- I don't know how not to be creative.
It's something that just, it just like runs through my blood
just like being Korean does.
It's never been enough for me to just make Hanji.
I'm an artist.
(bright string music)
My name is Aimee Lee, and my life mission is to
make and promote Hanji across the world.
Hanji is, as an umbrella term, just Korean paper,
but the kind of Hanji that I'm interested in
is made according to the tradition and made by hand
and made from scratch.
I was born in New York City to Korean immigrant parents
who taught me Korean in the household.
Growing up, I loved making music and so, I always had that
proclivity towards the arts.
But I didn't know anything about paper making
until I went to graduate school for book arts.
When I was looking for information on Hanji,
there was very little, at least in English,
so it became very clear that if I wanted to learn more
about Hanji, I would have to go directly to Korea.
(soft music)
The paper mulberry tree that grows in Korea
has to withstand the Korean monsoon season
where it's really hot and humid in the summer,
and then these intense, snowy cold winters.
So this tree is incredibly resilient and really strong.
Not only does that tree have to withstand that climate,
the people do too, so bringing those two things
together creates a product that's totally different from
any other place.
(foreign speaking)
Traditionally, Hanji is made by men.
And a lot of them just took one look at me and said,
"You're a woman.
"You can't do this," or they would say,
"You're not strong enough."
That was just so far out of what they knew
that they didn't believe me until they saw me work.
(foreign speaking)
I'd never thought about it because it's just
what I've been driven to do, but I know from the outside,
it looks like I have a lot of audacity for trying to
do something that only men traditionally do,
and even to this day do.
(foreign speaking)
When I came back from Korea, I was doing all this weaving,
which is a Korean tradition called Jiseung.
You have to cut big sheets of paper into narrow strips
and then you have to make cords and then out of these cords,
you can then weave like basketry.
(foreign speaking)
I think that the way that you keep tradition alive
is to just keep evolving it.
The most exciting work I've been doing with the weaving
is making ducks, and those are based on
Korean wedding ducks that are given to bride and groom
to promote marital fidelity and fertility.
People were very surprised when I came to them saying,
"Oh, I wanna learn how to make Hanji,"
but you have to know when to walk away and you also
have to know when to recognize that someone
may be able to give you a chance, even if you are
a very strange bird.