CHILGOK – Wearing an oversized hat, silver chain and black Miu Miu shirt, 82-year-old Park Jeom-sun beckons, her voice rising and falling with staccato lines about growing chili peppers, cucumbers and eggplants.
Park, nicknamed Suni, was flanked by seven of her old friends who repeated her gestures and words.
Together, they are Suni and the Seven Princesses, the newest seniors to be in South Korea. With an average age of 85, they may be the oldest rap group in the country.
Born at a time when women were often marginalized in education, Park and her friends were among a group of older adults learning to read and write the Korean alphabet, hangeul, at a community center in their farming village in rural southeastern South Korea.
They had so much fun that they started dabbling in poetry. They started writing and performing rap last summer.
Suni and the Seven Princesses enjoyed nationwide fame, appearing in commercials and going viral on social media.
South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo sent them congratulations last month on their first anniversary, praising their enthusiasm for learning.
On the street near their community center in Chilgok recently, Park and her friends were rehearsing for a performance in the capital, Seoul, where they were invited to open an event celebrating hangeul heritage.
“Pick peppers in a pepper field, pick cucumbers in a cucumber field, pick eggplant in an eggplant field, pick zucchini in a zucchini field!” the group sings with Park. “We’re back home now and it feels so good!”
Park said the group usually practices two or three times a week, especially if they are preparing for a performance.
Also recently, hundreds of people clapped and cheered for them, and the group had the opportunity to take a photo with South Korea’s Minister of Culture, Yu In Chon.
Park spoke of the joy of learning to read, saying she can now “go to the bank, take the bus and go anywhere” she wants without someone helping her.
“During and after the Korean War, I couldn’t study because of the social atmosphere, but I started learning hangeul in 2016,” said Park, referring to the devastating war between North and South Korea from 1950 to 1953.
“Being introduced to rap while learning hangeul has made me feel better, and I think it will help me stay healthy and avoid dementia.”
Kang Hye-eun, Park’s 29-year-old granddaughter who is also a local health care worker helping the elderly, said she was proud to see her grandmother on television and in a viral video.
“It’s amazing that he recognized hangeul like this and started rapping,” he said. – AP
