Don't Buy the Buddha! Collecting Korean Shaman Paraphernalia

The sign on Western Ave. in Los Angeles’ Koreatown said, “Korean Antiques and Museum” and was a bit of both and also none of the above. A broken set of dusty dining room chairs, a few golf clubs, lamps without shades, garishly framed oil paintings, clocks, tables and other remnants of lives sundry lives were mixed together, perhaps in the order in which they entered the storefront. I walked around looking for the “museum” part and found in the back a few vitrines in which were “displayed” a stack of dusty Ido style tea bowls and other chipped ceramics, clearly old but with no notation to explain anything. 

I was walking out when I spotted a tempera painting on cardboard of an old man with a tiger and young boy; it was hanging by fabric strings from the back of one of the miss-matched dining room chairs. A lone golf club was perched nearby.

 

“Buddha!” said the proprietor, an oldish man in a worn golf jacket and a baseball cap, noticing my interest and figuring that I was an uninformed Caucasian woman. 

 

“Ah, Buddha! Nice Buddha. Umm,” I replied, knowing full well, however, that it was not Buddha, but a taenghwa, shaman spirit icon, of Sanshin, Korean mountain spirit, rendered for a shaman’s shrine. The symbols were clear: an old, white bearded man attended by a boy and including a fierce tiger.

 

I retreated back into the shop as nonchalantly as I could, knowing that any interest that would inflate prices. I eventually found 10 other abandoned taenghwas rolled up together with their strings hanging out of the bundle jammed on a shelf. Even though I was unemployed and had no business buying art/ifacts, I made a commitment to this Sanshin that I would liberate him from this soul-less place, if only to make it possible for his true identity to be reinstated. 

 

Accessibility of Collectable Materials

 

Most shaman materials are not readily available for sale. They are usually pressed into ritual service over and over again, accumulating “merit” when the gut, ritual, is successful, and thus they are carefully guarded by the mudang, female shamans who own them. In some cases the ritual ends with the burning of some of the items. Ritual burning is also a way of disposing some of materials deemed too worn out or otherwise irreparably damaged. There are items which are created anew for each gut, and the creation of such objects by the shamans or their support team is an important part of preparing the ritual itself. 

 

So why were these taenghwas for sale in Koreatown? Some local mudang must have dismantled her shrine or relatives of a deceased mudang might have just thrown them into the resale pile with other domestic goods with no care about their former utility or knowledge of appropriate method of decommissioning. My guess it was the latter case; if the family was superstitiously anti-shaman, they would have simply thrown the entire group into the trash.

 

In any case, this sanshin is safe in my home, along with another taenghwas, that of Samshin Halmoni, three spirit grandmother. They aren’t necessarily well designed or rendered, but most welcome. I continue to wonder whether I should properly dispose of them myself. It’s a very hard decision; I know the passion of being a collector, but out of respect for my shaman friends, I know there is spiritual protocol to consider.

 

A Vital, Contemporary Practice

 Shamanism is Korea’s indigenous religion and is very much alive in Korea and where Koreans live, despite the efforts of churches, official and quasi-official agencies and crafty antique dealers to -- at best -- ignore its existence in fast-paced, Western-focused contemporary Korean society. Like much of Korean culture, the material artifacts of traditional culture  -- what we might call “folk art” -- are not necessarily well-appreciated, much less valued, among Koreans themselves today. Sadly, they do not regularly appear in museums and other exhibitions. Yet there is every reason to be attracted to the various forms, styles and utility of these hand-crafted functional objects that constitute a viable artistic genre that are still created and utilized in daily religious life.

 

Taenghwa and other special props are used at gut conducted by highly experienced mudang.  They are as varied in content and style, but there are some commonalities related to the nature of the rituals.

There are any number of reasons why a ritual will be held: illness or to give thanks for good health, bad business or new prosperity, blessing a new house or business, searching for a mate or fixing a failing marriage, getting good grades in school, winning the lottery, etc. Shamans are selected for the strength of their spiritual integrity, unique capacities to resolve specific types of issues and the patron’s capacity to pay the fee that can run into the tens of thousands of dollars in cash. Rituals may run a few hours to a few days, with the patrons being accommodated overnight with the shamans, often out in the countryside at special shaman ritual facilities. 

