Interest in traditional Korean games, arts and culture is growing among U.S. students. Traditional games such as badook and poongmool have been gaining popularity among public school students in New York for some time. There are even American badook and poongmool clubs.
Interest in these games, however, is not restricted to junior high or high school students alone. Korean students at college campuses across the country have long had student poongmool teams, and American students are now joining them. In fact, these club are turning out to be among the most popular in schools.
Poongmool is a type of traditional Korean drumming, which uses a doubled-headed drum sharply tapered in the middle. Frequently, while one person drums, a singer accompanies with short songs, comments or sounds. Sometimes, more than one person will join in. Other times the drumming might be accompanied by dance.
The prestigious Hunter High School in New York is about to organize a poongmool club for its students, with help from the Korean Traditional Culture and Education Center, directed by Chi-sung Kwan. On November 5th, the Center, which is working directly with school administrators, donated two sets of drums to the school. The school plans to make good use of the instruments and will offer classes in traditional Korean music.
Kwan said, “Earlier this year, the school held an Asian festival featuring a samool [folk music] player. He was very well received. I think that will help with the organizing of a poongmool club. Once we get the final OK from the school, we plan to offer a free poongmool class once a week. Lectures on poongmool will also be offered to students of all races.
The Syosset High School in Long Island is eagerly working on organizing a poongmool club of its own. The Korean Student Parent Association has been actively supporting this effort. They organized an Asian New Year’s Festival for students of all backgrounds and races. One of the traditional activities included was jaeki chaki, a game of balance and skill, where the players must lift as many bundles of straw or other material as possible using only one leg and no hands. There was also a poongmool performance.
Several middle schools in Queens are also hurrying to set up poongmool clubs. Fort Lee High School in New Jersey has an active poongmool team named Mansori, which means lively.
In addition to poongmool, badook is gaining wide popularity among students. The badook club at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan has been around for three years under the leadership of Do-kuon Lee, a 12th grade Korean student in the school. The club has over 60 registered members, the majority being American students. Lee said, “I wanted to introduce badook to American students so that they could enjoy it in addition to or even instead of chess. So I started the club.” Badook, we might finally tell you, is the Korean version of Go, and uses white and black stone pieces on a wooden board. It is a game of territorial strategy. Lee’s efforts have contributed to the rise of neighborhood high school badook clubs playing each other in tournaments.
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