From: the_dojang-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com To: the_dojang-digest@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Subject: The_Dojang-Digest V7 #188 Reply-To: the_dojang@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Errors-To: the_dojang-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Precedence: The_Dojang-Digest Thur, 23 March 2000 Vol 07 : Num 188 In this issue: the_dojang: Eulogy for Zo Zayong the_dojang: Re: prejudice against female instructor [none] ========================================================================= The_Dojang, serving the Internet since June 1994. 800+ members strong! Copyright 1994-2000: Ray Terry and Martial Arts Resource Replying to this message will NOT unsubscribe you. To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe the_dojang-digest" (no quotes) in the body (top line, left justified) of a plain text e-mail addressed to majordomo@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com. To send e-mail to this list use the_dojang@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com See the Korean Martial Arts (KMA) FAQ and online search the last four years worth of digest issues at http://www.MartialArtsResource.com Pil Seung! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ray Terry Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 6:16:16 PST Subject: the_dojang: Eulogy for Zo Zayong Forwarding. Ray ============================================================== Eulogy for Zo Zayong Below is the text of an essay I wrote which was published on the editorial page of the Korea Times yesterday (Monday 3/20/00). I'm posting it here for those on this list who might not have read that edition of the Times, but might be interested in Dr. Zo Zayong. There has been no comment yet on this list about his death or legacy. I have been quite surprised at the paucity of attention paid to him, upon his passing away this winter. To my mind, he is one of the towering Korean cultural figures of this century. I guess his anti- establishment views cost him this in the end. Foreign scholars may have overlooked his published ideas, seeing him as more of a cultural evangelist than an acedemic scholar (which is fair). But I think he deserves a prominent place in the history of the study of Korea (that study conducted in foreign languages, especially). Could we say that Zo Zayong was the FIRST *Korean* person to teach and write about Korean folk culture *in English* -- thus beginning the "globalization" of it? Was there another before him? Well, at last he was "one of the first", and surely the most important. ************************************************* Eulogy for the Passing of a Great Korean by David A. Mason Today is the forty-ninth day since the death of the great teacher Zo Zayong, and according to Korean tradition this is a proper day to honor his memory and cherish his accomplishments. We his students and followers call him Horae seon-saeng-nim. Horae is an affectionate term for a tiger, referring to his physical resemblance to Korea's national animal, his fierce devotion to preserving traditional culture, and his harsh but loving temper. In the 1970s he first became famous for his promotion of unique Korean folk-paintings of tigers, and now his body lies entombed beneath a huge rock-outcropping [bawi] which resembles a tiger's face. Seon-saeng-nim is a highly honorific title of a teacher, and our Horae was one of the best -- educating the spirits of all, regardless of nationality or social standing. Besides this, he was a pioneering researcher and curator dedicated to excellence, a hard drinker, a self-sacrificing preserver and propagator of culture, a wild dancer and drummer, and a widely-enlightened warm- hearted human being of the first rank. Dr. Zo Zayong [he always used this spelling, although Jo Ja-yong would be more correct], grew up at the end of the Japanese-colonial period in Korea, suffering first-hand the attempted cultural suppression of those years. A brilliant student, he took advantage of a rare chance to study architecture and engineering at Harvard University during the 1950's. After being awarded his PhD he established himself as a successful architect, by designing several major buildings in Los Angeles and Seoul, including the U.S. ambassador's beautiful Korean- style residence behind Toksu Palace and the YMCA building on Seoul's main avenue. However, in the 1960's he became horrified by the destruction and loss of South Korea's folk art, customs and culture under the twin onslaught of Christian missionaries and President Park's "New Village Movement", both of which actively sought to replace Korean traditions with a "western" modernism. He gave up his lucrative career in order to become a rescuer, preserver and advocate of folk culture [min-sok-mun-hwa]. For many years it was a lonely struggle. He pulled century-old paintings and other artifacts out of garbage-piles and demolished shrines, or bought them cheaply from antique dealers. In those days Korea's folk-art was considered low-class, superstitious, trashy and shameful by the ruling elite. The government defined "Korean art" as only the aristocratic art that followed Chinese conventions. Dr. Zo was sternly opposed and even threatened when he tried to exhibit his growing collection to foreigners or publish bilingual books about it. He opened his Emille Museum (named after the legendary Shilla-dynasty bronze bell, a masterwork of Korean artisanship), in Seoul in 1968, but was oppressed by successive military regimes. A breakthrough came in the late 1970's when he was allowed to hold a major exhibition of folk-tiger paintings which then toured the USA and Europe. By then he owned the world's largest collection of Korean traditional folk paintings [minhwa], created by anonymous artists within the last three centuries. They included wonderfully imaginative depictions of dragons, tigers, mythical animals, mountain spirits and other Shamanic deities. In the 1980's he moved with his wife to the southern slope of high craggy mountains in the center of South Korea -- partly to escape official harassment and partly to live in harmony with nature, closer to the villages. He became known as the Tiger of the Remote-From-the- Mundane-World