One of the advantages of having multiple bloggers working together is that you are more likely to catch everything of interest.
So how did we miss this last week:
A 23-year-old Korean traditional harp player with dark brows and lovely dimples was chosen as Miss Korea 2006 last night.
Lee Honey (Ha-nui), a graduate student of Korean traditional music at Seoul National University, was honored as the most beautiful woman in South Korea at the 50th pageant ceremony held at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in the heart of Seoul.
`I want to give all the glories to God,’ Lee said in watery eyed moments after receiving a warm hug from last year’s winner Kim Joo-hee. Apparently on the verge of bursting into joyful tears, she couldn’t continue her words.
Honey is a graduate music student concentrating in Gayageum at Seoul National University.
The Chosun has some more interesting tidbits:
Lee Honey completed in Korean traditional music at Seoul National University and is now in the first year of a masters program in the same field there. She comes from a distinguished family. Her father is a high-ranking official with the National Intelligence Service. Her mother is a professor at Ehwa Women’s University and was in March designated a“living cultural asset” in the field of gayageum (Korean zither) music.
OK, she might not have been the prettiest girl in the competition (although I think she looks sweet), but I am sure plenty of guys would like to mingle their genetic code with her. Really, daddy is a top government official in agency that can get stuff done (even if you might not like some of the stuff that they get done) and mommy has been declared a cultural asset. I imagine she would make some pretty smart babies.
And she can put you in a mellow mood after work with her gayageum. It sounds pretty sweet if you ask me.
Picture below.
Pretty sweet gayageum, isn’t it? That picture is lifted from here.
Go here to hear some samples of gayageum music (via Wikipedia).
Both articles have a picture of Lee Honey.
17 Comments
Boy does that picture bring back a lot of pleasant memories. A childhood watching wuxia movies where heroes killed people with musical instruments like the one pictured.
*Notes Xiao Ao Jiang Hu 2 is the greatest wuxia movie of all time!
If I remember correctly, the article further stated that her uncle is/was a senior aide to President Roh. Nice.
I’ve seen better looking women in Itaewon (both on and off the Hill) but these contests are rarely about beauty and more about well connected families and bribes. I suppose it’s the same story in every country.
My crystal ball tells me: “acting” career, followed by marriage to a chaebol heir.
You’re really going out on a limb there.
In addition to Maekchu’s point about the daughters of well-connected families (but not too well-connected; would a chaebol mogul ever want their daughters parading around in underwear on TV?) usually winning these things, there seems to be a regional bias as well. That is, it seems like Miss Seouls have won a disproportionate number of past few Miss Korea pageants. In any case, they are not very attractive. The last knockout quality Miss Korea Jin I remember is Han Sung-joo, and that was more than a decade ago.
I suppose saying “I’d hit it” would be totally inappropriate, then.
I followed the link to the sanjo archive page and listened to a few snippets. At the risk of causing a Dokdo-type incident, I was reminded of the Japanese imperial court music, gagaku. Does anyone know whether sanjo was meant for the general public’s consumption?
“Fred-random”, Sanjo was created in the late 19th Century and is essentially Korean chamber music that is distinguished by the use of specific rhythms and has six movements that gradually increase in tempo.
The first Sanjo was primarily for kiagum, spreading to other instruments. It was derived from the cerimonial music found in Shamanism (Shinawi) and originally had some influence from Pansori.
Sanjo is more the Yangban’s music I believe.
What a bunch of crap. Beauty pageants are for losers. Stuff like this really does Korea an injustice.
Embarrassing.
watever everyone country has beauty pageants.. and yeah it is pretty lame. i know plenty of ugliness filth that wins regionals for kyopos in america. kind of disappointed to see this winner. lame that shes from snu too.
This is just me nitpicking, but the Gayageum really does have more in common with the zither (or hammered dulcimer) than it does with a harp. I mean really, is it so hard for the news people to get their facts straight? Next you know, they’ll be calling the danso a ‘Korean traditional saxophone’ or something like that.
This chica is not even in the top 50th percentile in this country. I guess bribes and connections are still the norm for getting selected.
And that’s definetely reminiscent of a hammered dulcimer if you ask me, just like pajeon is Korean pizza.
Doh. I was thinking that the Gayageum was the one that was typically played by striking rather than plucking, but it turns out that’s a Geomungo, so I guess it’s not especially like a hammered dulcimer — but it is still a zither rather than a harp.
If you think I was criticizing your remark then I pulled a good one. I have no idea WTF a hammered dulcimer is.
Zonath, do some reading and listening man. The Kiagum (Gayageum) uses different playing techniques that the zither or harp and the physical sound quality is completely different from both.
You guys should really go and hear some good Sanjo players; I think you would really like it.
Though Hwang Byungki is highly touted, I like some of his former students a bit more for their interpretation of Sanjo.
Wow.. she must be plain. All you guys want to talk about is, well, harps. After Chris Charles’ asiaphile site made us all feel creepy, we’d like to momentarily disassociate from him and work on our cultured sides eh. Only stirrin’yous.. back to the Sanjo stuff.
All I was trying to say was that what in the article is called a ‘harp’ is actually a type of zither, albeit different from the typical European-style box zither. And I just noticed that the Chosun got it right, while the Times fuxed it up. Typical.
As for the girl… She’s okay, but she won’t be winning any beauty contests.