The World Folk Culture Festival (WFCF) represents Global Campus where HUFSans can experience diverse cultures through the performances of various departments. WFCF shows the identity of HUFS since there are several departments that study foreign language and culture. It implies that we can reach out to the audience and respect other cultures with them.
Each academic institution practices for WFCF and only those pass the audition can perform on the main stage. In this year, 12 teams passed the audition, and they appeared on the stage. The Argus asks HUFSans what they think of WFCF.

Festival takes place both on and off campus

WFCF is held both on and off campus every year. It was held in Gwanghwamun Square last year, and this year it was held in the Conference Hall of the Centennial Complex in Global Campus on Sept. 24. Yoon So-young, the chairman of 2019 WFCF, said, “Apprising other cultures is not only important to HUFSans, but also for people living in Korea. Therefore, we are hosting WFCF in both on and off campus to provide opportunities to share various cultures.”

Some students criticized WFCF

Recently, in an online community for university students called “Everytime,” an anonymous user posted, “I do not want to participate in WFCF.” Several students left comments in that post and they criticized some problems of WFCF. This post was uploaded in the “Hot Section,” which means it got more than 10 likes from users of Everytime.

How do they judge?

Yoon So-young, chairman of WFCF said, “About 20 teams participated in auditions, which were held at the end of May, and we applied these standards for auditions.”

What do you think of WFCF?

Choi Min-seo (Dept. of South Slavic Studies ‘19)

“It was a good chance to introduce my major to friends.”
Serbia and Croatia are the countries that I am majoring in, but they are not familiar to people. People usually imagine the TV program “Sisters Over Flowers” when they hear Croatia, because actresses went on a trip to there. However, through WFCF, I could introduce Kolo, traditional dancing of Serbia, and its costumes. Not only my friends at HUFS, but also friends living in my hometown also became interested in countries that I am majoring in after they watched the video of our performance. That is why WFCF is really meaningful to me.

Lee Min-jung (Dept. of Central Asian Studies ‘19)

“It was a good opportunity to think of my major.”
 I had a lot of questions about Central Asia when I started studying about them because the areas were unfamiliar to me. I was sad that there were not many ways to access Central Asian culture. However, through preparing for WFCF, I could know that there are several moves that remind me of flowers since “gulder” means “flowers,” and it was really interesting. It was a good experience that I appeared on the stage and I became interested in Central Asia Culture more than before. In the future, I want to study more about Central Asian culture through taking the class in my major, “Ethnic Groups and Culture of Central Asia.”

Lee Seung-yeon (Dept. of Central Asian Studies ‘18)

“I hope that more teams perform on the stage and host this event off campus.”
WFCF is a chance to know about characteristics of various cultures, and at the same time, it can promote HUFS to other people. However, this year, it seems to have been a little bit disappointing since it failed to show positive things. For the teams that participated in the auditions and failed to pass, what they have practiced for one semester seems to have been pointless. In addition, academic groups do competitions to pass the audition, so it seems that they are competing, not enjoying the festival. Thus, I hope that more teams do performances on the stage of WFCF. Moreover, the location was a little disappointing. It is hard to visit Global Campus since access to it is not good, so I hope that it will be held in other places where more people can enjoy it.

Anonymous

“It is difficult to score each country’s Ethnicity.”
Each academy has to pass the audition to show performance on the stage of WFCF. Preparation committee of WFCF explained about criteria. They were consist of four parts; ethnicity suitability, performance preparation, content materialization and stage concentration. Among them, I had doubt about evaluating “ethnicity suitability”. Since there are several departments that study foreign language and cultures in HUFS, HUFSans from various departments join WFCF and folklore is an unique thing that each country has. Apprising those characteristics is an important thing. It is difficult to assess that each traditional dancing is suitable for the folklore of that nation if he is not an expert of it. That is why I think it is impossible to appraise that part and determine the ranking with it. It would be better to refrain score about “Ethnicity suitability” and regularly check the process of practice. If an academy does multiple mistakes such as doing awkward dance moves or showing unstable cooperation, subtracting points would be a good solution. With this, I hope that they focus on selecting academies that can show complete performance. 

Kim Ji-hyeon  Staff Reporter of Culture Section