James Robert Southard is a Louisville artist currently based in Seoul, South Korea. For the next four months, he is participating in the Seoul Art Space Geumcheon Artist-In-Residency program. He will transmit musings on culture shock, food, art, and more to Louisville, which will be shared with the community via The Paper.
Korea’s reputation for having a culture of heavy drinking preceded itself. It is a society known for its hard working business class as well as for its rigorous bar scene. I must say, this reputation is spot on.
Like many Louisvillians, I enjoy a drink or two to celebrate occasions such as Derby or Thunder Over Louisville. I also admit to drinking simply because it’s Friday. But putting all my destructive personal habits aside, I was actually very curious to witness this alluring aspect of Korean cultural identity.
Generally speaking, part of the expected activities of being an artist-in-residence is to accompany other international or local artists and curators to bars, restaurants, and gallery openings. This is done in the hopes of getting to know the community and to let the local culture affect your artwork. This is one of the reasons artists are paid to travel across the world and stay here for a few months. First, I learned how people get to know each other. Within minutes of shaking someone’s hand and introducing yourself, you’re invited to join them for dinner, followed by drinks at a nearby bar. I don’t even have someone’s name memorized before I’m given one too many shots of soju (a very acceptable Korean rice whiskey). Thank god everyone here eagerly hands out business cards. All I need to do is empty the dozens of cards out of my pockets after every outing to remember who invited me their parent’s house the following weekend for dinner. Back in the United States, I don’t eagerly start planning social outings and knocking back drinks thirty minutes after meeting someone. I understand that this might differ if I wasn’t a foreigner or an artist, but the hospitality of Korea leaves little room to turn down a gift. The reality is, if you want to meet new people in Seoul, all you need to do is enter a bar around midnight and sit down alone. It is my experience that within 15 minutes you’ll be invited to someone’s table.
That leads me to the other part of going drinking in Korea: No one lets you have an empty glass. You may be familiar with the tradition requiring that you fill another’s cup before you fill your own, but it is strictly followed here. And if it is rigorously followed, your glass is perpetually filling up. Even more traditional people follow the practice of making the eldest at the table receive the refill before everyone else. Further traditions and complications ensue.
The order is oldest to youngest. One should pour with two hands. This also goes for the participant who is receiving the drink. However, only one hand is necessary if you’re receiving a drink and you’re older than the pourer. It is even more polite to cover the brand label with your palm while pouring. I try my damnedest to follow these traditions, but after a few drinks, most of the rules go out the window.
There is one aspect of Seoul that makes most bars stay open and full until dawn. The subway stops running around 11:45pm and starts running around 5am the following morning. This decision by the metro transit system divides the bar patronage of the city into two groups. The smaller portion of Seoul’s youth has a few drinks before catching the last train home at a reasonable hour. I’d call these the sane minority.
Then there are those that arrive around 11pm and drink through to the next morning. I find myself in the latter group, only because… well… when in Rome, right? I feel this is when I truly see the young citizens of Seoul emerge. Each neon-lit alley is full of high heels and loud Korean pop music. Walking up each street you smell millions of different aromas that hit you with such a force that you lose track of where you are and where you’re going. You easily find yourself distracted by food, sounds, and lights from each tiny, overflowing establishment. Turning onto what seems to be a empty alley, you’ll find dozens of Seoulites crowding into a noodle vendor, buying steaming bowls of goodness and being serenaded by a young guitarist, adding to this labyrinth of sensory overload. It also doesn’t hurt that there is almost no crime here, so your only worry is getting lost. This is part of the unofficial job description that a visiting artist must not ignore. I want to see everything here and not miss a moment. To do an art project that reflects the city requires all my inhibitions to be given over to the city. If nothing else, I’d leave here with a part of Seoul irreversibly etched into my mind (replacing a few lost brain cells, of course).
There is a byproduct of these ritualistic drinking binges. I learned the word kimchi blossom months before arriving to Korea, but I never found out what these were. Walking down the streets and sidewalks on a Saturday or Sunday morning, you find some striking designs here and there on the ground. Before most young Koreans start out for a long night of debauchery, they usually have a nice end-of-a-long-week meal. Most meals here include some traditional red kimchi. Mix that with nine hours of hard drinking and you’ve got early birds avoiding some brilliantly pink kimchi blossoms decorating the street corners. One must remember to watch their step in Seoul.
–James Robert Southard
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