Rustle, crackle, crinkle. I tear open a snack bag and put the chips in my mouth; even shake the chip crumbs into it. But the full bag of it isn’t enough. It would melt away on putting it into my mouth. Here is another soundless snack. It is one of Snack Culture, that is, ‘webtoon’ you may enjoy by scrolling on computer or smartphone. “Snack Culture contents are also called as instant entertainment or smart finger contents, and the term appeared first in 2007 meaning highly oneshot content”(Kim Hee-kyung, “Snack Culture Contents”, Communication Books, 2020). Thanks to refresh time technology’s real time pixel updating, it was possible to enjoy the portal platforms’ webtoon service easily and quickly by scrolling. Furthermore, “Webtoons, combination of cartoons and technology, fused with the Fourth Industrial Revolutionary technologies like VR or AR, are leading the worldwide transmedia expansion”(Lee Sang-won, 『Webtoons’ Transmedia Strategies』, Communication Books, 2021).
I, majoring in Korean folk tales, published a thesis months ago on robot cartoons in an academic journal, collaborating with my wife majoring in webtoons(Kim Yong-sun, Rhee Whang-imm, 「Cartoon Symbolic Review on the Representation of a Boy in Korean and Japanese Robot Cartoons – Focusing on the Comparison Between 〈Tetsujin 28-go〉 and 「Kim Changnam, a Three-unit Group」, 『Future-culture』 1, Institute of Future-culture, 2021). It is a thesis of comparison between what I enjoyed reading in my childhood and the contemporary webtoons for MZ generation. And I figured out that webtoons have the latest cartoon style but the stories are from old stories.
Our ancient folk tales having rested in 『Im Sukjae Collection』 of the Japanese Invasion containing Im Suk-jae’s recordings and in 『The Korean Folk Tales』 published in the Academy of Korean Mental Culture Studies(the name was changed into the Academy of Korean Studies), are not only old stories in a textbook or a fairy tale. As you see in Helper(Sak, 2021), Kadamhangsul(2016), Along with the Gods(2017), Her Shim-chung(2019), webtoon writers have started to find their subject matters from the Korean classics, shamanism and folklore. Through webtoons, the old folk tales have changed their old clothes into a high tech one and walked on a runway.
You might easily remember the story of Fairy and Woodcutter and it is one of the widespread folk tales from east to west except Australia, also as known as Swan Girl or Raincoat Tale. Japanese Wing Dress Tale was adapted for a long piece of manga under the title, Strange Seres (Original title : 妖しのセレス) by Yuu Watase and we may also see a couple of fairy and woodcutter in our webtoon. Writer Dol Bae reinterpreted the fairy in 「Fairy and Woodcutter」 into a barista grandma at the edge of Kyeryongsan in his work, Tale of Kyeryong Fairy 1-5(2017) and the popularity of the original version affected the tvN drama Tale of Fairy(2018) : the power of storytelling folk tales have is as marvelous as ‘talking deer’.
While Japanese manga Kyaru and Dinosaur(2019) by Tomimura Kota has cohabitation of girl and dinosaur as a subject matter, writer Danggwa’s Woorung-I at My House(2019) has cohabitation of girl and Woorung man. This is the example reinterpreting the old story of Woorung Kaksi(Wife). Woorung wife is transformed into Woorung man. Like the main body of the motif ‘searching the runaway spouse’ in Tale of Fairy I mentioned earlier is changed to be the fairy, webtoons has changed the old folk tales’ story lines a little or largely and spread a new normal narrative transmission.
The folk tales having only orally transmitted by auditory sense are now in an attempt to be transmitted by sense of sight through a stage named high tech webtoons on digital bases. A bonfire goes for the screen, and the voices of wrinkled grandma and grandpa are replaced by fancy-like various characters’ speech bubbles. Of course, we had already had comic books published borrowing motives from the old tales before the webtoons appeared, but if compared to the contemporary digital Snack Culture webtoon contents drawing out tales’ motives freely without hesitation they are so shabby, we may say. The skill of webtoon writers in restructuring the old narratives sometimes seen as cliche into fresh contemporary icons are not just a phase of ‘Techne’. Folk Tales and webtoons could share the common nucleic sequence, that is ‘transmission power’, so that change and conversion seem to have been possible. Webtoons have charmed the smartphone users nowadays and excelled the folk tale based children’s animations like Baechudosa Mudosa, Eunbi Kabi in 1990’s. This can be an example proving the truth that old motives could be as fashionable and stylish as can be like Lee Nal-chi Band in the world of Korean traditional music and Ambiguous Team in the Dancing world.
In this time of covid-19 and afterward, we should repeat our daily lives commuting to offices even in the state of the unfamiliar quarantine and ‘social distancing’. During busy and hard working days we have smartphones in our hands, a magic wand! This magic wand presents us a magic show, a webtoon if just touched once by finger. Webtoons, that is Snack Culture, is a portable contents genre along with mobile technology you may possibly see anywhere at any time. We searched for snacks at a market but now we search for webtoons in webtoon platforms to relieve our emotional hunger. In the blood vessels of the Korean webtoons having their roots in cartoons, the Ninth Art, red blood cells, leucocytes and platelets of the ancient folk tales are there. Any scars from daily stresses? Platelets of webtoons reinterpreting the old narratives may stop the bleeding and the old stories may become their leucocytes eating up all the bad germs. I will finish it, hoping Webtoons, ‘snacks’ of the post Corona days might stay for long like the old snacks near us. Crunch, oh no! One more bag done!
Kim Yong-sun Folklorist; finished the doctoral program; studying the Korean old stories dreaming of being a Korean Max Lüthi; wrote nine thesis including 「A Symptom of ‘Intellectual Disability’ in the Folk Tale, A Foolish Son-in-law」 and 「A Tale of Defeating Monsters in Underground Nation, tale of foolish husband and wise wife, couple crisis, abandonment anxiety」 and many columns; invited for radio programs, performance explaining, and lecturing.
Translated by Park Eun-sun
* 《Cultura》 2021 October (Vol. 88) *
