A Korean Wedding

One of my coworkers, Hana, got married and was kind enough to invite the office to her wedding. Korean weddings are... different. They are assembly line affairs, where the same wedding is performed with slight differences for numerous couples. They take place in wedding halls, which are pretty much the same across Korea so that everyone's wedding can be pretty much the same. It begins as the guests enter the lobby and see the bride on display in a small room. We take turns getting our picture taken with her. When the previous ceremony ends, the guests from that wedding go on to the next station and we all entered the main hall. As with many Korean activities, weddings are not about the experience at the time but about thoroughly documenting the event for future reference and enjoyment. Thus the 'videographer' stood (in his oh-so-professional gray sweater) between the guests and the podium for the entire event. The ceremony itself had a cute slide show of pictures of the couple, a candle lighting ceremony with the parents (one candle had to be replaced since it wouldn't light, to the amusement of those of us who are a bit irreverent), the bride's father walking her up to be given away, a recital of vows (which no one felt like live translating for us, so I have no idea what was said), and a proof of strength and virility by the groom (in this case getting down and doing some push ups in his nice white tux). Then there were many pictures: pictures of the bride and groom, pictures of the bride and groom plus parents, pictures of the couple with their entire families, and finally pictures of them with friends (including us). Thus concluded the Western-style part of the wedding.

Next was the Korean style wedding, which took place in a small room downstairs and was really just for the groom's parents, though a few of us were able to squeeze into the viewing space to look over the videographer's shoulder. The couple was dressed as Korean royalty and knelt before a feast table across from the groom's parents. At some point the parents threw coins into a cloth that the couple held. Then the married couple bowed to their elders. I'm afraid I missed the rest of the symbolism. After that was a buffet with all kinds of food from Korea and the West. Some people (especially teenaged relatives) seemed to have largely shown up for the banquet at the bride's father's expense. Finally, once the bride and groom changed back into their western clothes and had a chance to eat a bit, they drove off the assembly line in one of the several decorated cars.

The whole affair reinforced my feeling that most ceremonies--like weddings, funerals, and graduations--aren't really for the people in them but for their family and friends, and this goes double in Korea.

Leo Tolstoy Book Review

When my parents asked me what I wanted from home in Korea I answered without hesitation: books. English language books can be ordered from What the Book in Seoul (they even do free shipping to anywhere in the country), but Daejeon only had small and expensive selections. Among the authors I requested was Tolstoy since I'd never read any, and my mom sent all three of his massive novels (he wrote some other stuff too, but nothing remotely on the same scale). I just finished the last one, so here's my thoughts:

War and Peace:
This is one of those books that I assumed was read just because it was a classic without regard to quality, but it really is fantastic and absolutely worth slogging through the hundreds of long Russian names. I actually didn't like or relate to a single one of those hundreds of characters, but it was a very readable and entertaining look into the life of the Russian upper crust during the Napoleonic wars. The one character I did like and always found fascinating was Tolstoy himself as the narrator, who really was a character in his own right (though I don't think Tolstoy really intended it that way) and he has wonderfully amusing analogies and intriguing analysis and theories about those wars and war and the human condition in general. My favorite chapters were the ones with only the narrator laying out the current situation as he saw it. I don't know enough about the history of the time to say if it is accurate, but his analysis certainly was plausible and thought provoking.

On an amusing note, Tolstoy gives a description of one of the characters at the end, who at no point resembles me or my mindset, that describes me perfectly (with the aid of a couple of strategic ellipses to take the quote out of context):

He felt like a man who, after straining his eyes to see into a great distance, finds what he sought at his very feet. All his life he had looked over the heads of the men around him, when he should have merely looked in front of him without straining his eyes... In everything near and comprehensible he had seen only what was limited, petty, commonplace, and senseless. He had equipped himself with a mental telescope and looked into remote space, where that petty worldliness, hiding itself in misty distance, had seemed to him great and infinite merely because it was not clearly seen... but even then, at moments of weakness as he had accounted them, his mind had penetrated to those distances and he had there seen the same pettiness, worldliness, and senselessness. Now, however, he had learnt to see the great, eternal and infinite in everything, and therefore--to see it and enjoy its contemplation--he naturally threw away the telescope through which he had till now gazed over men's heads, and gladly regarded the ever-changing, eternally great, unfathomable and infinite life around him. And the closer he looked the more tranquil and happy he became. That dreadful question, What for? which had formerly destroyed all his mental edifices, not longer existed for him.

