Korean food is more popular overseas now than it has ever been. Even in the United States, pop culture references to favorites like bibimbap show that Korean cuisine, once virtually unknown, has gone mainstream.

As Korean food goes global, however, pioneering chefs are incorporating new and sometimes foreign techniques and ingredients to create a new cuisine that is both modern and uniquely Korean. In this issue, we examine “Modern Hansik” and meet the culinary stars that are rewriting the Korean dining scene.

Also in this issue, we stroll around the rolling green hills of Gochang, talk with Korea’s only master builder of pipe organs, learn about some upcoming music festivals and more.

_ Editorial staff, KOREA

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Oh Yeongwoo

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Cover Photo

Photographed by 15 Studio

Red tilefish with seasoned greens, prepared by Jungsik

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Cover Story | » | Written by Cynthia Yoo, food writer and assistant professor at Kyung Hee University Photographed by 15 Studio

Modern Hansik and Its Global Ambitions

As Korean food goes global, innovative chefs bring contemporary flare to traditional cuisine

There’s a telling scene in the new Netflix drama “Billions” where the main character, a U.S. attorney, berates his junior colleague for ordering a boring bowl of bibimbap at a Korean restaurant. He slaps some kimchi on the colleague’s plate, telling him in colorful language to be more culinarily adventurous. The scene seems to highlight that Korean food is going mainstream and becoming part of pop culture in the United States.

Defining Hansik

As Korean food goes global, Hansik experts and enthusiasts face the problem of defining and explaining Korean food to people new to it. On its website, the Korean Food Foundation (KFF) broadly defines Korean cuisine to be “intrinsically Korean food that can be commercialized.” They go on to say, “Traditional food is ... passed down from generation to generation in Korea. The agricultural and marine products of Korea are the main ingredients of Korean food, and these ingredients give it a unique taste, scent and color, which can only be found in Korean food.” This definition is common sense in a way. Korean food is local ingredients cooked using traditional cooking techniques.

However, Park Chan-il, food writer and owner-chef, argues that the KFF definition highlights a real conundrum in explaining Hansik. Park says that there is no definitive consensus among experts on what Hansik is. Should that definition only include food from the post-independence period? Or should it also take Joseon-era cuisine into account? Should the definition stretch into what Koreans ate during the Middle Ages or earlier? Some say that Korean royal cuisine is the epitome of traditional Korean food. Park scoffs at that opinion, saying that the historical documentation for royal cuisine is sparse and vague at best, and there’s also a real problem in focusing on what the aristocracy ate and ignoring what the rest of the population cooked day-to-day.

Park argues that like much like the rest of Korea, Hansik has also been characterized by dynamic changes and external influences, inside and outside of the peninsula. Budaejjigae, or “army stew,” is a classic example. Park points out that even though the origin of the dish is found in the U.S. military bases established in Korea following independence, it’s a uniquely Korean dish, enjoyed by many people today. Budaejjigae may not fit the KFF Hansik definition to the letter, but it would be wrong to say it’s not Korean food.

To say that Hansik is “traditional” food handed down from generation to generation would be too limiting, agrees Lee Jeong-hui, editor-in-chief of La Main. She cites kimchi, known all over the world as a signature Korean dish. What is not as well-known is that the pungent fire-red kimchi has been around for only a hundred years. The red chili pepper that colors and spices up the fermentation process is a New World ingredient, brought to Asia by the Portuguese in the 16th century. Like Park, Lee contends that Korean food has a dynamic history, influenced by foreign ingredients and cooking methods. “As everywhere else, our country’s cuisine is always changing and adapting,” adds Lee. “The key is how it’s loved by the local people and how it’s absorbed into the culture.” One example is Korean barbecue, Lee suggests. People love their barbecue and are constantly developing new ways of cooking and seasoning it, even popularizing indoor barbecue grills so that they can enjoy and customize it at home.

You can’t discuss Korean cuisine without talking about fermented food. Pastes and sauces, such as red pepper paste, soy bean paste and soy sauce, and fermented seafood add flavor and nutrition to dishes. Modern Hansik marks a new turning point by marrying Korea’s traditional pastes, sauces and seasonal ingredients with varied cooking techniques and contemporary plating.

발효음식은 한식을 이야기할 때 빼놓을 수 없는 요소다. 건강 발효식품으로 유명한 고추장, 된장, 간장 등의 장류와 젓갈류는 요리에 맛과 건강을 더해준다. 모던 한식은 한국 고유의 전통 장과 제철재료에 다양한 조리방식과 현대적인 담음새를 결합하여 새로운 전환점을 맞이하고 있다.

Stylized by 101 recipe

Evolving Hansik

The idea that Hansik is constantly evolving and incorporating new and foreign techniques and ingredients is at the core of the Modern Hansik, or Contemporary Hansik Movement. Enthusiasts of Modern Hansik distinguish it from earlier attempts at fusion-cuisine in the 1990s and early 2000s, which they say clumsily fused foreign dishes with Korean ones. Modern Hansik is associated with the fine-dining establishments that sprouted up during the mid-to-late 2000s, opened by young chefs who studied at foreign cooking schools and earned their stripes at top dining establishments abroad.

Korean foodies marvelled at Yim Jungsik’s “Korean Nouvelle” menu at his eponymous restaurant Jungsik, opened in 2009. The dishes used local and seasonal ingredients, but also demonstrated foreign cooking techniques and plating styles. Yim’s Jungsik is often named as the first example of molecular gastronomy applied to Hansik dishes. Not content to stay in the Korean dining scene, Yim opened his New York branch in 2011. All doubts were silenced in 2013 when the New York location earned its first Michelin star, gaining another the following year. In 2017, along with fellow Modern Hansik establishments like Kwonsooksoo, Mingles and 24 Seasons, Jungsik won a Michelin star in Seoul as well.

This is a natural evolution, says Lee, of young chefs reinterpreting Korean food through their experiences with foreign cuisines and kitchens abroad. It’s not just plating Korean food in smaller portions into a course meal, argues Lee. An important part is the story-telling and playing with interesting aspects of Korean food as they relate to culture and history. These chefs also try to re-imagine run-of-the-mill dishes into something new and extraordinary. They dig up old forgotten recipes. Lee describes a pheasant dish by Kwon Woo Joong, owner-chef of Michelin-starred Kwonsooksoo. Back in the day, pheasants were very common in Korea. There’s even a proverb, “When you don’t have a pheasant, use chicken.” However, because pheasants are so rare these days, it was a pleasant surprise for Lee to try Kwonsooksoo’s wanjatang, a pheasant meatball soup based on an old traditional dish.

It’s common for these Modern Hansik chefs to reinterpret old Hansik favorites. Yim’s signature dish, “Delicious Gujeolpan,” is one such example. Yim flat-out declares that traditional gujeolpan is not delicious, nor is it even particularly Korean in origin. “It doesn’t really have a good flavor profile. People only enjoy it smothered in mustard sauce,” says Yim. “However, it does look great visually and it’s fun to eat, so we decided to create a version that’s actually delicious.”

From Korean food to slow food

As Korean fine-dining establishments win international acclaim and Michelin stars, everyday dishes like kimchi, bulgogi and bibimbap are becoming mainstream abroad. Some see a link with the rising popularity of Korean pop music. Lee Wook Jung, award-winning documentary producer of “Food Odyssey,” agrees that the popularity of Korean pop music and TV shows in East Asia and elsewhere made a significant contribution to global awareness of Brand Korea. “Imagine the world as a giant supermarket,” he says. “Go to the bread aisle, and you’ll see many brands from all over the world. However, some brands get the main shelf, and people will buy more from these showcased brands.” Lee says that there’s a hierarchy in global cuisines that’s not always based on the quality of the food produced. Good or bad, Korean cuisine is influenced by Brand Korea, or how Korea is perceived by the global marketplace. Currently, that perception is influenced by the popularity of pop music, claims Lee. He sees greater global awareness of Korea through pop culture and, correspondingly, Korean food is more associated with casual dining than with fine dining.

Served in the old royal court, gujeolpan is striking for its presentation alone, in which ingredients of all types and colors are placed together in a single tray. The dish signifies harmony – the diner eats the vegetables, meat, mushrooms and other ingredients placed in the tray’s eight sections after wrapping them together with wheat pancakes, which are placed in the middle of the tray. Recently, chefs are experimenting with using seasonal raw fish and fried seaweed.

구절판은 각양각색의 재료를 하나의 그릇에 담아내는 것만으로도 눈을 즐겁게 하는 전통 궁중음식이다. 둘레의 여덟 칸에 담긴 채소, 고기, 버섯 등을 가운데 칸에 담긴 밀전병에 싸서 먹는 구절판에는 ‘화합’의 의미가 담겨 있다. 최근에는 제철 회, 김부각 등을 활용하는 새로운 시도가 이루어지고 있다.

Prepared by chef Kim Jeongho of Jungsik

Korean cuisine differs from that of the West in that several dishes are placed together on a single table. Traditionally, meals featured a bowl of rice usually accompanied by five, seven or nine side dishes. For ages, Koreans have sought nutritional balance and harmonized diverse flavors by serving their staple dish, rice, with several side dishes.

