Flipped Learning: New in Korea

Quan Quan Nguyen, a Fulbright researcher holding a B.A. in Political Science, presented on the flipped classroom. Usually an open forum has a write-up on what the presentation will entail. Quan's only information alluding to his presentation was the instruction for the prospective audience members, in order to have optimal audience experience, to download the "PollEV" app and register for live polling. Non-iphone users could use the link www.pollev.com/fulbright. No other info was given. 

To kick-off his presentation, Quan did some warm-ups for active audience participation, the goal of the flipped classroom. However, at this point he wasn't "teaching" yet on the flipped classroom, he was just ensuring that all members of the audience were focused, THE ABSOLUTE GOAL in fact of flipping. He started out with a teaching scenario of frustration and a teacher's response. The audience was not to say anything but using the polling app in their smartphones, respond briefly to the scenario. Some responses but not a lot ... until the audience members realized their comments were posted on the screen. Oh! The audience then went crazy with responses! Quan rewarded what he felt were the best ... or most creative ... or whatever responses with choco pies (subjective rewarding but the audience was laughing, and also the audience was primarily foreign so most didn't really care to eat the choco pies, but getting a prize has always been a way to externally motivate people). Stimulating the audience is crucial in have an effective classroom learning experience, and Quan was off and running with his presentation!

After three or four polling questions, he had the audience warmed up to audience interaction with the lecturer/teacher. Basically he was reinventing the traditional classroom dynamics of being very teacher-centered to being teacher-student interactive. But the flipped classroom goes even further. It puts the reins of learning directly into the students hands, and ultimately the flipped classroom is more using the teacher as a resource than as an all-knowing fount of knowledge, a learning style that flips Blooms taxonomy triangle entirely over and puts more emphasis on evaluation and creativity and exploring than it does on just receiving knowledge.

Bloom's taxonomy flipped!

The flipped classroom is a relatively new style of education and learning. Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams, two high school chemistry teachers in Colorado pioneered the "flipped classroom" learning model in 2007. In 2012 they published their book on the model Flip Your Classroom. And since its humble beginnings in Colorado, the flipped classroom has become a world-wide movement, most evident in Finland, Japan, Iceland and Taiwan.

The two teachers wanted to reach the athletes in their classrooms. The athletes didn't care about studying; they made lousy grades and were focused on the outcome of the brawn rather the input into their brains. The teachers, therefore, were looking for solutions to motivate those academically challenged students, so they began filming and posting information on YouTube for the students to study outside of the class since the students were interested in the computer but not interested in the classroom. With this method the students were able to study the content and come to class for the teacher to help them apply it via homework and other classroom structured activities. These were the infant days of the flip classroom.

Some of the benefits of the flip classroom are:

• more teacher-student interactions, especially with the weakest students
• more peer-peer interactions
• deeper, more individualized learning
• integrating today's technology to educate today's tech-savvy youth

So how does Korea fit the model of a flipped classroom?

Based on student performances on nation-wide exams, Korea is doing well academically, and within the OECD South Korea ranks fifth in educational outcomes. So what benefit could South Korea expect from using such an educational model? First and foremost, South Korea does extremely well in rote memorization and testing. They have access to a lot of facts and the students are academic vessels to be filled by the teachers. However, if looking at Bloom's taxonomy and the higher skills of evaluation, analysis and creativity, these aspects of performance are little incorporated into the educational learning model. And therefore, students don't have a portfolio of application skills when they move from the classroom to the workplace. Not to mention the fact that not everyone is a vessel that has such high information retention and parroting skills, and so suicide rates from not performing well in rote learning and testing is the outcome. With these many points in mind, there is certainly a place for the flip classroom in South Korea!

Case study in Korea: Bono Middle School in Ansa

Quan has been working very intimately with the Bono Middle School in Ansa with various classes, teaching in one of 20 schools that is currently being used to evaluate the flipped classroom. One of the reasons that Bono was chosen as a school is that it is a low-income school that traditionally hasn't had high expectations from its students. However, the flip model has demonstrated that students who were previous not challenged have done a complete turn-around and started suddenly to excel; in fact, whole classrooms have suddenly been able to flip their testing outcomes!

Also, in order to more accurately assess the flipped classroom in the 20 schools, eight different teachers from widely different subjects (art, math, science and English) are in the school trials. The trial semester is only from August 2014 to Feb 2015, and only some homerooms in the 1st and 3rd year students are included. Because this method is radically different from traditional methods and because students need to study at home and therefore the parents are required to encourage and stimulate the study-at-home time, parents were informed of the semester case study and required to give their written permission for their children to participate in the trials. Almost all parents agreed and gave permission; for those parents who didn't for whatever reason, their children were transferred to other homerooms that followed the traditional learning methods.

So how does the flip classroom work?

The students need access to wi-fi (or a router). They need Internet access, screen casting software ("Explain Everything" app is super popular), YouTube, tablet, iPad, PC, smartphone. These tools just augment the classroom text and other relevant course materials. The curriculum is not compromised, just the mode of learning is altered.

So what actually happens in a flipped classroom?

Many outcomes happen. Quan showed a clip of a teacher on her first day of using the flip being completely angry. She had years and years of experience as a teacher and no longer came in on a weekend to prepare, but because of doing the flipped classroom she had to do a lot of recording and video preparation so she sacrificed her Sunday. However, when the students came to the first class and only 5-6 students of 30-40 students had watched the video she had spent many hours on Sunday preparing, she was incensed. She felt she had wasted her Sunday and now the students were wasting her class time. Her anger was controlled but the middle school students absolutely knew she was angry. She sent all the unprepared students to the back of the room to watch the video clip on their smartphones. This was big shame for students not to meet a teacher's expectations and righteous indignation. She said she didn't have that problem again. They prepared afterwards!

