Joseon Images Snack peddlers popular to Westerners in 19th century
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A sweet jelly sellers during circa 1910 / Courtesy of Robert Neff collection
By Robert Neff
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a common sight in Seoul was the snack and drink peddlers. These peddlers ― many of them boys or young men ― loudly advertised their goods as they roamed through the city streets. They attracted not only the attention of potential customers but also Westerners who described them in their correspondences home.
Frank Carpenter, an American journalist who traveled to Korea in the fall of 1888, was especially impressed with the young enterprising chestnut vendors:
“They are little boys with their hair parted in the middle like girls and braided in one tightly woven cord down the back. Their stock usually consists of about a quart of chestnuts and they have a little pan of coals over which they roast them while you wait.”
Candy sellers were also very popular with Westerners plagued with a sweet tooth. Horace Grant Underwood roamed the streets of Seoul as a young boy in the 1930s and in an article describing his boyhood wrote:
“I remember best the yot sellers. Theirs was the Korean malt taffy that came in long strings which the seller would cut into appropriate lengths with the scissors that he clanked to advertise his presence.”
Another young customer was Muriel Lewis, a missionary’s daughter who lived in Wonju in the 1920s. She recalled the candy sellers “had a tray with straps going up over their shoulders, and the candy was a malt taffy. It was good, I loved it. But it was just exposed to the dust and the dirt blowing around. When they made it, they spit on their hands so it wouldn’t stick to them when they pulled it. Then it was rolled in sesame seeds. We used to buy it once in a while and re-cook it to kill the germs.”
Visages of this past can still be found in Seoul. Yot vendors, many dressed in traditional clothing, still sell their products at tourist spots such as Insadong but they seem more window-dressing than genuine.
In residential areas away from the high-rise apartments, I have encountered a makgeolli peddler ― dressed in rags, perhaps to give his product a more genuine feel ― selling his alcohol from carts that he pulled through the streets while shouting the virtues of his drink. He even offered to share a bottle with me. Regretfully I declined, but only because I was on my bicycle.
In the late fall and early winter, teenage boys and young men sell roasted sweet potatoes. Their sales pitches to customers are often polite and filled with good humor and, unsurprisingly, the most successful of these young vendors are handsome.
But not all of these fall and winter vendors are so visible. In my neighborhood, the late evenings and early nights are sometimes filled with the haunting calls of chapssaltteok (a Korean rice cake with bean paste) and maemilmuk (buckwheat jelly) sellers advertising their wares as they roam the streets and alleys seeking customers. Their calls act as a lullaby to usher in dreams of Korea’s past.
Robert Neff is a historian and columnist for The Korea Times. He can be reached at robertneff103@gmail.com.