Browsing by Subject "taekwondo"

In this thesis, I have approached taekwondo from the cultural perspective using ethnographic methods. This martial art form is often associated with Korea; however, its origins seem to lie in the Japanese karate – although Korean sources often claim it to be even 2000 thousand years old tradition practiced in Korean peninsula. Foreign scholars such as Udo Moenig, on the other hand, have conducted convincing studies that illustrate similarities between these two martial forms. Furthermore, many martial art schools – that are considered as the “founding schools” of the “modern taekwondo” - were established after the Second World War. This controversy offered inspiration to look further into taekwondo as an “invented tradition”. In short, according to Eric Hobsbawm and Terrence Ranger’s definition, “invented traditions” are often created by repeating and even manipulating origin stories to establish the preferred history. Moreover, it often strengthens the local nationalism. Therefore, it is important to look into Korean nationalism to understand the reasons to highlight taekwondo’s Korean roots. In the modern day another concept related to taekwondo and Korean nationalism is the so-called “Korean Wave”, also known as hallyu by its Korean name. Especially scholars such as Jin Dal Yong and Kim Bok-rae define hallyu as a “soft power” to disseminate Korean culture globally through cultural products such as television shows, music, food and even sports. Hence, studying foreign people, who do taekwondo or in other words taekwondoin, to see if taekwondo really promotes Korean culture and inspires people to learn more about Korea became the main focus of the project. I decided to focus on the Finnish context because I have been learning taekwondo myself. Additionally, as a Finnish person I am familiar with the Finnish culture due to which understanding both cultures helps to explain the differences between the two cultures. Furthermore, I wanted to see, how much Korean cultural features have been adopted in the Finnish taekwondo gyms. To do this, I observed and attended taekwondo classes in three different taekwondo associations in Southern Finland, and I interviewed seven people with different belt ranks from beginner to master. In Finland taekwondo is typically seen as a martial art form with Korean background. Certain traditions such as bowing to greet and yelling as a response to commands are often associated with martial arts generally. Korean language is used in the class variedly depending on the instructor, but many seem not comfortable memorizing the terms and most common technique names have been translated to Finnish. In addition to this, teaching taekwondo is almost purely volunteer-based, the classes are after work hours, and the space to train is rented and so shared with other sport associations. Although taekwondo gyms might not remind people of Korea, the preserved traditions are seen as a way to pay homage to the founders of the sport.