Essay Contest Result

Korea is a country of stories. Even each stone from a pile of stones on the street is filled with an individual's wish. A large tree on a street corner at a village could be a tree linked to villagers' stories or their guardian tree, while the platform for crocks of sauces and condiments on the backyard of a house was also used as a place where a mother offered a devout prayer every day, soybean paste, red chili paste, and soy sauce in the crocks became matured every night. After King Sejong created Hangeul, the people of all classes and social ranks were able to read and write easily, and perhaps that's why women's writings and correspondence were often discovered from old houses or tombs, revealing their lives to the world.

The Understanding Korea Series No. 12: A History of Korean Women published by the Academy of Korean Studies well describes such correspondences and lives during the Joseon dynasty. In particular, the first section MARRIAGE AND FAMILY in Chapter 3 is divided into "Monogamy, Rights of Daughters in Family, Love and War in Marriage, and Women Venturing Out in Public", and the second section LABOR AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES is divided into "Weaving, Manager of the Family Economy, and Working Women", with a focus on the Korean folk tale, namely "Kongjwi and Patjwi." These pages explain fully Korean women's labors and lives of the mid-Joseon period by comparing to Kongjwi's life in the tale. When reading this folk tale, readers will learn about women's labors such as a ruined nobleman's daughter's weaving, weeding, and other activities during the mid-Joseon period. In addition, women's rights, love and war in the marriage system, and venturing out in public are captured in a very detailed and interesting way. Women's labor and economic activities including a stepmother's executive power over family finances during the mid-Joseon period are portrayed vividly in the folk tale.

The narrative of Kongjwi and Patjwi has the same narrative structure as the age-old fairy tale of "Cinderella." Both stories are similar in content insofar as the main characters lost their mom when they were young, and endure a hard life with a stepmother. In particular, the most important subject matters in these two stories are a shoe – colorful shoe and glass shoe, and the person who finds this shoe and tries to find their owner – the magistrate and prince charming. A stepmother, one shoe, and the man who fell in love with the shoe's owner… Both Kongjwi and Cinderella share these three elements in common.

What would it be like if children around the world learned about the story of Kongjwi and Patjwi together with the story of Cinderella? When I was giving a Korean lecture at a university in the USA, once I showed students a cartoon version of Kongjwi and Patjwi written in Korean without prior explanation. Then, I asked students to explain which Western folk tale came to mind foremost. One of the students raised a hand right away and answered, "Cinderella." I asked for the reason and the student replied, "I was able to surmise the brief plot of the story from only the pictures, so I chose the story of Cinderella that is similar to it."

I asked the next question more specifically, asking what specific things the student deduced. The student said, "First of all, the characters include a bad mother and daughter, an ill-treated poor daughter, creatures that help the poor daughter, and a virile man appeared later, with a story structure that is similar to Cinderella." I asked the other students if they agreed, and they all did and gave interesting opinions. Some comments included "The appearance of different creatures was interesting. In Cinderella, a mouse and lizard appear, while in the cartoon, a toad and bird appear, with the grain being different too, and so I could recognize the difference in the region and the creatures compared to the West," "I noticed the difference in clothes and the type of housework," "I think the man isn't a prince; he may be a village head or town mayor," and so on. By showing a folk tale cartoon, I was able to explain the costumes, household items, livestock used in farming, geography, and even the social structure of the Joseon dynasty. It even led to a discussion about the serf system of feudal times in the West as opposed to the Korean social hierarchy system. Through a comparison of Kongjwi and Patjwi and Cinderella, the students learned about not only the cultural differences between the East and West but also geographical knowledge. In addition, they realized that the landscape people live in is coincidently similar, so it was a good occasion for students to feel closer to Korea.

This class discussion stood out in my mind for a while even years later. In the end, I wrote the manuscript "Kongjwi and Cinderella" by combining English materials from the Academy of Korean Studies with my experience as a Korean lecturer. I asked the Cuban group Korea Cuba-Camaguey Together (KCT), which was formed by people interested in Korean culture to study and discuss related topics, if they would create a play and act it out in a performance. The group, being fond of Korean culture, found it very interesting and asked me whether it's okay to modify the script a little bit so that Cuban children can understand it easily. After conceding the right to modify the script to them, planning and rehearsals for the performance got underway.

The aspects of the final script are described as follows:
• Cinderella, who narrates the fairy tale play, leads the story of Kongjwi by occasionally interpreting the story from her own point of view.
• Although the script is adapted to be understood by Cuban children, it expresses adeptly the aspects of women's lives in the mid-Joseon period that were stated in the section MARRIAGE AND FAMILY – Monogamy, Rights of Daughters in Family, Love and War in Marriage, and Women Venturing Out in Public and the section LABOR AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES – Working Women from the materials of the Academy of Korean Studies.
• Colorful shoes are replaced by tennis shoes, but if colorful shoes and hanbok (traditional Korean clothes) for the magistrate and policemen were made and sent to Cuba, the group would wear them.
• Since K-pop is popular among local youths, the group plans to give a K-pop performance during the party scene at a maternal grandparents' house.

Misrepresentations about Korea are occasionally found in some Korean TV series, programs, and other countries' textbooks. In addition, owing to cases in which a qualified teacher cannot be found abroad due to various reasons, sometimes people acquire incorrect or misleading information about Korean culture or language. To promote Korean culture, it doesn't need to be always composed only of pure Korean cultural contents. It will also be important to widely publicize Korean culture in English or the local language. Under this circumstance, it would be better to go a step further. Instead of focusing only on just translating Korean culture into English, what if world-famous cultural aspects were incorporated into Korean culture? Then, wouldn't it be easier for global citizens to approach and understand Korean culture easily? In other words, we should try to make access to Korean culture easier and lower the level of difficulty and eliminate the entry barrier. In this regard, I hope that "Kongjwi and Cinderella" can serve as a good example.

Now let's imagine that at least one generation of people around the world grows up with Korean culture from an early age. In other words, by posing a research question with the phrase "If there is a generation that has grown up with Korean culture from childhood," several experiments on it can be carried out.

Children who grow up in such circumstances will be able to explain about Korea in their language to the people around them. If children around the world are exposed to Korean culture from an early age and gain an affinity for Korea, and if some of them become ambassadors for Korean culture, a true Korean cultural "Renaissance" could gain traction over time.