한식은 서양 음식과 달리 한 상에 여러 가지 요리를 차려낸다. 밥과 반찬을 함께 상에 올리는 것을 ‘반상차림’이라고 하는데, 반찬의 가짓수에 따라 5첩, 7첩, 9첩 등으로 불린다. 예부터 조상들은 주식인 밥에 여러 반찬을 부식으로 올려 영양의 균형을 이루고 다채로운 맛의 조화를 이끌어 냈다.

Prepared by Kwonsooksoo

As a result, Lee says there’s a trickier game of balancing casual dining with fine dining in the global marketing of Korean food. Perhaps mindful of problematic Korean food campaigns, Hansik evangelists have latched onto a new mantra, that Korea’s fermented food is the distinguishing ingredient and technique found in Hansik.

The campaign has enlisted both local and foreign star chefs for its cause. Kang Min-goo, owner-chef of Michelin-starred Mingles, has avidly spoken out in favor of fermented food on social media and in interviews. Kang repeatedly argues that no other country uses so many ingredients, especially vegetables, in its fermented food to create side dishes, or banchan. Eric Ripert, three-Michelin star chef of Le Bernardin in New York, is a Buddhist and also a vocal fan of religious cuisine, which he has described as the “parent of the slow food movement in the Western world” in a Bon Appétit interview. Last October, the New York Times featured monk Jeong Kwan of Baegyangsa Temple as a “Philosopher Chef” who makes some of “the most exquisite food around.” She was also featured in a recent Chef’s Table documentary that presented Korean religious food as “meditation.”

Sustaining Hansik’s global appeal

The global marketing of Hansik into a two-track strategy of both casual and fine-dining may be helped along by the new Michelin Seoul guide, launched in late 2016. The guide gave out stars to 24 restaurants, a remarkable number, including three stars to La Yeon and Gaon, both Hansik restaurants. Another 36 casual restaurants were recognized as “excellent value for money” in the Bib Gourmand category. Kim Sung-Yoon, food writer and senior staff at the newspaper Chosun Ilbo, says that dining guides like Michelin or the local Koreat guide provide a valuable reference for diners new to the Seoul dining scene. The venerable Michelin guide is over a century old, and while it may not be error-free, it retains a legacy of trust among global foodies, Kim suggests. Any new visitor to Seoul can feel confident that at least this is a Michelin-approved establishment worthy of a try.

Lee Wook Jung believes that the popularity of Modern Hansik and fine dining may depend on a change in the attitudes of Koreans themselves. Lee claims that for most Koreans, food is for survival. This helps to explain why people are so obsessed about the nutritional profiles of certain dishes and ingredients. Lee states that many people have yet to view food and dining as a part of play or leisure. As a result, there’s a lack of public awareness about the importance of food design, plating and service. Modern Hansik and fine dining will continue to develop when there’s a willing and well-educated dining public, says Lee.

The young chefs of Modern Hansik are not resting on their Michelin-approved laurels, either. For Yim, Hansik’s appeal will only be sustained by continued efforts to bring new Korean dishes to the global market. He says fine dining is just a trend and he doubts whether “it actually influences Hansik as a whole.” For him, there’s something more “primal” about the popularity of Korean barbecue he experienced in New York. Yim wants to introduce gukbap abroad and make it a signature Korean dish, as popular as barbecue in the Western imagination. He’s planning to open his first gukbap or gomtang franchise at Incheon Airport in the fall.

Korean cuisine was originally served on low individual tables. When Koreans adopted indoor kitchens and Western tables and chairs, the low table disappeared. As we see here, with a low table placed on a Western table, Modern Hansik not only adds new interpretations to time-honored dishes, but also reveals long-lost culinary traditions.

본디 한식은 개개인마다 작은 상(소반)에 따로 음식을 차려 내는 ‘각상차림’이었다. 그러나 부엌이 집 안으로 들어오고 서양식 입식문화를 받아들이면서 소반이 사라지게 되었다. 소반을 테이블 위에 올린 한상차림에서 보듯, 모던 한식은 새로운 해석을 더할 뿐 아니라 잊혀진 한국 고유의 식문화를 보여 주기도 한다.

Prepared by Kwonsooksoo

Hansik’s Global Popularity

Bibigo’s Soho Branch Keeps its Michelin London Mention for Four Years Running

Bibigo London kept its mention in the 2017 Michelin London guide. The guide describes the casual Hansik chain as follows: “The enthusiastically run Bibigo represents Korea’s largest food company’s first foray into the U.K. market. Watch the kitchen send out dishes such as kimchi, bossam (simmered pork belly) and hot stone galbi (chargrilled short ribs).” The guide sums up Bibigo with these key phrases: “fresh ingredients, capably prepared, and simply a good meal.”

Bibigo is part of CJ Foodville’s four-pronged global strategy, along with Tous Les Jours, a bakery franchise; VIPS, a steakhouse franchise; and A Twosome Place, a dessert café. CJ opened Bibigo Soho in 2012 and it received its first Michelin mention only a year later. Bibigo’s success may be in part due to its localization strategy. Its blood sausage, or soondae, was renamed as Black Pudding, making it easier for British customers to understand it. The restaurant also offers a wine pairing list alongside a cocktail menu with Korean liquor, or soju. Bibigo Soho represents the careful balancing act between maintaining the authenticity of Korean food along with localization efforts to make Hansik more understandable and appealing to non-Koreans.

Hansik Cookbooks

Korean cookbooks in English are becoming more and more available. There’s even a visual cookbook, “Cook Korean!” published last year by Robin Ha, a graphic illustrator who spent most of her career drawing Marvel superheroes. It’s become an instant hit for its charming, brightly colored illustrations that demystify the cooking process. She also provides some cultural context and histories of the dishes and recipes, which make it easier for first-timers.

The classic English-language Hansik cookbook, “A Korean Mother’s Cooking Notes” by Chang Sun-Young, was first published in 1997. While Chang’s book was a rarity back then, 20 years later, there’s a long list of Korean recipe books, often written by Korean-Americans. Popular cooks like Judy Joo, Maangchi and Hong Deuki have added to the list recently.

Maangchi, YouTube Star

“I had no idea if anyone would watch me, but the Korean recipes I saw in English were full of mistakes, and I wanted to show the real way we do things.” That’s what Maangchi told the New York Times in a 2015 feature in which she was praised as YouTube’s Korean Julia Child. The title indicates how Emily Kim epitomizes the global popularity of Korean food. The interview also provides a less-known factoid about the Maangchi moniker. Meaning “hammer” in Korean, Maangchi was the name of Kim’s avatar in an online game she was addicted to. Upon the advice of her children, Kim turned her attention from online role-playing games to making online cooking videos.

With more than 1.6 million subscribers, Maangchi’s YouTube channel has generated nearly 200 million views, more than the number of people who tuned into established food celebs like Martha Stewart or Ina Garten. In addition to the YouTube channel, Maangchi uses various social media to get her message across. It’s similar to how Julia Child used the new medium of TV in the 1960s to share her love of French food with U.S. audiences. In 2015, Maangchi published her own cook book, “Maangchi’s Real Korean Cooking,” in which she doesn’t try to Americanize Korean food. She says that otherwise she’ll hear it from the Koreans.

Hansik on the Small Screen

Korean food is these days often mentioned in movies, books and on the small screen. Food shows and documentaries often feature Korean food, both in and out of the country. Celeb chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain is a big fan of Korean food, in Korea and in Koreatowns across the U.S. Bourdain famously cooked budaejjigae for Anderson Cooper live on CNN. He featured Korean food on his food and travel TV show “No Reservations” in 2006, and in 2015, he took his “Parts Unknown” team back to Korea for an epic bar crawl scene.

It isn’t all about soju cocktails and barbecues, however. On the flip-side, religious cuisine has been recently featured in documentaries like Netflix’s “Chef’s Table.” The series’ episode on Jeong Kwan, often described as “The Philosopher Chef,” is breathtakingly beautiful and provides a serene and meditative counterpoint to the bustling, urban image of Korean food.

Travel | » | Written and photographed by Robert Koehler

Rolling Hills of Green

Gochang enchants with pastoral beauty and charm

Borinara Hagwon Farm, with its beautiful barley fields, is a popular destination in spring.

Gochangeupseong Fortress surrounds beautiful forests and some restored Joseon-era buildings.

The sun bathes Borinara Hagwon Farm’s rolling hills in warm, late afternoon light, saturating the yellows and greens of sprawling acres of barley, buckwheat and canola. In the fields, visitors stroll about in twos and threes, occasionally stopping to pose for photos against the canvas of golden flowers and verdant grasses. Blue hills rise up in the distance, providing a backdrop that completes this picture of bucolic beauty and tranquility.

And if there’s something Gochang has in spades, it’s bucolic beauty and tranquility.

