From here:
From next year the Ulsan Whale Festival plans on adding a “Drunk Whale” event that focuses on alcohol.
Namgu Ulsan Metropolitan Office announced that it plans to add a “Drunk Whale” event that will help diversify the types of events currently held during the Ulsan Whale Festival. This event will offer patrons the opportunity to witness the brewing process and sample domestic alcohol from around the Peninsula including makkeoli, wine and even North Korean brews.
However, the Namgu Office said that it plans to make the event one that can be good, clean fun rather than one that promotes carousing.
I have often said that Korean tourism needs to focus on its strengths and the aspects of its culture which are unique. People don’t want to come to Seoul to see things they can see other places. People want to come to Korea to see things they can’t see anywhere else.
Alcohol is one of these things and, if marketed properly, could be a valuable tool for tourism (particularly to Japanese men and resident foreigners) by bringing attention to Korea and its traditional alcohol and food. (Of course part of me things this will most definitely need to involve carousing. After all, Oktoberfest would not be Oktoberfest without all of the singing and drunk mishaps.)
* The original word was 술고래 (sulgorae) which is literally “alcohol-whale” and means “alcoholic” or someone who “drinks like a fish.” There was no good way to translate it in keeping with the article’s title so I just changed it. Other than both containing the word whale there is no correlation between whales and alcoholics.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
At first I thought they were going to be getting the whales drunk. That might be fun to see.
Just to get a teeny bit creative with sul·go·rae, “whaling drinkers” (pun intended) could be one.
Okay, there goes my first substantive comment!
I’d pay to see a drunk whale.
Same here – there’s no law about swimming under the influence, and they won’t try to take any girls home with them…
Seriously, though, alcohol could be a possible way to revive Korea’s lagging tourism – if the Koreans could agree on how to have a good time without taking it to the extreme. I don’t REALLY want that fourth bottle of soju, and I REALLY don’t want to be treated like a pussy for knowing my limit. If Gray can do food tours, someone’s gotta step up and do the meat > soju > beer > noraebang > stumble down the streets tour.
One wonders if the “good, clean fun” will involve feasting on whale meat.
A KT article from 2010 (“Whale poachers caught in Ulsan”) reports that “whale meat has been a local delicacy for those living in the southeastern part of the country for many years, and is sold at higher prices than ‘hanwoo,’ Korea’s homegrown beef.”
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/06/117_67220.html
Despite Korea’s party status with the ICRW and the ban on whaling by the IWC since 1986, whale meat regularly shows up in Ulsan fish markets.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68558939@N00/358170462/
Though that doesn’t necessarily mean the ROK is breach of any its commitments as selling (and eating) whale meat that wasn’t the result of illegal fishing (e.g. by-catch, scientific whaling, etc.) is not prohibited. Nevertheless, whale markets in Korea and Japan are monitored for compliance.
http://mmi.oregonstate.edu/ccgl/research/monitoring
I’m sure the Ulsan ‘drunk whale’ festival would like to put some whale meat on the menu if they could do so legally, Ulsan folk seem to like their 고래고기. “In UIsan, eating illicit whale meat is no fish story”:
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2885230
The ROK has advocated for whaling. In 2009, for instance, when Japan lobbied the IWC for quotas , Korea said if Japan gets quotas then Korea should too:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/03/11/idUSLB933270
Personally I’m on the fence when it comes to hunting (and eating) whales that are not on the endangered species list. On the one hand, we should probably all be vegans for numerous reasons (i.e respect for animals, our health, sustainable food production, environmental concerns, etc.). But as long as I’m indulging in ‘hanwoo’ (to my shame, I’m no vegan) it doesn’t seem right for me to begrudge a whale-eater the same pleasures of the flesh — unless there’s a risk of endangering the species, which of course was the impetus behind the IWC moratorium. But this comes down to a factual argument: Are certain species of whales such as the minke whale, which Japan would like to hunt, endangered? Studies indicate that they are in the “least concern” category, meaning they are not “critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable or near threatened” but “widespread and abundant”.
http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/2474/0
All said, I hope Korea decides not to push for whaling and I hope whale meat (even of the non-endangered variety) isn’t on the menu at the Ulsan festival, but until I give up my own flesh eating ways I’m not in much of position to argue against it.
I’ve seen a drunk wail before, but you really wouldn’t want to pay for that.
Whale hunting is 포경(捕鯨) in Korean language. Circumcision is 포경(包莖) too. Koreans say “고래 잡으러 간다”(go for hunting a whale) when they go for circumcision. Just another pun.
#5: This is all about enjoying tasty whale meat, no? Otherwise why would anyone go to this festival? Ummmmmmm, cetaceans…. [slobbers, passes out].
Having some alcohol-related affairs might help liven things up. The Whale festival is thoroughly boring. Unless of course you like to watch whale slaughtering, which is what the festival celebrates. In years past it was in the port next to the whale museum (and whale meat restaurants) which is almost exclusively about whale killing. Now its in the city center and has just a bunch of Koreans dressed in cheetah skins (because there were oh-so-many cheetahs in prehistoric Korea) enacting prehistoric life.
Bring in the drinking!
@8
I’d be interested in finding out. The news story linked by the poster doesn’t mention it. I know the festival is connected with Ulsan’s history of whaling, but is there a celebration of whale meat eating? Japan has had several of these with whale served up in forms that are appealing to the kids, like whale hot-dogs and burgers. At one such festival in Shimonoseki, a rep (Ueda Katsuhiko) explained that “if they get used to eating whale meat when they’re young, they’ll grow up to eat traditional whale meat dishes like whale meat sashimi.”
(BBC 4, Whale Hunters: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074mzp).
I wonder if the Ulsan festival is taking the same approach in celebrating traditional whale eating or whether, as the news article indicates, the focus is shifting toward a drinking party.
The Yeongdeok King Crab Festival a bit to the north is much cooler and tastier! and already has plenty of Korean alch involved…
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