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"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. In 1971, the song was Kim Min-ki's debut in his album Minki Kim [ko], but Yang Hee-eun released it a month earlier. It was not intended to be a protest song, and belonged to the geonjeongayo genre. It has also been described as belonging to the genres of Korean ballad and T'ong guitar. The song was well received by both music critics and the public, youths in particular. 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.

Soon afterward, it had inexplicably become a popular protest song among the pro-democracy activists in South Korea, particularly with students. Despite the song lacking an overt political message and being described as "full of resolve in spite of the sorrows of life's trials", its wording could be interpreted as "activists yearning for a democratic society", and critical of the 1972 Yushin Constitution. It has also been interpreted as critical of Americanization of Korean society. 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.

Subsequently, in December 1975, it was banned by government censorship of the Park Chung Hee regime. It was later also banned in North Korea. Copies of the album containing it were recalled and destroyed, and it was even prohibited to cover it. Kim Min-ki's school junior, Lee Soo-man, almost received disciplinary action after singing this song on a night stage in 1978. 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. It has also been described as an anthem of the Korean pro-democracy movement and credited with starting the South Korean protest music.

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

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

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.

See also

• South Korean protest music

References

1. "Yang Hee-eun". KBS WORLD. June 20, 2012.
2. ^ 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. ^ "양희은 "'아침이슬' 운동권 노래? 섬뜩!"" (in Korean). Sports Hankook. 2006-11-08. Retrieved 2024-02-20.
4. ^ "양희은 "'아침이슬'은 건전가요상을 받고 금지곡도 된 노래"". The Korea Economic Daily (in Korean). 2007-10-25. Retrieved 2024-02-20.
5. ^ Rhee, Rosaleen (2020). South Korean Popular Folk Music: The Genre That Defined 1970s Youth Culture (Thesis). UCLA.
6. ^ 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. ^ 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. ^ 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. ^ 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. ^ 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

• "Morning Dew" on YouTube

• Music of South Korea
• Minjung
• Protest songs
• 1971 songs