Thursday 6 May 2010. I’m somewhat stiff from sleeping on the floor. Throughout the night different parts of my body were suffering from pins and needles. But the location was peaceful, and I get up rested. Overnight rain has made everything seem greener, but low cloud clinging to the hilltops and wisps of mist rolling … [Read More]
Royal Ancestors and Ancient Remedies (page 2)
2010 Travel Diary #21: The jjimjilbang experience
Wednesday 5 May 2010. It was only a couple of hours ago that we had eaten lunch, but Koreans seem to have dinner early. During the tea festival, our guide Isabelle does well for food: she is usually entertained by the people she is showing around, and this time is no exception. We go to … [Read More]
2010 Travel Diary #20: The House of Choi Champan
Wednesday 5 May 2010. What is authenticity? Probably, over the course of Korea’s long history, most of Korea’s precious buildings have burned down and been rebuilt. It’s a natural hazard of building from sustainable materials such as wood. Marauding invaders or revolting slaves can cause great destruction with just a single spark. The reconstruction work … [Read More]
2010 Travel Diary #19: Hadong, the home of Korean green tea
Wednesday 5 May 2010. As we pick up the signs to Hadong, along the Seomjingang river, the other side of which is Jeollanam-do, we see our first neatly trimmed tea-bushes. These, I am later told, are the cultivated tea plants. You know the famous photos of the Boseong tea slopes in Jeollanam-do, with beautifully serried … [Read More]
2010 Travel Diary #18: Networking in Hongdae and a journey into the unknown
Tuesday 4 May 2010. I had intended to go to see Yi Chuljin’s Seungmu performance this evening, having failed to see it on Sunday, but there are too many conflicting appointments to fit them all in. I’m heading towards Hongdae to meet some new blogging friends – always something I like to do when coming … [Read More]
2010 Travel Diary #17: The Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation
Tuesday 4 May 2010. As part of my trip to Korea, I wanted to understand more about the way in which Korea goes about preserving its ancient culture and presents it for modern audiences. Is it possible to market traditional culture to foreigners as a theme for tourism? How is it possible to market traditional … [Read More]
2010 Travel Diary #16: A meeting with Hwang Byungki
Tuesday 4 May 2010. Hwang Byungki is probably Korea’s best known performer and composer for the kayageum. When I submitted my proposal to the Korean Culture and Information Service for the stories I wanted to investigate during my visit – of which the main one was the preservation and reinvention of Korean traditional culture – … [Read More]
2010 Travel Diary #15: Korean Kites, Kim Ki-chan and Cho Se-hui’s Dwarf
Tuesday 4 May 2010. Although I’m very proud of the organisation I work for – a multinational company with a long heritage – I try to keep my Korean hobby and my day job separate. But I thought that as I was in Seoul I ought to pay a visit to some of my local … [Read More]
2010 Travel Diary #14: Seoul as World Design City
Tuesday 4 May 2010. More interviews today. First, the Seoul Design Foundation. We enter an anonymous office block, and ascend to the ninth floor. Exiting the lifts, the signature colour on the wall is the fashionable lime green which seems to be used in all this year’s kitchen design catalogues. It’s a busy office, with … [Read More]
2010 Travel Diary #13: Jogyesa and Insadong
Monday 3 May 2010. From Gangnam I’m driven back to my hotel near Gwanghwamun. Lunch that day had been difficult to face – particularly the fermented skate: unpleasant enough at the best of times, but distinctly dangerous if you’re feeling badly hung over. Even in the evening I’m still suffering from the previous day’s festivities, … [Read More]
2010 Travel Diary #12: A Meeting with Sorea
Monday 3 May 2010. In an unprepossessing building in a small backstreet in trendy Gangnam is a compact office which manages a gugak fusion band which briefly caught the spirit of a nation. At the height of the Korea, Sparkling promotional campaign, when the Korean Tourism Organisation was promoting Korea as a place with ancient … [Read More]
Presenting intangible cultural heritage in Bucheon
Monday 3 May 2010. Bucheon, a city of around 850,000 people in Gyeonggi-do just 40 minutes’ drive West from Seoul, is home of the Bucheon World Intangible Cultural Heritage Expo (BICHE), an annual event which showcases some of Korea’s finest performance arts and crafts alongside those of a dozen or so invited countries. The first … [Read More]
2010 Travel Diary #10: an evening with Yi Chuljin
Sunday 2 May 2010. I had secretly been hoping, before my schedule was finalised, that after the Jongmyo rituals I would be able to go to an authentic Buddhist dance performance by my friend Yi Chuljin. In a marathon exercise supported by the Jogye temple, he is in the middle of a 100-day run of … [Read More]
2010 Travel Diary #9: MISO at the Chongdong Theatre
Sunday 2 May 2010. Korea is known for its high-energy stage shows. They have a huge international appeal. Shows like Nanta and Jump perform to enthusiastic audiences everywhere, combining acrobatics, humour, music and maybe some traditional culture – though dressed-up in an accessible way. A feature of the shows is that they are largely non-verbal … [Read More]
2010 Travel Diary #8: The Jongmyo Rituals Part 2
Sunday 2 May 2010. As we file out from the shrine after the first ceremony of the day, we mingle with the butlers who are off to have a quick breather and cigarette before the next ceremony. Already the queues are forming to get into the main shrine for the headline event at 1pm. No … [Read More]
2010 Travel Diary #7: The Jongmyo Rituals, part 1
Sunday 2 May 2010. I found it really quite hard to find accessible information online in respect of the Jongmyo rituals. Often, on the UNESCO site, there is documentation which sets out why the submitting country thinks that this particular intangible cultural property is worthy of inscription on the international list. But no such information … [Read More]