Morning Dew (Korean song)

1970s South Korean protest song

"Morning Dew"

Song by Yang Hee-eun
from the album  Yang Hee Eun Gounnorae Moeum (Korean: 양희은 고운노래 모음; lit. Yang Hee Eun's Collection of Beautiful Songs)[1]
Released| September 1, 1971 (1971-09-01)
Genre| T'ong guitar, ballad[2]
Songwriter(s)| Kim Min-ki
Producer(s)| Kim Min-ki

"Morning Dew" (Korean: 아침 이슬, "Achim Isul") is a South Korean protest song from the 1970s written by Kim Min-ki and sung by Yang Hee-eun.[3][4][5] In 1971, the song was Kim Min-ki's debut in his album Minki Kim [ko],[6][7] but Yang Hee-eun released it a month earlier. It was not intended to be a protest song, and belonged to the geonjeongayo genre.[3][6] It has also been described as belonging to the genres of Korean ballad[2] and T'ong guitar.[8] The song was well received by both music critics and the public, youths in particular.[9] Initially it won a government award (건전가요상, the Wholesome Song Award), and was considered a pro-government propaganda or "healthy" song, and played on the Korean radio under a cultural program supported by the government.[4][6][10][7]

Soon afterward, it had inexplicably become a popular protest song among the pro-democracy activists in South Korea, particularly with students.[3][6][9][11][12] Despite the song lacking an overt political message and being described as "full of resolve in spite of the sorrows of life's trials",[13] its wording could be interpreted as "activists yearning for a democratic society",[6] and critical of the 1972 Yushin Constitution.[5] It has also been interpreted as critical of Americanization of Korean society.[2] Also, in the lyrics 'A blazing red sun rising up over the graveyard', the sun is interpreted as Kim Il-sung, and the words rising red can be interpreted to mean communism. [14]

Subsequently, in December 1975, it was banned by government censorship of the Park Chung Hee regime.[4][2][7][5] It was later also banned in North Korea.[11][15] Copies of the album containing it were recalled and destroyed, and it was even prohibited to cover it.[16] Kim Min-ki's school junior, Lee Soo-man, almost received disciplinary action after singing this song on a night stage in 1978.[17] The song, composed in 1971, was one of the favorites of the pro-democracy students until the late 1980s (the other being another song by Kim Min-ki, 상록수, Sangnoksu, 거치른 들판에 푸르른 솔잎처럼, Geochireun deulpane pureureun soripcheoreom, lit. Evergreen). It was often sung during the events of the 1987 June Democratic Struggle.[6] It has also been described as an anthem of the Korean pro-democracy movement[16] and credited with starting the South Korean protest music.[18]

The ban on the song was lifted following pro-democracy protests in 1987. It remained popular for some time afterward.[6] It has been sung at political rallies as late as the 2000s.[19]

The song has also been described as popular with North Koreans living in Japan (people affiliated with Chongryon).[20]

Kim Min-ki brought the German musical Linie 1 to South Korea and adapted it, which became a huge hit. After learning about this, members of the Grips-Theater, a German original performance team, translated his song into German, visited South Korea in 2004, and gave it to him as a gift. The title is Morgentau.[21]

## See also

[edit]