Anna Karenina:
This book continues the record of Tolstoy as a superb writer but with unlikable characters. I should clarify what I mean by superb writer: He doesn't write prettily or artfully. It isn't poetry. What he does is write descriptions that really give you the sense of a person and place, pointing out the little quirks and details of a person that fully fleshes them out. His writing fully engages the reader. The experience is like watching a high quality but not artsy film: it pulls you in so that you just experience the story without really noticing the medium though which you are perceiving it. As to the story and characters, the situation is rather foreign to us (or at least me). I kept thinking You have money and power. If your current lives are intolerable then leave and start a new life that isn't being strangled by weird upper class Russian social etiquette.' Actually, the main characters do leave for a while, but end up hanging out with other Russians and generally not escaping the suffocating social structure like they really easily could have. Some of the side stories are quite interesting, and Tolstoy uses one of them to discuss the nature of peasants and landowners of the time in a rather interesting way.

Resurrection:
Twenty years passed from the completion of Anna Karenina and Tolstoy's next full length novel. In the meanwhile he lost none of his talent but added a painful dose of moralizing to his writing. He became obsessed with his own brand of Christianity (which got him excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox church) and this work is full of 'lessons' that he wants people to draw. In previous works characters had certain moral and religious beliefs but the omniscient narrator stayed neutral as to their accuracy. Not so here. Every description is infused with moral judgment, making it rather difficult for me to read despite Tolstoy's powerful leading narrative voice. Tolstoy was very sympathetic to early revolutionaries and mentions Marx. He also passingly has a very minor character say that marriage between men is perfectly acceptable (though Tolstoy and his mouthpiece of a protagonist viscerally disagree). Even Nietzsche gets mentioned, though Tolstoy thinks he is quoting Nietzsche when he is actually quoting Nietzsche quoting the original Assassins (nothing is forbidden, everything is permitted), and of course totally misunderstanding the philosopher by taking his statements out of context (as the vast majority of Nietzsche's readers always have). Anyway, if you can get past the narrator's constant moralizing, Resurrection is a decent read.

Overall, I would highly recommend War and Peace if you have even a passing interest in warfare, history, Russia, or amusing analogies. Anna Karenina is pretty good, and Resurrection is very readable but not all that enjoyable.

Halloween

Predictably, Halloween at ECC was entertaining. The kids had some fantastic costumes, though the clear winner was Michael's homemade pink dinosaur that has to be seen to be believed. Other greats were James' bat, Neal's wizard, Jeremy's panda, and of course Johnny playing the devil that he is. I love the pictures in the set of the three terrors of Pluto class fighting over the devil's fork while simultaneously trying to stab me with it as I took the pictures. It really is the embodiment of Pluto class. Will went as one of the characters from the video game Street Fighter, Henah was a sexy pumpkin, and I went as the thing that terrifies Koreans most: swine flu. The teachers were each in charge of a room where we did different activities. I had the kids do a Frankenstein's monster relay race where they had to race with their hands outstretched and without bending their knees. It was actually pretty entertaining, and I had them compete in a bracket, handing out pieces of candy as we went. At the end we were supposed to go trick or treating at the dentist's and bar downstairs, but the shopowners didn't want the kids there because of Swine Flu. Thus the kids got no trick or treating in, since it doesn't exist in Korea. Don't worry though, we sent them home with baskets full of candy anyway.

Gochang Fortress Festival

Later in October we spent a Saturday at the Gochang Fortress Festival. I assume that it wasn't canceled during the swine flu scare because it is focused on health. According to legend, if a woman walks around the walls of Gochang three times with a stone on her head during a leap month then she will never be sick again. I expect you are now wondering what the hell a leap month is. On our solar calendar we have a leap day--February 29th--every four years. The lunar calendar isn't as close, so occasionally it is necessary to add a full month to make it add up.

I had hoped to see the parade of women in traditional Korean clothing (hanboks) walking the walls like I saw in the pictures of the event, but we didn't get into town until early afternoon and that part was already over. Instead we watched a big parade. As we waited for the procession to start moving I found traditional red and blue lantern on the ground that Alanna had been coveting for ages and so we took it. The parade had everything from cavemen to traditional musicians to women with absurdly intricate patterns in their hair to kids dressed as warriors. One of the more entertaining parts was to watch the huge towers hung with a triangle of lanterns as they passed under power lines and street lights, which involved leaning them nearly on their sides to let them pass. I also really enjoyed the giant ropes that were part of the planting festival game I talked about concerning the Gwangju museum where two teams ram the giant ropes together to knock one side's rider off. They didn't play this obviously dangerous game with the non-traditionally super young kids as the riders, but I was glad to see the ropes in person anyway.

