Byung shin chum

Byung shin chum ( _ko. 병신춤, lit. the dance of the handicapped) is a Korean folk dance that was performed by the lower class peasants to satirize the Korean nobility (Yangban) by depicting them as the handicapped persons and sick persons such as gimps, midgets, hunchbacks, the deaf, the blind, lepers, [cite web | title=에듀넷-브리태니커 학습백과 | url=http://tiny.britannica.co.kr/bol/topic.asp?mtt_id=39028 | publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica | language=Korean | accessdate=2007-11-25] as well as characters from Pansori and other Korean folklore. [cite web | url=http://myhome.naver.com/hodol1735/dan3-6.htm | title=고전무용 | language=Korean | author=Lee Jae Bum | accessdate=2007-11-25] It originated in Miryang, Gyeongsangnam-do. In modern times Byung shin chum has been acknowledged to public by a Korean actress Gong Ok-jin (공옥진).

According to Chae Hui Hwan, Professor at Pusan National University, Byung shin chum is not a dance that simply mimicks and ridicules the handicapped. Rather, it is an expression of the liberation of men that enlightens the viewers that everybody is socially handicapped (byung shin). ["이는 불구자를 단순히 흉내내어 모멸하기 위해서 추는 춤이 결코 아니다. 이는 춤을 출 수 없는 신체적 불구자가 추는 춤이되, 불구에서 정상으로 옮겨 내는 싸움의 춤이다. 그리고 그것은 모두가 사회적으로 병신이라는 것을 깨닫게 하는 춤이며, 불구화된 것을 불구로써 척결하여 인간의 해방을 성취하고자 하는 춤이다. 춤으로써 가장 인간적인 것이 지상에 실현되는, 지상을 미적 유토피아로 뒤바꾸는 춤인 것이다." cite web | title=마당극 따라잡기 | url=http://getdol.com/index.php?m=&doc=home/gnuboard.php&bo_table=pds_03&m=5&wr_id=41&PHPSESSID=df7289befd430876246dff7337f95cf7 | author=Chae Hui hwan | language=Korean]

In 2001, Byung shin chum played by a Korean theatrical group in Daehangno has caused a controversy that the play could be discriminatory and offensive toward the handicapped. The Research Institute of the Differently Abled Person's Right in Korea (RIDRIK) expressed that although the freedom of expression is important in art, the form that makes fun of the allienated is the problem, and that they will cut off the old customs of the Korean society that humiliate the handicapped. [cite news | title=‘병신춤 개그’ 장애인 비하냐 아니냐 | author=이학준 | url=http://www.cowalk.or.kr/g4/bbs/board.php?bo_table=news&wr_id=33 | date=2001-02-23 | accessdate=2007-11-25 | publisher=The Kukmin Daily | language=Korean]

References

See also

*Korean dance
*Yangban