Chang Pogo
The Musical Legacy of a Korean Hero
A contemporary Korean musical drama 'Chang Pogo, the Prince of Maritime Trade' was given its Amsterdam première at the Royal Carré Theatre on November 3rd, 1998. In his introduction to the concert programme the South Korean ambassador expressed the hope that this performance event will contribute to a better understanding of Korean history, its cultural heritage, and the mutual understanding between the two countries. Interestingly this particular musical production uses the story of the Korean trader and commissioner Chang Pogo, who established a maritime commercial empire in East Asia during the early ninth century, as its central theme.
By Hae-kyung Um
As a musical 'Chang Pogo' interprets and reconstructs Korea's past from a contemporary point of view by focusing on Korean nationhood in an international context. In order to create both national and multicultural tones in this work Broadway-style music is juxtaposed with a variety of dances and musics from Korea, China, and Japan, embellished by reconstructed period costumes and stage settings. How is this construction of Korea's history and cultural heritage to be understood?The 'Historical' Past
According to the earliest Japanese, Chinese, and Korean sources Chang Pogo was the son of a fisherman from Wan Island lying off the southwestern coast of the Korean peninsular. He migrated to Tang China as a youth and pursued a successful military career in the service of the Tang dynasty, rising to the rank of captain. At that time, Korea was under the rule of the Silla Dynasty (57 BC - AD 935). Korea's foreign trade with Tang China and Japan flourished, and these commercial activities led to the establishment of Korean settlements called Sillabang or Silla Quarter on the Shantung Peninsula and on the coast of Kiangsu province, China. Chang Pogo returned to Korea in 828 and established the military headquarters of Ch'ônghae Garrison on Wan Island. He raised a private army and navy, patrolled the south coast of Korea and put an end to the activities of Chinese pirates who had frequently plundered Korean coastal towns and took the inhabitants to sell as slaves. In addition he controlled the trade with China and Japan and became a virtual merchant prince of the East Asian region. History relates that the downfall of Chang Pogo was associated with his attempt to marry his daughter to King Munsông. In the face of protests from the aristocracy, however, the new king was prevented from taking Chang Pogo's daughter as his second queen because of Chang's common social origins. In retaliation Chang Pogo revolted against the king but was killed at the hands of the assassin sent by the king, Yôm Chang, in 846. Chang's stronghold, the Ch'ônghae Garrison on Wan Island, was subsequently demolished in 851. The downfall of Chang Pogo, his navy, and island garrison also marked the end of Korea's brief dominance in the East Asian maritime trade.
The 'Imagined' Past
In this musical, the history of Korea in the ninth century and the life of Chang are reconstructed in accordance with the five ethical codes of Confucian ideology as follows:
- 'Loyalty to the king'
Official historical records written by Confucian scholars treated Chang Pogo's political ambition and his challenge to the monarchy as treacherous. In the musical, however, Chang Pogo's involvement in the royal succession is described as an act of honour and duty. As an ordinary, loyal subject, Chang Pogo restores the legitimate kingship that was threatened by conspirators. When the royal marriage alliance did not materialize, he accepts the king's decision, as he does not want to be remembered as a traitor. In this version Chang is killed by his former political allay, Yôm Chang, who carried out the assassination with an eye to promoting his own position.
- 'Filial piety', 'fidelity to the husband', and 'brotherhood'
In the musical Chang Pogo's personal life suffers as he leaves his fiancée, Pôdûl, behind in order to fulfil his ambitions in China. Pôdûl and her sister, Tal, are taken by Chinese pirates to be sold as slaves in a Tang market but are rescued by Li Shigu, a Tang general of Korean descent. When a drunken Chinese commander forces himself on Pôdûl, she stabs him to defend her honour and to protect the child of Chang Pogo whom she is carrying. Pôdûl's sister, Tal, takes the blame for Pôdûl's action and commits suicide so that Pôdûl can safely return to their parents and homeland.
- 'Faithfulness to friends'
Chang Pogo's sworn brother, Chông Nyôn, accompanies Chang to China. However, when Chang Pogo returns to Korea (Silla), Chông Nyôn stays behind because he resents the fact that Silla society holds his people of Paekche in contempt. None the less, Chông Nyôn finds Chang's wife and daughter in China and brings them back to Korea to join Chang Pogo.
