A Drum Show and a Soccer Game: How Modern Korea Sees Herself

A weekend with excess drinking here in Seoul. But at least for my last weekend here in the Metropolis, I at least had a bit of time to do a couple of things to think about how the modern side of Korea, with Seoul as her best representative, really thinks about itself, especially as she deals with an increased inflow of foreigners here for pure economic gains (rather than military, family reasons as has been the case not that long ago). Traditional culture is still very much alive in the country and among the people...or is it?

The first was a sort of action play that act as one of Seoul's longest-running man-made tourist spots. "Nanta" (literally, "random hitting") is a "silent comedy + Stomp + interpretive dance(?)" show that has allegedly been running nonstop since 1997 and in 40 different countries. The lack of actual use of spoken language, the widespread use of martial arts (or what seems to be) has been a major factor for its international success. Beautiful female chef and many body humor that depends not on culture...the show was full of elements to entertain the foreigners without slightest knowledge of Korea.

Yet, interesting enough, the show has disguised various elements of Korean tradition within a largely non-Korean show. The setting was a traditional Korean restaurant, and much of the "Stomp"-like rhythms originate from Korean drumming that has been practiced for centuries by artisans. Not openly showing Korean cultural elements, but using every opportunity to infer to Korean elements...it perhaps is a sign of lacking outright confidence in outsiders being able to accept the Korean "ways" directly, but plenty of desires and passion to introducing the culture through somewhat "easily digestible" methods....

The tendency for a not-that-confident Korea to market her culture not as a separate element but as something of a wider context, whether it is a "sub-branch of Asian pop culture phenomenon" or more specifically as a extension of Chinese kung-fu subculture (as "Nanta" has in a way attempted to do) or extension of something the Japanese has started (whether it be emotional dramas or pretty/handsome boyband/girlband pop music scene) will, as time goes on and the cultural "made-in-Korea" label becomes more globally recognizable, subside.

In fact, it would not be hard to find Koreans abroad quite confidently proud of their cultures these days. Dealing with the current crop of teenagers, the trend is evident. While the 20-somethings still speak of Chinese political power and Japanese economic power as something Korea feels truly inferior, the youth of these days have not shown a slightest degree of care in such comparisons. They, as young ambassadors of a hip, trendy country, has been recipients of widespread respect from their counterparts in other countries, in the process boosting their (and Korea's) confidence of themselves...

But, of course, Korea will always have her dark side on the global stage if the political situation stays the way it is. While the youth flaunts new-found cultural confidence, the issues with North Korea still grab the attention of non-Koreans more than anything else. Years of marketing K-pop abroad have not made any shining pop star more famous worldwide than the Dear Leader up North. And his behavior in his own backyard still cause more uproar than the behavior of any South Korean actor on the other side of the world.

With such reality in my mind, I turned on the TV the other day and was surprised to find a U-17 World Cup soccer game being shown on the popular SBS-ESPN sports channel. The two sides in contest were Republic of Congo (which no one in Korea really cares about) and an energetic North Korean side. The boisterous commentator, while trying to be equally excited by spectacular plays for both sides, had an obvious bias toward the Northerners as the game dragged and his comments piled up. The bias only got stronger as the North Korean side scored first and the flow of the game was moving in favor of the red shirts.

In all honesty, I have been and still very much am very doubtful that, as many would like to say, sports can be a great emotional unifier that connect people of different backgrounds. After all, Olympics during the Cold War have evidently shown that sports competitions are just subversive extensions of political and economic competitions among different countries. But by the same line of logic, if sports competitions are really political in nature, does it mean, as shown by this particular soccer game, that the Southerners really do consider the Northerners as their political brethren?

"Enemies of your enemies are your friends." If such common principle of Cold War geopolitics is still in effect on the Korean Peninsula, the biased commentator would be in deep trouble for sympathizing with the communist bastards up North. Perhaps, as South Korea gains more cultural confidence and try to inconspicuously make the rest of the world understand more of herself, she is at the same time redefining herself in the greater context? A culturally more powerful Korea is (at least) an emotionally unified Korea that, down underneath, actually shares some sort of ethnically based cultural unity?