Like a swimming pool...but not.

This was how my friends first described jimjilbang to me when they suggested going when I was in Korea two years ago. 

I have often been asked by Korean friends and foreign friends alike, "What is the most embarrassing experience you've had in Korea?" and 'When was the moment when you really began to embrace / 'get' Korean culture?". 

The answer to both of these is always my jimjilbang story. 

Two years ago, I was in Seoul, it was my second trip to Korea except this time I was doing it alone - the first time I'd stayed with friends and had everything done for me. This time I was completely "혼자" or "alone!" 

A lot of people blog factually about jimjilbang. How it works exactly, the tradition of it, the history of it, its role in Korean culture and society but to be completely honest, when my friend first suggested going, I had no clue what she was on about. 

My Korean level was pretty appalling at that time..."Jimjilbang?" ...even the word sounded strange.

"It's like a swimming pool but not", she said "but you can sleep there too". 

"So, I should bring a swim suit?" I asked. 

"Yes, they have a swimming pool too...and bring whatever you need for a sleepover..except pyjamas...they give you those", she said. 

Utterly confused but somewhat desperately trying to embrace Korean culture as much as a culturally disorientated 17 year old could, I swallowed any essence of doubt and agreed to go. 

I mean it can't be that bad...you wear a swimming costume...right? 

WRONG. 

VERY. 

VERY. 

WRONG. 

We arrived in the dragon hill spa jimjilbang (it's a very big, fancy jimjilbang in Yongsan, Seoul) as a group of 4. Myself and three of my Korean friends - (2 of whom were ethnically Korean, raised overseas). 

So, we walked into the changing room and I was hit by the sight of nakedness. Everyone. All ages. All shapes and sizes. Naked. My rather prude "When-we-go-swimming-we-get-changed-in-cubicle" eyes didn't know wear to look and my brain didn't even know how to process. 

At this point, alarms bells should have started ringing. 

So we went to our lockers to get changed and I got straight into my swimsuit. I looked up to see my friends, utterly starkers, looking at me weirdly. 

"What?" Hurry up, I want to see what all the fuss is about!", I said. 

Awkward silence ensued. 

"Why are you wearing a bathing suit?" they asked me.

"What do you mean 'Why am I wearing a bathing suit?"?" I asked... "Surely the question is why aren't you wearing yours!" 

Then came the laughing. 

"No, Anna, in jimjilbang you don't wear a bathing suit. You only need that for one we actually go to the swimming pool because that section is mixed. This is the baths...you don't wear anything here" they said. 

I felt the colour drain from my face - which is pretty impressive because I'm rather pale already.

Naked? 

In front of other people? 

Me? 

No. No. No. No. NO! 

My friends got pretty tired of my resistance pretty quickly and after about 5-10 minutes of me saying "But...but...but...no clothes?!" they got rather frustrated and presented me with an ultimatum : get my swimsuit off and go or sit here on my own for the next 90 minutes or so and wait for them. 

The prospect of sitting all on my own in the changing room, surrounded by naked ajummas was almost worse than the prospect of getting my own kit off ... but 90 minutes? 

It had to be done. 

Swimsuit off. 

I looked up. 

No one was laughing. Or pointing. A few people were staring but I already mentioned I'm pretty pale so that was kind of to be expected. This wasn't half as bad as expected. 

We had been given a towel to use. I held it up expecting that at least I could hide until we got to the bath and I could do the really cool "cover-yourself-with-the-towel-until-the-last-second" thing.... 

However, what qualifies as a towel in Korea would probably not be considered much more than a flannel or a face towel anywhere else in the world. This was going to be fun. 

I spent a few minutes pondering what exactly I was meant to do with this towel. It wasn't really big enough to cover anything... it definitely couldn't cover "both areas". It was question of one or the other...but that would just look weird. 

Oh stuff it. I threw it over my shoulder. Adopted the fake confidence I keep reserved for moments like this and walked boldly across the changing room...not really knowing where I was going. 

We went downstairs to the bath area and it's custom that everyone has a shower before using the bath. While this can be done standing up, there's a large area where you can sit down so we went over there and had a shower. 

That's when she started to scrub my back. 

I spun round in horror. "What are you doing?" I asked my friend. I was already naked, the prospect of being scrubbed by someone else...well...! 

"I'm scrubbing your back! she said. 

"....Why?" I replied. 

"Because we're friends and you can't reach it. I'm just helping" she said. 

"But I'm naked!!" I spluttered. 

"Yes, I can see that" she replied coolly. 

... 

"Oh... ok then" I said, turning round as she continued to scrub me. She finished and then looked at me .."My turn!" she said, grinning. 

I swallowed my 'I-am-English-we-don't-do-this' mindset and started scrubbing. 

After about 15 minutes of walking around in my birthday suit, I was utterly at home in the jimjilbang. 

Even the ajumma complimenting me on the size of my chest couldn't throw me off.

