1. Date: Mar 3, 2002 (Sunday)
2. Place: EMU Ballroom Union
3. Attendance: approximate 400 people
Detailed coverage:
Korean Student Association (KSA) finally had its annual cultural event,
Korea Night 2002 on Mar 3, Sun in the EMU Ballroom Union. The event
started at 6:30 p.m. with its first part started. The first part of
Korea Night consisted of Dinner and Games/Exhibit “The Good Old
Days”. Dinner was provided at Maple and the next room, and the
Exhibit and Game were placed in Gumwood room and balcony. Dinner section
had 6 dishes, 4 vegetarians and 2 non-vegetarians. Dishes were criticized
to be good with appropriate tastes and recipes for both Koreans and
non-Koreans. The exhibit “The Good Old Days” was one of
the highlight of this Korea Night, showing Korea in periodical order,
from 1950s ~ 2000s, in 4 different sections. Each section had two performers/show
masters to present the image of era, attracting audiences. Also, in
a corner of the Gumwood room, KSA remodeled a Korean traditional scene
to have people take pictures in the traditional wedding costumes. In
deed, the photo event appeared as one of the most successful section
of Korea Night with almost 200 participants.
The Second part started with Samul-nori, consisting of 4 high school
students from Portland. Taekwondo demonstration attracted many audiences
with its smash part, and Daegeum/ Danso performance were also great
in the well-matching background.
Nanta was the other highlight part of Korea Night this year. Nanta is
a fusion Korean performance using the cooking utilities in kitchen.
By using knives, cutting board, pots, chopsticks, kitchen trash cans
and so on, 6 cooks create traditional and new rhythms. Nanta is also
famous for its unique comic skits and the Nanta performance in this
Korea Night had also a good comedic skits consisting of each cook’s
personal performance.
Video Clip was followed by Nanta, lasted for 10 mins. The CD for the
video clip was provided by Korea National Tourism Organization and actually
for many exhibitions in Korea Night, many of official Korean Governmental
organizations helped in materials aspects.
Buchaechoom was the last part of Korea Night and actually the last highlight
part. Due to its recognition raised from last year’s International
Night, the Korean Fan Dance, Buchaechoom gained more fame this year.
10 mins of performances were lead by 9 performers and it appeared that
many of the foreigner audiences remember Buchaechoom the best part of
Korea Nigth this year.
The whole events were ended at 9 o’clock in the evening and KSA
got quite a lot of complements.
As launching the Korea Night, KSA had few financial problem fortunately
and it is criticized as a very successful event of KSA which did not
actually actively participated in the campus activities or its own cultural
event for 6 years.
Personally as a board member and fundraiser of KSA, I am really glad
that K Night is finally over, and over with such a good reputation.