Most articles about Korean childhood games list the games. This one is about where the equipment came from, because that turns out to explain more. I grew up in Incheon in the 1980s and 90s. Looking back at what we played, the games sort cleanly into three groups — and the sorting has nothing to … Read more
Every English guide to jwibulnori (쥐불놀이) files it in the same drawer: a folk ritual performed on the first full moon of the lunar year, when farmers burned the edges of their rice paddies to drive out rats and pests. That is where the game comes from. It is not what it was when I … Read more
Malttukbakgi (말뚝박기) is the Korean schoolyard game where one team bends over in a line and the other team runs and jumps on top of them. If that sounds less like a game and more like an accident waiting to happen, you have understood it correctly. It was also, for boys of my generation, one … Read more
If you search for how to play paengi chigi, almost every guide shows you the same scene: a child on frozen ground in winter, striking a wooden top with a small whip to keep it spinning. That version is real, and it is old. It is also not the game I played. I grew up … Read more