Pansori (판소리)

Pansori is a sort of opera telling a story with gestures, singing followed by drum beat. Word of Pansori consist of Pan which means the place people are gathering, or a situation and Sori which means music. So Pansori means the song for people around.
 
We don’t know the exact origin of the Pansori but it might come from a era of the Silla when many playing activity was performed with the playing of Pan. Like this, Pansori is started by performers and have a unique feature which only can be completed when performers and audience should go together.

Pansori is an important intangible cultural asset which life and sentiments of our people are packed into. Also it is very valuable, because audiences can take part in a performance.

Pansori describes a daily life of common people realistically, so reality of the subjugated class is contained in a performance. It is the voice of ordinary people and hope for the new era and society. Another point is that as basically people of every class are able to enjoy Pansori as an art, it played a role to combine thought of ordinary people and hierarchy.

Also, Pansori absorbed other good points from very various traditional arts, so it became comprehensive and open form of art. It is our typical expression way which shows the Korean efficiently.

Pansori came along with our history and feelings. It is our cultural thing itself so it was designated as a UNESCO world heritage on 7th Nov 2003.

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what is pansori.pdf