The best, oldest K-pop

When Kim Ki-duk, winning director of this year’s Venice Film Festival Golden Lion award, sang “Arirang” instead of giving a thank-you speech, he showed what the song means to most Koreans. “I just wanted to tell the world that this song is ours by singing it on the international stage whenever possible,” Kim said.

If all other Koreans were like Kim, the nation’s oldest and most-loved folk tune might have been registered on the UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list a long time ago.

Still it is always better late than never, and we welcome the U.N. body’s official inclusion of Korea’s best-known traditional ballad on its list of cultural legacies deserving preservation and progression. “While dealing with diverse universal themes, the simple musical and literary composition invites improvisation, imitation and singing in unison,” it said.

The move was all the more significant because China was about to register the song as part of its own heritage, attributing it to the ethnic Koreans in that country.

We can hardly agree more with UNESCO’s citation. In fact, Arirang is not just a song but a part of Korean history. There are so many theories as to the meaning of the song’s title and its origin, including one that goes back to pre-Christian times during the ancient Korean kingdoms. There are many versions of it sung on a variety of occasions. The sad, and cheerful, melody means it can be a love song, a work song and even a war song. A former Korean sex slave, who forgot the Korean language entirely, could still remember its words and melody.

Often called the second national anthem, it is also a tune that reaffirms Koreans in both halves of the divided peninsula as one people. South and North Korean audiences still remember how the New York Philharmonic and Lorin Maazel, built a musical bridge between the Koreas thorough its emotional performance of this song in back-to-back concerts in Seoul and Pyongyang four years ago.

Albeit late, the registration should not be the end but the beginning of efforts to turn Arirang into the oldest and best-loved K-pop song among culture lovers across the world.

Most urgently, cultural policymakers will need to help the private sector develop various related programs, including films and musicals, which can help global villagers, especially members of the younger generations who are addicted to K-pop and hallyu, quickly become familiar with this ancient song and other traditional folklore.

Seoul should also encourage academic researchers, such as Kim Yeon-gap, a private expert on Arirang, who has collected 7,400 different variations of the song, including 70 major versions, without help from others.

The registration must serve as an occasion for Koreans to take greater care of their time-honored traditions before others reawaken them. <The Korea Times>