Varia, 30 August 2006

Front - August. 31, 2006

Beauties from 29 countries around the world show off traditional Korean court costume during the 2006 International Model of The Year at Lotte Hotel in the southern port city of Busan on Wednesday.



Now for a real Korean princess, Julia Mullock, who married Yi Gu, son of the last Chosun crown prince and who died last year.

Korea’s Last Princess Breaks Silence

she still vividly remembers the day she got married to Korea’s last imperial prince, aka citizen Yi Gu, 48 years ago. “We got married at a Ukrainian Catholic Church on East 7th Street in New York on Oct. 25, 1958,” she recalls.
...
“We had a memorial mass at a church of the Order of Friars Minor Korean Province in Seoul to commemorate the first anniversary of his death last month. Altogether 26 people took part in the mass. I couldn’t visit his grave in Namyangju. I had no one to take me there…I couldn’t be buried beside when I die. I’ve never been his legal wife and I got divorced. But when I die, I want to be cremated and have my ashes scattered in Nakseonjae in Changdeokgung. It was a happy home.”

So is she Catholic? Was Yi Gu? Perhaps the Western Confucian knows.


Business - August. 31, 2006

A side-by-side refrigerator designed by the flamboyant fashion designer Andre Kim is unveiled at a hotel in Seoul on Wednesday.

Diva Celevrates Two Decades

Sumi Jo

60% of Foreign Spouses Are Chinese
Don't tell that to the single Chinese males who can't find a wife. I can see a protest now, "Stop stealing our women."

Korea's First Sexpo Gets Underway in Seoul
Debates over Sexpo
Where is the Confucian protest? I know there are some Confucian organizations (think tanks?) in Korea. Who will remonstrate with the mayor? (It's too late now, I suppose, but a Confucian shouldn't give up trying to make his point, unless those in auhority are obstinate and refuse to heed the advice.

Shaman Marriage Ritual for Dead

the ritual called ``Tonghae Chosung Honrae Kut (East Sea shaman ritual of marriage)’’ is for the dead who passed away without ever getting married.

The tradition was conducted by a group of shamans, and it aimed to soothe the pain and agony of the dead and allow them to enter the next world in peace.

The ritual involved shamans summoning the sprits of unmarried men and women and infusing them into doll’s bodies symbolically, and shamans and people in a town held a wedding ceremony for them.

Traditionally, the ritual took more than three days and it involved energetic singing and dancing, which served as a big party for villagers.

Uhm k.