South Korea (Seoul)

Flag of Republic of Korea, which is commonly known as South Korea

South Korea, which also knows as Republic of Korea, is one of the countries in South East Asia. The neighbouring countries consists of Japan (East), North Korea (North) and China (North). Due to the close proximity with Japan and China, thus South Korea is greatly influenced by them. In terms of language, cultures, traditions, sports and many more. South Korea is also one of the countries which have a very rich culture and it culture excel in arts.

Nightview of Seoul, the capital of South Korea

There are many cities in South Korea but Seoul is the biggest city and it is the capital of the country. It has a population of over 10 million residents and consider as one of the largest cities in the world. Leading global city is what some people will call Seoul as because of its modern infrastructures and happening. In addition, it has attracted many tourists into coming to visit it.

Cultures and Traditions of the South Korea

South Korea is a country that is rich in cultures and traditions.

Painting
Painting is one of the cultures in South Korea and it is a famous form South Korean Art. The painting has a long history and it fit in to distinct eras and showing different aspects of Korean lifestyle. An in depth insight into the culture can be given through either colourful forms or sketches. The very first paintings are believed by many to be wall paintings because some of the craving found on the walls in the Three Kingdom Period shows that. Different era will definitely came up with different type of painting and Buddhism has greatly affected the painting in South Korea. However, painting in South Korea has undergone lots of changes during this long period of time.

A traditional form of sketches painting

A traditional Korean painting that uses the colourful forms

Pottery
Another cultural art will be pottery in South Korea. It first started out as a necessity to have it but soon, people see the art in pottery. Pottery is noticeable and better because of its originality and uniqueness. This is because the Koreans have done every part of pottery, from clay ware, use of jade, white ware, stoneware and many other forms.

Basically there are four types of pottery in South Korea; they are Earthenware, Celadon, Stoneware and Whiteware.

• Earthenware
It was discovered and created in the prehistoric period and was wanted by many during the “Silla” and “Kaya” age of Korea. It was commonly used as vessels but later become part of decoration and part of South Korean Pottery because the patterns on it were formal. The patterns in the pots were marked by the use of comical expressions and abstract art.

One of the Earthenware found and used in the daily lifes on the people in the early days of South Korea.

Also a Earthenware, but it is changed along with time whereby colours are added into it.

• Celadon
This pottery involved the use of Jade when making the pots. This method was modified from China and plus the Zen Buddhism being brought into South Korea, it also introduced the idea of using jade to make pottery. Different types of designs are decorated on the Jade pottery. Patterns like clouds, cranes, lotus flowers and chrysanthemums are the common patterns used.

Picture showing one of the Celadon pottery. Patterns like clouds, cranes, trees and many more can be found on it.

• Stoneware
Stoneware is also known as “Punch’ong” in Korea. The way it was made was interesting. A grayish-green varnish is applied on the stoneware before applying another white layer over it. Stoneware is the type of pottery which South Korea concentrates on and is expert in doing it. It is also a main form of art.

Below shows one of the stoneware pottery of South Korea.

• Whiteware
White porcelain is used in this case to create the pottery. Immediately after it was brought into South Korea, it became the replacement for silver utensils. And by adding in the design of dragons, peonies, pine trees, plum trees, flying cranes and many others.

Above show a plain whiteware....

after adding in colours to a plain whiteware pottery, it will look like......

Hwatu
Hwatu, which means “flower cards” in English, is originated from Japan and brought into South Korea in the early 1900. Even though it was brought into South Korea from Japan, both deck and the game have now turned out to be part of the Korean tradition. One of the games that use the Hwatu to play is called “Go-Stop” and it is frequently played during the family gatherings while the other is called Sotda. Actually gambling can take place when playing Go-stop and Sotda.

A deck of hwatu, with a total of 48 cards and it comes each groups of four cards represent the different month of the year.

