Cloud USA

— Cloud cover by: Stephe, Managing Editor ^@@^

KOFICE: Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange. Way to go, Hungarian sisters! 🙂

°

KOFICE 한류스토리 / Korean Wave Magazine 10/22/2013 —

‘비’ 팬클럽 ‘Cloud Hungary’ (Rain Fan Club Cloud Hungary)

English translation provided by Cloud Hungary @http://incrediblerain.blogspot.hu

(This is the original version of the text so maybe it is not the same literally as the published interview.)

[Hallyu Story] Please introduce your community to us. How was the community born through any chance, when and how has it formed?

[Erzsebet Both] Many Hungarians turn towards the history and the culture of Asia with interest as our own history can be traced back to this area of the world. Exhibitions dealing with Asian cultures, film premiers and certain elements of the popular culture, such as comic books, animation films and more recently pop music, are very successful and have gained a significant fan base in our country. On our universities you can find Korean, Japanese, Chinese and other Asian linguistic departments. Hungarian channels airing television series set in historical times helped a lot to deliver Korea’s culture to a wider audience. These also led to the formation of many fan clubs, and a subculture that mostly manifests itself online. These groups have very wide interest and their members are always up-to-date with the current political and popular news as well as with the events of the constantly growing hallyu and with its celebrities.

Our group formed in a very similar manner. After our personal experiences we were eager to share our discoveries with other people. This is how Cloud Hungary formed. The founding members were always engaged in conversations about cinema, music and Korean language. Soon enough we found we all had a common passion manifested in a person whose talent and skills in performance and acting earned our respect and whose extraordinary personality also earned our love. Of course this person is Rain (Bi, Jung Ji-hoon).

Briefly about the staff:
Daniella Harkai, a librarian who wrote the very first Hungarian blog about Rain was so influenced by his persona that she started studying Korean and soon enough progressed to a level where her other blog (……) became one of the biggest help to all those Hungarians wishing to study the language by themselves. The common interest in Korean cinema and especially the work of Park Chan-wook has got us together with psychologist Veronika Sándor-Sarkai. Our solicitor, Dr. Katalin Kocsis who mainly helps Cloud Hungary with all administrative work is also a big fan of the world of Korean cinema and TV series. As the beauty of the Korean language has touched us all we all started to study it hard.

[Hallyu Story] Please tell us about the time when you first encountered and began to develop interest in Korea culture such as Korea pop, drama, movie, etc.

My main area of work lies with cultural management and non-government education organizations. Although, I was always interested in the cultures of the Far East. I only started to study about Korea in depth in 2011 and I was instantly rewarded with many extremely inspirational experiences. Besides the achievements of the educational sector I find the coexistence of tradition and modern, its endeavors to keep themselves in harmony and the overall strategy to help the culture to become a leading factor of Korea’s economical growth very fascinating. I believe when we start to learn about these things in depth we can learn a lot about Korea itself too. Although I consider myself a consumer of all sorts of culture, from folk music, theatre to visual arts, I always had a special place for Korean cinema in my heart. It is always a pleasure to discover new films and to show Korean films to others. Dedicated to all these discoveries I started to write a blog:
http://www.ricemegatronexpert.blogspot.com, in addition to my other blog about Rain: http://www.incrediblerain.blogspot.com.

Oldboy was a fundamental experience and therefore its only fair to admit I never considered myself an avid enthusiast of TV series. But what I witnessed directed my attention towards the familiar, yet seemingly distant elements of the traditional: the fashion, the cuisine and the habits.

I also started to discover the fan clubs as well as other international groups following their practice. They showed me many positive examples about the capabilities of civil organizations. They showed that these seemingly virtual groups can be active in real life and that the movements they engage in together sometimes can be very beneficial either in physical values through charity events or either in creative collaborations across nations. I find it amazing that such collaborations can be born purely by following and loving an exemplary person. I am sure Koreans are very proud to know Rain, this globally known, strong and influential, positive personality as their own.

[Hallyu Story] In 2013, Cloud Hungary proceeded an event of “비-DAY: INCREDIBLE RAIN”. Fans who love the Korean entertainer ‘Rain(비)’ participated and enjoyed the event. There were many programs not only for celebrating the various activities of Rain who just came back from army but also for studying about Korea and its culture. How did you design the concept and contents of these programs of event?

