JB Life January 2017
Volume 5 (January 2017) of JB Life, a publication of the Jeollabuk-do Center for International Affairs. Enjoy!
Volume 5 (January 2017) of JB Life, a publication of the Jeollabuk-do Center for International Affairs. Enjoy!
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Jeollabuk-do’s International Magazine<br />
<strong>January</strong> <strong>2017</strong>, Issue #5<br />
Registration No. ISSN: 2508-1284<br />
<strong>JB</strong> LIFE is published by the <strong>JB</strong>CIA<br />
(Jeonbuk Center for International Affairs)<br />
전라북도 국제교류센터<br />
164 Palgwajeong-ro, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do, Korea<br />
Tel:(+82) 63-214-5605~6 Fax: (+82) 63-214-5608<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> Editorial Staff:<br />
ANJEE DISANTO, U.S.A.,<br />
M.A. Communication & Rhetoric<br />
<strong>JB</strong> LIFE LAYOUT & DESIGN<br />
Anjee is a ten-year resident of Jeonju<br />
and visiting professor at Chonbuk National<br />
University. While living here, she<br />
has traveled to 42 countries as well as<br />
explored and photographed most parts<br />
of the Korean peninsula. She is the English<br />
editor of CBNU’s student magazine<br />
and has worked extensively with<br />
10 Magazine in Seoul.<br />
DOWON KIM, Korea,<br />
BA Biological Science<br />
<strong>JB</strong> LIFE <strong>JB</strong>CIA LIAISON<br />
Dowon is a member of <strong>JB</strong>CIA and<br />
delivers stories of what is happening<br />
in the center and what the center does<br />
for Jeollabuk-do. She has lived in New<br />
Zealand so she loves meeting new people<br />
from diverse countries. Passionate<br />
about food, cycle, music and dogs. You<br />
can ask about the center through her<br />
e-mail at dwkim411@jbcia.or.kr.<br />
YOUNG-WOO PARK, Korea,<br />
Ph.D. TESOL<br />
<strong>JB</strong> LIFE KOREAN CONSULTANT<br />
Dr. Park has been teaching English for<br />
33 years, with interests in various levels<br />
from young learner to university.<br />
He has worked for several universities<br />
in Jeonju, Gwangju, and Daejeon, and<br />
maintains strong connections with several<br />
Western and Asian universities. He<br />
is especially interested in training university<br />
students for their job searches.<br />
04<br />
06<br />
08<br />
12<br />
INTERNATIONAL BEAT<br />
- International Center News<br />
HISTORY<br />
- Who Moved These Rocks?<br />
SPORTS<br />
- Amazing Iksan Fencing<br />
TOUR<br />
- The Gochang Dolmens<br />
DAVID VAN MINNEN, Canada,<br />
B.A. Humanities/Classical Languages<br />
<strong>JB</strong> LIFE CHIEF PROOFREADER<br />
David came to Jeonbuk in 2004. In<br />
2006, he created the Jeonju Hub website<br />
to help foreign residents and has<br />
been highly active in outreach since.<br />
After 4 years operating a saloon and<br />
5 running a restaurant, he works as a<br />
corporate English consultant. He lives<br />
with his wife, Jeonju artist Cheon Jeong<br />
Kyeong, and two children.<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> Writers & Artists:<br />
BETSEY NORMAN has been living in Korea for about<br />
3 years. She teaches English speaking at Chonbuk<br />
National University High School. Before coming to<br />
Korea she was a high school teacher in Minnesota.<br />
Betsey loves writing, reading, eating and dancing.<br />
BONNIE CUNNINGHAM, U.S., B.A. Visual Arts, is a<br />
new teacher in Korea. She loves to travel and make<br />
artwork along the way. While she currently focuses<br />
on painting, her background is in film and video.<br />
She is excited to be living here and looks forward<br />
to whatever it lends to her artwork.<br />
DEAN CRAWFORD watches lots of films, meaning<br />
he’s a bit of a geek and spends a lot of time on his<br />
own in dark rooms. After working in the UK film industry<br />
at Hogwarts and the X-Mansion, Dean now<br />
resides in Jeonju where he writes about his two favorite<br />
things, films and food!<br />
FELIPE GOMES, originally from Sao Paulo, divides<br />
his time between freelancing and figuring out how<br />
to make 6 years of digital marketing and game<br />
writing experience link to fun new projects. He has<br />
been having a grand time visiting Jeonju, his Korean<br />
home.<br />
HEATHER ALLMAN, a U.S. native, has been living<br />
and teaching English in Jeonju for 1.5 years. With<br />
a background in International Relations and Spanish,<br />
she has a dexterity for language. Writing and<br />
traveling are her two favorites, so she thought,<br />
why not do them both at once?<br />
MIRIAM LEE, B.A. History/Anthropology, can most<br />
likely be found singing in the hallways of the Jeonju<br />
English Center, where she teaches 5th graders.<br />
Miriam, who avidly defends her noraebang title,<br />
also won 3rd place in a Care Bears coloring contest<br />
in Jersey City in 1986.<br />
RENEE McMILLAN has been living and teaching in<br />
Jeonju for five years. A recovering actress, Renee<br />
has become addicted to travel and photography.<br />
She enjoys sharing her stories and adventures,<br />
and is excited to work with <strong>JB</strong> <strong>Life</strong> in capturing the<br />
beauty of Jeollabukdo.<br />
SARAH HODGKISS, one of our new illustrators, is a<br />
24-year-old British artist who is currently working<br />
as a Kindergarten teacher in Jeonju. If you want to<br />
see more of her work, visit www.facebook.com/<br />
artsydoodling.<br />
SILAYAN CASINO is a multi-lingual Eurasian American<br />
with nearly 6 years’ English teaching experience<br />
in Korea. Hobbies include traveling, writing,<br />
photography and learning languages. She teaches<br />
at CBNU and is an active member of Antioch International<br />
Christian Fellowship.<br />
STUART SCOTT, a Jeonju resident since 2003,<br />
teaches at JJU. One of his favorite hobbies is studying<br />
history, folklore, and myths. Stuart grew up in<br />
Canada, where he graduated with a degree in history<br />
and political science.<br />
Jeollabuk-do Global Living<br />
<strong>January</strong> <strong>2017</strong> / Issue #5<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> is a quarterly project of the Jeollabuk-do<br />
Center for International Affairs. Our goal is to spread news<br />
to Jeollabuk-do’s international community, as well as to<br />
carry news of Jeonbuk throughout Korea and abroad. As<br />
of <strong>2017</strong>, this magazine is bimonthly, publishing in <strong>January</strong>,<br />
March, May, July, September, and November.<br />
To get involved, email jeonbuklife@gmail.com<br />
16<br />
20<br />
22<br />
32<br />
40<br />
44<br />
48<br />
LOCAL FOOD<br />
- Fantastic [Winter] Foods & Where to Find Them<br />
GLOBAL FOOD<br />
- Finding Jeonju’s “Mexican Soul”<br />
ARTS<br />
- The Art of Building a Hanok<br />
- Foreign Artists Showcase: Human Nature<br />
GLOBAL JEONBUK<br />
- Eurasia: Jeonju’s Multitalented Dance Troupe<br />
- Bringing Brazil to Korea: The Lefundes Family<br />
WORLDVIEW<br />
- Buddhism in Jeonbuk<br />
SOCIAL SCOPE<br />
- Helping to Help Others: The JWAU<br />
“BEING” IN JEONBUK<br />
- Celebration: Keeping Indian Traditions Alive Abroad<br />
52<br />
FICTION<br />
- Cassa Daly & the Only Adventure She Ever Really<br />
Had (or Wanted)<br />
SWARNALEE DUTTA, a native of India, has been living<br />
in Jeonju for 2 years, working as a postdoctoral<br />
scientist at the National Institute of Agricultural<br />
Sciences. While her toddler keeps her happily busy,<br />
she loves to read and keeps learning whatever life<br />
holds out for her.<br />
VIKKI CHAN is British-born Chinese. She has been<br />
living in Jeonju since 2013. Vikki loves to find out<br />
more about different cultures residing in Korea.<br />
This month’s COVER DESIGN is by artist<br />
Bonnie Cunningham. Find more of her work within<br />
<strong>JB</strong> <strong>Life</strong> or on her instagram via the username<br />
@soybonnie.<br />
54<br />
55<br />
GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION<br />
- “The Future is Dark”<br />
JEOLLA DIALECT<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 3
INTERNATIONAL BEAT<br />
Looking to Locals with the<br />
Here’s a look at what the <strong>JB</strong>CIA (Jeollabuk-do Center<br />
for International Affairs) did in the last quarter of<br />
2016 and what they are planning for the start of the<br />
new year. For further information, always keep an eye on their<br />
website at jbcia.or.kr.<br />
Korea-China Calligraphy Exchange<br />
Korea held a calligraphy exchange at the Jeonju Citizens<br />
Gallery this past Fall for one week. The Calligraphy gallery<br />
was for the two countries to share their homogeneous cultural<br />
areas in order to understand each other and enhance<br />
friendship. It was organized by the <strong>JB</strong>CIA and supervised<br />
by the Korea and China Culture Organization in Jeonbuk.<br />
The gallery was open to everybody, so participants could<br />
see and have fun comparing the artwork of each country. In<br />
total, Korea contributed 100 pieces and China 50 pieces. A<br />
similar gallery event will be held in China next year with<br />
hopes of seeing diverse art work.<br />
4<br />
“J.I.S.U. Sports Day<br />
As a Fall activity, J.I.S.U. (Jeollabuk-do International<br />
Supporters’ Unity) sponsored a sports day to foster camaraderie<br />
between the supporter groups. Through sports,<br />
body gesture games, association games, pair-based games,<br />
zombie simulations, etc., the members from the different<br />
groups had a chance to communicate and strengthen group<br />
solidarity.<br />
The 2nd Foreign Students P.R Team<br />
Completion Ceremony & 1st and 2nd<br />
Combined Workshop<br />
The <strong>JB</strong>CIA’s 2nd Foreign Students Public Relations<br />
Team, formed from September to November to promote<br />
the province through photos and video, recently closed out<br />
their business for the year and held an awards ceremony.<br />
There were six photo teams and three video teams that<br />
could find more vivid elements of the province through<br />
their work. Even though their activity has finished, you can<br />
watch their works over on Facebook (www.facebook.com/<br />
jbcia20151001). To celebrate the successful duration and<br />
participation from all of the 1st and the 2nd Foreign Students<br />
P.R Teams, they went on a combined workshop trip.<br />
The <strong>JB</strong>CIA gave a chance for them to go to Muju, which<br />
is often too far to visit individually, and they experienced<br />
taekwondo and saw the superb natural landscape of Jeollabuk-do.<br />
The 3rd Foreign Students Public Relations Team<br />
will be recruited starting in <strong>January</strong>, and we look forward<br />
LEFT: Closing Ceremony of the 2nd Foreign Students Public Relations<br />
Team. RIGHT: Korea-China Calligraphy Exchange.<br />
A successful<br />
day of sports.<br />
to seeing more talented and passionate foreign students<br />
in Jeonbuk.<br />
Global Talk!Talk!Talk!: 2 Ambassadors<br />
and the Stories of 2 Regions<br />
On December 15th, the <strong>JB</strong>CIA invited two former ambassadors<br />
who are well versed in their particular regions to<br />
speak for the Global Talk!Talk!Talk! program. Ambassadors<br />
Sin Sung Cheol and Jeon Dae Wan both stayed more than 10<br />
years in their respective regions (Latin America and Eurasia),<br />
so they were right for the students and general residents in<br />
terms of sharing various information about cultural, historical,<br />
political, and trending issues. Even though the lecture<br />
lasted more than three hours, lots of students were still curious<br />
about the countries or stories of the ambassadors when<br />
they were conducting diplomacy. Reflecting the opinions<br />
from the attendees, the <strong>JB</strong>CIA will hold more beneficial and<br />
varied lectures for more people, so be sure to track their website<br />
at jbcia.or.kr for future posters and advertisements.<br />
Completion Ceremony and<br />
Volunteer Activity<br />
The first group of volunteers for the Jeollabuk-do International<br />
Supporters Unity program had a completion<br />
ceremony in December after a long journey of about 7<br />
months. The representatives from each group reported<br />
Participants at the<br />
Outreach Counseling event.<br />
what they had done and how they felt about having been<br />
JISU representatives. The chief of the center distributed a<br />
certificate to each person, making it a meaningful experience<br />
for all. After the ceremony, all the members went to<br />
the Paul Center Gym to do volunteer work for the local<br />
elderly in need. They gave free haircuts and massages and<br />
shared food. The second group of JISU representatives<br />
are being recruited, so we hope to see more passionate<br />
local residents doing diverse and interesting activities in<br />
<strong>2017</strong>.<br />
Outreach Counseling Service<br />
To provide consultation for foreigners who are too busy<br />
to visit the center, the <strong>JB</strong>CIA’s counseling service team<br />
visited densely populated foreigner areas in November<br />
and December. There were professional counsellors of<br />
labor, immigration, psychology, and human rights with a<br />
lawyer and labor attorney present, not only counseling but<br />
also giving tips and useful information to live in Jeonbuk.<br />
Volunteers also gave free Chinese medicinal service and<br />
set up some sports (volleyball and basketball) to play with<br />
about 200 foreign residents. Since most people welcomed<br />
the outreach counseling service, the <strong>JB</strong>CIA is planning<br />
to provide the service to more diverse locations and<br />
more frequently. To suggest your city as the next place,<br />
make a proposal to the person in charge, No Lebeon<br />
(063.214.5604/nlb1234@jbcia.or.kr).<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 5
HISTORY<br />
By STUART SCOTT<br />
<strong>JB</strong> <strong>Life</strong> Contributing Writer<br />
Man’s history on this planet has many different<br />
stories about its beginning and<br />
its development. Some cultures interacted<br />
and the collision of cultures was unavoidable.<br />
Food, clothing, music, government, and holidays<br />
have spread by contact with other cultures. Some<br />
traditions, however, seem to have been created independently<br />
by many different cultures. The great<br />
pyramids of Egypt and Mexico are separated by a<br />
vast ocean and many centuries. There is no evidence<br />
to support any contact between the two cultures, yet<br />
the many similarities in their construction and purpose<br />
would strongly suggest that there was contact.<br />
However, to this day, that is only speculation. Alcohol<br />
is another example of something that appears in<br />
many cultures. A consistent theme around the world<br />
is that when man gave up his nomadic ways, alcohol<br />
in the form of wine, whiskey, or other spirits soon<br />
started to appear. There is no evidence of this process<br />
being culturally transferred to distant places. It<br />
is believed that the process used to ferment Korean<br />
drinks is over 5000 years old. It is unlikely travel<br />
between Greece (site of the first European alcohol)<br />
and Korea happened at that time.<br />
One other practice that appears to have happened<br />
independently instead of by cultural interference is<br />
the building of dolmens. A dolmen is usually considered<br />
to be a collection of upright stones with a<br />
larger one laid across as a ceiling or roof. The oldest<br />
ones are in Europe and would be around 7000<br />
years old. Of course, the older ones have suffered<br />
the most weathering over the years. We cannot be<br />
sure who built these first Dolmens, so it impossible<br />
to prove why they built them. It is generally<br />
conceded that they were some sort of a burial<br />
chamber, but this is only speculation. Burial items<br />
found nearby may or may not have been placed at<br />
the time of building. It is possible that they were<br />
changed to burial plots sometime after their construction.<br />
We don’t know. Russian dolmens, for<br />
example, are believed to be vaults for storing their<br />
gold and other precious metals. The people in this<br />
area were miners and eventually the local population<br />
