Representing the Unrepresentable in South Korean Activist Performances
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Areum Jeong
Representing the Unrepresentable in
South Korean Activist Performances
On 16 April 2014, the Sewol Ferry capsized in the southern region of South Korea:
304 passengers died, including 250 high school students. Despite an international outcry,
there has not yet been a comprehensive investigation into what caused the Sewol to sink and
why the passengers were not rescued promptly. This article discusses how performance can
represent something that defies explanation because we do not know how or why it happened.
Yellow Ribbon’s Talent Show, Namsan Arts Centre’s From Pluto, and Camino de Ansan
performed the role of the students who died. Taking these three case studies, this article
analyzes the ways in which they strive to represent the unrepresentable as they attempt to
document the sinking and achieve justice, while memorializing the victims and arguing for the
necessity of a more safety-conscious society. Areum Jeong is Assistant Professor in
Humanities at Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute. Jeong’s research takes a transnational
approach to Korean and Korean-American film, literature, theatre, and performance. Her
current book project explores how performance documents death, loss, and memory in South
Korean and diasporic communities.
Key terms: Sewol Ferry tragedy, trauma, memory, mourning, blacklist, censorship.
ON THE EVENING of 15 April 2014, the South Korean history because the public
Sewol Ferry set sail on its overnight journey began to question issues of community,
from Incheon in the northwestern region of education, government, law, and violence.
South Korea to Jeju Island, 240 miles to the Koreans took to the streets and impeached
south.1 There were 476 people on board – South Korean President Park Geun-hye in
443 passengers, including 325 students and 2017. Even with the support of Korean citi-
their teachers from Danwon High School. zens, the truth about the disaster and why
On the morning of 16 April, the ferry made a Park’s government failed to rescue the stu-
sharp turn near Jindo Island. According to the dents remains unknown.
Automatic Identification System data, the Such cultural and political conditions have
ferry veered, lost control, started drifting side- made it urgent for artists in South Korea and
ways, and then capsized. The captain and the diaspora to mourn the victims and
crew were the first to abandon the ferry, after express their thoughts through film, litera-
repeatedly ordering the passengers to stay ture, music, theatre, and visual art. We might
where they were. Over the next two hours, view these works as types of living memo-
172 passengers and crew were rescued, but rials because they commemorate the victims
many more were trapped inside as the ferry (or rather their absence), the search for their
sank. In total, 304 passengers died, including bodies, and the families and friends who
250 of the high school students. remember them. These actions help to form
Despite an international outcry, there has a communal consciousness bound to art prac-
not yet been a comprehensive investigation tices, community formation, and critical per-
of what caused the Sewol to sink and why the ception developed around memory and
passengers were not rescued promptly. The mourning. They indicate too how perfor-
tragedy traumatized Koreans, who help- mance can represent something that defies
lessly watched live news coverage of the explanation because reasons for what hap-
capsized ferry. It became a turning point in pened are not available.
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The three performances seen in 2019 – Yel- that involves mask-dance and satire, played
low Ribbon’s Talent Show, Namsan Arts Cen- a significant role in engaging audiences in
tre’s From Pluto, and Camino de Ansan – focus political issues and popular protest.5 More
on the students who died. Although many recently, Jiyeon Kang has analyzed the
performances have memorialized and ways in which Koreans organized nationwide
mourned the people who died on the Sewol, protests in 2002 and 2008 via online
nearly all of them mentioned the victims only communities,6 and Elizabeth Son has traced
indirectly. Perhaps the artists thought that it the history of ‘comfort women’ in activist per-
would be too exploitative or traumatizing to formances in Korea and diasporic communi-
depict them. Or perhaps they questioned their ties.7 Son shows that activists, survivors, and
right to do so when the families’ grief was still supporters used performative strategies to
fresh. Talent Show, From Pluto, and Camino de promote ‘collective participation and involve-
Ansan stage the students directly, when not ment in the process [to] bring about possibil-
metaphorically. In this study, I act as a ities for redress’.8 From the Japanese colonial
participant-observer examining both primary rule to the present, Korean activists have con-
sources and my own experiences. Since the structed and performed in spaces that create
tragedy, I have been active in online and off- collective consciousness and solidarity in the
line events organized by families and sup- face of obstacles, aiming to move spectators to
porters of the victims; and have joined action.
protests and attended classes and seminars Despite renewed academic interest in
that discuss the incident and future actions, Korean activist performances, there has been
viewing, also, works that depict the tragedy. little scholarly work on performances
Additionally, this article relies on news stories devoted to the Sewol Ferry tragedy. Nan
and audio and video recordings that include Kim examines the daily practice of Koreans
audience response.2 adorning their bags, clothes, and possessions
South Korea has a strong culture of activ- with yellow ribbons, and sharing photos of
ism and protest, and the country’s socio- yellow ribbons on their social media accounts
political conditions have motivated artists to as a sign of collective mourning and remem-
create works that challenge the status quo. bering.9 Korean Theatre After the Sewol, edited
Under Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945), by the Korean Theatre Critics Association,
when the Korean independence movement provides a detailed account of what hap-
was widespread, numerous forms of cultural pened when Park Geun-hye’s government
resistance and struggle opposed the Japanese blacklisted dissident artists, and how those
colonial regime. These manifestations have artists resisted censorship and oppression by
inspired varied research, not least this staging works that insisted on expressing
author’s study of how narrators of Korean their opinions about the government.10 My
silent films conveyed anti-imperial or anti- article ‘Beyond the Sewol: Performing Acts of
Japanese sentiments through their narrations Activism in South Korea’ examines how Yel-
as forms of resistance to Japanese imperial- low Ribbon’s Living and Dying Next Door and
ism.3 In the 1960s, Koreans protested the Jayoung Chung’s Empathy create spaces for
authoritarianism of the Syngman Rhee memory and mourning for the Sewol Ferry
administration. Koreans also struggled for tragedy.11 Yet the literature on how perfor-
democracy against Chun Doo-hwan’s impo- mances directly represent the Sewol victims
sition of martial law in the 1970s and 1980s. remains to be written.