Another scenario was an art teacher who was absolutely clueless how to get the students to do prep outside of class; he had poor classroom management and would give a piece of candy to students for promising to do better the next day ... which didn't happen. So basically he spent his class time giving out candy and never getting any rewards. The students had no proper motivation and the teacher felt extreme frustration at even knowing how to incorporate the flipped classroom.

Yet another scenario was in a math classroom setting. Students were sitting in islands of 4-6 students and doing team work (a big element of flipping a class), or at least they were supposed to do team work. In a one hour session, students had to perform certain math equations and once they had worked them out as a team, they were to raise their hands and get feedback from the teacher. In the flipped classroom, the teacher is always "on", always moving around answering questions, making sure students are on topic, and motivating the slow learners while keeping the fast learners engaged and stimulated. It takes a lot of prep to set up such a learning environment and constant attentiveness to expedite the learning in the classroom. In the math teacher's class, she had five teams and every time they completed a set problem as a team, they were given a circle on the board and then could move on to the next problem. Two teams, one secretly nicknamed "the princesses" by Quan (because as soon as the teacher passed they were looking at themselves in the mirror or primping in some way), never completed any problems even by the end of the class. I'm really wondering how the teacher dealt with these two teams and if she was ever able to get them motivated.

Main take-aways about the flipped classroom:

• Flipping is about making the most of classroom time. More focus on student learning, less on formal teaching.
• Technology doesn't drive pedagogy; good teaching is still essential.
• The first "flip" in flipping is your mindset.
• This is a global movement that has been proven to stimulate, even spike, classroom learning.

Limitations and challenges to flipping:

• Need data collection; flipping currently lacks quantitative information (i.e. exam grades)
• 3rd year students at Bono Middle School are graduating in February, which create conflicts with longitudinal studies
• Questions raised: Does "flipping" work for all teachers? All students? What are the best practices? Standardized training needed?
• Still lack of rigorous research on the efficacy of flipped classrooms

Guan Yu: Why Koreans Worship a Chinese Tofu Seller

How is it that a Chinese tofu salesman, who lived his entire life in the Middle Kingdom about 1800 years ago and never set foot on the Korean Peninsula, came to be venerated in Korea as a god of both war and wealth? Jacco Swetsloot traces back the story of Guan Yu and shares how this semi-mythical figure, described in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms as over 9 foot tall, with a 2-foot long beard, a face as red as a jujube, and eyes like those of a phoenix, first appeared in Korea during the Japanese Hideyoshi invasions of the late 16th century. In a few short years, several shrines were built in honor of Guan Yu, the bean-curd-seller-cum-general. In the last years of the Joseon Dynasty, King Gojong and his second wife had more shrines built in Seoul, giving the Guan Yu cult more impetus. Why was this?

One cannot directly answer this question without understanding what "worship" means in the Korean language and how the connotations of the word impacts its full meaning. "Worship" in English does not encompass "enshrine" and "venerate', yet in Korean it does. Guan Yu is not only regarded respectfully, given reverence, but he has also been enshrined and is still venerated ... because as a romanticized man he was deified.

Wikipedia on Guan Yu (???? - 220 A.D.)

Guan Yu (died 220),^[1][2] courtesy name Yunchang, was a general serving under the warlord Liu Bei in the late Eastern Han dynasty. He played a significant role in the civil war that led to the collapse of the dynasty and the establishment of the state of Shu Han – founded by Liu Bei – in the Three Kingdoms period.^[3] 

As one of the best known Chinese historical figures throughout East Asia, Guan's true life stories have largely given way to fictionalised ones, most of which are found in the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms or passed down the generations, in which his deeds and moral qualities have been lionised. Guan is respected as an epitome of loyalty and righteousness. 

Guan Yu was deified as early as the Sui dynasty and is still worshipped by many Chinese people today, especially in southern China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and among many overseas Chinese communities. He is a figure in Chinese folk religion, popular Confucianism,Taoism, and Chinese Buddhism, and small shrines to Guan are almost ubiquitous in traditional Chinese shops and restaurants. He is often reverently called Guan Gong (Lord Guan) and Guan Di (Emperor Guan).^[4] His hometown Yuncheng has also named its airportafter him.

Guan Yu - From early beginnings to general ...

Guan Yu started out as a peddler of beans and bean curd but not an uneducated one as he could recite lines from the well-known book Zuo Zhuan. After committing a serious crime, he fled his hometown and volunteered in the militia under Liu Bei, who eventually was promoted, and because of Guan Yu's support and capabilities, he himself was likewise promoted on up through the ranks eventually becoming a general. So Guan Yu went from being a jang su (trader or peddler) to a jang su (general).

... to how he became popular

The Ming Dynasty historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms (14th century) lionized his acts as general when in reality he only led his forces, often winning great battles but also losing important battles too. Thus, Guan Yu became more famous in novel than in reality.

In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu was painted as a powerful, fierce warrior with supernatural abilities. And example is "Zuande took a glance at the man, who stood at a height of nine chi (2.07 meters), and had a two chi (46cm) long beard; his face was of the color of a zao (Chinese date/jujube/대추), with red lips; his eyes were like that of a phoenix's, and his eyebrows resembled silkworms. He had a dignified aura and looked quite majestic." In his descriptions also, he was usually described as wearing green robes over his armor. However, in the more serious records of official history Records of the Three Kingdoms no description is given of Guan Yu.