The parade ended back where it began at the fortress entrance. We went in and a man insisted that we take a flowery hat. We weren't really sure it was his to give, so we left it behind and watched the sun set over the fortress walls. After a while we left and turned back to see the lights come on along the walls.

Haeinsa temple

I had a random Thursday off school, so I finally had a chance to head out to Haeinsa temple, UNESCO world heritage site and one of the few places left on my Must Visit list in Korea.

On the way I stopped by Daegu and found that the street market selling traditional medicine goods wasn't nearly as interesting as that sounds. The Insam festival had a much more interesting variety of traditional medical items, so I quickly continued onward.

Outside the temple there was a phone booth with a roof made to look like a temple. Far more impressive was the tree that was planted at the founding of the temple in 802 CE and grew next to it for over a millennium until it finally died in 1945. Inside the gates was a contemplative labyrinth, which is always there but was decorated with colorful flags and lanterns for some event that day (there was also a mic check in progress and the inner courtyard was covered with black netting that shaded the area except for a hole to allow a pagoda to poke out). The temple is mostly a fairly ordinary Korean temple with perhaps a larger than usual (fairly new) pagoda on an inaccessible hill behind the complex, except that it is the storage place for the Tripitaka Korana. The Tripitaka Koreana is a Buddhist cannon and Koreans claim that it is the first book in the world to be printed with movable type (although for some reason the Koreans didn't use this technology for printing any other books and didn't seem to make all that many copies of this one, and really the type isn't movable, it was movable before it was fixed into the page). The Tripitaka's 52 million Chinese characters were carved onto 81,340 wood blocks and are housed in an old building that regulates temperature and moisture better than the modern museum they planned to replace it. The temple also holds 2,835 other blocks from the Goryeo period. The picture you see is the first floor of one half of one side of the two story rectangular building. The temple has caught fire numerous times though the part with the wood blocks were always spared, and they also survived several wars (including the Korean civil war where a South Korean pilot disobeyed his orders to bomb it).

When I left the temple I saw what seemed to be a small army of monks meticulously cleaning the grounds, sweeping up every leaf. I enjoyed the fall colors on the trees as I walked back to the visitors center, which had a small museum that included copies of the woodblocks that you could use to make your own prints of one page. For about $3,000 you can get a printed copy of the whole massive work.

Seoul museums and Shaman walk

Alanna and I went to Seoul for a weekend in mid October to see a bit more of the massive city. Our first major stop was the War Museum, which of course largely dealt with the Korean War, or as Koreans call it, the 6.25 (June twenty-fifth) War. The war started when North Korea attacked the South on June twenty-fifth, and the front of the museum has a memorial containing a clock that was stopped by the initial attack.

The first thing we noticed as we approached was a giant statue that seemed to be a celebration of gays in the military, but on closer inspection was actually about two brothers who fought on opposite sides of the war. It is actually seems quite insulting to North Koreans since the younger brother is so much smaller than his South Korean sibling, but the true story that it is based on says the younger brother really was just a kid, so I guess it is okay. Inside the (intentionally) cracked dome that the brothers stand atop are plaques to all of the countries who gave support to the South in the war, and a list of what they sent over.

Around the grounds were numerous tanks, airplanes, and other weapons of war. Inside there were halls documenting Korean battles and weaponry from the Stone age onward. Of course Admiral Yi Sun-Sin's turtle ship was represented. I focused on the area about the Korean civil war and I learned a lot about the conflict, which I hadn't really studied before. Did you know that part of what made the North Korean government (and their Chinese backers) think that the war would be successful was a misunderstanding of American policy. America released a map of their priority regions of their sphere of influence that didn't include Korea, so the North thought that America would just let it happen. It turns out the map was talking about something more specific and would have included Korea on a list of places that they would fight to protect. Also, without American intervention the North would almost certainly have won. They conquered nearly all of the peninsula almost immediately. Actually, both sides held a huge percentage of the peninsula at one point or another during the war.

