South Korean Culture
The cultural scenario of Korea is bit interesting with its unique similarity with North Korea in spite of the current political separation between the north and the south. The traditional culture of Korea is almost same in both the regions although some regional variance is noticed with the current political separation.
The traditional music of Korea refers to the vocal music which perfectly reflects the temperament of the local people, Jeongak and Minsogak. Jeongak is the court music with an intellectual touch whereas Minsogak is the form of traditional Korean folk music.
Korean’s culture reflects strong cross cultural exchanges with China and when it comes to Korean traditional dance, the exchanges are even more prominent. There are two kinds of traditional dances in Korea, the native dances or hyangak jeongjae and the imported dance from china, dangak jeongjae. Just like traditional music, Koreans have separate forms for court dances and folk dances. Jeongjaemu is the court dance which is performed at banquets. Folk dances are of various forms, some are religious dances led by monks while others are secular ones preformed by common people. Secular dances are both group and individual performances.
Korean paintings underwent sea change with age and various influences from other countries. Korean paintings imbibed different techniques from China after the onset of Buddhism. Korean paintings were petroglyphs of prehistoric times initially. Later on, it used the mainstream techniques although the indigenous flavor survived. Naturalism dominates Korean paintings. Paintings are done with ink on mulberry pap or silk.
Culture of Korea surely covers the concept of Korean traditional house. While choosing their sites for residence, Koreans always look for a fine balance of yin and yang, the negative and positive energies in any topographical configuration. Traditional Korean houses have prominent divisions between the inner wing and the outer wing. The use of outer wing and inner wing varies from one to another according to the region they are living and wealth they possess. The aristocrats use the outer wing for the reception whereas the poor people keep their cattle. Inner wings have the living room, central hall, more rooms and kitchen. The buildings are made out of stone, wood, clay and tiles. Unfortunately due to the excessive use of wood and clay most of the old buildings failed to survive today.