Joan Kee, for instance, has shown how the The Sewol performances discussed here
people’s movement inspired Korean perfor- are at the intersections of performance
mance artists to allegorize the forces of polit- studies and trauma studies. Diana Taylor
ical oppression.4 describes performance as a way to produce
At the grassroots level, Chungmoo Choi knowledge, while the repertoire is a way to
and Nam-hee Lee have examined how preserve it; and performance, which privi-
madanggeuk, which is a Korean theatre genre leges bodily knowledge, is a ‘vital act of
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293
transfer’ that transmits social knowledge, The Struggle for Truth and the Park
cultural memory, and identities.12 It is the Administration’s Blacklist Scandal
object of enquiry in performance studies
and allows for the analysis of a social event Korean artists who create works that mourn
as performance. Taylor’s theories are useful the Sewol tragedy can be viewed as activists
in examining Sewol performances not as fin- because they were blacklisted for criticizing
ished products but as sites that transfer the Park administration’s response to the sink-
‘social knowledge, cultural memory, and ing. In the immediate aftermath of the disas-
identities’.13 ter, the South Korean government’s futile
Dori Laub’s work has also been particu- rescue operation generated criticism and
larly useful in framing my own research on debate. The Korean Coast Guard, Ministry of
how the Sewol performances represent the Oceans and Fisheries, and Ministry of Security
Sewol victims and how the audience receives and Public Administration failed to coordi-
them. Laub discusses how the listener may nate an effective rescue mission, which could
‘partially experience trauma’ when listening have saved the lives of the passengers waiting
to testimonies of traumatic events.14 Sewol in their cabins. The head of the Coast Guard
performances are not first-hand testimonies also lied, saying that 160 divers were recover-
from the survivors or victims. The mothers of ing bodies when there were only eight.17 The
the Sewol victims wearing their children’s divers were retrieving the bodies one at a time
school uniforms perform Yellow Ribbon’s and placing them in body bags.
Talent Show, while Namsan Arts Centre’s After the sinking of the Sewol, Park prom-
From Pluto is the first play to re-enact the ised that she and her government would con-
testimonies of Sewol survivors as well as duct a thorough investigation. The South
those of the families of the victims and local Korean National Assembly passed the Special
volunteers and other supporters who Act on Investigating the Truth of the April
assisted the families. In other words, audi- 16 Sewol Ferry Disaster and Building a Safe
ence members bear witness to the tragedy. Society (‘Special Act’) on 7 November 2014. It
They are able reflect on the tragedy and the was promulgated on 19 November 2014 and
families’ struggles in these moments and try went into effect on 1 January 2015. The Korean
to make sense of that tragedy. people’s nationwide petition had been essen-
Caroline Wake has argued that there are tial for bringing the Special Act into effect.18
two concepts of witnessing at work within However, instead of trying to identify the
theatre and performance studies. One is asso- cause of the incident and why the students
ciated with performance art, which positions had not been rescued, Park’s administration
the spectator at the scene of trauma; the other, refused to cooperate with the survivors and
associated with documentary and verbatim victims’ families and thwarted the efforts of
theatre practices, positions the spectator at the Sewol Ferry Tragedy Special Investigation
the scene of the testimony or the account.15 Committee (SIC). In addition, Park’s admin-
Each person attending the Sewol perfor- istration blamed the victims’ families for
mances belongs to the latter as ‘a witness to polarizing public opinion, and accused the
an account of the accident rather than to SIC of being composed of leftists.19 Right after
the accident itself; a witness to testimony’.16 the tragedy occurred, South Korea’s Defence
Building on the scholarship available in per- Security Command (DSC) characterized the
formance studies and trauma studies, this victims’ families as jongbuk (someone who
article explores how performance represents sympathizes with North Korean ideology).20
the unrepresentable and turns viewers into On 21 April 2014, six days after the acci-
witnesses to the traumatic past. It also shows dent, the DSC wrote a report titled ‘Espionage
how the three named performances archive Prevention Plan’. The report stated that the
and document the tragedy as well as raise DSC would confirm whether there were jong-
awareness of injustice and the need for social buk movements promoting anti-government
change. activities among the victims’ families, and
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294
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vowed to block them. According to the DSC’s SIC.27 And although the SIC discovered one
29 May 2014 report, the Committee for the million Coast Guard frequency communica-
Sewol Victims, an organization that sup- tion recordings, only 7,100 were handed over
ported the Sewol families, was listed as jong- to the SIC.28 The Ministry of Oceans and Fish-
buk forces. Thus, from the outset, the DSC had eries was very reluctant to provide data on the
viewed the Sewol families and their sup- salvage of the ferry, and eventually provided
porters as North Korean sympathizers. The less than half of the data that the SIC had
reason is unclear but it can be assumed that requested.29
Park’s administration feared the effectiveness Thus, although the SIC was created by law
of castigation of the government’s ineffectual and had the legal authority to investigate, it
handling of the tragedy articulated by the was unable to exercise that authority because
Sewol families and their supporters. the government interfered with its activities.
