Jul 8, 2011

Accomplished artist and a community ambassador showcase Korean pride

Hyon Cha Koga at her home in Mililani. Koga, along with her husband, Garrick, will be bringing the display behind her of traditional Korean clothes, pottery and many other cultural and historical items to the Korea Festival on Saturday. —Jamm Aquino / jaquino@staradvertiser.com

Art is often a matter of personal taste, but one thing everyone can say about Sang Ryun Lee’s painting is that it is fan-tastic.

Lee’s Kaimuki home is festooned with hundreds of traditional Asian hand fans, which he has decorated with his graceful calligraphy and gentle watercolor paintings. They cover walls of his studio and line the rim of the living room ceiling. Boxes of unpainted fans are stacked on a closet shelf, awaiting his inspiration.

Hyoncha Koga of Mililani could be considered Hawaii’s unofficial ambassador to Korea. She has taught the Korean language and culture here, provided translation at events like the Olympics and the World Cup soccer tournament, and brought tour groups to Korea.

Lee and Koga are two of the more outstanding contributors to Saturday’s 10th Annual Korean Festival, an expression of the local Korean community’s pride in its culture and history, which in Hawaii stretches back more than 100 years.

Featuring everything from food to dance to a kim chee-eating contest, the festival will be a far cry from a display on local Koreans that Koga visited years ago on the Big Island, where not even Koreans showed up.

“They couldn’t even get volunteers. That was because in Korean culture, we believe if you don’t speak (English) well, you keep quiet. Now we’ve learned the American way is better. You just do your best.”

10TH ANNUAL KOREAN FESTIVAL

Where: Kapiolani Park and Bandstand

When: 9:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday

Cost: Free

Info: korean-festival.com

Note: The 10th Annual Korean Festival kicks off tonight with a Sunset on the Beach premiere of “A Barefoot Dream,” a film by Kim Tae-Gyun. Based on a true story, the film tells the story of a retired soccer player who visits the troubled nation of East Timor and winds up coaching the children there. The film was South Korea’s entry for best foreign film for this year’s Academy Awards. The film begins at about 7 p.m.; entertainment will start at about 5:30 p.m.

Tomorrow, the popular folk duo Hebaragi (“Sunflower,” featuring Lee Joo Ho and Kwang Sung Woon) will perform at 7:45 p.m.

Other scheduled highlights:
9:40 a.m.: Korean farmers music and dance; welcome
10:15 a.m., 2: 20 and 3:10 p.m.: Halla Huhm Dance Studio
10:34 a.m., 2:11 p.m.: Myung Woo Dahn Dance Group
10:42 a.m., 3 p.m.: Muryansa Bo Hyun Dance Group
11 a.m.: Cooking Show
11:30 p.m.: Royal Hawaiian Band
1:25 p.m.: U.S. Taekwondo Center demonstration
2:35 p.m.: Kim chee eating contest
4 p.m.: David Ippen Taekwondo Studio demonstration
5 p.m.: Song contest

KOGA married an American, Garrick Koga, and came to Hawaii in 1967. She has been teaching local people about Korean culture for nearly 30 years at elementary schools and adult education programs.

Even though Hawaii had been home to Koreans for decades, and the burial site for the first Korean president, Syngman Rhee, she found that many of her students knew nothing about Korea, not even realizing that kim chee was a Korean food, she said.

“Korean immigrants started coming here from 1903, the latest (major immigrant group),” she said. “I think they were just busy working, but they were very busy in church, the Methodist church.”

She worked to overcome the impression that Korea was “poor, like after the war,” finding an especially interested audience among the business community and the military community.

While the economic and political developments in Korea are now fairly well-known, she has found local people are still fascinated with one aspect of Korean culture: K-drama. Koga is working to fill that knowledge gap, too.

“I know who’s in, and who’s out,” Koga said. She has made connections with K-drama actors and taken tour groups from Hawaii to Korea to meet them. Flipping through a pile of poster-sized photos of the various K-drama stars, she’ll say “this one, he is very nice. … these two are marrying. … This gentleman here, he’s a living treasure, a cultural asset approved by the government.’ ”

As she has for years, Koga will run the cultural tent at the Korean Festival, which along with the K-drama posters, will be filled with artifacts and relics from Korea that she has collected over the years.

“My display is different every year,” she said. This year, it will include masks from traditional stagecraft, pottery in the style of the three main historical eras of Korea (Three Kingdoms, mid-7th century to 918; Goryeo, 918-1392; Joseon 1392-1910) and traditional clothing.

Koga has stories about each item. Pointing to a brightly colored jacket-and-pant costume, she said “This one is a birthday outfit, (for) boy and girl. It’s like the rainbow, very colorful, because rainbow means happiness.”

The traditional women’s gown, called the “hanbok,” has a distinctive high waist, which she says is designed to “press down” the chest area for the sake of modesty.

Korean artist Sang Ryun Lee has his artwork — scrolls, paintings and decorated fans — hanging from the ceiling and walls and lying on tables in the studio in his Kaimuki home. —Bruce Asato / basato@staradvertiser.com

Lee paints a scroll in a detailed shot. —Bruce Asato / basato@staradvertiser.com

SANG LEE came to the United States in 1980 with his family. Lee had taken art lessons with private teachers as a young man in Korea, and his father was a respected calligrapher in Korea, so Lee hoped to pursue a career as an artist here. Soon, he found that there was “no money as artist.”

But if you see a home with what appears to be marble columns bracing the front entryway, chances are you’re looking at hints of Lee’s talent. He painted many of the “faux marble” columns, a skill he developed as part of a carpentry career that began shortly after his arrival and lasted for 27 years. Lee said he was the first in Hawaii to start painting columns that way, and that he often did it as a kind of personal touch.

“If I was making a house, I did free job, this kind,” he said, pointing to one of several columns that decorate his own home.

Last year, “tired” of carpentry, Lee decided to devote his energy to art, and it seems to have reinvigorated him. He will often start painting at 4 or 5 a.m., taking a break in the afternoon to beat the heat. He’ll turn out 10 fans a day, or two or three small scroll paintings. A large painting might take him two or three days.

His work was exhibited at the Ala Moana Hotel in May, and he has received a commendation from the City Council for his efforts. While people have asked to buy his paintings, he wants to have a gallery first and is currently looking for space.

His artwork is in the traditional Asian watercolor style, which originated in China, in which the ink-like paint is applied sparingly to either fan or scroll to create an almost abstract sense of shape. Flowers, animals and children are among his favorite subjects.

The images are usually accompanied by calligraphy, in both Chinese characters and Korean, poems and short stories, several of which he composed himself. Two months ago, he published a book of his art and calligraphy, which, appropriately enough, he called “Immigration.”

“It’s about how to live in United States, problem coming to United States, or English problem,” he said. “Everybody who want, I give it to them.”

His painted fans, though a tradition in Korea and other Asian cultures, serve a practical purpose here.

“Hawaii, it’s hot,” he said. “And as gift to give to everybody, it’s good.”