Religion
Religion in South Korea is free, which means everyone can choose which religion they want to follow. Majority of the South Koreans see themselves as Buddhism or Christianity. Buddhism is brought into South Korea by the travellers during the early days from India when they visit South Korea. In the present day, there are about 10,000 temples in South Korea and over 900 of them has been there for more than 50 years. Due the great influence by Buddhism in South Korea and Korean monks promoting Buddhism in the country, thus many of the Koreans have Buddhism as their religion. However, the Koreans, especially the monks, have used Buddhism as a factor to lure tourists to visit the place. The reason why Buddhism is so wanted by the locals by be because of the Confucius.

Besides Buddhism, Christianity is another religion which majority of the Koreans are. Christianity is not brought into the country by foreigners but by the local people themselves when they came in contact Roman Catholicism in Japan and Manchuria. A reason as to why it is popular in South Korea right now is because many have being practicing Christianity since ages ago. Even though they have their own religion, Shamanism, but not many use it as their religion. It could be that Buddhism and Christianity really have a great influence and impact on the locals.
Other than that in the present day, the people created another new religious belief in South Korea called the “Cheondogyo”. Basically it is a combination a little of Buddhism, Taoism, Chiristianity and Confucianism. However, only a minority of people is using this as their religion.

South Korean Dance
One of the cultures and traditions of South Korea is their dance. Although many things have changed along with time due to globalisation, the South Korean dance is said to have sustained its style and originality. It was not influenced by the modern and hip hop style of dance and music, which is the current dance trend around the world. In addition, in the earlier days, people can only dance during religious ceremonies but today, it can be performed anywhere.

The South Korean dance is basically made up of short and swift movements and minor repetitions of dance steps. What makes South Korean dance so special is the dance steps and movement which creates the two essential emotions of life, joy and sorrow.

The South Korean dance is grouped into three types and they are the court dance, folk dance and the religious dance.

• Court Dance
Court dance is seen as an art form of higher classes. The music that is played along during the dance is instrumental. It is more graceful and leisurely as compared to the other two types.

• Folk Dance
The folk dance symbolizes the rituals and beliefs of South Korea and the music that goes along with the dance make it more enjoyable. It is peppy and always performed in groups. It is the dance that preserved the tradition of South Korea and it is performed in the villages of South Korea.

• Religious Dance
The religious dance stands for the pagan culture and rituals of South Korea and it is often led by monks and secular dances, which can be individual or group dance, which are danced by the normal people. Religious dances are for shamanistic rites (gut) purpose.


Sculpture
Sculpture has changed lots of time from the early days till now. Sculpture of South Korea were first spotted on Ban-gudae Cliff in Ulsan where some rock cuttings were spotted. However people started realising the significance of sculpture and excerised as a major art form during the period when Buddhism was first brought into South Korea and had a very big impact there. Slower, sculpture become a major art form in South Korea.

Bronze, earthenware and clay figurines are the basic elements that sculpture consists of. Sculpture was further changed during the different eras in South Korea and many finds have show that almost all the sculptures are related Lord Buddha.

In the present day, sculpture is no longer restricted to Lord Buddha. Many modern Korean sculptors started using innovative carvings after being influenced by the European. It was then Korean Sculpture moved into the new form whereby more people could connect to it.

Lord Buddha is used in every sculpture in the olden days....

But sculpture changes along with time. As times goes by, sculpture is not only Lord Buddha but also some animals or human which we can be spotted in our daily lifes.

Indigenous groups (Ethnic Group)

South Korea is one of the countries that are homogenous because in the past, even if there were people who migrated there but they did not settle permanently. Therefore, there is no indigenous group in South Korea but they do have an ethnic group. They are the Chinese, and a recent research has shown that there is about 20,000 Chinese in the year 2010.

Due to some reformation in China, there is more Chinese migrating to South Korea. Thus, there is this group of Chinese existing in South Korea.

Official language in South Korea: Korean

Korean is the official language in South Korea and is classified under the Altaic language family. Chinese language is said to have affect and influenced how the Korean language is. Vietnamese and Japanese language also influenced the Korean language to a certain extent. Thus one is able to spot some Korean words written like the Chinese or somewhat similar to it.

