His enthusiasm for the traditional discipline awarded him an honorary Seoul citizenship in 2018, but White believes more can be done to encourage participation in the nine jeongs in the capital and the hundreds scattered around the rest of Korea.
“Since there is little to no ‘hard’ government support to explain and spread gungdo abroad, most knowledge is shared through ‘soft’ means, co-opting and nurturing the sport through grassroots interest and natural appeal,” explained White on the sport’s cultural promotion.
“I would actually say that there’s hardly any promotion from the government. There’s a lot of education, tours and discussion of tradition going on like what I’m doing, but in terms of the government, it’s the difference between hard and soft.”
White recognises the interest gungdo is garnering, both in Korea but especially abroad, and is more than willing to invite curious parties to his range to observe.
He firmly believes this is something “all jeongs should offer” as most are positioned on government land, often in city parks, sport centres, and along mountainous hiking trails, where passersby he says often have a “curious eye”.
As strong as Korea in the Olympics have been and will most likely continue to be, it is not just because of their incredibly stringent, hard working camps.
It is a nation who’s culture is significantly intertwined with archery, whether it be for historical military reasons or a previous noble pastime.
Although we are now in 2024 where numerous other hobbies are accessible and known of thanks to the endless prism of the internet, Korean Traditional Archery’s recent rise amongst university students shows that no matter what, the bow will never leave Korea and Korea will never leave the bow.
This was Part 2 on Korean Traditional Archery. Read Part 1.