There are great national shamans, naramansin, as well as those who are newly minted local ones. Apprenticeship takes many years of personal exposure to senior ritualists learning by watching and helping while they gather spiritual strength and performance techniques. Their job is to keep the spirits – whether it be one’s ancestors, an unknown force from history or something out of the blue – happy and maintaining  mortals’ harmonious existence. Few are capable of conducting major rituals; most are less skilled, making their living as fortune tellers and supporting their senior shaman.

 

Taenghwa in particular are used by and are the property of gangsinmu, female  (usually) shamans of the spirit-possessed, ecstatic tradition. Their lineage is in that of the northern provinces of the peninsula (north of the Han River), including those which are now within North Korea borders. 

 

Gangsinmu come to their calling through sinbyong, spiritual illness, recovering from which required ritual intervention by a shaman and her initiation as a new shaman. Shamans of the non-charismatic, hereditary type are in the lineages of traditions found south of the Han River, and do not utilize paintings of spirits as a rule.

 

A Rich Diversity of Iconography

 

A shaman usually commissions a taenghwa of a sin, spirit, (pronounced “shin”) from a local artist who specializes in such imagery, but who might also paint Buddhist images. The specific style of painting would be the mark of the artist, but the composition of the image may have come  from a dream or to replicate one that exists already. While styles vary, the content of the same spirit image is usually symbolically consistent as was noted in the Sansin taenghwa. 

Other popular images include Chilseong,the Seven Star / Bid Dipper deity, in which the constellation is present or represented by seven anthropomorphic figures. Yongwang, the spirit of the water, is usually portrayed by a dragon, waves and even sometimes a tortoise. Other anthropomorphic groups are generally easy to identify: Obangsinjang (military generals of the five directions), Sambul Jeseok (three figures that may be wearing Buddhist-type clothing), Samsin Halmani (three grandmothers), Siwang (10 kings governing hell), and many more. Single individuals may also be Tangun, the mythic founder of Korea, Jangung, the fierce knife-riding warrior, Seongsudaesin (great shaman ancestor), and many more. 

A suite of images, perhaps composed in a single mural, may be created, but, in most sindang, spirit rooms, the taenghwa of each spirit are on single sheets which are then grouped together and hung on the wall behind the altar table. They may remain in place over time, but in the case of large scale rituals, are hung for the event in a special order; the order may change during the ritual. At the end, they are removed immediately and packed up. 

 

Provenance

 

One of the challenges in collecting such objects is to know the provenance of an item. Little is currently known about the artisans / crafts people who design and create the work outside the world of the shamans themselves. One such man is the late An Sung Sam, who was an integral part of a group of shamans who are the preserving Korea’s Important Intangible Cultural property #82, the Seohean Pungeoje and Daedong Gut, Rituals for the Safety of the West Sea Fishing Boat Fleet, Fishmongers’ Prosperity and Community Harmony, of Hwanghae-do, a province now included within North Korea. In addition to his creating a variety of three dimensional objects including paper flowers that adorned the shaman’s altar and hanging lantern-like 

 

enclosures bearing spirits images rendered in watercolor, he also participated in the ritual itself. Other ritual items for this rite have been crafted by the fishermen who are members of the group, as well as the shamans themselves. Provenance can also reflect the circumstances of the use of the materials.

 

Other Collectable Material

 

In addition to taenghwa, other tangible objects that may interest the collector include shaman fans (bearing icons as well but that seem mass produced) and ritual garments, especially those which are decorated by exquisite Korean embroidery. Shamans change costumes frequently to represent the spirit that is being invoked and will wear tunics, skirts, hats and have other ornaments that replicate the image on the taenghwa. Costumes are usually not accessible unless one receives it from a shaman. In addition, shamans use a variety of objects made of brass, including a “tree” of hand bells, swords and knives, and mirror disks, the latter bearing images of Ilwol Songsin, sun and moon spirits, and Chilseong. Statuary depicting Sansin and other popular spirits, are created but seem more mass produced than hand-made.

 

Going to Korea? 

 

Koreans for the most part do not know if there are any shamans doing ritual in their neighborhood and are not likely to be very comfortable being asked. Thus, finding shaman materials even to look at is a bit difficult, but two places in downtown Seoul have good collections: The National Folk Museum of Korea (http://www.nfm.go.kr:8080/english/main.jsp) and nearby private Gahoe Museum, the latter specializing in shaman and folk arts. (www.gahoemuseum.org)

 

There are stores in Seoul that sell shaman paraphernalia, such as fans, bells, some costumes, swords, statuary and musical instruments, as well as candles, incense, offering trays and bowls. From the quality of the items sold, it would seem  that they are frequented more by folk dance ensembles than the shamans themselves, but it does enable small-scale shamans to have access to necessities. (Shamanism is at the core of many of Korea’s drama and dance traditions.)

