Community of Parting (2019) traces a different approach to borders, translation, and aesthetic mediation by invoking the ancient shamanic myth of the Abandoned Princess Bari and engaging female Korean shamanism as an ethics and aesthetics of memory and mutual recognition across time and space. Rooted in oral storytelling and embodied by female shamans, the myth about … [Read More]
Category: Myths and legends
2016 travel diary 12: Hwangmaesan
Sancheong-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do, 17 May 2016, 2pm. The Hwangmaesan Royal Azalea Festival After lunch my prime objective was to see the Royal Azaleas (철쭉) on Hwangmaesan. This was the one major scenic sight of Sancheong that I had yet to witness up close. I had been warned not to expect much, but I was surprised to see … [Read More]
2016 travel diary 9: Busosanseong – the Baekje royal garden
Buyeo-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, 16 May 2016, 5:30pm. The Archaeological Site in Gwanbuk-ri Sometimes, collecting UNESCO points is not as fulfilling as it might be. The item of heritage that has been registered might not be particularly exciting to look at, even though it is historically important. But if a site is historically important you may well … [Read More]
Brief book review: Mark James Russell — Young-hee and the Pullocho
Mark James Russell: Young-hee and the Pullocho Tuttle Publishing, 2015, 258pp So annoying. I get sent a review copy of a work of fiction. I warn them that I probably won’t have time to read it properly, but promise to do my best to have a quick flick through it and to write a polite notice … [Read More]
2015 Travel Diary day 4: the Danoje rituals on Daegwallyeong ridge
Gangneung, Monday 1 June. I turn up at the Chilsadang, Gangneung’s elegant Joseon dynasty town hall building, at 8:30, backpack stuffed with camera equipment, bottled water and snacks to see me through the day. Ten days earlier at the same spot there had been a ceremony which launches the whole Dano month: a ritual called … [Read More]
2013 Travel Diary #23: The pillow of eternal youth
Donguibogam Village, Sancheong-gun, Wednesday 11 September, 5pm. At Korean expos, the emphasis is not on the looking. It is on the experiencing. You have to immerse yourself, to touch, to feel, to try something out. At the Sancheong International Traditional Medicine Fair and Festival, then, it was no surprise when the organisers, who had come … [Read More]
2013 Travel Diary #22: Tiger, Bear and herb: the traditional Korean medicine experience
Donguibogam Village, Sancheong-gun, Wednesday 11 September, 4pm. In Korean mythology, it seems that it’s not the bear that has the sore head. It’s the tiger. In the Korean Medicine Theme Park, which forms part of the Donguibogam Village, the exhibits focus on the different parts of the human body, but throughout there is the recurring … [Read More]
2013 Travel Diary #11: Mother Mago, the Goddess of Jirisan
Jungsan-ri, Sancheong-gun, Sunday 8 September, 10:30am. It is pleasant to sit down in a comfortable seat in the cool environment of an air-conditioned car. After the hot, humid exertions on the mountain I am happy just to sit in the passenger seat not wanting any particular destination. But just outside Jungsan-ri we turn into a narrow … [Read More]
Festival visit: Gaksi, Mago
In Korean mytholoogy there is a legendary grandmother figure, a giant goddess who created islands and arranged the mountains and the oceans in their proper positions. In Jeju Island, she is known as Seolmundae Halmang – Grandmother Seolmundae; elsewhere in Korea she is known as Mago. The stories about her are sometimes comic, sometimes tragic. … [Read More]
2011 Travel Diary day 7: Baek Un-cheol and Seolmundae Halmang: a lifetime’s obsession with stones and their stories
Jeju Stone Park, Friday 6 May 2011. “I fell in love with Seolmundae Halmang, and now I can’t love any other woman” says Baek Un-cheol, honorary director of Jeju Stone Park. Maybe it explains why he is single. No earthly woman can compete in his affections with the legendary earth mother and creator of Jejudo. … [Read More]
Jeon Jemin, ed Kevin O’Rourke: Korean Stories
(Eul & Al, 2004) A strange collection. Confucian stories, Buddhist stories, and some essays which though brief remind you of the disjointed ramblings of a genial but slightly senile grandfather. One of the essays does explain, though, why the bedwetting boy in one of the short films in the collection If you were me is … [Read More]