I was in Korea only about 36 hours but saw several protests while I was there. The biggest was in a subway station where Suhee tells me they were protesting an increase in subway prices (I am trying to imagine this kind of Korean style protest inside a New York MTA station). About a hundred men were standing in military like formation listening to an extremely emotional man essentially yell his speech. He was followed by another man’s speech, and then a third man led the entire group in singing some protest song (Suhee was unsure of the song’s name but wrote the following in my notebook: 투쟁가 노동가, whatever that means) The song was sung in perfect unison, and their perfectly unified voices echoed throughout the tunnels of the subway station. I was amazed that the protesters had mastered a special song for “our protest against rising subway prices” but when I asked Suhee what they were saying she said it was the “generic protest song.” Suhee was herself a radical student protester in her undergraduate years, participating in lots of miscellaneous left-wing or anti-government protests and said she had often sung the song.
How cool! Korea has a generic protest song?! I wonder if other countries with a long history of civil protests (Taiwan? Latin America? Poland? etc.) have a similar sort of thing. Suhee claims that it helps build a feeling of unity and community in a group that might not know each-other well. I can’t help wondering what the lyrics are! What lyrics would fit all of the following: a protest against subway prices, an anti-American imperialism protest, an anti-government dictatorship protest, a pro-unification protest, etc.? Anyone know more about this? Or know the meaning of the lyrics? I imagine you would have to keep things really generic. A clue might be in what Suhee wrote in my notebook. I can guess that part of what she wrote, 노동가 means “the worker’s song”, assuming the word comes from 劳动歌 which sounds similar in Chinese and Japanese (I look this up later). More on guessing the meaning of Korean words later…
Hi..I am a mature student from South Wales researching for a Masters Degree in Ethnomusicology (World Music) with a dissertation topic relating to protest song. I would be interested to know if you found out any more about the generic korean protest song. Did Suhee mean ‘generic’ in the way we might think of ‘We shall not be moved’ or is it more fundamental than that? I’d be interested to know if you found out more.
Phil
Hi I’m Jiyeon from Busan in Korea. I have been staying in the US for 10 months to work.
I found your website while I was searching the song of ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon, actually one of my American friends asked me if I can search this song sung in Korean translated. I searched with the pharase of ‘imagine song with Korean’ thru Google…Anyway..
I read your article, Generic Protest Song in Korea. When I was a freshman, I had been a member of that kind of part. Actually it was a circle for studying and discussing Korean history, but most of subjects were for anti-government, left-wing or protection of labors, especially blue-color and factory workers who do not get paid well for their living. I really didn’t like this circle (I stopped going there after 3 semesters), because all of the members except me seemed to just follow the atmosphere not knowing what is reality or truth.
Anyway at that time I used to song these kinds of songs to protest or take to the street against the police from the government. Also I remember some students fighting with fire-bottles directly to police..So scared at that time.. We just fought against government.
In the State I saw many Koreans live flock together here and there. And also I can find many Korean friends thru Internet. One of the biggest community website in the US is HeyKorean(www.heykorean.com). They flock together with similarities, but even if they don’t have any similarity, we just make community like Jazz, Inline Skating, Digital Camera, Scuba diving, Relationships, 30s and 40s, and many many…. I think this can be explained to kind of mob psychology.
Yes, right. As your friend Suhee said, these songs have a power for us to feel and build kind of unity and community. Sometimes I felt my skin becomes covered with gooseflesh when we do the songs. Have you ever heard of ‘Hanchong Ryun(한총련-한국대학 생총연합회)’? When I attended there, even if we saw each other at first time we helped each other, and give way to others. Do you remember ‘Red Devils’ in 2002 FIFA World cup. That can be also explained with this too. Do you know when Hurricane Kartrina blew to the State last summer? There was no Koreans who were supported by the State in Stadium. That’s because sufferers from a flood and victims were took by Korean Churches near there. I’ve heard some experts on this field in the US kept eye-on this phenomenon. Why Koreans do that way? Why they help their people …?
There are many many, Cyworld, Mobile contents, cellphones with high-tech, fast fashion trend, …
Anyway,..
I have a lot of things to say more about this, but I gonna go to search the song…-_-
Thanks so much for stopping in and sharing your thoughts and interesting observations, as well as sharing your own college experience. I think there is much to be said for thinking about aspects of “mob psychology” that you are talking about.
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