Talchum (Mask Dance Drama)
탈춤
Korean folk drama in which masked performers dance, sing, and speak.
01About
Talchum combines dance, song, drama, and story, and the masked characters may be people, animals, or even supernatural beings. These folk plays often voiced common people's frustration with the yangban elite, mocking privilege through laughter. Most Koreans today use talchum for mask dance dramas from anywhere, but strictly the word first applied only to the mask dances of Hwanghae Province, now in North Korea, such as Bongsan talchum; those of the Seoul and Gyeonggi region are called sandae noli, and those of the southern coast go by names such as yayu. In 2022 talchum was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
02In the gallery
Compare the eyes, noses, and mouths of several masks: which is the most exaggerated? That may be the character being mocked.
Wall label terms in Korean
- 탈
- Tal (mask)
- 봉산탈춤
- Bongsan talchum
- 양반
- Yangban
03Notes
Mask dance often mocks the yangban aristocracy through laughter, and the exaggerated masks are the clue.
Whom is a mask making fun of, and what in its features tells you?