Back in Seoul » South Korea

Happy Year of the Rabbit

Manolo — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 07:35:36 +0000

Tomorrow February 3rd Koreans will celebrate their New Year (the Lunar New Year). This new year it will be the year of the rabbit. In Chinese astrology this animal represents kindness, sweetness, and beauty, characteristics that all this year’s newborns will (supposedly) share.

In Korea the lunar new year means three holidays in a row, and it’s a time when many Koreans travel back to their hometowns to visit their parents. Seoul becomes a dead city and its impossible to travel by road inside the country due to the traffic jams. Hence, for foreigners living here, the best alternative is to leave the country by any means… Tomorrow I’ll be lying down on some beach in Boracay, so I’ll greet you the new year now.

HAPPY YEAR OF THE RABBIT!

The Seoul Fringe Festival 2010

Manolo — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:13:39 +0000

For those who are in Seoul these days, there is an event you cannot miss. The Seoul Fringe Festival, which takes place every year in the area near Hongik University will be taking place from August 12th to the 28th.

This year’s festival poster.

Hongdae Area, or just Hongdae, is the area surrounding Hongik University, and one of the most vivid areas in Seoul. Being Hongik a university manly for art-related studies, the area surrounding it is full of art galleries, street markets, coffee shops and other interesting places. Hongdae is where Koreans try to scape from its Confucianist rules and become free. Many Korean alternative music groups (like 10cm, Crying Nut or Deli Spice) started playing for free in the streets of Hongdae.

Any weekend you can see performances in this ares, but during this festival there will be many more, and also during weekdays. There will be lots of live performances in the streets, and art centers. Outdoor performances are free of charge. Indoor ones range from 5,000 KRW ($4) to 15,000 ($13).

To give you an idea of what you can find during the festival, here is one of the promotional videos with images from last year’s festival.

Boryeong Mud Festival

Manolo — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 09:08:04 +0000

The Boryeong Mud Festival is one of the most popular events of the summer in Korea among the foreign community in the country. This festival started in 1998, when the city of Boryeong decided that it would be good to have a small mud festival to promote the products based in the mud that the city produces. After some years, the festival attracts millions of people every year and its popularity keeps growing year after year. After missing this festival the last two summers, this time I could not miss it, so there we went to spend the weekend in this city in the west Korean coast.

Andoni was one of the first ones to jump into the mud.

Group picture on saturday. Even though it rained a little, it was not cold at all and we could enjoy the mud.

Of course, we couldn’t miss a music band in the festival. If was funny to see them struggling not to get dirty with mud.

Although there were also quite many Koreans in the festival, the truth is that more than half of the people in this festival are foreigners living in Korea, among whom the festival is quite popular.

During the night there is also quite a good atmosphere in the festival, there are concerts, lots of beach-bars open, fireworks, etc.

After the rain on saturday, on sunday we were lucky enough to enjoy a great sunny day.

As the pictures that I took were not as awesome as I would have liked to, here you have somebody else’s much better ones.

Korean Music: Super Junior

Manolo — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 12:51:02 +0000

I wanted to recover a section I had quite abandoned to show you a group that… “surprised” me quite a bit. It is “Super Junior” (슈퍼 주니어), no less than ten (yes, ten, and they used to be 13!) that have become Asia’s teenagers’ idols. I say Asian because they are succeeding not only in Korea but also in countries like Japan, China or Thailand.

Super Junior, when they were 12 members, apparently all of them in love with pink color.

I also wanted to show you one of their last songs, “No Other” (너 같은 사람 또 없어) where you can see how different the Korean (and Asian in general) musical culture is compared to the west. To tell the truth, it is quite difficult for me to imagine this kind of song succeeding in the west, but on second thought, the style does not differ much from a song that became a great hit in Spain not long ago, “Amo a Laura” (I love Laura)

Yellow Dust Storm (Hwangsa)

Manolo — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 09:58:18 +0000

The Yellow Dust storms (or hwangsa, as they call it in Korea) are a phenomenon quite common in countries like Korea, Japan, or China. These storms are basically dust clouds coming from the Gobi Dessert that are brought to Korea by strong winds. This dust, on its way to Korea is mixed with sulfur, ash, carbon monoxide, and other pollutants released by Chinese factories, and passes over to the two Koreas, and Japan as a yellow fog which makes you not feeling like going out at all.

View from my window, on a day with hwangsa.