was conquered and enslaved to steal their<br />
treasures.<br />
The size of these dolmens has led to many stories<br />
about their creation. One of the largest ones<br />
is in Spain and is 25 meters long and weighs over<br />
180 metric tons. It is seriously doubted by some<br />
that the engineering technology required to build<br />
such a structure was available at the time. Perhaps<br />
we had visitors from another planet to help build<br />
them. Perhaps some Godlike creature built them.<br />
Again, even though there were many human skeletons<br />
found inside, there is no evidence to prove<br />
that they were placed there at the time of construction<br />
or that it was built earlier with this purpose in<br />
mind.<br />
Another large dolmen is in Ireland. If the construction<br />
date of 4000 to 3000 BC is accurate, then<br />
it would have been built by the earliest farmers to<br />
move to Ireland. How could these early settlers<br />
have moved the 100 metric tons that these stones<br />
represent?<br />
Of course, finally we will look at the dolmens in<br />
Korea. If one includes North Korea, the peninsula<br />
has the largest number of dolmens in the world (an<br />
estimated 35,000). “Dolmen” in Korean is “goindol”<br />
(고안돌). This means “supported stone.” Remarkably,<br />
the building of these structures is mostly<br />
limited to the Korean peninsula in East Asia.<br />
Some are in China and a few much larger ones<br />
also exist off the peninsula. As Korea, too, was<br />
becoming an agricultural society at this time, it<br />
is hard to imagine the people having the time or<br />
ability to build them.<br />
One of the three main locations of Korean dolmen<br />
is right here in North Jeolla province. This<br />
group of dolmen is the largest in Korea. They are<br />
mostly in the village of Maesan, near Gochang.<br />
Sixteen-hundred plus dolmens have been located<br />
here, with over 400 of them designated as World<br />
Heritage sites. The ones in Gochang county are the<br />
largest and most diversified in Korea. Unlike dolmens<br />
around the world, there is evidence to show<br />
the dolmens in Korea were indeed grave sites of<br />
the important or rich citizens. Some in South Jeolla<br />
province actually show the year they were built<br />
and the identity of those buried within.<br />
Also, almost all Korean dolmen are covered.<br />
This would be consistent with the theory of a<br />
burial chamber. The absence of a roof on many<br />
dolmen outside of Korea raises certain questions<br />
about their use.<br />
Burial chambers, early art, protection from wild<br />
animals, or built by visitors from other planets are<br />
possible explanations given for their construction.<br />
You can decide which you feel is correct. Whichever<br />
explanation you choose, a trip to Maesen to<br />
see these ancient rocks is a must, before you leave<br />
Korea.<br />
For more information on the Gochang<br />
Dolmens, check out the TOUR section on<br />
Page 12!<br />
LEFT: A line of dolmens in Gochang.<br />
[Photo by Renee McMillan]<br />
6<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 7
SPORTS<br />
By Anjee DiSanto<br />
During and after the Rio Olympics, a video<br />
circulated of Park Sang-young, a 20-yearold<br />
Korean fencer who competed in the<br />
Games. With 10 points to his opponent’s 14 in the<br />
final match, Park could be seen visibly mouthing a<br />
string of words (in Korean) again and again. “I can<br />
do it. I can do it.” This scene in and of itself was<br />
touching, but was made even more so by the fact that<br />
Park could and did do it. Shortly after this self-pep<br />
talk he came from behind in a burst. The end result?<br />
A win, 15-14, and Korea’s first ever gold medal in<br />
men’s individual épée.<br />
While this was Korea’s first gold in that particular<br />
event, the country is no stranger to Olympic or<br />
international fencing wins. And yet… this is hardly<br />
the sport that outsiders would naturally associate<br />
with Korea if asked. In the minds of many, the sport<br />
tends to be stereotypically linked to svelt Europeans<br />
with long legs or arms. France. Italy. Hungary. Indeed,<br />
these countries boast the most overall medals<br />
throughout time in Olympic fencing and primarily<br />
dominated the sport in the competitions of old. Over<br />
time, though, the field of victors has spread.<br />
At the Amazing Iksan Fencing Club, instructor<br />
Lee Yeol admits between bouts that fencing wasn’t<br />
always so popular amongst Koreans. In the past, he<br />
says, people were mostly only recruited to competitive<br />
fencing clubs in middle and high school, on the<br />
condition that they had long legs or arms and had<br />
already shown to be good at sports. This is no<br />
longer the case. For one thing, as an analysis by<br />
the Australian group Sydney Sabre noted, Koreans<br />
do not generally excel at fencing through long<br />
limbs. Rather, they thrive on their natural speed<br />
and skilled footwork with elegant lunges. Coaches<br />
further emphasize this through vigorous leg exercises<br />
and techniques.<br />
And then there’s the fact that this is no longer<br />
just a competitive sport in Korea. Sponsors of the<br />
Korean Fencing Federation have promoted the activity<br />
as a way to get healthy in recent years, so<br />
nowadays, it’s no surprise to find fencing practices<br />
full of all ages, genders, and shapes.<br />
Such is the case at Amazing Iksan Fencing. Here<br />
we see clusters of young students (primarily female)<br />
and a spattering of differently aged adults,<br />
including Tamryn Zeeman, a South African public<br />
school teacher who has lived in Iksan for four years.<br />
Zeeman joined in April of 2015 on somewhat of a<br />
whim and ended up sticking with it. Though she<br />
admits that she and most others there have joined<br />
the sport far too late to be professionally competitive,<br />
she and others have still had the chance to<br />
develop a love for the sport and its benefits and a<br />
competitive spirit under their coaches, Kim Heewon,<br />
Lee Yeol, and main coach Ju Dal-nim.<br />
“Taking up fencing has benefited me mainly in<br />
health, keeping my mind sharp, and becoming<br />
more involved in the Korean community,” Zeeman<br />
says. “It has also made me aware of the high<br />
level that sports are carried out at in Korea,”<br />
The section of the club in which Zeeman participates<br />
does do some competitions around the peninsula,<br />
but these are not in the same league as those<br />
of Olympians and high-level competitors, some of<br />
whom have trained and do train locally (mostly via<br />
Iksan City Hall). For the hobbyists, they take the<br />
training more mildly, though their progress is nodoubt<br />
serious. Practices take place several times<br />
per week, and while somewhat short and businesslike,<br />
are still in good fun, with handshakes, chats,<br />
and laughs. Zeeman notes that these practices do<br />
get much longer and more intense prior to competitions,<br />
though.<br />
In terms of high-level competitions, the coaches<br />
here explain that the types of fencing vary by<br />
gender. Fencing typically splits into three areas:<br />
foil, which uses the lightest weapon and has the<br />
strictest rules; épée, which uses a sturdier blade<br />
and moves the “slowest”; and sabre, the most offensive<br />
and fastest (with blades sometimes moving<br />
as fast as bullets!). In Korea, they explain, women<br />
tend toward sabre on a competitive level, while<br />
men prefer épée.<br />
The coaches teaching here for the hobbyists and<br />
lower-level competitors focus on épée. This, they<br />
explain, may be a bit more approachable to the beginner.<br />
Around 16 people train in this particular<br />
club, while 30 train in the gym overall (including<br />
the elite competitors). In this group, the ratio is<br />
also 90 percent women.<br />
g<br />
LEFT: Fencers Go Kyeong-hyeon and Tamryn<br />
Zeeman. [All photos by ANJEE DISANTO]<br />
8
FEATURE STORY<br />
10<br />
The Fencing Experience<br />
In the Iksan gym, a night of fencing goes from zero<br />
to full-on at a surprising rate of speed. Fencers arrive<br />
with bulky bags of gear and assemble themselves rapidly,<br />
from undergarment upon undergarment to chest<br />
guard to glove to mask. The gym itself is lined with<br />
garments, weapons, and masks of various kinds, but<br />
most competitors here own their own. Many even<br />
cheer themselves on by embellishing or decorating<br />
their gear. One such competitor, Go Kyeong-hyeon,<br />
has a dragon-like stencil emblazoned on the front of<br />
his mask, making for a more daunting show of force,<br />
as well as the phrase “All is Well” written in marker<br />
atop one ear.<br />
The equipment, Zeeman explains, can be an obstacle<br />
to casual hobbyists. All told, her gear cost around<br />
1.2 million won. Shoes alone might cost 400,000...<br />
used. With this investment, though, you have a collection<br />
of equipment that can endure for nearly as<br />
long as you want to pursue the sport, and the monthly<br />
fees are comparatively rather low.<br />
“If you are on the fence, I would suggest that you go<br />
down to your nearest club and join for a month before<br />
committing to buying the equipment,” Zeeman recommends.<br />
“The club should be able to loan you some<br />
gear. When I started, practices involved learning<br />
footwork, reconditioning your muscles, flexibility,<br />
and fitness. If you are prepared to stick this out, then<br />
you’re probably ready for the expensive commitment.<br />
Thereafter, you can start by investing in the bare basics,<br />
such as your shoes, glove, sword and mask.”<br />
Once everyone is suited up, the practice progresses<br />
at sabre-like speed. Some students, like Zeeman,<br />
get a bit of one-on-one instruction before facing off,<br />
while others plug straight in to the electric cords and<br />
start sparring away with opponents. Cat-like lunges<br />
are exchanged back and forth in front of score and<br />
time boards adorned with the colorful Iksan logo.<br />
The speed is intimidating, as are the occasional characteristic<br />
fencing yells. But in the end, the helmets<br />
come off, the hands shake, and everyone is all smiles<br />
before doing it again.<br />
Even clips of fencing competitions are impressive<br />
to watch, but in person, it becomes clear what a sheer<br />
workout this sport is. It’s unbelievably fast and repetitive<br />
and stretches the body in ways that fall somewhere<br />
between elegant and cruel. Zeeman, who was<br />
already athletic and previously competed on rowing<br />
crews, says she still found the sport challenging. She<br />
also experienced noticeable weight loss and muscle<br />
development over the course of her training, an effect<br />
her coach was proud to affirm.<br />
“Fencing is by far the most challenging sport I have<br />
ever attempted, and I have done various sports my entire<br />
life!” Zeeman explains. “It challenges the way your<br />
body moves and the way you think. It’s quite a mental<br />
workout! The biggest challenge I would have to say is<br />
becoming more flexible and retraining my muscles and<br />
mind to reformat old muscle memories from previous<br />
sports, which required much bigger motions. Fencing<br />
is all about keeping your body still, moving gracefully<br />
and swiftly, yet attacking like a bee.”<br />
All in all, for anyone willing to undertake the expenses<br />
and consistent practice of such a demanding (yet rewarding)<br />
sport, Zeeman and her coaches welcome them<br />
to join in – whether Korean or foreigner, and whether<br />
or not they’ve mastered the Korean language.<br />
“Speaking Korean would benefit you far more during<br />
practices but it’s not a major hindrance,” Zeeman,<br />
who isn’t fluent, explains. “I have been very lucky<br />
with the amazing coaches and fencing team at my club<br />
who were open to accepting the challenge of teaching<br />
me even though I could not speak Korean and they<br />
could not speak English. The exercises and drills are<br />
demonstrated to me to follow, and the names of fencing<br />
moves are actually universal and in French.<br />
“Fencing is a tight knit sport, and I have become<br />
friends with everyone at my club. Even at fencing<br />
competitions I have been welcomed by my competitors.<br />
It really is a beautiful sport that you can continually<br />
improve on throughout your life.“<br />
For the time being, the Iksan club practices on the<br />
bottom level of a stadium far outside the city center.<br />
Soon, though, they will relocate to the much more accessible<br />
Yeongdeung-dong, under the instruction of<br />
Kim Hee-won, where they hope others will join in on<br />
the competitive fun.<br />
For more information and to track the progress of the<br />
group, find them on Facebook:<br />
www.facebook.com/iksanfencing<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 11
JEONBUK TOUR<br />
By RENEE MCMILLAN<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> Contributing Writer<br />
The idea of strolling through a misty field<br />
covered in giant stone monuments calls<br />
to mind images of Stonehenge, druids,<br />
possible ritual sacrifice, and portals into another<br />
time. Perhaps that’s just me, and I may be guilty<br />
of having read The Mists of Avalon and Outlander<br />
far too many times. While Stonehenge may<br />
be the most iconic symbol of stone monuments<br />
in the world, an equally important site lies approximately<br />
an hour and twenty minutes south<br />
of Jeonju in the small, tranquil city of Gochang.<br />
A day trip to Gochang offers several unique and<br />
beautiful sites, including Gochang Fortress and<br />
Seonunsa Temple. However, one of the most important<br />
and often overlooked sites that Gochang<br />
has to offer is the Gochang Dolmen Sites at Maesan<br />
Village.<br />
Dolmens are large stone constructions or megaliths,<br />
and are generally considered to be grave<br />
markers, although much mystery surrounds<br />
them. While dolmen sites are found throughout<br />
the world, Korea has the highest concentration<br />
of dolmens, with an estimated 35,000. The staggering<br />
number of dolmens found on the Korean<br />
Peninsula accounts for 40% of the world’s<br />
megaliths. Gochang has the most concentrated<br />
number of megaliths found in Korea, with<br />
an estimated sixteen hundred stone monuments<br />
found to this day.<br />
The significance of the dolmen sites of Gochang<br />
to anthropological and archeological<br />
research ensured its recognition and protection<br />
from UNESCO. In 2000, together with<br />
the Hwasan and Ganghwa Dolmen Sites of<br />
Jeollanamdo and Gyeonggi Province, UNE-<br />
SCO listed The Gochang Dolmen Site as a<br />
World Heritage Site. With 447 dolmens officially<br />
registered by UNESCO, Maesan Village<br />
in Gochang is one of the largest and most<br />
important megalithic sites on Earth. According<br />
to UNESCO, “All of the constructions are<br />
original, making the Gochang sites one of the<br />
biggest centers of prehistoric megaliths.” The<br />
dolmens serve as proof that the area has been<br />
inhabited since the Bronze Age.<br />
Research into the dolmen sites of Korea is<br />
relatively new. Excavation of the Gochang<br />
megaliths was carried out as a result of the<br />
construction of the West Coast Highway in<br />
the early 1990’s. Although a large number<br />
of dolmens have been identified, only a few<br />
have been excavated. Typically, dolmens are<br />
single isolated monuments, however the clusters<br />
of dolmens found in Gochang suggest the<br />
individuals interred may have been family<br />
burials for tribal leaders or the same dynasty<br />
of rulers. Excavation of the dolmens has<br />
produced bronze implements, which further<br />
supports this theory.<br />
The Korean word for dolmen is “goindol,”<br />
which translates to “supported stone,” or<br />
“propped stone.” There are four types of dolmen<br />
found throughout Korea. The first type<br />
of goindol is the Table Type, where one<br />
g<br />
LEFT: A misty spread of dolmens in Gochang. RIGHT [from top]: A simulated scene inside the Gochang<br />
