Winter 2004

Talking History

Korea: masks, memories and more

Following an inspirational study tour of Korea, JACQUALINE HOLLINGWORTH discusses her impressions and offers practical suggestions for classroom activities based on the culture and history of Korea.

During June-July 2003, I was part of an AEF study tour visit to Korea. This tour included 40 teachers and teacher educators from USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. The experience was quite overwhelming. Like most Australians, I had no idea of the fascinating culture and diversity of South Korea. For almost three weeks we went to daily lectures at the University of Korea and the afternoons were mostly field trips. One of the places we visited was the Korean Folk Village in Osan, just outside Seoul.

This is a very authentic reconstruction of a Korean village. A wealthy businessman wanted to preserve traditional Korean houses from all over the country and still in existence from previous centuries. Therefore you can visit farmhouses, manor houses, provincial governors’ offices and a grand house built for a noble family. The place is fascinating and some of the performances we saw were not only authentic, but quite spectacular.

An afternoon there went very quickly with a number of things to watch or take part in. The old game of Nul Dwee Gee—literally a seesaw game—was awe-inspiring. Young girls took part in this energetic and highly agile activity. Aristocratic women, confined to their homes, invented it. They used the seesaws, when the menfolk were absent, as a game, to jump higher than the walls surrounding their homes and catch a glimpse of the outside world. Swinging was another way that the women invented to see over these high walls. There was a breathtaking performance of a man doing acrobatics on a tightrope that made you wince with pain. He must have been in his eighties.

The traditional Korean herb drugstore was incredible. Korean medicine is made from a variety of herbs, minerals and plants. These are rendered down to provide the basis for tea infusions. The tea is then packed into bags and labelled. Most are hung from the roof to aid in the drying process.

One of the things I did not tire of watching was performances of Korean folk dances. The drum dances are by far the most exciting and require a great deal of skill to execute. I did not see many older men performing these. The dancers perform in brightly coloured traditional clothing, twirling a very long white ribbon from a tight cap on their heads. Making it more difficult was the fact that a cloth strap tied around the dancer's neck and shoulders carries the drums. Tremendous coordination is required to dance, twirl the ribbons and play the drums at the same time.

Another place we visited was the Hahoe Folk Village in northern Geyeongsang Province in the south. Hahoe has changed little in the past 600 years. One of the things that I really loved there were the intriguing face-masks that form part of traditional folk dance dramas handed down through oral tradition since the thirteenth century. There were originally 12 characters in the Hahoe mask drama, but only nine exist today (Ainsworth & Fraser, 1999). In the past all the performers were males. The aim of the plays was to ridicule the land-owning Yangban (aristocrats). This allowed the poor and stressed-out farmers to relax. The plays are traditionally performed at night in the open, in front of the Yangban’s house (a nice rebellious touch!) by the light of bonfires. The Yangban traditionally never attended these performances.

The masks were made of papiermache or gourds and were burned after each performance. However, in the village of Hahoe, the elaborate wooden masks were considered to be sacred and were stored in a secret location between performances.

Reproductions of the masks are available throughout Seoul and the countryside, and are usually made of wood. Most Koreans seem to have one in their homes. The reproductions rarely resemble the shamanistic spirit posts found all over Korea.

I would go back to Korea tomorrow. However, having said that I do not think I could face the kimchi again. The chilli factor in the fermented cabbage nearly killed me.

Activities:

1. Find a map of Korea and locate the border between North and South Korea. Research the reasons why Korea became a divided country.
2. Make a Korean tiger mask. Instructions for this can be found in the resource, Asian Cultures (pp 70–1). Did you know that only one hundred years ago Korean tigers still roamed the streets of Seoul at night in search of prey?
3. Visit the following website for an intriguing tour of the folk village of Hahoe. http://www.lifeinkorea.com/Travel2/nkyongsang/36
4. In the folk village I brought a trowel, which Koreans call an ‘awl’. Look this up in a dictionary or encyclopedia. What is it mainly used for?
5. Do a Google search for Korean masks and see what you can find out about these examples of Korean culture.
6. What is shamanism?
7. Kimchi is a uniquely pungent mixture of fermented vegetables and its variations amounted to roughly 80 kinds of dishes introduced during the Choson period. Look up books on Korea and try and find out when the Choson period was.
8. King Sejong the Great was regarded as the one of most important Korean kings. Do a Google search on him and list some of the reasons as to why he was so famous.
9. Another person who is very famous in Korea is Admiral Yi Sun-shin. See what you can find out about him.
10. Go to the following website for a virtual tour of The Korean Folk Village: www.lifeinkorea.com/Travel2/ kyonggi/219

References

A full bibliography can be found in AGORA, vol 38, no 4, published by HTAV.

Ainsworth, G & Fraser, J (1999). Exploring Korea, Curriculum Corporation, Carlton South.

Parkinson, S J & Campisano, D (1997). Asian Cultures: An Introduction for the Primary School, Macmillan, South Melbourne.

Jacqualine Hollingworth is the education officer for the History Teacher Association of Victoria.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au