Located in the southwestern province of Jeollabuk-do, the rural county of Gochang is as far removed, as it were, from Seoul’s hustle and bustle as you can get. Things move slowly in this Arcadian community, where the sun and the seasons, not traffic times and WiFi access, still determine the patterns of life. If you’re looking for a place to relax and heal amid rustic warmth and charm, this is the place, especially in spring, when the barley, azaleas and other blossoms add a generous dash of color to the pastoral landscape.

Gochangeupseong Fortress has one of Korea’s best preserved defensive walls.

Walking the walls

Gochang’s scenic splendor starts just a short walk from the town’s intercity bus terminal. Snaking its way around a low hill that overlooks downtown Gochang, such as it is, is Gochangeupseong Fortress, one of the best preserved Joseon-era fortresses in the country. Provincial residents erected the fortress in the 15th century to protect the region from marauding pirates.

The fortress hosts the Gochang Moyang Fortress Festival every autumn. The highlight of this festival, held since 1973, is the dapseongnori, when locals walk the walls three times carrying a stone on their heads. The tradition, which dates back centuries, is said to cure illnesses, grant long life and open the way to heaven. More pragmatically, the practice also strengthened the defensive walls.

Gochang’s dolmens are listed with UNESCO.

City of the dead

Of great historical significance is Gochang’s large number of dolmens, megalithic stone tombs called goindol in Korean. The Gochang Dolmen Site is home to 447 dolmens, 442 in the village of Jungnim-ri and five in the village of Dosan-ri. The tombs are in many shapes and sizes, with stones ranging from 10 tons to a 300-ton monster, the largest dolmen in East Asia. The Gochang cluster has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, along with dolmen clusters in the towns of Hwasun and Ganghwa.

In Korea, locals erected dolmens between the seventh and third centuries B.C. The tombs are classified into several categories, most notably the so-called “table” type, in which four stones form the walls of a box covered by a large capstone, and the “go-table” type, an underground burial site with stones that support a capstone. At the Gochang site, you can find examples of table and go-table types, as well as examples of other styles.

Visitors stroll amid the canola flowers at Borinara Hagwon Farm.

Barley and buckwheat

Gochang’s most picturesque site is, without a doubt, Borinara Hagwon Farm. Founded in the 1960s by local politician and eventual prime minister Chin Iee-chong, Borinara Hagwon Farm is the country’s largest barley farm, with over 550,000 square meters of fields. In addition to barley, which is harvested in spring, the fields also produce buckwheat and sunflowers in late summer and autumn. It boasts extensive fields of bright yellow canola flowers in spring, too.

The Borinara Hagwon Farm has received numerous honors for its contributions to agriculture and local tourism. The farm hosts the Gochang Green Barley Field Festival in late April and early May, when the vast, rolling hills of green present an exotically enchanting landscape. The farm also hosts a buckwheat festival in autumn, when the buckwheat blossoms turn the fields white.

The camellia forest of Seonunsa Temple is several centuries old.

Seonunsa Temple produces very good raspberries.

Floral temple

A popular day-trip destination for residents of the nearby city of Gwangju, Seonunsa Temple is a large Buddhist monastery at the foot of Mt. Dosolsan, the centerpiece of Seonunsan Provincial Park. Founded in the sixth century, the complex houses several prized pieces of architecture and Buddhist art, including a gilt bronze Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and a wooden main hall from the early 17th century.

While Seonunsa itself is quite beautiful, its real draw is its flowers. The sanctuary’s pride and joy is its extensive camellia forest, located on the hill behind the main hall. These beautiful flowers, which bloom red and gold, reach their peak in April. Some of the temple’s camellia trees are over 500 years old.

In autumn, the temple boasts beautiful fields of scarlet spider lilies. Gochang is also nationally renowned for its raspberries, or bokbunja. The berries are used to make a variety of foodstuffs, the most famous of which is sweet raspberry wine, or bokbunjaju.

Joyanggwan has been serving fine Korean cuisine for three generations.

Where to eat

Like the rest of southwest Korea, Gochang has an excellent local cuisine. Grilled eel is a local specialty. One of the city’s finest restaurants is Joyanggwan (T. 063-564-2026), near Gochangeupseong Fortress. Housed in a historic colonial-era building, the place has been serving masterfully prepared and beautifully plated Korean cuisine for three generations.

Where to stay

While downtown Gochang has several cheap hotels and motels, the place to stay is the Hanok Village near Gochangeupseong Fortress (T. 063-563-9977). Be sure to reserve a place in advance, though, as there are only 11 rooms available.

Getting there

Buses to Gochang depart from Seoul’s Central City Bus Terminal (travel time: 3 hours, 10 minutes).

People | » | Written by Timothy Holm Photographed by 15 Studio

Pipe Dreams

Korea’s only master organ builder, Hong Sung Hoon, makes a traditionally European craft his own

You may ask yourself what is an orgelbaumeister? That is usually the first question that comes to mind when you’re introduced to Hong Sung Hoon, who is more formally known as “Hong Meister.” Orgelbaumeister is a German term meaning “master builder of pipe organs.” Master Hong is just that — a builder of pipe organs. These unique and complex musical instruments do not have a long history in Korea or Asia. Rather, they are more commonly found in Europe and North America.

The story goes that pipe organs actually originated in Ancient Greece, although at that time, water pressure was used instead of air pressure, as it is now. These wind-powered instruments gradually became more complex and spread to Western Europe sometime around the 12th century. It was not until the Renaissance and Baroque periods that the pipe organ became most widespread and developed. Most often associated with churches and cathedrals, pipe organs can be found in a variety of settings, from music halls to schools. They can have as few pipes as two dozen or as many as over twenty thousand. They may have up to seven keyboards depending on the size of the organ. The range of sounds that a pipe organ is able to produce can therefore be quite vast and incomparable to smaller instruments.

Germany is one of the main countries that still produce high-quality pipe organs, and so Master Hong decided to study there to become one of the first orgelbaumeisters in East Asia. The great mystery is what led Master Hong, a man from Korea, to take up such a complicated craft in a country with a much different history and society from his own.

Hong’s history

Master Hong says that long before he became interested in pipe organs, he worked as a traditional Korean mask dancer and as a musical actor, but he wasn’t satisfied that either of these could be his lifelong career. His involvement in music continued, however, and while studying classical guitar in Germany, he happened to hear about the test to become an orgelbaumeister. Intrigued, he decided to attempt it, and after four years of intense study, he felt that he was finally ready to take on the test. “The test encompasses 25 different subjects, from mathematics to philosophy,” he says, all of which are deemed necessary to be a fully accomplished pipe organ master builder. He failed the test once, but he did not give up, and on his second try he was successful, an extremely rare feat for a non-German citizen, never mind one from East Asia.

Unfortunately, “I decided to come back to Korea at exactly the wrong time,” Hong says. He arrived in late 1997. “The chaebol financial crisis was just beginning. This left me out of work for about two years. My wife supported me while I wondered what to do next. I believe it was a miracle that a church in Seoul eventually raised enough money and decided to hire me to build my first organ.” This was the start of his true life’s work, which he has been doing now for almost two decades.

• Technicians tune the inner workings of a pipe organ.

• Installed at Guksu Church in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi-do, the Sansuhwa Organ features a design that mimics Korean traditional landscape paintings.

• A portable pipe organ, this Truhe Orgel is decorated with designs taken from Gyeongju’s famous Emille Bell.

Seventeen pipe organs

Since 1999, Master Hong has produced an astounding 17 pipe organs by commission, or roughly one per year. “Most of them are located in Seoul, with my largest work being housed in a Roman Catholic church in Gwangju,” he says.

We found the master hard at work on his 18th creation, a medium-sized organ at a church in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi-do, not far from his workshop. Blueprints, wooden pipes and power tools were strewn around the room while several carpenters busied themselves with constructing and putting in place various parts of the intricately designed pipe organ in the center.

After welcoming this writer at the church, Master Hong introduced the small Easter egg-shaped chapel beside the main church hall. At first glance from the outside, it looks more like a green UFO than a chapel. However, upon entering the oval space, an atmosphere of serenity prevails under the influence of the wood paneling and high windows. A box in the middle of the floor reveals itself to be a pipe organ, the smallest one that Master Hong has built so far. He turns it on and plays it delicately for a few minutes, the warm sounds enhancing the feeling of being in a sacred place. The acoustics of the uniquely-shaped room are exquisite.

Back in the main hall, we sit down to discuss Master Hong’s pipe dreams, so to speak. In Master Hong’s case, he has managed to turn those dreams into reality. “The reason why I am not called an organ maker, but an organ builder, is because pipe organs combine elements of architecture along with craft and sound techniques.” He refers to it as a complete art, or kunst in German. While a pipe organ may seem to be a completely unnatural object and one of the most complex man-made instruments, Master Hong is eager to emphasize its closeness to nature. “Of course, the most natural aspect of a pipe organ may seem to be its wooden parts, but it also incorporates air or wind in the production of its sounds.”

