Korean Cultural Night explores the ‘American Dream’
By Daily Bruin Staff
May 16, 1996 9:00 p.m.
Thursday, May 16, 1996
Event arrives at Ackerman this Saturday eveningBy Stephanie
Sheh
Daily Bruin Contributor
Beating drums, pre-Buddhist dances, songs and Ondal the fool.
This is the stuff of which Korean American dreams are made.
The American dream is this year’s theme for Korean Cultural
Night, which takes place this Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Ackerman
Grand Ballroom. Traditional and modern Korean singing, dancing and
folk drum playing will fill the evening. The bulk of the event is
an original play about the interaction between first and second
generation Koreans.
"This year’s story is about the American Dream as it relates to
Korean immigrants and their Americanized children and the conflicts
that arise between the two," explains skit writer and director,
David Lee. "Sometimes the Korean parents have their ideas of where
their children’s life direction should go, while their children
sometimes have their own ideas. When they don’t exactly coincide,
sometimes, there’s major conflict."
Real evidence of conflicting ideas about children’s life
direction can be observed on the UCLA campus. Lee says that the
Korean American students that have north campus majors share
similar stories. Most, he feels, have changed their majors from
"something ‘practical’ like engineering or pre-med and went into
something like history, English or art."
To further demonstrate the clashing desires between Korean
American children and their parents, the skit includes traditional
Korean folk tales. "We incorporated some folk tales and some dream
sequences and it promises to be surreal if nothing else," says
Lee.
The Korean folk tale included is Baboh Ondal, which roughly
translates to Ondal the fool. The tale’s theme of filial piety is
articulated through the contrasting characters Ondal and princess
Pyonggang. Ondal is every parent’s dream, and Pyonggang directly
defies her father’s wishes. However, everything works out for the
both of them in the end.
The optimistic ending of the folk tale is an important focal
point of the skit. Senior advisor for the event, Kevin La, suggests
that during the skit, the audience should try to understand both
the perspectives of the first and second generation characters.
Currently, Lee is trying to understand why there are not more
people aware of and involved in Korean Cultural Night. There are
only approximately 40 people involved this year.
"We have about a gajillion Koreans on campus," says Lee. "Every
time I mention Korean Cultural Night, half the reactions are ‘Oh,
we have a cultural night?’ The other half of the reactions are,
‘Eeew, Korean Cultural Night!’
Lee hopes that the reactions to the cultural experience will be
positive. He thinks that the night will prove to be very
entertaining. His hope is that after seeing the show, students will
want to attend other cultural nights in the future, and hopefully
they will want to get involved next year.
Getting more students involved is also a major concern to La.
"The two things we try to do is to get more students involved and
share our culture," says La.
He says participants do not have to be Korean, and he welcomes
anyone interested in Korean culture and willing to share their
talents. He wants to give students of different communities a
unique learning experience through a different kind of
participation. The Korean Cultural Night speaks to members of the
Korean community as well as members of other communities.
"Cultural night is a gift to our community," Lee says. "It is a
celebration of our own culture within our community and it’s a
chance to share our culture with other communities outside our
own."
CULTURE: Korean Culture Night ’96: "Korean American Dream."
Saturday at 7 p.m. Free. For more info call (310) 825-7184.