During the eleven-month investigation Under the pretence of passing the Special Act
period, Park’s government and the ruling con- to help the families of victims, Park’s govern-
servative party made it as difficult as possible ment tried to use the Special Act and other
for the SIC to do its job.21 First, the govern- institutional and legal systems to hinder the
ment curtailed the SIC’s authority via the Spe- SIC’s efforts to uncover the truth.
cial Act Enforcement Decree. On 27 March When the Korean people marched in pro-
2015, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries test, Park’s administration had the police sup-
announced the Special Act Enforcement press the crowd, even arrest the grieving
Decree without any explanation.22 If the families. When Korean artists created works
Enforcement Decree was put into effect, the to commemorate the tragedy and hold the
dispatched government officials would take government accountable, Park’s administra-
full control of the SIC and reduce the authority tion denied them grants and funding. In
of committee members.23 The SIC demanded October 2014, when the Busan International
that the Ministry rescind the Enforcement Film Festival screened the documentary The
Decree, arguing that it violated the purpose Truth Shall Not Sink with Sewol (2014), festival
of the Special Act’s legislation, interfered with director Lee Yong-gwan was asked to resign.
the SIC’s investigation, and even undermined Cho Yun-seon, former Minister of the Minis-
the SIC’s independence.24 However, on try of Culture, Sports and Tourism, asked the
11 May 2015, the government took up a ruling conservative party to denounce the
slightly revised version of the Enforcement documentary.30 Cho also ordered that all the
Decree.25 tickets be bought up before the screening and
The SIC’s budget also limited what the SIC negative reviews of the documentary be
could do. On 4 August 2015, the Ministry of posted on the internet.
Economy and Finance allocated 8.9 billion Suspicions about government surveillance
won instead of the 16 billion won initially and censoring of the arts and culture came to
requested. The budget was for the SIC inves- the fore when theatre critic Kim Mi-do
tigation activities such as digital forensics and reported that Park Geun-hyeong’s play All
scientific research; with such a reduced bud- Soldiers Are Unfortunate was initially selected
get, it would be difficult to conduct a compre- for funding by Arts Council Korea, but that
hensive scientific investigation into the Sewol members of the Council reconvened the jury
Ferry tragedy.26 members and demanded that the funds be
Even after the SIC was established, the rescinded.31 In addition, in October 2015, Arts
investigation stalled because the government Council Korea interrupted a performance at
did not cooperate with the SIC’s information the Seoul Performing Arts Festival because
gathering. The Blue House and the National references to a school trip and to the popular
Intelligence Service did not submit any data clothing brand North Face evoked the Sewol
on Park’s activities on the day of the incident. Ferry tragedy. In October 2016, it was
Nor did the court, prosecution, or the Board of revealed that Park’s administration had cen-
Audit and Inspection send any data to the sored prominent artists and blacklisted 9,473
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295
artists, including those who had signed peti- play, which depicts the struggles of fixed-term
tions to reveal the truth about the Sewol Ferry employees, can also be viewed as a Sewol
tragedy. According to the list, 594 artists who story that takes another form. According to
signed the petition to abolish the Sewol Spe- Kim:
cial Act Enforcement Decree and 754 who par-
ticipated in the Declaration of the Korean State The play does not directly represent the Sewol
of Affairs were blacklisted.32 Ferry tragedy, but the audience may be reminded
Due to the socio-political conditions sur- of it. [The mothers] could voice their opinions via
hunger strikes, head-shavings, and protests, but I
rounding the Sewol Ferry tragedy, the very wanted them to deliver their stories via theatre,
act of staging the tragedy highlights the art- where they could create intimacy, and bond with
ists’ use of performative strategies against the the audience.35
regime. Thus, works that remember and
mourn the victims, and stand in solidarity His and Her Closet received much media atten-
with the victims’ families can be viewed as tion not only because of the plot, but also
activist performances. because of the cast. Because the actors were
the Sewol mothers who were fighting for jus-
tice for their children, the audience could view
Staging the Children of Ansan in Yellow
a performance about people who were not
Ribbon’s Talent Show
protected by the law. The precarious position
Seven women whose children had perished of fixed-term employees becomes a metaphor
on the Sewol (Lee Mi-gyeong, Kim Myeong- for the Sewol families. The performance’s
im, Kim Chun-ja, Park Yu-sin, Kim Sun-deok, message of the need to reveal the truth about
Kim Seong-sil, Kim Jeong-hae, and Oh Sun-yi) the Sewol was transmitted to the audience by
founded Yellow Ribbon in March 2016. The telling stories of other vulnerable social
bereaved mothers had been treated for post- minorities. In an interview, audience member
traumatic stress disorder in therapeutic work- Lee Ji-hye said that she enjoyed the perfor-
shops that included play readings.33 Yellow mance and in contrast to the sorrow and anger
Ribbon works collaboratively and aims to cre- she had felt, she found the courage to fight
ate work that addresses both Sewol and com- after seeing it.36
munity issues. But it was not an easy journey. In their second play, Living and Dying Next
In October 2015, when director Kim Tae- Door, the troupe asks the audience to think
hyeon first met the mothers, they were not about the kind of neighbours they wanted to
ready to perform. Their eyes were full of sor- be and the kind of community they wanted to
row and they seemed intimidated. Some, who live in. Kim adapted Ryu Seong’s original
felt too pressured to perform, even quit. script by adding the Sewol mothers’ conver-
sations and testimonies. Approximately 40–50
When I first met the mothers, I could see that they per cent of the original script changed:
felt guilty whenever they smiled. Because the pub-
lic viewed them as victims, they expected the I constantly put questions to the mothers and
mothers to be sad all the time. The mothers needed added their ideas into the script. For example, the
to heal. You need to heal to move forward and scene in the workplace [where the Sewol mother is
uncover the truth. I decided to create a space where shunned by her co-workers] was adapted from one
they can smile and laugh through theatre.34 of the mothers’ experiences. The mothers also pro-
vided ideas during rehearsals and those were
Kim started workshops in which the mothers added to the performance as well.37
read humorous scripts. They especially
enjoyed Oh Se-hyeok’s His and Her Closet While the play was inspired by the Sewol
because they saw themselves in the characters Ferry tragedy and features a family member
who were mother, wife, and fixed-term of a Sewol victim, it does not depict the trag-
employee. Kim and the mothers turned the edy itself. Rather, it stages what happened
play into their first production, which pre- afterwards. The performance creates a space
miered in October 2016 in Ansan, Korea. The for audience members to hear what happened
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https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266464X20000640to the families in their own words and creates The play ends with the girls eagerly leaving on
an alternative space for mourning and their trip. While the scene is cheerful, the audi-
remembrance.38 ence may be reminded of the victims. It was a
Their third production, Talent Show, pre- poignant scene, especially when one of the
miered in April 2019 and is currently perform- students yells out, ‘Mom and Dad, I’ll be back
ing across Korea (Figure 1). The play is a in three days.’ The audience knows that this is
fictionalized account of five high school girls not necessarily true.
