“How pretty!” “Stop lying.” “I mean it, you could get married again.”
Two female divers, 92-year-old Kim Yooseng and 91-year-old Kang Doogyo, laughed like fifteen-year-old girls in front of the camera. Kim and Kang are haenyeo, female divers from South Korea’s southernmost island, Jeju. Haenyeo in Korean means “sea women.” The literal translation rings true as these women dive 10m under the sea without oxygen masks to gather seaweed, shellfish, mollusks, sea urchins or other seafood for a living.
Kim and Kang blushed and smiled as they put on their old diving suits. “It reminds us of the first time we made the dive back when we were young,” they said. Unlike modern-day rubber wetsuits worn for diving, traditional diving suits worn by Jeju haenyeo - called “mulsojungi” - were made of cotton.
The two divers officially retired on May 25. Sangmyung University professor and photographer Yang Jong-hoon, who has been capturing and sharing the story of Jeju haenyeo globally, teamed up with the local community at Hallim-eup, Jeju, to organize a retirement ceremony. “We should give them a retirement ceremony that honors their status as a UNESCO cultural heritage,” Yang said.
The ceremony began at 1 p.m. on May 25, with Kim and Kang making their last dive. After changing into their rubber wetsuits and diving into the sea, they quickly returned with a handful of conch and abalone. The haenyeo community and local residents erupted into applause. Kim, once the town’s top haenyeo who led 100 divers into the sea, moved the onlookers to tears by saying, “When I die, sprinkle my ashes into the sea - I will continue diving even after I die.”
“Forget the abalones you see on your way up”
Is what you’re wearing “mulsojungi”?
Kim: “Yes, this is what I wore on my first dive at fifteen. It’s called “mulsojungi” because the outfit uses a rectangular piece of cloth to cover the most important body parts.”
Kang: “Before rubber suits came out, this was all we wore. It was so thin that even in the summer, we could only stay in the water for one or two hours.”
You look like teenagers in that outfit.
Kang: “Oh really? Do I look pretty?”
When did you begin work as haenyeo?
Kim: “The big dives started when I was fifteen or sixteen. Born here, lived my whole life in the sea until now at ninety-two. I could see which underwater town had abalones and conches, which corner of the sea was filled with sea urchins and octopuses, just like an eagle.”
Kang: “I was the youngest, so I started diving at eighteen. After marrying my husband, whose family is in Gwideok, I learned the work by following older sister Kim around. But my breath was short, and my ears hurt, so I couldn’t go deep into the sea and stayed near the shore.”
I hear Grandma Kim Yooseng was Gwideok’s best haenyeo.
Kim: “I led fifty, sometimes even a hundred haenyeo to the deep sea. We used bamboo spears to catch red groupers and ara (saw-edged perch). When we returned to shore with nets full of catch, my mother-in-law would sell them with a huge smile.”
Were you ever afraid of the sea?
Kim: “Afraid? What’s there to be afraid of? Even when I was in pain, as soon as I got into the water, the pain would disappear.”
Have you ever gotten hurt while diving?
Kang: “There were days when the taewak (a gourd float that haenyeo use to support their chests and keep themselves floating while diving) would crash against the rocks and break. It’s a life-threatening situation. We’d get pricked by sea urchins and other spiny creatures. We used to pour urine on the spots where we got pricked, and amazingly, the spines would come out by themselves the next day.”
It’s said that being a haenyeo involves risking one’s life. What was the secret to being able to continue until the age of 90?
Kim: “When diving down, gather the abalones you see, but forget about the ones you saw on the way up. Even if many abalones are attached, trying to go back for one more could result in running out of breath and dying. Don’t let greed put your life at risk.”
Kang: “Each abalone is like the cost of children’s pencils, notebooks, or school bags. Although you may want to go back and pick them up again, you have to forget them in order to survive. That’s how we worked for so long.”
What foods have you both been eating to live such long lives? What do you usually enjoy eating?
Kang: “Doenjang-guk (soybean paste soup) with barley rice (laughs).”
Kim: “Making a cold soup by dissolving fermented soybean paste in cold water and adding cucumbers and pearl-spot chromis is the best.”
Do you have any ailments?
Kim: “I haven’t taken blood pressure medicine once.”
Kang: “Nor have I gotten dentures.”
Both of you plan to live until 150?
Kim & Kang: “That would be a big problem. Oh my, the country would collapse (laughs).”
When was the best time in your life?
Kang: “Now. Now is the best. In the past, I never had enough money. There was no place for me (to earn money). I had to pay my children’s tuition fees and buy them notebooks. During the famine, there was nothing to eat, so we made pickled seaweed with seaweed and went out to the sea to make a living. We lived crying every day.”
Kim: “I feel the best now as I approach death. During the Japanese occupation and the Jeju uprising, we never saw a good world. Now the country even provides pensions and jobs for the elderly, so I’m happy.”
What kind of job does the government offer to the elderly?
Kim & Kang: “Picking up cigarette butts. Every other day, for a few hours.”
Do you still work?
Kim & Kang: “If we stay home, we get depressed and feel suffocated.”
Do you remember the Jeju uprising?
Kim: “Of course. The Workers’ Party of South Korea and the police fought day and night. We even hid in jars and on the ceiling. During the day, it was the police, and at night, it was the Workers’ Party, shooting guns, and only innocent people died.”
