2005-2162 The Buddha’s birthday illuminates Seoul

Opening a communicative space 

between Korea and the world 

ISSN: 2005-2162 

The Buddha’s birthday 

illuminates Seoul 

Songs from the Korean soul to the world’s ears 

A buried love resurfaces at last 

5 

MAY 

2009 

www.korea.net

CONTENTS 

May 2009 

VOL. 9 / NO. 5 

6 22 52 

35 

Cover Photo 

Paper alnterns in the 

Sangdoseonwon 

Temple. 

Photo by JoongAng Ilbo 

Publisher 

Yoo Jin-hwan 

Korean Culture and 

Information Service 

Chief Editor 

Ko Hye-ryun 

Editing & Printing 

JoongAng Daily 

E-mail 

webmaster@korea.net 

Design 

JoongAng Daily 

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발간등록번호: 11-1110073-000016-06 

06 

Cover Story 

• Buddha’s Birthday festivities illuminate Seoul 

12 Diplomacy 

• G-20 nations to cooperate for economic recovery 

16 

20 

Global Korea 

• Joint technical training center opens in Guatemalan 

capital 

• Charity’s hiking dentists save Himalayan mouths 

• Korean experts build water system in Ethiopia 

• The Korean Wave roars along the old Silk Road. 

Green Growth 

• Fresh wind blows in Seokbo 

• One powerful little flower 

22 Culture 

• Songs from the Korean soul to the world’s ears 

• Updating a moving musical tradition 

• Art as fraud, art as history: 

Kang Ik-joong’s child-world 

30 

Korean Literature 

• Hwang Seok-yeong: A life of struggle 

against injustice 

34 Book 

• Seeing Buddha in Korean eyes 

35 

40 

Human Story 

• A buried love resurfaces at last 

Korea through the Lens 

• First Ladies, Dance with Drums, spring and 

sprays in the subway... 

44 Travel 

• Ascension from the sea 

48 

Series: Strategies for Growth 

• Blueprint for final success in world content 

market 

51 

Hidden Champion 

• Staying on top of fabric takes latest technology 

52 Sports 

• Sellout crowds for KBO on opening day 

• Korea’s girl of many firsts 

• A traveling festival to sell Koreans on biking 

for work and pleasure 

58 Design 

• A new eco-friendly era begins at Korean 

carmakers 

62 People 

• Literature: the key to understanding 

• Grappling with abuse on film 

• A man and his Old Partner 

66 

Foreign Viewpoints 

• John M. Frankl: Back to a life of many cultures 

4 korea May 2009 May 2009 korea 5

Cover Story 

A luminary’s party 

enlightens Seoul 

Korea’s capital celebrates the birthday of the Buddha 

with a lantern parade of thousands and exquisite artwork 

T 

he street of Jongno in central 

Seoul turned into a river of 

glowing lanterns on April 26 

as thousands of people 

marched in celebration of the Buddha’s 

Birthday, which falls on May 2 this year. 

The parade was the highlight of the 

Lotus Lantern Festival, which was held 

from April 24 to 26. It started from 

north and south of the city center — at 

Dongguk University and Dongdaemun 

— and continued up Jongno until it 

reached Jogye Temple, home of the biggest 

Buddhist sect in Korea. Since Buddha’s 

Birthday became a national holiday 

in 1975, the parade has taken place 

on the eighth day of the fourth month of 

the lunar calendar each year. 

Every year, over 100,000 lotus lanterns 

of different shapes illuminate the 

street, while more than 300,000 spectators 

and participants, including monks 

and performers from Buddhist countries 

in Southeast Asia, gather. The lanterns 

are also hung at temples and along 

streets in many parts of the country. 

The elaborate lamps are made of 

hanji, or mulberry paper. For believers, 

the illumination of the lanterns symbolizes 

the enlightenment of the Buddha. 

Although the parade is just over 

three decades old, the origin of the lotus 

lantern dates back to 1,000 years ago. It’s 

first mentioned in Samguk Yusa, or History 

of the Three Kingdoms, written by 

the priest Ilyeon, who noted that the 

kings of Unified Silla saw a lotus lantern 

at Hwangnyong Temple. 

The Goryeosa, or History of Goryeo, 

also records a lotus lantern celebration 

at temples and palaces across the nation 

during the Goryeo Dynasty, which recognized 

Buddhism as the state religion. 

The tradition was reborn as a festival 

in modern times. In the first few years 

after its recognition as a holiday, large 

crowds started gathering at a lotus lantern 

event at Dongguk University. To 

accommodate them, the venue of the 

festival was moved in 1976 to Yeouido, 

from where people marched to Jongno. 

In 1996, the event was given the name 

Lotus Lantern Festival, and the parade 

route was changed, to proceed from 

Dongdaemun to Jogye. This was when 

the festival turned into an event for all: 

Buddhists and non-believers. 

There are even a growing number of 

international participants. At a street 

fair, monks and performers from 10 

Buddhist nations, including Sri Lanka, 

Nepal, Thailand, Mongolia, Bangladesh, 

Visitors enjoy colorful 

lighted sculptures on 

Cheonggye Stream in 

downtown Seoul. 

[JoongAng Ilbo] 

6 korea May 2009 

May 2009 korea 7

Buddha’s Birthday: A luminary’s party enlightens Seoul 

Cover Story 

Cambodia, Taiwan, India and Tibet, set up booths and 

shared their traditional customs and music. 

Hundreds of foreign visitors enjoyed crafting lotus 

lanterns, eating temple food, copying Buddhist sutras 

and trying Buddhist painting and traditional games. 

Korean Buddhism has a long history. Through 

China, Buddhism arrived in Goguryeo, one of the 

three ancient Korean kingdoms, in A.D. 372. About a 

decade later, it spread south to another Korean kingdom, 

Baekje. It finally landed in Silla about a century 

later. Buddhism was at its peak during the Silla and the 

Unified Silla dynasties (57 B.C. to A.D. 935), but its 

followers were persecuted under the Confucian Joseon 

Dynasty (1392 to 1910). 

During the Joseon period, Buddhists lost their 

power and their assets were confiscated. Monks were 

treated as second-class citizens and temples were driven 

out of city centers into the mountains. This persecution 

lasted five centuries. But it could not destroy the 

legacy of treasures left by 1,600 years of Buddhism on 

the Korean Peninsula. In fact, over 70 percent of Korean 

cultural properties are related to Buddhism. 

The Three Kingdoms (57 B.C. to A.D. 668) and the 

Unified Silla (668 to 935) were crucial periods during 

which the foundation of Korean Buddhism was being 

laid. Silla especially elevated Korean Buddhist culture 

to a new level, represented by Seokgatap, a stone pagoda 

at Bulguk Temple that is considered one of Korea’s 

finest. Around the time Silla unified the peninsula, 

Buddhist culture fully blossomed. Countless temples, 

pagodas and monuments arose around the capital 

Gyeongju. Among them are Seokguram Grotto and 

Bulguk Temple, both Unesco World Heritage sites. 

The Goryeo Dynasty (918 to 1392) succeeded Silla 

and embraced Buddhism as a state religion. Zen flourished 

during this period. Jinul (1158 to 1210), one of 

Goryeo’s most revered monks, was a Zen master. If 

Silla embodied Korean Buddhist art, Goryeo laid the 

philosophical foundation of Korean Buddhism, represented 

by the Jogye Order, firmly based on Zen. 

Goryeo produced a number of great monks in 

addition to Jinul. Ilyeon (1206 to 1289), the author of 

Samgukyusa, deserves special mention for his irreplaceable 

record of ancient Korean history. 

Another notable achievement in that period is the 

Tripitaka Koreana, or Palman Daejanggyeong. This 

Goryeo-era collection of scriptures is on the Unesco 

World Heritage list. It is the world’s oldest extant Buddhist 

canon in Chinese and the most comprehensive 

woodblock edition of Buddhist scripture ever made. 

The Tripitaka Koreana was produced during the 

Mongol invasions of the early 13th century. The huge 

project was undertaken in the hope that Buddha would 

have mercy and help expel the Mongolian army. 

After enjoying the privileges of a state religion for 

nearly 1,000 years, Korean Buddhism suffered a long 

decline during the Joseon Dynasty. Buddhist monks, 

who had been treated as aristocrats in Goryeo, were 

demoted to the level of shamans and butchers, the 

lowest class in Joseon. They were even banned from 

entering the fortress walls of Korean cities. 

But even this oppression could not crush Korean 

Buddhism. A number of monks contributed to Joseon 

by defending the country during war and the Japanese 

occupation. The Venerable Seosan (1520 to 1604) was 

probably one of the most distinguished figures in the 

history of Joseon Buddhism. He earned his reputation 

by successfully leading a monks’ army, with other 

famous monks including Samyeongdang and Yeonggyu, 

during the Japanese invasions from 1592 to 1598. 

Seosan also created an important doctrine continued 

in modern Korean Buddhism, “sagyo ipseon,” meaning 

“Finish scriptural study to enter Zen.” 

Monks also struggled against Japanese occupation 

from 1910 to 1945. Manhae (1879 to 1944), whose 

secular name was Han Yong-un, was the key figure in 

Korean Buddhism from the final years of Joseon 

through the colonial period. He was one of the 33 

nationalist leaders who signed the Korean Declaration 

of Independence that launched the nationwide liberation 

movement on March 1, 1919. 

Despite these constant national struggles, Korean 

Buddhism was influenced by Japanese Buddhism. 

Most notoriously, Korean monks were encouraged to 

abandon celibacy and marry, following the Japanese 

Buddhist custom. As a result, married monks accounted 

for over 90 percent of new Buddhist clergy toward 

[Press Q] 

Clockwise from left: 

Overseas visitors fold paper 

lotuses; the festivities at 

Bongeun Temple bathe 

southern Seoul in a warm 

glow; a family looks on, 

paper flowers grapsed tight, 

and crowds parade through 

the city carrying lanterns 

and pulling floats depicting 

Buddhist saints and symbols. 


May 2009 korea 9

Buddha’s Birthday: A luminary’s party enlightens Seoul 

Cover Story 

Overcoming division 

to live the saintly life 

the end of the colonial period. 

After liberation from Japan, Korean Buddhism fell 

into a confused and bitter struggle between married 

and unmarried monks. Violent clashes between sects 

made headlines. 

Korean Buddhism did not return to its former 

prestige until the mid-1990s. Strong reform efforts 

eventually put an end to internal power struggles in 

the Jogye Order, the biggest Buddhist sect in the country. 

In the wake of the reforms, the number of adherents 

has been rising, albeit slowly. 

Korean Buddhism has a history of 1,700 years, and 

it has had tremendous effects on Korean society and 

development. Buddhism is also the biggest religion in 

terms of number of believers in the country. 

Of the over 48 million Koreans, 53.9 percent 

believe in a religion as of 2003, with 97.5 percent of 

them counting themselves as members of major religions 

such as Buddhism, Protestantism and Catholicism. 

Buddhism has the largest number of followers, 

12 million, of all religions in the country. There are 

now over 25 Buddhist sects in Korea, but nationally 

Korean Buddhism is synonymous with the Jogye 

Order, the biggest sect, based on Zen. 

Zen Buddhism arrived from China at the end of 

the Unified Silla Dyansty, but the Jogye sect only took 

form later, during the Goryeo Dynasty. Though Jogye 

was dissolved during amid the persecution of the 

Joseon Dynasty, it was re-established in 1941 in an 

effort to separate Korean Buddhism from Japanese 

Buddhism, becoming the first officially recognized 

Buddhist sect in Korea. 

The Jogye Order has a total of 12,000 monks and 

1,800 temples officially registered in 

the country. Ninety percent 

of Korea’s 870 temples recognized 

by the government as 

historic belong to the 

Jogye Order. It also has 

90 monasteries and 

1,500 would-be monks 

studying at 17 Buddhist 

colleges run by the sect. 

The order also runs one elementary school, 10 middle 

schools, 11 high schools and two universities. Dongguk 

University, one of the few Buddhist universities in 

the world, was founded in 1906 and has over 20,000 

students. 

The Jogye Order has also been at the forefront of 

the propagation of Korean Buddhism around the 

world. Masters including the Venerable Seung Sahn 

and the Venerable Gu San spearheaded the effort, 

which has helped Jogye expand. The sect now runs 136 

temples outside Korea: 84 in the United States and 

Canada, six in Europe, seven in Latin America, seven 

in the Pacific region and 32 in Asia. Some 120 non- 

Korean monks have been ordained in the Jogye 

Order. 

An official at the order said Korean Buddhism’s 

strength is that it continues the traditions of Zen Buddhism. 

“There are few countries where the Buddhist world 

is as well organized as in Korea,” said Hong Min-suk, 

a manager of the social affairs department at the Jogye 

Order. 

Hong said China lost much of its Buddhist heritage 

because of communism, while Buddhism is not as 

closely embedded in the lives of people in Japan. 

Temple stay programs have become one of the 

main tools to spread Korean Buddhism to foreign 

visitors, and to Koreans as well. There are over 100 

temples in the country offering temple stay programs, 

and, since 2002, they have been promoted as a way for 

foreign tourists to experience Korean culture up 

close. 

Temples in major cities as well as in remote mountains 

provide the programs. Nine temples in Seoul 

participate, including Myogak Temple, Bongeun Temple 

and Gilsang Temple. Last year alone, over 2,000 

Koreans and more than 700 visitors from overseas 

took part in the weekend programs provided by Myogak 

in Jongno District, Seoul. 

The main part of the weekend programs, which 

usually start on Saturday afternoon, consists of striking 

a bell, bowing to Buddha, Zen meditation and 

mountain hiking in the early morning on Sunday. 

By Limb Jae-un 

Enlightenment is a Big Mistake” 

may seem an unlikely title for 

“Wanting 

a Buddhist book. But Hyon Gak is 

no ordinary Korean monk. 

In his new book, released in March, the blue-eyed 

Hyon Gak writes about the shock he felt when he met 

the Venerable Seung Sahn, as well as tales about his 

relationship with his late master. 

Hyon Gak is the author of the best-selling book, 

“Manhaeng: From Harvard to Hwagye Temple.” He 

became the first foreign head priest of a Korean temple 

in 2001 when he was named chief of Hyeonjeong 

temple in Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang. 

“When I was at Harvard, I listened to the Venerable 

Seung Sahn giving Buddhist teachings,” Hyon 

Gak said. “I was taken aback. I was so moved that I 

cried all night, almost every night. I was very thankful 

that such teachings exist in the world.” 

Hyon Gak took a one-year leave from Harvard. 

He moved to Korea in November 1990 and trained 

in Zen practice at Shinwon Temple on Mount Gyeryong 

in South Chungcheong Province. 

Hyon Gak returned to Harvard after he finished 

training, but he had no interest in studying. “It was 

not fun to read books. I read books as one reads 

menus,” he said. “People do not look at the menu 

once they have started eating.” 

Later, he wrote a thesis based on Seung Sahn’s 

teachings. Masatoshi Nagatomi, a Buddhist scholar 

who taught at Harvard and guided Hyon Gak, passed 

the thesis to a publisher of Buddhist books, which 

released it in the United States two years ago. 

Hyon Gak also spoke of Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, 

Korea’s first cardinal, who passed away in February. 

He said he met Cardinal Kim once, in New York. 

“I wanted to meet him personally,” Hyon Gak 

said. “We drank tea at a Korean cathedral in New 

York. I felt like I was talking to a venerable Buddhist 

monk. I felt like I had known him for a long time.” 

“I told him that once I had wanted to become a 

Catholic priest,” Hyon Gak said. “Cardinal Kim told 

me he was sorry that someone like me left church. 

But I told him that I never left church.” 

“Then he turned around and looked at me attentively. 

And he smiled at me,” Hyon Gak said. “I knew 

that he understood me.” 

Though they never met, Hyon Gak was at Harvard 

at the same time as President Barack Obama. He 

said Obama has the heart of a Buddhist saint. 

“Obama is biracial and was once an outsider,” he 

said. “That doesn’t come from one’s head but originates 

from one’s experience.” 

Finally, Hyon Gak said, monk or not, people 

should live a life of giving. 

