KOREA FOUNDATION

1. Please briefly introduce yourself.

I began to study pansori (epic storytelling through song) at the age of sixteen at Seoul National Arts High School, the predecessor of the National High School of Traditional Korean Arts, and later at Dankook University. I learned the pansori songs Chunhyang-ga (Legend of Chunhyang) from Master Seong U-hyang, Sugung-ga (Song of the Water Palace) from Master Nam Hae-seong, and Heungbo-ga (Song of Heungbo) from Master Kim Soo-yeon. Pansori is Korea’s government-designated Important Intangible Cultural Asset No. 5 and I am a certified trainee of Chunhyang-ga. I currently head the Incheon chapter of the Korea Pansori Preservation Association, and I am the founder and operator of the Uri Sori association. “Uri Sori” means “our voice.”

2. Your book Gangsanje Shimcheong-ga, a book providing explanations and commentary on Simcheong-ga, was published in French in May. Would you introduce your book?

I have documented the Simcheong-ga narratives I learned from Master Seong U-hyang and added footnotes to help readers understand any difficult parts. I also marked bars for students and added separate annotations of old hansi, poems written in Chinese characters, and idiomatic sayings quoted in pansori narratives. It is a book that hopes to encourage and enhance appreciation of pansori narratives.

3. You are planning a concert in France to celebrate the publication of your book in French and to promote pansori in the country. Could you tell us more?

November 7 of this year marks the 20th anniversary of UNESCO’s inion of pansori on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. On November 4, to commemorate this proclamation day, I will hold a book publication party and a performance of Simcheong-ga at the Korean Cultural Center in Paris.

4. How did the French translation of your book come about?

I wrote the book Gangsanje Shimcheong-ga in Korean in 2019 and received a proposal for the publication of a French translation in December 2021. Pansori narratives are works of collective creation that have been completed by a large number of people from generation to generation. Likewise, the book’s translation is the result of the collective efforts of Imago Publishing in France and many people from Uri Sori who supported it directly and indirectly.

5. The book will mostly be read by people interested in pansori. Are there many people in France who study pansori?

The book’s translator, Han Yumi, is a representative of the K-Vox Festival, which regularly hosts pansori concerts in France, where interest in Korean traditional culture has continued to rise. Korean literary works, including classical novels, pre-modern, and modern titles, have been steadily published in the country, and pansori concerts usually have very enthusiastic audiences. I understand that there are many students studying pansori too. I have a student in the United States who learns pansori from me via an online class. Pansori is expected to spread further worldwide and I think the French translation of my book is both an achievement and a foundation for the future.

6. What are the appeals of pansori?

Pansori narratives are collective creations still on their way to perfection. As an artistic genre, it embodies the essence of culture as a form of collective behavior. It therefore differs from the works of most other genres that might be completed in one sitting by individual efforts. Pansori is an art that has gained flesh and grown as a tradition hundreds of years old. It is an open-ended creation that has yet to come to completion. It is rendered by each master in his or her own peculiar deoneum, or characteristic style. The audience even breaks the fourth wall between the stage and their seats by contributing to the performance with chuimsae, or cheering exclamations. In this sense, pansori is extraordinary and incomparable to any other genre of performing arts.

My book may be seen as another record of deoneum that succeeds the voices of previous masters and proceeds towards completion. I feel greatly honored to add to the expansion of deoneum which transcends the limits of time and space.

7. Please tell us about your future plans and hopes.

Last year, the World Pansori Association was inaugurated to meet the rising demand for the globalization and popularization of pansori in the wake of the rising popularity of traditional Korean music. Previously, the genre of pansori tended to be enjoyed for its sense of tradition, but recently, it seems to be expanding as a model of Korean art and culture and is reaching wider, more contemporary audiences. I feel honored that my book is playing a small part in pansori’s globalization.

My personal wish is to establish an unplugged theater in Incheon, frequented by non-Koreans, where I can perform often. I would also like to contribute to the teaching and training of many students of pansori.