Russian literature shaped the development of Korean culture after being translated into Japanese
by Steve Moyer
HUMANITIES, Winter 2024, Volume 45, Number 1
This article is available for unedited republication, free of charge, using the following credit: "Originally published as "What Is a Relay Language?" in the Winter 2024 issue of Humanities magazine, a publication of the National Endowment for the Humanities." Please notify us at publications@neh.gov if you are republishing it or have any questions.
Thursday, December 14, 2023
collective mourning from Seoul crowd crush in 2022 Itaewon
Saturday, November 25, 2023
book, After the Korean War
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
documentaries - Korea focus
2022 David Plath Media Award – 206 Unearthed
dir. Chul-nyung Heo
2020 David Plath Media Award – Untold (기억의 전쟁)
Bora Lee-Kil (2018, documentary, color, 79 minutes)
Synopsis (adapted from the film's website):
Untold is a story about "warring memories" surrounding a civilian massacre during the Vietnam War. In the 1960s, South Korea fought in the Vietnam War as an ally of the United States. Korean soldiers conducted operations to root out communist insurgents, which led to the killing of large numbers of civilians. According to South Korea's official history, the Vietnam War enable Korea to achieve rapid economic growth. The Vietnamese survivors' experiences have gone largely unacknowledged and the massacre treated as if it never occurred. In central Vietnam, people continue to live with the memory of this brutal and horrifying event. Every February, villagers offer prayers and burn incense in various locations to console the victims in a ceremony called, "Dai Han (Korea) Commemoration."
From the jury:
Untold is a powerful documentary that intimately explores a lesser-known part of the Vietnam War: the massacre of Vietnamese civilians at the hands of South Korean soldiers. With its compelling storyline, the film skillfully conveys the deep emotional trauma of the 1968 massacre without allowing the tragedy to become a gratuitous object of the cinematic gaze. The film is visually rich and ethnographically oriented, paying particular attention to the texture of individual lives, detailed personal narratives, and the important role of ritual in remembrance practices. Untold deepens our understanding of the global Cold War, its legacy, and the interlinkages between East Asian, Southeast Asian, and American neocolonialism/imperialism from a distinctly inter-Asian perspective. It will be an important resource for instructors teaching about Asia, civil society, and the politics of memory.
Monday, August 30, 2021
The Premodern Korea Lecture Series 2021-22
Michael Pettid (Binghamton University)
One Woman's Take on Life in Chosŏn Korea
September 27, 2021, 10 AM EST.
Kanghan Lee (Academy of Korean Studies)
A Unique Relationship: Koryŏ and the Mongol Yuan Empire
November 17, 2021, 7 PM EST/9 AM KST.
Ross King (University of British Columbia)
Did Ch'usa Kim Chŏnghŭi Really Translate Xixiangji into Korean?
Literary Fame, Manuscript Culture, and the Story of the Western Wing in Chosŏn Korea
January 26, 2022, 1 PM EST.
Marjorie Burge (University of Colorado Boulder)
Inscribing the Realm: Early Silla Written Culture Through Mokkan
February 23, 2022, 10 AM EST.
The GW Institute for Korean Studies (GWIKS), a university wide Institute housed in the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University was founded in 2016. The establishment of the GWIKS was made possible by a generous grant from the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS). The mission of GWIKS is to consolidate, strengthen, and grow the existing Korean studies program at GW, and more generally in the greater D.C. area and beyond. The Institute enables and enhances productive research and education relationships within GW, and among the many experts throughout the region and the world.
Monday, December 21, 2020
DPRK views (online albums 12/2018)
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
Glimpses of wartime Korea from 1950-53
Saturday, May 16, 2020
documentary, "Have Fun in Pyongyang"
This film was shot over a period of eight years by three different people who between them made more than forty trips to North Korea. However, we are not presented with prison camps, or rocket launch pads as that is forbidden. Instead, Have Fun in Pyongyang examines what daily life is like for the 25 million North Koreans who live there. Are they allowed to laugh, dance, and marry? What do they eat? Where do they go on holiday? Due to the countries isolation, these simple questions are quite difficult to answer.
Having attended festivals, harvest ceremonies, visiting factories, and listened to singing contests, we through their camera lenses catch a fascinating and bizarre glimpse of everyday life inside The Hermit Kingdom.
Directed by: Pierre-Olivier Francois
Friday, March 6, 2020
newsletter treasure trove of events, topics, names and opportunities
Monday, February 10, 2020
Subtitles from Korean fails here and there - "Parasite" movie viewing
Parasite has been acclaimed as a strong critique of the stratification created by capitalism and class. It’s now up for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. But to me, the film’s critique is nothing new. The Korean language and culture embody class stratification, and I was frustrated because I wanted everyone to recognize the ubiquitous nature of the class stratification that happens every day, in every conversation, which isn’t apparent in the subtitles. This ability to navigate the language, even for an immigrant turned naturalized citizen like me, is how you keep in touch with culture. Perhaps this is where translation fails, with the nuances of emotional understanding...