[Erzsebet Both] From all the above mentioned I think it is a direct conclusion why Rain became the center of our attention. His life, multifaceted talent, career achievements and failures are all reasons why our attention is drawn to Korea. This is not our own discovery as Rain has been mentioned before as the symbol of modern Korea in Discovery Channel’s Hip Korea. It seems that his life and the history of the country shows many similarities. The different sides that Rain has to offer are great opportunities to learn about the diverse culture of Korea, which is a natural task of all foreign fan clubs. We only found out what an excellent cultural ambassador Rain really is as we were organizing our event. It turned out that somehow seemingly very different themes naturally blend into each other as we talked about his life and career. We could mention almost every important theme during the 비-Day and all presentation perfectly fit into the line of films showing a traditional Korea, or live performances of K-Pop cover dances and even fit with the commercials and concert parts we screened.

[Hallyu Story] What is the best event since the community’s establishment, if you choose? And please tell us if there was funny episode to share.

[Erzsebet Both] For almost a year the members of Cloud Hungary only contacted each other over the Internet but even this way we became part of the international Cloud community and participated in every major movement. 비-Day was our first meeting in person which of course filled us with excitement. We would like to thank KOFICE for all its support that made this event possible. We also received a great deal of help from Mr. Kwon Young Sup, head of the Korean Cultural Centre in Budapest who accepted to be the patron for our event.

We were celebrating the end of Rain’s military service, completed with success and honor in fairly difficult circumstances and his welcome return after a two year break to the music and film industry. We prepared surprises for the event and also a few video compilations to introduce him to those who only just got interested in his work.

I would like to emphasize two outstanding moments from these videos. First when Rain’s thoughts could be heard in Hungarian. These deep thoughts and unexpected wisdom from this young artist created an almost touchable silence in the room which was filled with astonishment and thinking.

Secondly, when the laughter of the audience echoed through the room as we showed the compilation of his years in the army companied with music. The music we used was a collection of well-known songs of Hungarian soldiers from the 20th century. The end product turned out to be funny yet something that made people think.

[Hallyu Story] What is the most interested area in Korea culture to you? And please tell us the reason.

[Erzsebet Both ] As I mentioned before it is such a joy to learn about seemingly far away cultures. If the people can find the beauty in tradition and strength within to keep a nation together, and recognize the creativity in contemporary arts then there is no stopping: they will always desire to subject themselves increasingly intense experiences in all aspects of life. And this is exactly what Korea can give: unexpected culinary pleasures and strong impressions –surprising even the Hungarian taste grown accustomed to strong and hot flavors.

[Hallyu Story] Who is the artist you most want to meet if you have a chance? And please tell us the reason.

[Erzsebet Both] Although I would like to meet many Korean artist, if I have to choose only one then my choice is quite obvious. Who else than Rain? I could say for his diverse talent, sensibility and never ending energy. But no one would be surprise if I would mention his inner beauties. However, possibly the most important reason why I would like to meet him is that I cannot name anybody else who could have such impact on people regardless their age and that these impacts are somehow curing. Many people have said that they found the music and films of Rain as they were going through some rough moments in their lives and that those songs or scenes helped them over those difficult times. Rain’s artistic achievements are astonishing but for me his personality is just as important.

[Hallyu Story] If we make a performance stage or take a film by Hungary-Korea Co-Union, who will you select for couple match? Or do you have anticipated duet stage of Hungarian-Korean?

[Erzsebet Both] Well, it would not be a surprise if we would consider Rain for such collaboration from the Korean side. As he is one of the best on his own field I would select someone who is also one of the greatest on a different field from Hungary. I do not know what would these two artist would say but maybe it would conclude in something really interesting if Rain could collaborate with Ferenc Snetberger, the world famous guitar player who has no pair in musicality.

[Hallyu Story] Please tell us your plans or wish lists for community activities in 2013.

[Erzsebet Both] It seems we started to walk on the right path so we would like to continue what we just started. The career that Rain had so far still has many parts to discover. Many people do not know his films and through his music and stage work we could open up to many different fields such as design, just to mention one that is being produced and treated on a very high quality in Korea.

Posted by: Harudo11
Source: http://www.kofice.or.kr/a10_KoreanWave/a10_KoreanWave_03_list.asp

~ by Cloud USA on October 23, 2013.

Posted in Bi Rain, Bi Rain News, Cloud USA, Jung Ji Hoon, Korean Entertainment global
Tags: Bi Rain articles, Bi Rain News, Bi Rain singer/actor/entertainer, Jung Ji Hoon, rain bi, Rain magazine spread, World Clouds