A truly Korean pipe organ

“Domestic Korean materials accounted for only 5-10 percent of my first organ,” Hong says. Since then, he has sought to increase that percentage. The organ he is currently working on incorporates about 70 percent Korean materials, though he averages 40 percent for most of his pipe organs. “The reason why is because it is very difficult to source certain organ parts in Korea at the moment, due to the lack of experience and history in making orgels here.” Therefore, he is still compelled to look overseas to find parts he needs to finish his works. His hope, however, is “to make a completely Korean orgel using 100 percent local components” sometime in the not-too-distant future. This will require Korean manufacturers to step up and start producing the parts that Master Hong usually sources from Europe.

Master Hong is not satisfied with only the constituent parts of his organs being more local. He also wants to find ways to produce a more “aesthetically Korean” organ. “One of the ways to do this is through the design of the organ itself,” Master Hong explains. “Each country has its own distinct type of pipe organ. For example, an organ that you find in France may be quite distinct from one in Germany.” This is how a nation’s own unique traditions can express themselves, by adding different architectural touches to strengthen or soften certain elements of the organ, or through emphasizing different aspects of sound production. “Koreans are quite familiar with the sound of the bamboo flute, or daegum, and the bamboo double reed instrument called a piri, and a pipe organ is essentially a community of flutes,” he says. Therefore, he hopes to educate people more about the appeal and value of the organ. Master Hong is also interested in painting some of his organs to reflect a traditional Korean color palette and in having traditional Korean music be played on his instruments. “All of these things may contribute to an organ that would be more acceptable or comfortable for Korean people,” something that they can embrace with an open heart.

Spreading Korean pipe organs

Reaching even further, Master Hong’s works will not remain only within the boundaries of Korea. “I recently received a commission from a Korean missionary in Ukraine for an organ to be placed in a church there that was damaged in war.” This is Master Hong’s first work to be shipped overseas. He is proud of the fact that his pipe organs will now be seen in Europe. It is an impressive achievement, considering that an organ made in East Asia has never before been requested from a European country.

In order to keep the tradition of organ-making alive in Korea, Master Hong plans to find one or more students who can carry on his work after he retires, though he is still only in his 50s right now and has projects lined up for the next several years. “I have already had almost 20 people who were interested in this work, but after a year or less, they lost interest because of the extreme difficulty of the job.” It would be a great shame indeed if Master Hong were the last orgelbaumeister in Korea as well as the first. Yet, Master Hong remains optimistic that someone will eventually stick with it for good and he will be able to pass on the invaluable knowledge and skills he has attained over the years.

• Twelve butterflies, a traditional Korean motif, adorn the Blue Organ in Sangam-dong’s DMC Center.

Korea & I | » | Written by Robert J. Fouser, former associate professor, Department of Korean Language Education, Seoul National University Illustrated by Kim Min Ho

Hwaseong Fortress

How Suwon’s historical city walls became a professor’s favorite walk

When I meet people for the first time, they often ask me what I’ve seen in Korea and which places have left the deepest impression. I always start my answer with the Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon because I’ve visited regularly over the past 30 years. Built from 1794 to 1796, the fortress is one of Korea’s most famous UNESCO World Heritage sites.

My first visit was in the mid-1980s when I was teaching English in Seoul. One weekend, a few friends and I decided on a whim to take the subway to Suwon and see the Hwaseong Fortress. They knew a little about it from history textbooks, and I had read the short description in the Lonely Planet guidebook that I relied on at the time.

The road around the Paldalmun Gate in the commercial center of Suwon was much narrower than the roads around the gates in Seoul, so it was much easier to see the details. From the gate, we walked toward the Seonamgangnu Pavilion and along the western section of the fortress. After about an hour of walking, we decided to get something to eat, so we walked back and went to the lively market near Paldalmun Gate and had chicken and beer.

I couldn’t visit Hwaseong Fortress again until the mid-1990s. I was teaching English at a university in Kyoto at the time and when I told Japanese people that I had lived in Korea, they often asked me about the fortress. In the late 1990s, there was a boom in publication of books about UNESCO World Heritage sites around the world. Japanese guidebooks of Korea began to feature the fortress prominently, and it became a popular destination.

Walking Hwaseong the proper way

To “do” Hwaseong Fortress properly, I asked a friend who holds a doctorate in Korean literature to join me for a day-long walk on a spring day. We drove down from Seoul and began the walk at Paldalmun Gate. The walk felt familiar, but I immediately noticed apartment complexes outside the fortress. Meanwhile, the area inside the fortress still had low buildings and looked much like it did in the 1980s.

As we walked, my friend talked about the history of the fortress, particularly Jeong Yak-yong (1762-1836), the architect and one of the most famous philosophers in Korean history. He was interested in science and incorporated innovative construction techniques such as pulleys and cranes into the design.

About halfway along the fortress wall, we came to the spectacular Seobuk Gongsimdon, or North-West Observation Tower, next to the Hwaseomun Gate. This is one of the most picturesque parts of the fortress and we sat to take a rest while enjoying the spring greenery below. After resting, we continued along the fortress a bit before coming to Janganmun Gate, the largest gate in Korea. A short walk leads to the stunning Hwahongmun Gate, or South Flood Gate, which serves as a bridge over the Suwoncheon Stream that cuts through the fortress. Like other structures in the fortress, the gate is lit up at night and is beautiful when viewed from the south.

More than stone

In 2008, I moved back to Korea to teach Korean language education at Seoul National University. After settling in, one of the first places I visited was Hwaseong Fortress. This time, I went alone so that I could focus on taking pictures. By the late 2000s, most of the remaining parts of the fortress had been restored and work had begun on reviving the older neighborhoods inside the fortress. The Suwon Hwaseong Museum opened in early 2009, and I stopped there before beginning my walk to get a better understanding of the area.

Around 2011, I began to visit Hwaseong Fortress more frequently. My mother passed away in late 2010 and getting out and exploring helped me deal with the loss. One Saturday in 2012, an artist friend from Suwon invited me to walk the fortress with him. This time, instead of talking about Korean history, we talked about his childhood in Suwon, and he shared memories of playing with his friends on the fortress and fishing in the Suwoncheon Stream. It was late autumn and winter was in the air, but the trees were colorful and the sun was warm. On the train back to Seoul, I thought about how Hwaseong Fortress had become more than a famous historic site to me. It had become my all-time favorite place in Korea to share long walks with good friends.

Arts & Entertainment 1 | » | Written by Hahna Yoon

The Sound of Music

Music festivals celebrate spring

The World DJ Festival gives Seoul’s fans of electronic dance music something to celebrate.

Every spring, Korea is alive with the sound of music. Music festivals of a dozen different genres begin in May, and if you manage to snag a pre-sales ticket, you might be able to save some beer money. Although the Seoul Jazz Festival and the World DJ Festival are two of the most popular festivals, you may find one of the more niche festivals to your liking. To watch performances from local indie and singer-songwriter acts, you can check out Beautiful Mint Life happening at Olympic Park on May 13–14. For the environmentally conscious, there is Greenplugged Seoul, held at Nanji Hangang Park on May 20–21. Camping enthusiasts might want to try the Jarasum Spring Sound Fair, held May 26–28.

Greenplugged Seoul is part music festival, part environmental campaign.

The Seoul Jazz Festival features performances by both jazz legends and up-and-coming stars.

Seoul Jazz Festival

One of the most-loved music festivals in Seoul, the Seoul Jazz Festival (SJF) is an annual two-day affair that dates back to 2007. With Seoul’s jazz scene still expanding, it may be your once-a-year chance to catch internationally acclaimed jazz. With performances that range from traditional jazz to cool jazz, crossover and pop, the SJF affords you the opportunity to listen to jazz legends as well as sneak a peek at up-and-coming pop artists. For instance, the 2017 lineup features Grammy-award winning Dianne Reeves, best known for her scat singing; the Pat Martino Trio, headed by jazz guitarist Pat Martino; and the Stanley Clarke Band, often praised for its innovative jazz improvisation. Then there are artists that you might not associate with jazz at all, like the legendary hip-hop group Epik High and indie-rock band Nell, as well as R&B and hip-hop solo artists Crush and Zion.T. Make sure to catch some fresh new faces such as 2nd Moon, Echae Kang, Ji and the Lucid Fall Quintet, too, to stay current on today’s scene. Taking place at Olympic Park, the SJF famously combines jazz with springtime picnicking.

Compared to other music festivals in Korea, there’s a greater diversity among concert-goers both in age and type, making it a more comfortable space to bring your parents for a family outing. Unlike rock or electronic dance music festivals, which blast out the bass and get you moving, there’s less jumping and fist pumping and more checkered blankets paired with craft beer or white wine. So go ahead and bring those cheese and crackers, but don’t forget that food and drinks are only permissible if they’re in recyclable containers.

