Joseon court dancer crossed to Paris; Pansori singer brings her home
Almost nothing survives of Lee Jin, the woman a French memoir records as "Li-Tsin." A court dancer in the final years of the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty, she is said to have sailed to Paris in the 1890s with her lover, a French diplomat, then returned to a country that no longer had a place for her. The record rests almost entirely on a single source: "En Coree" a memoir published in 1904 by…
In the late 1800s, a dancer from the Joseon Dynasty named Li-Tsin embarked on a journey to Paris. Her lover, a French diplomat, accompanied her on this voyage. The details of her journey are largely based on a 1904 memoir by Hippolyte Frandin, France's second minister to Korea. However, the authenticity of this account has been a subject of debate among scholars.
This scant record is what inspired pansori singer Shin Jin-won to craft a narrative of a woman who is scarcely mentioned in historical archives. Shin, who holds a certification in pansori, a traditional form of Korean narrative storytelling accompanied by a drum, presented a performance titled "Li-Tsin: A Woman Without a Name" on September 12.
Director Lee Wang-soo played a significant role in expanding the world of this story, going beyond Shin's initial imagination.
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- Joseon court dancer crossed to Paris; Pansori singer brings her home koreatimes.co.kr
