It is said that the grass is always greener
on the other side of the fence,
and I believe this is true,
especially when I hear President Obama
often talk about Korean education system
as a benchmark of success.
Well, I can tell you that,
in the rigid structure and highly competitive nature
of the Korean school system,
also known as pressure cooker,
not everyone can do well in that environment.
While many people responded in different ways
about our education system,
my response to the high-pressure environment
was making bows with pieces of wood
found near my apartment building.
Why bows?
I'm not quite sure.
Perhaps, in the face of constant pressure,
my caveman instinct of survival
has connected with the bows.
If you think about it,
bow has really helped drive human survival
since prehistoric times.
The area within three kilometers of my home
used to be a mulberry forest
during the Joseon Dynasty,
where silkworms were fed with mulberry leaves.
In order to raise the historical awareness of this fact,
the government has planted mulberry trees.
The seeds from these trees
also have spread by birds here and there
nearby the soundproof walls of the city expressway
that has been built around the 1988 Olympics.
The area near these walls,
where nobody bothers to pay attention to,
had been left free from major intervention,
and this is where I first found my treasures.
As I fell deeper into bow-making,
I began to search far and beyond my neighborhood.
When I went on school field trips,
family vacations, or simply on my way home
from extracurricular classes,
I wandered around wooded areas
and gathered tree branches
with the tools that I sneaked inside my school bag.
And they would be somethings like saws, knives,
sickles, and axes
that I covered up with a piece of towel.
I would bring the branches home,
riding buses and subways,
barely holding them in my hands.
And I did not bring the tools here to Long Beach.
Airport security.
(Laughter)
In the privacy of my room, covered in sawdust,
I would saw, trim, and polish wood all night long
until a bow took shape.
One day, I was changing the shape of a bamboo piece
and ended up setting the place on fire.
Where? The rooftop of my apartment building,
a place where 96 families call home.
A customer from a department store across my building
called 911,
and I ran downstairs to tell my mom
with half of my hair burned.
I want to take this opportunity
to tell my mom in the audience today,
mom, I was really sorry,
and I will be more careful with open fire from now on.
(Laughter)
My mother had to do a lot of explaining,
telling people that her son did not commit
a premeditated arson.
I also researched extensively on bows around the world.
In that process, I tried to combine
the different bows from across the time and places
to create the most effective bow.
I also worked with many different types of wood,
such as maple, yew, and mulberry,
and did many shooting experiments
in the wooded area near the urban expressway
that I mentioned before.
The most effective bow for me
would be like this.
One, curved tips can maximize the springiness
when you draw and shoot the arrow.
Two, belly is drawn inward for higher draw weight,
which means more power.
Three, sinew used in the outer layer of the limb
for maximum tension storage.
And four, horn, used to store energy in compression.
After fixing, breaking, redesigning,
mending, bending, and amending,
my ideal bow began to take shape,
and when it was finally done,
it looked like this.
I was so proud of myself
for inventing a perfect bow on my own.
This is a picture of Korean traditional bows
taken from a museum,
and see how my bow resembles them.
Thanks to my ancestors
for robbing me my invention.
(Laughter)
Through bowmaking,
I came in contact with part of my heritage.
Learning the information that has accumulated over time
and reading the message left by my ancestors
were better than any consolation therapy
or piece of advice any living adults could give me.
You see, I searched far and wide,
but never bothered to look close and near.
From this realization,
I began to take interest in Korean history,
which had never inspired me before.
In the end, the grass is often greener
on my side of the fence,
although we don't realize it.
Now, I am going to show you how my bow works.
And let's see how this one works.
This is a bamboo bow,
with 45 pound draw weights.
(Applause)
A bow may function in a simple mechanism,
but in order to make a good bow,
a great amount of sensitivity is required.
You need to console and communicate
with the wood material.
Each fiber in the wood
has its own reason and function for being,
and only through cooperation and harmony among them
comes a great bow.
I may be an [odd] student
with unconventional interests,
but I hope I am making a contribution
by sharing my story with all of you.
My ideal world is a place
where no one is left behind,
where everyone is needed exactly where they are,
like the fibers and the tendons in a bow,
a place where the strong is flexible
and the vulnerable is resilient.
The bow resembles me,
and I resemble the bow.
Now, I am shooting a part of myself to you.
No, better yet, a part of my mind
has just been shot over to your mind.
Did it strike you?
Thank you.
(Applause)