UNSRC Korean Cultural Society

Korea Herald

A design by Lee Rhee Za [Model Center International]/Kim Hye-soon`s work featured in “Hwangjini” [Model Center International]

The traditional Korean outfit hanbok has been a valuable cultural asset that has long-represented Korea.

Yet, despite Koreans’ love for the outfit and its growing international recognition, large-scale events featuring the costume are hard to come by.

The 2009 Hanbok Sarang Festival, taking place Friday and Saturday at Deoksugung Palace in central Seoul, is an effort to give hanbok the chance in the spotlight it deserves. Also, the event is to promote hanbok as an everyday clothing rather than something to be worn only on traditional holidays. This is the second year of the annual event.

“Hanbok Sarang Festival is aimed towards engraving hanbok in people’s minds as a daily wear, not just for special occasions,” said Toh Shin-woo, the president of Model Center International. The company hosts the event as well as the biannual Pret-a-Porter Busan.

“Popularizing hanbok will not be easy but we hope to change people’s perception at least a little through the event. We think hanbok can be internationalized only when Koreans first start wearing them a lot.”

The festival will feature collections by local hanbok designers including Lee Rhee Za and Kim Hye-soon, first-generation designers who are renowned for having contributed to making the outfit more high-end and thus used for contemporary weddings.

Visitors can also enjoy different styles of hanbok from the different periods of Korean history through fashions which have been previously featured on popular local television dramas. The list includes “Hwangjini,” “The Great Queen Seondeok” and “Jumong. Some scenes from the dramas will also be recreated.

Around 200 models, including actors Lim Ho and Kim Seung-soo, will walk down the runway. Some foreign ambassadors to Korea and their spouses are also included on the list, according to organizers.

Meanwhile, up-and-coming designers and student’s creations selected through a preliminary will be shown at Onnuri Fashion Show on Saturday. The winner from the show will receive an award by the culture minister and a prize of 5 million won ($4,247).

Toh said the festival will present some modernized hanbok as well.

Although he worries that modernized hanbok might loose its Korean identity, Toh said he thinks that developing new styles and modifying designs are desirable for making hanbok more wearable.

Other traditional Korean activities like natural dyeing, art of tea making, make-up and pigtail demonstration will also be offered to visitors to experience more of Korean culture.

“We think holding this kind of quality festival regularly is most important at the moment to draw people’s attention to hanbok,” said a festival spokesperson.

Visitors dressed in hanbok can enter the festival free of charge and also receive a gift. Entrance is also free for those who have downloaded and printed their tickets from www.hanboksarang.kr, the show’s website.

For details on the 2009 Hanbok Sarang Festival, call (02) 528-0888.

(youngaah@heraldm.com)

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Korea Times
10-21-2009 20:22

By Jane Han
Staff Reporter

Rising vegetable costs and a change in lifestyle have pushed Koreans further away from making their staple dish, kimchi, at home, but a new poll shows that people are turning back to the task.

Online shopping site Gmarket asked 6,191 men and women whether they are planning to make kimchi at home this winter, and more than 60 percent said they are. This is up 11 percent from a similar survey last year.

A majority of respondents said they plan to make about 100,000 to 200,000 won’s worth of kimchi this year, according to the poll, unlike last year when most people preferred to make less than 100,000 won’s worth.

Considering the costs of essential ingredients for kimchi haven’t changed much, Gmarket officials say households are simply pickling more vegetables than before.

“We’re seeing a sharp rise in the number of consumers who want to make their own yearlong supply of the dish,” said Baek Min-seok, a food merchandiser at Gmarket. “This is a big change in trend compared to the pattern we’ve been witnessing in recent years.”

Families once pickled tens of jars of kimchi to share with neighbors and relatives, but today’s homemakers have been turning away from the time-honored tradition, saying ready-made kimchi products are cheaper and tastier.

A recent poll showed that more than 65 percent of Korean housewives don’t know how to make kimchi, indicating a lifestyle change among the younger generation.

So why the sudden move toward tradition again?

The Gmarket poll shows that the widespread swine flu epidemic is the biggest reason behind people’s newfound interest in the fermented vegetable dish.

“Fermented food is believed to help strengthen the human immune system, so kimchi is emerging as a good solution among health-conscious individuals,” says Baek.

More than 55 percent of the respondents said they’re opting to take on the laborious task as they cannot trust food manufacturers’ safety standards. A few years ago, parasite eggs were found in kimchi imported from China.

Such food scares are encouraging people to make their own, but there are still options for those who don’t want to deal with the entire kimchi-making process.

Kimchi manufacturers are introducing partially completed products, such as pickled cabbage, to enable consumers to finish the remaining process at home.

jhan@koreatimes.co.kr

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A reconstructed rocket from the Chosun dynasty took off successfully on Saturday. Dr. Chae Yeon-suk of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute reconstructed the Fire Arrows of Singijeon. Another Chosun rocket, a two-stage rocket like the Naro, the Korea space launch vehicle launched in August, was also introduced. They were part of the Singijeon festival held to celebrate the 60th International Aeronautical Congress in Daejeon.

Korea’s first rocket was the Juhwa made at Hwatong Dogam, a government arsenal, by general Choe Mu-seon in 1377, during the latter days of the Koryo Dynasty. It developed four types of Singijeon such as small, medium, large and Sanhwa (which makes flames when blasting) during the 30th year of the reign of King Sejong the Great. Singijeon arrows can fly with the help of gunpowder.

Singijeon arrows are fired from a Hwacha launch cart in Daejeon on Saturday. /Courtesy of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute

None of the Juhwa rockets or their blueprints survive, but a Singijeon is detailed in the weapons schematics in “Gukjo Orye Seorye,” a book published in 1474.

Chae reconstructed the Singijeon and Hwacha, the launch pad, and succeeded in test-firing Singijeon arrows for the first time during the Daejeon Expo in 1993.

“I studied additional documents this time to reconstruct Singijeon launch pads and arrows in efforts to make them closer to their original type,” he said. “I launched arrows from Juhwa, which I reconstructed for the first time based on the small Singijeon launch pad. Singijeon was the top-rate rocket with a millimeter-range accuracy made with modern-style rocket manufacturing techniques. The Sanhwa Singijeon was the world’s first two-stage rocket, developed 80 years before Romania developed the Haas rocket in 1529.”

englishnews@chosun.com / Oct. 19, 2009 12:15 KST

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