Dolmen Museum; a scene By ANJEE constructed DISANTO, outside in the historical Jeonbuk dolmen <strong>Life</strong> village; Co-Editor a small dolmen at<br />
the Gochang site. [Photos by RENEE [Shots MCMILLAN] courtesy of Gimje Public Relations]<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 13<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 13<br />
g
JEONBUK TOUR<br />
LEFT:<br />
Scenic view of a table-type<br />
dolmen in the<br />
Gochang Dolmen Park<br />
last Fall.<br />
RIGHT:<br />
Simulated structure of<br />
old at the historical<br />
village in Gochang<br />
Dolmen Park.<br />
[Photos by<br />
RENEE MCMILLAN]<br />
digenous to the Korean Peninsula. Another widely<br />
held academic theory is that there were migrations<br />
of populations from Europe or North America<br />
to the Korean Peninsula, and these migrations<br />
brought the tradition of erecting stone monuments<br />
with them.<br />
A trip to Maesan Village offers several unique<br />
experiences. The first stop is the Gochang Dolmen<br />
Museum, which houses three floors of exhibitions<br />
and galleries. The museum provides a great deal<br />
of information on dolmens found in Gochang and<br />
throughout the world, as well as many life-sized<br />
representations and depictions of daily life during<br />
the Neolithic Era. The third floor of the museum<br />
includes an interactive area for children. Outside<br />
the museum is a Bronze Age theme park, which<br />
includes a life-sized prehistoric village replica.<br />
Admission to the Gochang Dolmen Museum is<br />
3,000 won for adults, and 1,000 for children. The<br />
museum is open from 9:00am to 6:00pm, March<br />
through October, and from 9:00am to 5:00pm November<br />
through February. Final admission is one<br />
hour before closing. Please note that the museum<br />
is closed on Mondays.<br />
The main attraction of the Maesan Village is the<br />
dolmens. The site is spread across a series of hills,<br />
and includes several different areas for viewing.<br />
This area may be explored as thoroughly or leisurely<br />
as one wishes. There are multiple paths and<br />
guide markers allowing visitors to choose how<br />
extensive their exploration becomes. Viewing the<br />
largest dolmen in Maesan requires a two to three<br />
hour hike. The Gochang Dolmen Site includes the<br />
largest cluster of dolmens found in Korea, diverse<br />
types of dolmens, and a quarry which demonstrates<br />
the construction process of dolmens. Visiting<br />
the site is a perfect way to spend the day<br />
for hiking enthusiasts, nature lovers, and history<br />
buffs.<br />
A visit to the Gochang Dolmen Site at Maesan<br />
Village makes for a perfect day trip from Jeonju.<br />
The area offers a rare glimpse into the daily<br />
lives and burial rites of an earlier civilization set<br />
against an incredibly beautiful landscape. Although<br />
no druids or evidence of ritual sacrifice<br />
are on display, one cannot help but feel they may<br />
have indeed found a portal into another time.<br />
For further information on the Gochang Dolmen<br />
Site and the Gochang Dolmen Museum, please<br />
visit their site:<br />
www.gochang.go.kr/gcdolmen<br />
large stone rests horizontally on two or more<br />
upright stones. Second, the Above-ground<br />
Stone-lined Burial Chamber Type, a variation<br />
of the Table Type, consists of an above-ground<br />
burial chamber which was constructed using<br />
several slabs of stone. As they are mostly<br />
found in the Gochang area, they are often<br />
referred to as “Gochang dolmens.” A third<br />
style is the Capstone, which consists of an<br />
underground burial chamber that was directly<br />
covered by a large capstone. The final type is<br />
the Go-board. This style of dolmen consists<br />
of an underground burial chamber which was<br />
flanked by supporting stones and covered with<br />
a capstone. The Go-board dolmens of Gochang<br />
are characterized by their very tall supporting<br />
stones, and often do not have burial chambers.<br />
The varying styles of dolmens demonstrate the<br />
progression of burial rites over time. All four<br />
types of megaliths are found in Gochang, and<br />
may be viewed at the Maesan Village.<br />
While the earliest known dolmens were set<br />
in place nearly 7,000 years ago in Western Europe,<br />
the dolmens of Korea have been examined<br />
and dated to between 1000 and 700 B.C.<br />
Because the Korean megaliths are far younger<br />
than those found in other parts of the world,<br />
much mystery is centered around the high<br />
amount of dolmens found in Korea. The Gochang<br />
Dolmen Museum at Maesan lists three<br />
possible hypotheses regarding the origins of<br />
dolmens on the Korean Peninsula: 1) that they<br />
came from northern Asia, 2) that they came<br />
from southern Asia, and 3) that they were in-<br />
14<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 15
LOCAL FOOD<br />
By ANJEE DISANTO<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> Co-Editor<br />
Winter has come, as they warned us it<br />
would, but with it comes a new range of<br />
foods that flourish in this chilly seasonal<br />
environment. While the foods mentioned here are not<br />
all exclusive to Jeollabuk-do, many do have a satisfying<br />
North Jeolla flare. We’d like to share a few of the<br />
best treats to try this winter, especially for visitors or<br />
those new to the area.<br />
Red Bean Delights<br />
Expats in Korea have long joked that red bean has a<br />
way of turning up when we’re expecting chocolate. It<br />
can be a bit disconcerting in some contexts, but in the<br />
following dishes, one knows exactly what to expect.<br />
Red bean stews and porridges come to the forefront in<br />
winter. In particular, patjuk, red bean porridge, is popular<br />
for traditional reasons – mainly, it is to be eaten on the<br />
Winter Solstice to drive away bad spirits. Why? Likely<br />
because an old Chinese-based legend featured an evil<br />
spirit who could only be driven away with his most hated<br />
food – patjuk. Eating thick, sweet bowls of soupy red<br />
bean were the solution to safety and health for ones family<br />
in the months and year to come.<br />
Legends aside, the porridge is quite healthy, made with<br />
mashed, boiled red beans, and gives something of a respite<br />
from the typically spicy Korean stews. It also tends<br />
to come with honey to sweeten or quail eggs added in,<br />
and in Jeonju’s traditional markets, you might find not<br />
just a sprinkling of these but an overwhelming helping!<br />
(If you want an egg-heavy version, look specifically for<br />
saealpatjuk... “saeal” is “quail egg.”)<br />
Patjuk and saealpatjuk are available all around North<br />
Jeolla province and beyond, but in this area, red bean<br />
also adopts a different role. Many parts of Korea have<br />
their own characteristic noodle or guksu dishes, and one<br />
of Jeollabuk-do’s main claims is patkalguksu, “knife-<br />
LEFT: A stack of hotteok, a characteristic syrup-filled<br />
pancake. RIGHT: Typical bungeoppang,<br />
or fish bread. FOLLOWING PAGES: [Left] a<br />
bowl of patkalguksu, or knife-cut noodles in red<br />
bean, from Jeonju’s Nambu Market. [Right]<br />
Five-colored tteokguk, or rice cake soup.<br />
[Photos by ANJEE DISANTO]<br />
cut” noodles in a thick red-bean broth. Depending on<br />
the shop, noodles may come as the plain wheat flour<br />
variety, or may take a flavored spin (such as through<br />
added notes of green tea). In any case, in comparison<br />
to plain patjuk, patkalguksu tends to be less bland.<br />
Restaurants add their own seasonings, and in this case,<br />
rather than just honey or sugar, you can also have the<br />
choice to add salt. This added range of seasoning may<br />
be more appealing to foreigners on some level than<br />
with the typical red bean porridge.<br />
If you’re hunting patkalguksu around North Jeolla,<br />
there are plenty of options. In Gunsan, Jangteo<br />
Patkalguksu in Naun-dong or Yetnal Patjuk in Jukseong-dong<br />
are two shops that fit the bill. Iksan has<br />
Yetmat Patkalguksu in Shin-dong, and Jeonju has several<br />
options clustered inside its famed Nambu Market.<br />
A Hot Time for Hot Cakes<br />
While available here and there year-round, hotteok, a<br />
honey-filled Korean pancake, has a certain soul-warming<br />
power that just amplifies in the winter. There’s<br />
nothing like receiving a tiny paper cup of fresh-fried<br />
pancake from the old woman or man at the stand on the<br />
street. Nothing like eating it as you stand there, huddled<br />
in the cold, fanning your mouth from the lava-hot<br />
first bite of syrup that pours out. Many of the wintery<br />
stands that sell this fare also have spongy, fish-flavored<br />
skewers of odeng, and they may give you a cup of the<br />
broth for free to wash down your sweet snack.<br />
These pancakes often have added fillings and flavorings<br />
like pine nuts, peanuts, and cinnamon, and<br />
depending on the shop or the region, it might go even<br />
further. Some street stands around Korea have hotteok<br />
with savory fillings like vegetables or noodles, green<br />
tea flavoring, you name it!<br />
If you just want a standard hotteok, you can look to<br />
the street stands practically anywhere in the markets or<br />
downtown areas. For something more special, there<br />
are a few stand-out options here in North Jeolla.<br />
First, in Gunsan, a shop called Jungdong Hotteok<br />
has been serving up the hotcakes since 1943. So famous<br />
are these pancakes, in fact, that at the original<br />
store you may have to take a number – literally. This<br />
shop actually has a bank-like system of waiting in line<br />
with numbered slips to manage backups of dozens of<br />
customers. But why so special? Other than the history,<br />
this hotteok has a crispier quality that makes it slightly<br />
akin to some Indian breads – an interesting con-<br />
16 Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 17<br />
g
LOCAL FOOD<br />
And last but not least, with the Lunar New Year (Seolnal)<br />
approaching, you have to remember to make or<br />
eat a bowl of tteokguk, or rice cake soup, to bring yourself<br />
good fortune. This food is linked to the idea that<br />
Koreans count age differently, with everyone turning a<br />
year older together on Lunar New Year’s Day. It is said<br />
that one must eat tteokguk to officially age, and you can<br />
even ask someone’s age in a traditional way by asking,<br />
“How many bowls of tteokguk have you eaten?”<br />
As for the dish itself, the normal version is rather simple.<br />
Long strips of plain rice cake called garaetteok are<br />
cut into thin ovals and used as a sort of pasta inside of<br />
a thin broth. Bowls get topped with thin strips of egg,<br />
seaweed, seasame, green onions, and sometimes meat.<br />
Of course, since we’re advising on the more “fantastic”<br />
foods of winter, there’s a unique spin you could put<br />
on this dish, particularly if you’re willing to make it at<br />
home. Regular, single-colored tteokguk can be found in<br />
restaurants everywhere, though it usually only reaches<br />
menus in the wintertime. There is, however, a variation<br />
that uses five-colored, five-flavored garaettok slices,<br />
called osaektteokguk (literally, “five-color rice cake<br />
soup”). In this case you’re met with a soft rainbow of<br />
ovals in your soup. There’s of course white (plain rice<br />
cake), but also pink (often using sweet potato), golden<br />
yellow (using pumpkin), brown/black (perhaps using<br />
black sesame), and green (using seaweed or mugwort).<br />
The ingredients and intensity of flavor may vary, but<br />
in any case, this version of tteokguk is even more auspicious<br />
than usual as it easily contains all the colors of<br />
obangsaek, the five colors representing different elements<br />
in Korean culture. (Typically, traditional Korean<br />
meals try to include foods or side dishes covering all<br />
five of these colors.)<br />
If you’re in Jeonbuk, it’s easy to procure a bag of<br />
five-colored garaetteok slices from local sources, such<br />
as Achimuiddang in Iksan. Check on jbplaza.com for a<br />
simple ordering option. Keep in mind that some local<br />
rice cake shops might even sell gifts sets of this colorful<br />
DIY tteok, which could make a great Seolnal gift for<br />
someone whom you wish good fortune.<br />
Sometimes the winter is so cold that warm food is<br />
the only way forward. We hope you eat some of these<br />
sweet and savory treats to warm up and feel the flavor<br />
or North Jeolla this winter.<br />
trast against the smooth, sticky texture of the syrup inside.<br />
Jeonju and Iksan also have the history of some similar<br />
highly traditional spots in their market areas, but if<br />
you’re seeking something less traditional you can visit a<br />
branch of Jeontong Hotteok in the famed Jeonju Hanok<br />
Village. Here you are likely to find modern variations<br />
on the theme, with options like garlic hotteok, cream<br />
cheese hotteok, and beyond. You’re also likely to find<br />
lines, so be prepared!<br />
Fishy Friends<br />
While it’s not a Jeolla specialty, we would be remiss if<br />
we didn’t advise you to try bungeoppang, or fish bread,<br />
in the cold winter months. These pastries are shaped<br />
like a common kind of fish (bungeo) and cooked with a<br />
crafty sort of waffle iron on the street. Traditionally, the<br />
filling for these little fishies would be red bean (to the<br />
dismay of some), but nowadays it’s not uncommon to<br />
find custard fillings or even chocolate! These can often<br />
18<br />
be found at the same stands as the odeng fish skewers<br />
or sometimes hotteok, and they are too affordable not to<br />
try. In fact, they’ll often come in threes or fives for only<br />
1,000 won locally, giving your enough to share (or just<br />
to keep your hands warm on a long winter walk home).<br />
Jeonbuk has many places to enjoy bungeoppang, but<br />
in this case we’ll just recommend to enjoy any version<br />
of this treat in the company of Jeonbuk’s people, huddled<br />
around a winter food stand in camaraderie. If you<br />
are seeking something special, Jeonju’s Hanok Village<br />
and Nambu Market have been known to have stands<br />
selling bibimbap bungeoppang. It has neither the traditional<br />
fillings nor carp-like shape in this incarnation, but<br />
the outer pastry is the same waffle-like heaven and this<br />
form is undeniably Jeonju.<br />
Eating Your Age<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 19
GLOBAL FOOD<br />
left the country for about 12 years, and when<br />
I came back, people are all about killing<br />
“I your tongue with hotness! It’s all about crazy<br />
spice. Crazy tteokbokki, crazy buldakbokkumyeon.<br />
It’s a trend. Then they expect that from Mexican food.<br />
Mexican food isn’t about that - it’s about flavor.”<br />
This is one of the many opinions offered up by Julie<br />
Chu, a former student of Johnson and Wales in Miami,<br />
who spent the last 10 years living and working in World<br />
Class resorts such as Fisher Island and The Mandarin<br />
Oriental in Florida and Washington. Cooking for the<br />
likes of Michelle Obama, Robert DeNiro, and Steven<br />
Spielberg, Julie clearly loved her stay in the U.S but<br />
knew it was time to return to her hometown of Jeonju.<br />
20<br />
By DEAN CRAWFORD<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> Contributing Writer<br />
In doing so, she brought with her a desire to produce not<br />
only great food, but a change in the perception of who<br />
cooks it.<br />
“If you are a man, you are a yosengnam (sexy man<br />
that cooks food), but if you’re a woman who cooks, you<br />
are a jubang imo [kitchen aunt]. I’m pretty educated, I<br />
have a professional background, I take pride in knowing<br />
a lot about cuisine, but what happens is people think<br />
“Oh, she’s female, maybe she just works and cleans in<br />
the kitchen.” No I’m sorry, I’m the chef, I’m the owner,<br />
I create my own recipes, and I want to change your mind<br />
that a woman can be a great chef as well.”<br />
She backs up this statement by painstakingly focusing<br />
on her food. Popular dishes such as the carnitas and<br />
enchiladas are braised for hours while the sauce is reduced,<br />
