2017 CPI Cultural Field Trip at Korean Folk Village(Sep.08, 2017)
On a beautiful autumn day, 2017 CPI family members went on a cultural trip together to Korean Folk Village in Yongin-city.
On 8.Sep(Fri), the entrance of Korean Folk Village was somehow crowded with global friends from 38 different countries with plentiful smiles in each of their faces. Our 2017 CPI friends have stayed in Korea for over 2 months up to now, learning Korean language and cultures and also practicing in their own fields. And yet, they have got 2 more months until they leave Korea, so we all now wonder what kinds of further fun will fill out their remaining Korean life.
This special trip is what we call the “CPI Cultural Field Trip” which was hosted by Arts Council Korea and sponsored by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Korea with participation of 14 Korean organizations in culture-related fields.
Everything was set and even the weather was helping, so all seems perfect! Shall we take a glimpse of the tour?
Everything was set and even the weather was helping, so all seems perfect! Shall we take a glimpse of the tour?
As we would enter, there awaited a Sansinryeong (a guardian spirit of mountains) who appears in so many Korean fairy tales. He definitely drew so much attention of ours, posing for a picture professionally.
The next spot we visited was a small village of the Joseon Dynasty which is the very last dynasty of Korea and it lasted the longest period of time among all the Korean dynasties. All the participating CPI friends were able to get a sense of how Korea looked like earlier.
Who is this woman and what is she doing? The work she was doing is weaving clothes by the old traditional means. These curious observers definitely could not skip watching her working without taking photographs.
The next spot was also very popular as it was the shooting site of a famous Korean historical drama titled “Sungkyunkwan Scandal”. Many of the CPI friends recognized the actors from the picture and even remembered their names!
The Joseon village was full of enjoyment and there stood another guy making a rope by twisting pieces of straw. Let us see how much attention he gained from the CPI friends!
This time, become a bride and groom in the Korean traditional wedding dress!
Have these guys done something wrong? They are being punished by their buddies, experiencing the interesting(?) old Korean flogging and leg-screw punishment.
After having a glimpse of the Joseon Dynasty at the small village, everyone felt differently as they come from so many different cultural areas.
These traditional houses made Ngan(nicknamed Nana) from Vietnam think of Vietnam, saying “I learned about the Joseon Dynasty only from TV dramas, but here I feel so differently and I especially like the buildings.”
Opoh from Cote D’ivoire delivered a heartwarming message that he liked this traditional village so much which makes him think of his hometown village.
These traditional houses made Ngan(nicknamed Nana) from Vietnam think of Vietnam, saying “I learned about the Joseon Dynasty only from TV dramas, but here I feel so differently and I especially like the buildings.”
Opoh from Cote D’ivoire delivered a heartwarming message that he liked this traditional village so much which makes him think of his hometown village.
As the short trip in Joseon Dynasty ended, here came the turn to watch and enjoy a traditional performance. The first performance was Nongak which is a type of old Korean traditional music performances used to be performed by farmers.
Let’s give it a go! The performers went around and did march-like dances to the rumbling sound their instruments made. The high-spirited sound made the audiences move their shoulders up and down and want to dance. The CPI friends also seemed to be fascinated by the energy and the blasting sound from the performance which the CPI friends may never had seen before.
The performers vigorously leapt and spun around in the air, spinning their long ribbon tails from the hats. May we call it the best scene of the day!
After the performance, the CPI friends took commemorative photographs with the performers. Sam Sreycha from Cambodia blushed and could not hide her excitement telling us that she sees the performers’ dress very pretty and she recorded a video of the show.
Let’s watch this guy walking a tightrope this time! This tightrope walker had an absolutely great sense to captivate audiences, making us so nervous to watch him.
Zakia from Indonesia took a photograph of him and she thinks that it was really cool to see the performer trying to communicate with foreigners.
The last turn of performance was martial arts on horseback.
Standing on horseback, riding backwards, riding sideways, handstand on horseback and so on... There were so many cliffhangers but it was breathtakingly thrilling and exciting at the same time.
Before wrapping up the day, the last event was natural dying. We dyed handkerchiefs with natural pigments made out of gardenia seeds and Sappan woods.
The CPI friends only had a little idea what we were going to make at the beginning but, shortly after, we all followed the steps one by one with helping hands of staff.
First, fold the handkerchief in however ways you want and tie it with rubber bands.
Dip the tied handkerchief in the colored water then squeeze it to drain.
Ta-dah! How simple! We just made our unique design of handkerchief!
We cannot skip photography with our own works! Can we?
The process was so simple and the result was satisfactory!
Although we all have different words of exclamation since we come from different cultures, we all saw and felt the same thing from the trip. Now we are sharing the same special memory!
The 2017 CPI family will be encountering another new cultures during their stay in Korea until they leave. We, Arts Council Korea, truly hope and believe that the rest of your Korean life will also be filled with a lot of joy!
