with the view that Korea experienced many invasions, a view that he says is a 20th-century phenomenon that was advocated during the Japanese colonial period, and argues that Korea experienced very few invasions and had long periods of peace and stability. Peterson also disagrees with the Japanese colonial view of Korea as stagnant, inefficient, and corrupt. John Duncan calls the idea that Korea experienced constant invasions or that Korea has a "history of suffering" () a myth, and argues that premodern Korean history is characterized by very long periods of peace. According to David C. Kang, the dominant narrative depicting Korean history as "one of almost incessant foreign incursions" is a meme that emerged in the 20th century. Minsoo Kang calls the idea of a Korean character shaped by foreign invasions a modern myth that is still circulating today. Mari Nakami says that Yanagi did not profess to be an expert or intend for his theory to be an "objective observation" or a "scientifically approached scholarly study", but rather "an expression of the human heart". Furthermore, Nakami argues that the "beauty of sorrow" was not the only perspective Yanagi had of Korean art: He expressed admiration and praise for Korean art, such as the Seokguram, and believed that most Japanese national art was Korean in origin or an imitation of Korean art. Yanagi gradually changed his theory of Korean art from the "beauty of sorrow" to the "beauty of health", the "beauty of naturalness", and the "beauty of unity". Despite receiving criticism for his theory, Yanagi Sōetsu has oft been praised for his humanism and preservation of traditional Korean art. In 1984, he was posthumously awarded the Bogwan Order of Cultural Merit, the first to be awarded to a non-Korean. Proverbs According to Kim Yol-kyu, han is expressed in Korean proverbs about womanhood and poverty: Frost can fall even in May and June, if a woman harbors a grudge [han]. (A woman's vengeance knows no bounds.) " (as poor as a church mouse) In popular culture Han, as a theme, is expressed in contemporary pansori. In the late 20th century, the sorrowful "Western style" of pansori overtook the vigorous "Eastern style" of pansori, and pansori began being called the "sound of han". All surviving pansori epics end happily, but contemporary pansori focuses on the trials and tribulations of the characters, commonly without reaching the happy ending because of the contemporary