the meat shredded and the process started again<br />
to create dishes that are full of flavor with a lovely after<br />
taste. This shouldn’t come as a surprise as Julie says she<br />
wants her food to hit you like “a punch in your face!”<br />
She wants her flavors bold, but also authentic.<br />
“The Koreans might say, ‘Hey it’s not spicy enough. I<br />
thought this was Mexican food? I want it flaming hot!’<br />
I’m thinking to myself, “Mexican food is not as spicy<br />
as you think, it’s all about the flavor.” Hotness is not a<br />
flavour. It’s the cumin, the oregano, cilantro, chili powder<br />
- it’s not just jalapeños. Hot is a feeling, so you have<br />
to be really careful because it will cover all the delicate<br />
flavors of your food. My carnitas taco probably has 20-<br />
30 ingredients that the majority of people wouldn’t be<br />
able to tell - but I will know!”<br />
But Julie doesn’t stop there. She is a perfectionist who<br />
focuses on every aspect of her food, not just the flavor<br />
profiles. “I wouldn’t say it’s a science, but I also put a lot<br />
of thought into my textures. So I will put pickled onions<br />
in my pork carnitas, which not only gives color and flavor,<br />
but adds texture. The carnitas are soft and fall apart,<br />
so what happens is I put pickled onions in there, which<br />
is different from pico de gallo because tomato can be<br />
mushy as well. That’s why I put corn salsa in there also,<br />
because it pops. Then, with pickled onions on top, it’s<br />
crunchy. So I put a lot a lot of thought into the balance<br />
of the flavor and texture.”<br />
Briefing her designers to provide a “modern vintage”<br />
feel, the restaurant is chic, yet the long bar is adorned<br />
with traditional Mexican colors in the form of peppers<br />
and bottles. I particularly liked that the bar looks onto<br />
the kitchen, so I could watch the chefs at work whilst enjoying<br />
a cocktail. And judging by her sumptuous food,<br />
I have no doubt Tacocina will have the culinary impact<br />
on the city that Julie desires. I urge you to give her place<br />
a try. It’s not only Julie’s food that will make a big impression,<br />
but also the venue itself, which she sees as an<br />
extension of her own personality.<br />
“What I’m trying to do is make good old Mexican<br />
food that I used to eat all the time, but with good ingredients<br />
with a lot of touches from a real chef. I want<br />
people to think it’s a fun place to be. Come over and feel<br />
at home. Come and hang out. Koreans and foreigners - I<br />
just want people to mingle. Mi casa es su casa!”<br />
Julie’s new home is open 7 days a week from 12pm<br />
to 1am.<br />
BOTTOM LEFT: Julie (right) and her staff perfect<br />
flavors in the Tacocina kitchen. ABOVE: Tacocina’s<br />
enchilada. BELOW: Tacos, an essential order.<br />
[Photos by DEAN CRAWFORD]<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 21
ARTS<br />
22<br />
By Miriam Lee<br />
You haven’t woken up, maybe not at all,<br />
until the morning you wake up to a cold,<br />
piney breeze that quenches your thirst<br />
before you have even moved from the soft heat of<br />
the floor. It’s Christmas morning without the stress,<br />
camping without the dirt, a deep drunken sleep without<br />
the hangover. Heaven. Along with the stationery<br />
shops and the food, what I miss most in Korea<br />
when I’m home are the brilliantly heated floors. You<br />
can get a gentle linoleum hug from your one-room<br />
or rented ondol floor any time, but don’t miss the<br />
chance to sleep amongst the raw wood and feather<br />
comforters of a traditional hanok.<br />
For a weekend to retreat from the world, just far<br />
enough away from Jeonju, lies Dube (doo-bey). Conceived<br />
in antiquity but built very recently (it feels<br />
like the sawdust is still in the air!), the complex of<br />
hanoks is named Dube, which is the name of a constellation<br />
of sisters. Waking up at Dube, Heaven, we<br />
let the rainy morning last as long as possible, lifting<br />
and clipping the puzzle-like wings of the room to<br />
open our view to the plié of the entry gate, framing<br />
the valley below. Humans and nature in harmony, I<br />
was told, was the purpose of the design. It took a<br />
while, but I finally realized my mistake in looking<br />
for the shape of nature through my Western lens,<br />
which we use to see cathedrals and temples climbing<br />
to the sky like holy mountains. Hanoks paint the<br />
mountain shape as well, but rather from peak to peak.<br />
Dating back to the Iron Age, Korean hanoks have<br />
been giving the peaceful rests between the endless<br />
working hours that have stitched Korea into a world<br />
power. The current form of hanoks started in the<br />
fourteenth century, but the earlier forms go back ten<br />
more centuries, to the time (from some perspectives)<br />
of the Roman catacombs.<br />
Hanoks are remarkable for their ability to work<br />
with the flow of the weather, even in the sometimes<br />
harshly cold and unspeakably hot and humid conditions<br />
on the peninsula. The lifting of the floor leaves<br />
space not only for the ondol heating (the same that I<br />
have already raved about, but would be happy to carry<br />
on for days if allowed) but also for the movement<br />
of cool air during the summer months. The shape of<br />
the hanok also serves to work with the weather to<br />
keep the dry air of ideal temperature in. The paper<br />
walls, which have always seemed miraculous to me<br />
just for being able to exist at all, serve the function of<br />
not only being easily repairable, but also serving as<br />
such excellent filters that they are known to provide<br />
health benefits from just one night of rest in their<br />
care.<br />
Architects the world over have long grappled with<br />
how to bring the outside in and the inside out -- the<br />
freshness of running water into a Roman dining court,<br />
the curve of a concert hall’s wall, almost as perfect<br />
acoustics as a dripping cave. Though it often feels as<br />
though our modern shelter is just conceived through<br />
the cheapest possible materials held together by new<br />
layers of wallpaper, there is always something rather<br />
profound about how a home is constructed. Building<br />
a house is a labor of love, full of intentional meaning.<br />
Putting a roof over your family. Carving out the<br />
space for your babies to play and crawl and grow up.<br />
I pull up a chair to the table of one of our favorite<br />
spots in Jeonju -- Poco Poco, a pizza café with a<br />
breezy balcony overlooking the Ajungli Reservoir.<br />
All around, the hills are fat with trees. My friend<br />
Byoung Kwon Lee goes to collect our drinks while I<br />
awkwardly introduce myself to his co-worker,<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 23<br />
g
Lee Min Hyeok (we’re Lees all around the table, but<br />
not related), who has come along for an interview<br />
about their work, the construction of traditional Korean<br />
hanoks.<br />
We sip our tea on the balcony, watching and waiting<br />
patiently for the specks of white in the trees<br />
around the reservoir to spread their heron wings and<br />
dive into the water. You can’t help but wonder if it<br />
looks as beautiful and graceful from the perspective<br />
of the fish, who are about to become a side dish.<br />
But perhaps the fish have accepted the flow of nature<br />
better than us.<br />
Their work sounds grueling as much as fascinating.<br />
I am enchanted by the description of removing<br />
an ancient rooftop for repairs, but maybe less<br />
so by the choking dust resulting from twenty tons<br />
of mud that has been drying for five hundred years.<br />
This is no exaggeration, it turns out. Forty thousand<br />
pounds of mud is quite standard for the construction<br />
of a hanok roof. I ask more about old materials, expecting,<br />
I think, a similar strain of what I’ve heard<br />
from home of carpenters digging carefully for old,<br />
hand-fashioned colonial nails at destruction sites,<br />
24<br />
much higher in quality and durability than our modern,<br />
machine-produced versions. It takes a while<br />
and a few drawings and phone translations for me to<br />
understand what they are trying to explain about ancient<br />
Korean “nails,” though, which turn out to often<br />
be tight collections of dried reeds. Massive beams<br />
of hard wood that take five strong men to move into<br />
place are held there, for hundreds of years, by tough<br />
little twigs.<br />
BK gestures to the hills sloping all around us and<br />
reminds me that during the war the country was<br />
stripped of trees. I had heard that the Arbor Day tradition<br />
of replanting was waning, as there are about<br />
as many trees as there is room for between the growing<br />
skeletal, ever-taller apartment building invasion<br />
of the landscape. What I hadn’t thought of was what<br />
this means for the age of the overall Korean forest.<br />
There are plenty of forty or fifty-year-old trees,<br />
which is fairly young in tree years. So for hanoks,<br />
stronger, old-growth wood is imported from North<br />
America.<br />
I ask BK if it seems sad to him that the trees aren’t<br />
actually Korean trees. Somehow, I had the impres-<br />
sion that, after a cold waterfall shower in the morning,<br />
the hanok builders would turn around and hug<br />
the nearest tree, patriotically. Not exactly. Traditionalism,<br />
and even Korean pride, aren’t always exactly<br />
what you would expect.<br />
It seems a shame to me, at first, considering the<br />
patriotism the trees might feel. But then I remember<br />
my first flight across the States to the Pacific Northwest,<br />
the ugly brown squares cut out of the beautiful<br />
deep green mountains of old-growth forest. “Kimberly<br />
Clark,” said the woman next to me in disgust.<br />
“It all gets chopped down for toilet paper.” If the<br />
majestic, kind, and furry Douglas firs must come<br />
down, I am much more heartened to see them loved<br />
into a beautiful, harmonious hanok far away than<br />
to become local toilet paper. Globalization can be<br />
bittersweet.<br />
“Too-strict rules make us lose culture,” says BK,<br />
poignantly. He tells me about the struggles of building<br />
projects with hard and fast rules about the tools<br />
that can be used. It does seem to make sense that<br />
the original tools would need to be used to create<br />
an authentic structure. He shows me a picture in his<br />
phone of a terrifically old beam revealed in a recent<br />
restoration project. In front is a fresh, light, probably<br />
North American beam, glided into place next to<br />
an older one that is still strong, but dark with age.<br />
Instead of the pettable, smooth furriness of newly<br />
cut wood, the old beam bears proudly the shine of<br />
thousands of painstaking grooves that were left by<br />
someone who must have spent days shaping it by<br />
hand hundreds of years ago.<br />
It’s hard to say if all Korean traditional builders<br />
would feel the same. Patriotism is strong in Korea,<br />
of course. BK has lived and worked in other<br />
countries, embraced other cultures warmly. Perhaps<br />
he can see from the perspective of the bird and the<br />
fish, and perhaps knows exactly how they can build<br />
their nest.<br />
PHOTOS: [Previous and current pages]<br />
Hanok projects by Byoungkyoung<br />
Lee and his crew. [Photos courtesy of<br />
BYOUNGKYOUNG LEE]<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 25
ARTS ESSAY<br />
By VIKKI CHAN<br />
<strong>JB</strong> <strong>Life</strong> Contributing Writer<br />
26<br />
Early this November, I had the opportunity to check<br />
out a pretty cool coffee shop in Iksan called Misulgwan<br />
Café, known to be the place where you can enjoy<br />
coffee (or other beverages) as well as observe intriguing<br />
pieces of art. Whilst I was there, Misulgwan Café was hosting<br />
a multidisciplinary art exhibition focusing on “Human<br />
Nature”.<br />
The owner, Sang-Rin Park, is an art enthusiast as well as<br />
a professional fashion designer. He loves to use his coffee<br />
shop’s space voluntarily as a great canvas to promote events<br />
and artwork. Currently, he has a strong interest in displaying<br />
a mix of expat and Korean artists’ work, demonstrating<br />
a “new culture” in the Korean art gallery industry. This perspective<br />
seems rare.<br />
The exhibit presented ten artists’ artwork. Seven artists<br />
were expats, three of them Korean. As mentioned before,<br />
this was a multidisciplinary exhibition: each artist had a very<br />
different approach in terms of style and perspective towards<br />
the theme, “Human Nature.”<br />
The first things I saw once I entered were four clear plastic<br />
boxes, and in each box there was a different set of red flowers.<br />
For example, one box contained roses; another one contained<br />
red poppies. I found out later that the title of this display is<br />
called “Plant Abuse (I’m Flower Murder),” created by Yun<br />
Jin, a Wonkwang University student majoring in Philosophy.<br />
She expressed that all living things should be treated equally,<br />
and keeping the flowers in boxes was degrading their value<br />
as living objects. In addition to this, Yun Jin contributed two<br />
paintings related to the relationships between people. After<br />
viewing her work, I found that she liked to use bold colours<br />
to express her concept.<br />
Later on, I saw a painting consisting of different-colored<br />
dots illustrating a number of dream-catchers on a black background.<br />
The artist behind this was Mi-Yeon Jin, a graduate<br />
from Wonkwang University. The artist aimed to make viewers<br />
feel at ease when looking at the artwork. Similarly, Jin’s<br />
“Leave Your Nightmare to Me” expressed that everyone<br />
sleeps and dreams.<br />
Another Korean artist, Tae-Gwan Lee, created five pieces<br />
that I believe presented strong masculinity. He defined that<br />
each piece expressed a different atmosphere of how humans<br />
behave with their movements and gestures. He didn’t really<br />
go into detail about each work; however, the interesting part<br />
of his work was that we as viewers could make various interpretations<br />
about them. Lee used different materials for each<br />
piece, displaying his capability to use a variety of media.<br />
Next there were the foreign artists, whom we see more<br />
rarely.<br />
First, Sarah Hodgkiss, a British street artist and illustrator,<br />
created a series of four portraits. In Korea, she specializes in<br />
drawing portraits, and in regards to the exhibit’s theme, Human<br />
Nature, she chose to focus on the inner strength of women.<br />
She believes that in Korean society there seems to be a set<br />
g<br />
ARTWORK: [ABOVE] Original Human Nature<br />
logo designed by Jason Vlasak.<br />
[TOP RIGHT] A multimedia piece by Sarah Vetter.<br />
[BOTTOM RIGHT] Hanji craft works<br />
by Natalie Thibault (left) and part of<br />
an installation by Bonnie Cunningham (right).<br />
[Photos by ANJEE DISANTO]<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 27<br />
g
ARTS<br />
of standards women should follow to become the “perfect”<br />
woman, such as domestic goddess, stay-at-home mom, and<br />
so on. In this series, you can clearly see her style of art. Just<br />
like in her non-exhibited works she draws her subjects with<br />
rough lines, then paints colourful splodges and strokes to<br />
highlight their features. She chose four female acquaintances<br />
as her subjects to deliver her concept. The reason behind<br />
this was the idea that each woman consistently faces challenges,<br />
whether racial discrimination, being stereotyped,<br />
or things they have to overcome to achieve their goals.<br />
Nevertheless, to illustrate the strength these women have,<br />
Hodgkiss drew predatory animals (each woman chose one)<br />
aligned with their faces.<br />
Next up, Sabrina Pinksen is a Canadian artist and writer.<br />
She specialises in drawing vibrant portraits, and for this exhibit,<br />
she drew eight portraits emphasizing the diversity of<br />
humans. In other words, Pinksen wants to show that everyone<br />
is culturally and physically different but can influence<br />