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Nagoya’s censored art exhibition and the “comfort women” controversy
Freedom Fighting: Nagoya's censored art exhibition and the "comfort women" controversy |
| An exhibition of censored artwork in Nagoya city triggers a furious debate on artistic expression. The artistic director of the Aichi Triennale 2019 had few illusions when he planned an exhibition called "After Freedom of Expression". By choosing items that poked painfully at some of Japan's most tender spots - war crimes, subservience to America and the status of the imperial family - Tsuda Daisuke wanted to "provoke discussion" on the health of freedom of expression in the country. But what followed, he says, was "beyond our expectations". ... FULL TEXT of this article online, https://apjjf.org/2019/20/McNeill.html
Tuesday, September 10, 2019setting Kayageum to rock music - Interpretations by Luna Lee in 2019 and 2017: Jimi Hendrix cover of "Voodoo Child," https://boingboing.net/2019/09/09/watch-this-amazing-jimi-hendri.html David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World," https://boingboing.net/2017/04/11/bowies-the-man-who-sold-th.html
Thursday, May 16, 2019documentary 2019 - Korean War in memoryFeature story in NEH (national endowment for the humanities) magazine, https://www.neh.gov/article/korea-and-thirty-eighth-parallel With link to April 29, 2019 PBS broadcast of the memories and legacies of the Korean War years, 1950-53. Entitled" Korea: The Never-Ending War, at nearly two hours long and produced by WETA, [the film] helps us understand why a divided Korea is still with us." PBS link, https://www.pbs.org/weta/korea-never-ending-war/
Wednesday, January 23, 2019about Zainichi Koreans living in Japan for generations (new book announced)cross-posted from H-Japan with permission of the author, Jackie Kim-Wachutka. https://networks.h-net.org/node/20904/discussions/3580589/new-book-announce= ment-zainichi-korean-women-japan-voices excerpt, Featuring in-depth interviews from 1994 to the present, three generations of Zainichi Korean women-- those who migrated from colonial Korea before or during WWII and the Asia-Pacific War-- and their Japan-born descendants share their version of history, revealing their lives as members of an ethnic minority. Discovering voices within constricting patriarchal traditions, the women in this book are now able to tell their history. Ethnography, interviews, and the women's personal and creative writings offer an in-depth look into their intergenerational dynamics and provide a new way of exploring the hidden inner world of migrant women and the different ways displacement affects subsequent generations. Wednesday, October 24, 2018food of Koryo Saram, USSR experiences and Kazakhstan from 1937 onwardThe article at AtlasObscura about food customs brought to Kazakhstan after the 1937 transport of people from Korea to Central Asia is detailed and eye-opening for many readers. This sad chapter of forcible uprooting is told at length in David Chung's 2007 documentary, Koryo Saram: The Unreliable People. Article about foodways,https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/korean-fusion-food-koryo-saram
Thursday, October 4, 2018literature of Korea in translation Digital library of written works made available, courtesy of the Literary Translation Institute of Korea, https://www.ltikorea.or.kr/en/ Sunday, April 22, 2018recap - complicated KR and US relationshipfeatured segment on National Public Radio, April 22, 2018 https://www.npr.org/2018/04/22/604702036/the-complicated-history-of-the-u-s-and-the-korean-peninsula
Sunday, April 8, 2018electronic reference librarian (service)The *Ask a Korean Studies Librarian!* service is provided by the Korean Collections Consortium of North America (KCCNA).
This free reference service is for colleagues, scholars, and students who do not have access to a Korean subject specialist at their own institutions. Send reference inquiries regarding Korea Studies in English or Korean language to *<askkorea@kccna. libsanswers.com> Thursday, February 1, 2018brew of old comes back today - Makgeollihttps://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/makgeolli-south-korea cf. the English language listing on wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makgeolli, or the Korean language one, https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EB%A7%89%EA%B1%B8%EB%A6%AC
Wednesday, January 10, 2018for the love of kimchi - home-made pickleExtended story of family kimchi-makers, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/kiddie-pools-kimchi-kimjang-south-korea-family-cabbage
Thursday, June 22, 2017film - So Long Asleep: bringing some of the 1940s forced laborers' mortal remains back to Korea---[Pr. David Plath writes, 6/2017] So Long Asleep (60 minutes) follows an international team of East Asian volunteers as they excavate, preserve and repatriate the remains of Korean men who died doing slave labor in Hokkaido during the Asia-Pacific War. On the 70th anniversary of the end of the war we travel with them as they carry 115 sets of remains on a pilgrimage across Japan and over to Korea for reinterment in the Seoul Municipal Cemetery. Using a dark past to shape a brighter shared future the project offers an upbeat model for remembrance and reconciliation that could be adapted widely.
