Fusion Korean Foods
(More unique, more delicious)
   Traditional Korean foods are made of only Korean ingredients. However, fusion Korean foods are newly made, combined with foreign ingredients such as cheese and olives, or there are also fusion Korean foods that are made of Korean traditional ingredients on foreign foods. The former instances are cheese tteokbokki and cheese kimchi-jeon. Tteokbokki is rice cake in hot sauce, and kimchi jeon is Korean pancakes made of kimchi. In the latter, there is rice pizza and kimchi fusion tacos. Fusion Korean foods give people an experience of exotic flavors, and it gives foreigners a chance to be familiar with Korean foods.
   James Braddan(England) says, “There are diverse people from diverse cultures in England. Diverse people and cultures live together in England, so there are various kinds of foods such as Mexican food, Indian food, Egytian food, Arabic food and so on. Because there are many countries’ various foods in England, there can exist many kinds of fusion foods. I love Korean food, and I think it will be better to get more various foods coming into Korea because it will make more various foods.”
   There are also fusion alcohol beverages. A few years ago, makgeolli, which is a Korean traditional alcohol, had just one kind which was rice makgeolli. Recently, however, there is grape makgeolli, honey makgeolli, blueberry makgeolli and citron makgeolli. Fusion makgeollis give people diverse flavors beyond typical rice makgeolli.

Fusion Hanbok
(More graceful, more comfortable)
   A Hanbok is a Korean traditional dress. A man’s hanbok consists of jeogori(the jacket of hanbok) and baji(the pants of a man’s hanbok), and a woman’s hanbok consists of jeogori and chima(the long skirt of a woman’s hanbok).
   Recently, actress Hong Soo-ah wore a fusion hanbok wedding dress in the drama ‘King’s Dream’. Her dress became a hot issue on the internet because of her improper and exaggerated fusion garment in a historical drama. However, netizens acknowledged the beauty of the fusion hanbok wedding dress. A fusion hanbok, which contains a traditional hanbok’s grace as well as modern beauty, are receiving much publicity from the press and it’s drawing attention from people.
   A fusion hanbok, which transforms a traditional hanbok by using modern sense, is a more beautiful and comfortable garment compared to a traditional hanbok. Many materials are used for  making it compared to a traditional hanbok such as lace, organza, cotton, silk and so on. A fusion hanbok is often used as a party garment or a wedding dress.
   Namgoong Kyung-ae(Owner of a hanbok rental shop) says, “Most people who rent a fusion hanbok are young people, but many people still rent traditional hanboks for formal events such as wedding ceremonies to show their graceful and traditional figures. Fusion hanboks are often rented as party garments for a first-birthday party for a baby.”
   Park So-hyeon(Cheongju, 29) says, “I want to wear a fusion wedding dress in the future for my wedding ceremony because it is very unique and graceful in comparison with a white wedding dress, which many people wear.”
   Lee Hey-soon(Chief hanbok designer of DAMYEON) says, “A long time ago, people rode horses as transportation or set a fire for making food or for communicating with people from other regions. However, nowadays, people ride cars and cook food using machines and communicate with people using telephones. My idea of a fusion hanbok is not just a shortened chima and jeogori, or putting a colorful decoration on the clothes. We think that the fusion hanbok involves consideration of lifestyle as time goes on. A traditional hanbok just reenacts something from a previous time. A fusion hanbok is in accordance with the consideration of changing lifestyles, and some parts of the hanbok can be shortened or lengthened for people.”

Fusion Gugak
(More joyous, more rhythmic)
   A remixed ‘Canon’, which was performed with a gayageum, which is a Korean zither with twelve strings, spread on the internet. B-boys danced to music which mixed a beat box and a gayageum melody. Recently, one singer’s digital song which was harmonized with a haegeum's melody reached 1st in the music charts. Haegeum is a two-stringed traditional Korean instrument. Familiar melodies, which are from Korean traditional instruments, make people joyous and merry, and people easily sing along with the melody contrary to the traditional Korean music ‘gugak’, which is Korean classical music.
   There is a new fusion wave in gugak. People regarded gugak as only music for traditional events or national events. However, it is newly coming to us with the name of fusion gugak. Fusion gugak is music which harmonizes Korean traditional music and modern music. There are various kinds of fusion gugak, which harmonize with modern music genres such as hip-hop, techno, rock, pop, jazz, tango and so on. In addition to this, these days, orchestral concerts which harmonize western instruments with Korean traditional instruments are performed quite often.
   Son Hyun-seoup(President of a traditional research club) says, “I think that fusion gugak, which means combined Eastern music and Western music, is a good trial to develop gugak. My club members are interested in fusion gugak, and they want to try it.”

What is the true fusion culture!
   There are worries about fusion culture. It is a good idea which makes new ideas by combining with something different, but it may lose its own color.
   Fusion can fascinate people’s tastes, eyes, and ears by its uniqueness and freshness in comparison with traditional culture. Kim Yeon-jin(Electrical engineering, ’09) says, “I like fusion foods and fusion music too because those contents are very fresh and not boring. However, I’m a little sad that fusion contents exclude each cultures’ sentiment or feeling.” Fusion contents have great advantages in regards to creating new worth and combining with new cultures. However, we should never forget the worth of the original.
 

By Kang Ill-gu
ig33@cbnu.ac.kr
 

By You Ha-kyeong
hk33@cbnu.ac.kr