[Opinion] `Dui-puri`, After-performance Party

`Dui-puri` has various meanings in Korean folk culture. With instrumental music of peasants, it refers to an after-performance party in which performers and spectators drink and dance together. A Korean folk performance comprises Ap-puri (pre-event), Bon-puri (main event) and Dui-puri (post event). Ap-puri buoys up the atmosphere and Dui-puri is a wrapping-up event that follows the main part. In Korean traditional music `Pansori`, the ending part is also called Dui-puri. Dui-puri of `Heungbu-ga` includes repentance of Nolbu and reconciliation between the two brothers. Gyangryong Mask Dance, a folk dance event in Hwanghae Province, holds Dui-puri ten days after the main dance event, and people dance together again before burning out the masks.

Korean `Gut,` an act of exorcism combined with folk dance, has one common element despite its various forms. Gut is to let unsettled sprits take a rest. In scientific terms, unsettled sprits are conflict and letting them take a rest is a solution. Gut came from people`s wish for good health, loving families and prosperity of villages and the entire country. Every Gut ends only after Dui-puri is completed. Going through wars and poverty, people of this nation must have had a lot of knots to untie. The last Du-puri part is particularly important since a good end can lead to a fresh new start the following day.

Midang Suh Jung-joo, poet known for his beautiful poetic languages, delivered the mood of Dui-puri in his `March Song` - The fest is over. People sit there to have hot soups/Woods burn/Ash remains/The tent of the cover is cleared/Dusk falls/Guests say farewell to the host/They feel tipsy/And they head for home. Our ancestors had no such Dui-puri places as pubs or luxurious bars. They just ate, drank and danced together until the host cleared the cover of the tent. Then, they said bye to the host and returned home.

After a meeting with President Roh, heads of the three parties, Chyung Dae-chul of the Millennium Democratic Party, Park Hee-tae of the Grand National Party and Kim Jong-pil of the United Liberal Democrats, went to a luxurious bar to have Dui-puri. The three are all known to enjoy drinking and they might have needed some alcoholic beverage as they felt something missing or unsettled after the meeting at Chong Wae Dae. Yet, they chose too expensive a place vs. the economy and people`s living in bad shape. The three reportedly said, “Politics used to be romantic in the past, but now it is all tight up. Let`s forget about bickering and have good time tonight.” When a main event is no fun, Dui-puri is bound to take some time. They must have felt tipsy and good as they returned home. There seems to be a lasting hangover, though.

Hwang Ho-taek, Editorial Writer, hthwang@donga.com