Hanok and Heritage

Here is an excerpt of the essay that I submitted to the UNESCO-affiliated Establishment Initiative for the Intangible Heritage Center for the Asia-Pacific (EICHAP) re: the Korean Cultural Heritage program that I attended in early December. Please keep in mind that most of my writing is done under the barrel of a gun and during the wee hours of the morning...

Personally, what I found most interesting was the trip to the Jeonju hanok village, supplemented by the one-night stay in the hanok accommodations. The sequence in which we encountered hanok was well-conceived and effective. We started out viewing the historic hanok village as part of a tour led by a competent tour guide. Our initial vantage point was situated on a hill that overlooked the hanok village. This, of course, made for a prime photo opportunity of a village’s architecture straight out of the pages of Korean history. The snapshot was picturesque and exotic, yet distant at the same time. Later, as the tour progressed, we moved into the hanok village itself, and found ourselves walking the tiny alleyways and seeing the characteristic roof tiles at near eye-level. Being so close, it then became clear how diminutive these structures actually are, especially in comparison to the vertical landscape of Seoul. By the time evening came around, our journey of “peering in” led us further into literally entering the hanok itself. We were divided up into small groups and shared tiny and cramped rooms. Some of the participants chose to stay in the traditional ondol rooms, which featured an underground “fireplace” but lacked bathroom facilities in the room itself. I stayed with two other women in the more modern ondol room, and between the three of us and our baggage, there was no extra available space. The next morning we awoke to find that the bathroom was ice cold and that there was no hot water for showers.

True, the lack of space and hot water did not make for an ideal stay. But what I gleaned from this experience was an accurate slice of real life, with all of its inconveniences. In this sense, this encounter with hanok – which metaphorically represented a journey from the “outer to the inner” – was an invaluable learning experience. It was in this combination of “sightings” of hanok to the visceral feeling of warmth coming from the fire stoked directly underneath the floor, for instance, that one could gain more local insights into the tangible and intangible aspects of Korean cultural heritage.

Lastly, I would suggest here that the “intangible” resided within an activity that was not even listed on the program schedule. Late on Saturday evening, several doors of the hanok rooms were opened to create a long, rectangular space; all of the participants and staff crowded into the oddly shaped room to hang out and munch on fruit and Choco pies. It was a nice way to wind down after the day’s events and talk with fellow participants. This improvised gathering felt very much like a duipuri (party after some sort of event), or part of the “nori” munhwa (culture of "play") that is an unequivocal part of Korean culture. I would argue that what is officially designated as “Intangible Korean cultural heritage” often belies more intrinsic aspects of Korean culture and ways of being. “Nori” munhwa is harder to formally evaluate or give status to, yet it is within this cultural sensibility that relationships are forged and cultivated – an intangible concept that has great applicability and efficacy in Korea, but also, as I observed this past weekend, beyond Korea as well.