Posthumous deification

Guan Yu was deified in the Sui dynasty (581-618) based on his exaggerated performance as a god-like warrior with unparalleled prowess and fierce appearance. Over time he came to be worshipped as an indigenous Chinese deity, a bodhisattva in Buddhist tradition and as a guardian deity in Taoism. He was also highly esteemed in Confucianism for his righteous-man character. And in the Western word, Guan Yu is sometimes called the Taoist God of War.

Guan Yu, with the courtesy name Yunchang, had many other names and titles bestowed on him. Four decades after his death Liu Shan, the second emperor of Shu, gave Guan Yu the posthumous title of "Marquis Zhuangmou". And higher posthumous titles were added from there. In general worship he is widely referred to as "Emperor Guan", short for his Taoist title "Saintly Emperor Guan" and "Prince Zhuangmou Yiyon Wu'an Yingji" which was revised into another princely name by the Song dynasty. By the mid-19th century he was given a 24-Chinese character name roughly translating as "The Holy and August Emperor Guan, the Loyal, Righteous, of Supernatural Prowess and Spiritual Protection, Whose Benevolence and Courage is Majestically Manifest", and shortened is "Saint of War", which oddly enough is the same rank of Confucius, who was known as "Saint of Culture". These are but a few of the many many names Guan Yu was given.

Guan Yu worship in China - past and present

To put into perspective how revered Guan Yu was in pre-communist China is to compare him with Confucius. In pre-communist days there were about 3,000 temples where Confucius was revered, but 300,000 temples and shrines where Guan Yu was worshipped. Even the smallest village had a shrine. Well-off families and shops had a portrait or a statue. And in these modern times, Guan Yu is still revered. Case is point, the criminal gang Hong Kong Triads worship Guan Yu ... as do the police who try to catch them.

But why was Guan Yu so worshipped? Because he was believed to be endowed with special powers and was thought to serve as a god, bodhisattva or helper to commoners. Two historical cases of highly positioned people testifying to the great powers of Guan Yu escalated the belief in him as a warrior god.

• In the Battle of Lake Poyang (1363), part of the Yuan dynasty fell and the rise of the Ming began. Zhu Yuanzhang led the Ming navy against the Han navy in one of the largest battles in naval history. Zhu won the battle and became Hongwu, first Ming emperor. He gave tribute to Guan Yu for his success by saying that the spirit of Guan Yu appeared and helped Zhu to victory. 

• Also, Yongle emperor (1402-1424) said he had been guided and helped by Guan Yu when seizing power from his nephew, the Jianwen emperor in a coup d'etat. 

How did Guan Yu worship transfer to Korea?

During the Imjin Wars (1592-1598) when Hideyoshi invaded Korea, China sent armies and navies to help Chosun Korea fight the Japanese. These war years were when Guan Yu worship got its beginnings in Korea; however, there is some murkiness on how it all actually began.

Some accounts say that Guan Yu's spirit helped Ming China in general. Some Korean accounts refer to a General Jin of Jinin (in the Sillok) being wounded by a Japanese bullet at the Siege of Ulsan (1597-1598), retreating to Seoul for treatment, and healed by praying to Guan Yu. Both points are hard to "prove", yet the latter one seems sketchy, but in the Battle of Noryang (Dec 1598), there was a Chen Lin, a Ming general who fought alongside Yi Sun-shin, but no where is there mention of him being shot. In any regard, after the Imjin Wars when Ming China soldiers returned to China, Guan Yu remained behind in the spiritual minds of the soldiers, which soon transferred to the wider Korean population.

Korean Shrines to Guan Yu

The Ming soldiers fighting the Japanese had erected shrines to Guan Yu as a guardian spirit/deity: Seoul, Andong, Seongju, Gogeum-do, Namwon, Deongnae, and more, and these shrines became the first Gwanwangmyo "shrine to King Wang". After the Imjin Wars, Ming Emperor Shenzong and Chosun King Seonjo agreed to join forces and build a big and proper shrine in Hanyang. The first of these became Nam Gwanwangmyo (Nammyo).

West and North shrines were erected during King Gojong's reign, and Guan Yu worship became more prominent at this time: Guan Yu became more of a folklore hero. This probably was due to the oppression of the time and the desire for a hero to signify their rescue. Interestedly, the period of folk-hero worship took place 300 years after other shrines in Korea had been established, and when Korea no longer paid tribute or sent emissaries to China. In any regard, it is speculated that the increase of shrines by Kong Gojong was because King Gojong felt the nation was in a time of crisis, as during the Imjin Wars, and that more shrines to Guan Yu would help stabilize the nation. [Note that this last shrine was completed after Korea's Independence from Qing China.]

The downfall of Guan Yu shrines

In the late Chosun dynasty, Guan Yu worship took on the character of a folk religion, viewed as an element of shamanism and the respect and veneration given rapidly declined. As Guan Yu was god of war and wealth, he had been venerated by both soldiers and merchants. But the need for soldiers and shifting economies have threatened the traditional and formerly highly respected.

As respect for things spiritual declined, respect and worship likewise declined. Now, of the 7 shrines in Seoul dedicated to Guan Yu, only 3 are left in their original location. Under Japanese rule, North and West shrines were closed and their relics were moved into East (Dongmyo), the shrine at Bansa Market, which has lost most of its land over the years, as if it had been sliced off. Nammyo was also slated for destruction but was saved only by the sudden creation of a private foundation composed of Seoul citizens given over to protecting the local historical place. But neither Dongmyo nor Nammyo are places of respectful worship anymore.