Mountains [Sogni-san]. Using his studies of ancient times and architectural skills, he built a clay-walled house, a proper Emille Museum building, and a compound of shrines, firepits and thatched huts that modeled those lived in by Korean ancestors more two thousand years ago. He held educational festivals in this compound, teaching busloads of children, farmers and international groups about the practices and spirit of Korean folk- traditions. The events often climaxed with masked dancing around a bonfire to samul-nori drumming, in the style of ancient exorcisms of harmful spirits. By 1990 official attitudes had changed, and Horae's collection became regarded as a national treasure, exemplifying a truly unique Korean spirit. He started up what he called the "Old Village Movement", traveling the countryside seeking surviving tutelary shrines, trying to inspire the remaining residents to maintain them and revive old ritual- festivals at them. He tried to educate young Koreans about their ancient traditions and inspire them to respect them. Sometimes after years of gentle prodding and providing support he was successful; sometimes he wasn't and that disappointed him. In about 1987 Horae founded the "Sam-shin Association", dedicated to furthering his projects, with a hundred members (mostly young Koreans; I wasn't aware of any non-Korean-race members other than myself). After decades of primary devotion to tigers and the Mountain-spirit [San-shin], he turned his studies towards the old Shamanic deity the Triple-spirits [Sam-shim]. In these triplet-gods-of-conception he found a trinity-symbol that he could associate with other religious trinities across Korean culture, from the Christin Father-Son-Spirit and the Buddhist Buddha-Dharma-Sangha to the Neo-Confucian Heaven-Earth- Humanity. In their grandmother-god-of-lifespan [Sam-shim-halmoni] he found a unifying principle that could represent the spirit of the entire Korean nation from King Dan-gun onwards. Horae was my greatest teacher during my long stay in Korea, and the inspiration for my years of travel and research that led to my latest book, titled _Spirit of the Mountains_ (Hollym, 1999). I never did get the chance to present a copy of my book to him, and tell him how much his work and example meant to me, before he left us. That disappointment will remain with me for a long time. But his strong spirit is infused throughout my work and that of thousands of others, and will achieve immortality as we carry his lifeswork onwards. I consider it a high honor to be known as one of those influenced by him to participate in the preservation and globalization of traditional Korean culture. I first met Horae Seon-saeng-nim on the day of the Closing Ceremony for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. That was October third, also the "Opening of Heaven" holiday when Korea's ancient-nationalist traditions are celebrated. Horae had just finished construction of a new shrine in the center of his Emille compound, and was holding a public festival to inaugurate it. Four large carved wooden tablets were set up under a simple roof. Three of them stood for the Sam-shin, and the last for the Sam-shin-halmoni. Together they represented the collective ancestors of the Korean people, their collective ideals and identity as a single nation. In the early evening Horae gathered us all in a semi-circle in front of the shrine, and set up a television set facing towards the tablets (and another one that we could watch). He played the Olympic Closing Ceremony to the national spirits, explaining in three languages that it was a venerable custom to report the family news to the ancestors. In this sort of way he propagated old Korean traditions by employing modern technologies to make them accessible and enjoyable for everyone of any race or nationality. We all felt tremendous pride in the grand success of the Seoul Olympics, as well as a deep connection to tradition through Horae's technique. I had an overwhelming feeling of joy, that just maybe this was the beginning of the ending of Korea's long bitter suffering [han]. Dr. Zo Zayong collapsed and died of a heart attack last January 30th at the age of 74, still doing the work he loved. We were prevented by circumstances from holding a memorial service at his tomb today, but we hope to do so on Arbor Day (April 5th). I hope that all those who love Korea and it's traditional folk culture will stand with me on these two days to honor this "Human National Treasure" as he deserves, and commit ourselves to carrying his work forward in every generation to come. ------------------------------ From: foxdragon@cuttingedge.net Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 07:57:27 -0800 Subject: the_dojang: Re: prejudice against female instructor > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > From: "Jaimie Orr" > Now, on some levels, that's ok -- let's face it, kid's classes pay the > rent. Families are generally more stable as customers than young men. > More to the point, if a mind is that closed, I am not sure I want them as a > student, because it's usually a warning of other problems yet to surface. > But it is very difficult, especially from a self-worth standpoint. > > How do you other female instructors address this? Do you invite them in to watch a class or to participate in one or two free classes? Donna - -- Me and my shadow ------------------------------ From: Ray Terry Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 06:41:26 -0800 (PST) Subject: [none] ------------------------------ End of The_Dojang-Digest V7 #188 ******************************** It's a great day for Taekwondo! Support the USTU by joining today. US Taekwondo Union, 1 Olympic Plaza, Ste 405, Colorado Spgs, CO 80909 719-578-4632 FAX 719-578-4642 ustutkd1@aol.com http://www.ustu.com To unsubscribe from the_dojang-digest send the command: unsubscribe the_dojang-digest -or- unsubscribe the_dojang-digest your.old@address in the BODY of an email (top line, left justified) addressed to majordomo@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com. Old digest issues are available via ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com. Copyright 1994-2000: Ray Terry and Martial Arts Resource Standard disclaimers apply.