Learning from Korea

Jazz, Bibimbap, 
​and Eco-Civ 

Yes, yes.  An ecological civilization will need new kinds of economies and education.  But how about new kinds of jazz concerts, ones where young as well as old enjoy the festivals, and where nature is as important as music.  Witness the Jarasum International Jazz Festival in Korea.  And how about food?  Will there be, for example, bibimbap?  Yes, and when people enjoy bibimbap they may well be reminded that it is kind of jazz-like in its very spirit.  Like bibimbap, the society of an ecological civilization will be a mixture of many different people, many ways of thinking, many different religions and philosophies, gathered together in a spirit of hybridity as described by Jea Sophia Oh below.  Here's the point.  Food and creative musical concerts, no less than new kinds of economies and education, are among the many contributions Korean people will make to ecological civilization.  Korea itself can be at a leading edge of the world's best hope: that it evolve into a community of communities of communities, with no one left behind.  I encourage you to go to the EcoCiv Korea webpages linked below, and to the Institute for Ecological Civilization, for more on education and economics.  And to Jea Sophia Oh's essay on bibimbap, and NPR's story on the Korean jazz festival.

​- Jay McDaniel, March, 2021

Future education and ecological education in Seoul, Korea (Keunhwa Jung and Yunjeong Han)

Ecological Transition Education and Education Reform in Korea (Hee-Yeon Cho)

The Next Economy (Dongwoo Lee, Director of EcoCiv Korea)

Ecological Civilization in Korea​

"Humanity is facing a dreadful threat of current catastrophe. Merely changing social and cultural patterns, which are based on the mechanical understanding of ecology and civilization, will not be enough; nothing less than civilizational paradigm change is necessary if humanity is to avert the predicted consequences in the near future. Even though we seem to be aware of the approaching crisis, we are hesitant to think and act differently because we feel that we are not ready to radically change or we do not know where to go.

Each sector of society must be analyzed for its potential contribution. EcoCivKorea seeks to lay the groundwork for civilizational change in Korea. That requires clarifying the problems that have led us to the brink of catastrophe, engaging in research on possible alternatives, advocating practical long-term solutions, and supporting the implementation of changes on both large and small scales.
EcoCivKorea seeks to promote the Ecological Civilization which is related to the common good by means of the relational approach found in process thought. Process thought is based on the work of philosophers Alfred North Whitehead, Charles Hartshorne, and John B. Cobb, three contemporary examples of a long standing philosophical tradition that emphasizes becoming and change over static being.

Process thought is a philosophical system that describes the world in fundamentally relational terms. According to process thought, every unit of reality is in an ongoing process of change, and everything that occurs is a confluence of one’s inherited past, contextual possibilities and individual agency.

Thus Process thought helps to harmonize moral, aesthetic, and religious intuitions with scientific insights. EcoCivKorea follows the great thought in Process philosophers to develop and enhance the discussion between Eastern and Western religious and cultural traditions, especially in Western societies and Korea. Process thought offers an approach to the social, political, and economic order that brings issues of human justice together with a concern for ecology and sustainability. Our wide range of interests includes multicultural, feminist, ecological, inter-religious, political, and economic concerns. Our ultimate vision, what we hope to achieve, is to research and advocate the policies required for an ecological civilization in Korea."

인류는 현재 가까운 미래에 다가올 환경적인 위협에 직면하고 있습니다. 이것을 해결하는데 생태와 문명의 기계적인 이해에 근거한 사회적, 문화적 패턴을 바꾸는 것만으로는 충분하지 않습니다. 가까운 미래 우리가 직면하게 될 환경적 대참사를 피하기 위해서는 인류의 문명 패러다임의 변화가 필요합니다. 우리가 다가오고있는 위기를 인식하고있는 것처럼 보이지만 근본적으로 변화 할 준비가되어 있지 않거나 어디로 가야할지 모르기 때문에 우리는 생각이나 행동에 주저하고 있습니다.
EcoCivKorea는 한국의 생태학적 문명으로 변화를 위한 토대를 마련하는 것을 목표로하고 있습니다. 그러기 위해서는 우리의 문명이 재앙의 위기에 이미 이르렀다는 문제의식을 명확히하고, 가능한 대안의 연구에 매진하고 장기적이고 실용적인 해결책을 찾기위해 노력해야 합니다. 이를 위해서는 거시적이고도 미시적인 실행 대책이 필요합니다.

