Sophilicity: Homework

If anyone of you actually remember, I took part in the 10th K-Pop Academy programme late September 2016! Sorry for such a long hiatus but I didn't think it would be right to leave a blog series incomplete~

I was actually really looking forward to taking part into class. I've had various opportunities to try out a hanbok before if I'm perfectly honest, I've actually known much about it.

Injoo Lee, founder of Moon Lee artwear presenting us a lecture about K-Fashion (Hanbok).
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK

The class this time was taken by Injoo Lee, a London-based contemporary womenswear designer. She founded a brand for herself called Moon Lee artwear, which was established in 2015.

You can check out some of her designs and works below:

https://www.moonleeartwear.com/

Moving onto the class~ Let me give you guys a bit of information which I gathered from this class!

What is Hanbok?
Hanbok is the traditional clothing for Koreans as is acknowledged as the beautiful, cultural treasure of Korean. "Hanbok" means "Korean clothing" and has a history of over 16000 years.

What is the Hanbok composed of?
For women, the basic composition of the hanbok is the jeogori (‎저고리) which refers to the top, along with a chima (치마) which refers to the skirt.

For men, the basic composition of the hanbok is similar to the women however instead of a chima, the jeogori is paired with a baji (바지). The baji refers to trousers.

Other additions to the women's hanbok can include the daenggi (댕기) which is a traditional Korean ribbon added to the end of a women's braided hair. Along with the norigae (노리개) which is a typical Korean accessory added to chima (치마). It can also be attached to the goreum (‎고름) of the jeogori (저고리) which are the coat strings.

Whilst other additions for the men's hanbok can include the gat (갓) which is traditional hat worn along with the hanbok - although this was only seen to be worn during the Joseon period. It was restricted to only men who had passed their gwageo (과거) exams. These were the civil servant examinations which took place during the Goryeo and Joseon eras. Men were also seen to wear durumagi (두루마기), which is an overcoat, worn over as the top-most layer for their hanboks. In current times, the durmagi (두루마기) is usually worn for formal occasions.

Lee Junki wearing a gat (갓) along with his hanbok - Did anyone watch him in Moon Lovers: Scarlet Ryeo? The feels-

History of Hanbok
The baji (바지) was usually worn by men and the chima (치마) by women, however in mural paintings dating back to the Gorguyeo (otherwise known as Goryeo) kingdom shows that there is no distinct difference in the hanbok between the sexes.

During the Goryeo kingdom, as a result of the influence from nearby Mongolia, traditional design of jeogori (‎저고리) underwent a change, adopting shorter lengths and narrower sleeves.

Whilst in the Joseon kingdom, women's jeogori (‎저고리) in particular were being worn shorter and tighter than previous periods - a decisive turning point leading to the gradual transformation of the hanbok.

Lesson over!! Did you learn something new today?

The variety of hanbok pieces available for us to choose.
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK

After our lecture, we were shown a demonstration on how to wear a hanbok. Our lecturer for the day, Injoo Lee selected candidates from the audience to show us. We had Charley and Yi-Ling for the girls, and Michael for the boys - although Michael was the only boy in our class but that doesn't mean he didn't receive just as much love... Even more to be honest aha!

Charley wearing the women's hanbok.
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK

Michael wearing the men's hanbok.
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK

Once the demonstrations were completed, we all headed off to pick our hanboks. The group who worn last week's contest (where we had to perform Arirang as a group, the best performance was awarded first choice of the hanboks the following week) headed up to pick their hanboks. Then the rest of us went to collect our hanboks and get dressed!

Irena getting ready in her hanbok with Marta assisting her.
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

Of course we all had to have a photo session with all of the students aha! From selfies to photographer moments, it was a great laugh! -cough- time for a selfie spam -cough-

The previous week, we were all given plain fans to go home and design, so as you can see, me and Jamila decided to design our fans, mine with cherry blossoms with my name written in Hangul, whilst Jamila designed hers with various women in different hanbok styles.