The fate of Nammyo

• 1598: first Guan Yu shrine in Seoul
• 1899: main building burned down in the 36th year of King Gojong's reign; reconstructed the same year
• 1907: aften taken over by the foundation, its role in performing ancestral ceremonies shrank
• 1950-1953: burned down in Korean War; relics destroyed or lost
• 1957: rebuilt on the same site, but not in its original form
• 1978: main building removed from its site and moved to Sadang-dong, south of the Han River
• Original site is now in or near Millennium Hilton Hotel car park, opposite Seoul Station

The fate of Dongmyo

• Until the 1970s: maintained its original form; monthly ancestral rites held. A small house on the property was the home of a lady caretaker cum shaman. Local people came and venerated Guan Yu. Within the outside gate were housed Guan Yu's 2 horses made of paper and and bamboo (juksanma or jukanma)
• During "restoration work" in the 1970s, Dongmyo loses its role as a living community and became a museum and storehouse of relics
• 2008: destruction of Dongdaemun Stadium. A flea market formerly at the stadium relocates itself outside the walls of Dongmyo. People now just enter to use the public washroom. Instead of a caretaker/shaman, custodians/guards dispatched from Jongno-gu Office "watch" the place but they lack knowledge of either Guan Yu or the shrine. Ancestral rites are no longer held here (Jongno-gu Office cites "fire danger"). Paper and bamboo horses have disappeared and some accounts say that some objects ended up in local antique stores.
• Tourist information sign at Dongmyo: "Worshipping Guan Yu as a god was a kind of "general religion", a form of shamanism worshipping dead generals due to their huge achievements or who died from unfairness." (!)

Veneration isn't totally gone at Dongmyo shrine as every year the stallholders of the Bangsan Market pool money to hold a ceremony for Guan Yu. The ceremony takes place on the anniversary of his death, the 19th day of the 10th month of the lunar calendar (basically, December 10th this year, just 6 days ago). In 2011, ritual costs amounted to about one million won. Most stallholders in the market contribute regardless of religion. The two mains reasons for their contributions and supporting the ceremony is by praying to Guan Yu, (1) Guan Yu will prevent their stalls from burning down, and (2) Guan Yu will bring them good customers, of course, because he is the god of wealth.

Why Guan Yu shrines are now denigrated?

Maybe it is because Guan Yu is a god that comes from China ... but haven't most figures worshipped as gods in Korea, and most religions, come from overseas? Guan Yu and the folk religion around him have come to be part of Korea's traditions too, not just China's.

Maybe it's the marketing of the shrines now. In 2014, the Seoul Metropolitan Government wrote about Dongmyo: "Today as China's campaign to revive Sino-centrism is growing, Dongmyo, enshrining the Chinese god Guan Yu, is also seen in an uncomfortable way. Seen from that perspective, Dongmyo and the relics held in it clearly have value as a "weighted heritage" carrying the significant message that history must not be repeated."

______________________________________________________________________

Jacco Zwetsloot has lived in Korea for 14 years. He has held a number of jobs in this country, and calls himself a Jacco-of-all-trades. Currently Jacco is studying for a Master's degree in Korean Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He has previously spoken to the RAS on Hollywood movies set and filmed in Korea, North Korean comic books, and Japanese-run POW camps in Korea during World War II.

Arirang: a KBS Traditional Music Concert

In the KBS Hall in Youido, very near the National Assembly building, KBS hosted their monthly concert by hosting a Korean concert showcasing "Arirang", a Korean folk song often considered unofficially as the Korean national anthem. In December 2012 the song was designated as in Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO, resulting in the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea announcing a five-year plan (much like communistic planning of old) to promote the song. Therefore, the hosting of the Arirang concert event by KBS was an outcome of that plan. Already the song has been lyricized into nine languages, but for tonight's concert, the performance was only in Korean, but with several variations based on the several provinces' interpretation of the song.

The song's title originates from a mountain pass called Arirang, a pass that connects Seoul and the southeastern Gyeongsang Province. Apparently there are many passes in Korea called Arirang, but in the song romantically and nostalgically dubbed "Arirang", the Arirang Pass is where two lovers rendezvous in their dreams. The story is of a virtuous lady killed by an unrequited lover, but as time went on, the tragic story changed to an unrequited lady-love pining after an unfeeling man.

Many variations of the song exist: lyrics or refrains differ in part as well as timing and melody. Names for the differing Arirang songs are usually prefixed by place of origin or some other signifier. The original form of Arirang is "Jeongseon Arirang" from Gangwon Province and which has a traceable history of 600 years. However, the most famous version is "Bonjo Arirang", most commonly just termed "Arirang", which rather recently originated in Seoul. Other forms are "Sin (new) Arirang", which like its name suggests is relatively new, and "Gyeonggi Arirang", which also unsurprisingly was developed in Gyeonggi Province. Several others exist as well.

