Singsong melody of welcoming voice — Masan story
I recently arrived back in the southern coastal city Masan (now merged into Changwon). It doesn’t take long after you arrive that you hear the unmistakable tune of the local dialect, or “saturi,” in this inviting town. It is a singsong melody that seems to welcome you back, even if you are a first-time visitor to this southern province.
Masan is an expansive and sprawling market town, a country village that has outgrown its size beyond its own expectations. From an outsider’s perspective, it appears to be a classless society revolving around the marketplace. The people are pragmatic, honest, hospitable. Language is to some degree a barrier, but the welcoming smiles and singsong voices which make up for what words can’t communicate. I was hoping to find a two-story brick building constructed in 1924, featured in an old black-and-white photo that had come to my attention. The photo from almost 100 years ago shows this building, an Australian schoolhouse, standing in the middle of an open plain bordered by the distinctive high ground of a nearby mountain range. I knew this as Changshin Boys School established by an Australian missionary in 1909 named Andrew Adamson, who had later been assisted by other Australian missionaries. I thought if I were able to find this building, it would lead me to a better understanding of Australia’s early engagement with Korea.
I wondered how much this town might have changed in character since Adamson first arrived in Masan. Oth- er Australian missionaries had helped Adamson in these early years, including Arthur Allen who had arrived in Korea in 1913. Allen’s gravestone located in Changwon claims he “introduced Western music to Korea.” In 1914, he established a seven-man brass band at the Changshin school.
After some searching in Masan, I found the school. Today, the vast open plain is crowded with houses and small shops. Surrounding the brick building featured in the photo are the well-maintained grounds of a large school, significantly grander than the small room inside a hanok where Adamson first established the fledgling institution. A sign fixed to the brick building indicates it is in fact a replica reconstructed in 1990 as a tribute to the earlier contributions by Australians to education on the same site.
As I wandered inside the school’s historical collection, I found a 1914 photo of Arthur Allen wearing a traditional Korean hanbok surrounded by the members of the newly formed Korean brass band wearing marching-style uniforms and proudly sporting their instruments. I wondered what the musical ear of Arthur Allen made of the melodic voices that welcomed him to town where he died two decades after fostering academic and musical talent at the school.
I have always felt welcome in Masan, and the historical record shows this was also true for an earlier generation of Australians who built schools, hospitals, churches and even brass bands to accompany the singsong melody of those delightful voices of Masan.