each other. Hence, Pinksen linked each drawing with purple<br />
tape to present the “influence” or connection. She drew<br />
a few famous faces among them: for example, the lead singer<br />
of the Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl. The reason why she decided<br />
to choose “diversity” as her concept is because, since<br />
being in Korea, she has met so many people with different<br />
ethnic or cultural backgrounds.<br />
Tara Beck, the next exhibitor, is an American art enthusiast<br />
and hobbyist. She has a keen interest in the art revolving<br />
around fantasy and Korean animation known as “illust.”<br />
Thus, in this exhibition, with the influence of “illust,” Beck<br />
chose to demonstrate the five senses: sight, hearing, taste,<br />
smell, and touch. She made two displays. The first one I<br />
saw was an interactive display, where there were items representing<br />
each sense. The jars stated “taste me” and “smell<br />
me,” which reminded of Alice in Wonderland.<br />
In her second display, she produced a series of four paintings<br />
of animals. She chose these animals as they are known<br />
to rely on a particular sense. It’s very interesting how she<br />
played on these identities with words, color, and zentangle<br />
patterns (structured black and white patterns). She used<br />
these patterns to create the animals, as well as using watercolors<br />
and colored pencils to highlight the objects in the<br />
background.<br />
Another foreign participant, Damien Sullivan, is an American<br />
visual artist. He loves travelling with his motorcycle<br />
to view Korea’s countryside, and because of his hobby, he<br />
is able to capture great scenery which is later used as the<br />
reference for his paintings. Damien mentioned to me once<br />
that Korea’s weather suits his style of painting. Considering<br />
that, the weather in Korea is quite humid, and Sullivan is<br />
very competent in painting misty landscapes.<br />
For this exhibit, he contributed six landscape paintings<br />
that showed the natural beauty Korea has to offer. Each<br />
painting was named after the place he took his reference<br />
from. In my opinion, Sullivan’s paintings looked like photos<br />
from afar; but when you looked closer you could see his<br />
admirable brushwork. My favorite painting was the one of<br />
Ungpo, because the clouds looked so pretty and it took me<br />
back to those times when I was travelling.<br />
Bonnie Cunningham, another exhibitor, is an American<br />
painter and illustrator. Sometimes you can see her work in<br />
<strong>JB</strong> <strong>Life</strong> in both article illustrations and her regular<br />
art page titled “The Future is Dark.” Her style is<br />
g<br />
PHOTOS:<br />
[ABOVE LEFT] A photorealistic drawing<br />
by Sabrina Pinksen. [BOTTOM LEFT] A painting<br />
by Tara Beck (left) and a piece titled “Beauty in<br />
Strength“ by Sarah Hodgkiss. [RIGHT] A set of<br />
hanji drawers by Natalie Thibault.<br />
[Photos by ANJEE DISANTO]<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 29
ARTS<br />
quite distinct and she uses a range of brushwork (painting<br />
dots and a combination of different strokes).<br />
In this exhibit, her concept was “getting lost in a world,”<br />
which she portrayed incredibly as she was able to create<br />
three miniature worlds for the viewers to see. She made<br />
a unique display where her paintings were surrounded by<br />
handmade vines of paper leaves and flowers. One of the<br />
worlds that got me thinking was a series of six paintings,<br />
which showed an evolution of a human becoming a fish. In<br />
addition, she made a mask to hang on the right hand corner<br />
of her display, a “creature of nature.”<br />
Quite different from the others, Natalie Thibault is a hanji<br />
artist. “Hanji” itself is a traditional handmade paper in Korea,<br />
and Thibault uses it to make beautiful decorative objects.<br />
This was her first time to display her work in an exhibition,<br />
as she usually displays her goods in hanji festivals<br />
or at arts and craft festivals. She makes practical items for<br />
everyday use, such as jewelry and small furniture.<br />
For the exhibit, Thibault created several objects that were<br />
aesthetically related to “human nature.” She used earthly<br />
coloured hanji paper and animal patterns to decorate her<br />
pieces. One of the items that I liked the most was the yellow<br />
table lamp, because when the lights were on, you could see<br />
a beautiful phoenix.<br />
Lastly, Sarah Vetter is a Canadian conceptual artist, with<br />
work leaning toward the abstract. She enjoys drawing<br />
trunoble-esque (think nuclear-warped) insects. For the exhibition,<br />
she wanted to show “how humanity imposes itself<br />
on nature and how society offers itself as a portrait of human<br />
nature.”<br />
Whilst I was looking at her work I realised that she used<br />
Korean food takeout advertisement leaflets (the ones we get<br />
on our doors) to create part of her artwork. It seemed to me<br />
that she wanted to highlight how capitalism or our rubbish<br />
was affecting nature, which I believe was a very intelligent<br />
approach to “human nature.”<br />
On the whole, it’s rare to find such a relaxing yet awesome<br />
place where you can chat and admire such ingenious work.<br />
While I was visiting the café I brought my friend with me<br />
and we talked about life in general, but once in a while we<br />
would glance at the art and comment how cool it was.<br />
Although the exhibition is now over, there will be new<br />
artwork to see and talk about at Misulgwan. When you visit,<br />
you might also get a chance to play with the café’s mascot,<br />
Munjee, the owner’s very sassy, beautiful grey cat.<br />
In addition, if you are interested in looking at some of the<br />
artists’ work, use the contact details below. As one should<br />
understand, their artwork for the exhibit was just a little<br />
piece of the talent they can offer.<br />
Bonnie Cunningham<br />
Instagram: soybonnie<br />
Website: www.soybonnie.com<br />
Sarah Vetter<br />
Email: addverse@outlook.com<br />
Website: https://www.facebook.com/sarah.<br />
vetter.10<br />
Sarah Hodgkiss<br />
Website: www.facebook.com/artsydoodling<br />
Damien Sullivan<br />
Website: https://www.facebook.com/<br />
damien.sullivan.104<br />
Sabrina Pinksen<br />
Instagram: @smpinksy<br />
Natalie Thibault<br />
Website: www.hanjiaty.com<br />
Tara Beck<br />
Email: tbbadger06@gmail.com<br />
PHOTOS: [LEFT] A Painting by Damien<br />
Sullivan. [RIGHT] One painting out of a<br />
series by Bonnie Cunningham.<br />
30<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 31
GLOBAL JEONBUK<br />
Inside Jeonju’s<br />
Multinational, Multicutural, Multicultural, Multitalented<br />
Dance Troupe<br />
By SILAYAN CASINO<br />
<strong>JB</strong> <strong>Life</strong> Contributing Writer<br />
Dancing has many benefits. It’s healthy. It’s<br />
an excellent stress-reliever. It’s enjoyable.<br />
Sometimes it helps with weight loss. It’s one<br />
type of performance art, too. The added bonus of ethnic<br />
or folk dancing is sharing one’s own culture with others<br />
around us. As Korean society evolves to be more inclusive<br />
of everyone living here, the impetus for welcoming<br />
cultural exchange in such an expressive mode brings<br />
multiculturalism to a new level.<br />
In our perfect city, Jeonju, we have an expanding diaspora<br />
of cultures represented in multi-cultural families,<br />
including a group of Russian-speaking women from several<br />
Eurasian nations. The group is still in its infancy but<br />
seems to be advancing quickly, with growing popularity<br />
nationwide.<br />
Humble Beginnings<br />
The Jeonju Eurasia Dance Troupe first started meeting<br />
in March 2016. Some members of the group have been<br />
dancing for many years, while others just like dancing.<br />
Their common goal is to share the culture of their motherland.<br />
The ladies come from Europe and Central Asia:<br />
Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and the Republic of<br />
Buryatia, a member of the Federated States of Russia.<br />
Most of the ladies are married to Koreans, have children,<br />
and lead very busy lives, working or teaching.<br />
Aida Ulakbekova, the troupe’s publicity person, really<br />
loves her “ladies.” “Dancing is second nature to me,”<br />
she says, talking about her passion and drive to dance.<br />
Vilena, the group’s choreographer, is a freshman student<br />
of Korean history and literature at Chonbuk<br />
g<br />
[All photos by ANJEE DISANTO]<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 33
GLOBAL JEONBUK<br />
National University. She has been dancing since childhood<br />
and is a passionate and dedicated dance instructor<br />
for the group. When asked how she creates the dances,<br />
she replies, through a translator, “On the spot. I listen<br />
to the music and the steps come to me.” She likes listening<br />
to American songs, and looks to artists such as<br />
Ariana Grande and Rihanna as role models.<br />
Performing<br />
To date, the group has learned two dances, a traditional<br />
Uzbek dance and an original dance fusion choreographed<br />
by Vilena. They aim to add dances from their<br />
representative countries to their repertoire as their visibility<br />
in the ethnic dance performance arena increases.<br />
Next in line to be learned is a Russian dance, followed<br />
by a Kyrgyz dance.<br />
Since May last year, the Eurasia Dance Troupe has<br />
performed three times on the big stage. Their very first<br />
performance as a dance group was at a local high school<br />
in Jeonju. Having gained much confidence from their<br />
initial performance, and recognizing that their audience<br />
really enjoyed and appreciated their dances, they applied<br />
to participate in a larger dance competition.<br />
Their next performance was on a much grander scale,<br />
on the stage of the Arirang Multicultural Music Festival<br />
at Everland in May of 2016. At this very public, national<br />
event they met many other festival participants from<br />
their motherland. As one of the dance members, Gulmira<br />
Kulbaeva, shared when interviewed by Arirang,<br />
“We made new friends here. It’s just really cool.” The<br />
group’s spokesperson, Aida, shared that in this particular<br />
event, the group represented four countries in one<br />
dance, as dolls of each country. The dance involved<br />
different songs, melodies, and steps for each of the four<br />
countries represented: Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia<br />
and the Republic of Buryatia.<br />
The ladies were overjoyed with the results of their<br />
first competition, coming in 1st place at the Arirang<br />
festival. They received a monetary prize which now<br />
helps cover the group’s expenses – travel and accommodations,<br />
costumes, etc.<br />
Following their national debut, the ladies were gungho,<br />
excited to move forward and do more. They next performed<br />
at the Multicultural Traditional Dance Festival<br />
in Yonggwan. There they met two more dance groups<br />
from the same region. They placed second after one of<br />
those groups, and found out that the winning group had<br />
entered that particular competition four times prior to<br />
winning. It was an inspiration to see how well they were<br />
progressing at doing something they truly loved.<br />
In addition to these big-stage appearances, Eurasia<br />
participated in one parade in Seoul, and has done a<br />
number of smaller performances on-demand, such as<br />
for a UNESCO event and a more local appearance at<br />
Jeonju’s City Hall. Most recently, on November 3rd,<br />
the Jeonju Eurasian Dance Troupe competed at a dance<br />
competition of the 4th Korean Local Autonomy Exposition,<br />
where they landed first prize. Since then, Eurasia’s<br />
main project has been producing and promoting<br />
a video for the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics “Arariyo”<br />
competition, which they hope to hear a good result<br />
from after judging is complete in mid-<strong>January</strong>.<br />
Connections<br />
When it came to costumes for the stage, the ladies<br />
had to find someone reliable and with whom they could<br />
communicate efficiently and effectively. One group<br />
member, Tamara, suggested Olga, from Uzbekistan,<br />
who lives and works in Jeonju as a highly reputable<br />
costume designer and seamstress. She makes costumes<br />
for a variety of audiences, including belly dancers, ice<br />
skaters, theater casts, dance groups and other performers.<br />
She has created the troupe’s dance attire since the<br />
beginning, and will likely continue doing so.<br />
Tamara also volunteers as a teacher of Uzbek language<br />
and culture at the Jeonju Multicultural Center for<br />
mixed families. She is joined every second and fourth<br />
Saturday at the Tamunah Center by fellow group member<br />
Liana, who does the same for Russian. Their pupils<br />
are the children of Russian or Uzbek-speaking parents<br />
(mothers). In this way, their culture, language and history<br />
are being perpetuated in their children.<br />
Sacrifices<br />
As wives and mothers, these women are making great<br />
sacrifices to dance and share their culture. They spend<br />
1-2 evenings per week practicing. During the week prior<br />
to a performance, they practice every night for three<br />
hours. It truly is a commitment and takes much dedication<br />
to learn the steps, practicing at home as well as at<br />
their rented studio space, located across from the Korean<br />
Traditional Cultural Center near Hanok Village. It<br />
reminds me of the saying, “Where there’s a will, there’s<br />
a way.”<br />
Eurasia receives many requests to perform around<br />
Jeonju and takes up each as an opportunity to reach a<br />
larger audience. As their popularity increases and places<br />
demand their time more, the ladies are continually<br />
looking to invite new members to join their troupe. As<br />
the group is still expanding and adjusting, their social<br />
media presence has not yet developed, but a Facebook<br />
page is forthcoming. Until then, keep an eye out for<br />
these multitalented ladies and their performances in<br />
Jeonju and around the peninsula.<br />
Watch Eurasia’s recent entry in<br />
the Pyeongchang Olympics<br />
“Arariyo” video competition!<br />
Search for “Pyeongchang<br />
Arariyo Eurasia MV”<br />
on YouTube.<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 35
GLOBAL JEONBUK<br />
By FELIPE FIRMINO GOMES<br />
<strong>JB</strong> <strong>Life</strong> Contributing Writer<br />
The Lefundes Family might have been a typical<br />
family in Rio – the place where they all<br />
came from – but they are far from typical in<br />
Jeonju. Fábio, the father, is the official physical trainer<br />
for the Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors football club, a frequent<br />
champion in the K-League (the official football league<br />
for Korean teams) and current champion of the AFC<br />
Champions League, having won the recent tourney with<br />
other prominent teams in Asia. Patricia, the mother of the<br />
family and Fábio’s wife, gives physical training advice to<br />
other foreigners in the Jeonju area and has a successful<br />
YouTube channel with almost 23,000 subscribers, mainly<br />
from Brazil. In said channel, Patricia talks about many<br />
aspects of the Korean lifestyle, usually comparing it to<br />
how life works in Brazil, especially in Rio, while she replies<br />
personally to each comment from a subscriber that<br />
comes in touch with her. “Mãe da Marina,” the channel’s<br />
FABIO - Physical Trainer for<br />
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors FC<br />
PATRICIA<br />
Power<br />
YouTuber,<br />
SuperMom<br />
MARINA<br />
Trilingual,<br />
H.S.<br />
student<br />
name (which translates to “Marina’s mom”), is also a<br />
shared venue of communication with the world for Marina,<br />
a young teenager who lives a life than can be easily<br />
described as “close to a Korean teenager’s life without<br />
actually being born in Korea.” All in all, the Lefundes<br />
family is a perfect example of Jeonbuk’s ordinary yet<br />
