Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

The drastic increase in the number of South Korean musical productions, institutions, and professional musical performers along with the growth of musical fandom —all happened in less than a decade since the early 2000s. It is necessary to look into the actual context of South Korean society and contextualize some of the relevant Korean musical performances in order for one to understand how such performance texts do not simply happen out of the vacuum—which is one of the topics overlooked in the recent academic discussions of Korean musicals and that of K-pop or Korean Wave. By situating two significant South Korean musicals—Ppallae (2005) [Laundry] and Jihach’ol Ilhoson (1994) [Line 1]—in the context of the 1990s and the critical years leading up to the early 2000s, this project explores the ways in which these musicals gather doubled receptions from its audience members. Line 1 and Laundry should be seen together in the context of the 1990s-2000s which happens to be one of the crucial periods in South Korea’s modern history. Both musicals challenge the imminent social problems having to do with gender, polarization between the poor and the rich, and racial prejudice while Laundry performatively embellishes these issues as nostalgic products, allowing the Korean audiences to distance themselves from the ever-controversial issues. I address how the “pluralities” in these musicals eventually create a boundary between those who are included and excluded, both onstage and in South Korean reality.