Hyon Gak 

[YONHAP] 


May 2009 korea 11

Diplomacy 

G-20 nations to cooperate 

for world economic recovery 

In London, leaders agree to oppose protectionism, spend on stimulus 


President Lee Myung-bak 

(front, far left) poses with 

other leaders of G-20 countries 

at an economic summit 

in London last month. 

Leaders of the world’s most powerful economies 

gathered in London on April 2 to set a 

road map to recovery amidst the worst economic 

downturn since the Great Depression 

of the 1930s. At the G-20 financial summit, the leaders 

hammered out a clear-cut, goal-specific agreement to 

fight the financial crisis. 

Addressing journalists after the G-20 summit, 

President Lee Myung-bak said the gathering of the 

world leaders was a success. “Each nation has diverse 

opinions, but British Prime Minister Gordon Brown 

worked very hard to narrow down the differences and 

coordinate the positions,” Lee said. “As a result, we 

have forged an agreement from diverse positions.” 

He went on to say that it is historically meaningful 

that emerging and advanced economies gathered and 

hammered out an agreement. “If this agreement is successfully 

implemented, it will be remembered as an 

example of how an unprecedented crisis can be resolved 

through international cooperation,” he added. 

During the summit, President Lee stressed the 

importance of coordinating the macroeconomic policies 

of the major economies and stopping the spread 

of trade and investment protectionism amidst a worsening 

economic crisis. 

It was not the first time Lee’s efforts to prevent the 

spread of protectionism had gained the support of 

world leaders. At the first G-20 financial summit in 

Washington, D.C. in November last year, Lee proposed 

a “standstill” commitment, urging member nations 

not to erect any new trade and investment barriers. 

The proposal gained support and was included in 

the declaration signed by G-20 leaders at the end of the 

Washington meeting. At the London meeting, G-20 

leaders extended their support for Korea’s proposal to 

expand the “standstill” commitment to not just trade 

and investment but also the financial industry. 

At the London summit, a further accord was 

reached on the need to reform international financial 

institutions, promote global trade and investment and 

reject protectionism. 

The so-called standstill commitment agreed upon 

at the November summit in Washington to prevent 

any new trade barriers will be extended for another 

year, leaders agreed. Following South Korea’s initiative, 

the World Trade Organization was given the authority 

to monitor measures around the world that restrict 

trade and release quarterly reports on the issue. 

May 2009 korea 13

Diplomacy 

U.S. President Barack 

Obama talks with President 

Lee Myung-bak. 

President Lee shakes hands 

with Chinese President Hu 

Jintao. 

The leaders also agreed that in cooperation 

with the International Monetary 

Fund, the G-20 economies would monitor 

their macroeconomic policies. 

“The two agreements were actively 

pushed by South Korea,” Seoul’s Foreign 

Ministry said. “Since the Washington 

summit, global economies have formed 

a regime to reform and regulate the 

financial market, but the world did not 

have a sufficient system to coordinate 

macroeconomic policies and implement 

a ‘standstill’ commitment to 

stop protectionism. That’s why 

South Korea consistently pointed 

out these issues at this meeting and 

led an initiative to create these systems.” 

The key agreement reached at 

the G-20 summit for sweeping fiscal 

expansion and financial regulation 

reform called for $1.1 trillion 

to be pumped into the global financial 

system and for $5 trillion to be spent by 

the end of next year on fiscal stimulus 

measures. The leaders also agreed to 

increase the resources available to the 

IMF by $500 billion, to support a new 

Special Drawing Right allocation of 

$250 billion, to support at least $100 billion 

of additional lending by multilateral 

development banks and to ensure 

$250 billion of support for trade 

finance. 

The leaders also agreed to establish 

a new Financial Stability Board to 

strengthen financial supervision and 

regulation. The board will be a successor 

to the Financial Stability Forum, of 

which Korea recently became a member. 

“The FSB should collaborate with 

the IMF to provide early warning of 

macroeconomic and financial risks and 

the actions needed to address them,” the 

leaders agreed. 

In efforts to overcome the economic crisis, G-20 

nations each implemented various economic stimulus 

measures, but their macroeconomic policies have had 

little effect due to the insecurity of the financial markets. 

In order to stabilize the market and hasten economic 

recovery, handling toxic financial assets is the 

key issue, President Lee told the world leaders. 

As a member of the G-20 “troika,” Korea actively 

participated in setting the agenda and establishing 

principles on how economies can successfully clean up 

toxic assets. Lee shared with other world leaders how 

Korea had successfully disposed of bad finances in the 

aftermath of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, making 

a major contribution to the G-20 agreement on 

cleaning up toxic assets. 

The G-20 leaders also agreed to meet again before 

the end of this year to follow up on the implementation 

of what was agreed upon at the London summit. 

Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said this commitment proves 

the G-20 summit has become an established framework 

for global governance. 

“Korea will host the G-20 summit next year, and 

we will further our contribution to develop the G-20 

meeting to serve as an effective regime for resolving 

global issues,” Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said. 

On the sidelines of the G-20 summit, Lee also met 

with Korea’s key neighbors to discuss pending bilateral 

issues and global matters. 

Just before the official opening of the multilateral 

meeting, Lee met with U.S. President Barack Obama 

for their first bilateral summit and addressed efforts to 

fight the financial crisis, the U.S.-Korea alliance, the 

North Korea threats and other matters. 

At the meeting, the two leaders reaffirmed their 

commitment to the alliance between Korea and the 

United States, which has lasted over a half-century. 

The summit took place on the eve of North Korea’s 

threatened long-range rocket launch, and Lee and 

Obama agreed to take serious and coordinated action 

with the international community to counter Pyongyang’s 

provocative stance. 

Presidents Lee and Obama agreed that the international 

community must act in unison to respond to a 

North Korean rocket launch, possibly referring the 

matter to the United Nations Security Council, said 

Lee’s spokesman, Lee Dong-kwan. 

At the meeting, they also reaffirmed their commitment 

to rid North Korea of nuclear arms. 

Lee and Obama also agreed to move the stalled 

U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement forward, the 

Blue House said. 

In a January 

summit in 

Seoul, Aso 

and Lee put 

aside disputes 

to focus on 

the economy. 

President Lee shakes hands 

with British Prime Minister 

Gordon Brown. 

The U.S. president thanked Korea 

for its support in trying to stabilize wartorn 

Afghanistan. The Blue House said 

Lee and Obama agreed to cooperate in 

the reconstruction of Afghanistan and 

aid to Pakistan. 

Obama invited Lee to visit Washington, 

and Lee accepted the offer. The next 

Korea-U.S. summit is scheduled for 

June 16, and Obama also agreed to visit 

Korea in the near future. 

Lee also met with his British, Japanese, 

Australian and Chinese counterparts 

on the sidelines of the G-20 summit. 

During the meeting between Lee 

and British Prime Minister Gordon 

Brown, the two leaders agreed to expand 

their cooperation to fight climate change 

and seek green growth. They also discussed 

efforts to conclude the Korea-EU 

free trade agreement and coordinate 

their responses to the North’s rocket 

launch. 

Taro Aso, the Japanese prime minister, 

met with Lee on April 1, reaffirming 

their cooperation to counter the North’s 

provocations. 

North Korea and efforts to fight the 

global economic and financial crisis 

were also on the agenda at a meeting 

between Lee and Australian Prime Minister 

Kevin Rudd in the afternoon the 

same day. 

They also agreed to continue with 

efforts to develop the two nations’ 

friendship and move forward with 

negotiations for a bilateral free 

trade accord. 

Lee met with Chinese President 

Hu Jintao on April 3. At the 

meeting, the two leaders expressed 

satisfaction that South Korea and 

China’s strategic cooperative partnership 

is developing smoothly. 

They also agreed that the North’s 

rocket launch would have a negative 

impact on the peace and stability of 

Northeast Asia. They pledged cooperation 

for complete, verifiable dismantlement 

of the North’s nuclear 

arms program. By Ser Myo-ja 


Global Korea 

Jang Si-jung, vice 

president of Koica, and 

Guatemalan Vice President 

Rafael Espada shake 

hands (right) at the 

center’s official opening 

on March 18. 

Provided by KOICA 

Charity’s hiking dentists 

save Himalayan mouths 

The Purme 

Foundation 

in Nepal 

Joint technical training center 

opens in Guatemalan capital 

Anew training center in Guatemala 

is emblematic of Korean 

KOICA 

efforts to share technical 

in Guatemala 

knowledge around the world. 

After three years under construction, 

the largest information and communications 

technology, or ICT, training center 

in Central America opened on March 18 

in Guatemala City, Guatemala. 

The Korea-Guatemala ICT Training 

Center, built with the technical assistance of 

the Korea International Cooperation Agency, is a 

seven-story building where computer classes are conducted 

for Guatemalan government officials, corporate 

workers and ordinary citizens. 

Though Guatemala is steadily developing its information 

and communications technology, many people 

in Central American nations are still unfamiliar with 

how to use the Internet and other computer program 

tools, according to a Koica official. 

So, at the request of the Guatemalan government, 

Koica launched the training center project with a grant 

of $2.5 million in February 2006. 

The Guatemalan government, which intended to 

spend another $2.5 million from its own budget on the 

center, increased the amount to $3.5 million, since 

fostering human resource development and information 

and communications technology are two of its 

four major development goals. 

“Originally planned to have four stories, the center 

turned into a seven-story building with the additional 

funding. This reflects how the Guatemalan government 

wanted to improve its ICT infrastructure,” said 

Kim Jung-hoon, media relations officer at Koica. 

Koica not only supervised construction of the center, 

but also dispatched IT specialists to install computers 

and software. In summer 2007, training sessions 

were offered in Korea for Guatemalan administrators 

and instructors to help them efficiently manage and 

operate the training center. 

At an opening ceremony attended by over 500 dignitaries, 

Guatemala’s Vice President Rafael Espada 

said, “Science and technology are valuable tools, and 

are essential in promoting orderly development and 

growth for the country and the region.” 

“I am very grateful to Korea for its friendship with 

our country and for sharing with Guatemala the 

advances in technology that have improved the quality 

of life of Koreans,” Espada said. 

Kim said the center, located at the Calle del Estadio 

Mateo Flores in the Guatemalan capital, currently 

offers classes to nearly 700 trainees on topics that 

include using the Internet, databases, application 

development, operating systems, networks and 3-D 

animation. “Koica hopes that the establishment of the 

ICT center will allow the Guatemalan government to 

achieve its goal, taking the lead in the standards of IT 

training centers in Central America,” Kim commented. 

“When word of the state-of-the-art facility spreads 

across Central America, Koica will be getting more 

requests from other countries for technical aid,” he 

predicted. “This will naturally help spread Korean IT 

know-how to other countries, which as a result will 

raise Korea’s international status and strengthen its 

international cooperation.” By Kim Mi-ju 

Provided by the Purme Foundation 

It was a climb difficult to enjoy. Trudging up a trail 

at 3,450 meters above sea level left a few in the 

group ill from the altitude. But these dentists had 

a mission to accomplish, and one of them, Jung 

Tae-young, even called it a “gratifying experience” and 

is certain he will be back on this trail again. 

The group of 27 dentists, nurses and volunteers 

were in northeast Nepal in late January as part of a 

medical outreach program established by the Korean 

Purme Foundation, which works to help the disabled. 

The two-day hike was part of an eight-day itinerary. 

Their goal: Namche Bazaar, the gateway to Mount 

Everest, where the Seoul-based foundation launched a 

temporary free dental clinic, its first abroad. 

“We plan to revisit the same village periodically so 

that we can see the progress in the condition of the 

locals’ teeth,” said Jung, who is a team head at Purme. 

“That way we are really contributing continuous aid.” 

The only dental clinic in Namche Bazaar closes in 

the winter. When Purme’s outreach team started its 

free temporary service, local residents said they walked 

for days to line up and receive help. On Jan. 25, Purme 

volunteers extracted 162 teeth and taught 273 how to 

brush their teeth, according to their records. 

Dr. Seok Do-jun, left, and 

college student volunteer 

Chun Han treat a young 

dental patient. 

Dr. Lee Geum-suk, a dental professor, was one of 

the volunteers. She saw that the local residents who 

had received higher education, and those who worked 

as trekking guides, had better teeth than the less educated. 

She said she was concerned to find a woman 

who appeared from her teeth to be in her 60s was actually 

only in her late 30s. The widespread habit of chewing 

tobacco was another factor contributing to the 

situation, she noted. 

The trip was spearheaded by a dental service arm 

run by Purme. The foundation explained that it plans 

to expand the service into other medical fields as well, 

replicating its rehabilitation centers for the disabled in 

Seoul abroad. 

The Purme Foundation is the brainchild of Whang 

Hye Kyung, who had one leg amputated after a traffic 

accident 10 years ago in Britain, and created it after 

discovering that Korea lacked the facilities to look after 

the disabled properly. When her British insurance 

company paid her claim, she used 100 million won 

($75,216) of it to establish the Purme Foundation in 

2005 to help others like her. Her foundation is now 

raising funds to build a rehabilitation hospital with 50 

beds within this year. By Lee Min-ah 


Global Korea 

KOICA 

in Ethiopia 


Ethiopia helped Korea during the Korean War, 

and now it’s returning the favor. 

Tsegay Berhe, the president of the state of 

Tigray in northern Ethiopia, thanked Korean 

Ambassador to Ethiopia Chung Soon-suk for a water 

supply project provided by the Korea International 

Cooperation Agency. 

The $1.75 million project, which began in June 

2007, was completed on Jan. 24 in one of Tigray’s arid 

regions, Kilte Aullalo Woreda, at the request of the 

state, which has long suffered from chronic water 

shortage. 

At the opening, Berhe said, “Ethiopia and the 

Republic of Korea have a warm historic relationship, 

ever since Ethiopia sent its troops to 

Korea in the 1950s under the UN. Korea has 

risen from the ashes of the Korean War 

and become one of the developed countries 

of the world. Ethiopia needs to take 

the development experiences of Korea as 

an example.” 

Koica’s experts were dispatched to 

Kilte Aullalo Woreda to build wells, pipelines, 

reservoir taps and pump control housings. 

In April 2008, Ethiopian workers were invited 

to Korea to learn how to operate the system. 

“The demand for clean water is one of the basic 

Residents of Kilte Aullalo 

Woreda of Tigray, Ethiopia 

wait in line at one of 

the public water supply 

facilities established by 

Koica. 

Korean experts help build 

water system in Ethiopia 

human needs. I’m glad this water project will help 

improve the lives of Tigray residents,” said Song Inyeup, 

Koica’s chief representative to Ethiopia, in charge 

of the project. 

Adugna Jebesa, Ethiopian state minister of water 

resources, praised the multi-village water project as 

“one of the top examples of international cooperation 

in Ethiopian history.” 

Most African countries lack sufficient potable 

water. The situation is severe in rural areas like Kilte 

Aullalo Woreda, a Koica official said. 

“Unlike urban areas that have quite solid water 

connections, many residents in rural areas choose to 

dig their own wells as they lack access to water facilities. 

Many rely on rain water and water from wells for 

drinking water, which may spread illness,” said Kim 

Jung-hoon, a media relations officer at Koica. 

He added that of three African countries — Sudan, 

Senegal, and Ethiopia — with poor water supply infrastructure, 

the situation in Ethiopia is the worst. Running 

water is rare in rural areas, and most walk long 

distances to fetch water. But with the new system, Kim 

believes the risk of disease from poor drinking water 

will shrink, as it did after Koica completed a similar 

project in Senegal.“Better water will decrease poverty 

and contribute to the fast growth of rural communities,” 

Kim said. By Kim Mi-ju 

Provided by KOICA 

The Korean Wave roars 

along the old Silk Road 

Central Asian countries are getting a taste of 

Korean culture, thanks to the the Korean 

Culture Festival held in Uzbekistan, 

Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan from April 

20 through May 1. The traveling event introduced traditional 

and modern Korean culture to communities 

across Central Asia, with performances, movie screenings, 

Korean food and hanbok, Korean traditional 

clothing. The Korean Culture Festival was co-organized 

by the Korean Culture and Information Service 

(KOIS) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and 

Tourism. KOIS has been playing a leading role in promoting 

Korean culture overseas, and it was with this 

goal in mind that it contacted the governments of the 

three countries. 

