Korean Drumming and the Complexity of Zainichi Korean Identity
Koo introduces the performance culture of Zainichi Koreans and discusses their engagement with traditional Korean culture in Japan.
Over the last century, numerous Koreans have moved overseas for various reasons. Migration involves not only the relocation of people but also the movement of goods and cultural practices, including language, traditions, thoughts, behaviours, and beliefs. In this talk, Koo introduces the performance culture of Zainichi Koreans (Korean residents in Japan) and discusses how their engagement with traditional Korean culture in Japan manifest the flexibility and permeability of national identity and traditional culture in a transnational context. Over the last four decades, Korean folk drumming (p’ungmul or nongak) has become prominent in Japan as a tool for Korean heritage education and a marker of ethnic identity. She engages with several Zainichi Korean musicians who devote themselves to p’ungmul, pursuing it as their full-time profession or as a serious leisure activity. The majority of p’ungmul musicians in Japan are third-or fourth-generation Korean migrants presenting a complex mix of state, national, and cultural affiliations as North Koreans, South Koreans, and naturalized Japanese. Considering the community’s social and historical complexity and the distinctness of each individual musician, she delves into what Korean drumming informs and teaches us about Korean diaspora and Zainichi identities.
Speaker Biography:
Sunhee Koo is a Senior Lecturer in Ethnomusicology and the Chair of Anthropology at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her research focuses on East Asian performing arts, exploring the complex intersections of ethnicity, nation, and identity. In 2021, she published her first monograph, Sound of the Border: Music and Identity of the Korean Minority in China, with the University of Hawaiʻi Press. She is currently working on her second monograph, examining contemporary Korean identity, national music, and the Transmigration of North and South Koreans, under contract with the same press. Since 2024, she has served as the President of the Korean Studies Association of Australasia (KSAA).
Koo introduces the performance culture of Zainichi Koreans and discusses their engagement with traditional Korean culture in Japan.
Over the last century, numerous Koreans have moved overseas for various reasons. Migration involves not only the relocation of people but also the movement of goods and cultural practices, including language, traditions, thoughts, behaviours, and beliefs. In this talk, Koo introduces the performance culture of Zainichi Koreans (Korean residents in Japan) and discusses how their engagement with traditional Korean culture in Japan manifest the flexibility and permeability of national identity and traditional culture in a transnational context. Over the last four decades, Korean folk drumming (p’ungmul or nongak) has become prominent in Japan as a tool for Korean heritage education and a marker of ethnic identity. She engages with several Zainichi Korean musicians who devote themselves to p’ungmul, pursuing it as their full-time profession or as a serious leisure activity. The majority of p’ungmul musicians in Japan are third-or fourth-generation Korean migrants presenting a complex mix of state, national, and cultural affiliations as North Koreans, South Koreans, and naturalized Japanese. Considering the community’s social and historical complexity and the distinctness of each individual musician, she delves into what Korean drumming informs and teaches us about Korean diaspora and Zainichi identities.
Speaker Biography:
Sunhee Koo is a Senior Lecturer in Ethnomusicology and the Chair of Anthropology at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her research focuses on East Asian performing arts, exploring the complex intersections of ethnicity, nation, and identity. In 2021, she published her first monograph, Sound of the Border: Music and Identity of the Korean Minority in China, with the University of Hawaiʻi Press. She is currently working on her second monograph, examining contemporary Korean identity, national music, and the Transmigration of North and South Koreans, under contract with the same press. Since 2024, she has served as the President of the Korean Studies Association of Australasia (KSAA).