There are many things that fascinate me about Asian culture. I believe my interest in Asia, in general, and in the countries of China and Korea, in particular, dates back to my elementary school days when my father was member of the local Rotary Club in Boonville, Missouri. One of the regular events that dad's Rotary Club sponsored was a series of films shown at the high school auditorium called the Travelog. Each month a different film would be shown about places around the world that folks from Boonville had never heard of and would be even more likely to never be able to visit. I recall several films over the years that featured China, Korea and other exotic countries of the East. One film documented life in the small Himalayan country of Hunza. It is located near Tibet and is one of those countries that many travelers believe may have inspired stories about Shangri La.
I imagine that those stories and films of Asia were the earliest seeds that grew my increasing interest in this land over the years. In particular, I have always been intrigued by Asian calligraphy. I remember once when I was a teenager purchasing a wall scroll at an Asian imports store in Columbia, Missouri, located next door to the health foods grocery where my parents would frequently shop. I don’t think I realized at the time that the scroll I had purchased was written in Korean Hangul.
The Hangul alphabet, as well as the intricacies of Chinese characters, continues to fascinate me. On our recent trip to Seoul, I discovered several hand-made paper and stamp shops in the Insadon traditional shopping district. One of the customs of Asian writing is to sign one’s name with a special seal that is always inked with a particular hue of red. I asked my faithful teaching assistant, Mr. Mok, to order a signature stamp with my name in Korean Hangul. That’s the stamp in the upper right corner of this post. It reads: 코(Ko)델(Del)슐(Schul)튼(Teun).
Now, I can “set my seal” in Korean upon any document I write. This is one of the many Korean customs that I will bring back with me to the States. These months that I lived here have definitely had a formative impact upon me, and I trust that the forming that has and is taking place is for the better -- as my thinking is broadened and my experience of life deepened.
