More than just clothing, hanbok retains cultural significance

Korean Heritage

Published: 11 Apr. 2022, 15:28 Updated: 12 Apr. 2022, 09:28

More than just clothing, hanbok retains cultural significance

A girl's jeogori (hanbok top) with colorful stripes on the sleeves. Colorful jeogori are called saekdongjeogori. [NATIONAL FOLK MUSEUM OF KOREA]

"When do you wear hanbok?"

If you ask a Korean this question, many will offer the same answer.

They "hardly ever take it out of the wardrobe," Chang Yoon-seon, a 38-year-old mother in Seoul, said. Chang's first and only hanbok was for her wedding reception in 2008. Since then, it has never been taken out of her wardrobe, except once in 2019 when her sister got married.

Shin Su-yeon, a 64-year-old housewife living in Anyang, Gyeonggi, has three different hanbok — one that she received from her mother-in-law in 1990s and two more for her children's weddings. Shin tried wearing one of them during one of Korea's traditional holidays, like the Seollal new year holiday or Chuseok harvest holiday, but it was just "too cumbersome when you constantly have to go in and out of the kitchen to prepare and serve food."

"Most people, especially women, would sympathize with me," said Shin. "You can't machine wash hanbok, so people try to wear it as carefully as possible and eventually think it's a waste of money to just wear it once and have it dry cleaned, which is quite expensive for a hanbok."

At least many Korean women own a hanbok or two. Hardly any Korean men own the habok let alone wear them on special occasions, like traditional holidays or their children's weddings.

Lim Deok-jae, a 60-year-old builder in Seoul, says he doesn't own a hanbok, but wore one recently for the first time since his wedding in early 1990s.

"My daughter took me and my wife to this hanbok renting place in front of Gyeongbok Palace and all of us dressed up in hanbok to take pictures inside the palace. It was a memorable experience," said Song. "But wearing it every day? It just sounds too much like a hassle."

The traditional attire that was once the regular clothing of Korean people is no longer everyday wear in the country. The long-held custom of wearing hanbok during traditional holidays seems to be gradually disappearing as well.

This ceremonial outwear called wonsam was traditionally worn by brides on top of their hanbok. A bride traditionally wears a green jeogori with crimson skirt with a ceremonial wonsam, plus a flower headwear called jokduri. [NATIONAL FOLK MUSEUM OF KOREA]

Baenaet jeogori is the hanbok for newborn babies. It's made with as few seams as possible. [NATIONAL FOLK MUSEUM OF KOREA]

In an effort to protect the tradition of wearing hanbok, the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) decided to designate hanbok-wearing as National Intangible Cultural Heritage on March 24. After gathering opinions for 30 days after the announcement, the CHA will be making a final decision.

"Hanbok to Koreans is more than just a piece of clothing," said Jung Young-hwan, an official from the CHA's Intangible Cultural Heritage Division. "It's an important medium through which they show respect and expressed wishes for good health and peace, which makes it an important intangible asset."

Currently, 14 items are listed as National Intangible Cultural Heritage. They include the making and sharing of tteok (rice cake), the making and sharing of makgeoli (Korean rice wine), ssireum (Korean wrestling), haenyeo (women divers) and kimchi-making.

Hanbok have a top, known as jeogori, and a bottom, which can either be chima (skirt) for women and baji (pants) for men. Otgoreum, or the ribbons knotted to close the top, is a signature feature for a hanbok to complete the look.

"The whole experience of wearing hanbok is, in itself, culture as it involves unique etiquette and formalities and is executed differently for different occasions — ceremonies and rituals or traditional holidays or recreational events. It is true that people today wear hanbok far less than our ancestors, but the fact that people wear hanbok to show their respect remains unchanged," Jung said. "There's even a saying: 'What you wear defines who you are.' For many people, wearing hanbok is a way of showing respect and exhibiting a special version of oneself."

Sangbok is a type of hanbok worn during a mourning period. [NATIONAL FOLK MUSEUM OF KOREA]

Jaeryebok is a type of hanbok men wear to conduct ritual ceremonies. [NATIONAL FOLK MUSEUM OF KOREA]

When did Koreans start to wear hanbok?

According to the CHA, the word "hanbok" began to be used in late Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) with the introduction of western clothes. People used the word to distinguish Korean clothes from those of the West, which began to arrive with the opening of Korea's ports to the outside world in 1876. The word "joseonui," which means "Joseon attire," was used to refer to hanbok as well, as it can be witnessed in the record of Seungjeongwon Ilgi (the diaries of the royal secretariat), written in 1881. The oldest existing document that has the word 'hanbok' is in an article from a Japanese newspaper in 1894.

"We can see from various artifacts and records like the tomb murals from the Goguryeo Dynasty [37 B.C. to A.D. 668], clay figures dating back to the Silla Dynasty [57 B.C. to A.D. 935] as well as historical documents from China that ancient Koreans wore hanbok," Jung said.

It was during Korea's Three Kingdoms Period (57 B.C. to A.D. 668) that today's two-piece hanbok — the top and bottom structure of hanbok — was completed. Its form evolved and transformed repeatedly since then until the Joseon Dynasty, "which was when the prototype of hanbok that we know of today was established," according to the CHA.

It was in April of 1900 when the Joseon's royal court introduced a new regulation on the dress code of civil servants to make them wear Western-style suits to work rather than hanbok. This is when Korea's long-tradition of wearing hanbok for thousands of years, according to the CHA, began to disappear.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has been making efforts to bring back the custom of wearing hanbok in recent years, designating the last Wednesday of a month as "hanbok-wearing day," and introducing contemporary hanbok designs so that it can be adopted in workplaces and at schools as uniforms.

A photograph of Koreans in hanbok in 1911 taken by American explorer Roy Chapman Andrews [NATIONAL FOLK MUSEUM OF KOREA]

Public opinion on designating hanbok as Korea's National Intangible Cultural Heritage is very positive, probably because of the recent feud over hanbok's origin between Koreans and Chinese, which triggered an unprecedented interest in hanbok as Korea's traditional attire that embodies the identity and values of its people.

Hanbok designers are also welcoming the government's plan but point out that both the contemporary and traditional designs of hanbok should be acknowledged and enjoyed.

"These days, I see many people who say they are wearing hanbok, but I personally think such designs should not be promoted as hanbok," said hanbok designer Koo Hye-ja, who was designated as Important Intangible Cultural Property in needlework in 2007, in a recent interview with JoongAng Ilbo. She said "the trend is quite worrisome" as such clothes with hanbok motif worn by K-pop stars for example, are "clothes for a show."

BTS members greet fans wearing hanbok on the New Year's Day in 2021. They wore hanbok in several performances, music videos and media interviews to promote hanbok. [BIG HIT MUSIC]

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism conducts various education programs at its culture centers in different countries for the global promotion of hanbok. [KOREA CRAFT & DESIGN FOUNDATION]

Kim Min-kyung, head of the Hanbok Advancement Center, an affiliate of the CHA, said in a recent interview with BBS Radio that the government will continue to come up with ideas and guidelines to protect the prototype of Korea's traditional hanbok.

"We have to separate the types of hanbok and wear them accordingly," she said. "We need to make a clear distinction between a simplified hanbok for everyday wear, a design hanbok for special occasions or performances by K-pop stars and traditional hanbok, especially when we are promoting hanbok as Korea's traditional attire."

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]