Earticle

This article analyzes the effectiveness of classical music diplomacy toward the DPRK as seen in the New York Philharmonic visit of 2008. After contextualizing the role of the symphony orchestra with reference to North Korea and engaging with some questions of theory and orchestral program, the article goes on to suggest that popular music, specifically rap music, is likely to have a much more lasting impact in the DPRK. As such, the article enters into debates about North Korean cultural identity, U.S. foreign policy (particularly “soft power” directed at the DPRK), and musical practices on the Korean peninsula.

This study examines the origin and development of people’s cinema (minjung yŏnghwa) as the determining feature of the South Korean independent cinema movement in the 1980s. Defying the simplistic description of people’s cinema as political propaganda which arose in the mid 1980s, this study illuminates the multiple aspects of the idea that originated from the intricate dialogues between youth culture, minjung discourse and theories of resistant filmmaking. The 1980s youth culture rooted in universities is examined first to see how the youth culture functioned as both the producer and consumer of resistant cultural practices including people’s cinema. Based on this discussion, this study tackles the three main aspects of people’s cinema. First, it shows that people’s cinema emerged as an alternative film aesthetic to conventional narrative cinema, a variation of which was film documentary. Second, along with analysis of the film texts, it also shows how people’s cinema ideologically flanked cinema as an instrument of political activism. Lastly, it discusses the way in which people’s cinema developed into a national cinema thesis (minjok yŏnghwaron) in combination with North Korean film theory.

This article examines “Namhaeng illok (Record of a journey to the south)” and “Imjin illok (Record of the year 1592),” covering the end of the lunar year 1591 and the whole of the lunar year 1592 respectively. These two works comprise a small part of the extensive diary entitled Swaemirok (A refugee’s record), written by the yangban refugee, O Hŭimun (1539–1613. The complete diary was kept during a ten-year period from 1591 just before the first Japanese invasion of 1592 until 1601 four years after the second invasion of 1597. It provides a daily record of the struggle for survival of a refugee yangban and his family during the war years as they evaded death or capture at the hands of the invading Japanese troops. The value of this diary rests not only in its rare accounts of the unfolding of the war from a civilian point of view, but also for the many insights it provides into the life of the Korean people during the war years. Not surprisingly, a preliminary reading reveals the overwhelming importance of filial piety, family relationships, and the reverence for ancestors demonstrated by the yangban class even during periods of extreme crisis, as well as the importance of mutual economic support among its members. This article, therefore, contributes to a deeper under-standing of the economic and social conditions that prevailed in Chosŏn Korea at the end of the sixteenth century.

This study attempts to divide the history of music in Korea and Japan into clearly discernible periods. In this regard, no attempt has been made to date in either country to bring about such periodic classifications. The periodic classifications established herein are based on such aspects as the main actors involved in music-related activities, as well as changes in the social class through which music was accepted, and in musical genres. While the ancient period can be characterized by the predominance of royal and aristocratic-centered music, the medieval period was marked by the rise of literati (seonbi) and literati-sponsored music in the Korean case and samurai-sponsored music in Japan. Meanwhile, the modern period, which saw a significant enhancement of the people’s awareness of their own enjoyment, can be regarded as the era in which the public’s desire for music emerged. Such public desires gave rise to p’ansori (a traditional Korean art form that involves a combination of vocal and percussion music) in Korea and to ningyō jōruri (puppet drama) and kabuki (classical Japanese dance-drama) in Japan. In terms of the changes in the social class through which music was accepted, while music was mostly the prerogative of the royal court and aristocrats during the ancient period, the literati and samurai class became the primary movers during the medieval period, only to be replaced by the commoner class during the modern period. Special attention is paid in this study to the changes that took place with regards to musical styles. More to the point, because of a lack of materials relating to the previous periods, the changes in musical styles are analyzed from the third period onwards. This third period is identified herein as that of medieval music, or the heyday of court music. Meanwhile, the fourth period is that of early modern music characterized by the heyday of literati music in Korea and of samurai-sponsored music in Japan. The fifth period identified herein is that of modern music (the heyday of popular music) during which p’ansori and gidayu-bushi were regarded as important genres in Korea and Japan respectively. The sixth period, which revolves around the royal courts of Korea and Japan’s acceptance of European classical music, has as its starting point the year in which Western music was accepted and Western-style military bands began to be established. As this study can be regarded as an ongoing project, the criticism and opinions of other specialists in the field are most welcome. In this regard, it is through such criticisms and discussions that a common perception of the historical periods into which music should be divided can be produced.

This study, primarily based on the unpublished manuscripts of Soon Hyun, presents a bird’s eye view of his biography with emphasis on three major aspects of his involvement in the overall Korean independence movement. First, it tells the story of how Hyun was involved in planning and executing the March First Independence Movement of 1919 in Korea with leaders from the three religious groups, namely Christianity, Buddhism and Ch’ŏndogyo. Second, the study presents Soon Hyun’s activities in preparing for the establishment of the Korean Provisional Government in Exile in Shanghai, China. Particularly, his involvement with An Ch’ang-ho and Yi Tong-hwi, the two towering figures in the provisional government, is presented in detail. Third, his work with the Korean Commission in Washington D.C. that was created by Syngman Rhee, the first president of the provisional government, is told in great detail with emphasis on why he was appointed to succeed Kim Kyu-sik, the first head of the Commission, on what he tried to do in his effort to expand the provisional government’s diplomatic activities in Washington, D.C. and on how and why he was dismissed by Syngman Rhee. In addition, the study presents Soon Hyun as the second Korean minister of Chŏngdong Methodist Church in Seoul, who expanded the church membership through his dynamic preaching and ceaseless devotion to the church’s development. It also tells the story of his involvement in Korean immigration to Hawaii as an interpreter, who later published his P’owa yuramgi, a record of his observations of Hawaii.