In Search of Korean Traditional Opera: Discourses of Changguk

Chapter two

28 ChaPTeR TwO Origins and Origin Myths The question of ch’anggŭk’s origins remains a subject of debate for two reasons: because it matters and because it cannot be definitively answered. It matters because ch’anggŭk’s claim to be “Korean traditional opera” depends on its claim to originate in Korean tradition, and for those with a stake in this claim, a particular view of the genre’s origins has been an important basis of its traditionality. However, research into primary sources has called into question some of the key historical points on which such a claim might rest, and as new sources continue to be unearthed, more fuel is added to the flames of debate. Yet the documentary record remains too thin to support any final and authoritative account and leaves much room for speculation and wishful thinking. Theoretically, the debate ought to consider only the persuasiveness of the evidence and not the identity of the researcher; but a Western researcher entering into debate over a matter of Korean national pride enters an arena of East Asian historical studies that has a history of its own, one that has often tended to gravitate toward cherished national myths being debunked by foreign scholars and defended by local ones. Thus, when Western historians have argued that Korea during the Koryŏ (918–1392) and Chosŏn (1392–1910) periods was a slave society rather than a feudal one (Palais 1998b), that the Chosŏn government consistently encouraged immigration and intermarriage rather than maintaining a racially homogeneous population (Duncan 2000), or that the sprouts of nascent Korean capitalism were implanted, rather than uprooted, during the Japanese colonial period (Eckert 1991), Korean responses have usually been hostile or indifferent. Similarly, when Laurence Picken and his collaborators argued that the Japanese tōgaku repertory had been radically altered since its importation from Tang China (Picken et al. 1981), their views were not well received in Japan, where there has been a strong belief and pride in an essentially unchanging court music touted as the world’s oldest continuous orchestral tradition. It was perhaps inevitable that native and foreign scholars should tend to take different views of music history, and of history in general, in East Asia. The region had its own well-established traditions of scholarly writing, including writing on both history and music, long before Western scholars Origins and Origin Myths 29 arrived on the scene with their alien theories and methodologies, and the objectives of the two were bound to be different if not opposed. This was all the more so in modern times, as Western culture and performing arts swept into the region, often to the detriment of home-grown traditions, even while political nationalist movements were taking shape in each country. Writing on the history and culture of the home country was often nationalistically motivated and adopted a chauvinistic tone that alienated many Western scholars and widened the ideological gap. Entering into such an arena, I feel I must tread carefully lest, by falling into the role of a foreign “debunker,” I might hinder the search for Korean traditional opera instead of assisting it. Still, as we shall see in this chapter, a concern with what foreigners think has been a part of ch’anggŭk from the very beginning, and I must say honestly what I think both about ch’anggŭk’s origins and about the heated debate surrounding them. In at least one respect, an English-speaking researcher is able to contribute something new and important to the debate, and that is through the use of primary sources in English, which have apparently been less accessible to Korean researchers. None of the English-language sources quoted in this chapter is cited in any Korean study that I have come across; yet without these sources, our picture of traditional p’ansori and early ch’anggŭk performance is less vivid than it could be. In nineteenth-century Korea, p’ansori performance was an everyday event. An interest in the musical practices of the everyday is sometimes said to be characteristic of ethnomusicology in contrast to historical musicology (e.g., Bohlman 2008, 267), but when studying music of the past, we often lack information on everyday practices because they were not considered important or remarkable enough to be documented. This is where the writings of visitors from overseas can make a vital contribution, for to the traveler far from home, everything is remarkable, and impressions of even...