 

To truly understand the value of Korean shaman ritual materials, it is important to witness a gut. It is virtually impossible to do that outside of Korea due to the aforementioned bias against shamanism. The tourist in Seoul may come upon rituals in public places, such as Inwang-san (Inwang Mountain). Seeing red and white flags handing from a window or hearing the clashing of cymbals and intense beating of drums in an otherwise quiet neighborhood are signs of private shaman activity. With the official recognition of some shaman traditions (Korea has many!) as part of the country’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (thereby keeping UNESCO connections in good stead), it maybe possible to attend a public “performance” at a festival or other formal cultural gathering. The Korean Tourism Organization will have a list of this information or point you to a regional office.

This article originally was published in The Korean Art Society Newsletter #1, 2009. The author retains all rights to text and photographs. It also appears in https://www.academia.edu/3117094/DONT_BUY_THE_BUDDHA_An_Overview_of_Collecting_Korean_Shaman_Paraphernalia 

Select Bibliography of References in English

• Koreana, a quarterly journal published by the Korea Foundation, is available in print and online (including back issues). https://issuu.com/the_korea_foundation/docs/1992_02_e_b_a
• Shamanist Painting of Korea, published by the Gahoe Museum, Seoul, www.gahoemuseum.org 
• Folk Art and Magic: Shamanism in Korea, by Alan Carter Covell, Hollym, Seoul, 1986 
• Spirit of the Mountains, by David Mason, Hollym, Seoul, 1999
• Kut: Korean Shamanist Rituals, by Halla Pai Huhm, Hollym, Seoul, 1980

 

 

Vintage "National Geographic TV _ Taboo" Series

I produced this segment of NGTV's iconic "Taboo" TV series. 

While the segment is accurate, unfortunately, the promotion and accompanying other segments were about the excruciating pain of other cultures initiation rites.

Naerimgut, the Korean charismatic shamanic initiation is dedicated to the spirits who will be integrated into the initiate's pantheon. By identifying and listening to the demands of the malevolent and misunderstood spirits that have caused such havoc in the candidate's life, the master shaman, also known as "mother", will placate these forces, ask for them to release their hold on the "daughter" and to have the "daughter" honor this effort by serving to help others. 

This is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN8Rkg0EURY.

I wonder what happened to Ji Yeong ... Kim Keumhwa passed away at the age of 88 in 2019. 

Still Wailing After All These Years!: Women of the Wall Part 1

 (Note: This originally ran in Women in Judaism online journal in 2010. Reprinted here for the author's convenience.)

                                                                                                       Praying in Her Own Voice. Directed by Yael Katzir. 
Produced by Dan Katzir, Yael Katzir and Ravit Markus. Color. Video. 60 minutes. 2007. In English and Hebrew with English subtitles.

 

Reviewed by Lauren W. Deutsch, Los Angeles, California

                                                                                                                     

Still Wailing After All These Years

I first clearly heard women praying at the “women’s section” of the Western Wall in Jerusalem in 1971 and learned why it’s Crusader-period nickname, “Wailing Wall”, is so fitting. I’ve never forgotten its ability to be a sounding board for all forms of women’s utterances: mixture of murmurs of requests and thanksgivings, blessings and more blessings, soto voce songs of the soul, diverse mutterings in accents of women of all ages and dress. It was a perfect place to hear Israel’s eternal gift of “Shema!” Rather than serving to separate one Jew from another, as does the mechitza [i]in traditional synagogues where these physical barriers (curtains, walls, windows) partition men from women, the Kotel is itself a unique mechitza, one that serves to unite all Jews in time and space at this undisputed holy place.

How troubling it is, then, that in the name of the Wall, groups of Jews are fighting bitterly against each other for the right to honor the God of Sarah, Leah, Rachel and Rebecca and their husbands, our patriarchs, through prayer and reading sacred text. Yet, on December 1, 1988, a group of Jewish women, wrapped in talitot and some with teffilin, seeking merely to pray and read from a sefer Torah scroll, so deeply offended the sensibilities of frumm, dare I say ultra-orthodox Jewish men and women, that the fray drew out riot police, has become a significant challenge to Israel’s Supreme Court, and has become cause celébre for Jews at home and in the Diaspora, to vocally condemn the “ultra-orthodox” for their exclusionary hold on religious affairs.  