The following lyrics are taken blatantly from Wikipedia's Arirang:

Lyrics[edit]

The table below gives the refrain (first two lines; the refrain precedes the first verse) and first verse (third and fourth lines) of the standard version of the song in Hangul, romanized Korean, and a literal English translation:

Korean original	Romanization	English translation
아리랑, 아리랑, 아라리요... 아리랑 고개로 넘어간다. 나를 버리고 가시는 님은 십리도 못가서 발병난다.	Arirang, Arirang, Arariyo... Arirang gogaero neom-eoganda. Nareul beorigo gasineun nim-eun Simnido motgaseo balbyeongnanda.	Arirang, Arirang, Arariyo...[10] Crossing over Arirang Pass.[11] Dear[12] who abandoned me [here] Shall not walk even ten li[13] before his/her feet hurt.[14]

The standard version of Arirang (Seoul Arirang or Gyeonggi Arirang) has various verses, although other verses are not as frequently sung as the first verse. The lyrics are different from singer to singer:

Korean original	Romanization	English translation
청천하늘엔 잔별도 많고 우리네 가슴엔 희망도 많다	Cheongcheonghaneuren chanbyeoldo manko Urine gaseumen huimangdo manta	Just as there are many stars in the clear sky, There are also many dreams in our heart.
저기 저 산이 백두산이라지 동지 섣달에도 꽃만 핀다	Jeogi jeo sani Baekdusaniraji Dongji seotdaredo kkonman pinda	There, over there that mountain is Baekdu Mountain, Where, even in the middle of winter days, flowers bloom.

Refrain[edit]

In all versions of the song, the refrain and each verse are of equal length. In some versions, such as the standard version and Jindo Arirang, the first refrain precedes the first verse, while in other versions, including Miryang Arirang, the first refrain follows the first verse. Perhaps the easiest way to classify versions—apart from melody, which can vary widely between different versions—is the lyrics of the refrain. In the standard and some other versions, the first line of the refrain is "Arirang, Arirang, arariyo...," while in both the Jindo Arirang and Miryang Arirang (which are otherwise quite different from each other), the first line of the refrain begins with "Ari arirang, seuri seurirang...." ("Arariyo" and "seurirang")

Bonjo Arirang[edit]

Korean	English translation
	If you leave and forsake me, my own, Ere three miles you go, lame you'll have grown.
	Wondrous time, happy time—let us delay; Till night is over, go not away.
	Arirang Mount is my Tear-Falling Hill, So seeking my love, I cannot stay still.
	The brightest of stars stud the sky so blue; Deep in my bosom burns bitterest rue.
	Man's heart is like water streaming downhill; Woman's heart is well water—so deep and still.
	Young men's love is like pinecones seeming sound, But when the wind blows, they fall to the ground.
	Birds in the morning sing simply to eat; Birds in the evening sing for love sweet.
	When man has attained to the age of a score, The mind of a woman should be his love.
	The trees and the flowers will bloom for aye, But the glories of youth will soon fade away.

Miryang Arirang[edit]

Korean original	English translation
	Look on me! Look on me! Look on me! In midwinter, when you see a flower, please think of me! Chorus: Ari-arirang! Ssuri-Ssurirang! Arariga nanne! O'er Arirang Pass I long to cross today.
	Moonkyung weak Bird has too many curves Winding up, winding down, in tears I go.
	Carry me, carry me, carry me and go! When flowers bloom in Hanyang, carry me and go.

Bird Pass or "Saejae" is the summit of a high mountain, rising north of Moonkyung in the ancient highway, linking Seoul with Miryang and Tongnae (Pusan). Its sky-kissing heights are so rugged that in their eyes. This is a love song of a dancing girl from Miryang who was left behind by her lover from Seoul (Hanyang). She is calling him to take her with him to Hanyang. She believed that her own beauty was above all flowers in Hanyang. The words in the first line of the chorus are sounds of bitter sorrow at parting. This song was composed by Kim Dong Jin.

Gangwon Arirang[edit]

Korean original	English translation
	Castor and camellia, bear no beans! Deep mountain fair maidens would go a-flirting. Chorus: Ari-Ari, Ssuri-Ssuri, Arariyo! Ari-Ari Pass I cross and go.
	Though I pray, my soya field yet will bear no beans; Castor and camellia, why should you bear beans?
	When I broke the hedge bush stem, you said you'd come away; At your doorway I stamp my feet, why do you delay?
	Precious in the mountains are darae and moroo; Honey sweet to you and me would be our love so true.
	Come to me! Come to me! Come and join me! In a castor and camellia garden we'll meet, my love!

The highland maids would like to make up their hair with castor and camellia oils and go flirting instead working in the soybean fields. The mountain grape moroo and banana-shaped darae were precious foods to mountain folk. The song is sarcastic, but emotional to comfort the fair solitary reapers who go about gathering the wild fruits in the deep mountains of Kangwon-do.

The Singers:

Tonight's concert performance was conducted by 이준호. The six singers were 안숙선 (a very famous traditional music singer), 강효주, 전소연 (a singer from North Korea!), 이춘희, 김용우 (the only male singer and who is becoming quite famous), and 조준희. All the performers were well-trained and professional, but the three I've commented on were of particular interest to the audience.

Not sure of everyone's names but left to right:
김용우, 전소연, ?, ?, ?, 안숙선, and then the conductor 이준호.

안숙선, the oldest singer and steeped in traditional music, moved her body in the characteristic pansori rhythms and flowing body movements with heel gracefully the touching the floor at 90-degree angles before a rhythmic step moved her forward. Her body was the embodiment of art and music.

전소연 was of most particular interest. She glided in with a very erect body and all of her movements and her very stance clearly screamed, "I am not South Korean!" Several others in the foreign community that I was with and I all thought she was from China, especially as her voice was high and would have been thought to be shrill if it were not clear and the sound well-rounded. Her body didn't move when she sang unless to hold her elbows out a bit, very unlike the bowing of the Korean females head in submission or respect and the tucking in of one's elbows or wrists. The KBS International Relations Producer beside me quickly cleared up my confusion and said, "Oh, she sings like a North Korean!" During intermission a glance at the concert printout confirmed that. 전소연 is from the North Korean Hamheung Province, received education in the North Korean capitol of Pyeongyang, and immigrated to South Korea apparently in 2008.