Central Asia has a unique connection to Korea, as 

320,000 ethnic Koreans have been living 

there since their ancestors were forced 

to move from China and Primorsky 

Krai, Russia in 1937. Korean-made cars, 

cellular phones and high-tech IT products 

are also popular here, along with 

apartments built by Korean construction 

companies. The Korean Wave has 

even crashed upon these mostly landlocked 

countries, with television dramas 

gaining in popularity. 

The culture festival was held in four 

cities and in the capitals three Central 

Asian countries — Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, 

and Turkmenistan — over 12 days. 

Performers introduced Hwakwanmu, 

Korean palace dance; Taemyungmu, a 

folk dance; the daegeum (bamboo flute); 

the gayageum (twelve-stringed Korean 

harp), and Korean breakdancing. Each 

drew hearty applause from local communities. 

Local artists even joined in, 

making the festival a different experience 

for each city it visited. 

Korean movie screenings also played 

an important role in promoting Korean 

culture to the local communities. Seven 

Provided by KOIS 

popular Koran movies, including the hit 

romantic comedy 200-Pound Beauty, 

the thriller Joint Security Area and the 

family drama The Way Home, played an 

important role in introducing locals to the 

Korean way of life. 

The Korean food tasting was another highlight, 

with royal court cuisine from the Joseon Dynasty 

(1392-1910) and delicacies made from Kimchi on 

offer. The popularity among locals of Daejanggeum 

(Jewel in the Palace), a Korean television drama about 

the royal chefs, made visitors curious about Korean 

food. 

The respective host governments provided venues 

for the events and helped with preparations and promotion. 

Thanks to their strong support, the festival 

caught the attention of local 

communities and enjoyed 

high attendance. In fact, 

Almaty, Kazakhstan, named 

the last week of April “Korean 

Week” thanks to the 

Korean Culture Festival, 

holding various events for 

the local ethnic Koreans. 

An official at the Korean 

Culture and Information 

Service said, “Central Asian 

countries are gateways for 

spreading the Korean Wave 

[from Asia to Europe], as 

they are geographically 

located in between.” 

He emphasized that 

Central Asia is a very important 

region for the agency’s 

culture marketing strategy. 

The Korean Culture Festival 

helped local Korean communities 

take pride in their 

home country and feel good 

to be ethnic Korean. 

Culture 

Festival 

in Central Asia 

 

By Hong Jin 

May 2009 korea 19

Green Growth 

Fresh wind blows in Seokbo 

The village in Yeongyang County is turning frustrating gusts into power 

We may associate the global financial crash 

with Wall Street brokers in fancy suits, but 

small towns and farming villages have been 

affected too. In fact, they could be even more 

vulnerable. 

But some towns and villages are weathering the crisis by 

leveraging their own potential. And one of them is Yeongyang 

County in North Gyeongsang. 

The county has only around 18,800 residents, ranking 

near the bottom among Korea’s 230 cities and counties. It has 

no manufacturing, and nothing but red peppers, mountain 

herbs and clean air to sell. Yet its area is 815 square kilometers, 

1.3 times the size of the city of Seoul. Yeongyang is constantly 

on the list of regions that lag behind and require government 

help. 

Still, this county is getting by. It sold more than $1 million 

worth of red peppers abroad in 2007, despite the relative weakness 

of Korean agricultural exports. And it’s turning its strong 

mountain winds into a precious resource, with the nation’s 

biggest wind farm now under construction in the county. 

On Mount Maeongdong in Seokbo village, winds blow at 

a speed of 5.7 meters per second and in a consistent direction, 

so it’s always been difficult for residents to farm here. 

But those conditions are perfect for wind power generation. 

And so 31 wind turbines already stand 80 meters high, 

their 37-meter wings ready to harness what had been a disadvantage. 

Since December, 26 of the turbines have been producing 

electricity. 

Acciona Energy Korea, a local unit of the Spain-based 

renewable energy company, has begun to build an additional 

10 wind turbines and plans to build another 10 on the mountain 

this year, to supply 225,000 megawatt hours of electricity 

per year. That amount is enough to supply power to 50,000 

homes for one year. The electricity produced here will be sold 

for at least 107.66 won per kilowatt to the state-run power 

distributor, Korea Electric Power Co. 

“We will complete this wind farm with 104 turbines in 

total by 2011, providing electricity for up to 150,000 households,” 

said Lee Chang-seon, chairman of Acciona Energy 

Korea. By Koh So-young 

Rapeseed oil is one source of renewable biodiesel, required by Korean law to be added to locally sold gasoline. 

One powerful little flower 


As the rapeseed blossoms, Korea hopes it’s found a new energy source 

Atop Mount Maeongdong, 26 wind 

turbines already produce electricity, with 

a goal of 104 to be built by 2011. 


Spring has finally come to Gyehwa, 

a small town in Buan 

County, North Jeolla. The rice 

paddies that stretch across the 

town are surrounded by yellow rapeseed 

flowers, which seem to be overrunning 

the entire town. That’s because 

farmers in Buan, which has a population 

of about 64,000, hope to use rapeseed 

oil as a major source of biodiesel 

fuel. The county now grows rapeseed on 

some 500 hectares of land, two years 

after the Agriculture Ministry and the 

county government set out to begin a 

joint project to develop new renewable 

energy sources. 

The plan provides a farming household 

that chooses to grow rapeseed with 

financial assistance of about 2.5 million 

won each year ($1,885), slightly more 

than the farmers can earn by growing 

barley. 

“The harvest for the first year of 

2007 was not quite good, since the farmers 

didn’t have enough skills. But the 

crop sowed last fall is growing so well,” 

said Yoon Bong-jin at the Buan county 

government’s environmentally-friendly 

agriculture department. “We will harvest 

in June.” 

Growing the rapeseed is one thing, 

but developing new energy sources 

from it is a wholly separate, and elaborate, 

process. The National Agricultural 

Cooperative Federation buys the entire 

crop of seeds from the farmers and 

sends them to a local energy company 

which specializes in producing biodiesel. 

The company mixes the seeds with 

other ingredients such as soy oil to produce 

biodiesel, which is provided to 

local refineries. 

The refineries then sell gasoline with 

biodiesel added to gas stations and other 

consumers. Korean law requires all 

gas at filling stations to contain a certain 

percentage of biodiesel — currently 1.5 

percent, to be raised to 2 percent next 

year. 

The Agriculture Ministry is running 

pilot projects not just in Buan but also 

other rural areas including on Jeju Island 

and in Boseong and Jangheung counties 

in South Jeolla. A total of 1,350 hectares 

nationwide are blossoming yellow under 

the pilot project, and the government is 

hoping to increase rapeseed production 

from 725 tons in 2007 to 510,000 tons 

annually. 

By Jung Ha-won 


Culture 

Songs from the Korean 

soul to the world’s ears 

Lyric soprano Barbara Bonney 

doesn’t speak Korean. 

Yet her collection of classic Korean arias, 

sung in their original language, 

still manages to deliver their full 

emotional impact. 


Listen to Barbara Bonney’s 

collection of classical Korean 

songs, or gagok, and you may 

wonder if she’s really American. 

Bonney’s new CD, sung in Korean 

and showing her dressed in a gorgeous 

traditional hanbok, has received nearly 

perfect reviews as an impressive and 

moving performance. It’s her unique 

high voice, with its purity and clarity, 

that’s earned her the title “First Lady of 

the aria.” 

“The Best of Korean Songs,” produced 

by the Korean Culture and Information 

Service, the South Korean government 

agency responsible for Korean 

public diplomacy overseas, includes 

eight songs such as “Longing for Mount 

Geumgang,” “Azaleas,” “A Letter” and 

“Wondering if You Are Coming,” all sung 

in Bonney’s beautiful voice and accompanied 

by world-famous cellist Mischa 

Maisky and the Bolshoi Chorus. 

Bonney’s pronunciation is almost 

exactly like a native Korean singer’s, a 

perfect encapsulation of the emotions 

the songs express. KOIS produced this 

collection of Korean songs to introduce 

the lovely pieces to international visitors 

to Korea and curious expatriates in an 

easy to comprehend format. 

“Longing for Mount Geumgang,” a 

longtime Korean favorite, was composed 

The impeccably trained international soprano Barbara Bonney put tireless effort into producing 

a faithful recording of classic Korean songs. 

Mischa Maisky 

by Choe Yeong-seob in 1961 with lyrics 

written by Han Sang-eok, as an ode to the 

magnificence of the peninsula’s northern 

peak, which has long held a special place 

in Korean mythmaking. It includes the 

lyric, “Whose creation, you bright and 

beautiful mountain? Oh, how I miss the 

twelve thousand peaks standing so high 

and silent. Now I see our free people 

together humbled by you...” Popular 

among overseas professional singers, it 

has already been performed by Placido 

Domingo and other musicians on 16 

CDs sold worldwide. 

The words to “Azaleas” were written 

by the late Kim So-wol, a beloved Korean 

poet, to music composed by Kim Dongjin. 

It is a woman’s lament at the end of a 

love affair. Bonney’s version is even more 

touching thanks to her high and clear 

tone. 

The international press has praised 

Bonney, calling her a “lyric soprano with 

a pure voice,” and praising her voice as 

“very clear and almost perfect.” Korean 

music fans have known and loved her for 

10 years, since she began performing 

recitals here. 

The singer said she listened to countless 

recordings of the songs to better help 

her sing in Korean. She also told reporters 

that she has been helped by Korean 

musicians to understand the meanings 

of the songs. 

Barbara Bonney 

Soprano Barbara Bonney and cellist Mischa 

Maisky both wear traditional hanbok on the 

cover of “The Best of Korean Songs.” 

“If I only pretend to be impressed and 

moved by the Korean songs, audiences 

would see what was wrong.” Therefore, 

she had to make a great effort, she said. 

Born in Maine in the United States, 

Bonney started her musical life as a cellist. 

When she was 19 years old, she began 

studying as a soprano in Austria. Since 

then she has won world acclaim, performing 

at the Royal Opera House Covent 

Garden and La Scala in Milan and 

giving music lessons at the Royal Academy 

of Music in London. 

Mischa Maisky has also performed 

in Korea several times, so his cello work 

on the disc sounds natural and elegant, 

familiar to Korean ears. 

An Israeli born in Russia, Mischa has 

performed with pianists Martha Argerich 

and Sergio Tiempo, violist Gidon 

Kremer, and conductors Leonard Berstein, 

Zubin Mehta and Daniel Barenboim, 

among many others. 

He is scheduled to give a solo cello 

recital in Seoul in November this year. 

Maisky also appears on the CD cover in 

a hanbok decorated with pretty amber 

studs. 

The Bolshoi Chorus was established 

in 1928 and has performed religious 

music and operas in more than 130 cities 

across the world, with more than 500 

songs in their repertory. Its local fame 

comes mainly from its Korean Gospel 

collections, which include recordings of 

“The Lord's Prayer” and “Jehovah is my 

Shepherd.” More information on Korean 

music can be obtained at the Korean government’s 

official Web site, www.korea. 

net. 

By Hong Jin 



Culture 

Updating a moving 

musical tradition 

Lee An-sam, a Korean composer, says, 

“There can be preferences, but there’s 

no room for prejudice” in judging classical 

and popular music. 

Ask any young Korean on the 

streets if they listen to gagok, 

classical Korean songs. 

The answer, most likely, 

will be no. 

They may even have to struggle to 

remember the titles of the most famous 

pieces: “Bongsunga” (Garden Balsam), 

“Geujibap” (In Front of That House), 

and “Gohyangsaenggak” (Thoughts of 

Home), to name a few. Gagok has long 

given voice to quintessential Korean 

sentiments. But since the influx of Western 

music in the mid-20th century, 

things have changed. 

Classical Korean songs have been 

largely shunned by the public, deemed 

old-fashioned and melodramatic. 

Today, gagok are mostly absent from 

TV, radio and other mass media. 

These pieces sound like Western 

opera, with emotional and poetic lyrics, 

classical musical accompaniment and a 

theatrical singing style. In fact, many 

gagok use as lyrics some of Korea’s most 

famous poems. 

Lee An-sam, 66, has been an evangelist 

for classical Korean songs for 

some time. He’s been on the gagok circuit 

for about four decades, and he first 

began composing in his 20s. He says 

that classical Korean songs are facing “a 

historic watershed” today. 

“If classical Korean songs don’t 

change, they will be history, buried with 

the passage of time,” Lee said firmly in a 

recent interview at his small studio in 

downtown Seoul. 

Lee has been at the forefront of 

efforts to update gagok, and to fight stereotypes 

about them. He even invented 

a new genre, which he calls “Clapop,” 

several months ago, using his experience 

and the network he’s built over the 

years to encourage well-known singers 

Singer sets out 

to save Korean 

gagok through 

fusion with 

popular sounds 

Lee An-sam’s “clapop” 

albums update gagok for 

modern times. 


such as Soprano Kang He-jeong to create albums and 

hold concerts. 

“It’s natural that people find gagok difficult and 

rather unfriendly, because they’re very literary, philosophical 

and profound. In that sense, their target audience 

is those with a taste for literature and philosophy,” 

Lee said. 

That is why Lee thought it would be paradoxical to 

try to appeal to the general public with existing songs, 

which are sophisticated and refined. Instead he has 

pushed forward with changes in form, rhythm and 

harmony. 

“I realized that in order to get closer to the general 

public, music had to be made more easy, fun and 

dynamic. That is what Clapop is like.” 

Listening to Lee’s album, “Lyric-Clapop,” is of 

course not exactly a traditional experience. But still, it 

does not veer too far from the elements of gagok: 

poetic lyrics, and a certain degree of solemnity and 

gravitas. 

Although he has his roots in classical music, Lee 

says he quite often listens to pop music, even singing 

some at karaoke. Though to him pop music sounds 

complex, confused, even disorderly at times, he said 

he respects it because it is a reflection of a modern 

society that is just as complex, confused and chaotic. 

Lee is also embracing the culture of modern times 

— the Internet. He opened an online cafe on the Daum 

portal last summer, and it now has some 800 members, 

spreading the “good news” about classical songs. 

He held a concert especially for his members on April 

18. 

“Music is a mirror to a certain country, people and 

culture. There are different languages, but the same 

musical notes. That is why there can be preferences, 

but there is no room for prejudice, be it classical or 

pop,” Lee said. Lee has written about 200 classical 

songs. The most famous include “Deep in My Heart,” 

“When Buckwheat Flowers Blossom” and “Good 

Shepherd.” He is now working on his seventh album 

and will hold his sixth annual concert in coming 

months. By Kim Hyung-eun 

You can get a glimpse of his activities through http://cafe. 

daum.net/ansamlee. 

[joongAng Ilbo] 


Culture 


Art as fraud, art as history: 

Kang Ik-joong’s child-world 

The famous artist has never forgotten what it feels like to start anew 

Provided by Kang Ik-joong 

Above, Kang Ik-joong stands in front of his 

work, “Multiple Dialogue” at the National 

Museum of Contemporary Art. 

Below, “Happy World”, 2004 (Ali Center) 

It was a fall morning, and artist Kang Ik-joong went to a lake on 

the outskirts of Seoul where his giant balloon installation was 

supposed to float on the water. Instead it deflated into a contorted 

shape. But at that moment, Kang was inspired with what 

would became the motif of his recent series of work: the moon jar. 

“I was devastated when I first got there and saw my work,” he said. 

“But all of a sudden the shape reminded me of white porcelain, and 

then I knew this was something I had been trying to say for years. I 

came back to my studio in New York and started painting moon 

jars.” 

Three years later, the artist created “Mountain-Wind,” an installation 

made up of 2,611 painted wooden panels adorning the facade 

of Gwanghwamun gate in central Seoul, which is currently undergoing 

a major restoration. Each panel is 60 by 60 centimeters and is 

painted with the artist’s fingers, not a brush. Most depict moon jars 

of various shapes, like the ones cherished for their austerity among 

local Confucian scholars during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). 

In February, Kang created “Samnamansang” for the National 

Museum of Contemporary Art. The work, made up of 60,000 3-inch 

panels depicting various icons, letters and paintings of moon jars, 

adorned the museum walls surrounding the video tower titled “The 

More the Better” by Paik Nam June, the late famed Korean-American 

artist and Kang’s artistic mentor from their days in New York. “Samllamansang,” 

a reference from Buddhist teaching that means, “All 

forms of nature are guided under the sun,” was, in a way, Kang’s homage 

to Paik and a celebration of “Multiple Dialogue,” the show the two 

artists put on in 1994 at the Whitney Museum of American Art. 