Yael Katzir’s film Praying in Her Own Voice, which premiered at the 2007 DocAviv Film Festival in Israel and in the USA at the 2008 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, documents two years of the still-ongoing patient, persistent struggle, by the determined self-proclaimed “Women of the Wall”, Neshot haKotel. Not merely a film vérité about the latest clash between contemporary Jewish lifestyles, the film – is an unapologetic propaganda tool to promote the concerns of Women of the Wall, now a full-fledged organization with a Facebook page and website as well as an international support group in the Diaspora. Anyone in Israel and out (through photos on Facebook) is invited to participate in the effort on Rosh Chodesh, monthly celebration of the new moon, to simply pray in talit, holding Torah, and, worst of all, praying aloud. As recent as July 12, 2010, Anat Hoffman, founder of the Women of the Wall movement, struggled with Israeli police who attempted to wrestle a sefer Torah scroll from her arms at the Kotel and was arrested, charged with a felony and a restraining order set against her access to the Kotel.

The Wall Has Ears

What’s all the fuss? The Rabbi of the Kotel raised the mechitza higher when he said, while there was nothing in halacha, Jewish religious law, that the women violated; nonetheless, what they were doing was offensive to the “community of Israel”, that tradition must be maintained. If women still have to be seen, even a little, now, as in the fifteenth century, they at least also should not be heard. The minister of Religious Affairs is described as saying “the Wall can hear.”

The “wail” that I heard at my first visit to the Wall now has the benefit of unprecedented mass media, and now voices are loud enough to be heard, through this film, ‘round the world. For the past decade the Women of the Wall and their supporters, many of whom are practicing orthodoxly, opted to resist public protest and demonstration for publicity’s sake to stake their (and all women’s) claim to be able to pray in full voice in public. Instead they have engaged in costly legal battles as far up to a higher authority in Israel’s Supreme Court, which made some very controversial legal conclusions in the attempt to find a civil response to a religious challenge.

Writer / Director / Producer Yael Katzir said in an e mail to LA Jewish cable TV show host Phil Blazer (Jewish Television Network) following an interview about the film, “What happened in the course of the making of the film is that I realized that the film is not only for Israelis but also for the Diaspora Jews if we want to remain one people. My son Dan and Ravit suggested that I open the film and adjust it to the American Jewry, and I did it (with all the resulting extra labor and cost that it required).” She reflected, “In Israel, secular people are shocked. They didn’t know how violent women can become to women. The TV channels did accept the film as it has a powerful criticism of what is going on in the Wailing Wall.” 

One can sense that Katzir does have some skill as a narrative filmmaker but this film desperately needs an editor. The vorspeise, endorsements through interviews that included a number of prominent Los Angeles women rabbis, was an afterthought, and, literally should have been put into extra DVD features. Just as American Jewish practice does not require politically pro-Israel activism to be legitimate, the mission and efforts of the Women of the Wall does not need “validation” by kol isha, the voice of women, from America. The Facebook page shows how the “movement” is spreading and gaining influence well better as it reflects a greater diversity of kol isha. 

What was most poetic were the segments of statements by the Israeli Women of the Wall and their lawyers, progressing (and not) from one Rosh Chodesh to the next that is usually sacred to Jewish women. What is at stake is a precedent-setting case where civil liberties were challenged by religious justice. It was eerie seeing female justices in their black robes delivering the sentence that gave the government twelve months to come up with and take action on a solution how/where to relocate the women that was “fair, but not necessarily “near”

It is to the filmmakers’ credits that they were able to get footage during the ruckus that insured. According to Katzir, “Shooting was tough as there were many occasions when we were violently attacked by the hate, screaming and fists of the ultra-Orthodox women.” Clearly among the most stirring segments to this reviewer were the interviews and filming of the haredi Jews – young and old, men and women, not just the rabbinical authorities -- who could articulate why they were offended, not just that they felt so. It’s very disturbing to watch “religious” Jewish women wrestling with other “religious” Jewish women resulting in prayer books falling on the ground, and Jewish men, who would otherwise not touch a woman trying to pull a sefer Torah scroll away from Jewish women. The film shows how these well-intentioned Israelis were told to “Go home!”, “Go back to America!” as if they were carpetbaggers and threatened with shame for disturbing the wall and ruining Judaism by claiming to be so entitled. Chairs and feces have been thrown at them, curses cast and epithets about damnation have become weapons against these women and their supporters, as have the courts. 