Me and Lisa - Lisa ended up wearing a men's hanbok because they ran out of women hanboks aha!

Me and Kira, also wearing a men's hanbok - but that jawline tho- ahaha

Group selfie, featuring Kira, Drew, Yi-Ling, Lisa and myself!

Natasha, Yi-Ling and myself! Yi-Ling wore a royal robe from the demonstration, but she's gone without her crown and wig in this picture aha! I heard it was quite heavy...

And of course, we did take a couple pictures which show our outfits better!

I'm sure whenever I wear a hanbok I'm usually attempting not to trip over the skirt...

Top row (L-R): Irena and Jamila
Bottom row (L-R): Zeinab, Lisa and myself.

After our own individual photo sessions, the staff made us split into two halves and form a catwalk. We each went up and walked the catwalk with our hanboks and as we got to the end, we were made to pose for the camera. For some of us, like myself, we dragged another to walk the catwalk with us aha! I decided to walk with Lisa~

Yass Jamila~~ Slay gurll!!
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

On the other hand... Me and Lisa were in laughing fits that we couldn't even do the catwalk properly... And although this wasn't captured, we ended our catwalk with a straight dab LOL.
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

After the catwalks were complete, we proceeded to get individual pictures taken of our hanboks. I'm gonna post my squad's photos ahaha!

I couldn't find a picture for Kira, but this one is on pointe!!!
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

Lisa being cute and sending her hearts to you ahahaha.
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

Tasha wearing her elegant black hanbok~
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

Deciding between two pictures of Drew was a struggle aha! She's looking super cute in this!
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

Jamila constantly looking amazing in her hanbok along with her fan~
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

Last but not least, myself~ You can't really see my hanbok properly because I blocked it with my fan like an idiot lmao.
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

But of course we couldn't end the class without taking a group picture! Although... I feel like most of us weren't ready for the group picture omg.

Ahahaha although there's quite a few of us caught off guard, this group are such a lovable bunch, this picture pretty much summarises a lot of our characters a lot!
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

Looking back at this day, I had a lot of fun dressing up, and it was probably the one lesson where I actually took loads of pictures! It was quite a photo opportunity!

Homework of the Week!

And of course, each lesson means there's a new homework. For this week, I chose to research a Korean Fashion brand. I decided to research about the brand, Human Potential (HUPOT). You can check out my presentation below:

I hope you enjoyed my next blog entry! I'm nearly half-way through my blog series~ Next up, K-Cuisine! Check back soon, to read more~ Thank you for reading!

18:18 2 comments

Aha I'm getting there I promise-- More like me writing up blogs at midnight because that's the best time my brain decides to productively function for blogs, but hey-ho! Although... My dad is questioning my ability to function and why I can't be "normal" and sleep early... Enough about me, moving onto Week 3 for K-Pop Academy!!

If I'm honest, I was quite hyped for this! Reason being is because I really enjoy singing as a hobby so I thought it would be a great chance to learn another genre of music. I heard the previous week that we would be singing and let's be honest... There were a lot of mixed responses aha...

I came to the class not knowing much about Korean traditional music other than Samulnori and the Gayageum. How do I know this? Well, I recently attended a Chuseok event where there was Samulnori performers which was very intriguing to watch. Also, I know about the Gayageum instrument because of the K-drama, "Heartstrings" featuring CNBLUE's Yonghwa and Minhyuk as well as Park Shin Hye. Although it may not be the best drama, I really enjoyed the characters and the fusion of modern band instruments with Korean traditional instruments. You can check out a clip of one of the Heartstring performances below:

Before I get side-tracked... Let's return back to the main purpose of the post aha...

Our lecture for this week was held by Anna Yates whom is a PhD student in Ethnomusicology from SOAS. Her assistant, Damiola Eniola has an MA in Musical and Performance Composition from SOAS. Damiola accompanied Anna during performances, playing the drum otherwise known as the "buk" in Korean. Anna taught us about the different Korean music types and much more. Here's a quick summary of what I gathered from my notes.

Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK

SUMMARY

K-Traditional music is collectively known as Kugak.

Court music is determined as "elegant music". The musical instruments and melodies incorporated into court music were imported from China in the Tang (ehhh my surname) and Song dynasty. Usually, if there was a new king, thus began a new principle - meaning a new dynasty determined a change in the musical system.

Folk music, better known as "minyo" which means "folk song" were performed during work and play time. However folk music then led to professional performances on stage.
There are different sounds for different regions:
- Seodo minyo - nasal voice, wide vibrato
- Gyeonggi minyo - clear and clean voice (usually quite high)
- Namdo minyo - tight throat and chest resonance

Pansori is known as storytelling through song.
There are 5 core stories, which last up to 8 hours long.
Pansori has links to shamanism which originally was only for lower class entertainment however was later "upgraded" for nobility. This was completed through incorporating Chinese literacy references and philosophical ideas.
However, pansori requires long years of harsh training to be able to obtain the right voice.

I hope you found that interesting to read. It's quite a lot for a "summary"... But being the person I am I have a tendency to write a lot... Even for a summary.. Oops.

Moving on, we began to learn how to perform the famous "Arirang" piece. However, there are many variations to Arirang, so we performed the "Jindo Arirang" from the Jindo County in South Jeolla province. We first had to learn the different tones varying from the core tone to vibrating tone. It was quite difficult but I think it really helped reading the music sheet and seeing where the notes were placed on the scale to see where a note needs to be dropped or held etc.

Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK

After we had learnt the gist of the piece, we all stood up and were all given a fan each. This was the prop we would be using to assist us with our performance.

Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK

After we had learnt how to incorporate hand gestures with our fans we began to split off into groups. The winning team would be awarded with an opportunity to pick hanboks first as we would be studying K-fashion the week after. I remember trying to loosen my fan so much by swinging it back and forth especially as one of the movements involved opening and closing the fan gracefully (after a week my fan was a lot easier to open and close but it wasn't when I needed it... T_T)

Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK

It was difficult trying to maintain the tones throughout the piece, I think a lot of us struggled with the first note for the verse. Or we had trouble trying to work out how long to hold certain notes whilst attempting to pronounce the Korean words in the Arirang piece.

Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK

Before we knew it, time had ran out and we were all getting seated to perform to one another. We were the last to perform despite debating when we should put ourselves up to perform. Either way, it was quite a fun performance! The winners had a special trump card for their performance, They decided to incorporate a wave effect by combining all their fans together which make it very unique from everyone else's. They definitely deserved to win, and their pronunciation and tones were on pointe!

Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK

I feel like as each week progresses, I can't help but regret not learning about this stuff before. It's never really boring. Although there's lots to content to take in, we always do some activities where we can try it for ourselves than just learn from listening to a lecture.

Homework of the Week!

As for every week, we are given 3 options to choose from. For this week, I decided to create a pitch for a new K-Pop group that combines K-Pop trends with Korean historical traditions. This meant considering the instruments, to the outfits of the groups as well as reasons why this group would stand out amongst the rivals in the industry etc.

I actually stayed up till 4AM in the morning just completing this pitch... I think I got way too into drawing all the designs by hand which left all the writing content quite last minute... I created a K-Pop girl band called J2H otherwise known as Journey to Harmony.

Other than the homework we were given for Week 3. We were also given the option to design our fans that we were given from the lecture. I took this opportunity to use watercolour pencils to create a flowery design inspired by cherry blossoms. Funnily enough, I brought my fan to the next lecture and it ended up matching my hanbok - This was unintentional but you'll find out more about the hanboks in the next edition! I'm sure my mother was criticising me constantly for my fan design saying stuff like "oh the branches are too dark", "make the flowers brighter" etc...