In the current days, Korean language is made up of Korean vocabulary, Sino-Korean vocabulary, or Hanja-eo, and a little from English. It is not only spoken in Korea, but also countries like Australia, China, Japan, Brazil, United States, Canada, Post-Soviet states and Philippines.

In South Korea, Korean language is known as Hangungmal while in North Korea, it is referred to as Chosonmal. Even though both North and South Korea speak the same Korean language, they still differ in the way they pronounce, grammar, vocabulary and spelling. The way of using the punctuation is different too.

Below are the vowels and consonants of Korean language

Education system

The mode of education in South Korea is that it consists of 6 years in primary school, 3 in both middle and high school and 4 years in college. After all that, students can choose to go for further studies in the university or start to work. Majority of the parents in South Korea will try their best to fight for the best school for their children because they all want their children to excel and have a better future. Therefore, this makes it hard to get into some school which are popular.

Students study real hard during their high school period in order to get into a college because in South Korea, college is hard to get into. The main purpose for the Korean students to study so much is because that is what the parents want but once they are able to get into a good college, their parents will be very happy.

In addition, the teaching of English language is common in South Korea’s school and they started learning English as early as in elementary school. Therefore, tourists do not have to worry about any language barrier when they visit South Korea because most of the Koreans do understand simple English.

Events and Festivals in Seoul

• January
During the month of January or February, one of the mega events of the year will take place and that is the Seoul Lunar New Year whereby the locals will celebrate with their family members and this is the time when transportation is always full. The city will pause for the day because everyone will be busy celebrating with their family because this is the time where they welcome the New Year or even celebrate the birthday. This is because some of them consider a year older when the New Year arrives.


• March
In March, the Seokjeondaeje Memorial Rite will occur. It is a festival whereby it honours Confucius by the traditional court orchestra performances. Officials will go down to the Confucius Shrine at Sungkyunkwan University in their old traditional attire.

Another festival that happens in the month of March is the Memorial Day. It is the day where the people honour those who died in the battle and also the fallen student protesters who died in the Daegu riots in 1960.

• April
Yeouido Spring Flowers Festival happens during the spring period. The purpose is to celebrate the cherry blossoms and it is certainly the time for tourists to visit Seoul and have a capture this beautiful scene of cherry blossom buds “exploding”. Besides watching the cherry blossom, there will be performances to entertain the “watchers”. One is able to spot dancers performing in their bright coloured traditional silk hanbok every day on stage. There will be traditional musicians playing the percussion music which will be combined with dance, theatre and acrobatics. Other than these traditional performances, there will also be modern entertainment like inline skating too. Spicy traditional Korean food is also available when street vendors can be spotted there. In addition, magical and romantic night’s light show during the night and during the last night of the spring festival, there will be fireworks display at the Han River after the sunset.



Lotus Lantern Festival is the day people celebrates the birth of Lord Buddha. By lantern-making, a flea market, and a Nori-Madang (outdoor stage) festival, they celebrate Lotus Lantern Festival. One could spot monks carrying lanterns from Chogyesa Temple and along Chongno Street.




• May
In the month of May, Hi Seoul Festival, a festival that is held four times in a year and it started since 2003. It is also one of the festivals which attracted tourists into the city because it is actually a seasonal cultural festival. It is one of the ways for the people to showcase the history and culture of Seoul. Usually it is a more than five days event which features drama performances, parades, traditional ceremonies, food fairs, light shows and many more. They use citizens parade to attract more people to come and take a look. Each year, there will be different themes for it so audiences do not have to worry about watching or experience the same thing over and over again.





• June
June, one festival will take place and it is called the Prehistoric Cultural Festival. It is the time when one is able to look into the other side of Korean culture. The performance of re-acting the scene of Pawijol Folk Funeral Games will show the spectators the details of South Korea's heritage. Furthermore, food stalls and fireworks are part of the festival besides the performance.