During days with hwangsa, it is very common to see people in the streets wearing these surgical masks to protect themselves from the dust, from children to the elders. These masks are usually sold in the street or in the subway stations, and there are a lot of different models to choose from (someday I will make a post about those too).

A child protecting himself from hwagsa with a mask (and from the cold with his bear hat.

Korean Music: Lee Hyori

Manolo — Sun, 09 May 2010 07:32:41 +0000

Taking the opportunity brought by her new album release, H-Logic, I thought I would dedicate this post to one of the most internationally best known Korean singers, Lee Hyori (이효리). I am quite sure she is the highest paid female singer in Korea, and also one of the sexiest, although being 31 years-old, she is starting being a little too-old for a music market (the Korean one) which is full of teenager groups.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r22NRc-avSA

Hyori started in music as a member of teenager group Fin.K.L. (핑클). She would soon stand out and decided so separate from the group and start her solo career.

“10 Minutes”, from her first solo album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrrmuVos4oY

“Mr. Big”, my favorite

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI_RZUXMHrM

First song from her latest album, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”.

I remember when I first arrived in Korea this Hyori poster for Cheoeum Cheoreom soju was in every bar. But this soju brand’s posters are for another post

Kim Yuna (김연아)

Manolo — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:52:02 +0000

South Korea’s performance these Winter Olympics has been more than outstanding (5th position with 6 gold medals, 6 silvers, and 2 bronzes). But among all the Korean medalists, the true protagonists has been this young skater, whom at her 19 years of age has already won anything you can win in the world of figure skating. Specially these Olympic Games she has set new world records for both the short and long programs. I can say that during both performances, which were broadcast here in Seoul around 1 PM, everybody at my company stopped working to watch the performance on their cellphones, and some people could not even avoid dropping some tears when Yuna started crying after her second performance, knowing that she is making history in figure skating.

Short Program Video

Free Style Video

Even before the Olympics it was already difficult to take a walk in Seoul and not see Kim Yuna in some commercial… she’s everywhere, every corner of Seoul, in the streets, in the subway, at the malls, she’s the official image for makes such as Nike, Samsung, Hyundai… I imagine after the games she will become even more a social phenomenon here in Korea.

Nike commercial with Kim Yuna: “200 points don’t surprise me at all”. Yuna was the first skater to score more than 200 points. She won the Olympics smashing her own record up to 228.56 points.

Yuna on a cellphone advertisement for Samsung (in Korea they are sold under the brand Anycall).

Television commercial for Anycall.

Yuna started being known when in the 2004-2005, at only 14 years-old she got the silver medal for Korea (first international medal for Korea in all its figure skating history) at the Junior Grand Prix Final, just behind the Japanese Mao Asada, who has been her biggest rival since then. Precisely Mao Asada has won the silver medal after Kim Yuna on the Olympics.

Yuna at 14 years of age.

Not only is Yuna good at skating. Music seems to also attract Yuna’s attention. She has already appeared on TV several times singing songs by her favorite Korean artists, and she does not hesitate to sing, either in a noraebang like most Korean teenagers, or at the galas of the competitions where she participates. What’s clear is that she was born to be a star.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cdN843blME

Yuna singing with Taeyeon, from Girl’s Generation. ¿Will we see her as a professional singer once she quits skating?

Kim Yuna at the Grand Prix 2009 Final Gala (in Tokyo).

Kim Yuna’s performance at the Skate América 2009. This is one of her most popular performances. In many commercials she does the 007 “shooting” thing like at the end of the performance.

Links:

Kim Yuna’s Official Website: www.yunakim.com
Kim Yuna’s Cyworld (Korean): http://www.cyworld.com/figureyuna
Wikipedia article about Kim Yuna (inglés): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Yu-Na

Korean Music: What is Love

Manolo — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 03:17:56 +0000

With this post, I am going to start a series about Korean music. And when I say Korea music I mean commercial music like what you can hear when you walk around any street in Korea.

The first song is one of my favorites. The song is “사랑이 뭐길래”, which means literally “What is Love” and would be pronounced something like “sah-rang-i moh-kil-leh”. The group is called “Miss $” (미스에스) and is quite a singular group, as its components are two rap-girls with quite a “tough” image when the rule in Korea for girls groups is totally the opposite (you’ll see it in next posts, don’t be impatient!):

Miss $: Hye-Young Tae (태혜영) on the left and Yumi Oh (오유미) on the right.