(I simply replied with "감사합니다~" (formal - thank you) much to the amusement of my friends, who found the whole situation utterly hilarious. 

한여름밤의 꿈 ~ A Midsummer Night's Dream

A while back, I decided that I was somewhat disgusted and outraged with myself for the fact that, despite having been living in London since September, the cultural outings I'd made could effectively be counted on one hand. Tut Tut. 

So, when I saw the Globe theatre was running a series of productions of Shakespeare's plays in various languages - I couldn't resist booking tickets for the Chinese production of Richard III and the Korean production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was even more exciting for me I guess as, somewhat embarrassingly, my previous interactions with Shakespeare had surmounted to performing Much Ado About Nothing in secondary school and later, trudging through Merchant of Venice as one of my GCSE compulsory set texts. I'd never even been to the Globe. 

Having seen Richard III earlier in the week and been overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the theatre (as well as becoming well acquainted with what happens at an open air theatre when it starts to rain....a lot!), I couldn't wait to head back to the theatre for my second Shakespeare instalment of the week. 

Armed with a general understanding of the play (thanks Sparknotes!) and joined by my Korean language partner, I figured I had a reasonably good chance of 'getting' most of it! 

Well. The performance was stunning. Absolutely breathtakingly, fantastically awesome. If there was ever a Shakespeare play that was just asking to be thrown linguistically and culturally into a new language, it is A Midsummer Night's Dream, or 한 여름밤의 꿈 to give it it's Korean title. 

Performed by the wonderful cast of the Yohangza Theatre Company (극장 여행자), A Midsummer Night's Dream is electrifying and bewitching, drawing on Shakespeare's original plot line and weaving in various themes of Korean tradition and folklore. 

Oberon and Titania become King Gabi and Dot, Queen of the Dokkebi (Korea's own mischievous fairies). Puck undergoes his own transformation into a pair of twins called Duduri (played by double-act Sang-Bo Kim and Jung-Yong Jeon, shown below) and a twist in the translation sees the incurable womaniser King Gabi placed under a spell by his wife, making him fall in love with the first woman he sees. Upon his awakening, she ensures he sees - not a bottom turned into an ass but instead an ajumi (old woman / herb collector) transformed into a pig! - a fitting punishment for a man with a roving eye~!

Queen Dot with Duduri 

The protagonists are dressed in plain, traditional clothes to reflect their personalities. Byeok (Hermia) enters the stage donned in an eye-catching red top, the beauty, beloved by all (at least before entering the dream state). Next on is her opposite, Hang (Lysander) dressed in royal blue. I really enjoyed the symbolism here  - red and royal blue are the colours of Korean Yin-Yang (or Eum-Yang in Korean), illustrating her unwavering loyalty and his attempted betrayal - until everything is back to normal after leaving the dream state. 

Ick (Helena) performs in a bright yellow top that connotes royalty, propriety and luck. At the outset, she is left alone, neither lucky or in love, but Queen Dot soon sees this put right. Her opposite Roo (Demetrius) is dressed in dark green, representing a nasty, untrustworthy person. He is true to his colour, abandoning Ick in   the woods after being particularly mean to her. 

After entering the dream state cast by Queen Dot, our main characters are stripped of their coloured tops and don white ones instead - symbolic of immersion in nature according to Buddhist culture...and enter the forest, where purity and innocence may be found! 

One of the Dokkebi. 

Yohangza's style is as much dance as drama and is comic to almost Pantomime-extremes in some parts. The  fantastic choreography of movement and speech combined with strong visuals  blends magnificently to produce a production which is easy to follow, even for those who speak no Korean whatsoever - of which there were many in the audience. 

Actors interact on a large scale with the audience, mingling among the standing, teasing them, tormenting them, as well as flowing fluorescent rings out into the audience - apparently this is to create a sense of unity between the cast and the audience, the rings given out as a small token of their appreciation. 

Some moments translate particularly well. Ick's "I am your spaniel" is rendered hilariously unmistakeable by her on-stage puppy-like portrayal - with barking, pawing and panting included. 

At the end, Dot removes the dream state and all of our couples end up back in their rightful pairs. King Gabi   learns to  appreciate his wife once more and at long last, the old ajumi is transformed back from a pig to her old self. As a reward, the next day when she awakes, she finds a "valuable" herb, screams something along the lines of "shin-bad-da" and runs off stage, marking the end of the show.

However, some moments are a little tricky for a non-Korean audience to follow. I will confess to being one of the many people who had no idea what the significance of this end scene was. Unsurprisingly, it seems the meaning was not lost on the Korean audience. My Korean friend told me that basically, as a present / thank-you for participating (although unknowingly) in the Queen's scheme to teach her husband a lesson, the goblins rewarded the old lady with a very precious type of ginseng (traditional Korean herb) called Sansam, a herb she'd apparently been searching for all her life. The Korean phrase "신밧다" (shin-bad-da)  is used upon discovery of such a herb (and only in this case - so I have since forgiven my dictionary for not containing it ... I don't think I'll be finding Sansam any time soon!). 