The next day we went on Lonely Planet's recommended Inwangsan Shaman hillside walk. The walk starts at the prison I talked about on a previous post about Seoul and winds up past a Buddhist temple to a shamanistic one. The Buddhist temple, Inwangsa, is fun because it is mixed right in with the houses of the neighborhood. Note that the temple (sa) is on the mountain (san) of the same name. The shaman shrine Guksadong was originally on Namsan, the central mountain that overlooks Seoul. It was taken apart and secretly reassembled at this less central location during the Japanese occupation to save it from destruction. The shrine was full of a feast offered to the spirits, including a whole pig. Women were saying prayers and making offerings inside. The hillside also had part of Seoul's city wall (now pretty much all reconstructed or frequently restored to the point that it might as well be new), some rocks that some people think look like skulls or monks, and a Buddhist rock carving. The latter was interesting particularly for being surrounded by fence and razor-wire, which was quite a counterpoint to the Buddhist message and peacefulness. On the way down we saw a burned out building that was once part of the temple complex.

After that Alanna went to the prison museum and I went to the Seoul National Museum of Korea, since each of us had seen the museum the other was going to. The National museum was celebrating 100 year's since Korea's first museum and had an exhibition about it. They also had a mascot of a Confucian scholar wandering around and a brass band who sounded mighty impressive in the echoing chamber of steps between the museum's two rather nice buildings. My favorite parts inside the museum were the towering intricate many storied pagoda in the main hall (with close up views from higher floors), a room full of larger than life Buddhas, and cases with Vajra (those Buddhist 'weapons' for removing temptations and impurities). Outside was an aptly named Pagoda Garden. Standing among the many towers from across Korea's history there was also a "Stone Case for the Navel String and the Placenta." It seems that the birth leftovers were kept in lucky places to aid the child.

Chuseok vacation day 5 part 2: Temple of the Floating Stone

I spent quite a bit of time and frustration getting on buses to the next temple. I transferred to the small town closest to it but could not get anyone at the (intercity) bus station to help me figure out where the connecting city bus was. Finally an old man at one of the several possible bus stops showed me that the time table for that bus was posted, not at the bus stop like most of the schedules but instead in the window of a derelict store. Obviously, how silly of me to not see it. No one there spoke English and I had exhausted my Korean knowledge in asking about the bus times so I couldn't figure out if the time-table was actually still in use or accurate, which was worrisome since it seemed that I'd just missed the only bus for hours. I was about to agree to a cab when the cab driver stopped me and pointed to the bus arriving late, which was awfully kind of him since it cost him a nice expensive ride out to the temple.

The temple itself was worth the effort. . There were shaded fields of ginseng growing on the path up to the temple, which had lots of buildings nearly as old as those at Bongjeongsa, but actually looked their age and were more complex and interesting. Beyond the usual stone pagodas Buddhas, and and lanterns, there was also a tree that grew from a monk's staff. The name of the temple--Buseksa, Temple of the Floating Stone--comes from another legend about a woman who turned herself into a dragon and lifted a rock, which somehow stopped the pagans from stopping the building of the temple. I don't really understand the causal connection between the stone lifting and the resistance to the temple's construction, but it resulted in a cool name in any case.

I had planned to stop by another temple on the way back, but realizing that there wouldn't be time I instead went back to Daejeon to get ready to start work again after the nice five day break.

Chuseok vacation day 5 part 1: Bongjeongsa temple

On Monday I got up at five, dunked myself in the sauna's baths to wake up and then went out to catch a bus at six. At the bus stop a man was greatly concerned for me because I was wearing shorts (I had plenty of warm clothes, I just wasn't feeling cold yet). He actually took my hands in his and rubbed them to keep them warm and crouched close to me to keep me warm. In nearly any other country I would assume he was getting close because he was trying to rob me (and I checked my wallet when he left anyway) but he really was just concerned about my well being.

I did manage to get out to Bongjeongsa, a temple complex that includes a Shilla period building that is the oldest wooden structure in Korea. I jogged through most of the complex since I wanted to catch the same bus back to Andong rather than being there for hours. I got back just as the driver was about to pull away. I didn't really mind rushing since there wasn't too much to see. Unsurprisingly, the oldest buildings aren't the most impressive, and this one was so recently restored that it didn't look all that old.

Chuseok vacation day 4 part 4: Hahoe Folk Village mask dance

After lunch we went around to other parts of the village, including across the small river that forms a horseshoe around most of Hahoe. We went across in a flat bottomed ferry propelled by a man with a stick, who must have been very strong to move the boat full of about twelve people. Back in the village proper we saw an ancient tree believed to hold the spirit of a goddess. People still tie prayers written on small pieces of paper onto it's branches. Nearby we went into a lovely teahouse where people in traditional clothes offered to perform a full tea ceremony, which we had to decline because we didn't want to be late to the mask dance.