preparing a talent show in anticipation of their Although the characters are fictional, they
upcoming class trip. Inspired by Kim Sun- are based on real children. It is extremely
deok (mother of student survivor Jang difficult for the mothers to don Danwon High
Ae-jin), who wrote about her daughter’s talent School uniforms and represent their children.
show during a free-writing session, the troupe In an interview with Korean Theatre, Kim
decided to stage the children’s stories for their Myeong-im said: ‘It breaks my heart, but I
third production.39 While the troupe’s previ- think of my son every moment on stage.’41
ous plays had been adaptations, Talent Show is Laub reminds us that the ‘act of telling might
the troupe’s first original production. Play- itself become severely traumatizing, if the
wright Byeon Hyo-jin incorporated stories price of speaking is re-living: not relief, but
about the children’s lives into the script.40 To further re-traumatization’:42
assume the role of high school students, the
mothers wore Danwon High School uniforms. Trauma survivors live not with the memories of the
The school bells chime, signalling the start past, but with an event that could not and did not
of the play. A-yeong (played by Kim Myeong- proceed through to its completion, has no ending,
attained no closure, and therefore, as far as its
im, mother of student victim Gwak Su-in) is a survivors are concerned, continues into the present
high school student living in Ansan, a city in and is current in every respect.43
Gyeonggi Province, just southwest of Seoul.
She views Luffy, the character from the Japa- In relation to Laub’s idea of trauma’s timeless-
nese manga, One Piece, as her oldest imaginary ness, the Sewol survivors and families have
friend. In several scenes, Luffy (played by Kim not found closure; their trauma is ongoing.
Do-hyeon, mother of student victim Jeong The petitions demanding a thorough investi-
Dong-su) comes to life and even offers advice gation, the protests at the city square, and the
to the lonely A-yeong. A-yeong observes her fight for justice likewise continue. While the
classmates and decides that they do not have mothers are not professional actors, and the
anything in common; Ha-neul (played by Lee plot of Talent Show does not mention the socio-
Mi-gyeong, mother of student victim Lee cultural circumstances surrounding the Sewol
Yeong-man) is interested in music, Ji-suk Ferry tragedy, the play reminds the audience
(played by Kim Sun-deok) cares about her of the Sewol families fighting for justice.
appearance, and Baek-hee (played by Jo Choe Ji-yeong (mother of student victim
Ok-hyeong) likes to swear. One day, Kwon Sun-beom) discussed the troupe’s pur-
Ga-yeon (played by Park Yu-sin, mother of pose, commenting that that the mothers con-
student victim Jeong Ye-jin), the class presi- tinued the troupe’s work so they could shed
dent, announces a class trip to Jeju Island the light on the tragedy: ‘We want to meet people
next month and tries to recruit students for the and deliver stories about our children through
talent show. After much hesitation, A-yeong theatre.’44 In addition to raising awareness
agrees to participate. The girls rehearse a about their activism, the troupe’s work helped
cover dance to ‘Catallena’, by the K-pop girl the mothers confront their trauma and go on
group Orange Caramel. For the first time, with their lives. Kim Do-hyeon claims that she
A-yeong feels a sense of belonging. However, was able to smile again and fight for truth after
her parents cannot afford to send her on the joining the troupe.45 By staging something
trip. Her new friends take part-time jobs to that seems impossibly traumatic, Talent Show
help to earn the money that A-yeong needs. asks the viewer to remember the victims.
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297Figure 1. Talent Show. Sewol mothers singing. Photo: Areum Jeong.