Seoul Jazz Festival

Sat, May 27–Sun, May 28
www.seouljazz.co.kr

World DJ Festival

Sat, May 13–Sun, May 14
www.wdjfest.com

World DJ Festival

One of the best-known electronic music festivals, the World DJ Festival is back in Seoul for the first time in seven years. Previously held in towns like Chuncheon and Yangpyeong, the party has now moved to a more convenient location — Seoul Sports Complex’s Olympic Stadium, only 20 minutes away from the bubbling Gangnam nightlife scene. World DJ Festival loyalists claim that unlike other electronic music festivals that focus on dancing and partying, the World DJ Festival genuinely focuses on the music. The two-day lineup only strengthens that argument as it includes musically talented acts such as AC Slater, Alan Walker, Audiotricz, Bass Modulators, Excision, Party Favor and Villain. Canadian music trio Zeds Dead, which focuses on dubstep and house; Dutch DJ Brennan Heart, known for his hardstyle music; and Swedish DJ Mike Perry, recognized for his hit “The Ocean,” are just a few of the names to which audiences are especially looking forward. Although food or drinks are not allowed into the festival, concert-goers may purchase alcohol inside. You need to be 19 or over to attend, and you must show identification in order to enter the venue.

Arts & Entertainment 2 | » | Written by Diana Park

The Heyday of the Singer-Actor

Pop singers find new spotlight in TV, films, musicals

Miss A’s Suzy became “the nation’s first love” with the 2012 film “Architecture 101.”

K-pop stars flood Seoul’s TV screens, subway station billboards and bus stops. Not just musicians anymore, these singers are creating a new category of entertainer in Korea through their acting skills and appearances in TV shows, films and musicals. The merging of pop stars and actors has even spawned a new term, yeongidol, combining the Korean word for acting, yeongi, and the English word “idol.”

Pop groups are performing not only on stage, but on TV and movie screens, too. Along with celebrity and charm, these stars boast proven acting skills. With more and more pop stars taking to both singing and acting, you’d be hard pressed to find an entertainment field — including TV, film or musicals — where yeongidol cannot be found. This phenomenon, which reveals the versatility of the pop stars, has been effective in boosting these yeongidol’s fan bases not just locally but around the world, too.

Girl’s Day’s Hyeri played the role of Deokseon in the hit series “Reply 1988.”

TV Shows

In 2010, Park Hyung-sik debuted as the main vocalist in the pop group ZE:A. His public image drew attention because of his appearance on the variety show “Real Men.” His acting career also took off around that time with small roles in various soap operas, gaining momentum when he appeared in the hit 2013 series “Heirs” as the goofy, rich friend of the leading man. Later, he landed secondary roles in the series “High Society,” “What Happens to my Family?” and last year’s period drama “Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth.” His steady and memorable performances landed him his first leading role in the recently aired “Strong Woman Do Bong-soon.”

An alumni of the female version of the variety show “Real Men,” Hyeri is a leading female yeongidol. A member of the pop group Girl’s Day, she debuted on the show in 2014, winning adoration for her childish gestures and personality. In 2016, she received praise for her performance in the hit cable series “Reply 1988” and continued her acting journey with the series “Entertainer.” Her on-screen success has made her a much sought-after brand promoter and model, so much so that the media has labeled her the “KRW 10 Billion Woman.”

Park Hyung-sik of the boy group ZE:A had a leading role in the series “Strong Woman Do Bong-soon.”

Film

The original “KRW 10 Billion Woman,” however, is miss A’s Suzy. She debuted in the pop group in 2010. In 2012, she rose to cinematic stardom with her big-screen debut in “Architecture 101,” earning the title “the nation’s first love.” In 2015, she landed the leading role in “The Sound of a Flower,” playing Korea’s first female pansori singer, credited under her real name Bae Su-ji.

Im Si-wan, who is also a member of pop group ZE:A, is now better known as an actor. Before his leading role in the hit 2014 series “Misaeng,” he showed off his acting chops in the 2013 film “The Attorney.” He continues his acting career this year in the films “One-Line” and “The Merciless.”

Im Si-wan of the boy group ZE:A proved his acting chops in the 2013 film “The Attorney.”

More and more idols are taking to both singing and acting.

Girls’ Generation’s Seohyun was Scarlett O’Hara in the musical adaptation of “Gone With the Wind.”

Musicals

Kim Jun-su, often known simply as Junsu, was part of the pop group TVXQ, which debuted in 2004. After the group disbanded, he debuted as JYJ with former members of TVXQ, and made his first appearance on the musical stage in 2010. He followed his role in “Mozart!” with performances in “Elizabeth,” “Dorian Gray” and “Death Note.” His star power helped turn the shows into commercial successes. In January, he appeared in his final performances of “Death Note” before he began serving his two-year military service. The performances were all sell-outs. He was widely praised for his enigmatic energy, powerful vocals and detailed acting.

Younger singers are following his footsteps in the musical arena. Seohyun, the youngest member of pop group Girls’ Generation, debuted in the musical “Moon Embracing the Sun” in 2014. She continued to show mature acting skills in “Gone With the Wind” and “Mamma Mia!” She has steadily strengthened her image in musicals and is one of the newer notable faces on the musical stage.

Pop stars, both current and former, have only just begun to make a name for themselves in other entertainment fields. In the years ahead, we’ll no doubt see more singers make the jump to screen or stage. For these talented young artists, the future seems very bright, indeed.

JYJ member Junsu performs in the musical “Dorian Gray.”

Korean Culture in Brief | » |

Palaces Host Performances of Traditional Music

Seoul’s royal palaces are hosting performances of traditional music for the benefit of local and international tourists. Visitors to Gyeongbokgung and Changgyeonggung palaces can enjoy the sounds of Korean instruments and Korean melodies throughout the spring, summer and autumn. Gyeongbokgung Palace’s weekly concerts kicked off on March 20 with a yearly schedule that will include both purely traditional and fusion groups. Gyeongbokgung is hosting special night concerts, too, during select periods. Changgyeonggung Palace, meanwhile, is hosting special night concerts in April, May, June and July. These concerts will feature performances of both Korean traditional chamber music and Western classical music.

Picture Book Honored at Bologna Children’s Book Fair

Jo Won-hee’s picture book “Teeth Hunters” earned an honorable mention in the fiction category of the 2017 BolognaRagazzi Awards, the world’s most prestigious award for children’s literature and publishing. The award was presented at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in April. Depicting a child being hunted by various animals, Jo’s nearly wordless book encourages young minds to ponder humanity’s cruelty to animals. About the book, the jury said, “The effect of this book is profound. The message conveyed by the strong images — that we should treat other humans and animals as we would like to be treated ourselves — succeeds in not being clichéd.”

Busan Becomes Backdrop in Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’

Marvel Studio’s upcoming film “Black Panther” shot several important scenes in the port city of Busan. Crews filmed in the Gwangandaegyo Bridge area, Gwangalli Beach, Marine City, Jagalchi Fish Market and Sajik-dong for two weeks in March and April. In particular, the city served as a backdrop to a massive car chase that involved 150 cars and more than 700 people. Scheduled to open in February 2018, “Black Panther” marks a new chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studio’s successful media franchise that also includes films like “Iron Man,” “The Avengers” and “Thor.”

Korean Cinema Chain Opens in Norway and France

4DPLEX, a subsidiary of the Korea’s largest theater chain, CJ CGV, has opened its first 4DX theaters in Norway and France. In March, the company opened two theaters in Oslo and Paris in partnership with Norway’s Nordisk Film Kino and France’s Pathé. So-called 4DX technology allows theaters to augment the motion picture experience with environmental effects, such as moving seats and scented mist. 4DPLEX currently operates 362 4DX theaters in 47 countries, including the United States and China.

Overpass Reborn as Urban Park

For over 40 years, the Seoul Station Overpass was a major thoroughfare that connected Seoul’s Jung-gu and Mapo-gu districts. In May, however, the road will reopen to the public as a pedestrian-only elevated garden, Seoul’s answer to New York’s famed High Line. Authorities have named the new green space Seoullo 7017, taken from the years of the overpass’s construction, 1970, and its rebirth as a park, 2017. Winy Maas, one of the founders of globally renowned Dutch architecture house MVRDV, designed the linear park, where visitors can stroll among the 24,000 trees and plants that have been planted. Local authorities hope the new overpass will help rejuvenate neighborhood economies and create a “walking community” in Seoul.

Literature | » | Written by Barry Welsh Photographed by Robert Koehler Illustrated by Kim Yoon-myung

Even Mothers Need Mothers

Shin Kyung-Sook’s ‘Please Look After Mom’ brings international attention to one of Korea’s most talented writers

Shin Kyung-Sook is perhaps one of Korea’s most beloved writers. She is certainly one of the most widely read. For more than three decades her books have sold millions of copies, and she has received numerous literary awards and accolades from the Korean literary establishment. Following the English translation of her novel “Please Look After Mom” in 2011, her work gained widespread international recognition, and Shin is now seen by many as a standard-bearer for Korean literature.