EcoCivKorea는 프로세스적 사고(Process Thoughts)에서 발견되는 관계적 접근 방식을 통해 공동의 이익과 관련된 생태 문명을 촉진하는 것을 목표로하고있습니다.프로세스적 사고의 개념은 철학자 Alfred North Whitehead, Charles Hartshorne, John B. Cobb의 연구에 기초하고 있습니다. 이 세명의 현대적인 연구자들이 서 있는 철학적 전통은 ‘변함의 과정’과 변하지 않는 존재가 아닌 변해가는 존재에 강조점을 두고 있습니다.

프로세스적 사고는 근본적인 관계성으로 세계를 설명하는 철학적 시스템입니다. 프로세스의 사상에 의하면, 현실의 모든 개체는 진행중인 변화의 과정에 있습니다. 모든 발생하는 사건들은 한 시점에서 그 이전의 과거로부터 받은 기본적인 현실적 요소들과, 문맥적으로 어울리는 가능성들과 개별 행위자들의 선택의 조화합니다.
​
따라서 프로세스적 사고은 도덕적, 심미적 종교적 직관과 과학적 통찰력을 조화시키는 데 도움이됩니다. EcoCivKorea은 동아시아와 서양의 종교, 문화적 전통, 특히 서구 사회와 한국에서의 논의를 연결하고 발전시키기 위해 프로세스 철학자들의 생각을 따릅니다. 프로세스적 사고는 인간의 정의의 문제와 생태적 지속 가능성에 대한 우려를 가지고 사회적, 정치적, 경제적 질서에 대한 철학적이고도 현실적인 접근을 제공합니다. 우리는 다문화, 페미니즘, 생태, 종교간의 대화, 정치적, 경제적 문제들에 다양한 관심이 있습니다. 우리의 궁극적인 비전은 한국적 생태문명에 필요한 정책을 연구하고 그것을 옹호하는 것입니다.

EcoCiv Korea

a project of the Institute for Ecological Civilization
​

Bibimbap and Jazz

A Reflection by Jea Sophia Oh

A central idea in this website is hybridity: the blending of identities 
into a creative process.  I would like to introduce one of the popular 
Korean dishes, bibimbap, which embodies this creativity. 

‘Bibim’ means ‘mixed’ and ‘bab’ means ‘rice,’ so ‘bibimbap’ literally 
means ‘mixed meal.’  A typical Korean meal (bab-sang: meal table) 
has a bowl of rice, kimchee, soup, and other delicious side dishes 
such as grilled dishes, steamed dishes, marinated grills, and vegetable 
dishes.   Bibimbap is a convenient meal that brings all side dishes and 
rice together in one bowl.  Bibimbap is served as a bowl of warm rice 
topped with sautéed vegetables and chili pepper paste. Add a fried egg 
and sliced marinated beef (or mushrooms for vegetarians).  
​
All different colors of vegetable toppings are often placed so that 
adjacent colors complement each other to bring visual effects like a 
beautiful rainbow circle.  Bibimbap has to be mixed really well so that 
the chili paste will bring out the flavors of the dish. Bibimbap is not 
only visually beautiful, but also so delicious and nutritive as well as 
convenient to serve.  Because of its convenience of preparation, since 
the late 20th century bibimbab has been served as an airline meal on 
various airlines connecting to South Korea.    

