hankyoreh

Several examples have come to light showing how the administration of President Park Geun-hye is trying to keep the art and culture establishment in line.

During this year’s selection of the ARKO Literature Creativity Prizes, which recognize excellent works in various literary genres, the Arts Council Korea (ARKO), affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, reportedly asked the judges to exclude certain authors from consideration. When the judges refused to do so, ARKO took it upon itself to adjust the outcome.

After a well-known director was chosen to receive funding through the Creativity Incubator, which supports works in the genres of theater and dance, ARKO was confirmed to have pressured the director to give up his bid.

Cultural figures see this as a return of the political censorship from the Yushin period, in which works of art were reviewed in advance and suppressed.

According to documents that the office of New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) lawmaker Do Jong-hwan received from ARKO on Sep. 10, ARKO asked the judges of the ARKO Literature Creativity Prizes to exclude certain authors from consideration and to alter their decisions. The ARKO Literature Creativity Prizes were created to provide grants of 10 million won (US$8,460) to the writers of 100 excellent works of literature in different genres.

One of the judges in the contest said that ARKO had asked them to shorten the list of winners, singling out Lee Yun-taek and other specific writers, and to change their decisions.

“ARKO told us that we needed to remove 14 people and mentioned Lee. They said they would give us the list, but the judges refused,” a different judge said.

Ultimately, ARKO’s board of directors met this past July and passed a resolution to remove 32 people from the original list of 102 winners, shortening it to 70. Lee Yun-taek was eliminated, even though he had received 100 points in the genre of drama, the highest in the category.

Reportedly, this was the first time that ARKO’s board of directors had voted to alter the decisions of the judges. The board went beyond asking the judges to change their selections and overruled their decision.

On Thursday, Lee Yun-taek spoke with the Hankyoreh in a telephone interview. “The play that I submitted to the contest - ‘A Time to Offer Flowers’ - was a verse drama I wrote for the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Theatre Troupe Georipae. I considered it my finest achievement yet, and I was embarrassed when it didn’t win. I made a speech supporting Moon Jae-in in the previous presidential election, but I hadn’t been disadvantaged in any major way. Recently, though, for some reason I’ve suffered a series of rejections, such as in the guerilla theatre project and in the performance of ‘Ogu’ at the National Culture and Art Alliance,” Lee said.

“The biggest problem is that winners are sometimes being chosen because of non-artistic considerations. This sends a message to all artists that artists who don’t curry favor with the government aren’t going to receive support,” said one of the judges who participated in selecting the winners.

A judge who chose winners in the field of drama for the Creativity Incubator this past April spoke with the Hankyoreh on the telephone on Sep. 10 about a similar incident.

“ARKO took issue with three of the eight pieces that the judges had selected but said that they would keep the rest if we just dropped a piece directed by Park Geun-hyeong, a professor at Korea National University of Arts. When all five of the judges refused to do that, ARKO employees visited to Park Geun-hyeong and persuaded him to withdraw his submission,” the judge said.

The view among theatre professionals is that Park Geun-hyeong (unrelated to President Park) was targeted because of the text of “Frog,” a play that drew fire from certain conservative newspapers when it was staged by the National Theater Company of Korea two years ago. The play contains expressions such as “notebook princess” and “cheating on a test” that may be veiled references to President Park Geun-hye and the National Intelligence Service’s meddling in the presidential election. (President Park often carries a notebook.)

Uncomfortable with the idea that she would be responsible for keeping other works from receiving awards, Park ultimately retracted her submission at the beginning of last month. The judges have a recording of a conversation with an ARKO employee on the topic. In an interview with JTBC on the evening of Sep. 9, Park confirmed that she had met with ARKO employees.

“It was unfortunate that Lee was eliminated, but the point was to give more opportunities to young artists,” ARKO said in regard to this.

“In regard to selecting the winners, it was a mistake to meet with Park Geun-hyeong, but we were trying to arrange things according to the wishes of the judges,” ARKO explained.

By Son Jun-hyun, senior staff writer and Choi Jae-bong, literature correspondent

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