Contributor
Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books, including Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.
For many Koreans, Nov. 11 is Pepero Day, a fairly recent unofficial celebration that Wikipedia claims is similar to Valentine’s Day. On this day, friends and family exchange Pepero (long, thin cookie sticks covered with chocolate) as a show of affection.
The legend of Arang is one of the most famous ghost stories in Korea. It is a tale of one-sided love, betrayal, greed. murder and, of course, a butterfly and a ghost.
One of the most beautiful sights in summer are the swarms of butterflies gracing the fields of flowers found throughout Korea. Like a kaleidoscope of color, they flit about bringing joy and wonder to all who view them. To many they are symbols of transformation and the cycle of life. In Korea they symbolize prosperity and contentment. They are generally associated with light and beauty but they also have a dark side – one filled with ugliness and contradiction.
In the late 19th century, travelers to Korea were often faced with the daunting task of finding places to stay. Japanese hotels and inns could be found in the open ports but for many Westerners, these were not very comfortable due to the cultural and dietary differences. There were a handful of Western-style hotels – mainly in Jemulpo (modern Incheon) and later in Seoul – but these were fairly expensive, providing they had vacancies. At one point there was even a Korean hotel – but the reviews of it were far from encouraging. For most travelers, staying in a Korean inn was an adventure they wanted nothing to do with.
While travelers may have welcomed Korean country inns as a sanctuary from tigers, wolves and the elements, they were not a sanctuary from other predations. Scattered amongst the articles published in newspapers and magazines from the late 19th and early 20th centuries are accounts of robberies and murders that took place in lonely inns. Fortunately, foreigners were rarely victims of these violent attacks, but they, along with the other patrons of the inn, had to contend with the most notorious offenders: bedbugs.
For Westerners, traveling in the interior of the Korean Peninsula in the late 19th century was very uncomfortable and dangerous – especially as night fell. The Korean roads and desolate paths were the hunting grounds for the numerous highwaymen and brigands who preyed upon small parties of travelers. Tigers stalked invisibly in the underbrush, waiting for the opportunity to gorge upon the flesh of the unwary.
Cemeteries are windows into the past. The two primary foreign cemeteries of the 1392-1910 Joseon era are Jemulpo’s Foreign Cemetery located within Incheon Family Park Cemetery and Yanghwajin Foreigners’ Cemetery in Hapjeong-dong in Seoul. Each of these cemeteries provides a different view of Korea’s past.
It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. This may be true in many cases ― but more often than not, without a narrative and context, the picture was more distractive than attractive.
In the past, wild animals, including bears, were occasionally raised for entertainment and sport within the Korean palace grounds. In 1394, King Taejo received a small bear cub and raised it in the palace garden ― whether it lived a long and happy life is unknown but surely it fared better than the bears brought to the palace under King (later demoted to Prince) Yeonsangun in the early 1500s. He was infamous for his “maddening debauchery” and willingness to kill both people and animals. He had tigers, leopards, bears, deer, boars and other wildlife brought live to the palace where they were placed in cages or, if they were somewhat docile, allowed to roam free. Then, whenever the craving to kill something was upon him, he was able to go out onto the palace grounds and hunt comfortably.
In the late 19th century, Korea was a land filled with danger. Banditry was common, disease was prevalent, demons and ghosts haunted people’s imaginations and beliefs (Korean and foreigners alike), and fierce wild beasts roamed the desolate mountains and forests. Tigers (and their smaller cousins, the leopards) were probably the most feared but they were not the only dangers to the Korean population and, by the first part of the 20th century, they became more legend than reality.