The media coverage and film’s promotion seems to focus on the sensational: the women’s struggle is called “courageous”, their protests “colorful”, the efforts to pray at the Kotel and receive a verdict through justice in the Supreme Court a “battle of the sexes”. The effort felt like a reality show. It brings to my mind a presentation by a number of self-declared radical Jewish feminists I met who, in the mid 1980s, visited Mea Shearim, the neighborhood in Jerusalem known for its strict observances of halacha. They were proud that upon entering the well-marked precincts in shorts and short-sleeved shirts without the benefit of bras, they were jeered and attacked by neighbors throwing stones. They wanted just to prove that it was their civil right to dress how they wished. 

The predicament of the Women of the Wall, as Katzir’s film, and Women of the Wall: Claiming Sacred Ground at Judaism's Holy Site, edited by Phyllis Chesler and Rivka Haut (Jewish Lights, 2008) is a part of the holographic projection of Jewish identity in the twenty-first century, as it has been in the past. Who’s in? Who’s out? Who’s got rights? What right? Who says so? 

Why do we Jews need walls? In the Pirke Avos, Sayings of the Fathers, a compendium of wisdom from 450 BCE through 3 CE included in the siddur, weekly prayerbook, each chapter begins with a three part admonition ending with: " ... veasu seag latorah”, “ ... and make a wall around the Torah”. In his 1997 drash for the Library Minyan of Valley Beth Shalom Temple (Los Angeles, CA area), Leo Rain astutely observed, “The danger is that the fence becomes the focus of worship over and above the Torah itself.” 

Rain comments, “One may certainly commend such fences because they keep you out of trouble. But what does it say about self-control, self-discipline, and the moral level of men and women? Women are seen as temptresses who are unable to control themselves and should be kept behind the wall of a mechitza or a veil as in other cultures. Does this match up with freedom and individuality?”

Looking for the question within the question, elevating the argument, I wonder, “What should we do when we’re angry with people when they pray to our God?”

 

---

[i] The form and function of the Kotel’s lesser long-standing mechitza, protruding perpendicular due west from the ancient stones, continues to challenge the authorities. As of September 2010 the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, the body that administers the site, has endorsed the benefits of incorporating a one-way mirror, into the physical barrier’s current design iron with small openings, each only a few centimeters wide. This notion is supported by the Kosel Rov, Rav Shmuel Rabinovich, who said that he was” making every effort to replace the mechitza in a way that will accommodate the women on the one hand, and not offend the men on the other hand.” Rabbi Rabinovich has a cameo in the film as well.

 

Kim Tong-ni's "Portrait of a Shaman"

BACKSTORY: It's 1992 in Los Angeles. The "Sa-I-Gu" (literally: 4-2-9 a.k.a. LA Riots a.k.a. Civil Uprising) The acquittal of a white LAPD officer for the arrest and brutal beating of African American Rodney King set off a firestorm (again) in the community. It was further fueled by the fatal shooting of 15 year old Latasha Harlins by Soon Ja Du, a 51-year-old Korean-American convenience store owner. His original sentence - 10 years in state prison - was changed to 5 years probation, 400 hours community service, $500 restitution and he funeral expenses. Considered extremely light, this resulted in a firestorm in Koreatown and neighborhood communities. 

I'm at KCRW, National Public Radio's flagship station out of Santa Monica CA. With Mako and Oh Soon Tek as creative directors, and the participation of other Asian American actors, we're in the midst of producing Contemporary Japanese Short Stories, a series of 13 one-hour readings of English translations of 20th century short stories. I say to my boss, then Ruth Hirschman, "We should be doing a Korean series! So few people in LA know anything about Korean culture.") She said it would be considered after we get this done. (She loved Mishima Yukiyo's writing and knew little else about East Asian culture.)

THE PROJECT - CONTEMPORARY KOREAN SHORT STORIES: So, a few years later, with the flames and emotions still sizzling, I embarked to find Korean literature in English translation (almost none in any local bookstores, whether chains or independent). The California Council on the Humanities and Korea Foundation were supporting the effort, and I turned to the universities. It was extremely difficult to find English translations of 20th century stories beginning in 1994. (It didn't get better for over a decade. Koreana, a publication of Korea Foundation, would publish one story per quarter.) Peter Lee at UCLA was helpful in connecting me with translators. I was able to get books from a few academic presses, including University of Hawaii/Manoa. Robert Fulton chaired my Advisory Committee required by the Humanities grant. 