The Construction of Music, Identities, Images, and Symbols
A variety of musics and dances from Korea, China, and Japan, enhanced by reconstructed period costumes and stage settings, are employed in this musical drama in order to recreate a multicultural scene. These imagined cultural artefacts and symbols are, in turn, manipulated to construct, negotiate, and represent various national identities and political ideologies in both 'national' and 'global' terms.
- National performing arts and identity
Korean performing arts are used to imagine Korea's cultural heritage. But they are also used to promote an ideology of Korean nationhood as a united people who belong to one land. This cultural nationalism and ideology invents the 'traditional' music and dance of ninth-century Korea which, in reality, is created in the style of contemporary Korean folk music and dance. The unity of the Korean nation, in particular, is stressed as 'the descendants of the progenitor, Tan'gun', and the people of the 'Land of Morning Calm'. For example, Chang Pogo emphasizes this shared ancestry in an attempt to persuade his sworn bother, Chông Nyôn, to return to their homeland. These negotiated regional and national identities are metaphorically transferred from the period of the musical to contemporary transnational communities of ethnic Koreans who idealistically all wish to return to their fatherland, the 'Land of Morning Calm'.
- International performing arts and globalisation
The multicultural-ness of the historical settings of this musical are represented by exotic musics and dances from China and Japan, which, in turn, are cultural artefacts imagined from a Korean perspective. For example, the Tang Chinese ribbon dance with the film style choreography and period costumes and the Japanese parasol dance in kimonos and with parasols are all constructed from a number of cultural stereotype formulas. These multicultural dimensions of the performing arts recreated in this production are introduced to symbolise the globalization and internationalization of Korea - which is how it wishes to see itself in the world today. This dream and vision are expressed in the finale of this musical: 'Let's open the sea that was closed for a thousand years. Open the closed sea! Go out in the world!'
The Construction of Contemporary Korean Performing Arts
Since its Korean première in 1993 the musical Chang Pogo has been performed throughout Asia, America, and Europe. Like many other overseas presentations of Korean performing arts, this concert was sponsored by the South Korean government in an effort to introduce and promote Korean culture in the outside world. These types of artistic processes began to influence the Korean performing arts during the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, when spectacles were presented at the opening and closing ceremonies. The Korean musicologist Kwon Oh-sung takes the view that the Seoul Olympics were the 'cultural Olympics' which spurred on changes in traditional Korean music. He argues they led to a new consensus that it was time to find a focus and a direction for Korean traditional music as it headed into the 21st century, 'an age of internationalization and of a struggle for cultural supremacy'. Contemporary with these academic and public discourses, a number of new Korean performing arts began to appear in the early 1990s. The musical Chang Pogo was one of the first attempts to 'internationalize' traditional Korean performing arts for global audiences. A more recent development of this genre is the epic musical 'King Kwanggaet'o' which was premièred in 1995. This musical is based on King Kwanggaet'o (r. 391-413) of the Koguryô kingdom who expanded his territory to include what is now Manchuria. These historical themes provide Korean artists and writers with an 'historically authentic' foundation for their creation of new Korean performing arts that are relevant to their past, present, and future. Additionally, this process of reconstruction of Korea's past through a contemporary perspective and artistic expression is being continuously revised and expanded to redefine Korea's cultural legacy. Through these multi layers of cultural artefacts and symbols, these contemporary musicals attempt to represent Korean identity as South Korea wishes to see itself today in the context of modernization and globalization.
References
- Ilyon [Iryôn], Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea (Samguk Yusa). Written in Chinese in the late 13th century. English translation by Tae-Hung Ha and Grafton K. Mintz, Seoul: Yonsei University Press, 1972.
- Kwon, Oh-sung [Kwôn, O-sông], 'Traditional Music: International Perspectives', Koreana: Korean Art and Culture, 12:4, 1998, pp. 18-23.
- Lee, Peter H. and Wm. Theodore de Bary (eds), Sources of Korean Tradition, Volume One: From Early Times Through the Sixteenth Century, New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
- Ou, Yangxiu et al, The New History of Tang (Xin Tang Shu), Compiled AD 996 - 1061, Reprinted in 10 volumes, Beijing: Chunghua Press, 1975.
Hae-kyung Um is a PAATI Research Fellow, at the International Institute for Asian Studies. She can be reached at HaekyungUm@let.leidenuniv.nl.