Talchum

Talchum (Korean: 탈춤; IPA: [ˈtʰa̠(ː)ʎt͡ɕʰum]; lit. 'mask dance') is a Korean dance performed while wearing a mask, and often involves singing and dancing.

Although the term talchum is usually taken to mean all mask dance dramas by most Koreans, it is strictly speaking a regional term originally only applied to dances of Hwanghae Province in present-day North Korea. Dances from the Seoul or Gyeonggi province region are known as sandae noli, whereas dances from the southern coast are known as yayu (야유), which means "field play", or Obangsinjang, which means "dance of five gods". However, talchum is nowadays accepted as a general term for mask dance drama.

The dances also feature drama and story, as masked characters portray people, animals, and even supernatural beings. These folk dramas often reflected the frustrations felt by the lower classes towards the elite yangban.

In 2022, Talchum was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, highlighting both its local importance and global significance.

Origin

Agricultural consciousness

It is a theory that the origin of the masquerade is the agricultural consciousness held by farmers for good farming since ancient times. The appearance of agricultural consciousness is well illustrated in burak-gut such as Seonang-gut that remains today. According to the theory of agricultural consciousness, masks made by imitating the face of God were gradually changed into masks that resemble humans, and Gut to magically solve conflicts with nature was transformed into an artistic expression of social conflicts, resulting in a masquerade.