In conclusion, the play was terrific. I walked away incredibly happy with myself, not only for having understood about 70% of the Korean, not even just for having finally gone and done something cultural but for the simple fact that I loved the show. It reignited my love of the theatre and deep down inside, a little part of me yearned to get back on the stage (I acted a lot as a child) - however, this feeling quickly disappeared when I got home and saw all my revision waiting for me :( 

Anyway, with a Korean exam tomorrow, I must return to my little world of study. 

Tonight will be the last performance and if anyone is going, I hope you have a wonderful evening- I guarantee you will enjoy it. If you're not yet going, then there is no reason as to why you should not! 

Book now! 

Shakespeare's Globe to Globe runs until the 9th of June. 

The Globe Theatre Box Office : 020 7401 9919

Picture Credits - The Globe webpage, The KCC 

All Eyes On Korea : Launch

In light of the upcoming Olympics, the Korean Cultural Centre (KCC) in London has put together a fantastic program to promote Korean culture over the summer. All Eyes On Korea is a '100 day summer festival' that will last from June through to September this year. 

As the 100-day countdown to the Olympics began, today I attended the official press launch at the KCC which featured an introduction to the festival and a taster of what is to come in June by Paul Wadey, PR Officer at the KCC.  We were told that the festival was inspired by the five colours of Korea, each representing North, East, South, West and Centre. It is hoped that the festival will provide the perfect opportunity to continue the spread of the Hallyu wave and showcase all things Korean - from K-pop to K-classic, Korean fashion to Korean food, Korean art to Korean literature and much, much more. 

In a previous blog post, I mentioned some of the risks faced by focusing Korean cultural promotion too much on K-pop and how this left Korea at risk of losing out on other groups of people who would potentially be interested in different aspects of Korean culture. Well, with a jam-packed program such as this - there is no risk of anyone being left out. 

In the presentation, we were given some rather interesting statistics. For example, non-Korean visitors make up 81.4% of the total and of all the visitors, 35% have visited more than 4 times. 70.5% of visitors were between 18-39 but in addition, around 10% were over 60 - demonstrating the centre's ability to appeal to all ages. 

Continuing to demonstrate this appeal are the events that will be forming the schedule for this summer's 100 day festival. 

On the Korean art front, Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa will be presenting an outdoor installation at the Southbank Centre which will be there throughout the summer. In addition, this summer the Hayward Gallery will become a temporary summer school; "Wide Open School" is an intriguing experiment into 'what would happen if a school's curriculum was driven by the imagination of artists'. The school will run from mid-June to mid-July and will feature Korean artist Lee Bul. From mid-July, the KCC will run it's own exhibition entitled "Korean Funerary Figures: Companions for the journey to the other world" which will feature 19th and 20th century Kokdu used to decorate funeral biers. 

The main Korean literary event of the summer will see 'Poetry Parnassus' taking place at the Southbank Centre. Poets from each competing Olympic nation have been invited to participate in  the UK's largest ever poetry festival and will present the works of Korean poet, Kim Hyesoon. 

From literature to performing arts, the KCC is covering it all. On the 23rd of July, Be-being's korean music mask project, "Yi-myun-gong-jak", will be performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. This concert of traditional  Korean music will include performances of original compositions as well as reinterpretations of traditional Korean mask plays and is definitely something not to be missed!

Another Korean musical extravaganza hitting the London stage on the 28th of July is "Walkabout", presented by GongMyoung, a Korean quartet who perform traditional Korean music with a contemporary music. In a single performance, the audience will hear the sounds of up to 30 different instruments. Having performed all over the world, their arrival is the UK is long overdue so again, definitely worth watching! 

For a full schedule of the other musical events taking place - stay tuned to the KCC website! 

'All Eyes on Korea' will conclude with Korea's stage at the Mayor's Thames Festival on the 8th and the 9th of September later this year. The stage will feature a full programme of events, performances and workshops  for all the family. 

It sounds truly fantastic (and I only wish I was in the country for it!!!)  

At the conclusion of the presentation, I went outside and happened to bump into some friends of mine.... 

As part of the launch, LOKO's Caroline and Deanna led a number of students from the K-pop Academy and other numerous volunteers on a flashmob tour of London all morning. After the press launch, I joined the crew on the very brightly decorated 'All Eyes On Korea' bus to continue the flash mob tour...

We were joined on the bus by some Korean news film crews ! 

However, due to a timely downpour, our tour was cut short and we had to head back to the KCC early! 

On our return, we all sat down to watch a concert DVD and then, before we knew it, it was time to prepare for 태국기 (TaeGukGi), the fourth Korean night hosted by the KCC....(T.B.C)

*For those interested in getting more involved with the KCC-hosted events over the course of the summer, you're in luck as they're currently looking for supporters to help with and attend the events so don't hesitate to get in touch - here's some more information below!