Staging the Tragedy Chronologically in Park was inspired to create From Pluto after
From Pluto meeting five Sewol families on 22 December
2014. Although partly fictional, the plot is
Like Talent Show, Namsan Art Centre’s From largely based on information on the Sewol
Pluto memorializes the Sewol victims by Ferry tragedy and the testimonies from vic-
depicting the students who died. From Pluto, tims’ families and supporters. Park consulted
written and directed by Park Sang-hyeon, pre- the Sewol archives, visited the commemora-
miered in May 2019. Park is a director, play- tive classrooms, and studied several Korean
wright, and professor at the Korea National publications such as Oh Jun-ho’s Documenting
University of Arts. His previous plays Saiko- the Sewol Ferry. While many productions
paesu (2012) and Chijeong (2015) were also represented the Sewol metaphorically, this is
staged at the Namsan Arts Centre. Initially the first play that depicted it chronologically.
called the Drama Centre, the Namsan Arts The play, a reenactment of the tragedy and its
Centre, built in 1962, is Korea’s oldest modern aftermath, also documented the event. How-
theatre.46 Yu Chi-jin, a renowned Korean direc- ever, Park had not intended to create docu-
tor and playwright, established the Centre with mentary theatre.47 His purpose was to
a $65,000 grant from the Rockefeller Founda- confront the Sewol tragedy, but could not do
tion. In 2009, the venue was renovated and so because he did not have complete informa-
renamed the Namsan Arts Centre. In 2016, tion as to what had happened. When writing
the Centre, which staged mostly American the students’ lines, Park wondered what they
and British plays, expanded its programming would have said, and if he could really speak
to include local experimental productions. for them. During rehearsals, Park ordered
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298
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266464X20000640controlled, restrained acting. They had help, this scene portrays them as students
rehearsed for two and half months and the happy and full of life. This is how their fami-
actors spent much time contemplating the lies and friends wish to remember them. Per-
tragedy. Park commented that the play was haps it was represented this way because we
his way of remembering the victims and an do not know what really happened. We do not
expression of the prayers and wishes of the know why the ferry made a sharp turn and
families and friends left behind. what caused it to sink. We do not know why
The play begins on 14 April 2014, the day the students were not rescued sooner, and we
before the class trip. It stages the incident do not know why Park’s government had
chronologically with testimonies from the vic- demonized the victims’ families and sup-
tims’ families, survivors, and supporters, and porters and had hindered the investigation.
portrays the aftermath of the incident based The play also portrays the aftermath of the
on public opinion and true events. In addition, incident. In a scene set in a church, parents
it also directly portrays the victims in several react to Captain Lee Jun-seok’s 36-year prison
fictional scenes. In one scene, the students sentence. The priest asks them to pray and ask
have a party in the ferry’s steering house. God to please take away their hatred towards
The members of the broadcasting club intro- the captain and the crew. One bereaved parent
duce each student, for example: ‘She is our described seeing his child’s corpse. He asks,
class president, but after the ferry’s captain ‘How do we accept this, God? What is God’s
took off, she is our captain!’ When introduced, will?’ The parents discuss the Bible, and then
each student comes forward and delivers such begin arguing. ‘If there really is a God, God
short statements as: ‘I want to breathe fresh would have saved the children,’ says one
air’; ‘Do you think my last text message was mother. I was reminded of the many Korean
delivered to my parents? If only I could see pastors who stated, ‘God gave Korea an
them one more time’; ‘Mom, please remember opportunity by drowning the young
to take your medicine. Dad, don’t drink too students,’ or, ‘The poor students should just
much. Be well’; ‘Mom, I’m sorry I complained have gone to Kyoungju. I don’t know why
about your cooking’; ‘Mom and Dad, don’t they took a ferry to Jeju Island and created
worry. I was actually really scared, but it this commotion.’48
was not that painful’; ‘Why didn’t we go out These pastors were not the only ones who
when the ferry started to sink? Why didn’t made cruel and insensitive remarks about the
we?’ Sewol victims and families. Although the
Between these statements, members of the bereaved families received assistance from
broadcasting club repeatedly instruct some their communities and NGOs, they were the
students to ‘Stay where you are. Don’t move’, subjects of gossip, hate speech, rumours and
while other students dance and have fun. This surveillance by the Park Geun-hye adminis-
evokes the instructions given to the students tration. Right-wing media and parties that
as the ferry sank. The students’ playfulness is aligned with the Park administration’s poli-
in sharp contrast to their wistful words. Sud- cies tapped into identity politics to produce
denly the venue becomes completely dark hate speech. They blamed the Sewol Ferry
except for some lights that float in the back- victims and their families for the tragedy.
ground. The students stand still. A male Because most of the Danwon High School
adult’s voice is heard. ‘Here you all are. Let’s students came from the working-class suburb
go home. I’ll take you all home.’ The voice of Ansan, their families were assumed to be
belongs to one of the divers who retrieved from the political left.
their bodies. In addition, by citing the words of the sup-
This fictional scene was a heartbreaking porters, the play reminds the viewer of the
reminder that the students whom the actors many unresolved issues. In another scene,
represented were no more. It represents the several divers attend a funeral, perhaps that
unrepresentable. Instead of depicting the of the diver Kim Gwan-hong, who was diag-
trapped and frightened students awaiting nosed with PTSD and took his own life. The
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299divers talk about their trauma and what it was families’ struggles, the supporters’ troubles,
like to search for the students’ bodies. ‘Back the unanswered questions, and problems that
then, I thought, Thank God I can do this [i.e. need to be solved by the South Korean gov-
dive and search for the students],’ one diver ernment. While the sinking of the Sewol Ferry
says. ‘I still have nightmares about that,’ says was an exceptional incident, the emotional
another. For three months after the sinking, wreckage is something that the Sewol survi-
twenty-five civilian divers spent more than vors, families, and supporters still contend
twelve hours a day searching for the bodies, with every day.