We originally planned to be at Andong/Hahoe that weekend because it was supposed to be the mask dance festival, which was canceled due to swine flu. However, it seems that the festival would just have meant more people and a lot more stands/stalls selling things, so we were glad to go anyway. Andong has a long tradition of their mask dance/theatrical performance. It was originally used to entertain a god that was called upon in times of plague. It was also used to satirize the upper classes and other tropes. There are a set of traditional masks that have been used over the years, as well as particular plays/dances performed. One survives in nearly its entirety and that is the one that is performed every weekend in Hahoe.

The dance is performed by all male actors, even the female parts. The only woman was the one going around with a collection plate. There was also a band, mostly consisting of drummers and someone playing one of those Korean instruments that sounds like a dying duck.

The play began with a man hunting two (creatively designed) mythical beasts. In the next scene a different man (a woodcutter if I recall correctly) hunts a bull. The show is a bit raunchy: the bull is made of two actors, the rear of which often lifted a let and sprayed a water bottle on the audience. The death of the ox was well done with red cloth used as blood. Next an old woman does some weaving and other household chores. One of the more interesting scenes was one where a sinister looking rich man follows a beautiful young woman (even going so far as to smell her urine after watching her squat down) and then seducing her. The details are hazy in my mind (which is why it is unwise to fall five months behind on my blogging) but I think the young woman ends up with the beast hunter from the first scene. In the end a humorously played drunk peasant dances around and eventually invites foreign members of the audience, including Alanna, to come out and dance with all the characters.

When the dance was finished we returned to Andong and walked out to the largest brick pagoda in Korea. Then Alanna had to catch a bus back to Daejeon since she had work the next day and I went to stay in a sauna for the night. I also went to a movie theater and saw an amazing Korean epic movie, The Sword with No Name (Bool-kkott-cheo-reom na-bi-cheo-reom). It was so Korean it hurt, from the burial mounds to the Japanese being pure evil to the film itself being a not quite as good imitation of something made by the Chinese and Japanese (sorry, but it's true). I especially found it odd and fascinating that they choose the nation's moment of greatest shame as the focus for their nationalistic epic movie. It takes place as Korea is forced at gunpoint to annex itself to Japan. The real villains are the pro-Japanese Koreans rather than the Japanese themselves. It is a tragedy about a peasant and skilled swordsman (and a persecuted Christian, sort of) who becomes a bodyguard to the empress. They fall in love but of course cannot act on their feelings because of their duties. It is also tragic because his superior martial skill is defeated by guns. The Koreans seem to be taking control of their history by portraying the conflict this way, changing a shameful defeat to a valiant and tragic one.

Pictures start here.

Chuseok vacation day 4 part 3: lunch at Hahoe Folk Village

Once back from the Confucian academy we stopped for lunch. We ordered a serving of Andong steamed chicken that I think was meant to serve three people, for which I'm glad since it was one of the best meals I've had in Korea. It consisted of steamed chicken (obviously), potatoes, various vegetables, and glass noodles in a wonderful semi-sweet brown sauce.

Chuseok vacation day 4 part 2: Dosan Seowon Confucian academy

We took a break from the village to catch a bus to the nearby Dosan Seowon Confucian academy. The academy is also a shrine to the Confucian scholar who founded it in 1575. There were a lot of pretty, old wooden buildings and some nice gardens. We stayed until the bus took us back to Hahoe.

Pictures start here.

Chuseok vacation day 4 part 1: Hahoe Folk Village

On Sunday we set out to Hahoe Folk Village, about forty minutes outside of Andong(1). The village contains a lot of restored and reconstructed traditional Korean houses. When we arrived we found that the mask museum was under construction, but we had a pleasant walk along rows of touristy shops and some nice totems down to the village. Just outside of it was a museum documenting the visit from Queen Elizabeth II. It was fun to wander around the village, which is actually still inhabited by people with modern cars, satellite TV, etc, but look traditional from the outside. One of my favorite parts were melons being grown on the thatch roofs of the cottages. The house of the patriarch of the mostly familial village was also quite interesting. It was a museum containing documents of praise from the king, among other things. Most notable of his achievements the appointment of Admiral Yi Sun-Shin. The village also had lots of tourist trap shops selling dolls of traditional masks, but more on that later.

The pictures start here.

(1) On the bus were a couple little posters declaring "Dokdo belongs to Korea!" The tiny island rock outcropping of Dokdo does in fact belong to Korea. Japan bizarrely claims that it is theirs, even though this is clearly not the case and is deeply offensive to Koreans, who have enough issues with Japan as it is.