* South Korean protest music

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Yang Hee-eun". KBS WORLD. June 20, 2012.
2. ^ a b c d Pardo, Ramon Pacheco (2022-07-15). Shrimp to Whale: South Korea from the Forgotten War to K-Pop. Oxford University Press. pp. 28–29. ISBN 978-0-19-767454-3.
3. ^ a b c "양희은 "'아침이슬' 운동권 노래? 섬뜩!"" (in Korean). Sports Hankook. 2006-11-08. Retrieved 2024-02-20.
4. ^ a b c "양희은 "'아침이슬'은 건전가요상을 받고 금지곡도 된 노래"". The Korea Economic Daily (in Korean). 2007-10-25. Retrieved 2024-02-20.
5. ^ a b c Rhee, Rosaleen (2020). South Korean Popular Folk Music: The Genre That Defined 1970s Youth Culture (Thesis). UCLA.
6. ^ a b c d e f g Shin, Hyunjoon; Lee, Seung-Ah (2016-09-13). Made in Korea: Studies in Popular Music. Routledge. p. 1976\. ISBN 978-1-317-64573-3.
7. ^ a b c Lee, Jung-Min Mina (February 2023). "Minjung Kayo : Imagining Democracy through Song in South Korea". Twentieth-Century Music. 20 (1): 49–69. doi:10.1017/S1478572222000470. ISSN 1478-5722.
8. ^ Fuhr, Michael (2015-06-12). Globalization and Popular Music in South Korea: Sounding Out K-Pop. Routledge. p. 47\. ISBN 978-1-317-55691-6.
9. ^ a b Ch`ang-Nam, Kim; Kyung-ja, Chun (March 1987). "The Spirit of Folksongs and Realism in Song - The Musical World of Kim Min-gi". Korea Journal (in Korean). 27 (3): 28–41. ISSN 0023-3900.
10. ^ Kim, Tai-hoon; Mohammed, Sabah; Ramos, Carlos; Abawajy, Jemal; Kang, Byeong-Ho; Slezak, Dominik (2012-11-07). Computer Applications for Web, Human Computer Interaction, Signal and Image Processing, and Pattern Recognition: International Conferences, SIP, WSE, and ICHCI 2012, Held in Conjunction with GST 2012, Jeju Island, Korea, November 28-December 2, 2012. Proceedings. Springer. p. 147\. ISBN 978-3-642-35270-6.
11. ^ a b Jennison, Rebecca S. (2023). "In/Visible—New Directions in Contemporary Art by Zainichi Koreans: Fragile Frames/Precarious Lives—in Soni Kum's Morning Dew (2020)". Seoul Journal of Korean Studies. 36 (2): 465–483. doi:10.1353/seo.2023.a916927. ISSN 2331-4826. S2CID 266920874.
12. ^ "Morning Dew (아침 이슬) - Korean song". Tony's Web. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
13. ^ Yoo, Theodore Jun (2022-09-27). The Koreas: The Birth of Two Nations Divided. Univ of California Press. p. 98\. ISBN 978-0-520-39168-0.
14. ^ "<역사속 오늘> 박정희 대통령 애창곡... 일반인도 들을 수 있게 되다" [<Today in History> President Park Chung-hee's favorite song... can now be heard by the general public] (in Korean). Yonhap News Agency. August 8, 2015.
15. ^ "Why Is It Prohibited to Sing "Morning Dew" in North Korea?". Daily NK. April 17, 2008.
16. ^ a b Tudor, Daniel (2012-11-10). Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon. Tuttle Publishing. p. 297\. ISBN 978-1-4629-1022-9.
17. ^ "李洙滿(이수만) 징계검토 禁止(금지)된 노래불러" [Lee Soo-man reviewed disciplinary action for singing banned song] (in Korean). The Dong-A Ilbo. April 1, 1978. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
18. ^ Pardo, Ramon Pacheco (2022-07-15). Shrimp to Whale: South Korea from the Forgotten War to K-Pop. Oxford University Press. p. 27\. ISBN 978-0-19-767454-3.
19. ^ Song, Jesook (2014-04-01). Living on Your Own: Single Women, Rental Housing, and Post-Revolutionary Affect in Contemporary South Korea. SUNY Press. p. 92\. ISBN 978-1-4384-5013-1.
20. ^ Clark, Donald N. (2019-04-08). Korea Briefing 1993: Festival of Korea. Routledge. p. 127\. ISBN 978-0-429-71585-3.
21. ^ ［인터뷰 풀영상］ 김민기 극단 '학전' 대표 (2018.09.13) [［Full interview video］ Kim Min-ki, CEO of Theater Company 'Hakjeon' (2018.09.13)] (in Korean). JTBC News. 13 September 2018. Retrieved 23 July 2023.

## External links

[edit]

* "Morning Dew" on YouTube

*[lit.]: literal translation