eventually recovering nearly three hundred
bodies from the sunken ferry.49 During that Performing a Pilgrimage of Memory and
time, they did not receive any direction that Mourning in Camino de Ansan
oversaw their safety, and worked exhaus-
tively to recover the bodies. Camino de Ansan stages the victims in a more
While many divers are still living with circumspect manner, inviting the viewers to
physical pain and PTSD, the South Korean walk the streets where they had lived. Victor
government has not compensated them. Turner describes pilgrimage as a ritualized
Two divers have committed suicide.50 Han performance and ‘liminal phenomenon’
Jae-myeong was diagnosed with osteonecro- where participants are united by ‘communi-
sis, a bone tissue disease caused by interrup- tas’:52
tion of the blood supply. Eight divers are
unable to work due to physical injuries that we can envisage the social process involving a
they had sustained during the search. When particular group of pilgrims during their prepara-
tions for departure, their collective experiences on
Kim Sang-woo was inside the submerged the journey, their arrival at the pilgrim centre, their
ferry, luggage fell on his head and Kim had behaviour and impressions at the centre, and their
to undergo surgery on his neck. He is still return journey, as a sequence of social dramas and
unable to work as a diver. However, these social enterprises and other processual units to be
civilian divers, who volunteered to recover isolated by induction from an appropriate number
of cases in which there is a development in the
the bodies, are not eligible for workers’ com- nature and intensity of relationships between the
pensation. Some divers are currently receiv- members of the pilgrimage group and its sub-
ing only partial reimbursement for their groups.53
medical treatment. Furthermore, those with
osteonecrosis cannot receive any kind of com- Turner suggests that pilgrimage enables the
pensation or disability assistance. After diver participant to perform in alternative positions
Kim Gwan-hong’s death, seventy members of and help construct communal consciousness.
the National Assembly proposed the Kim Pilgrimage can also be examined in the light of
Gwan-hong Act to compensate divers, but Diana Taylor’s idea of the repertoire – ephem-
the Judiciary Committee has still not passed eral forms of embodied knowledge and prac-
it. This scene again reminds the viewer that tice that extend beyond the archive. Camino de
numerous Sewol supporters who have been Ansan can be viewed as a pilgrimage that
diagnosed with health issues have been transmits knowledge through embodied prac-
denied government care. Recovery from the tice, using the repertoire’s bodily ways of
Sewol is still ongoing. knowing.
In her review, critic Kim Bang-ok wrote Camino de Ansan is an annual pilgrimage
that the play not only questions whether the project that began in 2015 as a means of reflect-
Sewol could be represented or not, but also ing upon the Sewol Ferry tragedy. Go
shows how it has become unavoidable not to Ju-yeong, the producer, and Yun Han-sol,
question the political issues represented in the director, discussed the purpose of the pro-
Korean theatre today.51 Although it might ject, commenting that the pilgrimage ‘is
not have been Park’s initial focus when writ- another form of remembering’ and shows that
ing and directing From Pluto, the play also ‘you shouldn’t stop grieving’.54 The project’s
became a political commentary on the Sewol committee is comprised of a collective of local
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300
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266464X20000640artists from design, sound art, and theatre City plans to build a 23,000-square-metre
(Green Pig, JAT Project, Shim Bo-Seon, and memorial park within the 618,000-square-
Unmake Lab). Each group is in charge of metre Hwarang Amusement Park. The contro-
selecting and leading a particular area in versial altar would take up only 660 square
Ansan. Before the event, the committee metres. Victims’ families tried to persuade res-
announced the pilgrimage on social media: idents who opposed the project. However,
right-wing politicians denounced the victims’
families and the memorial park, especially dur-
In 2015, we were angry. In 2016, we were power-
less. In 2017, we were hopeful. In 2018, we were ing local elections. For example, the campaign
fearful again. In 2019, we ask ourselves what the poster of Lee Hye-kyeong, the mayoral candi-
Sewol Ferry disaster means and how we experience date of the Bareunmirae Party, reads, ‘When a
and walk Ansan. dog dies, do we keep it in the house?’ The
In a rapidly changing city, memories are fading campaign poster of Lee Min-keun, the mayoral
and promises are broken. It’s time to take a step
forward again. candidate of the Liberty Korea Party, reads,
It’s been five years since the Sewol Ferry disaster ‘Building a shrine in the Hwarang Amusement
occurred. Please participate in Camino de Ansan to Park is a way to make Ansan a gloomy city
gather our small steps, reinforce our memories, and forever’. This shows how political parties use
move forward.55 hate politics based on discrimination and
exclusion against underprivileged groups.
Camino de Ansan participants walk approxi- Although the South Korean government has
mately ten kilometres of Ansan City. There are approved the budget for the memorial park,
two short breaks. Drinks, snacks, and emer- there is still some local resentment.
gency medication are available to the partici- On 5 May 2019, I arrived at the No. 2 Exit of
pants. The event memorializes the tragedy by Ansan Station (Figure 2). There was a small
walking through Ansan, a city of industrial booth outside the exit. I received a pair of
complexes and small businesses. From the gloves, a mission card, a pamphlet, a black
1990s, migrant workers from China, Indone-
sia, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam flocked there to
find work. Ansan, now known for the Sewol
Ferry tragedy, has been through difficult
times. The victims’ families faced many
dilemmas. One was whether or not to pre-
serve the victims’ classrooms at Danwon High
School. After disputes between the families of
the deceased and surviving students, the com-
memorative classrooms were moved to the
Ansan Office of Education. Jeong writes that
the classrooms are memorials that ‘stand in for
the wreckage of the ferry itself through objects
that perform affect’.56
Another disagreement centred on the con-
struction of a memorial park.57 The 416 Fami-
lies for Truth and a Safer Society and NGOs
argued that the memorial park should be built
within the Hwarang Amusement Park in
Ansan City where the victims had grown
up. However, when some construction associ-
ations denounced the memorial park and
remarked that an ossuary would cause land Figure 2. Camino de Ansan. The pilgrimage performance
prices to drop, conflicts between the Sewol begins at Ansan Station. Photo: Areum Jeong.
