연고전 (Yongochon)

Well yesterday was interesting. Yonsei University (where I'm at) and Korea University are something of rival schools, ranking 2nd and 3rd in the country (which one's which switches around).

They have a competition once per year, where over the course of two days they compete against one another in 5 sports (Rugby, Soccer, Basketball, Baseball, Ice Hockey?). I didn't really know where/when these were taking place and things have been somewhat busy, so I didn't have much intention of going (how different could they be from American university sports?), but after a meeting with an economics club I joined here, some students offered to take me along since they were going. This economics club is from all three top universities, so the members I actually ended up going with were from Korea University.

It turns out there were some differences. All kids from both schools don school colors (Yonsei=blue, Korea=red) and go to do cheers for their teams at the events - the cheers are half the point, I don't think most of them care about the sports. But they all do cheers in unison, which is kind of cool to see when you have 5,000 kids from each school in the stands (they don't have room in their own school stadiums - the soccer match I went to see today was held in the Seoul Olympic stadium leftover from the 1988 olympics). So there are giant crowds from the two schools, partitioned into a red side and a blue side, each side doing their own chants and cheers in unison, with everyone in the stands participating, doing cheers for the whole game.

The cheer-leaders down on the field dress in half-Elvis half-traditional Korean dress, and dance and lead cheers which the occasional flames and fireworks going off around them.

There were a few other aspects that I noticed that distinguished them from American school rivalries/games, though they didn't seem to think much of:

1. During the cheering, one of the props is a bag - kind of like a grocery bag, except it's red, and they get it full of air then hold the end closed, and wave them around in unison to make noise and a visual spectacle. Except after the game ends, everyone takes their bag and starts picking up trash off the ground around them and filling the bag with it. They clean up after themselves at the stadium. Definitely not the American way.
2. It is, quite literally, all in good fun. There is no animosity between the kids from opposite schools - they may make a playful jab or comment about their school being better, but there's no bitterness or anger at all - even when one side beats the other (this year, one game was canceled, and Korea won 3 of the other 4, the last being a tie - no anger from Yonsei students at all). There aren't any fights that break out, there's no yelling in the faces of the opposing team, there's no catcalls or really mean things said...half the time they sync up and sing the same cheer together if there are two groups around one another after the game. Complete camaraderie. They help each other, share with each other, etc. The kids act as though they're from the same school.
3. After all of the events have ended, they all head back to the area around Yonsei University (Sinchon), where they organize by clubs or groups from each school, march around together in people-trains (one's hands on the next's shoulders), and chant and sing outside of restaurants for food/drink. And the restaurants, knowing this was coming, give them things. Krispy Kreme gave free donuts to everyone who did so, another place gave out free Soju shots (rice vodka, basically) and fried chicken, etc. You have to earn it though - the kids usually are out there chanting for 5-10 minutes per place before food comes out.
   
4. The games are free to go to (for anyone, not just students) and are sponsored by companies. The food that's given out (since feeding kids from two 40,000-student schools would bankrupt anyone) is paid for by alumni - if an alumnus happens to be eating at one of the places when a train of kids comes chanting, they often offer to personally pay for the round for that group.

So all in all a very strange day. The sport was a spectacle, and the fact that the kids cleaned up after themselves and got along so well despite the rivalry was really impressive. I was on the streets of Sinchon for a bit afterwards, and one group from Korea University had been chanting for 5 minutes outside of a restaurant. Along comes another line, this one from Yonsei University, and it turned out they're the same club (Student Ambassadors) from each school. They were thrilled, and started to do chants and march together.

So not quite the individualism you'd see in America, but also a lot more friendship betwixt students from the two schools. Very interesting time.

Naturally, my camera died after the first picture, but here's a YouTube clip of a sporting event from last year's. Clicking on some of the other video's it offers after this one ends shows other parts of the events.