Love Grows in Your Mouth: Han Dae Su and Music of the Fourth Republic
By Chloe Jung '27
On May 16, 1961, General Park Chung Hee, back dropped by an unstable democratic system “paralyzed by internal rivalries,” social stagnation, and an impoverished people, successfully launched a military coup, historically marking the death of the Second Republic and the birth of his 18-year-rule as ‘president’ of South Korea. The following two decades would be ones of radical demonstrations, indignant dissidents, and a newly written autocratic constitution called the Yushin Order. It was amidst this era of censorship, demonstration, and military rule that the godfather of Korean folk music arose.
Han Dae Su, born in Busan on March 12, 1948, was a child of both the West and East. His father, an aspiring student of nuclear physics, left Han with his mother at an e...