I actually enjoyed the homework... This actually says a lot because for once I didn't feel like I was suffering whilst trying to do the homework. Maybe because it was a homework about a topic which I was interested in... Which I can't say so much for a lot of the subjects I studied in school...

I hope you enjoyed the 3rd edition of my K-Pop Academy series. If you have any queries or whatnot, feel free to comment below. If you're enjoying this series so far, I'd appreciate any thoughtful comments but anyways before it gets to sunrise, I will see you guys soon! Look forward to the next edition of the K-Pop Academy series, featuring K-Fashion (Hanboks)!

20:43 No comments

I apologise for my lack of blogging recently. A lot of stressful situations and jam-packed schedules led me to have a lack of time to post, let alone sleep... Which led to me becoming ill - What is life. Anyways, I'm back so I hope to catch up with my updates. Thanks for patiently waiting if you happen to be reading this aha.

Thus begins the second entry of my K-Pop Academy blog series. For this week, we went to King's College to have a lecture from Professor Jaehoon. He presented to us the History of Korean language, as well as theories in regards to the likeliness of Korean Language to other languages - e.g. The different theories, West, East, South and North (Altaic theory).

Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK

For someone who is currently in the process of learning Korean, I thought it was quite interesting to see how Hangul was developed. The most I knew was some of the Hangul characters before entering the class and that the creator of Hangul was King Sejong - I knew of this because I recently watched a short drama special called "Splash Splash Love" which I thought was pretty cute! Definitely check it out!! I'm not one to watch historical dramas but my friend recently introduced me to "Love in the Moonlight" featuring Park Bogum (literal bae) and I don't regret it, which led me to check out "Splash Splash Love"! If you have any other historical dramas to recommend, do comment below.

Now it's time for me to spread my knowledge of what I learnt from the lecture aha! I actually happen to carry a notebook to every lesson so I thought it would be a good chance to take down some notes. I think I got carried away though... I wrote about 5 A5 sides of notes...

Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK

Anyways, I won't bore you guys too much with this history if you aren't interested in this kind of thing, but if you are, definitely research more into it!

FACTS

- Hangul was created in the 15th century (1443) during the 25th year of King Sejong's reign

- There are 40 letters in Hangul (this includes compounds)

- Before Hangul was created, they used to write to each other using Chinese characters

- Seoyeh is a calligraphy technique related to the art of writing Hangul

*You can check out more facts when I post my homework later on!

Moving on, we began trying out some "Seoyeh" otherwise written as "서예" in Hangul. It was an interesting experience especially as we attempted to use the brush and ink to create our own individual designs. I attempted to vary my brush size especially when writing characters. Irena and I decided to test out what we wanted to write first by using the newspaper placed under our sheets as a practice. It was quite useful, because it meant we could avoid making mistakes.

Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK

Overall, I really enjoyed the experience. I spent so much time on one piece I didn't get a chance to start on another. Personally, I found the experience incredibly soothing, which relates back to what Seoyeh is also known for. Seoyeh is also known to calm and soothe the spirit.

You can check out my own creation below:

To summarise what I wrote in Korean, it says:
"Hello! My name is Sophia. Thank you, Korean Cultural Centre UK! I love you!~ Beautiful Korea~"

Homework of the Week!

So this week, we were given 3 options for the homework. I decided to create a poster showing the knowledge of what I had learnt from the lesson, including useful phrases and using lots of colours!

* Just a warning, I have some serious issue of writing in a straight line... I fail to do so without guidelines... I can't even draw a straight line with a ruler half the time... Oh my...

Anyways... I hope you guys enjoyed the 2nd edition of my K-Pop Academy blog updates!! I will be attempting to catch up on all the weeks... Especially as I've currently just completed the 4th week... I hope that you will continue reading! Also, I hope you guys learnt something new - that's a lot of "hope"... I'll stop now omg.

13:03 2 comments

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