Sunday, March 26, 2006—“The Last Empress”
It took all morning to get out of the guesthouse. We arrive in Insa-dong at around 1:30 P.M. Insa-dong is a charming, artsy area of Seoul chock full of little art galleries, little tea shops, little antique stores. On Sundays the main street of Insa-dong is closed to vehicles and the street fills with tourists and Koreans out to enjoy the ambience. When we arrive a quartet of incongruous white guys are playing New Orleans jazz at the end of the street. Elsewhere are old Korean men with beards playing bamboo pipes. One ornery looking man sits stock still while birds land on his arms and chest and he gruffly feeds them from his pockets.
I stayed in Insa-dong only briefly, leaving my wife and students to shop while I took the metro down to the Seou lArts Center to enquire about getting tickets for the Broadway-style musical “The Last Empress.” I got the tickets and returned to Insa-dong where I shopped for maybe an hour. I had budget of $60 to spend on this trip. I spent $40 before I even left Saipan. So I only shopped for one person—my younger sister, who turned 28 yesterday. I bought her a small wooden brush canister decorated with hangul characters (or a vase—truthfully I don’t know what it is, but it looks cool. It will make a good art object. I am such a tourist.), a handmade card (which I later discovered was a holiday card when I opened it to write to her. “Happy Holidays and Happy New Year” it said inside. I’m such a tourist, it’s pathetic!), and a celadon tea cup with strainer and lid (The celadon tea cup I promptly broke that evening, dropping it twice on the subway. I had to go back and buy it again later that week). Shopping finished we all hopped on the subway again and returned to the Seoul Arts Center for “Empress.”
The Last Empress was gorgeous. I have found I really admire the Korean people. Throughout their history they’ve been surrounded by stronger, more aggressive nations on either side. Japan on the one side, China on the other. Repeatedly they have been overwhelmed, conquered, pushed around by these more powerful countries, and yet. . .they have preserved their own unique culture, they’ve developed their own written language—hangul, they’ve maintained their dignity and pride. In short, they’ve managed to survive and thrive despite difficult odds and humiliating circumstances. I’m impressed. I see Korea is a resilient nation that has made up in wits what they may have lacked in strength.The Last Empress did a good job of conveying this, I thought. On another note, you definitely got a hint of the underlying tensions between Korea and Japan. The Japanese were definitely the “bad guys” in this play. One scene in particular, I think, would have been offensive to Japanese viewers. These three Japanese merchants and three geishas have this song and dance number, and what really struck me is how the geishas were portrayed as little more than bawdy, vulgar prostitutes. It was such a contrast to the elegant, graceful geisha you see in Japanese depictions. The “rough” English translation on the screen above the stage made it seem all the more lacking in subtlety. The song had lyrics like “Let us steal from these stupid people of Choseun” and so on. Still despite these moments, the play overall was an enjoyable experience.
It was entertaining to see Korean actors portraying the British, Russians, and Americans. Reminded me of those old Hollywood movies in reverse where they tape some white guys eyes back and have him portray “Charlie Chan the Chinaman.”
Quote from The President: “The Last Empress was the best thing I’ve ever experienced in my life!” We loved it. We bought the program for $7000 won and had the actors autograph it, and the CD for $W 20,000.
No comments:
Post a Comment