김용우, the male singer who is becoming quite famous, studied traditional singing forms but did not grow up steeped in traditional music. This was evidenced by his great voice but lack of flowing body movements that are inherent of one who just absorbs his or her music atmosphere, the cadence and basically the essence of the music in not only the ears and the heart but throughout the body, which will in turn re-express the music when under the music's flowing influence.

The audience was well-pleased with the beautiful renditions of Arirang and yelled for an encore! The conductor was well-pleased and an chorus from the musicians and choir was given. The six singers were exempt from this encore ... and the selection was a wafting, endearing yet soul-touching.

Return of Cultural Properties for Greece, Ethiopia, Korea

Professor Lee Geun-gwan just completed a two-year term as Chairperson of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee Promoting the Return of Cultural Properties to their Countries of Origin. He is indeed qualified to speak about the complex and emotionally-charged subject of cultural properties and the country in which they should be displayed, treasured, exist. Professor Lee discussed new trends in the international norms on the issue and examined several important cases involving Greece, France, Israel, Korea and a few other countries. He also reviewed the current Korean position on return of cultural properties and made suggestions on how the ROK could craft a mature and balanced approach. If he still held the chairperson position, he would not be free to express many of his insights; as former chairperson is once again allowed the scholastic voicing of his advice and opinions.

Cultural Nationalism vs Cultural Universalism

Cultural nationalism is a nationalism in which the nation is defined by the shared culture within it, and thus focuses on the national identity shaped by cultural traditions and by language, not by concepts of common ancestry or race.

Cultural universalism, also known as human universalism, is a belief that the culture has elements, patterns, traits, institutions that are common to all human cultures worldwide. In Donald Brown's book Human Universals (1991), he defines human universals as comprising "those features of culture, society, language, behavior and psyche for which there are no known exceptions". 

Professor Lee introduces these concepts as being fundamental to addressing the question of identity and state of belongingness to some/many of the treasures pilfered/borrowed/etc from other countries and permanently kept within their own. These concepts are what drive the sense of true ownership to the artifacts in question.

WELL-KNOWN CULTURAL PROPERTY CASES

Possession and ownership of Jewish World War II artifacts

Adele Bloch-Bauer I - Source

The famous oil and gold on canvas painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer (1881-1925) was done by Gustav Klimt in about 1903/4. Adele Bloch-Bauer was an art-loving Vienesse salon lady and a patron and close friend of Gustav Klimt, and she is the only model painted twice by Klimt. Adele died of meningitis in 1925, and in her will requested her husband Friedrich to donate the Klimt painting to the Austrian State Gallery. In 1938 Friedrich as a Jew was forced to flee from the invading Nazis. He died in Zurich in 1945, bequeathing his estate to his nephew and nieces, among whom was Maria Altmann. In 2000 Maria sued Austria in a US court for the ownership of the Adele Bloch-Bauer I painting, and in 2006 was recognized as the rightful owner of the painting. She immediate sold it in August of the same year for $135 million (a record prize for a painting) to Ronald Lauder, son of Estee Lauder, who put it on display in the Neue Galerie in NYC.

Inheriting and immediately selling an artifact after contesting internationally for it based on cultural  ownership raises ethical questions on its true cultural value. As Wikipedia puts it, this return of a cultural item transforms "a story of justice and redemption after the Holocaust" into "yet another tale of crazy, intoxicating market".

GREECE - The Elgin / Parthenon Marbles

Known as the Elgin Marbles in the United Kingdom and marketed as such to the world, the Greeks are denigrated by the name and refer to them as the Parthenon Marbles. The Parthenon Marbles were originally part of the temple of Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis of Athens. Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin, claimed their ownership in 1801 via a controversial permit from the Sublime Porto, which then ruled Greece. He transported them to Britain, and in 1816 sold them to the British Museum where they are still housed. The name Elgin Marbles was applied to them as per the Earl of Elgin who brought them to England; however, the name Elgin has connotations of looting and negativism so the Greeks refer to them as the Parthenon Marbles to reference their greatness and cultural connection.

Elgin Marbles aka Parthenon Marbles in part

In the 1830s Greece won its independence from the Ottoman Empire and has since been wanting the Marbles returned to their home country. Demands for repatriation of the Marbles have been ignored. In the 1930s the Greeks were highly enraged at the Brits for using damaging chemicals on their Parthenon Marbles when trying to clean them. The Greeks had a case in demanding their return since the holding country was not properly caring for the "borrowed" items. 

One of the reasons Britain refuses to return the Parthenon Marbles is because there was no museum to showcase the Marbles. Greece built a museum expressly for housing the Marbles. The Marbles still have not been returned, and this case of cultural property ownership has become a world famous controversial issue. 

In 2014, UNESCO offered to mediate between Greece and the UK, but was turned down by the UK. From December 6, 2014 through January 18, 2015 the British Museum loaned a river-god figure of the Marbles to the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. This was the first time the British Museum lent any of the Marbles and this action caused considerable controversy.

(Wikipedia) "In 2015 the Greek government said that it would no longer pursue legal actions to regain possessions of the Marbles, but it would instead focus on a "diplomatic and political approach". 

