[KS] charcoal in yeontans?

[Kay Richards Gmail]

Re: [KS] charcoal in yeontans?I hope this will reach the list members.

I am of the generation who was born before the Korean War and have a memory of not only the use of oak-chacoal in small cooking stoves called Poong-Ro and even smaller pieces put in the center heating element of the Shin-Seol-Lo on guests' tables.  The yeontan with 19holes which used to be called sip-gu-gong-tan as opposed to the Gu-Gong-Tan (9 hole coal briquettes) appeared only after the Korean War.  I don't exactly remember the year but probably close to the end of 50s if not early 60s.  The burned ash briquettes used to line the alley ways in residential areas in Seoul.  Some of the ashes used to be scattered in the middle of the streets to make the icy (frozen) surfaces less slippery for the automobiles.

In my very deep memory, we, the Korean elementary students were taught that in Silla Dynasty, people had such a wonderful life that they cooked with charcoal and there was no smoke in Sorabol, which is now Kyong-Joo.  Whether what we were taught in the sixth grade Korean history class was true or not, charcoal in Korea must have had more history than what we remember from the latter half of the 20th Centry.

Just adding my two-cents worth to all your wonderful comings and goings.

Kay RichardsKyung-Nyun Kim Richards
Poet/Translator (Korean Lit.)
3126 Eton Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94705
U.S.A.   
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ruediger Frank 
  To: Korean Studies Discussion List 
  Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2011 1:11 PM
  Subject: Re: [KS] charcoal in yeontans?


  Dear all,
  the yeontan thread has become quite long; apologies if the below has already been mentioned. 
  Based on my own observations and talks with locals, I can say that yeontan are still very much in use in NK. I saw numerous small piles of coal dust (a centner or two) on the roadside in cities in Hamgyeongnamdo last October. They were pressed into briquets right on the spot - same shape as the ones I had seen in SK and in China. Lack of proper heating during wintertime is a major problem in NK, and as far as I was told, not everyone can afford yeontan. So much for nostalgia... And for our often too exclusively food-centered discussion of shortage in NK. Being cold can be as painful as eing hungry. Needless to say that this is a shame for a country so rich in high-quality anthracite; although we also must concede that the NK coal exports to China have allegedly been reduced a few weeks ago to cover (more of) domestic demand.
  A side note on the smoking trucks: I saw many of them in the past years, mostly outside of Pyongyang. Poor folks on the open platforms were covered in smoke but endured it stoically. At least they had a ride... I think the engines are woodgas powered, and it seems possible to use either fresh wood or charcoal. Here's the wiki link for some technical details. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas My parents told me that these were widespread in Germany after WWII.
  Best,
  Rudiger Frank


  on Samstag, 10. Dezember 2011 at 21:25 you wrote:


       I am now recalling how we used to have a jump-start
        on making snowmen by rolling those used cylinders
        of yeontan ash in the snow. It made for an odd, lumpy
        rhythm to the construction of the big snowball. 
        I also recall how, when the freshly-expended yeontan
        were left outside, we would often annoy the adults
        (and each other) by pissing on them and creating
        the foulest-smelling cloud of urine-steam.
        And, of course, the carbon monoxide poisoning,
        which I imagine nearly every Korean over 40 has
        experienced!
        Cheers,
        HIF



        -----Original Message-----
        From: Brother Anthony <ansonjae at sogang.ac.kr>
        To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
        Sent: Sat, Dec 10, 2011 5:27 am
        Subject: [KS] charcoal in yeontans?

        I think that the confusion comes from the etymology of 'tan' whether in yeontan 
        (briquette) or seoktan (coal). The Chinese character 'tan' is (if anyone can 
        read it online) '炭' which in Korea is identified as "숯 탄" (sut tan) where sut / 
        숯 is the Korean word meaning 'charcoal'. I think there is no doubt at all that 
        the modern domestic briquette is and always has been made of anthracite and part 
        of the confusion comes from a lot of Koreans (and perhaps others) not knowing 
        what 'charcoal' is, how it is made, or how it differs from other forms of 
        'coal'. The internet is full of mentions of "charcoal yeontans" but that does 
        not make for proof, being only a sign of fairly natural confusion. All technical 
        descriptions specify that the briquette is made using anthracite.

        In recent years the yeontan has become something of an endangered species, as 
        described by the Korea Times in 2007 http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2011/04/123_11874.html 
        (an article where the word 'charcoal' manages to creep in once despite its 
        stress on the shortage of anthracite). One result is probably a large increase 
        in the number of broken limbs on icy slopes in winter, since in the Good Old 
        Days we used to thankfully crush used yeontans all the way down the hills when 
        it snowed. The clouds of filthy dust that rose above Seoul in the wind after the 
        ice and snow were gone were an unhappy by-product, as were the cases of black 
        lung disease among people living close to the huge mounds of powdered coal in 
        the yards of yeontan factories.

        The nicest way of looking at yeontans is in a poem by An Do-Hyeon:

        One coal briquette 

        There are lots of other ways of putting it 
        but it's as if  what we call life 
        means becoming a coal briquette 
        for someone other than myself. 

        From the day the floors first feel chilly till the following spring, 
        the loveliest thing on all the roads of Korea 
        is the briquette truck chugging 
        its way up steep inclines with all its might. 
        I eat piping hot rice and soup every day, 
        but it's as if I had not realized that once the flame has caught hold, 
        each briquette grows scorching hot, 
        seeming to know just what's required of it. 
        It's as if I have been unable to become a briquette for anyone so far 
        because  I was afraid of the way, once love has caught fully hold 
        all that remains is a sorry handful of ash.

        On careful thought, 
        it's as if what we call life 
        is pulverising me 
        in order to make a safe path where someone other than myself 
        can walk at ease on slippery mornings after snow has fallen 
        and I had failed to realize that. 

        A final bit of nostalgia: it used to be such fun to get home late on a freezing 
        evening and find that the yeontans in the stove had gone out because no one had 
        been there to change them, so one had to start all over again and it took ages 
        before they were properly lit and glowing. The young generations don't know what 
        they have missed.

        Brother Anthony
        Sogang University etc


       


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