Dining with the Queen: foreigners help celebrate Joseon Dynasty foundation

By Robert Neff

September 4, 1895, was an important occasion ― the anniversary of the foundation of the Joseon Dynasty.

To celebrate it, the king and queen of Korea invited the leading members of the foreign community to a dinner at the palace. Naturally, the foreign community was thrilled ― especially the women who rarely got to attend these events ― but many wondered how successful the event would be.

In the days leading up to it, rain had plagued the capital but even more troubling was the political unrest slowly simmering ― waiting to explode into violence. Fortunately, the day before the dinner, the rain stopped and even the whispers of intrigue ceased.

About 7:30 in the evening, guests began to appear at the palace gate in their palanquins or on foot. As in any event of this magnitude, security was strict and nobody was exempt from showing their invitation as Horace N. Allen, Secretary of the American Legation found out. He had somehow misplaced his pass and was delayed until things could be worked out. The other guests, however, were led to the banquet hall.

The hall was huge ― nearly 30 meters long and about half that wide ― and “was very handsomely frescoed and decorated with several hundred lanterns of all colors, sizes and descriptions” made in Korea, Japan, China and in the West. Flags and flowers added to the decorations.

In the center of the room were “two long tables, filled with every delicacy of the season … [and] divided by scarlet curtains, to separate the gentlemen from the ladies.”

It had the desired impact on the guests. According to Mrs. Waeber, the Russian Minister's wife, the hall “was equal” to any of the royal halls she had seen in Europe. Mrs. Sill, the wife of the American Minister, declared she had never seen anything so “extraordinarily beautiful.”

For a short time, the guests wandered about talking and admiring the decorations but soon they were informed that the king and queen were coming and to take their places ― the men on one side of the curtain and the women on the other.

When the royal couple entered into the hall, they separated and went to their respective sides. The queen was resplendent - upon her head was a simple crown complemented by several red artificial flowers gracing her hair.

As the queen passed to take her place at the head of the table, each of the women bowed. She then summoned her guests, one by one and according to their social rank, to assume their places at the table.

The Japanese minister's wife was to the right of the queen while Sill was to her left. The queen, with a “genial smile,” then bowed “graciously” to her guests. A red artificial flower was then given to each of the guests to adorn their own hair in a similar manner to the queen's. They were then presented with a large glass of champagne.

The queen then “made a very pretty little speech” that was translated into English but evidently not everyone could hear the translation. The delightful but undiplomatic Elizabeth Greathouse (her son was an American adviser to the Korean court) wrote:

“[The queen] said a few words in Corean for she does not understand English, of course; we guessed she was making a little speech telling of what the gathering was; to celebrate something 4 or 5 hundred years ago & etc, then we, standing, raised our glasses and at the end of her few words she smiled and drank some wine.”

Sill then gave a short speech and once again glasses were raised in a toast. During Sill's speech, the queen sent a messenger to Greathouse with a complimentary message and asked about her health. Greathouse was delighted (and somewhat smug) to have been singled her out for this honor and promptly bowed.

The queen, complaining of the heat, apologized to her guests and said she would have to retire for the evening. The king, who used a similar excuse so that his “guests could enjoy the occasion unembarrassed,” then appeared from his side of the curtain and the two of them “retired to a little apartment in one corner of the hall which was built expressly for them, where they could view the whole scene, without being exposed to public view any longer.”

Before they could reach their sanctuary, they were intercepted by Greathouse. The queen took her hand and warmly greeted her before extracting herself from her pushy guest and continued on her way to her private apartment.

With their royal hosts gone, the guests then sat down to a “very nice and bountiful repast.” Afterward, they gathered together with the men at one of the large windows to watch a spectacular fireworks display.

Greathouse was delighted. “They were beautiful, something I have never seen before,” she gushed and then added she thought they were made in Japan. She was wrong ― they were manufactured in Korea.

After the last rocket was fired into the air, Sill said they were treated to Korean traditional “music (such music) and singing, (such singing) all of the most weird and melancholy description.” Greathouse seemed equally unimpressed. “We all got enough of that after a while, their music was a noise, not much music at all.”

There were also dancing girls. This appears to have been too much for Greathouse and she quickly returned home ― a shame, because she missed one of the most entertaining incidents of the evening.

In a letter to her son, Sill described the incident:

“Your father had one of the front seats and as the dancing girls moved slowly backwards and forward, one of them majestically backed directly into [his] arms, much to the amusement of the foreigners and the fright of the poor girl.”

Shortly after midnight the event ended and everyone returned home. Sill was quite tired but very pleased and claimed she “would not have missed it for anything.” Little did she know that it was the last time that she and, for the most part, the foreign community would ever see the queen ― a little over a month later, the queen was assassinated in her own chambers.