An extended essay by Pr. Chung about the project appears in Asia-Pacific Journal; Japan Focus online magazine, as well, http://apjjf.org/2017/12/Chung.html
Saturday, May 27, 2017radio story - DPRK female defectors http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/05/26/528615440/defectors-reflect-on-life-in-north-korea
Saturday, February 25, 2017Korean land, life, culture and language - book series in PDFcross-posting from koreanstudies.com 2/2017 =-=-=-=-=-=-= The Center for International Affairs at The Academy of Korean Studies(AKS)is pleased to announce the publication of Geography of Korea, the seventhbook in the Understanding Korea series. This work has been created to serve as a foundational text for international readers to understand the geographic characteristics of the Korean Peninsula and the living culture of Koreans. It consists of an overview that presents a comprehensive look at the Korean Peninsula from a systematic geography perspective and a regional geography portion that examines specific regions of Korea in greater depth. The Center for International Affairs, The Academy of Korean Studies 323 Haogae-ro, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, 13455, Republic of Korea Wednesday, December 7, 2016anthology - early Korea descriptions from Western visitors...publication of "Brief Encounters: Early Reports of Korea by Westerners," cmpiled and edited by Brother Anthony of Taiz? and Robert Neff Seoul Selection http://www.seoulselection.com/ 359 pages with 10 pages of coloured illustrations ISBN: 9781624120787 The Table of Contents can be viewed at http://anthony.sogang.ac.kr/BriefEncountersContents.html Most of the texts selected (and published here with only minimal editorial introductions and notes) are already available online in my home page through the 3 links at the top of my 'Old Books" page http://anthony.sogang.ac.kr/BooksKorea.htm (a page which also list links to a few hundred online old books about Korea and other similar materials). The intention is to give a fairly full picture of what was reported in Europe about Joseon / Corea / Korea before the diplomatic opening. To widen the scope a little, I have translated a few texts from French, including some pages from Charles Dallet. Obviously, we hope that this anthology will be useful in the classroom but most of what it contains is entertaining enough to be read during the long winter nights at home for pleasure. [cross-posting from koreanstudies.com e-list Brother Anthony] Monday, June 20, 2016summer Reunification leadership camp - all about DPRK (radio feature story)National Public Radio had a radio segment this morning, June 20, by Elise Hu about a summer camp for children age 5 to teen years to learn about people and social experiences in the DPRK with a view to facilitate eventual reunification. The online version includes photos and transcript, in addition to the audio segment itself. Yes, There's A Summer Camp Dedicated To Learning About North Korea [excerpt from transcript] There's a summer camp on every theme these days, even North Korea. South Korea's twist on extracurricular enrichment is called Unification Leaders Camp, and it's a government-sponsored getaway dedicated to schooling South Korean youngsters about their neighbors to the north. At a recent camp session on South Korea's Jeju Island, 120 ninth-graders rolled their suitcases into a sprawling beach-side resort lined with palm trees, snapping selfies on the resort lawn. It was the last they'd see of the outdoors for two days. [full story in audio, photos; transcript] Wednesday, May 25, 2016poets of 20th c Koreacross-posting from the KoreanStudies email listserv on May 24, 2016: Announcing the publication (some weeks ago now) of the latest edition of the periodical Manoa, from the University of Hawai'i Press, an anthology of modern Korean poetry titled "The Colors of Dawn: Twentieth-Century Korean Poetry, General Editor Frank Stewart, Guest Editors Brother Anthony and Chung Eun-Gwi." [ISBN 978-0-8248-6622-8] The volume begins with a succinct overall review of the history of Korean poetry from the early 20th century until the present. We have mainly focused on poets living and writing today, so the order of poets is reversed and the book opens with the youngest and ends with the oldest. The order is determined by the year of birth. Despite the title, many of the poems included were in fact written after 2001. The number of poems for each poet varies between 1 and 10. The translations of several of the older poets were done by the senior Korean poet and translator, Kim Jong-Gil. Otherwise, the main translators are the two guest editors. The text is freely visible through Project Muse https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/32995 but the physical book is beautifully illustrated with botanical watercolors by Hye Woo Shin. The