“For Paik, I think ‘The More the Better’ was like a rocket that 

could fly to the future,” Kang says. “I felt that my role was to set the 

light on the launchpad.” 

Since their release, Kang’s moon jar paintings have quickly 

became coveted collector’s items among contemporary art lovers. 

One assembly of the panels made local news when it was sold recently 

by Sotheby’s for $134,500. 

Despite his rising status in the contemporary art world, Kang said 

one soon realizes the fuss about one’s work on the art market has 

little to do with everyday life as an artist. 

In an e-mail interview, Kang recently described to me his personal 

connection to art-making through a list of metaphors. He 

called the activity of art “a recipe on how to cook side dishes.” 

- I paint with my eyes half closed. 

- I paint with my left hand if possible. 

- I paint even if I’m not good at it. 

- I paint when I am happy. 

- I paint when I’m hungry. 

- I paint when I’m sleepy. 

- I paint what I know. 

- I paint what’s easy. 

- I paint what’s around me. 

- I listen, I see and I paint. 

- I paint as I’m lying down. 

- I paint as I stand. 


Culture 

‘[Children] are 

like a small 

window to me. 

No matter 

how small they 

are, I can see 

the world 

through them.’ 

From Left, “Moon of 

Dream” ,2004(Hosu 

Lake, Korea). “Youth”, 

2007(UNESCO, Paris). 

“Buddha Learning English”, 

2000(Collection of Ludwig 

Museum). 

- I paint as I run. 

- I paint with my eyes half open. 

- Ha! I paint myself laughing. 

People who have followed Kang’s 

works over the years know it started out 

depicting subjects that are deeply personal 

and evolved to grander themes 

like peace and reunification. Byron Kim, 

a Korean-American artist, once 

described Kang’s earlier work as “the 

metaphysics of the mundane.” “Happy 

World,” a series of Kang’s work with 

children commissioned by the G8 summit 

meeting and the United Nations is 

representative of his recent work. 

In the fall, he unveiled the “Wall of 

Hope,” a giant mosaic done in collaboration 

with 50,000 children of migrant 

workers and Koreans based in Ansan, a 

factory enclave, for the Gyeonggi Museum 

of Art. The installation stretches 64 

by 14 meters, filling the museum’s twostory 

wall completely with a map of the 

mountains, rivers and islands of the 

peninsula as a backdrop. 

Personal recollections are common 

in these works: The children sent in 

their first baby shoes, their mother’s lipstick 

and a Pokemon doll. But also among the submissions 

were blunt slogans like “MB Out,” a common 

catchphrase used by demonstrators during protest rallies 

against the nation’s current president, Lee Myungbak. 

One sent a picture of a machine gun. 

“It’s me, my past and my future, that I discover 

more and more working with children,” Kang said. 

“These are like a small window to me. No matter how 

small they are, I can see the world through them.” 

Kang moved to the United States in 1984 when pop 

art and street graffiti artists like Keith Haring and Jean- 

Michel Basquiat were emerging. He had just graduated 

from Hongik University, but it wasn’t until the early 

’90s that the American art world took any notice of his 

work. Back then, the artist’s pockets were stuffed with 

drawing tools and small 3-by-3 inch swatches of canvas. 

He drew during his long subway rides to the flea 

market where he worked. 

On each trip, he filled his canvases with glimpses 

of life in New York, daily musings and words or random 

phrases that popped into his mind, which sometimes 

included notes on masturbation and disturbing 

non sequiturs like “I won’t get you pregnant.” 

When not drawing, he worked on “8,490 Days of 

Memory,” a statue of General Douglas MacArthur 

behind a spectacular mosaic made of 8,490 chocolate 

bars, which reflected the number of days the artist had 

lived in Korea before he moved to the United States. 

The bars recalled the bittersweet 

memories of the war-torn country 

where American GIs shared chocolate 

with local kids, and the land of the heroic 

general meant sweetness and safety 

from communist invasion. The response 

to this work at the Whitney Museum of 

American Art was phenomenal. 

In 1997, Kang represented Korea at 

the 47th Venice Biennale, a sign of 

mainstream acknowledgement. Nevertheless, 

Kang has learned always to 

make art as if he were just starting out. 

Kang said he recently came to 

rethink Paik’s once controversial words, 

“Art is just fraud,” when he came across 

one of his mentor’s works from 1981. 

On a television monitor, Kang saw 

paint scribbles by Paik that included the 

word “sagi,” which means both “fraud” 

and “historical text” in Korean, as in 

“Samguksagi,” or History of the Three 

Kingdoms. This new interpretation 

moved Kang deeply. 

“[The scribble] was the shortest and 

the longest book I’ve ever read,” Kang 

said. “It’s the shortest, yet longest phrase 

Paik ever said to me.” By Park Soo-mee 

Provided by Kang Ik-joong 

From Flushing to Seoul: 

Kang’s global chronicle 

“Mountain-Wind” at Gwanghwamun gate, Seoul 

“Happy World,” permanently installed on the mezzanine walls of a subway 

station in Flushing, New York, plays with irony. It puts together 7,000 

small paintings on ceramic tiles, each depicting flashes of Kang’s random 

thoughts: from sex, violence and politics, to the banalities of urban living. 

The work instills in the viewer a sense of urgency, as it gathers images, 

words and phrases which the artist collected from public advertisements 

and floating words across the city, phrases like “We like Tyson” and “I 

won’t get you pregnant.” 

The work is displayed in New York’s second-largest Asian-American neighborhood; 

Kang produced each of the paintings on his subway rides to 

work at a flea market in Far Rockaway during his earlier years as an immigrant 

worker living in Queens. 

“Mountain-Wind” is a public installation at Gwanghwamun, central Seoul. 

The historic palace gate is undergoing major restoration, and Kang’s work, 

41 by 27 meters, is made up of 2,611 painted wooden panels, each depicting 

different shapes such as traditional Korean porcelain and local 

mountains. As a whole, they form a silhouette of the original gate. At the 

bottom of the work are three smaller gates, from the original Gwanghwamun 

structure, to which digital prints of paintings contributed by 2,000 

children from around the world will be installed. The project was donated 

to the Korean government by the artist; the authorities paid only for the 

cost of the materials: 500 gallons of paint. 

“Gateway,” an installation in the departure lobby of an international terminal 

at San Francisco International Airport, is made up of wood carvings 

and objects that reference Kang’s dreams and experiences in New York. 

“Beautiful Mountains and Rivers,” permanently installed in the lobby of 

Heungguk Life Insurance Building in central Seoul, is one of the artist’s 

best-known works among the local public. The installation, which comprises 

7,500 panels, features a giant panoramic view of man and nature. 

It depicts small paintings of people, flowers, trees and the English and 

Korean alphabets, and stretches 7.62 meters in length. 

[joongAng Ilbo] 



Hwang Seok-yeong 

A life of struggle against injustice 

The activist writer has called Korean society stuck in a 

‘nationwide state of homelessness,’ reflected in his work. 


Major works 

“Far From Home” 

(Gaekji, 1971) 

“Jang Gilsan” 

(Jang gilsan, 1984) 

“The Shadow of Arms” 

(Mugiui geuneul, 1983-1987) 

“A River That Does Not Flow” 

(Heureuji anneun gang, 1990) 

“The Old Garden” 

(Oraedoen jeongwon, 2000) 

“A Guest” 

(Sonnim, 2001) 

“Simcheong” 

(Simcheong, 2003) 

Source: Korea Literature Translation Institute 

Since publishing his first short story in 

1962 while still a high school student, 

Hwang Seok-yeong (born 1943) has 

lived as a writer in direct engagement 

with life, witnessing the tumultuous events of 

modern Korean history firsthand and drawing 

artistic inspiration from his own experiences as 

a vagabond day laborer, a student activist, a 

Vietnam War veteran, an advocate for coal 

miners and garment workers and a political 

dissident. 

In 1989, Hwang visited North Korea in 

direct violation of the National Security Law. 

For the next four years, he lived in New York 

and in Berlin, and upon returning to Korea in 

1993, he was arrested and sentenced to seven 

years in prison. He was released in 1998 and 

resumed writing almost immediately, serializing 

The Old Garden in the Dong-A Daily. 

Hwang defined the reality of Korea as a 

“nationwide state of homelessness,” and has 

continuously explored the psychology of people 

who have lost their “homes,” symbolic or 

real. Home, to Hwang Seok-yeong, is not merely 

a place of origin, but an idea of communal 

life rooted in feelings of solidarity and humanity. 

The destruction of one’s home due to war or 

social injustice, and the struggle to overcome, 

whether individually or collectively, such devastation 

form the thematic core of Hwang’s literary 

works. 

From short stories such as “The Chronicle 

of a Man Named Han” and “The Road to Sampo” 

to the multi-volume saga Jang Gilsan, 

Hwang has produces works of unique verbal 

energy and unparalleled wit that entertain as 

well as instruct the readers. Among the honors 

Hwang has received are the 1989 Manhae Literature 

Prize, the 2000 Danjae Literature Prize 

and the 2001 Daesan Literature Prize. 


May 2009 korea 31


The Guest 

The Old Garden 

The title of this bestselling 

novel about a 1950 massacre 

in Sincheon in North 

Korea is significant in a 

number of different ways. 

In naming this novel The 

Guest, which refers to smallpox 

in Korean folk tradition, 

the author likens two Western 

philosophies — Catholicism 

and Marxism — to a 

fatal plague, the cause of 

many deadly conflicts. In 

another sense, “guest” refers 

to the rootless beings that 

have yet to achieve autonomy 

in life and find a sense of 

belonging. 

For the first time in 

many years, Reverend Ryu 

Yo-seop, who now lives in 

Brooklyn, New York, is going 

back home to North Korea. 

Days before his departure, 

however, his brother Ryu Yohan 

passes away in his New 

Jersey apartment, and Yoseop 

suffers from a series of 

unsettling dreams and hallucinations. 

As he boards the plane to 

Pyongyang with a piece of 

bone from his brother’s cremation 

packed into his suitcase, 

the ghost of his brother 

appears and enters his body. 

The two brothers, now one, 

arrive in Pyongyang and 

head toward their hometown 

of Sincheon in Hwanghae 

Province. 

There, Yo-seop remembers 

the 45 nightmarish days 

in 1950 when Sincheon civilians 

were violently massacred 

by right-wing Christian 

thugs, including his own 

brother Yo-han. The dead 

appear as ghosts, each telling 

their story and clamoring for 

resolution. 

Following the form of 

jinjinogui gut, a shamanist 

ritual from Hwanghae in 

North Korea that consoles 

the spirits of the dead and 

guides them to bliss, 

Hwang’s novel represents a 

journey to redemption and 

final release from the sufferings 

of the world. 

With the sophistication 

and boldness characteristic 

of all his works, Hwang’s 

The Old Garden is a poignant 

love story set against 

the chaotic events of 1980s 

Korea and the collapse of 

the Eastern Bloc. 

O Hyeon-u, a member 

of an underground prodemocracy 

organization, is 

on the run. Wanted by the 

police for his involvement 

in the May 19, 1980 Democratic 

Uprising in Gwangju, 

O hides in the small mountain 

village of Galmoi 

where he meets and falls in 

love with a school teacher 

named Han Yun-hi. 

For three months, the 

lovers lead an idyllic life 

away from the troubled 

world. Their relationship 

comes to an abrupt end, 

however, when O leaves the 

village to rejoin the democracy 

movement and is 

arrested soon thereafter. 

Released after 18 years 

in prison, O learns about 

Yun-hi’s death. 

He returns to Galmoi, 

where he finds Yun-hi’s 

notes and journals, which 

allow him a panoramic 

view of the life she led after 

their parting, from the 

birth of their daughter and 

her encounters with various 

student activists to her 

study abroad in Germany 

and the fall of the Berlin 

Wall, which she witnessed. 

The old garden refers to 

the house in Galmoi where 

O and Yun-hi lived together 

for three months, and 

represents the utopian ideal 

for which revolutions are 

fought, as well as warm, allembracing 

humanity. 

Conceived during the 

author’s exile in Germany 

and his subsequent three 

years of imprisonment, the 

novel was first serialized in 

Dong-A Daily and then 

published after much revision. 

Reviews 

Hesperus 

An ode to the marginalized youth 

Hwang Sok-yong’s Hesperus marks an unprecedented approach 

and a great change for the author. Hwang is a seasoned 

writer of 65 who has been writing for most of his life. But after 45 

years meeting his readers through paper and ink, Hwang discovered 

the Internet, more specifically the blog, as a new means of 

communicating with his readers. This novel was posted as a series 

on his blog over six months, during which time the site logged 1.8 

million visitors. The book version has been a steady best seller since 

its publication in August 2008. 

The main audience of Hesperus is not the middle-aged readers 

who grew up learning sociopolitical criticism through Hwang’s “The 

Land of Strangers,” “A Chronology of Mr. Han,” The Shadow of 

Arms, and Jangkilsan, but the teens and young adults who were 

introduced to him through “The Road to Sampo” in their Korean 

literature textbooks. 

It is a well-known fact that Hwang went through an important 

turning point in his life when he attended the First Transnational 

Festival in Pyongyang in August 1990. He stayed in Berlin and New 

York for a few years before returning to Korea in 1993, whereupon 

he was imprisoned for his attendance at the 1990 festival, sentenced 

to seven years in confinement, then was released in 1998. Inspired 

by his broadened world view since his visit to North Korea, Hwang 

revealed a new side of himself through The Old Garden (2000), The 

Guest (2001), Shimcheong (2003), and Princess Bari (2006). Instead 

of being overwhelmed by academic discussions of sociopolitical realities, 

Hwang sought to focus on the inner turmoil and strength of 

those pursuing the small pleasures of everyday life, and attempted 

to turn traditional rites and myths into a new form of fictional text, 

finding a traditional voice on a modern platform. 

Hesperus is representative of Hwang’s exploration of new frontiers. 

Jun, the protagonist of the novel, comes home for a visit before 

being drafted into the Vietnam War. The story unfolds as he 

reminisces about the past. Jun’s friends In-ho, Sang-jin, Jeong-su, 

Seu-ni and Mi-a all refuse to take the elite track guaranteed by their 

competitive high school, and go out into the world in search of their 

own paths, where they find revelations and despair. 

Thus, the many plot threads follow the travels and adventures 

of the young adults who venture outside the boundaries set by their 

school. On the way, readers encounter the intellectual circles that 

formed around music cafes and school clubs, and a slice of 1960s 

Korea through backpacking stories and construction site pilgrimages. 

In the process, Jun comes to the crude realization that the stories he 

had been writing were merely empty shells, and vows to find his personal 

literary identity in the rough and tumble of reality. 

The title, Hesperus, is the name of his newly discovered self, taken 

from the Greek name for Venus in the evening. It hangs in the same 

place in the sky, but is no longer the “last star hovering at the dawn.” 

Hesperus appears in the western sky after dinner, “right around the 

time when the dogs begin to wish for their leftovers.” Instead of aspiring 

to be the last glittering star at dawn, Hwang embraces a new 

personal literary identity beginning with the wretched, lonely image 

of a dog gazing hungrily at the evening sky. 

Hesperus is a Bildungsroman about the generation that lived and 

grew up over 40 years ago, but the youth of today have also found a 

connection with it. 

The book speaks to the small, helpless people we see in ourselves 

sometimes, and to a sense of inferiority and marginalization. Thus it 

marks a literary turning point for this venerable author. 

By Shim Jin-kyung 

Provided by Korea Literature Translation Institute 


Book 

Human story 

Provided by The Korea Foundation 

This Buddha with a lotus crown is a valuable landmark in the 

history of Korean religious art. 

The Buddha 

seen through 

Korean eyes 

A 

long-awaited look at two beloved Korean 

representations of the historical Buddha is 

finally here. 

“Eternal Images of Sakyamuni: Two 

Gilt-Bronze Korean National Treasures,” published in 

English by the Korea Foundation, affiliated with the 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, is a valuable 

overview of Korean Buddhist art but also a close examination 

of two Korean national treasures (No. 78 and 

No. 83). 

