HSE Celebrates Korean New Year

Students of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs celebrated the Lunar New Year. The festivities, which were held at HSE’s Cultural Centre on Pokrovsky Boulevard, included a concert with traditional dance and Korean folklore skits.

This year, Seollal (‘Lunar New Year’ in Korean) was widely celebrated at HSE University. ‘We celebrated Seollal for the first time when HSE’s Korean Research Centre was opened,’ said Natalia Kim, Head of the Centre. ‘Since then, every year, students have prepared a private concert, and this year, on tenth anniversary of the School of Asian Studies, we decided to organize a large-scale event.’

The event gave guests the opportunity to immerse themselves in Korean culture. Students of Korean Studies in the School of Asian Studies and the HSE/Kyung Hee University double degree programme performed historical skits, Korean dances, and songs.

Anastasia Savina (Third-year student, Asian Studies), put on a comedy sketch together with her classmates: ‘We acted out all the key events from Korean history, which we learned about in our classes. We also prepared a little quiz to involve the audience’.

While preparing for the concert, students got to learn more about contemporary Korea and its history. Fourth-year students performed a skit that compared the holiday celebrations in Russia and Korea, and third-year students delivered a performance with traditional masks. And of course, all performances were conducted in Korean.

Kristina Karapetyan attended the concert to support her classmates. ‘Our programme teaches us to think critically and with a broad global perspective,’ she said. ‘A big advantage of doing Asian studies in Russia is that all the experts on Korea know and support each other.’ In addition, Kristina noted that career as an Asian studies expert is highly relevant to today’s world, but it does not suit everyone: ‘It makes sense to go into Korean studies, if you have a sincere interest, passion, and a specific plan—for example, if you are in love with the culture, or are willing to apply for a master’s programme in Korea,’ she said.