Pak Tongjin

Pak Tongjin (South Korea, b. 1916) is one of the most celebrated performers of p'ansori, a Korean narrative genre in which a singer tells a story accompanied by a drum. His career is central to the preservation of this repertoire.

He began training as a singer at the age of sixteen, learning the five stories of the modern repertoire under various teachers. After joining the National Centre for Korean Traditional Performing Arts in 1962, he expanded his repertoire: he set seven stories that had fallen out of use to music and composed an extensive work on Admiral Yi Sunsin. After converting to Christianity, he also created Yesujŏn, based on the life of Jesus.

In the 1960s and 1970s he performed complete stories, lasting more than five hours in the case of Hŭngbo and eight hours for Ch'unhyang. In 1973 he was named an Intangible Cultural Treasure for Chŏkpyŏkka, a Korean adaptation of a Chinese tale from the Three Kingdoms period. He also took part in the revival of ch'anggŭk, a staged version of p'ansori.

His legacy lies in keeping an almost lost repertoire alive and in leaving an extensive recording, a reference for scholars and audiences alike.