The second book in this series of spotlights on 

Korean national treasures compares a gilt-bronze 

image of a pensive Buddha with a sun and moon crown 

(No. 78) and a Buddha with a lotus crown (No. 83), 

both housed at the National Museum of Korea. 

Supposedly these two major works of Asian art 


reflect the styles of two historical splinter Chinese 

dynasties — Northern Wei (A.D. 386-534) and Northern 

Qi (A.D. 550-577), respectively. The Northern Wei 

style emphasizes Chinese elements, while the Northern 

Qi hews more closely to Buddhism’s Indian origins. 

Though these influences are obvious, they were 

not adopted wholesale. Instead they were used to create 

a uniquely Korean style. 

Completely different in style and form, the two 

images, thought to have been made in the sixth or 

seventh century, are invaluable specimens in the study 

of the gradual changes that took place in Buddhist 

sculpture. The image with the sun and moon crown 

may have lost most of its gilding, but originally it was 

covered in 5 millimeters of gold, indicative of very 

sophisticated casting technology. The lotus crown 

image retains much of its original gilding. 

Since its introduction to the Korean Peninsula in 

the late fourth century, Buddhism has left an indelible 

imprint on the thought and culture of the people of 

Korea. In this regard, the two Buddhist sculptures 

provide a meaningful glimpse of the everyday life and 

culture of ancient Korean society. 

To allow readers to appreciate the images fully, the 

catalog includes about 100 photographs and illustrations 

of the two sculptures, along with detailed comparisons 

and two essays by art historians. 

The Korea Foundation published the first book in 

this series in 2005: “Fragrance of Korea: The ancient 

gilt-bronze incense burner of Baekje.” The beautiful 

and elegant burner introduced in this book is Korean 

national treasure No. 287, and is widely appreciated for 

its exquisite craftsmanship and unique artistic and historical 

value. This burner, dated to the late sixth century, 

is cast in bronze and gilded with gold. The book 

features detailed photographs of the incense burner, 

together with diagrams of the diverse pictorial motifs 

on the body and lid. The images are organized by subject 

matter, along with pertinent information in the 

accompanying captions. By Hong jin 

The Korea Foundation has published two books in English 

spotlighting specific national treasures. 

These shoes were woven 

in the 16th century by 

a wife with her hair, in 

prayer for her husband’s 

recovery. 

A buried love resurfaces at last 

A wife’s devotion to her husband 400 years ago touches hearts today 

A 

human story transcends 

time and space — like the 

one told by a wife lamenting 

the death of her husband in 

a letter written more than four centuries 

ago. 

The letter, which starts with the 

words, “To Won’s father,” was found 

accidentally in April 1998. The descendants 

of the royal Lee family of the 

Joseon Dynasty were changing the burial 

site for their ancestors in Jeongsangdong, 

a village in Andong City in North 

Gyeongsang Province. Andong is 

known as a center for Confucian teachings 

and Korean traditions. 

Two tombs at the site contained one 

mummy each. One was Lee Eung-tae, 

the grandson of Lee Myeong-jeong, a 

bureaucrat during the last period of 

monarchic rule on the Korean Peninsula, 

and the other was a woman identified 

only by her surname Moon, the 

wife of Lee Myeong-jeong. The mummies 

were unbelievably intact, largely 

because the wooden coffins were encapsulated 

in a lime-soil mix, which hardens 

like stone when exposed to water. 

Archaeologists said the clay caused the 

high degree of preservation. 

The two tombs not only contained 

mummies but also clothes, paper documents 

and a pair of shoes. Moon’s tomb 

had 60 pieces of clothing, while her 

grandson Lee’s tomb had 50, along with 

a handful of letters written in Hangul 

and sandals. In accordance with the 

wishes of their descendants, the mummified 

bodies were reburied, so no anatomical 

or pathological data could be 

obtained. 

One of the letters was by the wife of 

Lee Eung-tae to her deceased husband, 

and it has been the object of ceaseless 

attention over the past decade. Two 

other identifiable letters were written by 

Lee’s older brother, Mong-tae, when he 

was mourning his sibling’s death. 

The wife’s letter, written in 1586, 

starts with a lament: “You always said 

we would be living together to die on the 

May 2009 korea 35 

Provided by Andong national university

Human story 

same day. So why did you go to heaven 

alone? Why did you go alone, leaving 

me and our child behind?” 

According to the Andong National 

University Museum, which was in 

charge of the excavation and of caring 

for the artifacts it uncovered, Lee Eungtae 

was born in 1556 and died at age 

31. 

The question, “Who will my unborn 

child call daddy after his birth?” suggests 

that she was pregnant at the time 

of writing. There was another boy, probably 

named “Won,” born to the couple. 

Another sentence reads, “Please let 

me go with you. My love for you, it’s 

unforgettable in this world. And my sorrow, 

it’s without end.” 

At the time, the letter reminded 

many of the Hollywood melodrama 

“Ghost,” in which a husband who finds 

himself a disembodied spirit after death 

comes back into contact with his wife. 

The sandals discovered along with 

the letter also show how desperate she 

was. In fervent prayer for the recovery 

of her ailing husband, who lay on the 

verge of death, she made mituri, Korean 

rope sandals. While conventional mituri 

are made only of hemp, she weaved 

them with her own hair. 

In Korean tradition, making shoes 

out of human hair was a means to pray 

for a loved one’s quick recovery from 

illness. 

When discovered, the sandals, nine 

centimeters wide and 23 centimeters 

long, were wrapped in hanji, Korean traditional 

paper made of mulberry bark. 

Given the paper carries a message, “You 

died before you could wear these shoes,” 

it can be inferred that Eung-tae died 

before the sandals were completed. 

Numerous domestic and foreign 

publications have dealt with the story 

since its discovery. In November 2007, 

National Geographic ran the picture of 

the pair of mituri with the title “Locks of 


‘The striking 

expressions of 

love, fear or 

yearning... are 

not often 

found in 

extant 

historical 

documents.’ 

Aniquity Journal recently 

published a Korean-Israeli 

paper about the entombed 

letters. 


love.” The prestigious magazine wrote, “A mournful 

note and a pair of sandals from the 16th century have 

captivated Korea.” 

Most recently, the wife’s letter was featured on the 

cover of Antiquity Journal, a British quarterly review of 

world archeology. In its March issue for this year, the 

journal ran a paper titled, “Eung Tae’s tomb: a Joseon 

ancestor and the letters of those that loved him.” 

The thesis, written jointly by Korean and Israeli 

scholars, read, “Attracting our special attention in this 

case are the striking expressions of love, fear or yearning, 

which are not often found in the extant historical 

documents. This was indeed quite informative, as 

there is a common preconception about the supposedly 

simple and austere lives of the ruling people of the 

Joseon Dynasty.” 

The couple’s story has also inspired a slew of art, 

including a traditional Korean song, two novels and a 

play. Korean and Japanese tourists have bought thousands 

of copies of the letter. 

In 2006, a dance troupe led by Andong University 

Professor Chung Suk-hee staged a performance that 

interpreted the letter. Titled “Going out in 450 years,” 

the dance performance had four chapters. 

In the first, a background screen on the stage 

showed the recorded scene of the excavation of the 

tombs in 1998, while the dancers create a mysterious 

solemn mood. In the second, the husband, one of the 

mummies, and his wife, the mother of Won, spend 

time at a traditional market in their home town, 

Andong. The third chapter features the couple making 

love, and the last shows the wife, with a premonition 

of her husband’s death, making her husband’s sandals 

by weaving her hair with hemp. 

An opera based on the old story is also in the making. 

On April 10, the North Gyeongsang Province government 

said it will provide financial aid to a local 

opera troupe from Pohang, a port city near Andong, 

to create Neungsohwa, which means trumpet creeper 

in Korean. That flower is a metaphor for the bereaved 

wife. 

“As can be seen from Turandot and Madame Butterfly, 

most of the world-renowned operas are themed 

on love. Neungsohwa is based on a real story that is 

hardly to be found in any other part of the world,” said 

Park Chang-geun, professor of music at Andong University 

and director of the opera. 

By Seo Ji-eun 

‘Sending off a younger brother with tears’ 

Farewell to my younger brother; 

For 31 years you and I lived with our parents. 

Suddenly you leave me, and I suffer from your loss. 

I protest to earth but am still desolate; to heaven without any response. 

Leaving me here alone, with whom are you going to be in heaven? 

Your children, I am here to look after them. 

All I wish is to reach heaven, for it won’t be long till we meet again. 

And please bless our parents with longevity. 

Your elder brother writes this, crying in disorientation from your absence. 

Poem on a fan from older brother to younger brother: 

Your integrity was like a split bamboo, 

Your purity was like white paper. 

I am sending this fan I have been using to you, on your eternal journey. 

From your brother, lamenting your death 

Poem and letter from Lee Mong-tae to his younger brother Eung-tae 

May 2009 korea 37

Human story 

To Won’s father, June, 1586 

You were always telling me. “Dear, we 

will live to grow our hair gray till the same 

one day when you and I die together.” Then 

why should you go ahead, leaving me alone 

behind? Why should you when my little 

children and I have no one to rely on for the 

life ahead of us? 

Do you still remember how your heart 

dwelt in mind and my heart in yours? I used 

to say to you when we were together at 

night, “Can other people care for and love 

each other as we do? Can they, really, the 

same way as we do?” How could you leave 

me this way, without any consideration? 

I don’t think I am able to live this life 

without you. The only thing I can think 

of now is flying to you. Please take me to 

where you are. My heart toward yours, this 

is the last thing I can forget on this earth. 

In my sorrowful heart remains only an endless 

grief. I wonder how I can live with our 

children, thinking of you, with no heart to 

lull mine.” 

Please answer me all these even in my 

dreams as soon as you read this letter. This 

is the reason I’m enclosing this letter in your 

grave, wishing you would come home in 

my dreams and tell me everything I want 

to hear from you. Once you told me there 

would be something you had to tell this unborn 

baby after it came to this world, but 

you have gone so suddenly. And who do 

you think I can teach it to call Daddy? 

Can you try to understand all of my sorrow 

and grief? Where under the sun can 

thing such as this happen? You only passed 

away to the other world, but is your heart 

grieving as much as mine? I cannot write 

down my endless grief, only roughly and 

hastily can I do it. 

As I told you, when you read this letter 

carefully, please show me yourself in 

my dreams, and tell me everything I want 

to hear. I am so sure that I can see you in 

my dream. Oh dear, come secretly, will you? 

And show yourself. Closing this letter, I have 

left too many things unsaid. Goodbye. 



May 2009 korea 39


Click 

Korea 

Right: A rainbow by any 

other name — This multicolored 

rose was created by 

Lim Gi-byung, professor of 

floriculture at Kyungpook 

National University, and his 

research team over three 

years of research. 

Dances with drums — Dancers from the 

Kook Soo-ho Didim Dance Company perform 

on April 12 at an outdoor stage in Songpa 

District, southern Seoul. The Songpa District 

Office and the Ministry of Culture, Sports 

and Tourism will sponsor traditional Korean 

folk performances every Sunday until May 

31. (Right) 

First ladies — The wives and guests of 

G-20 heads of state pose together at a dinner 

at London’s Downing Street on April 2. 

Korean first lady Kim Yoon-ok is seated in 

a floral-print hanbok fourth from left in the 

front row. (below right) 

Sing & Dance — One of the musical teams. 

‘Dream Girls’ is giving a passionate performance 

in the Third Musical Awards Opening 

Ceremony held at the National Theater of 

Korea on Apr.20th. (Below) 

[NEWSIS] 

[YONHAP] 


[NEWSIS]


Sun flowers — A distribution company 

installs solar power generating panels that 

look like mountains, trees and flowers on 

a rooftop. Company officials said that the 

solar panels can generate enough electricity 

to power around 160 households for one 

year. The Korea Electric Power Corporation 

will purchase the electricity generated by 

the solar panels. 

[NEWSIS] 

[YONHAP] 

Bald as the Buddha — Boys play in front of Donghwa Temple on Mount Palgong, Daegu. 

After having their heads shaved, they will experience Buddhist life for a short period ahead of 

Buddha’s Birthday, which falls on May 2 this year. (Above) 

Joy! — South Korean players crowd Kim Chi-woo after his game-winning goal on April 1. 

South Korea defeated North Korea 1-0 in the match at the Seoul World Cup Stadium. (Below) 


[YONHAP] 

Springs and sprays on the subway — Artificial blossoms spruce up Seoul’s line No.1 trains . The North Gyeongsang government is sponsoring the 

promotion to draw tourists to the province. The economic downturn has caused regional government to increase marketing efforts.

Travel 

Ascension from the sea 

Tiny Seokmo Island offers natural and cultural satisfaction 


Seoul may be crowded, but it’s easy to escape 

— in fact, access to a mountain and an island 

are both within an hour’s drive. 

Mount Nakga rises 246 meters on Seokmo 

Island, in Ganghwa County, Incheon. And on it 

sits Bomun Temple, the center of Ganghwa’s Buddhist 

culture. 

The tiny Seokmo Island takes five minutes to reach 

by ferry from Ganghwa Island, the third-largest island 

in Korea, not unlike hopping on two stepping stones. 

Atop Nakga’s peak, it’s easy to see the heads of tiny 

islands poking above the water, while at the foot of the 

mountain sits the Yeochari Tidal Flat, one of the 

world’s four largest. Turn north, and the territory of 

North Korea is so close that Yeonbong Peak in Hwanghae 

Province may seem to be waving hello. 

When the sun sets behind the watery horizon and 

the crimson curtain begins to fall on the eastern sky, 

serenity spreads and time seems to slow over the 

ocean. 

Famous Korean mountains located on islands 

include Mount Halla (Jeju City, 1,950 meters) Mount 

Mari (Ganghwa County, Incheon, 486 meters) Seongin 

Peak (Ulleung County, North Gyeongsang, 984 

meters) Mount Jirimang (Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang, 

398 meters) and Mount Nakga. 

The highest peak on Seokmo Island is Mount Haemyeong, 

but Mount Nakga is better known because it 

is home to Bomun Temple. To hike starting from Jeondeugijae 

and moving along the ridges of Mount Haemyeong, 

Mount Nakga and Mount Sangbong takes 

three to four hours. It’s a pleasant trek as the route is 

not very steep or very difficult, and offers spectaular 

views of the Yellow Sea. 

The trailhead at Jeondeugijae can be reached via 

the road that connects to the ferry at Seokpo-ri and 

Bomun Temple. Walking along the forest for about 15 


May 2009 korea 45

Travel 

minutes leads to the ridge. A lookout 

point at a boulder offers a simultaneous 

view of Seokpo-ri and Wepo-ri, while to 

the right Boreum Island and Jumun 

Island frame the ocean. 

After hiking for half an hour along 

the ridge, which resembles the back of a 

silkworm, one arrives at Mount Haemyeong, 

the highest peak on Seokmo 

Island. A rough rock face to climb is one 

of the hike’s more exciting episodes. 

After passing through Banggae Pass 

and Saegari Pass, one reaches a rock bed 

that is large enough for about 50 people 

to sit down and rest. It also offers the 

best view of Seokmo Island overall. 

Nunsseop Bawi, or the Eyebrow Boulder, 

is so close that it feels like one can 

almost touch it. 

On the way to the giant stone eyebrow, 

a descending route forks off. Do 

not follow it, but keep walking straight 

One of three 

major temples 

to the goddess 

of mercy in 

Korea is 

located here. 

to arrive at Nunsseop Bawi. From there, a three-minute 

walk down a forest path reveals a fork in the road; 

one way leads to Mount Sangbong and the other to 

Bomun Temple. From here, it takes one hour to make 

it to Mount Sangbong and back. 

The climax of the Seokmo Island hike comes at 

sunset. As long as it’s not winter, one can stay and 

enjoy the sunset without having to hurry back to the 

mainland, as the last ferry from Seokpo-ri departs as 

late as at 9 p.m., and the island offers good accommodation 

for those who wish to stay overnight. 

Bomun Temple on Seokmo Island was founded 

during the reign of Queen Seondeok of Silla, and is 

one of three major temples in Korea dedicated to the 

Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. 

