What is NP'N?

NP'N is a network of Pungmul (traditional Korean folk art, involving a community-wide drumming, singing, dancing, and playing) groups in the US.

Pungmul in the US

Pungmul is played in many Korean-American communities across the US. There are several community-based Pungmul groups in Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Baltimore, etc., and many college-based groups at MIT, Harvard U, Yale U, U of Chicago, U of IL at Urbana Champagne, Buffalo U, Syracuse U, Stanford U, U of California at LA, Davis, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and so on.

Even though Pungmul has rapidly gained popularity, it is, however, difficult to learn and play in the US. One of the most primary reasons for the difficulty is the lack of resources and teachers. In Korea, there are local centers for preserving and teaching indigenous styles of Pungmul, and anyone with an interest can visit those centers to learn Pungmul and improve his/her skills. However, most Pungmul groups in the US have to rely on a limited number of Pungmul players who happen to live in the vicinity of those groups. (Seen here is a group photograph after Jishinbalgi in Los Angeles in 1999.)

Coupled to the difficulty of finding a Pungmul teacher or master, the lack of information on Pungmul is also a major problem for the Pungmul activity in the US. It prohibits many people from studying and learning Pungmul even for themselves.

Lastly but not leastly, obtaining or purchasing the Pungmul instruments is also major difficulty for playing Pungmul. Currently, most Korean folk instruments are not available in the US, so they have to be purchased directly from Korea. In most cases, a few members of a Pungmul group would bring one or two Pungmul instruments, after visiting their home or relatives in Korea. Pungmul groups so far had to reply on such occasional trips to Korea for the replenishment or purchase of the new instruments. Naturally, through such a method, only a limited number of instruments can be brought in, and sometimes the Pungmul group has to go on with broken instruments for a long time, until one of its member makes a trip to Korea. (A North Korean Hunger Relieft performance poster by Korean Youth Cultural Center in Oakland, CA.)

The lack of teachers/masters and resources and the difficulty of obtaining instruments are some of the most apparent obstacles of the Pungmul activity in the US. There are also subtle, yet important and unique issues that the Pungmul groups in the US have to resolve. As mentioned before, Pungmul has been accepted and gained popularity in many Korean-American communities across the US during the past few years. However, playing Pungmul in the US now takes on quite a different meaning from playing Pungmul in Korea or playing it 10 or 5 years ago.

For the second generation of Korean-American Pungmul players, who constitute a large fraction of the Pungmul group, Pungmul is a medium through which they can experience the cultural heritage of their parents' motherland and a way of discovering their identities and the roots. For the 1.5 generation or the recent immigrants from Korea, Pungmul is a source of joy and pride about their motherland's culture. For the people from other cultural and ethnic origin, Pungmul provides an easy access to learn and experience parts of Korean culture. However, Pungmul's power of bringing people together has not been fully realized yet. Even though Pungmul has had much positive influence on the Korean-American community in the past, there are still many gaps that have to be bridged. The cultural and generational gap between the first and the second generations of Korean-Americans is one such example.

Jamaesori (Women's Pungmul Group in Oakland, CA) performance in September, 1999

It is now a time to search for the new direction and meaning of the Pungmul activities in the US. Finding ways to correctly learn and teach Pungmul as a living tradition of Korea and to recreate it in American soil is the most imperative and difficult task facing all the Pungmul groups in the US.

Goals of NPN

We believe that the most innovative and effective solutions to the above mentioned problems will be found when we bring all our ideas and resources together and collaborate with one another, since most Pungmul groups in the US are under similar situations and face the same issues. With a national network of Pungmul groups, we will be able:

• to provide an open channel for mutually benefitial communication and collaboration among Pungmul groups in the US,
• to introduce traditional Korean folk arts (especially Pungmul) most effectively through a national network,
• to find the most innovative and effective solutions to current problems and issues in Pungmul activities in the US,
• and to dynamically develop and promote Pungmul in the context of modern, global culture.

In sum, the National Pungmul Network is exactly based on that simple idea of "helping one another." During the past years, NPN has organized and sponsored several Pungmul conferences and workshops both in the US and in Korea. We hope to provide a important step in defining and developing the Pungmul activities of the coming years in the US.