families and Ansan City residents arose. Ansan
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301umbrella, and a bottle of water. My mission or sometimes in a single file. The organizers
card read, ‘Hiccup when you walk by would communicate with their umbrellas and
flowers.’ At 1.00 p.m., the organizers gathered gestures. They rarely spoke. Sometimes we
and encouraged the participants to prepare would hold the umbrella of the person in front
for the walk by doing some stretching exer- of us, creating a human centipede. This might
cises. The organizers then silently raised two have been done to avoid traffic. At these times,
fingers, signalling to the participants to form and when we followed narrow paths, I had to
two lines. No one gave verbal instructions or take small steps to prevent stepping on the heels
asked the participants to turn off their elec- of the person in front of me. Often, the pilgrim-
tronic devices. The participants were free to age line would curve into the shape of a ques-
walk and chat as much or as little as they tion mark. While marching along those lines,
wished. Most people walked in silence. From I would ask how we could remember Ansan.
time to time, I would have a quiet conversa- The pilgrimage also visited the commemo-
tion with one of the Sewol mothers behind me. rative classrooms and the site of the memorial
For approximately six hours, we walked park. The commemorative classrooms seemed
through markets, parks, mountain trails, to confirm the victims’ absence. The land
apartments and schools (Figure 3). We walked where the memorial park would be built was
through neighbourhoods that were home to empty except for the grass. The victims’ fam-
migrant workers. We walked through both ilies and NGOs are building the 4.16 Life and
abandoned neighbourhoods and newly built Security Park whose mission is to build a safer
apartments. We walked in twos and fours, society, reveal the truth, and memorialize
Figure 3. Camino de Ansan. Participants march during the pilgrimage. Photo: Areum Jeong.
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302
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266464X20000640the victims. Although the South Korean gov- From time to time, we saw high school
ernment has approved the construction bud- students in their uniforms. They rarely
get, the park will not be completed until 2022 engaged with the participants. Sometimes
or 2023. we would see them close by; sometimes they
Figure 4. Camino de Ansan. A performer writing ‘Time does not make anything disappear’ on a wall. Photo: Areum
Jeong.
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303would perform from afar. They reminded us Notes and References
of the students who had died. These were 1. This research was supported by the 4.16 Founda-
streets that the victims might have walked tion. Established in September 2016, the Foundation is a
with their family and friends. Now, the people non-profit organization based in Ansan. Its mission,
among other aspects, is to reveal the cause of the Sewol
who walk those streets remember the victims. Ferry tragedy, support the survivors and victims’ fami-
Sometimes, I would forget to hiccup when lies, and create a safer society.
passing by flowers unless I heard someone else 2. For Korean names, this study uses the original
convention of placing the surname before the given name
do it. The hiccups were like an effort to remem- with the exception of figures who prefer to render their
ber the Sewol. Each step I took was one of names with their surname last or who are well known by
memory and mourning, and an effort to the reverse order. Unless otherwise stated, all translations
from Korean to English are my own.
remember the victims and their families. I 3. Areum Jeong, ‘How the Pyonsa Stole the Show: The
was reminded that the Sewol is not in the past. Performance of the Korean Silent Film Narrators’, Jour-
It is so much more than a disaster that hap- nalism & Culture Research, XXV (2018), p. 25–54.
4. Joan Kee, ‘Why Performance in Authoritarian
pened on a class trip; it prompted the Korean Korea?’, Tate Papers, No. 23 (Spring 2015), , accessed 20 May 2020.
5. Chungmoo Choi, ‘The Discourse of Decoloniza-
Camino de Ansan invites the participants to tion and Popular Memory: South Korea’, Positions: Asia
remember the victims while choreographing Critique, 1.1 (1993), p. 77–102; Chungmoo Choi, ‘Trans-
and documenting the space of Ansan through national Capitalism, National Imaginary, and the Pro-
test Theater in South Korea’, Boundary 2, 22.1 (1995),
embodied performance (Figure 4). p. 235–61; Nam-hee Lee, ‘Between Indeterminacy and
Radical Critique: Madang-guk, Ritual, and Protest’,
Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, 11.3 (2003),
p. 555–84.
Beyond the Sewol 6. Jiyeon Kang, Igniting the Internet: Youth and Activ-
ism in Post-Authoritarian South Korea (Honolulu, HI: Uni-
Although the Sewol Ferry tragedy occurred versity of Hawaii Press, 2016).
more than six years ago, many Koreans have 7. Elizabeth W. Son, Embodied Reckonings: ‘Comfort
not recovered from the shock of watching the Women’, Performance, and Transpacific Redress (Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press, 2018).
ferry sink on live news. The survivors, fami- 8. Ibid., p. 19.
lies, and supporters of the Sewol are still 9. Nan Kim, ‘Candlelight and the Yellow Ribbon:
demanding a full investigation. In this sense, Catalyzing Re-Democratization in South Korea’, The
Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, XV, Issue 14, No. 5 (15 July
the tragedy continues, and also in the sense 2017), p. 1–17.
that performances evoking it represent death, 10. Korean Theatre Critics Association, Seweolho ihu ui
loss, and memory in contemporary South han-guk yeon-geuk (Korean Theatre After the Sewol) (Seoul:
Yeon-geukgwa In-gan Press, 2017).
Korea. By staging characters based on the 11. Areum Jeong, ‘Beyond the Sewol: Performing
student victims, Talent Show reminds the audi- Acts of Activism in South Korea’, Performance Research,
ence of the Sewol families who are fighting for XXIV, No. 5 (2019), p. 33–43.