The story goes that 14 years after the temple was 

founded, a fisherman named Goh pulled in from the 

ocean in his nets a statue of the Buddha and 22 statues 

of the Buddha’s disciples, and placed them in a rocky 

cavern on the right side of the temple. Since then, 

legend has it that prayers offered in the cavern are 

always answered, making Bomun an important stop 

Clockwise from far left: Nunsseop Bawi, a boulder 

on Seokmo Island with a Buddha carved 

into it, is so called because it resembles a man’s 

eyebrow; this goindol dolmen is registered as a 

Unesco World Heritage site; Seokmo has long 

been known for its saltpans; the peak of Mount 

Nakgi offers stunning views of the sunset behind 

the watery horizon. 

Above: Seokmo’s black-faced spoonbills, once 

threatened, are now protected by law. 

for Buddhist pilgrims. Behind the temple, a relief of Buddha is carved on a cliff 

face, and inside the courtyard Chinese junipers grow around a large grinding 

stone that is said to have been used when around 300 monks lived at the temple. 

Seokmo Island used to have a large saltpan that produced sea salt, but now 

it is closed. Instead, there is a small private saltpan near Minmeoru Beach. 

Bicycle tours of the island take about three hours, and bicycle rental stops 

are located near the ferry stop at Seokpo-ri and at the entrance to Bomun 

Temple. Even more convenient, one can leave the bicycle anywhere on the island 

when finished. Simply call 016-757-8265 and the rental shop will come pick up 

the bike. The rental fee is 5,000 won for three hours. Call the Samsan-myeon 

office (032-932-4554) for more information on Seokmo Island. 

A cluster of restaurants are located at the entrance to Bomun Temple and 

near the ferry at Seokpo-ri. You may be disappointed if you want gourmet food, 

but there’s nothing quite like a cup of makgeolli rice liquor with deep-fried 

mugwort after an exhausting hike. 

The first ship from the Wepo-ri Ferry Terminal (032-932-6007) departs at 7 

a.m. The last ferry from Seokpo-ri departs at 9 p.m. The fee for a round trip is 

2,000 won, and to take a vehicle on board costs 24,000 won. The ferry runs once 

every 30 minutes. A bus ride between Seokpo-ri and Bomun Temple costs 1,000 

for a one way trip; it leaves once every hour. The trip takes 15 minutes. 

By Kim Se-jun 

[JoongAng Ilbo, JoongAng M&B, Friday ] 

Seokmo Island 

To get to Seokmo Island, one has to 

pass Ganghwa Island, the third-largest 

island in Korea, after Jeju and Geoje. 

The goindol dolmen on Ganghwa 

Island are registered as Unesco 

World Cultural Heritage sites, with 

other dolmens in the Jeolla provinces. 

Jiseokmyogun, the largest dolmen 

site, includes about 130 of the prehistoric 

monuments. The site where 

the Goryeo kingdom held court after 

escaping the Mongol invasion is also 

on the island. In the 19th century, two 

skirmishes with forces from the United 

States and France took place here. 

Heungseon Daewongun, regent to 

King Gojong, in January 1866 executed 

nine French priests and thousands 

of Korean Catholics as part of an isolationist 

policy. The news reached Rear 

Admiral Roze of France’s Indochina 

fleet, who led three battleships up the 

Han River, from Aug. 10 to 22, 1866. 

On Sep. 15, he took three battleships, 

four gunboats and around 1,000 soldiers 

to invade Ganghwa Island before 

withdrawing on Oct. 5. The French 

took gold and silver, burned down the 

royal library and took the regal books, 

which have still not been returned. 

Five years later in 1871 the American 

Asian fleet attacked Ganghwa Island 

with five battleships. In early June 

1871, the U.S. army landed in Chojijin. 

Soon it attempted to take Gwangseong 

Fortress. In the fierce hourlong 

battle, the Joseon army’s 600 or so 

soldiers resisted mightily, but some 

350 were killed. About 30 years ago, 

when the fortress was restored, seven 

soldiers’ graves were found. 

Located on the south side of 

Ganghwa, the five-kilometer Yeochari 

Tidal Flat is one of the four largest tidal 

flats in the world, 53 times larger than 

Yeouido. The tidal flat is an important 

habitat for the black-faced spoonbill, 

an endangered bird species. Details 

are available at the Yeochari and 

Ganghwa Tidal Flat Center. 


May 2009 korea 47

Blueprint for final success 

in world content market 

Images from videos of musicians 

are projected onto the 

ceiling and walls of Carnegie 

Hall during intermission 

of the YouTube Symphony 

Orchestra performance April 

15, 2009 in New York. It 

is the first orchestra to be 

selected entirely through 

auditions on-line. 

Special 

Series 

06 

New Growth Engine Industries 

How will information technology 

shape the content industry? At 

last year’s World Economic Forum 

held in Davos, Switzerland, IT leaders 

were asked which industry shows 

the most potential. They pointed to 

content, followed by Internet portals. 

Befitting its reputation as a nation 

with strong IT, Korea has already 

helped develop digital multimedia 

broadcasting, Wibro and IPTV. 

However, the country lacks content 

to distribute in new media, leading 

to more imports. Ironically, the popularity 

of Japanese dramas and U.S. 

shows such as Prison Break has been 

helped along by Korea’s contributions 

to media technology. 

“Content economics” has been 

the name of the game since before 

the digital convergence environment 

was established. 

As the potential of content economics 

became known, it emerged 

as an important sector in the global 

economy. Some countries have long 

been nurturing the content business 

as an engine of growth. 

One of the most prominent 

examples of strategic development is 

the United Kingdom’s “Cool Britannia” 

strategy announced in 1997. 

Since then the United Kingdom has 

developed their content industry, 

which includes filmmaking, advertising, 

design and other fields, as a 

key industry. As a result, Britain’s 

creative industry was able to generate 

revenue of about 126 trillion won 

($93.9 billion) last year. The revenues 

generated by the British content 

industry, which is now counted 

among the world’s top three, last year 

accounted for 7.3 percent of GDP. 

Obviously, content economics 

can bring tremendous benefits to a 

country in terms of value-added 

production, increased exports and 

other economic indexes. In addition, 

content economics also generates 

decent jobs that meet the expectations 

of highly educated young people 

who have both creativity and 

technical capabilities. What’s more, 

as “moving brands,” content businesses 

stimulate growth in the tourism, 

hospitality and other service 

industries as well as related manufacturing 

sectors, leading to the 

improvement of corporate and 

national image in one stroke. 

Korea’s content industry has 

achieved a certain amount of success 

in recent years through the efforts of 

the private sector and the government’s 

support. However, the reality 

is that there is still a gap between the 

local industry and global standards. 

Under these circumstances, 

many problems have surfaced that 

need to be addressed. The country 

lacks core technologies, a highly 

skilled professional workforce, transparency, 

fairness in investment and 

retail structures. 

In addition, the country lacks 

experience working in the global 

market and has insufficient standards 

of copyright protection. 

Although the government has 

come up with various measures and 

has made efforts to address the problems, 

they have not always been in 

tune with the situation. 

As a result, each new administration 

has ended up simply repeating 

the slogan of developing Korea into 

one of the world’s top five content 

producers. 

Fortunately, the current administration 

has included the content 

industry as a new growth engine in 

its green growth plan announced on 

August 15. 

Rather than presenting a blueprint 

for the future, the government 

is trying to pinpoint the problems 

that must be addressed within the 

[AFP] 


Successive administrations have supported content 

only in empty slogans. We must break the cycle. 

Hidden 

Champions 

Staying on top of fabric 

takes latest technology 

Special 

Series 

06 

New Growth Engine Industries 

industry. 

At the same time, the government 

is trying to clearly define the 

roles that must be carried out by the 

public and the private sectors. One 

example of such efforts is the Content 

Korea Commission that was 

formed in May. It consists of more 

than 60 civilian experts, industry 

representatives and officials from 

related organizations. 

Since then, the Content Korea 

Commission has been gathering 

opinions from key players in the 

content industry and has worked to 

consolidate the government’s policy 

tasks. The committee has selected 

developing next-generation convergence 

content, leading a second 

revolution in online games and 

developing global content as the 

main projects for developing Korea’s 

cultural product. 

The KCC presented the projects 

at the new growth engine report session 

held on Sept. 22. Having done 

so, we now have the basic outline for 

making Korea a strong maker of 

content. 

We overcame the painful financial 

crisis in the late 1990s with our 

IT industry. In the current situation, 

the cultural technology industry 

should play a key role in Korea’s economic 

recovery. The question now is 

how to go about achieving those 

goals. 

When comparing successful foreign 

examples, it seems it would be 

efficient to keep the current model, 

which maintains a cooperative relationship 

between the private and 

public sectors. 

The government should focus on 

education, training, developing new 

technologies and other areas related 

to establishing industrial infrastructure, 

while the private sector must 

concentrate investment in globally 

competitive areas to generate jobs. 

In particular, Korea’s content 

industry will be able to reap maximum 

results if it is merged with the 

country’s information technology 

sector, which enjoys global competitiveness. 

If the country strategically 

develops the computer graphics 

industry, for example, it could lead to 

a breakthrough to allow the country 

to compete with Hollywood on the 

global market. 

In addition, there is a need for 

the government and the National 

Assembly to work together on the 

problems that have been pointed out 

and to revise various regulations. 

The concerned bodies should 

establish the financial means to 

develop the industry and set up an 

organization to control the resources 

designated for content development, 

which have until now been scattered 

among various ministries. 

If the country is to avoid repeating 

the empty slogan of “developing 

Korea into one of the world’s top five 

content producers,” we need to establish 

a system for private-public cooperation 

and carefully draw up policies 

that reflect the needs of the 

industry. 

Younghoon David Kim 

• Younghoon David Kim is the 

chief executive and president 

of Daesung Group. He 

is the chairman of the 

Content Korea Commission 

and serves as the chairman 

of the Special Committee on 

Cultural Industry of the 

Federation of Korean 

Industries. 

[Provided by HJC Helmet] 

Samil Spinning 

Samil holds 33% of the world 

market for HWM viscose rayon. 

Korea once had a competitive 

edge in the textile industry. 

But as labor got more expensive 

it lost ground to countries 

such as China and Vietnam. 

Yet Samil Spinning continues to be 

the world’s No. 1 maker of high wet 

modulus viscose rayon spun yarn. 

According to the Ministry of 

Knowledge Economy in 2007, the 

company’s high wet modulus (HWM) 

viscose rayon spun yarn was one of 

127 products that had a leading presence 

worldwide, with 33 percent of the 

global market in 2007. 

The viscose rayon fiber developed 

by Samil Spinning has better tenacity 

and elasticity when wet compared to 

regular viscose rayon, yet with the 

same softness and comfort. 

The global market is an important 

source of income for the company, 

since 95 percent of its revenue comes 

from overseas sales. 

Samil was established in the 1970s 

as a cotton manufacturer, expanding 

in 1992 to other areas including modal 

and tensel. Today the company specializes 

in cellulose, with main products 

focused on high tenacity rayon. 

As the local textile industry goes 

downhill, Samil Spinning has stayed 

ahead by quickly adjusting. The company 

has emphasized the latest technology 

and incorporated it into its 

production lines. 

Samil Spinning was once one of the 

leading fabric companies in Korea, 

with more than 1,400 employees. 

Today it has around 250 employees 

including its Seoul office. 

Although the number of workers 

has gone down by more than 70 percent, 

the company still makes a profit 

thanks to automation. Almost 90 percent 

of the fabric manufactured by 

Samil is machine-made. At the company’s 

third plant, which opened last 

year, fewer than 40 employees oversee 

operations, and all processes use the 

latest digital equipment. The company 

invested more than $20 million in the 

plant, including imports of foreign 

manufacturing equipment to produce 

rayon. The promodals manufactured 

here are sold to over 50 fashion brands 

including Gap and Banana Republic. 

The company also outsourced 

areas that lacked competitiveness. 

Samil Chairman Ro Hee-chan, 

who also chairs the Korea Federation 

of Textile Industries, has always 

focused on research and development 

The chairman believes that without 

facilities investment to stay competitive 

it is difficult to survive. Already 

Ro is planning to build a fourth plant 

in 2013 targeted at producing highend 

textiles. And to establish a global 

brand Samil launched “Ecosil” and 

registered patents in 17 countries. 

The chairman also stressed the 

development of high-value fabric 

materials. He said that while industrial 

fabric accounts for more than 60 percent 

of the fabric market in Europe and 

Japan, Korea’s industrial fabric, only 

account for 25 percent, and therefore 

it is necessary to expand such development. 

By Lee Ho-jeong 

50 korea May 2009 May 2009 korea 51 51

Sports 

Sellout crowds for KBO 

on opening day 

Hong Sung-heon of the Lotte Giants gets tagged out at home by Cho In-sung of the LG Twins 

at an April 7 game at Jamsil Stadium. 

[NEWSIS] 

While many look forward to warm 

spring weather, sports fans eagerly 

await the season for a whole different 

reason: baseball! 

The 2009 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) season 

got off to an impressive start last month. In fact, all 

four opening games were sold out, setting an opening 

day attendance record of 96,800. It was the first time 

in KBO history that all four stadiums were filled to 

capacity on opening day. 

Though the popularity of baseball had waned in 

recent years, the Korean team winning the gold medal 

at the Beijing Olympics last year and placing second at 

the 2009 World Baseball Classic had fans buzzing 

about baseball again. 

The 2009 Season 

The KBO consists of eight teams, but unlike in 

America, where the teams are affiliated with a city, 

teams in Korea are named after their sponsors. Hence 

the Samsung Lions and LG Twins — and the numerous 

name changes some teams have endured throughout 

the league’s history. The regular season consists of 

133 games, with four of the top teams advancing to 

postseason play. 

The defending Korea Series champs, the SK 

Wyverns are many fans’ favorite to win the title this 

year. That would give them three straight titles. The 

only other club to achieve that feat was the Haitai 

Tigers. 

“We are approaching this season with the mindset 

of a challenger and not the defending champions. We 

will work to achieve our goal of 80 wins and another 

title,” said SK manager Kim Sung-geun. 

While most experts have stated a number of times 

that all eight teams have a shot at the title this season, 

a balanced team that has a special chance of dethroning 

SK is the Lotte Giants. Led by an American manager, 

Jerry Royster, the powerful duo of Karim Garcia 

of Mexico and Lee Dae-ho is being expected to produce 

an exciting brand of baseball. 

The Past 

Baseball was introduced to Korea by an American 


Sports 

missionary, Phillip L. Gillett, in the early 

20th century, but a professional league 

did not materialize until 1982. The very 

first KBO game between the MBC Blue 

Dragons (now the LG Twins) and the 

Samsung Lions was played in the now 

demolished Dongdaemun Stadium on 

March 27, 1982. 

While the current league consists of 

eight teams, in the beginning there were 

six: the OB Bears, Haitai Tigers, Samsung 

Lions, Lotte Giants, MBC Blue 

Dragons and Sanmi Super Stars. 

The top story of the inaugural season 

was a pitcher for the OB Bears 

named Park Chul-soon. Having spent 

some time in the farm system of the Milwaukee 

Brewers, the 26-year-old baffled 

his peers with his knuckleball. 

In the 1982 season, Park won 24, lost 

four and saved seven games. While Park 

carried the Bears to a title-winning season 

in 1982, he never duplicated his 

dominating stats again in his 15-year 

career due to numerous injuries. 

The next pitcher to terrorize batters 

in the KBO was the current Samsung 

Lions manager, Seon Dong-ryeol. The 

portly manager might not look the part 

of an intimidating ace, but Seon is often 

referred to as one of the best — if not the 

best — to have pitched in the KBO. In a 

KBO career spanning 10 years with the 

Haitai Tigers, Seon put up 146 wins, 40 

losses and 132 saves with a career ERA 

of 1.20. 

Kim Sung-han, named the all-time 

greatest first baseman on the KBO quarter-century 

team, was a versatile player 

who could handle a number of positions 

for the Haitai Tigers. In a May 16, 1982 

game against Samsung, Kim started the 

KBO Teams 

SK Wyverns 

Korea Series titles: 2007, 

2008 

Home: Munhak Baseball 

Stadium (Incheon) 

Doosan Bears 


1995, 2001 

Home: Jamsil Baseball Stadium 

(Seoul) 

Lotte Giants 


1992 

Home: Sajik Baseball 

Stadium (Busan) 

Samsung Lions 


2002, 2005, 2006 

Home: Daegu Baseball 

Stadium 

Hanhwa Eagles 

Korea Series titles: 1999 

Home: Daejeon Baseball 

Stadium 

KIA Tigers 


1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 

1991, 1993, 1996, 1997 

Home: Moodeung Stadium 

(Gwangju) 

Seoul Heroes 


2000, 2003, 2004 

Home: Mokdong Baseball 

Stadium (Seoul) 

LG Twins 


1994 

Home: Jamsil Baseball 

Stadium (Seoul) 

game as a designated hitter before taking 

the mound from the fifth to eight 

innings and finally finishing the game as 

a third baseman. 

