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Bosingak bell ringer recollects the legacy

Posted January. 02, 2017 07:12,   

Updated January. 02, 2017 07:23

한국어
“He worked for 24 hours, and ate and slept without leaving the bell at the Bosingak Pavilion Bell maintenance office. There were no shifts at that time, so my husband kept his place there for four decades in case something happens to the ‘dear bell’.”

Jeong Bu-nam, 85, was the wife of the late bell ringer of Bosingak Pavilion, Cho Jin-ho. For forty-four years, Cho worked as the ringer of the Bosingak bell located at Jongno-gu, Seoul. Jung told that “I don’t know if I’m correct, but I heard after our marriage that his family served the bell for around 170 years, for four generations since his great-grandfather.” Jeong became the daughter-in-law of this family in 1956, when she was 25-years old.

“At first, the matchmaker never said what my future father-in-law did for a living, and neither did I knew there was a job called a bell ringer," she said. "I knew after I married and heard that my husband’s father managed the Bosingak bell.” Her father-in-law, Cho Han-I, came from a guard army family, serving King Yeongchin of the Joseon Dynasty. Even during the Korean War, the family never evacuated, and Cho’s wife – or Jeong’s mother-in-law – lost her arm.

Jeong recollected that her father-in-law never stopped thinking about the bell, even in his deathbed. “My father-in-law told my husband that ‘you should inherit the family business.’ And finally, he gave up his own business and returned home. It was a norm for one to give up one’s dream and continue their family business, just as his great grandfather and grandfather did.”

After mourning his father in 1962, Cho started to work at the Bosingak bell maintenance office. However, the word “office” did not quite match, as it was close to a shack with no desk but just card-boards.”

“There were many cases when pedestrians walked in, mistaking his office as a toilet and left in surprise,” Cho never uttered a complaint. “He washed himself and slept inside that shack every day, and cleaned the bell day and night. I eventually ended up visiting the bell every day to bring him lunch and dinner.”

Not only was the work environment but also the work itself was harsh. “My husband was frequently surprised by intruders who suddenly bashed in to ring the bell. He had to stay up all night at events such as the watch night.

Cho also frequently visited the police station when he had to fight with drunken intruders.

Cho, who stayed close by the bell until the age of seventy and older, was diagnosed as late-stage cancer at a hospital in December 2006, when he visited to receive treatment for his hurt side. It was already a long-overdue visit, and though he was hospitalized after forty-four years of his service, he left in 10 days, just like that. It was only a week before he was appointed as an honorary bell ringer at the Watch-Night bell event for his life-time service as the bell-ringer.

On Dec. 31, 2015, Jeong was appointed as the ringer to replace his belated husband, and rang the bell with 10 others. Though her eyes are filled with tears whenever she recollects the watch-night event, Jeong is still encouraged by the presence of the new fifth bell ringer Shin Cheol-min, a Seoul Metropolitan public officer in charge who learned all about bell ringing to maintenance from her husband.

“I call Mr. Shin ‘my youngest son.’ It was Shin who pulled up his sleeves and built a new two-story maintenance office. Shin says he will continue the legacy of his predecessor by inheriting the sixth place to my grandson.” Now 20-years-old, Jeong was asked whether it would be fine for her grandson to inherit the bell-ringer position. She chuckled and replied, “He never said no.”



Mee-Jee Lee image@donga.com