By Jon Huer
Korea Times Columnist
Spontaneity is one of Korea's most endearing folk traits. It knows neither formality nor propriety. Koreans settle anywhere, anytime to get a roadside party started. They throw down a mat and spread their stuff on it. Eating, drinking and dancing follow. There are no strangers once this festivity is under way. People are pulled down to share soju from the same glass and food from the same plate.
When Koreans, especially the older ones, see children, they spontaneously attack them with playfulness and affection, completely ignoring their parents. If the children happen to be foreign, their attack is merciless.
They tear the kids away from their parents and begin a collective love-fest with the babies.
They pass the babies from one to
another, until everybody has squeezed, hugged and kissed them. Never mind the hygienic concern. They offer to the babies, as if they are their own grandbabies, even their own half-eaten food.
There is no ulterior motive in their spontaneous responses. They are just being human, unburdened by formality with or fear of strangers.
Their spontaneous display of humanity is one of Korea's greatest national resources, but it is also one of the least recognized and appreciated among Korea's greatest wonders.
The secret here is ``spontaneous,'' not pre-arranged, not pre-organized, not pre-planned. For Korea is one of the worst countries at carrying out anything with pre-arrangement, pre-organization or pre-planning.
But when Koreans are inspired by the movement of their spontaneous spirit and energy, there is nothing more memorable, humane or true.
When foreigners recognize and witness one of those spontaneous moments in Korea and with Koreans, the experience is easily one of the most cherished moments in their lifetime.
One can tell much about a people or a society by the way they respond to strangers and treat babies. As long as Koreans are in their ``private-true'' element, not in ``public'' or formal, no people or society on Earth is more open to strangers and babies with
spontaneous warmth and unconscious abandon than Koreans. Not in Asia, not anywhere in the world.
Unforgettable Lyrical Songs
One of Korea's greatest treasures is the group of songs called ``Lyrical Songs of Korea,'' mostly composed during Japanese colonial rule. They include the ever-popular ``Bongseonhwa,'' ``Gahgo-pa,'' ``Bahwi-gohgay,'' ``Yet-dong-san,'' just to name a few of the most famous. Admittedly, these songs are utterly sentimental and inconsolable, presumably reflecting the sorrowfulness of Korea under foreign domination. But what sentimentality and what longing! They could break the hearts of even the most stubborn of savages.
The truth of their lyricism and the beauty of their melodies can find their match perhaps only in Hebrew literature. American Black soul music, as intensely soulful as it is, is a distant third.
What makes these songs so heartfelt and touching without being trite, even after countless repetitions? I believe it is because of the utter purity of the composer's heart at the time the words and tunes were written.
Only the truest of human hearts could produce sounds and notes so pure and so touching over such a long period of time.
Musical notes reflect the composer's state of mind as words do that of the writer. This is one aspect that separates ``classics'' from contemporary ``Pop Music.'' Pure hearts create pure notes and words.
It is for this reason that modern writers and composers cannot write great stuff. They are just too corrupted and distracted. Money and fame surely corrupt and distract the heart.
The lyrical Korean songs, representing Korea's once-in-a-lifetime purity of heart under Japanese colonial rule, are some of Korea's greatest achievements.
They should be heard at airports, shops, parks and wherever foreigners go as an introduction to Korea's very best hearts and minds. In fact, there should be an introductory program explaining and playing these songs on every flight headed toward Korea.
Indeed, as we look back at the long and tumultuous history of Korea, of its many sorrows and sufferings, it is obvious that there was never a period where Koreans were truer or more faithful to themselves as the period under Japanese rule. Most Koreans were united as never before, their hearts beating as one, their voices sounding the notes and words toward an indifferent Heaven in great collective distress, and these lyrical songs were born.
As they say that slavery created American Blacks' soul music, and the Holocaust the State of Israel, Japanese rule wrote these lyrical songs of Korea. It is a burst of pure love for their country and freedom, expressed in the most captivating words and melodies, that Koreans will never be able to capture again.
With so much falsehood and fakery making up Korea's so-called ``culture'' today, the faint resonance of these lyrical songs, so seldom heard or sung, is all the more unforgettable in their dying echo and remembrance.
jonhuer@koreatimes.co.kr
