation' to the wintry cold known to strike every year. But perhaps there is some kind of adaptation to dealing with the no-water crisis: 2 guards in my apartment complex were concerned about me and so uncoiled the apartment fire-hose to fill my tub and provide me with some water while I 'endured' .... unfortunately for that plan, even the fire-hose didn't work; those pipes were frozen too. Yep, it was a time of 'endurance' until the pipes could be thawed, a solid four-hour experience of me 'adapting' my cold environment with a space heater and a hair dryer to one more conducive to the convenient life-style I'm accustomed to.

At Bosingak for the New Year's!

The new year's celebrations at Bosingak, a massive bell pavilion on Chongno Street in downtown Seoul, is the Korean equivalent to the New York Times Square Falling of the Ball. Both locations hold raucous celebrations to close the old year and herald in the new.

In Seoul, typical for the celebrations is the closing of wide Chongno Street which becomes wildly packed with excited spectators crowding together to beat off the cold but who also get pushed tighter and tighter together as more people come to squeeze in for celebrating the solar mark of time. [The solar calendar has replaced much of the lunar calendar; however, the farming community still relies heavily on the lunar calendar for its more exactness in when to prepare the soil, plant the crops and harvest the produce. The two most traditional holidays, 추석 Korean Thanksgiving and 설날 Lunar New Years, are based on the lunar calendar while other Korean holidays are dependent on historical factors for when they are commemorated. And then, recently, more offices and stores are closing on the two western holidays, Christmas and (Solar) New Years although neither is an official red-letter day.]

The countdown is on! Spectators strain to see the huge pavilion, and to facilitate viewing the ceremony 2 massive LCD displays with rolling time countdown counters are set up in front of Bonsingak. The clock countdown is interspersed with video flashes of the wild crowds pressing in, and as the midnight hour approaches, across the LCD panels flashes scenes of dignitaries dressed in Chosun court robes standing before the great bell in preparation to release the huge log that will strike the bell and mark the beginning of a new year. This bell, which used to be rung according to the watches, to daily signal the timely opening and closing of the great city gates, and as an alarm (examples - invasion and fire) to the people, is now only rung once a year, a precious moment made into a grand event: the entry into another (solar) year.

With the approach of midnight an ever-increasing eruption of rocket fireworks pepper the sky. Spectators wave cell phones in the air. As the counters tumble to 00:00:00, the simultaneous eruption of crowd delirium and the deep tonal *B*O*N*G* of the mighty bell are matched by a sky-shattering burst of fireworks. This year, the once-in-a-blue-moon moon glows just above the sky scrapers and out of the reach of the crescendo of firework rockets and blossoms. The new year of the tiger has begun!