Korean Day at the V&A Museum in London
My day began with a spectacular Samulnori performance in the V&A's John Madejski Garden, by Korean percussion group Dulsori. Traditional Korean drumming is truly the Stomp before Stomp. Drummers play the same rhythm with perfect synchronization. The display of energy, virtuosity and speed made for a greatly entertaining show.
In the afternoon, I visited the Seoul photo exhibition and sampled some Korean tea (rice tea and a slightly sweeter cinnamon tea) in the Raphael Room. Meanwhile, the Samsung Gallery of Korean Art featured treasures from Korean history. My day ended with a traditional Korean musical 'Oh! Youran' in the Lecture Theatre, and a short performance by a Korean chamber music group.
The event was free thanks to the generous sponsorship of patrons. Kyu Hak Choi, Director of the Korean Cultural Centre, said: "Korean culture has been relatively unknown in UK. I welcome the many efforts to promote Korean culture in the UK. I hope many people who visit will be able to enjoy the real beauty of Korea."
Highlights from Korean Day at the V&A:
For more information about 'Oh! Youran' visit The Korea Times
posted by Alice at 11:13 PM
4 Comments:
An excellent VOD and article. All I can say is, I wish I was there!
Did you get a chance to try out your Korean?
ukfan
Alice
Do you know the origin of DJG story? It's from Joseon dynasty Sillok which is a kind of history book, sometimes translated as Annals of Joseon.
Whenever a king meets any person or makes meeting, an officer called Sagwan (=history officer) should essentially attend and record all the conversations. When a king dies, new king should organize a team called Sillok-chung for writing a Sillok of previous king. Sillok-chung collect all the records of a previous king and write a Sillok.
Four copies of them were stored in different cities. However 3 copies were burnt down by Japanese invasion from 1592 to 1597 and only one copy remained. The remained copy was reproduced and stored again in 4 different places. When Joseon fell down the dark colony of brutal Japan in 1910, writing of Sillok stopped.
A set of Sillok consisted of 1,893 books. One of the set which was stored in Odae-san was forcibly moved to Tokyo University by a Japanese Governer of Korea, Terauchi, during collony period. However it was burnt down during the notorious Kanto earthquake in Tokyo.
Many part of remained Sillok in Korea also were ruined. Recently, 47 Sillok books were found still remained in Tokyo Univ. Seoul National University is going to get back them.
One interesting thing is that reading of Sillok has been very strongly restricted. Even kings are not allowed to read the Sillok. The only king who read the Sillok killed many people because he became to know the secret of political power who killed his mother. This king called Yeonsangun is known as the worst tyrant of Korean history. The next king is Jungjong who is the king that you see in DJG drama.
Do you know that many koreans can memorize the sequence of all kings names of Joseon dynasty? We memorize the first korean character of all king's names. Then the next character is either jong or jo.
Tae-Jeong-Tae-Se-Moon-Dan-Se-
Ye-Seong-Yeon-Jung-In-Myoung-Sun-
Gwang-In-Hyo-Hyun-Sook-Gyung-Young-
Jeong-Soon-Heon-Cheol-Go-Soon
Do you see the eleventh king's name start with Jung?
태-정-태-세-문-단-세-
예-성-연-중-인-명-선-
광-인-효-현-숙-경-영-
정-순-헌-철-고-순
Alice
Thanks for the account and especially the video. I'm afraid I only arrived at the V&A at 4:15, by which time they were packing up the CheonggyeCheon exhibits, and I only got to the last half hour of Oh! Youran. I've got a post on it ready to go up in the next day or so. Beth McKillop from the V&A was wondering if any blog had covered the day, so I'll point her in your direction.
Are you going to the lecture at SOAS on Monday? See you there?
There is a funny true story about a Sagwan a history officer for writing Sillok.
The 3rd king of Joseon dynasty Taejong appointed Min In-Saeng as a Sagwan and told him that Sagwan should record history very accurate. Min In-Saeng thought that history during night is as important as during day. So, he remained at the palace during night and watched king secretely. King felt a ghost is watching him and following him every night. King was scared. Eventually the king found that the ghost was Min In-Saeng.
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