As a video to show you, I have chosen a performance they did live for the SBS. It was hard to believe to me, but the main girl in the video is not part of the group, she’s another singer called Nimo (니모) and in my opinion she does an awesome job. I was also surprised that they sung live, because here in Korea playback is quite popular, even in concerts…

Another curiosity is that the official video of this song has been quite controversial because it shows some too-explicit images, at least for Korean culture, and taking into account that this kind of videos is mainly seen by teenagers (you can see those images as well as the whole video here).

Ok, so I’ll stop the talk now and let you see the video. Notice that when a Korean group sings on TV they usually show the lyrics on the screen so that people can sing the song like in a karakoe. And don’t miss the detail of the Nike shoes that the girl on the left is wearing!

More Snow…

Manolo — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 03:43:48 +0000

Seoul remains white after the last snowfalls, and even though it is not snowing anymore, low temperatures are keeping snow from melting… This is a satellite view of Korea I got sent my e-mail. The shot was taken after last January 4th’s snowfall, which they say has been the strongest in Seoul in the last 100 years (although who knows, maybe they say that everytime it snows ). You can see that there is more snow in the areas around Seoul than even in North Korea. And from all Korea, only Busan got to survive from the snow storm.

Haenyeo: The Korean Mermaids

Manolo — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:08:53 +0000

In Korean, the word haenyeo (해녀), means literally “sea woman”. The story of the haenyeo (also known as “Korean mermaids” or “Jeju mermaids”) is one of the most interesting stories that one can hear in Korea. The truth is that there are many versions of this story, and noone seems to know which one is the right one. After doing some research on the Internet, it seems that the haenyeo phenomenon started around the late 19th century, early 20th, although I have read some people saying that the haenyeo (understood as women who dive to fish and hence survive) were in Korea as early as 400 b.c.).

During our trip to Jeju (more exactly in Udo Island) we had the chance to see the haenyeo in action.

In the old times, on the southern Korean Islands, most of the population made a living from fishing. Many fishermen died while fishing due to the bad weather and the storms, and widowed women were forced to raise their children alone, so they started fishing underwater. And this is how the haeneyo started (at least this seems to be the most accepted version). This way of fishing started getting more and more populare among the female population (also partly due to the fact that women didn’t pay taxes, while men did) and daughters of these women started fishing too, creating a tradition which seems to be doomed to disappear.

These women can descend down to 20 meters or even deeper, holding their breath for several minutes. They say that years and even evolution/natural selection made their bodies specially suited to bear the low temperature of the water, as well as pressure changes (whoever has done diving will know that going down to 20 meter is not a joke). That’s why the haenyeo are usually called “Korean mermaids” or “Jeju mermaids”. This job is mainly done in summer, but also in winter, despite the low water temperature. Even though nowadays the haenyeo use neoprene and weights, in the old times, these elements were not used.

Nowadays, the younger women in Jeju don’t want to continue such a hard job, and they usually move to the city and study, or just live from tourism, main source of income in the area. According to the wikipedia, today there are around 5,000 haenyeo registered as such, out of which 85% are over 50 years old.

Their appearance is that of a person that has been working hard all her life, with their faces tanned by the sun. By the way, if you were hoping to see mermaids like those in the movies or cartoons for children, I’m sorry, I couldn’t see any either

Here is where the haenyeo sell their catch.

Althogh nowadays the haenyeo use neoprene suits, this activity used to be done without any kind of special protection against the cold waters.

Here is the catch. Shells, sea urchins, and conchs that they will sell to the restaurants in the island.

A closer view.

This miss haenyeo just finished her day.

Usually the heanyeo carry that buoy to signal their location when they are ascending.

In the museo de las Haenyeo you can see how the haenyeo used to fish in the past, with its tratidional suit (picture by karendotcom127).

To finish this post, here is the trailer of the movie “My Mother The Mermaid”, a Korean movie that shows the haenyeo. It is a movie about a girl (the Korean actress Do-Yeon Jeon, who travels past in time and gets to know her mother when she was a haenyeo in Jeju. In the trailer you can see the haenyeo diving. You can also see how they differentiate the mother from the daughter (both are played by Do-Yeon) by using a darker skin and more “wild” behavior on the mother (a characteristic of Jeju natives).

Back in Seoul » South Korea

Happy Year of the Rabbit

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