Types of Leisure Programme

I. Festivals

· Seollal
It is known as the Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year, and is the most important festival in the year. It is 3 day celebration where Koreans will wake up very early, dress to their best and pay respect to the elders to strengthen and reaffirm family ties. Usually a feast will be prepared and traditional games will be played.

· Buddha's Birthday

Also known as the feast of lanterns, it falls on the 8thof the 4thlunar month. Rituals are held in all Buddhist temples across Korea and are celebrated with lantern parades in the evening.

· Chuseok

It is one of the most important traditional festivals in Korea and is also known as the Harvest Moon Festival or Korean Thanksgiving Day. It falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month and is a celebration of the harvest and prayer for the gift of mother earth.

· Sokchonje
It is a biannual ceremony that takes place in the Confucius Shrine at Sunkyunkwan University in Northern Seoul. Some performances include traditional court orchestra and full costumed court rituals.

· Chyongmyo T’aeje

Also called the “Royal Shrine Rites”, it is to worship the Kings and Queens of Choson kingdom. It is normally celebrated with court music and dance.

· Tano festival
Fall on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month and features processions of spiritualist and mask dances.

· National folk Arts festival

The venue and day varies every year but will falls around September and displays the traditional Korean Festival activities such as wagon battle and torch hurling

· Cherry blossom festival

It is usually held in the first half of April for about one week in southern city of Chinhae.

II. Special days/events

· Hangeul Day

It is referred to the Alphabet Day because it is the day when Hangeul is created and is celebrated usually on the 9th of October.

· Parents' Day (May 8)

Sons and daughters show their adore and admiration for their parents on this day.

· Constitution Day (July 17)

Commemorates the declaration of the establishment of the Republic of Korea that was made on July 17, 1948.

III. Recreational activities

· Hot springs
Benefits of hot springs include stimulation of blood circulations, relaxation, rejuvenation, helps gastronomically and cure some skin diseases.
Eg: Icheon Termeden, Asan Spavis

· Korean chess
Korean Chess is known as Changgi and is very similar to the Chinese chess. It is played using 2 Chariots (Rooks), 2 Horses (Knights), 2 Elephants, 2 Guards, 1 General (King), 2 Cannons or Catapults, and 5 Soldiers (Pawns).

· Horse riding

This activity had made a comeback so far, as it uses to be rich-man’s sports. It is famous because it offers a very unique experience to the riders.

· Archery

What is South Korea known for?

Kimchi

Ginsengs

Ancient buildings:

Main gate to Palace of Seoul

Gyeongbokgung Palace

Gyeongbok Palace

Street foods:

Group bands:

Big Bang

SNSD

Korean Dramas:



Jewel of the Palace

Boys over Flowers

Princess hours



Full house

Spot the DISNEY

Disneyfication (what is that?)

Disneyfication is a result of globalisation, where characteristics and principles related with it is spreading worldwide.

There are 4 major attributes in Disneyfication:

1. Theming:
Environment of a setting is themed into an unrelated object.

2. A fusion in consumption product:
Different areas of consumption products are combined, confusing consumer on the purchased product.

3. Merchandising:
Products are branded and under copyrights, including products under licenses.

4. Performative labour:
Employees view their working environment like a theatre, displaying a certain mood purposely for the sake of their job requirement.

I have chosen Lotte World, in Seoul, for in-depth research on Disneyfication which I believed had met the 4 criteria of been Disneyfied.

Lotte World (Seoul)

Introduction

Lotte World is a recreation centre under the company, LOTTE CO. LTD, which is trying to create a new way of life by infusing sports, arts and cultural activities to merge as a new world. It houses an indoor and outdoor theme park, hotel, duty-free shops, huge discounted department store and a fitness centre. The theme parks were given different theme such as “Adventure” for the indoor theme park and “Magic Island” for the outdoor. The hotel and department store are also named as Lotte Hotel and Lotte Department Store.

