Yeon-Go Jeon

This weekend was the annual sporting competition called Yeon-Go Jeon (연고전). Over two days, teams representing the rival schools Yonsei University (the Yeon part) and Korea University (the Go part) meet in a wide variety of sporting events, including baseball, basketball, ice hockey, rugby, and soccer, in various sporting venues around the city. As Erma and I discovered, the competition serves as a focal point for school pride and student bonding activities. And it's also an excuse for a lot of beer drinking.

For reasons that are unclear to me, our Korean Language Institute provided two free buses on Friday afternoon to take students to the opening ceremonies and the baseball competition. The opportunity to leave class half an hour early and attend the Yeon-Go Jeon was available only to upper-level students like Erma, but because I'm married to her I received a special dispensation.

All last week student groups on campus were selling blue T-shirts in preparation for the event. Blue is the color of Yonsei, and all students attending Yeon-Go Jeon events are expected to show their loyalty by wearing the house color. As it happens, Erma and I didn't bring any blue shirts with us to Korea. We tried to buy some on Thursday. It didn't seem appropriate to get shirts from an unrelated department or extracurricular group (like the Electrical Engineering Department, say), but by the time we figured out where the foreign language student shirts were available, they were sold out. In the end we went without school colors. As it turned out, few of the several dozen KLI students who attended were in blue, so we didn't stand out too much.

Who thought we'd be returning so soon to the baseball stadium where we'd seen a professional game not long before?

When we got to the stadium, not long before the opening ceremonies were set to begin at 2:00, it was a madhouse. Yonsei students in blue and Korea U students in red were pouring in and taking up seats in their respective sections: Yonsei on the first-base side, Korea U on the third-base line.

Here's the view looking to our left. The dividing line between blue and red is directly behind home plate.


On the field, the flag squads for each side marched out onto the field and took up positions.



They waved their huge flags in unison to ear-splittingly loud music. The big screen alternated between "Yonsei TV" and "KU TV"

Scattered in among the blue-clad and red-clad flag-bearers were the actual cheerleaders. These guys looked like they had just escaped from a high-school musical production of King Arthur. They seemed to be taking their fashion cues from Prince Valiant. If you look at the large version of the picture below, you can see the guys wearing green, purple, and gold cloaks.



There were also some formations. The Yonsei squad made a big "Y" for Yonsei. (They also made a big "승" for victory, not pictured.)


The Korea U squad, naturally, retaliated with "KU".


Giant banners were unveiled in center field, while the wacky medieval super-heroes posed and strutted.


The various poses, formations, and dances were made to the accompaniment of extremely loud music played by live bands. There were two bands, one for each side, located on platforms in the stands. Monstrous sets of speakers pointed up into the crowds. One reason the music had to be so loud is that the two sides were competing against each other, trying to drown out the other side's cheers and fight songs.

It was a bizarre scene. In the picture below, you can see the flag wavers, the medieval-cloaked escapees from Solid Gold Dancers, and the suited dignitaries and officials from Yonsei (wearing blue visors). Amidst all the wackiness, several high-level administrators made welcoming speeches.


Just looking out over the crowd was an amazing experience. Look at this sea of red on the Korea University side. (You can also see massive speakers toward the bottom of the frame.)

When the official welcoming ceremonies were over, the band on our side got serious. Most of what they were playing sounded like recycled '80s dance tunes, refitted with Yonsei University-related lyrics. The students danced and swayed in unison. The costumed dancers had moved onto platforms set among the crowd, where they energetically led the students through the dance moves on each song. It was non-stop, high-energy exuberance.



When the baseball game started, nothing changed. No one seemed to take notice of the players on the field. The constant barrage of loud music, the dancing, the cheering, continued unabated. I only once saw anything that seemed connected to the on-field game: two geysers of smoke blasted up from one of the dancing stages when Yonsei scored a run.


One of the dance moves was a back-rub chain.


Here are the two dance leaders that were closest to us.


At one point the big scoreboard screen malfunctioned, and a Windows desktop appeared on it. It's rather alarming to realize that buggy Microsoft software is being used in a venue like this.


By the time the game was well under-way, the crowds had filled in considerably. In this picture the Korea U students are doing a dance in which they bow forward and then straighten back up.


As much fun and excitement as there was, and as much as I wanted to watch the game, the extreme volume became intolerably painful after a while, and I feared permanent hearing loss. Erma and I left after the 4th inning, with Yonsei trailing 4-1. (We don't know who won the game.)

If you want to see what Korean sports fans are capable of when they really pull out all the stops, check out this amazing video of soccer fans.

Saturday evening there was a big event on Yonsei campus to celebrate the end of the competition. Erma and I had dinner near Hongik University, one metro stop away from Shinchon. When we returned from dinner around 10:00, the metro cars were stuffed full of blue- and red-clad students, all heading the same direction we were. The Shinchon neighborhood was even more crowded than usual, and a large contingent of traffic cops were out in force to keep the crowds on the sidewalks and the traffic flowing.

In front of and inside shops and restaurants, knots of students were gathered, singing loudly and performing simple coordinated dance moves. Apparently the expectation is that these performances will engender gifts of free food and drink. Erma and I walked past an eyeglass store in which several kegs of beer had been set up. Cups of free beer were being distributed to Yonsei students. A few feet farther on another group of students were filing out of an ice cream shop, sucking on little cups of frozen sorbet; when they saw the beer next door, their eyes grew big as saucers, and their expressions fell quickly from smug self-congratulation to regret.

Shall we compare America and Korea? Why not.

America and Korea the same: Rowdy, beer-drinking college students having wacky fun.
America and Korea different: Rowdy, beer-drinking college students having highly coordinated wacky fun.

Also: Where does the cheerleading aesthetic come from? Who came up with the idea of dressing young men up like medieval European princes and having them lead fans through an unending series of macarena-like dance moves as a way of cheering for a sports team? One has to suspect it was the Japanese.