ETHIOPIA - Obelisk of Axum

Aksum Obelisk, Tigray Region, Ethiopia
 (aka Rome Stele)

The Obelisk of Axum is 1700 years old, is 24 meters (79 feet) tall, and weighs 160 tones. It is one of the most famous obelisks of Ethiopia and is thought to have been carved and erected during the 4th century A.D. in the Kingdom of Aksum, an ancient Ethiopian civilization. An obelisk or stele is a burial marker for someone of greatness (royalty or nobility based on the height, style, intricacy and pattern, etc) and hundreds of steles exist in "stelae fields" in Ethiopia. The Obelisk of Axum was decorated with two false doors and what appears to be decorative windows on all sides. Like others in the region it had fallen due to seismic activity, military invasions, and general decay. 

When Italian soldiers following the Italian conquest of Ethiopia in 1935 found the Obelisk, it had collapsed and broken into five pieces. As a symbol of birth of the "new Roman Empire", it was transported to Italy and erected in Rome. In a 1947 agreement, Italy agreed to return the stele to Ethiopia, but little action was taken for 50 years because of technical difficulties, the cost of transport and reconstruction which the Italian government said they did not have, and other logistics. Finally through fund-raising, the stele was transported back to Ethiopia and reassembled by a UNESCO team in 2008.

SOUTH KOREA - "Uigwe" or "Royal Protocols"

Front cover of the Odaesan archive
copy of the Uigwe for the funeral of
Empress Myeongsong

Uigwe is the generic name for a vast collection of approximately 3,895 books recording in detail royal rituals and ceremonies of the Joseon Dynasty of the Koreas. Uigwe loosely translates as "book of state rites" or more conceptually correct as "Royal Protocols". This vast collection of state records was inscribed in UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme in 2007.

In 1782 the Oegyujanggak Library was built in the ancient royal palace on Ganghwa Island to accommodate the overflow of books from the main Gyujanggak Library at Changdeokgung Palace in Seoul. In 1866, French expeditionary forces came from China to seek explanations concerning a number of executions of French Catholic missionaries in Korea. Unable to gain access to authorities, the French attacked Ganghwa Island and seized the royal books and a vast number of other artifacts. In 1975, a Korean scholar Park Byeong-sen discovered the Uigwe while working as a librarian.

The books were requested for return in 1992. In 1993 one book was returned with the promised to return the remaining collection. However, since French law prohibits nationals assets to be transferred abroad, South Korea tried to retrieve the documents through a permanent lease. After a series of long disputes and negotiations, in 2011 297 volumes of 191 different Uigwes were returned to South Korea on a five-year renewable loan basis. There is little doubt in many scholars minds that the Uigwe will permanently remain in their country of origin and the "lease" is just a semantic for their permanent return.

Similarly in 1922, during the Japanese colonial period, Japan also took many of the Uigwe and other relics to the University of Tokyo. In 2010, Japan released five copies to mark the centenary of Japan's annexation of Korean and to affirm peaceful relations between the two countries. 1,200 volumes including 150 Uigwe were permanently returned in 2011.

SOUTH KOREA - Buddha of the Kannon-ji

The buddhas stolen from the Kannon-ji temple in Tsushima city.
The Kannon Buddha is on the right.

In 2012, a Bodhisattva Kannon (or Guanyin) statue was stolen from the Kannon-ji temple in Tsushima city, Nagasaki by a Korean man. There is little dispute that the Buddha is of Korean origin, but the question remains how the Japanese temple secured the Buddha and was it through legitimate means. On February 26, 2013 the Daejeon district court in Korea gave a provisional ruling stating that until the temple could prove that the statue was acquired honestly, the Korean government would not return it to the Japanese. This provisional ruling is causing diplomatic friction between the two countries, particularly as the Buddha is a statue of "Kannon Observing the Cries of the World" and is designated a cultural treasure of Nagasaki Prefecture. The man stealing the Buddha and other statues was arrested by Korean police, but following his arrest a group of citizens insisted that the Buddha was made at Pusok-sa temple in South Chuncheong Province, and accordingly filed an action requesting its return to the temple. The district court ruling is not absolute, and a review is taking place to determine if the judgement is valid under international law.

OTHER CLAIMS FOR CULTURAL REPATRIATION

CHINA - 12 zodiac bronze statues looted from the Old Summer Palace

tap to enlarge - source

In 1860 during the Second Opium War, British and French expeditionary forces looted the treasures of the Old Summer Palace, China. Among the looted treasures were the highly admired 12 bronze Chinese zodiac statues of the water clock fountain that would spout water to tell the time. In recent years there have been many attempts to repatriate Chinese art and cultural artifacts. However, only seven of the treasured 12 zodiac icons have been recovered, five of them bought at auction. The two most recent acquisitions, the rat and the rabbit, were acquired via a controversial auction in 2009 in which the buyer, a wealthy Chinese man, won the auction then refused to pay. They were purchased for $40 million and donated to the Chinese government in 2013. There are yet five more needing to repatriated to their home country.

NEW ZEALAND - repatriation of human remains

France recently returned indigenous cultural artifacts to New Zealand. The Karanga Aotearoa Repatriation Programme, established in partnership between Maori and the New Zealand government in 2003 and with the passing of a repatriation of human remain laws in Europe (2007) has since been able to have over 350 Maori and Moriori ancestral remains repatriated to Aoteroa New Zealand.

IRAQ - pillage of Baghdad National Museum

In 2003 the Baghdad National Museum was pillaged during an invasion. More than 170,000 items were said to have been pillaged, smashed, confiscated, a large portion of Iraq's tangible culture. In 2006 some cultural items were gathered, returned or retrieved from hiding and the museum was reopened. In 2015, due to international efforts the museum was able to recover in part some of the ancient artifacts. However, much of the culture has been permanently lost or is still needing to be repatriated.

