KOREA FOUNDATION

The KF Public Diplomacy Project is a regularly conducted initiative in which all Korean people are invited to participate. Among recent participants is the BOBUSANG team, which recently returned from Iceland where they devoted their efforts to public diplomacy by sharing Korean folktales and other aspects of traditional Korean culture with locals. BOBUSANG’s success is due in no small part to Park Chun-hwa, a government-certified Master of Hanbok who has spent over three decades crafting the traditional Korean costume. Park is a highly acclaimed Hanbok artisan who has won many honors, including the top designer award at the 2014 Global Costume Festival and another top prize at the third Korea Hanyang Craft Art Festival. In 2016, she was named a Master of Hanbok by the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Human Resources Development Service of Korea. After earning all this acclaim, how did Park come to join the KF Public Diplomacy project? In this interview, she speaks about how she uses the medium of Hanbok to communicate with different generations of people from different countries.

You joined four university students to form BOBUSANG and participated as a team in the KF Public Diplomacy Project.

A few months ago, a group of students came to see me. They said that they were going to participate in the KF Public Diplomacy Project out of a wish to share Korean traditional culture and folktales around the world. With their graduation not far away, they must have been working hard, preparing to find jobs. On top of all this, they were striving to gain diverse experiences, and I found their efforts commendable and touching. So, I accepted their offer.
   The students said they would go all the way to Iceland in northern Europe, where they would make Korean folktales into e-books, introducing stories to the public by staging performances utilizing Hanbok and other means. They recently came back home in good health after successfully completing their plans. I couldn’t go with them but I tried to help them by making eight sets of Hanbok here in Korea.
   If I have another chance to team up with the students, I’d like to hold a variety of events with them in a foreign country with Hanbok of my own making. I felt proud and full of creative ideas and energy as I listened to them talk about how enthusiastic the people of Iceland were about Hanbok.

You’ve crafted and taught about Hanbok for over 30 years and were honorably certified by the government as a Master of Hanbok three years ago. Could you tell us a bit about your life? How you have fared until now, and what activities are you involved in these days?

When I stepped into the world of Hanbok over three decades ago, I never thought I would become a Hanbok master. As a child, I was fairly talented at sewing, and I naturally became familiar with the clothes because my mother and elder sister did Hanbok-related work. After I got married, I picked up Hanbok making again, which I hadn’t done for quite some time. I thought that I should study Hanbok more deeply and make them properly.
   I studied hard on my own and consulted more than a few Hanbok masters, artisans, and experts about things that I couldn’t grasp by myself. Time has passed and I’ve been making Hanbok for over 30 years now, but I’m still learning many new things. Lately, I devote a lot of time to teaching students. I’ve conducted a Hanbok making and experience program and a fashion show in Paris, and a Hanbok class at the King Sejong Institute in Vietnam. I also study Buddhist attire and produce Hanbok-style monks’ habits in conjunction with the Jogye Buddhist Order.

It’s common to see foreign tourists wearing Hanbok on the streets of Korea. What aspects of Hanbok do you think appeal to foreigners?

The BOBUSANG team told me that the most common comment they heard from people in Iceland who tried on Hanbok was, “I feel like I’m someone special, like a prince or a princess.” Hanbok offers more than just splendor, but this seems to be the aspect that appeals most strongly to foreigners. For them, Hanbok feels like “palace attire.”
   I feel proud and happy that many people are showing an interest in Hanbok. I hope to see an increase in the type of Hanbok that offers simple elegance and the beauty of restrained curves, rather than the excessively shiny and glittery ones.

You must have had many rewarding moments during your “Hanbok life.” Could share some of those moments with us?

Every moment of the day, I feel grateful and happy that I’m recognized by many people for doing what I like, that I’m able to keep meeting young people with whom I have something to teach and share. Lately, I find it especially rewarding and interesting to teach young people and to share my talents with them as it feels like I’m connecting the life of Hanbok to younger generations.
   For quite a long time, Hanbok has been absent, largely forgotten from our daily lives. Every Korean person knows about Hanbok, but it isn’t consumed every day like Hansik (Korean cuisine), or part of our everyday culture like Hanok (traditional Korean houses). When I think about how Hanbok may completely disappear one day, I’m overwhelmed with sadness. I hope Hanbok, like Hansik and Hanok, will survive, if not thrive, in our day-to-day lives, and to realize that hope, I take part in many activities with a sense of purpose. Each year, I join hands with the Gwangjin-gu District of Seoul to hold traditional coming-of-age ceremonies with classical wedding attire on Coming-of-Age Day (a holiday observed each May by young people turning 20 that year). I had another memorable moment, though not directly related to Hanbok, when I took part in a sewing project to restore the Taegeukki exhibited at the Korean Cultural Center in Washington, DC.

We have no doubt that you’ll continue to accomplish many things well into the future. Do you have any specific goals or plans?

When I was young, almost everyone wore Hanbok; it was for everyday wear. However, the passage of time transformed people’s way of dressing and brought lots of changes to Hanbok. The sleeves used to be wide and had plenty of room for the arms, but they are gradually narrowing. We may not welcome the changes to Hanbok, but I don’t think that we should see such trends as bad. I’d like to work towards a more natural and positive progress in Hanbok design with younger generations. I’d like to be able to travel, going anywhere where I can meet young friends who are interested in Hanbok, from elementary school students to university students. And I want to do something meaningful with them, giving speeches and providing practical training and experience. I want to do more and more to sustain the life of Hanbok itself. That is my aim, and I’m dedicated to working toward it.

Interviewed by Kim Daniel