[Lee Kyong-hee] Kim Min-gi: A tribute to a humble legend

Kim Min-gi by no means imagined {that a} tune with solely eight strains would change his life ceaselessly.

It was 1970. A freshman artwork main, Kim cherished enjoying guitar and writing songs between portray. One summer season morning, a stroll by way of a graveyard close to his workroom impressed him to compose his quick verse. He named it “Morning Dew” (Achim Iseul). Quickly, utterly unintended penalties overwhelmed him.

By the requirements of Korean fashionable music on the time, the tune was stunningly modern. Its poetic lyrics and highly effective melody contained an implicit message of braveness and liberation, although Kim insisted that he had no subversive intention. The tune rapidly attracted widespread public consideration amid eager for true democracy. Unnerved, the nation’s navy junta banned “Morning Dew” at broadcasting stations and reside performances.

But, the tune continued to unfold like floating embers by way of darkness, igniting increasingly more fervor, unity and solidarity amongst pro-democracy activists. It quickly turned the anthem of the democracy motion sung at each protest. By then, Kim was firmly within the dictatorship’s crosshairs. The remainder of his songs have been banned alongside along with his public actions.

“I had little curiosity in (the) pupil motion. Then, immediately, I discovered myself changed into a pupil activist below tight surveillance,” Kim famous. “My school life was already in tatters. I used to be consistently instructed to revise the lyrics of my songs. I used to be unable to launch any tune in my identify.”

The authorities by no means imprisoned Kim however seldom left him alone both, apprehending him anytime to interrogate and torture him on fabricated allegations. He spent a lot of his 20s and 30s making an attempt to be invisible. He grabbed no matter was obtainable to maintain his nomadic existence, surviving as a manufacturing facility employee, tenant farmer, coal miner and laborer on a seaweed harvesting boat.

However these years residing anonymously led to lyrical depictions of the on a regular basis actuality of his environment, his coworkers and neighbors eking out a residing on the humble grassroots. A few of these songs have been launched below one other individual’s identify however carried his unmistakable message and magnificence. They chronicled a dismal period in up to date political historical past, an unheard-of try by Korea’s first singer-songwriter.

With the favored vote launched for the presidential election in 1987, the nation achieved political democratization. The lengthy ban on blacklisted artists, writers and performers was lifted. However Kim maintained a low profile. In 1991, with the proceeds from the gross sales of his CDs, he opened Hakchon, a small theater and theater firm, in Daehangno road for youth tradition and humanities.

There he labored onerous as an impresario enjoying a number of roles as a producer, director, composer and mentor, placing on musicals and thereby tending a wholesome nursery for the performing arts throughout genres. Over the following three many years, the theater grew right into a famed cradle of actors and singers and an iconic hub of fashionable tradition.

In all his endeavors, Kim remained steadfastly dedicated to his ideas of “staying behind the scenes” and “transparency in revenue sharing.” And more often than not he struggled to maintain his theater afloat, however he by no means accepted monetary help with strings connected. Hakchon closed in March this yr, whereas Kim was receiving chemotherapy for abdomen most cancers. He handed away in July, at age 73.

Final Wednesday, Kim was posthumously honored with the Woodang Award, which memorializes independence activist Lee Hoe-yeong (1867-1932). “Mr. Kim Min-gi devoted himself to constructing a free and equal society and contributed to enriching the spirit of our society by way of his cultural and creative actions,” stated Lee Jong-chan, president of the Woodang Schooling and Tradition Basis, on the award ceremony.

Lee emphasised that Kim’s ideas overlapped with Lee Hoe-yeong’s advocacy for freedom, equality and human rights. “Significantly,” he stated, “Mr. Kim’s self-effacing character, by no means placing himself forward of others however calling himself a backstage individual, is paying homage to Woodang who insisted on remaining an nameless, behind-the-scenes chief all through his lifetime.”

Lee Hoe-yeong, additionally identified by his pen identify Woodang, exiled himself in northeast China, main his household of six brothers, shortly after Japan’s annexation of Korea in 1910. The Lee household spent all their huge fortune on paving the bottom for navy wrestle to regain Korea’s independence. Lee was tortured to demise on the Russo-Japanese jail in Lushun, China, 13 years earlier than liberation.

A half century on, “Morning Dew” nonetheless infuses protests and evokes artists. At a small live performance in tribute to Kim, which adopted the award ceremony, singer Chong Tae-chun recited a poem he had written for the occasion:

“I’ve by no means listened to his songs, mendacity down / I sprang up when his tune performed on the radio at night time / His songs have been totally different / Establishing a signpost of latest requirements for our songs … His eyes have been on the bottom spots on the earth / In solidarity with the weak / With anger at political oppression / The tragic nature of the fact / And his painful optimism to beat the tragedy / Thus our songs turned a human act of deeper and wider considering / Ah, these stunning songs / He’s now not with us / Kim Min-gi, the gorgeous individual / I can not sing his songs carelessly.

Lee Kyong-hee

Lee Kyong-hee is a former editor-in-chief of The Korea Herald. The views expressed listed here are the author’s personal. — Ed.