Celebrating Korean Culture at UWM

Seon Joo So specializes in origami art, the art of folding paper into a finished sculpture.

She has been practicing origami since 1996 in South Korea. She moved from South Korea to Milwaukee in 2006 and since then, she has obtained a Master’s Degree at UWM. In 2012, she opened a studio called “So Cool Crafts” in Shorewood where she displays her art and teaches classes on origami.

Although So’s art says a lot about the Korean culture, the traditions didn’t stop there

Her art was featured when UWM hosted a Korea Day celebration on Nov. 7 in the Zelazo Center.

Korea is a country in East Asia that is divided into two distinct sovereign states by the Korean Demilitarized Zone, which is the border between the two Koreas.

The first performance of the night was a k-pop dance showcase including fellow UWM students.

K-pop is an abbreviation for Korean popular music and is a fusion of pop, rock, hip-hop, r&b, electronica, and dance. It originated in South Korea and is now spreading throughout the world. A popular artist in k-pop is PSY, who sings the infamous “Gangnam Style“.

UWM also invited a k-pop group called “Afterparty” from Northwestern University in Illinois to perform later on in the program.

The Korean Language Program of UWM told stories in Korean. They were split up into two groups. One group read “If You Take a Mouse to School” by Laura Numeroff and the other group read “Wee Mouse’s Peekaboo House” by Jean Hirashima.

Students from UW-Madison had a percussion instrument performance featuring drums called the Kkoaengkwari, Jing, Buk, and Janggu.

UWM student Brittany Austin said that the performance with the drums looked really complicated, but very interesting.

The D.A. Yun Taekwondo Academy demonstrated patterns, sparring, and breaking. Taekwondo is a Korean martial art. In Korean, tae means “to stomp” or “to strike or break with foot.” Kwon means “to strike or break with fist” and do means “way of life.”

The students ranged from adult to youth with a couple demonstrations that included both groups together.

Taekwondo combines combat and self-defense techniques with sport and exercise.

UWM’s Student Association President Ryan Sorenson led a sing along in Korean.

The song is titled “Patbingsu” by Jong Shin Yoon.

Patbingsu is a popular dessert in Korea. The ingredients include sweetened red beans, fruits, rice cake, jelly and ice.

Wells Fargo sponsored a dinner with Korean dishes called bul-go-gi (beef dish), jab-che (noodle dish), and o-ei-so-bak-ei (cooked cucumber dish).

Following the dinner, there was a concert by the UWM Symphony Orchestra. The concert featured Yeol Eum Son, an award winning pianist.

Although Korea Day showed a lot of the traditions of Koreans, there is so much more to be learned about Korea.