There are a number of others who 

deserve mention too, such as Chang 

Hyo-cho (left field), Lee Jung-hoon 

(right field), Lee Man-soo (catcher) and 

Lee Seung-yeop (first base). 

The Future 

If Park and Seon were the trailblazers 

who got the fans to visit ballparks in 

droves during the early years of the 

KBO, Ryu Hyun-jin, Kim Kwang-hyun, 

Kim Tae-kyun and Kim Hyun-soo are 

just a few of the young players who represent 

the league’s future. 

With 31 home runs last season, Kim 

Tae-kyun is widely considered the best 

batter in the KBO and has his sights set 

on new goals this season. 

“I am looking to follow up on last 

season’s efforts by hitting 40 home runs 

this season,” said Kim. 

Kim Kwang-hyun of the SK Wyverns, 

a 20-year-old southpaw with an impressive 

combination of fastball and slider, 

contributed 17 wins in the 2008 championship 

season. 

Another young lefty, Ryu Hyun-jin 

has chalked up 48 wins and 19 losses 

and 511 strikeouts since entering the 

league in 2006. 

Kim Hyun-soo of the Doosan Bears 

is an outfielder who hits for average. The 

21-year-old won the batting title last 

season with a .348 average and boasts a 

.323 average with 14 home runs and 121 

RBI over his short career. If Kim learns 

to hit with power, he could dominate the 

league for years to come. By Jason Kim 

Korea’s girl 

of many firsts 

With her record score of 207.71 at the Worlds, 

Kim Yu-na is the favorite at the next Olympics. 

[AP] 

Kim Yu-na displays the Taegeukgi on the ice after winning the world championship. 

Kim Yu-na, the Korean figure 

skating star, has accomplished 

a lot of firsts. She is the first 

Korean skater to win an International 

Skating Union's Grand Prix 

event at a senior level, to win a Grand Prix 

Final, and to win an ISU Four Continents 

Championships title. 

And the 18-year-old can now add 

another: the world title. 

In late March in Los Angeles, Kim 

became the first Korean to win the ISU 

World Figure Skating Championships. 

She even became the first female skater 

to score more than 200 points on the new 

ISU scoring scale. 

And as skating wins go, this was 

about as lopsided as it gets. With a score 

of 207.71, Kim defeated Canada's Joannie 

Rochette by more than 16 points. 

It was also a personal victory for Kim. 

She finished in third place in the past two 

world championships, each time battling 

nagging hip and back injuries. But completely 

healthy for maybe the first time in 

her senior career, Kim repeatedly said 

leading up to the tournament that she 

had never felt better. 

And it showed on the ice. 

The championship was essentially 

over after the short program. Dazzling 

the crowd at the Staples Center in Los 

Angeles, Kim put 76.12 points on the 

board, a world record, to lead the pack by 

nearly nine points — a nearly insurmountable 

margin in figure skating. 

No one stood between Kim and the 

top of the podium. Skaters who trailed 

Kim entering free skating had to pull off 

the performance of their lives to have 

even a chance of challenging her. But as 

one skater after another came up short, it 

became evident, even before Kim took to 

the ice, that the 18-year-old Korean only 

needed to manage an average program to 

seal the deal. 

But Kim, behind her elegant and 

friendly girl-next-door facade, is a ruthless 

competitor. She went out and scored 

131.59 points to top the field in free skating 

and to take home the coveted world 

title. 

“Being the world champion was my 

dream and I did it here,” Kim said following 

her victory. “It's just amazing.” 

It was her performance that was truly 

amazing. Her free skate was so outstanding 

that she had the best score even with 

a mistake on a triple jump. 

Kim has established herself as the 

early favorite to win the ladies’ gold medal 

at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. 

Mao Asada of Japan, the 2008 world 

champion who had been Kim's nemesis 

for the past three seasons, has looked 

uncharacteristically shaky at her past two 

international competitions, the 2009 

Four Continents Championships in February 

and then the Worlds. Asada actually 

failed to win a medal in Los Angeles. 

Off the ice, Kim has become a nearly 

omnipresent figure in Korean culture, 

especially on television, this year. The 

variety of products she endorses includes 

automobiles, air conditioners, milk, cosmetics, 

jewelry and pastries. She has 

signed lucrative endorsement deals 

worth billions of won, making the skater 

a highly visible star on par with some of 

the nation’s leading actors. 

With her endeavors on and off the 

ice, Kim has singlehandedly brought figure 

skating into the mainstream in Korea. 

And that’s another first. By Yoo Jee-ho 


Sports 

Interview 

Jan Boonstra 

Criss-crossing Korea 

in green, by bicycle 

The “Tour de Korea” does contain a cycling race portion, but its main events are designed to promote bikes to regular Korean citizens. 

A traveling festival to sell Koreans 

on biking for work and pleasure 

Korea has caught 

bicycle fever, with programs 

for cyclists over 

the past few months culminating 

in the nation’s 

first cross-country bicycle 

race in late April. 

The first Korean Bicycle Festival was organized by the 

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Public 

Administration and Security and the Seoul Olympic Sports 

Promotion Foundation as a Korean equivalent of the Tour de 

France, which covers thousands of kilometers over a few 

weeks. 

But where the Tour de France is a grueling race to determine 

the world’s best endurance cyclists, the Tour de Korea 

is designed as a traveling festival. 

There was a race portion, covering 1,840 kilometers (1,140 

miles) over nine days, stopping in 13 cities and open to 300 

amateur and recreational cyclists. But on the sidelines, cycling 

events were held at the 13 regional stops, and these local runs 

covered just 10 to 20 kilometers each. 

The goal of the event as a whole wasn’t to see who could 

race the fastest or who could endure the most. The slogan said 

it all: Two wheels working as one. 

The event was to bring Korea together in a nationwide 

drive to achieve green growth. The Lee Myung-bak administration 

has laid out plans that stress ecologically sustainable 

economic development, and encouraging the use of bicycles 

as transportation has been a key part of those efforts. Fewer 

vehicles on the roads naturally help reduce carbon dioxide 

emissions. 

And earlier this year, the government announced that, 

over the next 10 years, it will build a bike path to run more 

than 3,000 kilometers across the country. 

According to the Ministry of Public Administration and 

Security, 1.24 trillion won ($931.2 million) will be invested to 

set up the trail by 2018. This is in addition to another 

1,297-kilometer cycle path to be built by 2012 to accompany 

a revitalization project on the country’s four major rivers. 

The 2018 bike path will start in Seoul, pass through 

Incheon and move down the west coast to Mokpo, South 

Jeolla. Then the path will travel further south and make an 

easterly turn toward Busan, before coming back up north to 

Goseong and Gangwon, and finally returning to Seoul. No 

pedestrians or vehicles will be allowed on the three-meterwide 

track. 

And the environment isn’t the only thing on the government’s 

mind. The bike trails, some of which will run along 

scenic coastlines, are expected to generate substantial tourist 

revenue as well. By Yoo Jee-ho 

[Press Q] 


Jan Boonstra: 

In his 14 years here, Jan Boostra 

has cycled 60,000 kilometers. 

A 

Dutch-born businessman, 

Mr. Boonstra has 

been riding across the 

Korean Peninsula for over 

14 years, biking 60,000 kilometers 

in all. 

“If your schedule permits, our newspaper 

[the JoongAng Sunday] would 

like to have an interview with you. 

Let me go and visit you in Busan,” I 

said to him. 

He replied, “It’s OK. I’ll come to 

Seoul by bike.” 

And that’s how I met Jan Boonstra, 

59, a resident of Yangjeong-dong, 

Busan. He showed up in Seoul for 

the interview, just a week after our 

conversation. He’d managed to ride 

all the way to Seoul in two full days. 

The gauge attached to his bicycle 

showed he’d traveled 511.2 kilometers. 

It may be the longest he’s come 

for an interview without using fossil 

fuels, he said. 

“I was planning to take a bike trip 

during my vacation, so the Joong- 

Ang Sunday has made my vacation 

more pleasant.” Boonstra was 

assigned to the Korea branch office 

of the Netherlands-based dredging 

and earthmoving company Bokalis 

International BV in 1994. Since then 

he has clocked up enough kilometers 

here to circle the globe one and 

a half times. 

Boonstra showed me a map of the 

Korean Peninsula in his backpack. 

All the roads on the map were highlighted 

in green. I got another shock 

at his explanation. 

He told me that the green highlights 

were the roads he has traveled by bicycle. 

They extended from Jeju Island 

to Munsan, Cheolwon and the DMZ, 

even from Wan Islet to Gangneung. 

The map was covered in green. 

Boonstra’s personal Internet site 

(http://user.chollian.net/~boonstra) 

shows in both English and Dutch all 

the information he’s collected on 

biking in Korea. It offers a bicycle 

road map from Busan to Seoul together 

with detailed information on 

attractions and accommodations. All 

the information available on his Web 

site was uploaded after cross-checking 

the Seoul-Busan route himself 

three times over the past two years. 

Perhaps this is more evidence that 

you can’t take the Netherlands out 

of a Dutchman. Boonstra was born 

in Groningen, Netherlands, well 

known as a bike city. He started 

riding when he was an elementary 

school student. 

He has traveled by bicycle in 31 

countries and has never owned a car, 

renting one for family outings when 

necessary. 

He emphasized, “My bicycle is the 

most precious tool in my life.” 

“It is a transportation method and 

a good way to keep in health... It is 

just like a channel linking strangers 

and strange places.” 

I asked him about the recent attention 

paid to biking in Korea. He 

said, “It is good to see an increasing 

bicycle population. However, bicycles 

should be used for transportation, 

not leisure.” 

 

By Yoo Jee-ho 


Design 

The biggest auto show in the 

country took place over 10 days 

at the Kintex convention center 

last month in Ilsan, Gyeonggi, 

drawing about 956,650 visitors. The primary 

focus of this year’s Seoul Motor 

Show was eco-friendly technology 

unveiled by local automakers, including 

liquefied petroleum gas-powered cars, 

hybrids and concept vehicles. 

But the biannual show, started in 1995 

and now in its seventh iteration, was muted 

compared to past events. 

This year 158 companies, including 

auto parts suppliers from nine countries 

and 13 domestic and foreign automakers, 

participated in the event, 30 fewer companies 

than in 2007. And while all five Korean 

automakers — Hyundai Motor, Kia 

Motors, GM Daewoo, Renault Samsung 

Motors and Ssangyong Motors — were 

present, many import brands were absent 

including BMW, Nissan, Chrysler, Volvo, 

Mini, Land Rover, Mitsubishi and Saab. 

“The British International Motor 

Show in London was called off this year, 

while most foreign importers are not 

going to the Tokyo Motor Show,” Yoon 

Dae-sung, executive managing director 

of the Korea Automobile Importers and 

Distributors Association, said. 

Still, the significance of the motor 

show could not be denied. It signaled the 

start of a new era of eco-friendly hybrid 

automobiles on the Korean market. Local 

companies aggressively showcased plans 

to develop environmentally-friendly 

technology to not only overcome the current 

economic crisis but determine the 

future direction of the local industry at a 

time when the government is pushing 

green growth. 

With the economy struggling and 

environmental rules getting stricter, carmakers 

have focused on maximizing fuel 

economy and overall performance. 

First-quarter sales of automobiles 

dropped sharply as the domestic economy 

shrank. Korean firms sold 1.07 million 

vehicles in the first three 

months of 2009, a 21.2-percent plunge 

from the same time last year. Exports 

dropped in particular, far more than 

domestic sales. The five carmakers in 

Renault Samsung SM3 

Ssangyong C200 

Kia Sorento R 

Environment was the 

watchword at the Seoul Motor 

Show, with carmakers 

showing off hybrids aplenty. 

Hyundai Avante LPI Hybrid 

Hyundai Blue Will 

Provided by 2009 Seoul Motor Show Homepage 


May 2009 korea 59

Design 

total sold 255,809 vehicles on the local market, or 14.6 

percent fewer than in the first three months of 2007. 

But exports plummeted 23.1 percent to 815,886 units. 

Even market leader Hyundai Motor suffered a sales 

drop of 13.5 percent year-on-year. 

At the show last month around 30 cars of the 149 

on display incorporated eco-friendly technologies for 

better fuel efficiency. 

Hyndai unveiled its concept vehicle the Blue Will, 

which previously went by the codename HND-4, and 

the Avante LPI Hybrid. The Blue Will is a hybrid 

equipped with a 1.6-liter gasoline engine and 154 

horsepower, thanks to a system that injects fuel not 

through valves but using cylinders. The vehicle can 

travel up to 64 kilometers on a single charge of its 100- 

kilowatt battery. When gas-powered the Blue Will has 

a fuel efficiency of 21.3 to 23.4 kilometer per liter. 

The Avante LPI is the world’s first hybrid vehicle to 

incorporate liquefied petroleum gas technology. The 

vehicle will be available on the local market in July. 

According to Hyundai, the LPI Hybrid is pollutionfree, 

and is equipped with the latest lithium polymer 

battery and LPG gamma engine. The capacity of the 

vehicle is 1,600 cc, and it has a fuel efficiency of 17.2 

kilometers per liter. 

Finally, Hyundai’s special edition Genesis Prada, 

which made its global premiere at the Seoul exhibition, 

caught the attention of luxury-minded visitors. The 

company made only three of these collaborations with 

the global fashion powerhouse Prada. Hyundai will 

auction off two of the vehicles, with the profits to be 

donated for charity, while the remaining one will never 

be sold. Hyundai Motor’s Namyang research and 

development center and Prada’s Design Center in Italy 

had worked on the project since November 2008. 

Kia Motors, the No. 2 local automaker and an affiliate 

of Hyundai, unveiled its latest SUV, the Sorento R. 

In just a week the vehicle, which previously went by the 

code name XM, already has notched up 2,000 orders. 

It comes in three models: diesel, gasoline and LPG. 

The 2.2-liter diesel-powered SUV meets the Euro 5 

emissions standards, which is part of the company’s 

efforts to expand its lineup of eco-friendly vehicles. 

This version has 200 horsepower and a maximum fuel 

efficiency of 14.1 kilometers per liter. The SUV is also 

equipped with the latest IT technologies including 

Bluetooth, USB and iPod connectors, plus a cuttingedge 

cruise control system and smart key. 

The company also displayed its Forte LPI Hybrid, 

which like the Avante LPI incorporates LPG technology. 

The vehicle, which will go on sale a month after 

Avante LPI, also gets fuel economy of 17.2 kilometers 

per liter. 

GM Daewoo, meanwhile, introduced its parent 

company’s unique fully electric vehicle, the Chevrolet 

Volt, in its first appearance in Asia. It can travel 64 

Top, the Renault Samsung SM3. Above, the Kintex convention center. 

A redesigned 

Renault 

Samsung SM3 

was the top 

passenger car 

at the show, 

according to 

journalists. 

kilometers on a single charge and will be 

the world’s first plug-in vehicle in a long 

time. GM Daewoo and General Motors 

both have high hopes it will alleviate 

their financial problems. The vehicle 

will be commercially available next 

year. 

GM Daewoo also introduced the 

next-generation Matiz, which on the 

global market will be sold under the 

name Chevrolet Spark. The vehicle 

made its global debut at the Geneva 

Motor Show earlier this year. The company 

plans to retail the compact vehicle 

in the European and Asian markets in 

2010, and in the U.S. in 2011. 

GM Daewoo CEO Michael Grimaldi, 

who hopes the Spark will boost the 

company’s international sales, said the 

delay is because the compact vehicle 


market in the U.S. is relatively undeveloped 

compared to Europe and Asia, 

where there is a huge demand for small 

cars. Grimaldi said GM needed a year to 

adapt the vehicle to the preferences of 

U.S. buyers. The biggest change from 

the previous Matiz is in its size, with the 

new version up to 3,640 millimeters longer. 

