PIKO runs ‘Running Man’ event to promote Filipino culture

Pinoy Iskolars sa Korea, a local Filipino students’ group, held a “Running Man” style cultural event to promote Philippine culture in Korea on Sunday.

Organized into teams, participants in the “Tara Na” event, the name of which means “lets go!” in Filipino, had to make their way to different locations around the city, and complete a task related to Philippine culture.

The teams, named after the languages of the Philippines, had to decode the Filipino writing system of Baybayin/Alibata to find each destination.

They sold Philippine mangoes to the public and solved a puzzle related to Philippine tourist spots in the Philippine Department of Tourism showroom, while getting a chance to try adobo, a dish from the Philippines.

They moved on to the market in Little Manila in Hyehwa, where they tried balut, a duck egg containing a developing fetus, and had to buy the vegetables found in the folk song “Bahay Kubo.”

The participants moved on to the Children’s Museum of Korea, where they played Filipino traditional children’s games such as “kadang-kadang,” which involves walking on coconut halves attached to strings, and searched for a Philippine item in the Philippine Culture Discovery Box at the Children’s Museum of Korea. The museum’s discovery boxes are portable collections of items from other countries that are used to educate children in Korea about foreign cultures.

The last stop was the Philippine Embassy, where teams were welcomed by Maskara festival dancers.

“When we hear of a cultural event, it is usually (performed) on the stage: dancing, singing; and the audience will sit on the back. But we wanted to have an event with a twist,” PIKO president Eva Wang said of how the group came up with the idea for the event, which attracted participants from eight countries, including Japan, Greece, South Sudan and the United States.

By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)