In 2012, as Psy’s brash and ironic pop song “Gangnam Style” became the most watched video in YouTube history, Shin Kyung-Sook was busy raising the international profile of Korean literature. During 2012, “Please Look After Mom” was selected as a book of the month by Oprah Winfrey’s influential book club and by Amazon. It also became the first Korean novel on the New York Times Bestseller List, sold out its first English print of 100,000 copies and won the Man Asian Literary Prize. Shin beat out Banana Yoshimoto and Haruki Murakami to win the prize — and became the first Korean and first woman to win the region’s most prestigious literary accolade. The novel would go on to be translated into more than two dozen languages. While Psy’s horse-dancing sensation and Shin’s introspective novel about a lost mother may seem unlikely bedfellows, both highlighted issues in Korean society and introduced its culture to the world. Psy used ribald satire to critique aspirational consumerism whereas Shin used memory and time to reveal flaws hidden by the shiny surface of modernity.

Searching for mom

Before “Please Look After Mom” was translated, it was a massive success at home where it sold more than two million copies after its original publication in 2009. The novel tells the story of a family’s search for their elderly mother who goes missing at Seoul Station, one of the country’s biggest and busiest transport hubs. It’s an ingeniously structured novel with four chapters, each from the perspective of a different family member — daughter, son, husband, and then, most poignantly of all, from the missing mother herself. The first three chapters are devastating as each family member reacts to the disappearance and frantically searches the city. Their neglected memories of their mother haunt them while their failure to appreciate her, despite her profound influence, dawns on them.

Shin says that “Please Look After Mom” was born out of the recognition that even mothers need a mother. As the family searches for their missing mother, they learn that she wasn’t born a mother, but rather had become one, and like everyone else, the first word she’d learned was “mama.” In the final chapter, Shin reveals the proud inner life of Park So-nyo, a woman born poor, raised illiterate and married off at 16-years-old to an uncaring husband. Shin touchingly voices her dreams, memories, secret loves and personal tragedies through literary restoration that resurrects a neglected woman. “Please Look After Mom” is an ode, an elegy and a tribute to motherhood. It is also arguably the best representation of themes she has been writing about for decades.

One of a generation’s most talented writers

Shin started her career in 1985 at the age of 22 with her debut novella “Winter’s Fable.” Although warmly received, the publication of “The Place Where the Harmonium Was,” the title story in a 1993 collection, made her famous and captured the imagination of the reading public.

“The Place Where the Harmonium Was” is written from the point of view of a woman having an affair with a married man. During a plot to run away together, the protagonist’s childhood memories of when her father’s lover pushed her mother away from home disturb her. The story is structured mostly as a letter the narrator writes to her lover explaining her decision to end the relationship. Her memories show her inhabiting the role of the other woman and realizing that her actions can only lead to sadness.

The style and themes of this early story would recur throughout Shin’s later novels, not least of all in “Please Look After Mom”: a concern with moral issues and family structure, the sense of belonging or not belonging, wives betrayed by husbands, daughters struggling to live up to parental desires, and the role of memory, regret and loss in shaping the present. The meticulous poetry and detailed lyricism of “The Place Where the Harmonium Was” garnered a great critical acclaim and solidified her reputation as one of the most talented writers of her generation.

Shin’s generation is often called the “386 Generation,” and is regarded as having a powerful influence on modern Korea. That generation was in their 30s during the 1990s, politically active during the pro-democracy movement in the 1980s, and born in the 1960s.

Shin’s next novel to be translated into English, “I’ll Be Right There,” takes place during the 1980s pro-democracy movement. The narrative begins when Jung Yoon receives a phone call that her university professor is dying. This tragic news causes her to reflect on days when student protesters clashed with the police and the smell of tear gas filled streets of downtowns across the nation. Against a backdrop of political protests and suspicious disappearances, Jung Yoon and her friends struggle to maintain their idyllic shared life as forces from outside and within threaten to tear them apart.

Shin writes that “if it were not for the sacrifices of people who fought for change, Korea would not be what it is.” Drawing from her student experiences, Shin creates a novel steeped in tragedy and an evocative depiction of young adulthood, friendship and the ties of love.

Her most recent novel to be translated into English was the autobiographical “The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness,” which describes Shin’s own steps as a writer. It tells the story of 16-year-old Shin and her cousin as they move away from their countryside homes to work in Seoul as factory workers. It offers a great insight on the origin of her thematic obsessions.

“The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness” makes clear that personal experience inspires her work — Shin’s own self-sacrificing mother, the role of memory, the deaths of friends. Shin writes with grace, simplicity and honesty to reveal the lives trying to get by. Compassion is what defines her writing. As she says, “I continue to write with the hope that my writing, like the magical touches of my mother, can look after those that have begun to die away, so that they may continue to live.”

It’s been one week since Mom went missing.

The family is gathered at your eldest brother Hyong-chol’s house, bouncing ideas off each other. You decide to make flyers and hand them out where Mom was last seen. The first thing to do, everyone agrees, is to draft a flyer. Of course, a flyer is an old-fashioned response to a crisis like this. But there are few things a missing person’s family can do, and the missing person is none other than your mom. All you can do is file a missing-person report, search the area, ask passersby if they have seen anyone who looks like her. Your younger brother, who owns an online clothing store, says he posted something about your mother’s disappearance, describing where she went missing; he uploaded her picture and asked people to contact the family if they’d seen her. You want to go look for her in places where you think she might be, but you know how she is: she can’t go anywhere by herself in this city. Hyong-chol designates you to write up the flyer, since you write for a living. You blush, as if you were caught doing something you shouldn’t. You aren’t sure how helpful your words will be in finding Mom.

When you write July 24, 1938, as Mom’s birth date, your father corrects you, saying that she was born in 1936. Official records show that she was born in 1938, but apparently she was born in 1936. This is the first time you’ve heard this. Your father says everyone did that, back in the day. Because many children didn’t survive their first three months, people raised them for a few years before making it official. When you’re about to rewrite “38” as “36,” Hyong-chol says you have to write 1938, because that’s the official date. You don’t think you need to be so precise when you’re only making homemade flyers and it isn’t like you’re at a government office.
But you obediently cross out “36” and write “38,” wondering if July 24 is even Mom’s real birthday.

A few years ago, your mom said, “We don’t have to celebrate my birthday separately.” “Father’s birthday is one month before Mom’s. You and your siblings always went to your parents’ house in Chongup for birthdays and other celebrations. All together, there were twenty-two people in the immediate family. Mom liked it when all of her children and grandchildren gathered and bustled about the house...Your mom’s house was like a factory; she prepared sauces and fermented bean paste and hulled rice, producing things for the family year-round. At some point, the children’s trips to Chongup became less frequent, and Mom and Father started to come to Seoul more often. And then you began to celebrate each of their birthdays by going out for dinner. That was easier. Then Mom even suggested, “Let’s celebrate my birthday on your father’s.” She said it would be a burden to celebrate their birthdays separately, since both happen during the hot summer, when there are also two ancestral rites only two days apart. At first the family refused to do that, even when Mom insisted on it, and if she balked at coming to the city, a few of you went home to celebrate with her. Then you all started to give Mom her birthday gift on Father’s birthday. Eventually, quietly, Mom’s actual birthday was bypassed. Mom, who liked to buy socks for everyone in the family, had in her dresser a growing collection of socks that her children didn’t take. (“Please Look After Mom,” Vintage Books, 2012, p.3-6.)

Policy Review | » | Written by Lee Kijun

Agriculture Gets Smart

Smart farms integrate information technology to promote growth

Information and communications technology allows users to control the temperature, humidity and sunlight in a greenhouse by remote control using smartphones.

The Anipork Farm in Yeonggwang, Jeollanam-do, is one of the country’s leading animal husbandry smart farms. There are 15,000 pigs in its pigpen, spanning 18,000 square meters, but only 15 farmers to keep them. Instead of more workers, the farm is equipped with a computerized management system that controls the pigpen’s temperature and humidity. The system also feeds the pigs automatically and keeps track of how much feed is distributed to each pig.

“Smart” farming is the application of information and communication technology to control the environment where plants or animals are raised. Its purpose is to enhance productivity and quality, at lower costs. The government took on developing the smart farm industry in 2014 when it designated agriculture as a “future growth industry.”

Kick-starting a stagnant industry through technology

There are approximately 1.1 million farming households in Korea, but over 60 percent of these are made up of senior citizens. “They use small-scale traditional farming techniques, so they lack the competitiveness required at the international level, and they’re dependent on land and human labor,” said Lee Dongphil, former Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Smart farms are becoming an option for Korea’s farming industry, whose revenue has been stagnant due to decreased population and aging. “We are trying to transition toward technology and capital-intensive agriculture,” said Lee. “That is where smart farming comes in. We are seeking to nurture people who are experts in smart farming. They would need not only the technology but also the ability to run their businesses.”

Success so far

Since then, there have been many successful cases, including Jangan Farm in the town of Chungju. The farm grows leafy vegetables, following the traditional method of using manure from vegetable-fed livestock as fertilizer. Last year, its total revenue was KRW 14 billion. The key function of the farm, however, is its role as a crop distribution center.

“Every morning, 150 or so cooperative farms send over 20 tons of organic vegetables to this distribution center. Once they arrive, they are packaged into smaller bags and delivered nationwide,” said Jangan Farm CEO Ryu Geun-mo in an interview with the Joongang Daily, a national newspaper. “We are one of the few farms in Korea that runs a large-scale distribution center.”

