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…
Lee Jin, known as Li-Tsin in French records, was a dancer in the final years of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). According to a 1904 memoir by Hippolyte Frandin, the second minister to Korea, she traveled to Paris in the 1890s with a French diplomat as her lover. However, scholars have questioned the accuracy of Frandin's account.
Shin Jin-won, a pansori singer, began her own story about Li-Tsin based on this limited source. She found inspiration and support in director Lee Wang-soo, who expanded her world beyond her initial imagination. On September 12, Shin performed "Li-Tsin: A Woman Without a Name," a tribute to the woman with almost no historical record.
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- Joseon court dancer crossed to Paris; Pansori singer brings her home koreatimes.co.kr