12. Diana Taylor, The Archive and the Repertoire: Per-
justice. From Pluto, which is a re-enactment of forming Cultural Memory in the Americas (Durham and
the tragedy and its aftermath, depicts the stu- London: Duke University Press, 2003), p. 2
dent victims directly and raises the question of 13. Ibid.
14. Dori Laub, ‘Bearing Witness, or the Vicissitudes of
whether the Sewol can be represented or not. Listening’, in Shoshana Felman and Dori Laub, eds., Tes-
And Camino de Ansan invites the audience to timony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis,
remember the victims and their families and History (New York and London: Routledge, 1992),
p. 57–74.
through embodied performance. By repre- 15. Caroline Wake, ‘The Accident and the Account:
senting the victims of the Sewol Ferry tragedy, Towards a Taxonomy of Spectatorial Witness in Theatre
Talent Show, From Pluto, and Camino de Ansan and Performance Studies’, in Bryoni Trezise and Caroline
Wake, eds., Visions and Revisions: Performance, Memory,
convey the families’ struggles to achieve jus- Trauma (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2013),
tice, the supporters’ ongoing difficulties in p. 33–56.
recovering, the questions that remain to be 16. Ibid., p. 43.
17. Jeong So-ang, ‘Seweolho gujo silpae, haegyeongui
answered, and problems that the South geojinmaleul balghyeoya handa’ (‘Failure to rescue Sewol
Korean government needs to solve. Ferry must reveal coast guard’s lies’), Ohmynews,
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18. Yeong-bin Kwon, Meonameon seweolho: Seweolho 38. Jeong, ‘Beyond the Sewol’, p. 38.
teukjowiwa hamkkehan sigan (Sewolho Far Away: The Time 39. Kim Mi-ji, ‘416 Gajokgeukdan noranribon janggi-
with the Sewol Special Investigation Committee) (Seongnam: jarang’ (‘4.16 family theatre troupe Yellow Ribbon Talent
Pyeolchim Press, 2017), p. 23. Show’), Korean Theatre (August, 2019), p. 14–17.
19. In South Korea, right-leaning politicians domi- 40. Son Ui-yeon, ‘Aideul kkum geuryeoyo . . . 4.16
nated politics after the Korean War until 1998 when gajokgeukdan noranribon’ (‘Staging the children’s
Kim Dae-jung, a left-leaning politician, became president. dreams . . . 4.16 family theatre troupe Yellow Ribbon’),
Right-leaning political parties are rooted in pro-Japanese Edaily, 16 April 2019, ,
dealing with North Korea. Left-leaning political parties accessed 24 May 2020.
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20. Kang Na-ru, ‘Jasik ileun seweolho yujokeun eod- 43. Ibid., p. 69.
deoke jongbuki doeeotna’ (‘How Did Sewol Families 44. Kim Mi-ji, ‘416 Gajokgeukdan’, p. 17.
Become Jongbuk’), KBS NEWS, 6 May 2019, , accessed 46. Namsanyesulsenteo, , accessed 24 May 2020.
21. Kwon, Meonameon seweolho, p. 21. 47. As Park Sang-hyeon made clear in a Q&A session
22. Ibid., p. 48. at the Namsan Arts Centre, Seoul, Korea, on 19 May 2019.
23. Ibid., p. 49. 48. Lee Jae-ho, ‘Seweolho chamsa mangeon ilsam-
24. Ibid., p. 49. neun moksadeul, dangjang hoegaehara’ (‘Pastors That
25. Ibid., p. 63. Speak Ill of the Sewol Ferry Tragedy Must Repent’),
26. Ibid., p. 77–8. Gidokgyo Han-gook Shinmun, 3 June 2014, ,
28. Ibid., p. 156–9. accessed 30 September 2019.
29. Ibid., p. 19–20. 49. Lee Hwa-jin, ‘Gukgahante beoryeojin seweolho
30. Kim Min-ju, ‘Joyunseon, daibingbel tiket maesue min-gan jamsusadeul’ (‘Civilian divers abandoned by
akpyeong jisikkaj’ (‘Cho Yun-seon bought up all tickets the nation’), KBS NEWS, 22 April 2019, , accessed 30
negative reviews . . .’), Kookje Shinmun, 1 February 2017, September 2019.
, accessed dowatjiman . . . joein numyeong sidallida ithyeojyeo’
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31. Ibid. forgotten’), Hankook Ilbo, 14 April 2018, ,
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tears despite Sewol mothers’ mediocre acting’), Ohmynews, 51. Kim Bang-ok, ‘Seweolhoui jaehyeoneun
27 January 2017, , Yeon-geukin, 13 June 2019, , accessed 24 May 2020.
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uleotda’ (‘Sewol mothers laughed onstage and cried back- Goal’, History of Religions, XII, No. 3 (1973), p. 191–230.
stage’), CNB Journal, 3 February 2017, , accessed 54. Ansansunryegil, , accessed 24 May 2020.
34. Ibid. 55. Camino de Ansan Facebook page, , accessed 30 April 2019.
36. Yu Ji-yeong, ‘Seweolho eommaga beulaekten- 56. Jeong, ‘Beyond the Sewol’, p. 40.
teueseo komidi yeon-geukeul haetda’ (‘Sewol mothers 57. Kim Ji-hye, ‘Seweolho chumogongweoneul dulleos-
performed comedy at Black Tent’), Ohmynews, 25 January san galdeunggwa jaengjeomdeul (‘Dilemmas and issues
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deuleun sejelyeonieyo’ (‘Kim Tae-hyeon, Sewol mothers 2019.
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