extraordinary expat families.<br />
Club Culture and<br />
Culture Clash<br />
The whole family, it seems, is familiar to risks. Fábio<br />
was working in Saudi Arabia when he received an offer<br />
from Jeonbuk Hyundai. After some consideration and<br />
two short contracts, Fábio came to Jeonju again with the<br />
whole family – a five-year story of sacrifice and happiness.<br />
“It doesn’t make sense to come here and expect the<br />
same experience as there,” says Fábio, when referring<br />
to some of the blatant cultural and social differences<br />
between Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil. “You have to<br />
adapt and get used to what you can locally.”<br />
That said, adaptability works both ways and has involved<br />
the Jeonbuk Hyundai staff as well. “We have<br />
three Brazilian players on the team, and the Koreans<br />
have learned that sometimes we just talk way too much,”<br />
Fábio says. “They make fun of it, but they never ever<br />
disrespect us for it. Also, they borrowed our habit of<br />
playing music in the dressing room in the last moments<br />
before a match – that in a place where some months before<br />
there was only silence and total concentration.” But<br />
he assures that it’s not all fun and games. About the roster<br />
and athletes, Fábio pinpoints that he likes to make the<br />
players work so hard after an injury that they won’t need<br />
to see him again for a long time.<br />
In terms of work environment, it’s commonly known<br />
that Koreans follow a rigid structure of respect for their<br />
elders, so a clash of culture would be imminent. Fábio<br />
took that to heart in the lightest way possible, despite<br />
the established structure. “Many times I opted for giving<br />
my most honest opinion about certain techniques and<br />
strategies, and they learned to recognize me for it,” Fábio<br />
says. Truly, he doesn’t seem to have problem settling<br />
down in a place where being hardworking is the rule and<br />
stress can sometimes be common sense, because that has<br />
always been his motto, ever since Brazil.<br />
“That’s one of the main reasons why he succeeds here,<br />
for sure. He can be even more stressed out and focused<br />
than some Koreans,” explains Patricia.<br />
Keeping that in mind, there are some big differences<br />
of football philosophy between Korea and Brazil as well.<br />
“The Korean philosophy is all about discipline and sacrificing<br />
every little time for a better performance,” Fábio<br />
notes. “They are used to that in many ways, and Brazilians<br />
have to work harder than they usually do in Brazil,<br />
to achieve the same.”<br />
Like many expats, tranquility and quality of life are the<br />
main factors that keep the Lefundes family here. Living<br />
like a common Korean family makes a big difference in<br />
their perception of the city.<br />
“It’s funny because [my husband] eats more Korean<br />
food than many of our Korean friends”, says Patricia<br />
about Fábio’s adaptability. “It’s a lot about respect. It’s<br />
how it is here, in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else.” The<br />
family does say that the local food is a big part of the<br />
draw here in the province, in terms of quality of life.<br />
“They have the best food in Korea,” Patricia affirms.<br />
“Even when you go to other places and taste their own<br />
version of said food, the best version of it is here in Jeonju.”<br />
g<br />
36<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 37
Bridging Brazil and Korea<br />
For expats of certain backgrounds, it’s quite easy to<br />
find a base in Korea – English teachers have natural connections,<br />
and Chinese and Vietnamese nationals have<br />
large pools of their countrymen to contact here, for instance.<br />
As for the Lefundes, the whole family agrees<br />
it’s really hard to connect with an actual similar group<br />
of expats in Jeonju, partially because of the nature of<br />
football’s contracts (it’s common for players to stay for<br />
a while and soon find new destinations to work). Croatians,<br />
Spaniards, Koreans and just a few Brazilians end<br />
up finding similar activities to do together in their circles,<br />
but it’s tough to find free time together with people<br />
outside of work, even between members of the family.<br />
Each member has their own small group of people that<br />
is formed by multiple nationalities.<br />
Despite the distance from their country and countrymen<br />
in general, it’s noticeable how the family works to<br />
improve their experience here and live well. They are all<br />
very digitally driven, with their own digital presence and<br />
high influence on thousands of people, but, more than<br />
anything, they are always connected to everything happening<br />
back in Brazil.<br />
“There is so much I wanted to share about Korea, so<br />
I had to have a vlog, a channel about it,” Patricia notes<br />
of the vlog she shares with her daughter. “Family and<br />
everyone were always asking me about life here, so it<br />
38<br />
was just easier to put it all in the same place.” Fábio also<br />
has a channel featuring a series of videos with progress<br />
of training of some of Jeonbuk Hyundai’s big stars like<br />
Leonardo, one of the team’s strikers.<br />
About these YouTube channels, the family all agrees<br />
that there are a lot of responsibilities in conveying any<br />
kind of message through the internet and that there are<br />
some misconceptions about Korea in general, especially<br />
when it comes to education. “Some people want to<br />
supposedly come here to study, thinking that they will<br />
listen to K-pop and watch dramas all day long. But people<br />
who already have a previous knowledge of the excellence<br />
of education come here as an alternative to the<br />
U.S., Canada, or the U.K.,” say Fábio and Patricia. The<br />
family sees it as very important to check all the information<br />
they disseminate to so many people, and Patricia<br />
takes that very seriously: “I am always worried about<br />
checking everything and about being the channel I wanted<br />
to watch before I came to Korea. It’s really important<br />
to show the reality, not reverberating illusions about the<br />
country in people’s minds.”<br />
Believe it or not, Korea and Korean culture are highly<br />
present in Brazil these days. Even verbs like “SHIP UH”<br />
(part of the grammar structure for “to want,” in Korean)<br />
are often used in internet communication in sentences<br />
in plain Brazilian Portuguese, like it is the most natural<br />
thing in the world. About the growing perception of<br />
Korea in Brazil, the family thinks Korean dramas and<br />
K-pop are largely responsible for it, besides the grow-<br />
ing Korean population, especially in Sao Paulo, where<br />
there’s a whole neighborhood composed of Korean expats.<br />
The same phenomenon also happens in Rio. “I was<br />
shocked to know that there was a K-pop concert in Copacabana<br />
during the Rio Olympics this year, with really<br />
high attendance,” comments Patricia.<br />
When asked what they missed the most about Brazil,<br />
it was clear how the family is indeed settled and doesn’t<br />
have too many difficulties in town right now. “I don’t<br />
miss anything from there, because we can talk to family<br />
all the time,” Fábio explained. “I wish I could bring my<br />
whole Brazilian house here, but that is just wishful thinking.”<br />
Marina, meanwhile, does miss something: “French<br />
bread!” she is quick to answer. A very specific kind of<br />
bread with a similar taste to a baguette, but much smaller,<br />
very common practically everywhere in Brazil. These<br />
are the sort of small details that one cannot help but miss,<br />
no matter how easy to adapt to a country or city.<br />
On a person to person level, the daughter, Marina,<br />
notes that the very fact of living abroad can actually have<br />
a good effect on many relationships in the country of origin.<br />
“Sometimes I notice that people say ‘I miss you so<br />
much,’ but I know they only say that because I am far. I<br />
am not sure that they would miss me if I was too close,”<br />
says Marina.<br />
Marina is indeed a thoughtful and gifted girl. After<br />
Find Patricia and Marina’s<br />
channel by searching “Mãe da<br />
Marina” on YouTube.<br />
leaving Brazil, she learned to speak English fluently and<br />
is getting close to fluency in Korean as well. She interacts<br />
everyday with Korean teenagers and borrows a lot<br />
of their realities and stories (splitting life between multiple<br />
academies, championships, and accolades) but never<br />
forgets her past.<br />
“We always make her understand all aspects of her<br />
multiple lives to not be deluded by the day-to-day here<br />
and not feel superior to anyone else,” says Fábio. They<br />
foster her to respect others on all levels, while respecting<br />
her as well. “I like the Korean sense of respect to parents<br />
and teachers,” says Marina, while Fábio adds, “but<br />
that was already part of her personality before she came.<br />
She was always respectful, so it wasn’t that hard to adapt<br />
here. We treat her the same way Korean parents would<br />
treat their kids.”<br />
It’s easy to sense that the Lefundes are made from a<br />
special stock. Chock that up to a charismatic chemistry<br />
and a great sense of adaptability, along with their impossible<br />
roster of unique stories, whether from football, the<br />
local community, or internet exploits. With the nature of<br />
the football lifestyle, it’s of course unknown how long<br />
they will stay with the club and here in Jeonju, but, for<br />
the time being, they are surely a family that represents<br />
the multiplicity and multiculturalism of Jeonju.<br />
Find Fabio’s<br />
channel by searching “Fabio<br />
Lefundes” on YouTube.<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 39
WORLDVIEW<br />
by David van Minnen<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> Co-Editor<br />
NOTE: This article is part of a multi-issue series investigating<br />
the religious roots of North Jeolla and<br />
Korea throughout history until the present. It is the<br />
aim of this series to sketch out the way Jeolla natives<br />
think. This is for the purpose of greater understanding,<br />
multicultural sensitivity, and to tear down the<br />
walls of misunderstanding. Jeonbuk civilization has<br />
its own unique, complex blend of history and mindset.<br />
The picture in this series is admittedly painted with<br />
a broad brush; but it may be a helpful backdrop to<br />
your interactions and appreciation of our beautiful<br />
host culture.<br />
In previous articles, we looked at the Jeonbuk<br />
worldview as a kind of layer cake. The bottom<br />
layer is rather pristine, an animistic and colorful<br />
Shamanism. The next layer on the ‘cake’ is Confucianism.<br />
This layer is by far the thickest, with the strongest<br />
taste, and it really ‘takes the cake.’ It is this layer that<br />
distinguishes Korea apart most from all other cultures,<br />
even nearby Asian cultures. There is no group on the<br />
planet more rigorously Confucian than Koreans. It is<br />
this that makes multicultural interaction most challenging.<br />
It is not really a language barrier so much<br />
as it is a worldview barrier that triggers a plethora of<br />
baffling dramas for people from other cultures living<br />
in Korea.<br />
But this installment is about Buddhism in Korea,<br />
and specifically in Jeollabukdo -- the<br />
next layer of the cake.<br />
Buddhism<br />
<strong>Life</strong> is “dukka”: suffering (Sanskrit).<br />
Young, old, rich, poor, physically,<br />
emotionally, financially, we<br />
all suffer. We all don’t want to. Sex,<br />
drugs, and rock’n’roll are escapes. Religions<br />
offer hope and meaning, but too often,<br />
they just keep us busy. Like our other<br />
escapes, religions actually more often just<br />
give us more suffering.<br />
Siddhartha Gautama left his affluent<br />
home in India to live an ascetic life and<br />
seek the answer to the problem of pain. If you have not<br />
yet read Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, it is a small, easyto-read<br />
volume, and one of the simplest, most endearing<br />
accounts of the beginning of Buddhism ever written.<br />
What follows is a very crude summary, not meant to be<br />
disrespectful, but brief and easy to understand.<br />
Raised in the Hindu worldview, Siddhartha saw that<br />
we all suffer, and whether we are reincarnated as a higher<br />
being or even an insect, our new self still suffers and<br />
dies. Good karma brings you back as a higher form,<br />
but with the same fate anyway. Nobody is free from<br />
the ‘meat-wheel’ of reincarnation (samsara), karma, or<br />
caste. Suffering is the doom of us all, and must somehow<br />
be denied, or transcended.<br />
Siddhartha found a way to overcome suffering.<br />
Through rigorous meditation and self-denial, he denied<br />
everything and achieved enlightenment, or Nirvana. It<br />
turns out, the problem of pain isn’t pain, but wanting to<br />
be comfortable. Comfort is just an illusion. By intense<br />
mental training, he blew out the flame of desire, thus<br />
quenching the sufferings of unmet desires. Thereby his<br />
self, now denied, was flung free of the ‘meat-wheel’ of<br />
endless reincarnation. He was enlightened: no longer<br />
doomed to an endless rerun of a life of pain.<br />
This enlightenment is the basic goal of<br />
Buddhists. Monks shave their heads<br />
and live in poverty to stop feeding<br />
the desires of vanity and greed. To<br />
feed a desire is to give it a stronger<br />
appetite. To starve it is to—hopefully—cause<br />
it to wither. The less<br />
you are hindered by desires—and<br />
their subsequent disappointments—<br />
the more you are free to revel in the<br />
miracle of the now; to lose yourself in<br />
the nothingness. If you lose yourself<br />
fully enough, you have achieved enlightenment,<br />
and Nirvana. But at that<br />
moment you don’t just vanish; you have<br />
to continue to live out that life. So you<br />
serve out your last roll on the ‘meat-wheel’<br />
by sharing and guiding other seekers.<br />
Living well as a Buddhist is where the<br />
two main branches of Buddhism are distinguished:<br />
Theravada and Mahayana.<br />
g<br />
40<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 41
WORLDVIEW<br />
Theravada Buddhism adheres to fewer scriptures: just<br />
older ones (Pali language, from India, where Siddhartha<br />
was from). This way is much more esoteric; silence<br />
is golden, and the spiritual journey (or eightfold path)<br />
is typically more inner, personal, and aloof from the<br />
pursuits of regular daily life. Theravada Buddhists are<br />
pretty serious about meditation and the personal quest<br />
for Nirvana. This branch is dominant in Southeast Asia<br />
(India, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand), and<br />
is more ‘authentic’ to the quest of the first Buddha in<br />
India. In Theravada thinking, you can’t help anyone<br />
reach Nirvana until you have done so yourself. But<br />
you will likely die trying.<br />
Mahayana Buddhism adheres to many more scriptures<br />
(sutras), which have much more to say about<br />
practical living and celebrating and communing with<br />
nature. The desires are denied, but not the whole world.<br />
The monks tend to be a bit chubbier, jollier, and more<br />
pastoral. The goals of enlightenment are applied more<br />
practically, to improve and better enjoy this life, not eschew<br />
it. You may not have achieved Nirvana, and may<br />
even find it unattainable, but you are here to help others<br />
on the quest. It’s kind of like taking down-payments<br />
on Nirvana now, as long as you share the installments.<br />
Mahayana adherents are more accessible, involved in<br />
teaching laypeople and reaching out to the needy. This<br />
branch of Buddhism is dominant in the colder parts of<br />
Asia (Tibet, Mongolia, China, Korea, Taiwan).<br />
Won Buddhism<br />
Worthy of special attention is a branch of Mahayana<br />
Buddhism called Won Buddism. The birthplace of<br />
this particular movement is right here in North Jeolla<br />
province! Very reformed and modernized, this could<br />