Theme Parks

Indoor and Outdoor rides
Attraction rides at the Lotte theme parks have different themes. For example, the log boat ride has a theme of Jurassic Jungle, a roller coaster ride is given the theme Pharaoh’s Fury and a leisure boat ride is themed as The Adventure of Sinbad. The retail shops in the theme parks also sell products in different themes too and even had it’s own shop selling the most up-to-date products in Lotte World called the San Jose Emporium and also the Lotty’s Emporium.

Festivals and Parades
Different types of festivals are also parade in the indoor theme park such as Masquarade festival, Rio Samba festival, Halloween party and Christmas festival.The recent Masquaraed festival was seperated into two activities, with one being a parade and the other being street performance. The parade is then further divided into three themes such as Nature, Fairytales and Dream of Venice.There are also different parade and show happening in Lotte World such as Lotty’s adventure parade, the Galactic Oddessy laser show and Christmas parade.

Folk Museum

Initially it was built to collect, store and exhibit historical relic of Korea, for the local community’s consumption. However, it had evolved into a site where not only locals, but also foreigners could understand and enjoy the the past and custom of Korea. It is made up of 3D miniature models, mini villages and also artefacts so as to be user firendly to those unfamiliar with Korean culture. Traditional music, dance, food and culture of Korea to recreate the atmosphere that is experienced in traditional market. It is section into four areas: the history exhibition hall, miniature village, the performance hall and Jeojagori.

· History exhibition hall
It showcases the different eras of dynasties in Korea. Includes the pre-historic period room, Goguryeo room, Baekje room, Gaya room, Silla room and Goryeo room. Each rooms displayed artefacts like potteries, paintings and also sulptures to engage the visitors during their visits.

· Miniature village
It displays the daily lifes of ancestors during Jeseon Dynasty and is only one eight of the original place.

· Performance hall
It is an area where Korean traditions ceremonies could be displayed such as the wedding, exocisim, Samulnori and Pansori. It consist of the composition of performance hall, Dongheon and the Japanese occupation room.

· Jeojagori
A Korean street market where traditional restaurants, unique Korean handicrafts and also a place where Nanjang dancers and singer could be found entertaining groups of visitors.


Analysis

After a brief exploration of what Lotte World is made up, it is considered Disneyfied due to the several reasons.

Firstly, everywhere in Lotte World involves in themeing. Be it attraction rides, restaurants, parades, festivals or even the retail shops, all of them has a different theme that made them unique and stands out from the rest of their similar counterparts. The names given to them sounds too fantasied and magical such as Fantistic Odessey, Castle Music Show and Fantasy Dream.

Secondly, Lotte World had combind the consumption of products offered. As a small world alone, it comprimises many differnet types of products such as themeparks, department store and hotels too. This actually confused the consumer on what is the final purchase product. Another evidence is the folk museum, where there were also a mixture of several activities together such as eating at one of the tradional restaurant, visiting cultural sites and at the same time shopping for local handicrafts.

Thridly, the theme park itself comes out with hamster-like mascots and start selling products such as t-shirts, caps, cushions and dolls with their own logos and characters printed on it. This result in the branding of the attraction and licensed merchandises.

Last but not least, employess at several attraction sites within Lotte world such as the Jeojagori and the theme parks will display certain emotions required at their work place. Take for example, the theme park, for one to be the mascot, one must show the special characteristic of the character if not the charater will not match with what it was suppose to be. Hence during the employees work time, they have to put on a mask and pretend to be anyone else but themselves. The ride operators must also smile at the visitors even though they are having a bad day. In Jeojagori, the Nanjang dancers and singers need to put up a fake front and entertain the visitors whenever they come.

Thus, all these factors justified Lotte World as a Disneyfied site.

The changes that have been brought about by the growth of tourim in South Korea

Tourism in South Korea had affected the country in both positive and negative ways.