Kang: “Our older brother, who was nineteen, died then. Many men fled to Japan. The whole island mourns every year on that day.”
When did your husbands pass away?
Kim: “At the age of forty. Our youngest was three years old. He collapsed while at sea and died twenty days later. I raised five daughters on my own.”
Kang: “My husband was sixty, no, seventy (laughs).”
Were you able to raise your children just by being a haenyeo?
Kim: “I worked in other people’s fields too. Even when pregnant, if I was diving and the baby was about to be born, I would come out of the water and give birth.”
Oh my god!
Kang: “Jeju women work harder than cows. They get up before dawn to fetch water from the cistern, pick cabbages from the garden, carry crying babies to the stove, cook rice, and boil soup.”
When do you get a day off?
Kim: “I can’t even take a rainy day off. I have to mend a torn fishnet and socks. I’d lay the baby down in a hollow and rock her to sleep with my feet while I sewed with my hands. The babies born one or two years apart would cry because they peed, and I’d clean up the mess my husband made when he came home drunk. I can’t remember when I slept.
Men didn’t work?
Kang: “Sometimes they worked on fishing boats, cleared rocks, or farmed, but their main job was to drink. I had to dive to pay off my husband’s debt.”
You should have run away.
Kim: “I thought that’s how everyone lived. I didn’t know the land back then. I thought this was the whole world. Now I think I was stupid, so stupid, haha!”
“Eat well while you’re young. You won’t be hungry when you’re old.”
Did you have any conflicts between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law?
Kim: “I got along well with my mother-in-law. We’re both haenyeo, so we understand each other’s struggles.”
Kang: “In Jeju houses, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law have separate kitchens. Even though they live within the same fence, they are called inner and outer houses. Parents and children eat and live separately, so there’s no conflict or interference.”
Does that mean they are financially independent?
Kim: “Yes, we don’t mix money between parents and children. Until the day I die, I cook my meals myself. Why should my daughter-in-law cook for me if I can do it myself?”
Kang: “My mother-in-law would rather give me pocket money.”
Do you have any daughters who became haenyeo?
Kim: “No. I suggested it to my daughter, but she said it’s too hard.”
Kang: “My daughter begs us to stop diving. She says it breaks her heart to hear me struggling to breathe.”
So they say haenyeo’s children can do no wrong.
Kim: “They turned out well. Some are bankers on the mainland; some live in Jeju. We have grandchildren and great-grandchildren over 15, and every holiday is a blast. I have to feed, clean, and care for them all.”
Kang: “They work in Seoul and farm in Jeju. I wish I had raised them better. I feel sorry for them.”
Kim: “You’ve done well enough. What are you sorry about?”
Kang: “Kim’s five daughters are exceptional. They’re better than sons. They’re the best.”
Women have it too easy these days, don’t they?
Kim: “No, no. They should live comfortably and enjoy life. My mother-in-law used to say, ‘Eat well while you’re young. You won’t be hungry when you’re old.’ It’s true. Now that I’m old, I don’t want to eat much, just a bowl of mulhoe (spicy cold fish soup).”
How do you feel about retiring?
Kim: “I have mixed feelings about my retirement. I’m happy, but it’s also bittersweet.”
Kang: “I still watch haenyeos going to the sea with envy (laughs).”
Can’t you go into the sea anymore?
Kim: “I want to catch octopuses, but the young haenyeo wouldn’t like it. With the rising sea temperatures, obunjagi (a traditional Jeju type of abalone) have disappeared, and abalones are hard to find. If we go, they would get upset.”
They say you still dive better than the young haenyeo.
Kim: “I’m swift in the water, but bringing up the catch is hard because my legs are weak.”
Did you teach at the haenyeo school?
Kim: “I taught them how to turn stones, stand firmly, and catch escaping sea urchins. After a day, I could tell if they’d become top haenyeo or not (laughs).”
Aren’t the young haenyeo beautiful?
Kang: “They’re beautiful, coming here to become haenyeo. I hope more can be trained as haenyeo is disappearing.”
If you could turn back time, when would you go back to?
Kim: “Why go back? I hope to die without suffering, not bothering my children.”
Don’t you wish to be born into a rich family in your next life?
Kang: “I don’t envy rich people at all. Health is the most important thing in life. If you believe you’re happy, then you are.”
What about being born as a man in your next life?
Kim and Kang: “If we were born as men, our families would be rich by now (laughs).”
Any farewell words to the sea?
Kim & Kang: “Thank you, thank you. Because of you, our children survived. Scatter my ashes in the sea so I can keep diving forever.”
Is today the first time you’ve been in the spotlight in your ninety years of life?
Kang: “Yes. I’ve never seen myself like this (laughs).”
Kim: “Today is the happiest day! Gwideok-ri forever! Hooray for our country!”
☞About Kim Yooseng·Kang Doogyo
Kim Yooseng: Born in 1932 in Gwideok-ri, Hallim-eup, Jeju City, the second of six siblings, she began diving at fifteen. Known as the ‘best haenyeo born in Gwideok,’ she raised five daughters and retired this May.
Kang Doogyo: Born in 1933 in Suwon-ri, Hallim-eup, Jeju City, she started diving at eighteen. After marrying and moving to Gwideok, she worked as part of Kim Yooseng’s haenyeo group, raising four children and retiring this May.
