But that's just this evening. Once we shook off the two hour jet lag, we had a culture-filled day.
One of the plays we designed at UW was Oh Tae Sok's Intimacy Between Father and Son. The play is based on real events which took place in the 18th century during the Choson (Jeoson/ Joson) Dynasty. Documentation of the events ranges from royal papers supporting the king, to the published memoirs of the widow of the son he murdered, and none is even remotely unbiased. The tangled interpersonal relationships within the 18th century court mirror the complicated relationship of North and South Korea, and in fact, the original 1970's production made use of these parallels. All of this would have been valuable information on the project, yet most keys to discovering it remain firmly locked in-country.
Over the centuries, Korea had been invaded, occupied and torn apart. Victors and the powerful write the history books, dooming Korea to a fragmentory shadow in most Westerners' minds. For that show, most of us spent hours combing every library on campus, and coming up with a wealth of images from Japan and China, but virtually nothing from Korea. We have been lucky to uncover some of it in our short time here, but I feel that the full complexity of the play cannot be understood without 3000 years of history and a DMZ at the back door.
Being in South Korea is an interesting experience. There are hoardes of tourists, but mostly from Japan or other parts of Korea. We have seen very few Westerners at all, and of the few we have talked to, most, like us, did not initially plan on coming here. It almost feels like a forbidden kingdom, an unknown place, even though its doors have been open longer than most of the other countries we have visted over the past months.
South Korea is rarely on the front pages, but it is an economic powerhouse, boasting the 34th highest GDP per capita in the world. Among all the modern wealth and bustle, there remains a palpable sense of the past. Ancient palaces and temples rub shoulders with modern high-rise buildings. Rituals and relics of its agrarian past are carefully preserved in courtyards alongside highways teeming with modern SUV's. And lurking behind it all is the memory of repeated invasions by China and Japan, and the ever present shadow of the DMZ and the armies of the North sitting just 60Km from Seoul.
Today we visted Gyeobungkun Palace. As we left our guesthouse, we heard drumming and other music coming from a courtyard nearby. The gate was open, and we were greeted by a group of musicians, and scattered clumps of people trying on traditional Korean dress, and playing traditional games from the countryside. We assumed the merriment was to celebrate the new year (this assumption ws later confiremed at the folk museum - these sorts of games have been played every New Year for at least 1500 years).
As we walked, we passed a restaurant wth pictures of the food in the wndow. In a country that doesn't use the Roman alphabet, and in which English not widely spoken, a pictorial menu is a great invention. We each pointed to dishes what looked tasty, and were pleasantly surprised when the meals that appeared actually looked nicer than the pictures. We've never had that happen before!
By the time we finished lunch, we were too late to catch the tour of the palace complex nearest our guesthouse (which I just discovered is where the historical events of the play actually happened), but instead opted to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace, the largest palace in Seoul. In addition to the Josen buildings, the complex also houses several museums dedicated to preserving Korean art and culture.
We arrived right at 2PM, just in time to watch the changing of the guard. Like the beefeaters in front of Buckingham, the Korean palace guards never change expression as they stand before the palace. The changing of the guard involved all the usual pomp and ceremony, including a large drum, exchanging of secret passwords and identity cards, and salutes with swords. For one moment before the crowd surged forward to begin their palace tours, the guards appeared to stand alone and at attention before the massive gate.
The architecture inside the complex mirrored that of the outer wall and gate. Graceful curved roofs with elaborately painted eaves shelters austere rooms with minimal furnishing. Most traditional Korean homes are heated through ondol, or under-floor heating systems. As a result, life is lived near to the ground, with no need for the glut of furniture found in European palaces.
The finest of the museums was the Museum of Folk Culture. Our experience was greatly enhanced by an enthusiastic English interpreter/curator/volunteer guide who walked us through each exhibit. Through him, we learned that not only is kimchi a tasty snack, but that it is internationally recognised as one the 5 healthiest foods in the world. In previous centuries, Koreans would ferment huge vats of kimchi underground. Today, most Seoulites live in apartments, but they still make their own kimchi, and have even invented a special kind of refrigerator just for that purpose!
In the rural village part of the museum, he explained the symbolism and reasons behind everything from the village totem poles to the layouts of the houses. Had he not been there we would not have learned half as much as we did. There were placards explaining some things, but nothing so good as a some one who really knows and loves the meanings and histories of things walking you through them step-by-step.
I was especially excited about the costume exhibits. Most of the garments represtented different classes and professions from the Choson dynasty. If we did Intimacy Between Father and Son again, I could design the hell out of it!
This evening we ventured out to find winter woolies for Cz. As noted in the title of the post, while we were eating dinner, it began to SNOW. Cz was made doubly happy that we found a woolie hat, sweater, and scarf with minimal hunting.
As we walked the market and tucked into our pizza dinner, we were struck by the similarities between Seoul and NYC. Not just the weather, but the skyscrapers, the lights, even the extremely fashionably dressed couples breezing past in their identical black coats.
In other ways, Seoul reminds me of Europe. Just as 10th century cathedrals loom over modern city blocks in England and France, in Seoul, 13th century belltowers surprise in the shadow of ultra-modern skyscrapers. We took these pictures from the same street corner in our neighborhood. In one direction, a tiny park with a belltower from the 14th century, in another, the Jongho Tower, a monument to modern consumerism.
We have only been in Seoul 2 days, and are already feeling easy and comfortable because it is so like NYC, but at the same time bowled over by the sudden influx of history we never knew. Be prepared for more long-winded history and politics laden posts. I won't be offended if you just look at the pretty pictures.
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