Seoul Tano Festival, another festival that occurs in June. This festival represents the start of the hot summer in Seoul. They celebrate this day with traditional games at this family event and the games comprise of rope skipping, chachigi (stick-tossing), and ssirum (wrestling). What’s more, traditional music and dance performances are part of the event too.

• August
Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival is an event that is held in COEX Convention & Exhibition Center every year and it usually last for more than 5 days. It is the time for showcasing of animation; cartoon and any related any genres, both domestic and internationally.




• September
Baekje Tomb Festival also known as Hansong Paekche Cultural Festival is to remember the Hansong and Paekche Kingdowm empires, which helped to form the Korean culture. The festival is celebrated over a total of three days and there will be folk dancing, a folk fiesta, and a dazzling procession for the visitors to enjoy.





Also held in the March, Seokjeondaeje Memorial Rite was held again in the month of September.

• October
Seoul Performing Arts Festival is one of the best performing art festivals in Asia. This is the time where people from all over the world (domestic or international) come to Seoul for dance, drama and multidisciplinary arts performances and competitions. This is also the time whereby audiences can experience different type of performances on the same stage.





One of the most symbolic global festivals in Seoul is the Seoul Drum Festival that is held annually during October. The purpose of this festival is to allow the locals to increase their knowledge on percussion art and also chances to come into contact with percussion. Moreover, it offers performing rooms for the percussionists to exchange skills and information. The percussionists will perform with traditional and modern drums and other percussion instruments.

Traditional VS Modern percussion performance

• December
Christmas, a worldwide celebrated festival is also celebrated in Seoul. Reason being Christianity is one of the religion that most of the people in Seoul has as their religion. During Christmas, the streets of Seoul will be lightening up with special lights and Christmas trees. Shopping malls will be specially decorated for the festival.

Sports in Seoul

Taekwondo

Not really many people of this but actually, Taekwondo is originated from South Korea and it is the national sport. It is identified as the technique of kicking and punching since the word “Tae” suggest to hit or break with foot and “Kwon” stands for to punch or break with fist. Taekwondo was adapted from Tokkeyon, an ancient martial art. During the early days, Tokkeyon is practiced by the men for their combat skills. It was until the year 1952, when it is changed and decided that the Korean army should learn martial art. Thus, the president at that time changed the term from Tokkeyon to Taekwondo. It is included in the Olympic Games and is exercise by millions of people worldwide.

Korean Wrestling

Ssireum or sirum (Korean wrestling) is also a traditional national sport of South Korea. Wrestling is practiced for the purpose of self defence during the early days and because of that there is an increase in number of techniques been created. It is quite alike towards the Japanese sumo wrestling took place in a sandy ring and two big sized people will fight within the ring. The rule is that the first to land outside of the ring lose.

Kiteflying

Kite flying is played usually during the Chuseok, “harvest moon”, and the Lunar New Year. By using traditional Korean paper and bamboo sticks, one is able to assemble kites for kite flying. The purpose of flying a kite during the first 10 days of January, after Lunar New Year, is to stop thinking about all the bad luck for the past year. There are different types of kites available and there is even an exhibition to showcase the different kinds of kites that are designed from traditional to modern patterns or both.

Bullfighting

Bullfighting in South Korea is different from those in countries like Spain. In South Korea, bullfighting is a horn-to-horn fight between two bulls while in Spain bullfighting consists of matadors against a bull. This 1000 year old tradition is considered as a popular sport in South Korea and the game is not about strength and aggression. The bulls are trained by professionals and during the game they are awarded with points, which is very alike to how martial arts competitions work. It started out in some rural farms and was later famous and demanded by many and thus moved to bug arenas where up to hundreds of thousands are able to watch a game. One of the venues where bullfighting is still ongoing is at Cheongdo Bullfighting Ring. There are also local contest and global tournament of bullfighting from Japan, USA and Australia. People can also bet on which bull will win the game. Even though bullfighting is still allowed and not banned in South Korea but it still have not spread to urban cities area.

What is Korea known for?

