A professor at Hanseo University has analyzed a Joseon-period folding screen portraying the faces of gisaeng from around Korea to determine the regional particularities of Joseon-era beauties and to get an idea of what Joseon-era Koreans considered beautiful.
The folding screen in question, the Paldomi’indo (i.e., “The Painting of the Beauties of the Eight Provinces”), is presumed to have been painted by Chae Yong-sin (1850-1941), one of the greatest portrait artists of the period. It contains life-like, full-body drawings of gisaeng from Seoul, Pyeongyang, Jinju, Jangseong, Gangneung, Cheongju and Gochang (the origin of the gisaeng on the last painting is impossible to decipher).
Professor Jo Yong-jin, who has spent the last 30 years using his knowledge of traditional art and anatomical science to study the changing Korean face, said the drawings coincide with his collection of data on regional beauty characteristics. He also believed the silk screen was painted to show customers visiting a gisaeng house (”What’s on the menu,” perhaps?).
In particular, the gisaeng from Jinju was particularly lovely. She had a high, wide forehead with high eyebrows and wide eyes set rather far apart. Jo said that while beauty is subjective, the Jinju gisaeng gives off an air of sophistication due to the long distance between her eyebrows and the tip of her nose. With her small chin, short philtrum (my new word for the day) and youthful appearance, she might be considered the most beautiful from a contemporary aesthetic perspective, said Jo.
The Pyongyang gisaeng, meanwhile, is considered quite representative of Pyongyang gisaeng of the time with a noggin shaped like a sweet potato, high cheek bones and sharp chin, while the Gangneung giaseng gives off an affable impression with her long face and high forehead.
Jo explained that women from Pyeongyang and Jinju were considered especially beautiful during the Joseon era (as opposed to now, where Daegu is particularly noted for its lovely lasses), and the folding screen provides the hard evidence. He also tried to draw comparisons between the ladies and today’s entertainers. Of particular note, he said the Pyeongyang gisaeng resembled Korean Wave starlet Choi Ji-woo, while the Jangseon gisaeng looked like Song Hye-gyo.
No word on who the fabled Jinju gisaeng looks like, although the Marmot’s Hole is always open to suggestions. All I know is that none of the gisaeng look like Lee Na-young, and if they don’t look like Lee Na-young, I don’t give a rat’s ass.
The head of Jeonju National Museum noted that Jo’s analysis had provided objective material to study Joseon-era concepts of beauty and would help not only the study of period portrait art but also research into Korea’s lifestyle and culture.
Jo hopes to use his analysis to make 3-D reconstructions of the gisaeng’s faces to create research material for scholars of the Joseon era and produce Korean traditional cultural content.
23 Comments
So can he tell which women charged extra to ride bareback?
This person’s “analysis” is so full of fallacious assumptions as to be worthless (that is, from the perspective of considering intelligence as a virtue).
Hey, Korea is like a nature preserve for pseudoscience. Check out this Yonhap story today: “Electric heating pads may be hazardous to health: S. Korean thesis”
http://english.yonhapnews.co.k.....955E9.html
Utter bullshit–most mainstream scientists say electromagnetic waves have no proven effect on health. So a Korean professor who claims to see “regional particularities” in the faces of Chosun Dynasty hookers is par for the course.
Comparing Chosun-era gisaeng to contemporary actresses, many who have availed themselves of the modern aid of the surgical knife, is indeed silly.
“So a Korean professor who claims to see “regional particularities” in the faces of Chosun Dynasty hookers is par for the course.”
As if hookers never lie about their names and where they come from.
> the gisaeng from Jinju was particularly lovely.
Considering reputation-legacy of Nongae, i would say this is good evidence for the general thesis that beautiful women are correlated with great danger… I’ve always believed it…
“So a Korean professor who claims to see “regional particularities” in the faces of Chosun Dynasty hookers is par for the course.”
As if hookers never lie about their names and where they come from.
Much pompous nonsense, I agree. Rather, let’s hear it from the real experts of hookers. Do expound upon the topic at hand.
Let me know when a substantial topic of discussion appears on the blog (no offence to the blog-meister).
“let’s hear it from the real experts of [sic] hookers” Touchy, touchy. My complaint with this yet another dubious “professor” is the notion that any group of faces can have“regional particularities,”not the womens’ profession. He’s talking regional particularities about a land area the size of a thumbtack. You could make a case for dialect distinctions, but facial features?
It would be easy to dismiss him and “wall of Jews” Rhie as socially retarded cranks, but these guys teach in Korean universities–what’s up with that?
You know, I didn’t intend this post to spark serious discussion of the state of Korean academia. I just thought it was a cute culture piece…
Sorry Marmot, those Chosun chicks are hot though
That was more of what I was of expecting
I got’chur Jinju lookalike, but’chur not gonna like it…
Lee Joon-gi.
I was pretty sure of that.
You have been successful at fostering interesting and informative (and occasionally intelligent) discussions in a few earlier threads. Keep it up!
Yeah, a handful of painterly interpretations of such a statistically meaningful sample population.
Objectivity! Mansei!
If Marmot would post more hot chicks (preferably nekkid) we wouldn’t have any discussions at all–I think that’s worthwhile right there
This inspires me to do my own painting, the theme of which will be crack whores in all 50 states.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090305/
Query: The painting is “presumed” to have been done by the named painter. He died in 1941, and the state of scholarship is such that the provenance is unknown?
“Much pompous nonsense, I agree. Rather, let’s hear it from the real experts of hookers. Do expound upon the topic at hand.”
Oh, please. That one was so easy, I didn’t think anyone would even bother.
“My complaint with this yet another dubious “professor” is the notion that any group of faces can have“regional particularities,”not the womens’ profession. He’s talking regional particularities about a land area the size of a thumbtack. You could make a case for dialect distinctions, but facial features?”
Exactly. Korea is not the largest country in the world, nor were Korean living in one region fully isolated from the ones living in another, especially not those living in large urban centers.
Mr. Marmot sir,
I was intrigued by your mention of the philtrum. The reason it interests me is because it’s a part of the anatomy whose name is virtually unknown to most English-speakers, but it seems all Koreans know the Korean word for it. I’ve been asked what it is in English more than once by Koreans. Any idea why the name is commonly known in Korean but not in English?
jonnyh,
It’s a matter of socio-linguistics.
Words enters our lexicon because they meet a need. People who live in two different societies will have disctinct needs from one another, and therefore certain words and concepts will be more common in society than the other.
People who live in multicultural societies rely on a set of physiognomic traits that greatly vary from one individual to other–such as hair and eye colour–to describe someone. Koreans live in much more homogenous society, therefore many share the same hair and eye colour. As a result, Koreans must rely on different facial characteristics to set one person appart from the other…which explains why many Koreans know what a ‘philtrum’ is and most Westerners don’t.
Whenever I hear Koreans, like this “professor”, analyzing facial features in a creepy way, I get a funny feeling like I’m listening to Nazis talking about eugenics.
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