Musical 〈The Picture Bride〉

행사 소개

Synopsis In a small village called “Eojinmal” in Gimhae, Gyeongsang Province in 1920 Willow’s father was a soldier in the Righteous Army and died fighting the Japanese Empire when she was little. Hong-ju returns home when her husband died right after their marriage, and Song-hwa has been ridiculed as the granddaughter of a shaman. These three 18-year-old girls are leaving for Hawaii in hopes of a better life with a man whose picture in their hand given by a matchmaker. But the excitement of coming to a faraway land of paradise and marrying a new person is short-lived and different fates await each of them. Nevertheless, their life of all the adversity and troubles cannot break their spirit to make their way through. “Picture brides” A picture marriage is a type of marriage that existed during the Japanese occupation in which Korean women were sent to Hawaii after only exchanging pictures with Korean men who immigrated there for work. Women in their teens and twenties who were married off under such circumstances were called “picture brides.” Most of the men pictures were taken about 10 years ago at the time of recruit for immigrant workers or in front of someone else’s mansion or fancy car. The brides were baffled to see their bridegrooms much older than they are in the pictures, but they had no choice but to get married because their trip was paid by the grooms and they have no money to go all the way back. Worse yet, there should be the grim reality and the uncertain future waiting for them back in Korea anyway. These picture brides stayed on and made their living to raise their children by needlework at night and by labor in the sugarcane fields with their husbands in the daytime. 주최: 세종문화회관