Joseon Customs and People's Lives Reflected in the Lyrics of 'Hanyangga'

National Hangeul Museum Academic Conference on 'Hanyangga'
Overview of Performing Arts, Music, Painting, and Costume of the Time

The National Hangeul Museum will hold an academic conference on the 13th under the theme "Joseon Late Period Hanyang Depicted in Hanyangga." This event offers an academic perspective on the special exhibition "Let's Go See Seoul, Hanyangga," which opened on the 27th of last month. It explores the values of freedom, equality, and prosperity embedded in Hangeul through the customs of the time depicted in Hangeul song lyrics.

Hansan Geosa's "Hanyangga" is a Hangeul song lyric that captures the customs and lives of people in late Joseon Hanyang. It is regarded as a valuable historical document that testifies to the era, as it provides detailed depictions of everyday scenes in Hanyang rarely found in other literature. It is also a Hangeul cultural heritage containing native Korean vocabulary in the names of occupations, objects, and regions.

At the academic conference, the scenes of various parts of Hanyang described in the lyrics will be examined, including performing arts and music of the time, popular paintings in the art market, and the costumes of Byeolgam and gisaeng who led fashion trends.

The keynote lectures will be delivered by Kang Myung-kwan, Professor Emeritus of Chinese Literature at Pusan National University, who has highly praised the rich content of "Hanyangga," and Hong Soon-min, Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Records and Information Science at Myongji University. Presentations will be given by Song Ji-won, former Director of the National Gugak Center Research Office; Lee Jeong-hee, Professor of Musicology at the Academy of Korean Studies; Kim Ji-young, Senior Researcher at the Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies, Seoul National University; Lee Kyung-gu, Professor at the Hanlim Academy of Science; Lee Eun-joo, Researcher at the Andong University Cultural Industry Research Institute; Yoo Jae-bin, Professor of Art History at Hongik University; Seo Yoon-jung, Professor of Art History at Myongji University; Noh Kyung-hee, Professor of Korean Language and Literature at Ulsan University; Lee Min-hee, Professor of Korean Language Education at Kangwon National University; and Ko Eun-sook, Curator at the National Hangeul Museum. They will discuss topics such as music culture, Hwaseong royal processions, fashion, market paintings for sale, publishing formats, and the characteristics of readership through "Hanyangga."

A representative of the National Hangeul Museum introduced the event, saying, "It will be an opportunity to share perspectives with various academic experts and to feel the value of Hangeul song lyrics and the dynamism of Hangeul culture." Professor Noh Young-gu, a historian at the Korea National Defense University, commented, "It is noteworthy as it surveys the urban development history of Hanyang from the late Joseon period to the modern era," and added, "It is a new attempt both historically and in Korean literature, as it awakens new values in Korean language and literature studies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.