“Everybody, Let's Tighten the Anus”: Exploring the Social and Cultural Meaning of a Korean Folksong

摘要

This article explores the social and cultural meaning of a Korean folksong, “Everybody, Let's Tighten the Anus” (the anus song), created by Kim Do-hyang, a Korean singer-songwriter who is also a Taoist meditation practitioner. According to Kim, the anus song was mainly intended to encourage people to practice contracting and releasing the anus, since the anal sphincter exercise is a convenient and simple way for people to keep awake anytime and anywhere, even unknown to others, while empowering their minds and bodies. This article demonstrates the need for an immanent approach to better understand the religious dimensions of popular music by exploring how physiological aspects of music can correspond to its sociocultural aspects. The immanent approach to the anus song with the view of Eastern qi philosophy provides this research with a cogent theoretical framework for energy spirituality, which is constructed in the practice of breathing, including anus breathing or anal sphincter exercise.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2012.730342