We assembled our cast from the previous project and Soon Tek was the creative director. He selected Emily Kuroda to read Kim Tongni's classic Munyôdo / Portrait of a Shaman (sometimes translated as The Shaman Sorceress) about the clash of generations, cultures and worlds of humans and spirits. The broadcast was over 6 weeks in 1997.

I have Emily's permission to share it here.

A total of 15 stories (selected for their quality and ability to fit our time slots) totaled 8 hours in length. We were able to create 6 "one-hour" programs with original music, continuity (written by me), recorded (DAT) and broadcast from KCRW throughout Southern California; a few other public radio stations picked it up nationally. I hand-delivered a set of broadcast quality recordings to the KF director in 1997. When I visited the Korea Foundation Library about 10 years later they knew nothing about it. Likely because of shifting priorities ... from the Ministry of Education or Culture or ... who knows! I know the Korean Culture Center in Los Angeles had a set, too. CA Humanities likely has one.

A complete list of the stories and programs follows, including this which were not broadcast. Please contact me to discuss access to other recordings and texts of continuity. All rights acquired for original broadcasts (2) and reserved. Would be nice to have the life of this material extended.

A NOTE ABOUT SOON TEK He was such a generous, kind person. I always enjoyed our time together. When Kim Keumhwa came to visit me one year, I invited him to meet her. Easter and Soon Tek invited us to their home for dinner, The meeting was mutually enjoyed by all. More than a decade before Soon Tek passed away, he asked me to work with him to create a screenplay (rights protected at the WGAwest registry) adaptation. It covered Japanese colonial period, too!) I still have the work. He always wanted to play the main character. RIP Soon Tek. 

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KCRW’s Contemporary Korean Short Stories
Executive Producer Lauren W. Deutsch  Artistic Director Soon Tek Oh
 
The series includes 15 short works by Korea’s acclaimed masters and upcoming stars compiled into 8 independent programs. Some can be sub-divided into half hours to accommodate broadcast formats.
From time-worn rural villages to the emerging modern cities of a conquered and now divided nation, the soldiers and shopkeepers, the farmers, physicians and shamans tell the stories of a resilient, refined culture.
 
PROGRAMS 
#1 Portrait of a Shaman: Newly converted to Christianity, a son anguishes over his mother’s indigenous faith and profession as the village shaman. (this took one hour itself.)
#2 Seoul 1964: Two men in a sidewalk bar follow a third into an existential black hole; The Rock: Village lepers and beggars consider their future at the onset of the Japanese invasion. 
 
#3 Wonmidong Poet:  A child’s view of the myriad characters in her neighborhood in a Seoul suburb; Cranes: The division North and South tests the friendship of two villagers.
 
#4  Kapitan Lee: A prominent medical doctor is determined to survive successive occupations by Japanese, “Russkis” and “Yankees” with his social status and career intact. Fire: A woman villager avenges the brutality of her husband’s family.
 
#5  Cukoo: Landing a coveted job, particularly with the victorious Americans, drive people to extreme measures; The Crane: A lyrical fantasy of transformation. 
 
#6  Masks: One full turn of the great wheel of life;  Rainy Season: Newlyweds are initiated into intimacy by the dynamic forces of nature; Suffering of Two Generations: Defeated in war, a father and son join forces for renewed victory in life. (55:56 min.)
 
*#7 Folding the Umbrella: A surreal tale about a black fish and a black wedding gown; Buckwheat Season:  En route to market, two peddlers realize they are father and son.(39:18 min.)
 
*#8 Bird of Passage: An enterprising student survives wartime shining shoes and polishing his integrity. (29:44 min.)
 
Contemporary Korean Short Stories is under the artistic direction of acclaimed actor Soon Tek Oh in conjunction with the Society of Heritage Performers. Broadcast debut was in 1997 on KCRW (Southern California). The program received prestigious grants from the California Council for the Humanities and Korea Foundation. Rights secured for public radio broadcast only -- no tape sales. Transliterated promos and bibliographical material available.
 