At Jangan Farm, a business-management system automatically manages the distribution of crops. It records information about where the crop was produced and where it will be delivered. Using this information, these vegetables are sent to stores and restaurants nationwide. Delivery orders can be made online and in person. “We have employees working at E-Mart branches. They input orders through smartphones every day after checking the required amount,” Ryu said. This reduces waste.

Performance Analysis for Farms Introducing Smart Farming

Survey on Satisfaction and Intent for Farms Introducing Smart Farming

Source: 2016 Seoul National University Industry-Academic Cooperation Team Survey

Smart Farm Policy in 2017

[picture] |  | Expanding smart farms to 4,000 hectares in greenhouse area and 730 livestock facilities
[picture] |  | Establishing a 20-hectare smart farm complex for export specialization
[picture] |  | Developing and supplying appropriate growth management software for Korean environment
[picture] |  | Improving local support and standardizing equipment

Future growth

In February, the ministry announced plans to boost the smart farm industry. According to its plans, it will expand smart farms from 1,266 ha of greenhouses to 4,000 ha. Some 730 additional barns will also be equipped with smart farm technology. The development plan for smart farm complexes, an area of 20 ha, was announced, too.

To this end, the government will increase direct and indirect financial support for farmers. The plans include the development and supply of growth management software optimized for the local environment, improving local support and standardizing equipment.

Minister Kim Jae-su said that there are new opportunities, such as more people returning to rural areas for farming and changes in trends toward healthy food. Economical consumption and the re-recognition of the value of farming villages suffering under severe conditions such as the expansion of market openings and an aging, polarizing society also provide opportunities, said Kim.

The minister said, “Participants should promote the agri-food industry as an engine for future economic growth by supporting young businesspeople and creating jobs for youth, and increasing value by introducing design concepts to rural area development.”

This is Pyeongchang | » | Written by Robert Koehler

Coastal Pleasure

The PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are a great excuse to explore the Gangneung Coastal Cluster

The Gangneung Hockey Center hosted the the Division II A tournament of the 2017 IIHF World U18 Championships.

While most visitors to the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will come to take in the sports, the world’s signature winter sporting event is also an opportunity to experience the beauty and history of Korea’s mountainous province of Gangwon-do. The so-called Gangneung Coastal Cluster, centered on the East Sea city of Gangneung, has beautiful state-of-the-art facilities that will play host to the Games’ ice-borne events, including skating and hockey. The city, which boasts of scenic splendor and rich local traditions, is also one of Korea’s most popular travel destinations.

Gangneung Ice Arena and Gyeongpoho Lake

A dozen venues will host the 2017 PyeongChang Games. Of these, six are newly built facilities. The first of the new facilities to be completed was the Gangneung Ice Arena.

One of three ice venues to be located in Gangneung, the Ice Arena was completed in December 2016, just ahead of the ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup, an Olympic test event. The arena will host two sports: figure skating and short track speed skating. Built at a cost of USD 85 million, the venue can seat 12,000 spectators. The design, which resembles the helmet of a short track speed skater, combines the beauty of figure skating and the dynamism of speed skating.

The arena is located a short distance from Gyeongpoho Lake, one of Gangneung’s most popular tourist destinations. Gyeongpoho Lake is a large lagoon that is separated from the sea by a narrow stretch of white sand beach and pine trees. Gyeongpo means “clear as a mirror,” and indeed, the lake is a natural mirror when the wind is light and the water calm. Locals have praised the reflection of the moon in the lake’s calm waters since at least Joseon times. In addition to the lake’s reflections, other popular draws include Gyeongpodae, a scenic pavilion overlooking the lake, and Gyeongpo Beach, where the white sand and the gnarled pines combine to make it one of Korea’s most popular summer getaways.

Gangneung Curling Center and Seongyojang Manor

Located in the Gangneung Olympic Park, the Curling Center was completed in 1998, just ahead of the 1999 Asian Winter Games. Originally built to host skating events such as figure skating and short track speed skating, the facility will now host the Olympic’s curling events, having been extensively remodeled for the purpose.

Near the Olympic Park is the magnificent Seongyojang, one of Korea’s largest and best preserved Joseon-era mansions. The manor, which has served as the home of the aristocratic Naebeon Yi clan for no less than 10 generations, has survived in its current form for 300 years. Its lotus pond, adorned with a handsome wooden pavilion, is an especially eye-catching piece of landscape architecture.

In addition to being a beautiful place to visit, Seongyojang also makes an exceptional accommodation choice. The home operates a Hanok Stay program, which lets visitors experience a night or two in a Korean traditional home, or Hanok. It’s not cheap, but it’s an excellent way to experience the refinement and aristocratic charm of old Joseon.

Gangneung has a well-earned reputation for fine coffee and charming cafés.

Gyeongpoho Lake

Seongyojang Manor

Gangneung Oval and Aranabi Zipline

Completed in January 2017, the beautiful Gangneung Oval will host the speed skating events of the PyeongChang 2018 Games. Able to sit 8,000 spectators, the venue has a double track 400-meter rink. The arena got its first test in February when it hosted the ISU World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships, another Olympic test event. Lee Hee-beom, president of the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Games, said after the event, “The speed skating championships this week have been very popular, and we have heard wonderful comments from the athletes, too.”

If you prefer your speed more aerial, there’s the Aranabi Zipline. Ara means “ocean” in Korean and nabi means “butterfly,” and as the name would suggest, the zipline takes you flying 419 meters across Sodolhang Harbor, near the fishing port of Jumunjin. While ziplines can be found in other places in Korea, the Aranabi Zipline is the nation’s first and only one that crosses the sea.

Gangneung Hockey Center

Gangneung’s brand new, 10,000-seat Hockey Center will host the men’s tournament and medal matches at the 2018 Winter Olympics and the ice sledge hockey competition during the 2018 Winter Paralympics. In April, the new venue hosted the International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship, Division II, Group A, tournament, the highlight of which was a historic match between the South and North Korean teams. It was the first time North Korea sent a team to an international sports event held in the South since the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon.

Not far from Gangneung Hockey Center is Amnok Beach, home to a many unique coffee shops, including Gangneung icons like Terarosa. Drawn by the seaside serenity, Korea’s first generation of professional baristas set up cafés in Gangneung in the 1990s. Coffee has since become a local specialty.

Current Korea | » | Written by Colin Marshall

The 5G Revolution

5G digital technology will power the Internet of Things, self-driving cars, smart cities and more

Visitors experience virtual reality at a 5G experience booth operated by KT.

When people think of Korea, they think — perhaps after they’ve thought of the food, pop stars and TV shows — of the internet. Just the right technological and social conditions have converged here to produce a highly connected, early-adopting, technology-positive population, one that, for instance, made the transition from the third and fourth generations of mobile devices, known as 3G and 4G, with ease. Now that the fifth generation of connectivity looms on the horizon, few people must feel as ready for it as today’s Koreans, accustomed as they are to some of the world’s fastest internet speeds. When 5G comes, what changes will it bring to the lives of not just people here, but people all over the world?

Revolutions

3G’s giving way to 4G arguably meant little more than that we got faster internet in the palms of our hands — no trivial achievement, but hardly a life-changer. Not so, if you believe the technology’s advocates, for 5G as it is now widely promoted as an important element of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The idea of industrial revolutions, each of which has changed not just the nature of human work but of human life itself, began in the 18th century when Americans and Europeans moved off the farm and into cities, those centers of mechanical production powered not just by human labor but by the then-new steam engine. That was the First Industrial Revolution. The Second happened a century later with the advent of electric power.

The Third Industrial Revolution, also known as the Digital Revolution brought about the personal computer, the internet that connects them all, and a host of communication and information technologies that have changed not just the way we talk to each other, but the way we think and remember. A true industrial revolution produces not just neat new things, but allows us to — and to an extent, even demands that we — live in a different way. The ultra-high-speed connections of 5G will transmit dozens of times more data than its immediate predecessor, Long Term Evolution (LTE), with peak download speeds of up to 35.46 gigabits per second. While impressive, how does that quantitative difference translate to a major change in quality of life?

Changing life as we know it

The prospect of self-driving cars has, for instance, become a major subject in global technology news in recent years. Anyone on a late-night trip in the back of a taxi cab with a driver a little too aggressive about reaching their destination has surely wished to hasten their development, a process in which 5G communications technology, for guidance and traffic regulation systems, will play an essential role. It will do the same in the building of future smart cities, which draw data from their urban environment in real time and immediately use it to optimize their operation. While Korea’s own Songdo International Business District makes use of many such technologies implemented so far, 5G’s Fourth Industrial Revolution will enable it and other smart cities to upgrade to a whole new urban experience.

Residents of cities, smart or otherwise, will, thanks to 5G, also benefit from a more robust and reliable Internet of Things (IoT), the system that connects not just computers as we know them but a myriad of other devices that have, or will have, computers embedded within them. The IoT allows the objects around us, in other words, to talk to one another. Its applications, ranging from the infrastructural to the environmental to the medical and far beyond, have become a subject of much speculation.