Though actually a five-door hatchback, 

the vehicle is designed to look like 

a three-door hatchback. The vehicle has 

also adopted a more sporty look. 

Renault Samsung Motors introduced 

its upgraded SM3, based on the 

Renault Megane, in the first facelift of 

the vehicle since it debuted seven years 

ago. It was voted best passenger vehicle 

by journalists at the show. The new SM3 

is also the company’s first vehicle to use 

the H4M engine, developed jointly by 

Renault and Nissan. It also uses Xtronic 

Continuously Variable Transmission, 

which helps raise the vehicle’s fuel economy. 

The only other Renault Samsung 

car to use this system is the QM5. 

Among new midsize vehicles, the 

new SM3 is the biggest at 4.62 meters 

long. It will be sold on the local market 

starting later this year. 

The company’s concept vehicle 

eXM, which made its world debut at the 

motor show, also caught the attention of 

visitors. The slick, futuristic car sports 

Despite its 

current woes, 

Ssangyong 

had the top 

concept car at 

the show in its 

C200 SUV. 

an environment friendly design. It was credited by 

Korean designers at the RSM design studio, Renault’s 

second-largest design center. 

Ssangyong Motors, which is currently under a 

court-mandated debt workout program, introduced 

its concept SUV the C200. Roughly the size of the 

Honda CR-V, it is the first Ssangyong vehicle with a 

monocoque body, which helps lower weight, contributing 

to fuel efficiency and passenger comfort. 

The C200 is equipped with a diesel hybrid engine 

with a 34-kilowatt electric motor, which Ssangyong 

said raises its fuel efficiency 20 to 30 percent compared 

to a gasoline engine. C200 has a six-speed manual 

transmission and generates 175 horsepower. The vehicle 

was voted the best concept car by journalists. 

Import brands also took part. World leader Toyota 

showed off its Prius and Camry hybrids in its 

first appearance at the Seoul Motor Show. 

The Prius was the world’s first hybrid. Since its 

appearance in 1997, 1.2 million units have been 

sold. The model shown in Seoul is the third generation, 

which made its global debut in January at 

the North American International Auto Show. It 

has a fuel efficiency of 21.3 kilometers per liter. 

Honda showed its hybrid New Insight, which 

the company said sold 18,000 units in the month 

after it went on sale in Japan since February. It get 

a fuel efficiency of 30 kilometers per liter. 

Germany-based Volkswagen displayed its 

Tiguan R Line, with the strongest engine among 

compact SUVs, and Passat CC Coupe. Mercedes- 

Benz introduced its GLK compact SUV and Audi 

showed its Q5 compact SUV. By Lee Ho-jeong 

[NEWSIS] 


May 2009 korea 61

People 

[Press Q] 

Father Kevin O’Rourke hopes to introduce 

the world to the beauty of Korean writing 

Most expatriates cool on their 

adopted land after a few 

years. But Father Kevin 

O’Rourke has never let his 

passion for Korean culture die. 

A 70-year-old Irish priest in the Missionary 

Society of Saint Columban in 

Seongbuk, Seoul, O’Rourke was the first 

non-Korean to build a career studying and 

translating Korean literature. 

“No wind, no swell; / a world so various 

opens before my eyes. / No need for a lot of 

words; to look is to see.” 

Entitled “Small Lotus Pond,” this is 

O’Rourke’s translation of a poem by the 

Buddhist monk Hyeshim (1178-1234) 

from the Korean kingdom of Goryeo. 

The priest began translating Korean 

literarature, from short stories and contemporary 

poems to classical sijo (three-line 

lyric poems), in the early 1970s. 

“When I first started studying Korean 

literature, I concentrated on poems written 

by poets Park Tu-jin, Seo Jeong-ju and Cho 

Byung-hwa in the early 20th century. But as 

time passed pieces written during ancient 

times grabbed my attention and I tried to 

explore them,” he said. “You need to look 

Father Kevin O’Rourke has been in Korea since 1964, and is the first non-Korean to earn a 

doctorate in Korean literature. 

closely into works created in those early 

times rather than modern times in order to 

understand Korean values and souls.” 

The priest began translating poems by 

Kim Sak-kat, the pen name of Kim Byeongyeon 

(1807-1863), 10 years ago. He recently 

finished an English collection of 80 

selected works by the poet and is looking 

for a publisher. 

“It is shameful to learn that not much 

research has been done on Kim’s works and 

that there is only one book introducing 

them,” O’Rourke said. “The year 2007 

marked the 200th anniversary of Kim’s 

birth and not one academic institution held 

a symposium or seminar to talk about his 

philosophy and works." 

O’Rourke was ordained in December 

1963 and came to Korea as a missionary 

with five others in late September a year 

later. The day after he arrived, he started 

studying Korean at Yonsei University’s 

Korean Language Institute. 

He earned a master’s in Korean literature 

at Yonsei in 1970. 

“Since I considered language a very 

important tool for a successful missionary, 

I wanted to be fluent in Korean. I also 

thought researching Korean literature was 

essential to understanding Korean culture,” 

he said. 

He was then dispatched to Chuncheon, 

Gangwon, to carry out his missionary 

duties, and briefly taught at Kangwon 

National University there. 

He also gave lectures part-time at 

Kookmin University in Seoul for two years 

after returning from Chuncheon. 

The priest became a full-fledged professor 

at Kyung Hee University in 1977. 

While teaching O’Rourke became the first 

non-Korean to earn a doctorate in Korean 

literature in 1982. 

“It is so beautiful to see how Korean and 

Chinese characters are written. I am happy 

to devote myself to studying and translating 

many wonderful old literary works,” he 

said. “I want to introduce [these] writings 

to as many foreigners as possible.” 

By Lee Min-yong 

Yang Ik-june is an actorturned 

director who has 

won global accolades for his 

The director of Breathless calls it a frank depiction of his own family life 

Meet Yang Ik-june, 34, and 

you may think a man 

this down-to-earth and 

spontaneous can’t possibly 

be a big-time movie director. 

But Yang’s debut film Breathless 

has taken top honors at a number of 

international events, including the 

Tiger Award at the 38th Rotterdam 

International Film Festival in January 

this year, the top prize and critics’ 

award at the 11th Deauville Asian 

Film Festival in March, the Audience 

Award for International Selection at 

the Buenos Aires International Independent 

Film Festival in April, and 

more. 

Why did Breathless strike such a 

chord? “They came to see my movie, 

which they thought might be interesting, 

and happened to like it, that’s 

all. All the cast, including myself, had 

been just ‘us’ throughout the moviemaking 

process, and viewers seemed 

to feel it and sympathize with us,” 

[NEWSIS}debut film, Breathless. 

Yang said. 

The film is about Sang-hun, a victim 

of domestic violence who grows 

up to become a gangster with a hot 

temper who doesn’t hesitate to use 

violence. But he unexpectedly finds a 

ray of hope when he meets a fearless 

neighborhood high school girl, also a 

victim of abuse. Yang wrote and 

directed the film based on his own 

life, and played the lead. 

Due to the film’s intense depiction 

of violence and dysfunctional families, 

it created quite a stir. Yang said 

one viewer told him, “You look so 

normal and even gentle in person 

[compared to in the film].” 

“Sang-hun is a part of me, say, an 

aggressive side of me, while the person 

whom you will be seeing in person 

is also a part of me. I’ve always 

been and will be the human Yang Ikjune 

on and off screen,” said Yang. 

Asked why he filmed his own life, 

Yang said, “All people live under the 

influence of their families, whether 

they like it or not, particularly in 

Korea. And they have a lot to say 

about [their families], often connected 

with feelings of love and hatred at 

the same time. Many still feel uncomfortable 

doing so. 

Yang continued, “But we cannot 

turn away forever, and what I did was 

just look squarely at it and show it 

without adding to or subtracting from 

what I’ve felt throughout my life.” 

This actor-turned-director was 

explicit about his principles of acting 

and filmmaking. 

“Filmmaking is and should always 

be a challenge, since it is creating 

something out of nothing, using your 

imagination while setting foot in reality,” 

said Yang. 

“I rarely tell actors what to do on 

the set. Actors should be able to 

express what they already have inside 

themselves. That’s what actors are 

supposed to do.” By Park Sun-young 


May 2009 korea 63

People 

Old Partner tells the story of the life of Choi Won-kyun, 82, a farmer in 

Bongha, North Gyeongsang, and the cow that has been his constant 

companion. In fact the two are so close in the film that Choi’s wife Lee 

Sam-sun is jealous, in an unusual and touching tale. 


With very few exceptions, 

independent 

movies have to be satisfied 

with a run at film 

festivals, perhaps a brief theatrical life 

on a couple of screens and finally a long 

career sitting on DVD store shelves. 

But Old Partner, happily, turned out 

to be one of those exceptions. 

The low-budget documentary is 

poised to become the country’s highest 

grossing independent film. It opened 

Jan. 15 in about seven theaters with 

typically low expectations. But critics 

and moviegoers loved the film, and at its 

peak, Old Partner was shown on more 

than 200 screens. 

Directed by Lee Choong-yeol, the 

movie tells the story of a crippled old 

farmer and the dying cow that has 

served him faithfully for decades. The 

production cost and minuscule marketing 

budget barely touched the 100 

million won ($75,000) mark. It’s hard to 

imagine a Korean studio investing in a 

project like it. Nevertheless, the latest 

estimates show it’s earned several 

times more than what was spent to 

make it. 

Old Partner’s focus on simple 

rural life, and on the strong Lee Choong-yeol 

bond an aging farmer has Director of Old Partner 

formed with his cow (so strong 

that his wife gets jealous) has drawn mostly urbanized 

viewers whose industrialized country prides itself on 

achieving near-miraculous economic growth since the 

Korean War — yet clearly still harbor a nostalgia for 

the pastoral Korea of old. 

Just as intriguing as the movie’s real-life plot is how 

it was made in the first place. Director Lee spent five 

years searching for the right pair of man and cow, having 

drawn his inspiration from his own rural childhood. 

Stories passed around about the process of creating 

the film drew viewers just as much as the documentary 

itself. Lee, constantly low on cash, had to 

struggle to keep his producer on board, especially 

because the old cow — who was supposed to die — 

refused to play its part, pushing the completion date 

back farther and farther. 

Eighty-two-year-old farmer Choi Won-kyun is the 

star of the movie, along with his companion cow. And 

Lee Sam-sun, Choi’s wife, completes the unusual love 

triangle. Since the movie’s January premiere, an avalanche 

of curious visitors has invaded the private life 

of the couple, who until now had enjoyed absolute 

privacy in their rural village. 

The movie has done well among critics, winning 

an award at the prestigious Pusan International 

Film Festival. It also played at the Sundance 

Film Festival. The director, Lee Chung-ryoul, 

became the first recipient of the “Rookie Director 

Award” at the PaekSang Arts Awards as an indie 

film director. 

The movie at times has maintained its spot as 

the number one movie despite being challenged by 

domestic movies filled with stars and by Hollywood 

films. For a struggling film industry, 

the movie’s success at the box office 

is an important lesson for movie producers 

— namely that a simple, heartfelt 

story can go a long way. 

South Korea’s previous box-office 

record for an independent documentary 

film stood at 120,000 tickets. But Old 

Partner has topped the 3 million mark. 

Even President Lee Myung-bak has 

watched the film. Bongha village in 

North Gyeongsang, where the film was 

shot, is planning an “Old Partner” 

museum to cash in on the movie’s success. 

The old couple has been besieged 

by tourists, and there has been concern 

from the movie director about the 

instrusions on their daily lives. On the 

other hand, the village seems thankful 

for the possible influx of cash. 

The dynamic tempo of South Korean 

development and the sometimes cold 

nature of its society, with cutthroat competition 

for jobs and schools, may have 

laid the groundwork for the movie’s 

huge success. At least that’s what movie 

critics think happened. 

“A buddy tale between human and 

beast that depicts a strong bond is deeply 

touching the hearts of viewers. It’s 

playing on human nature, and that is the 

most appealing point,” said culture critic 

Kim Jong-hui. 

By Brian Lee 

Provided by Warnangsori blog 


May 2009 korea 65

Foreign Viewpoints 

Back to a 

life of many 

cultures 

‘All educated Koreans [of the 

premodern age] — though the 

great majority had never left 

Korea — were at least 

bilingual and bicultural.’ 

John M. Frankl is currently an associate 

professor of Korean studies at Yonsei University’s 

Underwood International College. 

Professor Frankl received his B.A. in East 

Asian Languages from U.C. Berkeley, after 

which he came to Korea and completed 

an M.A. in Korean Literature at Yonsei. 

He then returned to the United States and 

entered Harvard University where he earned 

a master’s in Regional Studies: East Asia and 

a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations. 

His dissertation focused on representations 

of “the foreign” in Korean literary 

and historical texts. Most recently Professor 

Frankl has been working on Korean fiction 

and essays from the 1930s. 

The idea of a narrow national 

identity is a relatively recent 

phenomenon. In Korea, such 

definitions really did not form 

until the early 20th century. Premodern 

distinctions were not so much between 

“Korean” and “non-Korean” 

as they were between “civilized” and 

“barbaric.” Whether one was civilized, 

and thus included, was based on 

the acceptance of a common culture, 

which depended to a large degree on 

written language. 

As such, all educated Koreans — 

though the great majority had never 

left Korea — were at least bilingual 

and bicultural. Multilingualism, and 

multiple, coexisting identities are historically 

natural. In fact, the nearly 

schizophrenic approach to language 

and nationality exhibited in late 20thcentury 

Korea may be directly linked 

to the cognitive dissonance that arises 

when trying to cope with the narrowminded 

nationalistic demand for an 

artificially unified identity. 

All of this began to change as Koreans 

were exposed to pressure and 

threats from abroad, and to nationalism. 

Even under Japanese colonial rule, 

however, most educated Koreans accepted 

that bilingualism would continue 

to be a fact of life on the peninsula. 

The only difference was that Japanese 

— or English for many — had replaced 

literary Chinese as the language to 

master. 

The truly significant shift came in 

1945 with Korea’s liberation from Japan. 

The generation that came of age 

after 1945 was the first in over 1,000 

years to believe monolingualism and 

monoculturalism were natural and 

sufficient. Although the nationalism 

of this period was both a postcolonial 

outgrowth and a factor in Korea’s later 

development, its utility was relatively 

short-lived. By the late 1990s, it had 

essentially already been judged by 

Koreans themselves as obsolete. Nationally, 

as Korea became a producer 

not only of ships and cars but also of 

culture and art, insularism and xenophobia 

became hindrances. Individual 

Koreans outpaced the government 

and began pursuing bilingualism and 

biculturalism on their own. 

By the beginning of the 21st century, 

this trend was irreversible. Koreans 

understood the need for bilingualism, 

and were expressing that with their 

feet and wallets. In 1995 there were 

1,200 middle school students studying 

abroad. In 2000, that number showed 

a modest rise, to 1,799. But then the 

number quintupled over the next five 

years: 9,246 South Korean middle 

school students were studying abroad 

in 2006. Thus this trend is growing 

stronger over time. And it is actually 

the numbers for primary school students 

that show the greatest changes. 

In 1995 there were 235 primary school 

students studying abroad. By 2000, 

the number had tripled to 705. But 

by 2006, it had reached 13,814. The 

numbers of high school and university 

students, of course, are also rapidly increasing. 

The result is that South Korea, 

despite its relatively small population, 

has been the country sending 

the largest number of foreign students 

to the United States for the last two 

years running. And there are also large 

numbers of South Korean students in 

Canada, Australia, New Zealand and 

Great Britain, as well as at international 

schools throughout Asia. 

International education is a fait 

accompli, and the government is the 

only party not acknowledging this. 

By providing neither the facilities nor 

the laws to allow its citizens to pursue 

international education in Korea, 

the government is needlessly creating 

social and financial problems. Families 

are divided for years, while hundreds 

of millions of dollars flow out of the 

country. Korea has been talking about 

democracy and globalization since I arrived 

in 1987. Why not begin to allow 

citizens to choose how they will educate 

their children, spend their money, 

and live their lives? 

66 korea May 2009

2005-2162 The Buddha’s birthday illuminates Seoul

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