be called ‘neo-Buddhism.’ The departures from traditional<br />
Buddhism are radical enough that some argue<br />
that it is an entirely new religion. In 1916, in Iksan, a<br />
seeker named ChinSeop Park achieved enlightenment.<br />
He later took the name Sotaesan.<br />
Shortly after his enlightenment, he had a prescient<br />
vision of a new age of materialism in which humanity<br />
would be enslaved by their own creations. The only<br />
way to save the world from this is to spread a double<br />
remedy: spiritual mindset and compassionate living. He<br />
wrote a new canon of Buddhist scriptures called “The<br />
Correct Canon of Buddhism” that made enlightened<br />
living simple, accessible, and practical to uneducated<br />
common people.<br />
Seotaesan called his school the Society of the Study<br />
of the Buddhadharma, founding what we now know as<br />
Wonkwang University. His successor renamed the faith<br />
Won Buddhism and added another tome called The<br />
Scriptures of Won Buddhism in 1962.<br />
“Won,” in this sense, means “circle,” or “round.”<br />
The idea is that this evolved form of Buddhism is<br />
well-rounded and all-encompassing. Whereas one Buddhist<br />
discipline may emphasize meditation, or another<br />
emphasizes more on study or chanting, and yet another<br />
on virtues or following the original Buddha’s quest,<br />
Won Buddhism embraces all of the elements of Buddhism<br />
in a balanced way, bringing all the approaches to<br />
truth full circle.<br />
Conceived and born in Jeonbuk, Korea, it should<br />
not come as a surprise that Won Buddhism has a very<br />
noticeable Confucian flavor. In fact, an astute evaluation<br />
of the faith is that it is a syncretism of Buddhism,<br />
Confucianism, and Daoism, boiled down for the uneducated.<br />
Won Buddhism is now practiced all around the<br />
world, including Argentina, Canada, and Germany, with<br />
53 non-Korean locations listed on their official website.<br />
Won Buddhism is rather unique in its history as well.<br />
According to Daniel J. Adams, professor emeritus at<br />
Hanil Seminary here in Wanju, “Won Buddhism has<br />
emerged to outlive its founder, remain free from accusations<br />
of scandal, avoid splitting into different sects,<br />
and, while being seen as somewhat unorthodox by traditional<br />
Buddhists, has never been accused of heresy.<br />
Unlike other new religious movements in Korea whose<br />
influence has waxed and waned with the times, Won<br />
Buddhism has experienced a slow but steady growth<br />
and its overall influence in Korean society has grown<br />
considerably.” (Won Buddhism in Korea: A New Religious<br />
Movement Comes of Age, D.J. Adams)<br />
Won Buddhism wielded considerable influence during<br />
the modernization of Korea. A number of studies<br />
have been done on Sotaesan’s influence on Korea at a<br />
time when the nation was disillusioned with the Donghak<br />
Revolution and was being introduced to electricity,<br />
railroads, and Western medicine. At this time, Jeolla<br />
province was the most destitute part of a hurting Korea,<br />
and the life of Sotaesan is, in the words of Kelvin Barrett’s<br />
“Won Buddhism: A Modern Way,” “a fascinating<br />
story of a man with little formal education, who moulded<br />
a group of dispossessed people to be masters of their<br />
lives and valuable members of society.”<br />
Buddhism: reformed; updated; done right; the Korean<br />
way; accessible to all... a success story. Won Buddhism’s<br />
contribution to the Korean worldview is not to<br />
be underestimated; it’s got quite a ring to it.<br />
PHOTOS :<br />
PREVIOUS PAGES -- Buddha statue at a<br />
Korean temple in the countryside (Page 40);<br />
monk graphic on a sign at a Buddhist temple in<br />
Korea (Page 41). LEFT (top) -- Monk chanting<br />
at Korean temple; (bottom) -- Buddha statue at<br />
the bottom of Maisan, Jinan County.<br />
ABOVE -- The characteristic “fish bell”<br />
found on the corners of Korean Buddhist<br />
temple roofs.<br />
[Photos by ANJEE DISANTO]<br />
42 Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 43
SOCIAL SCOPE<br />
Aiding the Community through the JWAU<br />
By HEATHER ALLMAN<br />
<strong>JB</strong> <strong>Life</strong> Contributing Writer<br />
The oppression of minority groups knows no<br />
boundaries, whether cultural or international,<br />
physical or mental. Around the globe,<br />
people of every age, gender, sexual orientation, nationality,<br />
and ethnic background are victims of injustice.<br />
Over the past few decades, the recognition<br />
and necessity for a fight against the maltreatment of<br />
minority groups has profoundly strengthened. Every<br />
day, in the news, on social media, and in our own<br />
communities, social and political groups righteously<br />
defend those who may not be strong enough to defend<br />
themselves.<br />
One of the largest minority groups, (although ironically<br />
a majority of the world’s population) is women.<br />
Historically speaking, women in every culture and<br />
society have been forced to combat persecution and<br />
suffering, and have had to fight to gain equal opportunity<br />
in their homes, workplaces, and communities.<br />
The fight has not weakened, and neither has the hardship,<br />
but due to the noble efforts of advocates for<br />
equality across the world, significant progress continues<br />
to be achieved.<br />
It is essential for community<br />
members, including expats, to get<br />
involved with existing organizations<br />
throughout Korea in order<br />
to promote strength and<br />
sociological progress.<br />
44<br />
Upon moving to a new country, foreigners decide<br />
to become part of an already existent and thriving<br />
community. It is their responsibility to offer generosity<br />
to their new home, while working side by side<br />
with its citizens to better the society they have now<br />
become a part of. The Jeollabuk-do area has seen a<br />
multitude of assistance through organizations like the<br />
Jeonbuk Women’s Association United, Neighborly<br />
Neighborly, Stepping Stones, and various other institutions<br />
run by both Korean nationals and foreigners.<br />
By donating time and/or money, it is not only possible<br />
to improve the area that one lives in, but also to<br />
demonstrate a positive representation of one’s own<br />
nation.<br />
The JWAU, or Jeonbuk Women’s Association United,<br />
began in 1988 under the name Chonbuk Democratic<br />
Women’s Association. The organization’s<br />
mission is to uphold peace and human rights as they<br />
should be valued, aiming to globalize and advance<br />
the women of Jeonbuk. Regardless of their sociological<br />
or national background, the JWAU works to help<br />
women become part of a truly democratic society.<br />
Since the introduction of the JWAU, the organization<br />
has fought to ensure the safety and fair treatment of<br />
women and children, barring them from the ever apparent<br />
discrimination and violence in their own community<br />
and across Korea.<br />
In the past, foreigners in Jeonju have worked with<br />
the JWAU to raise money and awareness for their<br />
honorable cause. In 2009 and 2010, Jessica Hovey<br />
served as the community organizer and director for the Jeonju<br />
V-Day production of The Vagina Monologues, a performance<br />
event that has continued over the years in Jeonju. V-Day is a<br />
worldwide movement to end violence against women and girls.<br />
For over 20 years, The Vagina Monologues, written by Eve<br />
Ensler, has been a catalyst for women across the world in the<br />
fight against violence. Based upon interviews that Ensler conducted<br />
with over 200 women about their experiences as victims<br />
of violence, the play addresses the sexual stigma and violent oppression<br />
of those who “were assigned and/or identify as female.”<br />
Unlike any work before it’s time, The Vagina Monologues found<br />
immense success by taking an aggressive approach against a customarily<br />
suppressed topic. After four years of successful touring<br />
and countless testimonies of relatability from patrons of the play,<br />
Ensler and a group of women from New York City established<br />
V-Day on February 14, 1998.<br />
Of the production, Hovey said, “The Vagina Monologues is<br />
produced for two reasons – the first is to raise awareness of violence<br />
towards women and girls (as well as to demystify the vagina)<br />
and the second is to raise money for a charity that is specifically<br />
working [for this cause].” Since it’s inauguration, V-Day<br />
has become recognized as a global movement. In less than two<br />
decades, the V-Day campaign has raised over $100 million which<br />
has been distributed worldwide. The V-Day campaign asks volunteers<br />
around the world to stage a presentation of The Vagina<br />
Monologues anytime in February. With production costs kept<br />
low and admission fees charged, each V-Day program chooses a<br />
local beneficiary working toward ending violence against women<br />
and girls.<br />
Hovey chose to get involved because, “At the time, I was<br />
acutely aware of the physical and sexual violence still plaguing<br />
women and girls; I was also surrounded by good men (and some<br />
women) who were unable to see how violence and sexism still<br />
persist.<br />
THIS PAGE:<br />
Posters from<br />
past expat-run<br />
V-Day productions<br />
in Jeonju,<br />
all to benefit<br />
the JWAU.<br />
g<br />
g
SOCIAL SCOPE<br />
“I wanted and needed to bring these issues up for<br />
serious discussion and I wanted to be able to help the<br />
community I was living in, in a tangible way,” Hovey<br />
said.<br />
“Establishing a relationship with<br />
the JWAU and making the<br />
organization the beneficiary of<br />
the V-Day campaigns allowed me<br />
and all of us involved, to help<br />
without creating cultural conflicts.<br />
“The Jeonju V-Day Campaign and The Vagina<br />
Monologues performances would not have happened<br />
without the JWAU,” Hovey explained.<br />
Over three years, V-Day productions of The Vagina<br />
Monologues in Jeonju were able to raise over 10<br />
million won to donate to the JWAU. No Hyun Jeong<br />
of the JWAU said, “[Because of The Vagina Monologues,<br />
the JWAU] could spend the useful money for<br />
their work.” She continued with how impressed she<br />
was by the support of so many foreigners, and continues<br />
to be thankful to this day. With the money raised<br />
by the Jeonju V-Day Campaign, the JWAU was able<br />
to win a massive victory for women’s rights in South<br />
Korea. As a result, Hovey was awarded the “Stepping<br />
Stone Prize,” which was created in response to the<br />
assistance given to the organization for “the development<br />
of feminist movement and the improvement of<br />
women’s rights in Jeonbuk.”<br />
Women in even the most powerful and affluential<br />
countries in the world continue to face domestic violence<br />
and abuse today. In 2016, the World Health Organization<br />
concluded that about one third of women<br />
worldwide had been victims of physical and/or sexual<br />
violence in their lifetime. In South Korea alone, 22%<br />
of adult women have reported being raped. Without<br />
community outreach and involvement, organizations<br />
like the JWAU would be unable to find such substantial<br />
success. In a world where, at times, the idea of<br />
discussing domestic abuse and violence can be considered<br />
“taboo,” it is imperative for community members,<br />
both foreign and national, to intervene and raise<br />
awareness.<br />
The JWAU does not solely focus on combating violence<br />
and abuse against women. Ms. No stated, “It<br />
focuses on all kinds of women’s rights. There are 10<br />
groups that have activated in Jeollabuk-do. Temporary<br />
workers, sexual abuse, violence, the fair treatment of<br />
handicapped women, labor [issues], political [issues]<br />
and welfare are all [focused] on.” The organization<br />
promotes activities for women’s policies, the achievement<br />
of female-oriented laws, the encouragement of<br />
women’s political power, networking activities to<br />
strengthen solidarity with other Non-Governmental<br />
Organizations, and the maintenance of a Center for<br />
the Rights of Sex Workers.<br />
Joni Page also directed and produced The Vagina<br />
Monologues during it’s Jeonju V-Day productions.<br />
She speaks highly of the work of the JWAU, stating<br />
that their work far surpasses raising awareness<br />
of the violent treatment of women and children. “I<br />
was amazed at how much they do,” Page stated,<br />
“And how much they do with their sister organizations<br />
throughout the country. They [bring a lot<br />
of] awareness towards females in general. The fact<br />
that Korea has a female president with the gender<br />
disparity [that existed] in this country [at the time]<br />
was amazing…The stuff that the JWAU does is not<br />
just [providing] a shelter, it’s trying to bring more<br />
gender equality to women.”<br />
The JWAU has not yet planned their events for<br />
<strong>2017</strong>. No said that they are always grateful for any<br />
donations that can be used to support their various<br />
causes. Each month, the JWAU distributes a brochure<br />
throughout Jeonbuk called “Bora Bora” (보<br />
라 보라), which means “Look and Care for Women’s<br />
Rights.” They are always accepting assistance<br />
to fold and distribute the brochures. Additionally,<br />
the JWAU plans to hold one “meaningful performance”<br />
each year, like The Vagina Monologues, a<br />
fashion show, or a concert with singers, where proceeds<br />
will go to benefit the organization.<br />
If you or any woman that you know is looking<br />
for any sort of assistance, the JWAU helps women<br />
of any nationality. Whether in need of support for<br />
employment, domestic, political, or legal reasons,<br />
regardless of their nature, they are willing to help.<br />
The JWAU can be contacted by telephone at 063-<br />
287-3459, or by email at jwau21@hanmail.net.<br />
For more information, visit the Jeonbuk Women’s<br />
Association United website at: http://jbwomen.<br />
tistory.com/. The JWAU is not affiliated with the<br />
government; therefore, the organization reserves<br />
the right to the complete control of it’s affairs.<br />
V-Day continues to thrive and grow. In <strong>2017</strong>, the<br />
V-Day organization will launch their campaign,<br />
“One Billion Rising Revolution,” for “Solidarity<br />
Against Exploitation of Women.” To find more information<br />
about how to hold a V-Day production<br />
of The Vagina Monologues, to donate to the campaign,<br />
or to learn more, visit www.vday.org.<br />
The original Jeonju<br />
V-Day cast, directed<br />
by Jessica Hovey<br />
(second from left), adhering<br />
to the common<br />
red theme of V-Day<br />
productions.<br />
[Photo by Anjee<br />
DiSanto]<br />
Events run by the JWAU themselves.<br />
[Photos courtesy of JWAU]<br />
46 Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 47 47
“BEING” IN JEONBUK<br />
48<br />
By SWARNALEE DUTTA<br />
<strong>JB</strong> <strong>Life</strong> Contributing Writer<br />
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is the first<br />
in a new section for <strong>2017</strong> titled “‘Being’<br />
in Jeonbuk.” The intention of this section<br />
is to share how local expats maintain their<br />
lifestyles and their sense of “being” while<br />
living in our province. This might include<br />
being from a certain nationality, whether Indian,<br />
Mexican, or Ethiopian, or being part of<br />
a certain lifestyle, such as being vegetarian,<br />
gay, or Muslim. Keep an eye out for this section<br />
to see how people from all walks of life<br />
survive and thrive while abroad.<br />
As an Indian staying abroad, festivals are<br />
the times I really feel homesick and wish<br />
to be at home enjoying the celebrations, food,<br />
excitement, and enthusiasm. I miss the jubilant atmosphere<br />
spreading an intoxicating and infectious<br />
feeling around. Everybody comes together to rejoice<br />
in the traditions, keeping aside their differences.<br />
While some festivals are just close-knit family affairs,<br />
some are arranged and celebrated all together<br />