Having already established a 5G testing field in downtown Seoul and a “5G Playground” at its offices in Bundang, KT has also announced plans to implement 5G-powered media at the Olympics, including advanced real-time performance data collection and cameras that let spectators watch live from the athlete’s perspective. Though worldwide commercialization of 5G won’t happen until 2020, the technologies on display in Pyeongchang may help give Korea-developed standards a competitive advantage in becoming the global ones. Though the games won’t begin until next year, one important race is already on.

Global Korea | » |

Hong Kong

Korean Artists Big in Hong Kong

Hong Kong, the world’s third largest art market, has developed into a platform for Korean artists. Harbour City, Hong Kong’s largest shopping mall, hosted a exhibit of public installation art by four Korean sculptors from March 8 to 28. The Harbour Art Fair, hosted at the Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel from March 24 to 26, featured work by 50 Korean artists. Nine Korean galleries took part in Art Basel Hong Kong 2017, held for three weeks in March. Art Basel Hong Kong is one of Asia’s biggest art fairs. Korean galleries and artists also took part in the Art Central art fair, the Incubator for Film & Visual Media in Asia and the Asia Contemporary Art Show. Multimedia artist Kimsooja was honored at the Asia Arts Awards Hong Kong, too.

New York

Embroidery Artist Young Yang Chung Shines in New York

The Korean Cultural Center in New York’s Gallery Korea held an embroidery exhibit by artist Young Yang Chung from March 8 to April 27. The exhibit, titled “The Movement of Herstory: Korean Embroidery, The Life and Artworks of Young Yang Chung,” featured 21 works, including Chung’s best known pieces: two large, 10-panel folding screens, one embroidered with a Rose of Sharon and the other with fish. The exhibit introduced a New York audience to the technical and aesthetic excellence of Korean embroidery, which functions both as a vocation and as an creative medium. “‘The Movement of Herstory’ is a look into the legacy of Korean embroidery through the life and artworks of Chung, now an indelible part of Korean herstory,” says Gallery Korea.

Osaka

Osaka Gets a Taste of Pyeongchang Dishes

Star chef Edward Kwon showed off two of his specially created dishes for the 2018 PyeongChang Games at Osaka’s hu+g Museum on March 3. At a special event to promote the upcoming games, Kwon demonstrated how to prepare a pasta dish made with buckwheat noodles and bulgogi made with high-quality Korea-bred beef. Participants in the event got to try the dishes as well. The dishes were part of Kwon’s “Special 10 Dishes of Pyeongchang,” which the chef created in 2015 to boost international awareness of the Pyeongchang region ahead of the 2018 Winter Games. Kwon, the former head chef at the Burj al-Arab Hotel in Dubai, is a native of Gangwon-do Province, where Pyeongchang is located.

Cairo

Egyptians Learn the Art of Webcomics

Webcomic artist Nam Jung-hoon gave a series of special lectures and hosted a workshop at the Korean Cultural Center in Egypt from March 12 to 16. The 15 participants, selected from the film and advertising departments of Helwan University’s art school, experienced the world of Korean webcomics with a Korean artist and created short works of their own. In his lecture, Nam said webcomics — digital cartoons that have been optimized for mobile platforms — could become a successful industry in Egypt, where young people account for 45 percent of the population. Park Jae-yang, director of the cultural center, expressed hope for expanded cooperation between Korea and Egypt in the animation industry.

Flavor | » | Written by Jennifer Flinn Photographed by ao studio Kang Jinju Stylized by 101 recipe

Bounty of Spring

Fresh shoots add the fragrance of spring to your meal

All winter long, seeds and shoots lie dormant under the cold ground, waiting for spring. When the warmer weather finally arrives, it heralds not just a new green and vital season, but some of Korea’s most beloved and rare dishes. Among the most beloved of spring’s special treats are a symbol of renewal and growth, bangpung greens.

Also colloquially known as the “windshield plant” or coastal hog fennel, this leafy green is part of the same family of plants as the carrot and parsnip. It has a single long taproot, but unlike its other edible cousins, the prized part of this plant is its leaves. They have a distinctive bright, verdant flavor to them and release an incredible fragrance when chewed. Slightly bitter but dominated by a fresh, herbal flavor, the greens have historically been treasured as a special delight of the season.

Not only are the shoots valued for their flavor, they hold an important role in food lore and traditional medicine. The “windshield plant” is believed to have healing qualities for the entire body, but especially the skin and lungs. Springtime in Korea often brings winds carrying dust and pollution that can cause irritation. Bangpung greens can relieve these conditions, helping soothe skin diseases and ease coughs and bronchitis.

The shoots were a favorite with the Joseon era scholar, politician, writer and, most pertinently, food critic Heo Gyun (1569-1618). In his famed tome of gourmet criticism, the “Domundaejak,” he wrote, “When you eat bangpung greens in porridge, your mouth is full of their fragrance for four days.” Anyone looking to experience the delicate fragrance of spring should follow Heo’s example and enjoy the season’s herbal bounty.

Bangpung greens can be prepared in many different ways, including as a salad green, as a mild soy sauce pickle, in savory pancakes and fritters, and as the base for noodles, dumplings and rice cakes. They can also be added as a flavoring to soups, stews and rice. Bangpung greens are a particularly welcome addition to rice porridge, where their wonderful scent and sprightly taste are highlighted against the mild flavor of the rice. Look for them in local markets starting in early spring.

How to make bangpung greens:

To prepare bangpung green porridge, start by adding approximately one part rice to three or four parts water and bring it to a slow boil. Rinse the greens and remove any woody stems, then briefly blanch in boiling salted water. Drain and roughly chop them. When the rice porridge has reached the desired consistency, stir in the bangpung greens and flavor the porridge to taste with salt, soy sauce, and/or roasted sesame oil.

Learning Korean | » | Written by Miruh Linda Jeon Illustrated by Kim Yoon-myung Script provided by Kim Younghyun

Illustrate the Flavors

‘Dae Jang Geum’ teaches us to trust our instincts

MBC’s 2003 TV hit “Dae Jang Geum,” also known as “Jewel in the Palace,” is a historical soap opera starring Lee Young-ae. The show consistently enjoyed ratings of over 40 percent, which even soared to 55 percent at one point.

The series has contributed significantly to the “Korean Wave,” the popularity of Korean pop music and TV in East Asia and elsewhere. It has also enjoyed success in 91 countries, including China, Taiwan, the United States and Turkey. In Iran, where it also aired, the average rating was a record 90 percent.

The drama is loosely based on the life of Jang Geum, a famous figure in Korean literature. In the series, she is an orphan who grows up to be an intelligent, perseverant palace cook with remarkable culinary skills and extensive knowledge of herbal medicine. Her uncanny ability to treat various illnesses impresses King Jungjong (r. 1506-1544), and she eventually rises to become the first female royal physician in the Joseon court.

In one of the episodes, she becomes temporarily paralyzed while trying to figure out why a prince has fallen sick. Though she finds a cure, she loses her sense of taste as a result. Jang Geum opens up about her situation to her mentor, Lady Han, when she’s asked to take part in a cooking competition. She urges Han to find someone else, but Han refuses and advises Jang Geum to “illustrate the flavors.” In other words, Jang Geum must trust her instincts and imagine what different ingredients would taste like together.

In Korean, that line is “맛을 그려 보아라,” or maseul geuryeo boara. The word 맛, or mat, means “flavor” or “taste,” and people often refer to pleasant flavors as joeun mat and unpleasant ones as nappeun mat. The other part of the phrase, geuryeo boara, is a combination of the words geurida, which means to “illustrate” or “draw,” and boara, which turns any verb into a command form.

Korean Art Through Coloring

Girl’s jacket with sleaves of multicolored stripes Saekdong Jeogori

Thank you for your feedback

By sending in reader feedback, you enter a drawing to win a Banchado, an illustration of King Jeongjo’s royal procession in 1795. Five people who fill out the Readers’ Comments will be chosen among those received before June 30.

Reader Feedback

From the March issue, I loved the travel part the most, because I got new information about destinations for traveling in Korea. Tongyeong is beautiful with green mountains and a deep blue sea. I hope to go to Tongyeong soon.

A university student from Indonesia

The article I enjoyed most from the March issue was the “Meaningless of Life” in the Literature section. The article was informative and it efficiently made me curious about the author Kim Young-ha.

A student from Canada

My favorite article in the March issue was “Bringing the World to Korea” in the Current Korea section, as it encourages Koreans to embrace visiting tourists with a friendly and warm smile.

A professor from Thailand

From the March issue, the article I enjoyed most was the Learning Korean. I’d like to see more content on traditional culture and festivals being held in various parts of Korea throughout the year.

A National Institute of Education trainee from Singapore

I suggest including content on sports, especially soccer, i.e., K-League, Korean stars in European Leagues and the national team. I think it’s a good idea considering the World Cup is next year.

A businessman from Singapore