By Jeongnam Kim
(Former Senior Presidential Secretary for Education·Culture·Society, World Korean News advisor)
It is known that a total of 7 million bowls of Jajang-myeon is being sold a day on average. and this Chinese noodle dish has now become one of our national cuisines. According to an authorities theory, this food originates from the Shandong region of China. Jajang-myeon was introduced to our country in the mid-1880 when the Chinese of the Shandong region began to make an inroads into Korea.
The port of Inchon (or Jemulpo) was opened in 1883 in the wake of a military revolt in the year of Im-o in 1882. a gateway to Korea of foreign ships from such countries as Japan, China and the U.S. At this time, the Chinese immigrants from the Shandong region ate the food known as "Jajang-myeon." Recipe of this food was simple, mixing needle with black bean sauce and vegetable.
However, the recipe of Jajang-myeon that agreed with the Korean taste was created in the early days of the 1950s, almost 70 years from that time. Why did it take so long? The Gonghwachun in the Chinatown in Inchon, which was known as the creator of Jajang-myeon, was not a public restaurant from the beginning. It was a place where Geishas served with liquors and Mahjong games were played, and frequented only by high class gentlemen at the time. "Jajang-myeon" was not listed on the menu of this restaurant.
The Curies, the Chinese workers who make inroads into the Korean peninsula by 20,0000 every year is since 1920 were rampant all over the country, but they did not share their foods with the Korean people. This trend was caused by the Korean people's consciousness of exclusion against the Chinese in the wake of the Manbo-san case in 1931 and the isolationism typical of the Chinese people who did not want to live mingling with the native people like oil on water.
They worked really so very hard and make money in Korea so that people used to say, "They came empty-handed; they went home with tons of money." The Jajang-myeon we eat these days was created when the Chinese immigrants in Korea went through a tough time in the wake of the Chinese mainland became a communist country and the Korean War. In the 1950s when we filled our hungry stomach with the flour supplied by the U.S., the Chinese provided our people with the foods of their own cuisine, the revolutionized Jajang-myeon like it is today.
The Jajang-myeon, that made it to the midst of the Korean people, was selected as an price index item. On top of that, with the tide of the Korean government's policy to encourage the use the flour food with the main menu of rice, the Jajang-myeon has made itself as a 'national food' of Korea. For the Korean people at the time, it was the scene of "a special day" for the Korean family to go out together to eat this noodle dish.
The history of the steel bag for the delivery of the Jajang-myeon has changed a lot. At first it was made of wood, but later on it was made of aluminum steel. The wooden box was not only heavy to carry but also it could not keep clean with the soup of the food soaked. The design of this aluminum steel bag was designated as "a design representing the living style of the Korean people in the last half-century" by the Korea Design Culture Foundation. The Jajang-myeon and the steel box have made themselves familiarized to the Korean people that much.