as a community. Whether deities are worshipped or<br />
just traditional playfulness prevails, the décor and<br />
Rangoli<br />
made of<br />
spices for<br />
Diwali<br />
in 2016.<br />
[Photos<br />
provided by<br />
Swarnalee<br />
Dutta]<br />
food are a must in all. As a child, wearing new clothes<br />
and savoring the delightful food unique to each festival<br />
was the ultimate fun, more so because studies were a<br />
forgotten affair during festivals.<br />
An agriculture-based country, most of India’s festivals<br />
are season-oriented and surround the annual activities<br />
of farming. Nature heralds every festival with<br />
unique blossoms and a signature climate. We can just<br />
feel the approach of a festival in the air without having<br />
to look at the calendar. Staying away from home in a<br />
far-off land, our biological system is so in tune with the<br />
festivals that even if we do not find those welcoming<br />
bouquets of nature here, our body and mind automatically<br />
trigger the festive button sensing the vibes coming<br />
from our native land.<br />
So cherished are my childhood memories of festivals<br />
that I want my child to have the same. But alas! I am<br />
in a foreign land. It is not always possible to join some<br />
of the Indian festivals celebrated by fellow expats here<br />
due to constraints of time and distance. Back home,<br />
the environment and people around make it easy for<br />
the child to grasp the vibes and essence of celebration.<br />
Here, me and my husband are on our own. So, on one<br />
hand, we try to weave the origin, cause and concern,<br />
social and psychological significance of each festival<br />
into stories, narrating them for my toddler’s knowledge;<br />
while on the other hand, we give our best to celebrate<br />
and recreate the aura of a few festivals for him<br />
to enjoy. Doing everything together and the tiny tales<br />
that are created during those moments are actually the<br />
joys we look forward to. The arrangement and preparation<br />
of customary decorations as a family, wearing traditional<br />
dresses, and food are our way of celebration.<br />
Having said that, let me begin with the easiest one first.<br />
Food<br />
Every occasion has unique traditional dishes, and we<br />
are fortunate to have an Indian grocery store at hand<br />
with all the essential supplies. And thanks to globalization<br />
and online markets, ingredients are available<br />
worldwide to prepare the spicy Indian platter. Given<br />
the hectic routine that we have between our respective<br />
jobs, we prefer to make the easy-to-cook snacks like<br />
Laddos made of coconuts,<br />
chickpea flour, and sesame.<br />
Eco-friendly Ganesh idol from<br />
flour, turmeric, and kumkum.<br />
Sweets made from chickpea<br />
flour.<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 49
“BEING” IN JEONBUKS<br />
the laddoos (ball-shaped sweets) of coconut, chickpea<br />
flour, and sesame or kheer (porridge) made of rice,<br />
semolina, etc. Of course, there are some hiccups, like<br />
for the unique Ugadi pachadi (a special New Year recipe<br />
of my husband’s place), which blends the six tastes<br />
– sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and spicy – signifying<br />
life as an amalgamation of happiness, grief, anger,<br />
disgust, fear, and surprise. While jaggery, salt, pepper<br />
powder, and tamarind are available, we do not get raw<br />
mango and neem flowers for the pungent and bitter<br />
tastes here. We substituted these two with dried Indian<br />
gooseberry and fenugreek seeds. We also realized that<br />
sticky Korean rice can substitute for borasaul (a rice<br />
variety of Assam) to prepare pitha (a traditional snack).<br />
So, overall, we can manage the food part of the festivals<br />
and let the budding taste buds of our toddler relish<br />
some of the native delicacies.<br />
50<br />
Dress and Decor<br />
New (traditional) dresses are the foremost source of<br />
joy for children, and mostly these are gifts from parents<br />
and relatives. Although the online market is gearing<br />
up with Indian brands to cater to the needs of fellow<br />
citizens abroad, our dear ones back home kept it the<br />
original way by sending us the dresses as gifts. Required<br />
accessories are also available online. Or we can<br />
make them with the sparkles and glitters available in<br />
any stationery or gift store here, like for the occasion of<br />
Janmashtami (birthday of Lord Krishna), when small<br />
children are dressed up as little Krishna with a crown of<br />
peacock feather and flute in hand, eating maakhan (butter).<br />
For two consecutive years now, I have made the<br />
crown, and this year I even made a dummy flute. Some<br />
day, I hope my toddler feels happy to see his photos in<br />
that attire munching the butter cubes from Costco.<br />
The joy of decorating the house together has a different<br />
charm, be it the alpona (rice-flour floor art) of<br />
Lakshmi puja or rangoli (floor décor with colored powder<br />
and lights) during Diwali. Since we do not get the<br />
colors here, I developed my own rapid rangoli from the<br />
kitchen with colorful lentils last year and spices this<br />
year. Making an eco-friendly idol of the Elephant-God<br />
for Ganesh Chaturthi also challenged my creativity.<br />
Last year, I made a Ganesh idol of ground dates and<br />
nuts, while this year I used flour dough with turmeric<br />
and kumkum (a kind of vermillion) for colours. It was<br />
fun to include my toddler this year in these activities<br />
and the joyous outcome will be cherished forever.<br />
Dressed as<br />
“Little Krishna” in<br />
2015/2016.<br />
Celebrating Holi in Jeonju with<br />
the Indian and foreign community.<br />
[Photos by Jyotiranjan<br />
Bal]<br />
The Rituals and Essence<br />
Having been brought up in a home where rituals during<br />
festivals meant doing things which make us feel<br />
closer to the omnipresent divine strength and finding<br />
inner peace, I have always had my own way of celebrating<br />
each festival apart from the prayers and hymns.<br />
Engaging in decorations had always made me feel<br />
happy, and now, preparing the food also brings a sense<br />
of joy. Then, there are innumerable traditional festive<br />
songs which depict the story behind these festivals. My<br />
almost 2-year-old is grasping and learning these very<br />
fast. I am sure God will not be able to ignore the little<br />
one singing in broken words, repeating it over and over<br />
again in a loop.<br />
While festivals celebrated as community cannot be<br />
duplicated here, we were fortunate to celebrate Holi<br />
(the festival of colors) with fellow-expats in Jeonju. We<br />
could feel the true essence of festival that day when people<br />
irrespective of nationality came together and painted<br />
a picture of happiness and friendship. We enjoyed<br />
playing with home-made colors made of flour, turmeric,<br />
and powders of strawberry and blueberry (courtesy of a<br />
Korean friend in the tteok business) while relishing the<br />
Indian snacks and traditional drinks. Co-hosted by the<br />
local volunteer group “Neighborly Neighborly”<br />
and supported by the Jeollabuk-do Center for International<br />
Affairs, we were glad to be a part of such a<br />
heart-warming celebration.<br />
Blessed are we to be able to celebrate our festivals<br />
here in our own way. The true spirit of any festival is<br />
to celebrate life, and we are fortunate to be in Jeollabuk-do,<br />
the hub of so many native festivals. Walking<br />
on a tight rope balancing the awes and woes of life,<br />
festivals remind us of the beauty and joy we deserve.<br />
Signing off with this quote:<br />
“What life expects of us is<br />
that we celebrate.”<br />
-José Eduardo Agualusa<br />
Mother<br />
and son<br />
in holiday<br />
clothing.<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 51
FICTION<br />
Have you ever had those moments where you<br />
think “I could do that.” And then you picture<br />
yourself doing something outrageous and<br />
impulsive, like kissing a stranger or jumping in a fountain.<br />
But then you don’t do that thing because you are<br />
an adult and you have common sense. I have these kinds<br />
of thoughts often, at least once a day, though I’ve never<br />
actually counted. I don’t know if this is more or less than<br />
the average sane person because I don’t tend to talk about<br />
what goes on in my head with many people. Frankly, I<br />
am pretty certain that I’m about 20% more crazy than the<br />
average female already, no need to add to that number.<br />
Though, if you ask my ex, that number should be way<br />
higher... but that’s a story for another day.<br />
Anyway, so there I was, standing in the middle of the<br />
airport, clutching my little carry-on suitcase, wondering<br />
what the hell I was going to do. Logically, I knew I could<br />
simply find a hotel and enjoy California by myself. I had<br />
plenty of money saved up, and at 23 it’s not like I needed<br />
a chaperone. But that’s when I had the idea. That awful,<br />
reckless idea. I imagined myself going to the ticket counter<br />
and buying a ticket to some random place. I had the<br />
money, and my passport, and I had never traveled much<br />
outside my home state of Minnesota.<br />
And then I did it. I did the crazy impulsive thing. One<br />
tram ride and several minutes of speed walking later (big<br />
airport) I was staring at the ticket counter, watching the<br />
departure flights and trying to pick somewhere to go.<br />
I still don’t know how I chose Seoul. I just saw it and<br />
decided that was the place I wanted to go. Luckily, San<br />
Francisco is a major hub for flights going to South Korea,<br />
so I was able to buy a same-day ticket. When I got off<br />
the plane in Seoul, I had this crazy urge that my journey<br />
wasn’t over yet. So I purchased a bus ticket to another<br />
random destination, a town called Jeonju somewhere in<br />
the country. And so here I am, sitting here in this bus in<br />
the middle of a country I have only heard about briefly on<br />
the news. And just now I am starting to wonder if I am<br />
maybe a little bit more than 20 % crazy.<br />
*****<br />
There is still four minutes left until our departure time.<br />
The bus is starting to fill up and I am fascinated with how<br />
52<br />
By<br />
Betsey<br />
Norman<br />
many Asian people occupy the seats. It hits me that I really<br />
am in another country. The airport was just another<br />
airport, and the bus I boarded was nothing abnormal. But<br />
watching all of the well-dressed Korean people settle into<br />
the seats around me gets me. In America these is almost<br />
always some diversity. Especially if you live in the city<br />
like me, it’s very hard to be somewhere, like a bus, where<br />
there is only one ethnicity present. And then here I am,<br />
one lone yellow-haired Northerner amongst a sea of raven-haired<br />
beauties. It’s a weird feeling; I’m not used to<br />
standing out.<br />
I cringe as that reminds me of the debacle that was Immigration;.<br />
Apparently, it is not looked upon kindly if<br />
your answer to “purpose of visit” is “I don’t know.” Add<br />
to that the fact that I looked like I had just walked through<br />
a tornado, and you get one very silent Immigration officer<br />
checking my passport and documents eight different times<br />
before letting me through. Luckily I didn’t need a visa, or<br />
this little adventure would have been over before it started.<br />
I glance up as I notice an old man putting his bag in the<br />
overhead above our seat. He’s got that wise old grandpa<br />
look about him, and I muse that the look translates pretty<br />
easily through different cultures. He unbuttons his suit<br />
jacket to sit down and I brace myself for the wink.<br />
I have a face old men like to wink at. No, stop laughing,<br />
it’s true. Something about my youthful innocence and<br />
goldilocks-esque curls get the old men winking, not in a<br />
sexual way, in a “you could be my granddaughter” way.<br />
My sister told me once that it’s because I always look lost,<br />
like I need one of those wise old wizards from every fantasy<br />
movie ever to guide me.<br />
This time, however, my seat partner doesn’t wink. I<br />
don’t know why I am disappointed, but I am.<br />
“Anyeonghaseyo,” he says with a smile. I feel my heart<br />
speed up and I rack my brain for anything I could have<br />
learned about the Korean language. Nothing. Nada. I hope<br />
what he says means “hello” because I say it back to him.<br />
Thankfully I am rewarded with a small bow and a bigger<br />
smile; it is definitely some kind of greeting.<br />
“Great.” I tell myself. “Just great Cassa. You are in a<br />
foreign country and you’ve managed to figure out how to<br />
say “hello.” That’s going to be so helpful when this bus<br />
stops who-knows-where and you can’t even ask the bathroom.”<br />
Korean grandpa is oblivious to my self-scolding,<br />
and he holds out his hand.<br />
“My name is James,” he volunteers in English. My relief<br />
at hearing my native tongue must show, because he<br />
chuckles a little before I can collect myself enough to<br />
shake his hand.<br />
“I’m Cassa.”<br />
“Short for Cassandra?”<br />
“No, just Cassa.”<br />
When he raises his eyebrow I laugh.<br />
“I know, my parents are weird. My sister is Angie, not<br />
short for anything, just Angie.”<br />
James gives a small laugh, and that’s all the encouragement<br />
I need to ramble on.<br />
“My theory is they wanted to give us something to<br />
talk about with new people. A unique name is a great ice<br />
breaker,” I say before realizing maybe grandpa James<br />
hadn’t signed up to be seated next to chatty Cathy when<br />
he introduced himself. Before I can catch myself going<br />
on about my parents and my sister, I smile politely at him<br />
turn to look at the back of the seat in front of me.<br />
And there’s the panic again, I turn my attention back to<br />
the clock. Two minutes now.<br />
“What brings you to Korea?” It takes me a moment to<br />
realize the question was directed at me.<br />
“Huh?” I turn to face James again. The amusement is<br />
out in full force now, and he finds me hilarious.<br />
“Correct me if I am wrong, but you don’t seem like<br />
an expat. What brings you to Korea?” He asks again as<br />
illustration by<br />
Sarah Hodgkiss<br />
the driver starts the engine and we pull away onto the<br />
highway.<br />
There it is. The million-dollar question. Why am I here?<br />
Why couldn’t I just have stayed in San Fran? Or gone<br />
somewhere where I know the language? Even my high<br />
school Spanish would have been better than nothing. But<br />
I chose South Korea. The only thing I know about South<br />
Korea is that it’s not North Korea, and there was that song<br />
that was popular on YouTube a few years ago. “Kangnam<br />
style” or was it “Gangnam style”? I don’t remember, I remember<br />
the dance though, it was pretty catchy. But other<br />
than that I know nothing. Until today I have had no desire<br />
to visit South Korea. In fact, if I am being honest, I have<br />
had little desire to visit anywhere really.<br />
I am not the sort to go on adventures. I don’t thrive on<br />
adrenaline and I don’t have an ounce of wanderlust in my<br />
blood. Or so I thought. I like stability. I am an accountant<br />
for goodness sake! Can’t get more boring and stable<br />
than that. I don’t like to do anything out of the ordinary.<br />
I don’t even like to change my order at McDonald’s if<br />
I can help it. So how on Earth did I find myself here?<br />
Halfway across the world with no idea where to go next.<br />
I realize that I had been so lost in my thoughts that I<br />
never answered James’s question. I turn to my seat partner,<br />
whose thin face shows the deep laugh lines and<br />
weathered skin of a man who has lived quite a bit of life.<br />
I wish then that he really was some kind of wise old wizard<br />
sent to guide me. At the very least he seems the sort<br />
of man who would appreciate an honest answer, so I answer<br />
the best I can as the bus speeds away towards our<br />
destination.<br />
“I really don’t know.”<br />
Jeonbuk <strong>Life</strong> 53