Abstract:
This research investigates how the entertainment genre p’umba has been invented and commoditised in modern South Korea. The genre involves re-enactments of kaksŏri, beggars who sang and danced in front of potential patrons to seek food and money in premodern Korea. “P’umba”, originally a vocable found in the refrains of kaksŏri songs, has taken on novel meanings as various agents have appropriated (and venerated) the beggars’ performances for their respective motives. Through interviews, participant observation, and library research, I critically examine four main “streams” of p’umba in contemporary South Korea: Kim Sira’s play Pumba, Kaksŏri P’umba Preservation Society, street p’umba entertainers, and Eumseong Pumba Festival. I aim to provide a detailed historical and social delineation of each stream as well as examine how the numerous agents of p’umba have interacted and influenced each other. Today, p’umba embodies multiple meanings of “tradition”, which, in the recent history of South Korea, has been marked by political turbulence and rapid industrialisation. Although, at the same time, p’umba as a genre is not officially recognised by the government as a cultural heritage, its performance involves shabby dress and folk songs to evoke a sense of counter-modernity. However, I suggest that p’umba is a complex site constituted of both modern and premodern Korean cultural elements that manifests how modernity is performed through the invention and commoditisation of tradition. Thus, the four streams of p’umba that I examine in this study not only present a comprehensive view on how tradition gains new meanings as a new contemporary culture in South Korea, but also reveal how a culture is shaped within and against various power relations between cultural agents and political regimes that shape particular ideologies in modern South Korea.