What is the tourists perception on South Korea? They are Kimchi, Ginseng, Hallyu wave, plastic surgery and many more.

Kimchi
Kimchi is certain the best food to represent South Korea. Reason being is that kimchi is usually the first thing that came into the mind of a person when they think of Korea, especially about Korean food. In addition, kimchi is a must eat food for the Koreans for almost every single meal. Even though Kimchi is known for being spicy, but many still like it a lot and always order for it whenever having Korean cuisine for meal.

It is assumed that in the early days, the Koreans created kimchi to allow vitamins and minerals to be preserved in the vegetables throughout the long and cold winters in Manchuria when most of the Koreans were living there. It is very much believed that Kimchi is one of the healthiest food on earth because studies have shown that it is full of vitamins and minerals.

Basically there are more than 100 different types of kimchi available in Korea and the type of kimchi been produced is depended on the harvest and weather conditions. Different regions have different liking flavour for the kimchi. For example in the south, people use more salt and seafood so as to make it more sweeter and stronger taste and as for the north region, the people prefer the kimchi to be less salty and mild. As for kimchi in Seoul, because Seoul is the capital of Korea and having many different people starting in there, thus there are a variety of kimchis available there.

Ginseng
Ginseng, also known as Ginnsuu in mainly China and Korea, is one of the thing that people will thought of when Korea is mentioned. It is because Korea is one of the few countries that produce good quality ginseng. In addition, quite a few foods in Korea have ginseng as their ingredient. For example the Ginseng Chicken Soup. It is one of the must try food when one visit Korea.

There is also a Ginseng Festival held in a small city of Geumsan. Tourists are able to gain knowledge of ginseng because at this point of time in Geumsan, it will be flooded with ginseng and medicinal herb markets. During the festival, Geumsan Insam Gallery will be opened to welcome visitors in as displays and information of different ginseng will be put out for them to see. There will be exhibitions and booth set up there. Besides that, performances, events and foods are offered and all of them are related to ginseng.



Hallyu wave
In this 21st century, it can be said that always everyone will mention about Kpop (Korean Pop) when it is related to Korea or some of the topics made by youths are about K-pop. “Hallyu” wave which also means Korean wave in English. This include the entertainment industry in Korean (Dramas, songs, etc) which is also known as K-Pop. In the recent years, Korean wave was very popular among youths and the adults all around the world. It started off with the interest and liking for korean dramas when “Winter Sonata” was first screened on tv. Then the demand for korean dramas increased. After that is the forming of korean bands like WonderGirls, SNSD, 2NE1, Super Junior, Shinee and many more which until now is in hot popular demand from the youths. Because of the K-pop fever right now, people are very into korean culture, especially foods. More and more korean restaurants are set up everywhere.

The famous korean drama that light up the Hallyu wave, Winter Sonata.

Some of the KPop groups that are popular among youths nowadays.



Plastic Surgery
Plastic Surgery, or cosmestic surgery, is the other thing that Korea is famous for. Firstly, plastic surgery clinics can be easily found in South Korea and it can be as cheap as $800. Secondly, many believed that majority of the koreans undergo plastic surgery, especially those celebrities. This is because looks is important in Korea and parents even encourage their children to undergo plastic surgery like one would encourage their child to go for education. To them, they think that for one to be able to succeed, looks is the very first thing that can lead them to success.

"Disney" in a modern society

Disneyization means the homogenous of consumption, merchandising, emotional labour and theming. It could also means to turn the place into a more tourist-friendly whereby everything can be found in one particular place. For example shopping, sightseeing, or anything that a tourists would do can be found in a place, its disneyization.