Bibimbap was first mentioned in the Sieuijeonseo, an anonymous 
cookbook in the late 19th century.  There are many stories about the 
origin of bibimbab.  One of the stories is related in Korean people’s 
decolonizing movement against the first Japanese invasion (Imjin War, 
1592-1593).  In order to supply meals to Korean soldiers in the war 
situation, the Korean women helpers put all the vegetables and meat 
with rice in a bowl.  Another story is an agricultural purpose.  At 
harvest seasons, when farmers worked at the field, women had to 
deliver lunch for them. Because it was hard to deliver all dishes, they 
put all the side dishes together in one bowl on top of rice.   One other 
story is a clever idea to save foods after Korean holidays such as 
Chuseok (Korean Harvest Moon Day) and Seolnal (Korean New Year 
Day).  After a festival, usually foods remain left without being touched.  
Bibibap was made in order not to waste the foods.  I have learned from 
my parents that “One will be cursed, if she/he throws (wastes) foods 
away.” I am certain that almost every Korean household teaches 
children in the same way.  Though the exact origin of bibimbap is 
uncertain, it is certain that a bowl of bibimbap was made of such 
spiritual ingredients, wisdom, love, cooperation, and decolonizing 
and recycling spirit. 

When I come back home from a long day of teaching, I often feed 
myself with bibimbap.  I taste the harmony and diversities 
simultaneously.  Not only do I feel the hybrid flavor of the mixed 
bibimbab, but also I chew each ingredient and grain and feel its unique 
flavor in the process of hybridization.  This process of harmonization 
and hybridization is like a jazz concert.  This is how I listen to jazz.  
I listen to each instrument in the mixture of melodies and rhythms of 
all together: I focus my ears on one instrument and move my focus to 
another (like first, piano, and then, the base, and then the saxophone, 
and then the drum and other instruments), so I feel the diversity and 
hybridity together in the beautiful harmony without eliminating any. 

In the spirit of jazz, then, there is no strict recipe to cook bibimbap.  
“If you have a spirit of recycling and wisdom to utilize the foods in 
your refrigerator, go ahead and cook rice, and mix, mix, mix, with 
side dishes.”  You can create a hybrid bowl of bibimbap as your own.  
The flavors could be different according to what you have which may 
tell your stories, your own microcosmic rainbow. That is the aesthetics 
of food hybridity of bibimbap. 

The Youtube video was made by a Korean who introduces her own way of making bibimbap; each person has his or her own way.  That's the jazzic approach.

Photo by Nikolay Smeh on Unsplash

Photo by Vaishnav Chogale on Unsplash

Photo by Jakub Kapusnak on Unsplash

Photo by Delaney Van on Unsplash

Nah Seung-yull/Courtesy of Jarasum International Jazz Festival

How A Korean Jazz Festival Found A Huge Young Audience January 12, 2016

The art of jazz is flourishing, we know, with young musicians developing the music all over the world. But the business of jazz sees much hand-wringing over the music's aging audience, its sea of gray hair. And nowhere in the world have I seen a jazz audience as young as at Jarasum: The crowd felt anachronistic, like a 21st-century resurrection of jazz's swing-era popularity.A young jazz audience is such a rarity, in fact, that it's become a kind of holy grail for presenters. So how does Jarasum do it?

Along with broad-minded programming, an attractive setting for camping and solid funding, there's a counterintuitive factor in Jarasum's success. "From the beginning," In explains, "the main themes of my festival were nature, friends and family, and rest and refreshment, with less emphasis on music."

In a commercial that Wes Anderson might have made, Jarasum sells a retro camping adventure, promoting the festival's river-island setting as a hipster nature wonderland. The names of performing musicians appear on a boat, map, book — props for a weekend in the country — sending a message that music is incidental to the overall Jarasum experience..

​Americans can't replicate the relative novelty of jazz in Korea, and we wouldn't want to; our deep jazz history is a national treasure. But American festivals might learn something from Jarasum's gentle jazz presentation, which offers up the music as one part of a refreshing weekend; which doesn't expect pledges to a jazz fraternity; which is content with a reception of "quite nice and not bad."

- Michelle Mercer.