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Bojagi means “wrapping cloth” in Korean. It is used for a variety of purposes, including formal celebrations such as wedding ceremonies and birthday gift presentations. Each bojagi is a unique work of art. Artist Youngmin Lee demonstrates how to make bojagi using various techniques.
Activity
In Korea, paper fans are used in a traditional dance called buchaechum, which is often performed by groups of female dancers wearing colored hanboks (Korean traditional dress). Through dance choreography and movement, the fans express the beauty of nature by creating impressions of flowers, butterflies, and water.
Activity
The story “Tiger and Puppy” is about a village with five families, where a mischievous tiger would eat all the food. An unlikely hero, a small puppy, comes to the rescue and helps the villagers capture the tiger. Create your own paper plate animals to retell this Korean folktale.
Activity
Video
Asian Art Museum Storyteller, Miriam Mills, engages pre-school students in the museum’s Korea galleries by telling a Korean folktale about a tiger and a puppy using artworks from the Asian Art Museum’s collection.
Activity
The Chinese Zodiac is based on a twelve-year cycle and each year is linked to an animal. Find your birth year and color in your zodiac animal.
Background Information
Islam has been an important cultural force in much of Asia for more than five hundred years, and in some parts for more than a thousand. Today, far more Muslims live in other parts of Asia than in the Arab areas of Asia such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.
Activity
In this activity, you’ll learn how to make no-sew bojagi that you can use to wrap a gift for a special person in your life.
Video
Artist Kwangwoo Bae demonstrates the process of making Korean mother-of-pearl lacquerware.
Background Information
Over the centuries, two main branches of Buddhism emerged: a transmission that traveled to Southeast Asia, and a transmission that evolved in East Asia. A further offshoot of the northern transmission also developed. All three branches began in India, and developed further as they moved across Asia.
Artwork
Jar, approx. 1600. Korea. Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). Porcelain with transparent glaze. The Avery Brundage Collection, B60P110+.
