Status Updates From The Korean Myths: A Guide t...

and linguistic analysis suggests the term 'Arirang is a combination of ari (OtZ|), an ancient Korean term for long, and ryeong (5 / fF), which means mountain' and 'to lead. That reading is in keeping with the lyrics, which describe going over a mountain pass:

physiognomy - certain facial propon-tions and shapes are said to reveal character traits like intelligence honesty, loyalty and compassion, but when such standards are then combined with Western media ideals, the result can be a face whose appearance is unnatural and perhaps even uncanny. In fact, the ideal Korean face now is the 'egg-shaped' face, which ironically

The two pageant scandals show the profound resonance of Korea's Confucian culture, in particular the oppressive burden on women created by Confucian ideals and exacerbated by the influence of Western media. The myth that beauty and virtue go together is already perpetuated by classic folk tales and literature, as in the stories of Shimcheong and Chunhyang, and further amplified by an underlying cultural belief

Seo Taiji fused these foreign sounds with traditional Korean ballads and instruments, like the hourglass drum and the piri, a reed flute associated with classical Korean music,

The Kim Sisters (one of them actually an adopted cousin) would become regulars on The Ed Sullivan Show, the longest-running variety show in history, singing covers of well-known songs in their noticeably accented English.

Cold War culture, became markedly more favourable in its representations of North Korea.
For example, refugees from North Korea, once called 'defectors', are now called 'emigres'. Elementary and middle-school textbooks no longer heavily emphasize an imminent threat of invasion from North Korea. There is a concerted deconstruction of North Korea's own propaganda and mythmaking, but there is also an intense scrutiny o

The term itself rarely appears in classical Korean literature, but given Korea's turbulent history marked by repeated foreign inva-sions, colonization, internal strife, class conflict and the legacy of the Korean War, it is no wonder that the idea of han would seem to be a cultural legacy handed down from ancient times.

collective, reflecting the shared history of pain and trauma endured by the Korean people. It can manifest in various ways, from melancholic resignation to fierce indignation, deep depression to violent anger, or as a yearning and a struggle to find justice after being wronged.

Those who die with the burden of their han unrelieved are said to become unhappy ghosts. Han is described as a heavy, unresolved and lingering emotion that is not easily expressed or alleviated. It can be per-sonal, focusing on individual experiences of loss and suffering, or

Han (et /tE) is a complex and nuanced concept in Korean culture, often described as a mixture of sorrow, resentment, grief, regret and anger that accumulates over time and is passed down through gen-erations. It is not just a fleeting emotion, but said to be an enduring weight carried in the hearts of the Korean people.

following the change in Korea's political climate after the Gwangju Uprising in the mid-198os), was one of the underlying motivating forces behind what eventually became the Hallyu phe-nomenon. Koreans felt they should no longer be only the recipients of outside cultural influences, but the creators of their own culture.

Mighty Wing also plays with deep mythic symbolism. Bees, through their harvesting of nectar from flowers, are associated with the sun. (In Egyptian mythology, they are said to come from the tears of the Sun god, Ra.) In North Korean symbology, the sun is none other than the 'Great Leader' Kim Il-sung. The North Korean media also carefully associated both Kim Il-sung and his son, Kim Jong-il,

Peace Village' in the North and 'Propaganda Village' in the South. It is a Potemkin village of mostly empty houses with timed lighting to make it look like buildings are occupied, and although North Korea claims it is a farming village occupied by 200 happy families, it is more likely that it was once a place to quarter soldiers who manned hidden artillery positions.

There are two villages in the DMZ, permitted by both govern-ments. In the south is Daesong-dong, known as 'Freedom Village, where only those who already lived there during the Korean War (and their descendants) are allowed to live. One of the benefits to residents is that they have access to large amounts of farmland, but they are in constant danger of North Korean infiltrators

Pulgasari is a historical piece set during the time of the Goryeo dynasty. An old blacksmith is beaten, imprisoned and starved for defying the cruel governor. When his two children manage to throw him bits of rice to keep him alive, he does not eat it. Instead,

- sacrifice a huge theme
- referred less by name and more by position

The Tale of Chunhyang illustrates the virtues that women in Korea were expected to aspire to, the hypocrisy of those who abuse their power, and also the wishful desire of common people to move upward in social status.

Later collections of folk tales from post-liberation Korea tend to have a distinctly different tone, and many of the same stories have different, more optimistic (and sometimes even traditionally
'happy') endings. After the 'economic miracle' of the 1970s through the 1990s, there is an even greater move towards optimism.

Much of the initial cataloguing of Korean folklore began during the Japanese colonial era (1910-45) as part of a programme to study Korean culture, with the ultimate aim of eradicating it by having Korean. earliest scholarly collections of Korean folk tales were compiled by Japan., it is understandable that the general tone of those collected stories would be pessimistic or fatalistic.

One of Korea's most famous love stories, The Tale of Chunhyang (*g*/###), features a bond between mother and daughter and the theme of hypergamy (upward mobility via marriage). Its original authorship is unknown, but it was adapted into prose during the seventeenth or eighteenth century. The eponymous Chunhyang

Another way to communicate the qualities that a culture considers ideal' is to contrast a virtuous woman with a cruel woman. One folk tale that does this is the story of Kongjwi and Patji, sometimes called the Korean Cinderella' in the West. Kongjwi is a poor girl who is treated like a slave by her stepmother and her stepsister, Patji.

The tale of Arang thus privileges Confucianism not only by casting a model Confucian as the hero, but also by revealing its own linguistic and symbolic sophistication to those who are literate in Confucian culture.

Shimcheong parallels Bari, the mythical origin of the Korean shaman, and she is willing to give up everything for her father, appealing to Confucian ideals. The Dragon King, a Taoist figure, is portrayed sympathetically. While the story can at first

South Korea's national flower is the Hibiscus syriacus, also known as rose mallow and in Korean called mugunghwa (FZ*/#73TE).
The etymology of its name in Korean is multifaceted. Mugung can mean 'eternity' or 'infinity, and mu on its own sounds like the primordial emptiness in Taoism (see p. 70). Hwa is generally glossed to mean 'flower, but it also sounds like 'fire.

The rabbit came to be representative of the Korean people and Korea's struggle as a smaller nation over which major world powers vied for control. Rabbits have many other symbolic and mythical meanings as well. For example, they are associated heavily with the moon. It was believed, from the time of Goguryeo and beyond, that rabbits lived on the moon and were spirits of the moon itself. Koreans took the Chinese myth

symbol of eternity and rebirth, often appearing in … this creature and its many rainbow colours came to be associated with peafowl and Buddhism. In Buddhist myth, the 'eyes' on the tail of a peacock are sometimes said to represent the stars in the heavens, or the watchful, ever-present eyes of the Buddha, and the peahen is sometimes said to be the Buddhas grandmother.

Other mythical composite creatures include the haetae, a four-legged animal that looks somewhat like a maned lion, but with dragon scales and horns. It is said to embody justice, and judges whether people are good or evil. It is also said to protect against fires. Haetae are very similar to the mythical fu dogs of China or the snow lions of Tibet, and, like those, haetae are often depicted in pairs,

In Korean folklore, it is said that when an animal lives a very long time, completes a certain trial or gains enough wisdom, it will gain the traits of a dragon, such as scales or a dragon's countenance. These chimeras are known as dragon-animals and often appear in Korean artwork.