One example would be Lotte World. Lotte World Seoul is actually a theme park which is divided into two sectors, the outdoor and the indoor theme park. The indoor theme park, Adventure” is actually linked with Lotte Department Store and Lotte Hotel. A folk museum whereby it showcases the traditional korean culture is also available there and besides all that, one is able to play ice-skating in Lotte World because a ice ring is located in there too. Visitors is able to fulfill their accommodation, shopping, eating and learning of culture in just the place. In addition, inside Lotte World, one is able to purchase merchandising that represents Lotte World Seoul and all these merchandises shops are located everywhere in Lotte World like they are attracting the visitors to go in and buy them. Besides all these, Lotte World also celebrate festivals in the place. For example, they are going to have a christmas celebration in the theme park during Christmas Day.

With all these available, one do not have to fear of nothing to do if they do not like to play in the theme parks because one is able to experience lots of different things in just Lotte World.

• Theming – clothing institutions or objects in a narrative that is largely unrelated to the institution or object to which it is applied, such as a casino or restaurant with a Wild West narrative.

Insadong is the largest traditional art maerket available in Seoul. The theming for the Insadong is that it is based largely on the traditional arts on South Korea which is very much different from how the normal shopping is like. And in order to attract customers, which stores have to design their shop as unique as possible.

• Merchandising – the promotion and sale of goods in the form of or bearing copyright images and/or logos, including such products made under licence.

Due to the increase in demand for Korean pop, Korean are selling merchandises that have various Korean band’s picture printed on it. For example by having them printed on mugs, clothes etc. Beside Korean pop, the uses of korea’s flag printed on the merchandises so as to promote South Korea.

• Performative labour – the growing tendency for frontline service work to be viewed as a performance, especially one in which the deliberate display of a certain mood is seen as part of the labour involved in service work.

Employees working in the frontline service for the restaurants must maintain an appropriate ratio of part-time and full-time. It is believed that overstaffing could deliver service error and thus lost of business. In order to deliver a good service to the customers, anyone at the frontline would have to fake a smile no matter what to the customers and always present the best out of them even if they are not in their best forms. For example, Lotte department store has the conviction of “customer always comes first”.

Changes. Commodifying?

The changes that have been brought about by the growth of tourism in the country.

Growth of tourism have indeed brought changes to South Korea. In terms of economy wise, it have certainly boost up the economy of South Korea because of the increase of tourism receipt. After all, tourists are always the one that spent the most in the country because they had to spend from accommodation to eating to shopping and many more. In addition, with the Korean pop fever going on, fans will come flooding into the country to support their idols whenever they are having concerts. One example is the JYJ’s Worldwide concert in Seoul which attracted 3,000 fans all over the world and generated a total revenue of USD$800millions.

Besides that, with more tourists coming into the country, better infrastructures and facilities have to be built in order to fulfill their needs and also to attract them. When building infrastructure for tourism purpose, conflicts between the locals and the governments might appear. Reason being the locals might feel that the tourists are taking over them and they feel unfair. This is the time when government have to decide whether they wanted to have the land for tourism or for the benefits of the locals. However on the other hand, with better facilities been built, the locals can also enjoy the benefits and might even create convenience to them. An example would be the building of roads for easy access for the tourists, the locals can also make use of the roads to gain easy and fast access to another place. Furthermore, more jobs will be create for the locals because the government would need people to help them build the facilities.

Growth of tourism might ended up making the locals’ attitude towards tourists dropped to the stage of annoyance, whereby they do not welcome tourists. Too much tourists in the country might not be a good thing because they will be snatching facilities with the locals, especially at places that are shared among them like the beaches etc.



Tourism has been a culprit in commodifying cultures and traditions?

To a certain extend, tourism has been a culprit in commodifying cultures and traditions. This is because nowadays more and more people making use of their culture’s unique dance that might be meant for festival or religion purpose to perform infront of the tourists in order to earn money out of them. When time goes by, the dance will loses it uniqueness because it is now perform anytime and not fully for the festival or religion purpose.

Also, due to having in contact with the tourists from other countries, one might loses it cultures and traditions because they were influence by what the tourists said to them or because it is commonly seen around them, therefore they adopt the tourist’s norms and cultures etc and slowly forget about their own cultures or even mix it together with their own culture till they cannot differentiate the original culture of theirs.

THE END OF THE BLOG!

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