hankyoreh

By Jung Dae-ha, Gwangju correspondent

Criticism is building from members of the local cultural community against the city of Gwangju, which is considering disciplinary action against a man surnamed Lee, 37, who is the head of the Gwangju Metropolitan Boys and Girls Choir. During a commemorative concert held on Liberation Day on Aug. 15, members of the choir wore clothing showing the face of Argentine socialist and revolutionary Che Guevara.

“In response to the controversy caused by the outfits worn during the concert at the Liberation Day ceremony, the disciplinary committee will convene sometime this month to decide whether or not to take disciplinary action,” Kim Sang-ho, chief of the cultural and tourism policy office for the city of Gwangju, said on Aug. 18.

The controversy arose during a memorial concert that was part of the 68th Liberation Day Festivities, held on Aug. 15 at the Light Village Citizen’s Cultural Center in Gwangju.

During the concert, the members of the Gwangju Metropolitan Boys and Girls Choir took the stage wearing a white jeogeori, or traditional Korean shirt, symbolizing Korean independence activist Yu Gwan-sun. As they were singing “Gwangju Is Light,” they removed their white tops to reveal a black shirt with the face of Che Guevara and his name. The choir proceeded to sing passionately for the next five minutes. Audience members responded to this energetic concert expressing light and hope for the future with a warm round of applause.

But Jeon Hong-beom, chief of Gwangju’s office of veteran affairs, who also attended the concert, argued that the outfits were not appropriate for the Liberation Day event. Gwangju Mayor Kang Un-tae ordered that the facts of the case be determined.

At first, the city of Gwangju did not regard the outfits as a problem. The outfits had simply intended to express a message of peace through the contrast between white and black, the city argued, denying that there had been any other intention.

But when some conservative newspapers criticized the Che Guevera outfits on Aug. 16, the city belatedly decided to refer the issue of disciplinary action for the choir head to the disciplinary committee, reports say.

The artistic and cultural establishment in Gwangju responded to this by saying that the tendency to take issue with pure artistic expression is a problem.

“I cannot understand how they are taking issue with this despite the fact that the concert did not have any ideological bent,” said Mun Sun-tae, a renowned fiction writer.

“If Gwangju wants to become a city of culture and creativity as it claims, it needs to be actively encouraging artistic expression,” Moon said. “The reason that it is taking issue with such expression is because of a misunderstanding of history.”

Lee, the choir leader at the center of the controversy, led a choir that won a gold medal in the Folklore - open category at the 2008 World Choir Games and has held his current job since 2010.

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