Contemporary Korean Short Stories Advisory Committee 
Robert Buswell, Editor Korean Culture Magazine, UCLA  Department of East Asian Languages and Literature
Bruce Caron, Consultant Cultural and Community Affairs, Korean Cultural Center
Chung Moo Choi, East Asian Language and Literature, UC Irvine
Kyung-Ja Chun, Director Korean Language Program, Harvard University
Stephen Epstein, Professor Department of Classics, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Bruce Fulton, Professor, University of Washington
Ju-chan, Fulton, Translator
Ann Sung-hi Lee, Professor East Asian Studies Center, USC
Peter Lee, Professor Dept. East Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA
Walter Lew, Producer Kaya Productions
Soon-Teck Oh, Director / Actor
Carolyn So, Translator
Lauren W. Deutsch, Executive Producer, KCRW Contemporary  Korean Short Stories
Sandy Yi, former president, W.O.R.K.;producer, Festival of Korea for Asia Society
Chang-Kee Sung, Deputy Consul, Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Korea
Craig Coleman, Managing Editor, National English Section, The Korea Times, Radio Seoul consultant
 
PROGRAM NUMBER

ORIGINAL AIR DATE (KCRW/ LOS ANGELES)	STORY TITLE (ENGLISH)	STORY TITLE (ORIGINAL)	AUTHOR	TRANSLATOR	STORY BOOK SOURCE	STORY PUBLISHER	Book Copyright	ACTOR
1	January 19	Portrait of a Shaman	Munyôdo	Kim Tong-ni	Yongch’ol Kim	Flowers of Fire	University of Hawaii Press	1986	Soon-Tek Oh / Emily Kuroda
2	February 16	The Rock	Pawi	Kim Tong-ni	Chong-Wha Chung	Modern Korean Literature	Kegan Paul International	1995	Freda Foh Shen
2	February 16	Seoul: 1964, Winter	Sôul, 1964 nyon kyoul	Kim Sûng-ok	Marshall R. Phil	Land of Exile	M.E. Sharpe / UNESCO	1993	Sung Kyu Park (Steve Park)
3	March 16	Kapitan Lee	Kkôppittan Ri	Chôn Kwang-yong	Peter H. Lee	Flowers of Fire	University of Hawaii Press	1986	Jungha Suk (Eric Steinberg)
3	March 16	The Fire	Pul	Hyôn Chin-gôn	Katherine Kisray	Modern Korean Literature	Kegan Paul International	1995	Freda Foh Shen
4	April 20	Cranes	Hak	Hwang Sun-wôn	Peter H. Lee	Flowers of Fire	University of Hawaii Press	1986	Ro-Soo Park (Tim Lounibos)
4	April 20	Wônmi-dong Poet	Wônmidong shiin	Yang Kwi-Ja	Julie Pickering / Kim So-Young	Manoa	University of Hawaii	1996	Jeanne Chinn
5	May 18	The Crane	unknown	Yi Ch’ong-Jun	Stephen J. Epstein	Korea Journal			Sung Kyu Park (Steve Park)
5	May18	The Cuckoo	Ppôkkugi	Kim Yi-sôk	Peter H. Lee	Flowers of Fire	University of Hawaii Press	1986	Soon-Tek Oh
6	June 8	The Rainy Season	Changma	Han Mal-suk	Stephen J. Epstein	Korean Culture	Korea Cultural Service	1992	Jungha Suk (Eric Steinberg)
6	June 8	The Suffering of Two Generations	Sunan idae	Ha Kun-ch’an	Kevin O’Rourke	Koreana	Korea Foundation	1995	R.C. Fleet
6	June 8	Masks	T’al	Hwang Sun-wôn	Martin Holman	The Book of Masks	Readers International, Inc.	1989	Ro-Soo Park (Tim Lounibos)
7	Recorded / Not Aired	The Buckwheat Season	Memilggot p’il muryôp	Yi Hyo-sôk	Peter H. Lee	Flowers of Fire	University of Hawaii Press	1986	Ro-Soo Park (Tim Lounibos)
7	Recorded / Not Aired	Bird of Passage	Hujo	O Yongsu	Peter H. Lee	Flowers of Fire	University of Hawaii Press	1986	Soon-Tek Oh
7	Recorded / Not Aired	Folding the Umbrella	Usan ûl chôbûmyô	Hwang Sun-wôn	Stephen Epstein	The Book of Masks	Readers International, Inc.	1989	Esther Hyun