ARGUMENTS OVER THE RETURN OF CULTURAL OBJECTS

The issue of return was forcefully raised and pursued in the 1970s, known as the "age of decolonization", which lead to the establishment of the ICPRCP (Inter-governmental Committee Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin). 

Arguments for the return of cultural artifacts: 

• Cultural objects achieve their maximum value and significance in their "original context"
• Right of cultural self-determination (right to cultural self-identity)
• Effective ways to address the "unfortunate past" of colonization

Arguments against the return of cultural artifacts:

• Cultural objects in question have been "naturalized" or assumed a "universal" significance (the idea of the "universal museum")
• In terms of inter-temporal law, the transfer of the objects was, at least technically, "legal"
• Concern of the "domino effect"

Other hurdles:

• The veneer of technical legality (purchase, exchange, donation, etc)
• Passage of long time
• Rule of bona fide purchase
• Weak negotiation power of the "victim states"

EXTENT OF and CRITERIA FOR RETURN CLAIMS

Extent of claims - not all cultural property displaced during colonial domination should be the objects of return claims

Criteria for return claims:

• Cultural objects with substantial significance for the cultural identity of former colonies
• Heightened illegality involved in the taking of the cultural property
• Utilization of the cultural property in a humiliating manner
• Conspicuous asymmetry in terms of context-appropriateness

SUGGESTIONS FOR KOREA

Heightened interest in the issue in Korean society

• recent examples of repatriation

• keen interest in the issue on the part of the Korean government and civil society as represented by various NGOs

Establishment of the "Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation" (July 2012) 

Need for an epistemological equilibrium between cultural nationalism and cultural internationalism/universalism

• It is expected that Korea will contribute to the articulation of an inter-subjective discourse that duly takes account of the sufferings inflicted on the colonized peoples and, at the same time, orients itself to future cooperation.

________________________________________________

Prof. Lee received an LL.B. from Seoul National University, an LL.M from Georgetown University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. He teaches Public International Law, History and Theory of International Law, and the Law of the Sea at Seoul National University. In the summer of 2010 he served as Director of Studies at the Hague Academy of International Law, and he previously taught at the ROK Naval Academy, the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, and the School of Law at the University of Hawaii.

Impressions of Pansori in Guyre

When I first received the invitation to go to Guyre as a journalist to report on the pansori festival, I was very hesitant. Although I am an anthropologist, I am not an ethnomusicologist, and have had little interest in defining people’s culture by their music. I had previously visited Guyre and the attraction to it was based on other cultural interests: Guyre is a key path to the phenomenal beauty of Jirisan, and I love hiking. Guyre is famous for mountain vegetables, I am particularly interested in nutritional anthropology, and Guyre is the most famous of the four cities in the Longevity Belt where centenarians are listed as assets to the city, and I have done research on aging and society. But to go to Guyre as a music journalist, particularly on the traditional music form of pansori, really made me feel uncomfortable as I had little knowledge on it to draw from.

I accepted through pressure of the visiting American photographer for Korean Quarterly, Stephen Wunrow, who continually said he was not a writer but a visual artist and, though I was limited in knowledge, I would just be reporting on the facts of the occasion. I was grudgingly persuaded, and am very glad that I was. Music certainly is a driving force in society, a force I had little paid attention to in the past. In Guyre it is part of the pulse of the city. Samulnori and pansori were both birthed in the precincts of Guyre. They are dynamic music styles that need an audience to interact with, and with the audience the music becomes a shared communal experience of story-telling to cadence and emotional release.

The festival was primarily dedicated to pansori, and the more I listened to the singers and watched the dramatic styles of the various drummers, the more I felt charged with their vocal and percussion energy. With shouts of eolssigu (얼씨구), jo~da (좋~다), and jalhanda (잘헌다) from the audience, I too began to be carried along with the emotions of the singers and their connected audience. And although the full story escaped me, I was able to understand some fragmented phrases and feel the joy, sorrow and despair woven into the music. I can now see that singing and even listening to pansori is a very cathartic experience.

The pansori festival opened with a soul cleansing ceremony before the unveiling of a commemorative shrine to a pansori master, more specifically, a gayageum player. This ceremony in itself was a culture experience for in the West, we are very unlikely to laud a musician posthumously and even more unlikely to hold a ceremony for him or her and dedicate a statue in memory of his or her performance. These actions really defined for me the high value that Koreans place in music and performance. 

However, since it is obvious that Koreans regard music so highly and that Guyre is the birthplace of pansori, it is very odd to me that Namwon is where the large shrines to pansori memorial singers are located other than the few at the Pansori Heritage Center. The concept of "hometown" is very important in Korea, and yet, the hometown of pansori is not the place where pansori is most commemorated. This strikes me as very ironic.

In any regard, at the end of my two days in Guyre surrounded by pansori music, I realized that music is such a vital part of the Korean culture and is essential for me to understand in order to better understand Korea itself. While I don't ever see myself becoming an ethnomusicologist, I do now have some understanding of the value of pansori and can even shout out a heart-felt jo~da (조~다) or eolssigu (얼씨구) to show my solidarity with the singer and the audience.

By journalist Cheryl Magnant, MA, MA

Cheryl Magnant holds two master’s—one in English linguistics and the second in anthropology. She has lived in Korea off and on since 1991 and is currently teaching at Korea University.  She thoroughly loves living in Korea.

[Published in Korean Quarterly, Vol 18, No 2, Winter 2015, p 62]

[Published in 구례 소식,  구례군, 2014 겨울, 재162호, p 40-41, translated by Younsook Shin]