Positive:

Tourism have widen the perspective of the world in the Koreans and made them learn how to appreciate and understand the differences and uniqueness of different culture. After what had happed in the past between North Korea and South Korea, mutual understanding is very important and had been strengthened with other countries through cultural exchange. Locals are also able to get employed due to the construction of buildings and infrastructures to accommodate the increasing demand in tourism. The facilities built are not only for foreigners to use only, but also allows the local Koreans to benefit from it. For example, after the screening of Jewel in the Palace (Dae Jang Geum), a theme park based on the drama was built in Yangju. This enables the locals to use the theme park for leisure. Local culture are also revitalised as the tourist now visits Korea to experience its rich culture and heritage through the exposure of TV dramas. It stimulate the pride in the Koreans more as the Koreans always take pride in the own culture.

Negative:

On the other hand, tourism might cause the local community to lose its authenticity in culture. With reference to the Lotte world in Seoul, the increase in tourism level could be the reason why specialised food from all over South Korea be centralised in one commoditized traditional market. In addition, there were also too many influx of foreign culture featured in the festivals and parades held there. This might in converse, create interest in foreign cultures on the locals and lose their interest in preserving their own culture. Koreans will also need to fight for the usage of public facilities such as the folk museum when it was supposed to be built for the interest of the locals. With the new theme park based on the drama Jewel of the Palace, the cultures of Korea had been commercialized by grouping them up as a drama theme and present the culture to the tourists.

Hence, after analysing the impacts on how tourism can bring positive and negative impacts into the country, we can conclude that there is not one-side impacts but also has a opposite impact to balance off the changes.

Has tourism been a culprit in commodifying cultures and traditions?

Tourism is like economics. In order for tourism to be successful, it is to provide supply to meet the demand. What attracts people to travel is the uniqueness of the destination such as the infrastructures, arts, culture, traditions, events, landscapes, festivals and many more.

In order to flourish in the tourism sector, we must know what are the needs and wants of the demand and from there; we could then market our supply to them. One way to capture the tourism market is to promote the culture of the destination because each destination will have their unique selling point. For developing countries, their pristine culture and traditions are what foreigners are curious about and would want to explore and know more about it. This could actually be seen as an opportunity to bring economic benefits to the community and hence, begin to package their culture and “sell” it to the tourist. In return, this will result in commoditisation of cultures and traditions of the community. Commoditisation generally refers to treating something in a way that it should not suppose to be treated. Commoditization not only happens it developing countries, more developed countries also might face it because when tourist gets bored with a particular country’s culture or tradition, the host community might change their culture and tradition to adapt the demands of the tourists. The local culture and traditions will then be lost due to the adaptation for tourist demand and a new culture might emerge which may not be authentic because they are staged for the tourist, and not what they originally used to be.

With reference to the context of South Korea, tourism receipts had increased due to the recent Korean pop wave (k-pop). Dramas had been filmed in different areas of Korea especially in Seoul, for example the drama, Jewel in the Palace, a few years back in the Hwaseong Fortress. Now, a theme park based on the drama had been built with the purpose of promoting Korean culture worldwide through food, medical science, costumes and traditional games. However to me, I feel that the government is exploiting the uprising Korean culture to bring in more revenue in the tourism sector. The interior and exterior of the actual palace was reconstructed in order to let the visitors feel realistic when visiting the site. This defeats the authenticity of the palace because firstly the visit is already unauthentic. What tourist is visiting is just a commoditised theme park induced with the “so called” cultures and traditions of Korea from the popular drama. The culture and tradition of a destination should not be packaged in order to satisfy the demand of the tourist and this is where tourism will result in commoditisation of the culture and traditions, and hence the culprit of it.

By using another case of Lotte world, the Folk museum is one of the major areas where commoditisation takes place. The miniature village was staged up for the tourist to help them understand the past living in Korea. But it was too commercialised as a Korean culture, hence, the authentic culture and traditions were lost .The Jeojagori is also an area how Korean culture was packaged for the tourist. Different food specialities around South Korea should not be concentrated and presented as a product to the visitors. All the cultures of Korea are cramped up into a small area for visitors to experience them, which make their visit a staged or fake experience.

In conclusion, tourism is part of the culprit in commodifying cultures and traditions. However, the local communities must also take pride and dignity in preserving their own culture and heritage. They must not cause exploitation by misusing them with regards to the meaning and purpose of their traditions and cultures.

References

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