editors are most grateful to Frank Stewart for inviting them to produce this new anthology. Only a few of the poems included have been published before. The names of the poets represented are listed below (a few of the romanizations have since been corrected in a second printing). Brother Anthony, Dankook University, Sogang University Part One: Poetry of Today Kim Sunwoo Jin Eun-Young Shim Bo-Seon Hwang Gyu-gwan Park Seo-yeong Kim So-yeon Song Kyung-dong Kim Ju-Tae Ra HeeDuk Lee Yeong-gwang Kim Sa-inChoi Jeong-rye Baek Mu-san Do Jong Hwan Ko Hyeong-ryeol Kim Soo-Bok Kim Seung-Hee Lee Seong-bok Jeong Ho-Seung Lee Si-Young Kim Nam-Ju __________________________ Part Two: Survivors of War Shin Dal-ja Kim Kwang-kyu Kim Chi-haChonggi Mah Shin Gyeong-nim Ko Un __________________________ Part Three: Founding Voices Bak Seong-ryong Cheon Sang-byeong Cheon Bong-gon Pak In-Hwan Kim Jong-gil Kim Chun-su Han Ha-Un Ku Sang Yun Dong-juBak Du-jin Bak Mog-weol Midang Seo Jeong-ju Yi Yong-ak Kim Ki-rim Yu Chi-hwan Kim Tong-Hwan Sim Hun Thursday, March 3, 2016journal that includes photo essays among its articlesThis call for authors to submit articles may be of interest to those keen on visual communication, but to those wishing to view examples, too, this article points to a place to see stories published to date:
Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review, a quarterly, open-access online journal, is accepting proposals for photo essays for the September 2016 and March 2017 issues (and beyond). Photo essays include: 1) 20-40 high-quality images with descriptive captions and complete source information, 2) a curator's statement, and 3) a longer non-peer reviewed essay (8-15 pages) contextualizing the photographs and highlighting their significance for current trends of inquiry in Asian studies. This essay can be written by the curator or by an invited scholar. To view archived Cross-Currents photo essays, please click here. The photographs should be taken in China, Korea, Japan, or Vietnam. They may be contemporary images taken as part of the curator's research or archival materials. Please consult the Cross-Currents mission statement to determine whether the proposed essay fits within the journal's historical and disciplinary scope. Obtaining copyright permissions for all images is the responsibility of the curator. Proposals should include: 5-10 sample images (as a single PDF); a one-page description of the theme of the essay and the timeliness/importance of the images to scholars of Asia; a brief bio paragraph about the curator; and complete contact information.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016recent publications - Korean Studies booksRecently published Korean Studies books are updated at http://anthony.sogang.ac.kr/RecentKoreanStudiesBooks.html Please send omissions to Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch, CPO Box 255, Seoul 100-602, Korea Phone +82 (02) 763-9483 FAX (02) 766-3796 FAX from the US or Canada 1-435-415-2393 royalasiatickorea atgmail dotcom Wednesday, December 23, 2015literature of Korea - in English translationas of December 2015: Korean Poetry in English translation -title in English -author -translated by -publisher ________________________________________ Beating on Iron Kim Soo-Bok Translated by Brother Anthony Green Integer Maninbo: Peace & War Ko Un Translated by Brother Anthony / Lee Sang-Wha Bloodaxe Patterns Lee Si-Young Translated by Brother Anthony / Yoo Hui-Sok Green Integer Wild Apple Heeduk Ra Translated by Daniel Parker etc White Pine The Colors of Dawn: Twentieth-Century Korean Poetry An anthology of poems by 44 poets Translated by Brother Anthony, Chung Eun-Gwi, etc Manoa (University of Hawai?i Press, early 2016) Korean novels in English translation The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness Kyung-Sook Shin Translated by Ha-Yun Jung Pegasus The Investigation J. M. Lee Translated by Chi-Young Kim Pegasus Princess Bari Hwang Sok-Yong Translated by Sora Kim-Russell Periscope Nowhere to Be Found Bae Suah Translated by Sora Kim-Russell Amazon Crossing The Salmon Who Dared to Leap Higher Ahn Do-hyeon Translated by Deborah Smith PanMacmillan The Vegetarian Han Kang Translated by Deborah Smith Portobello Books Human Acts Han Kang Translated by Deborah Smith Portobello Books (January 2016) Modern Family Myeong-kwan Cheon Translated by Kyoung-lee Park White Pine The Future of Silence: Fiction by Korean Women 9 authors Translated by Ju-Chan Fulton / Bruce Fulton Zephyr (February 2016) Dalkey Archive?s Library of Korean Literature added 5 more titles late in 2015: Son of Man Yi Mun-yol Translated by Brother Anthony of Taiz? A Good Family Seo Hajin Translated by Ally Hwang & Amy Smith God Has No Grandchildren Kim Gyeong-uk Translated by Sunok Kang The Private Lives of Plants Lee Seung-U Translated by Inrae You Vinciguerra & Louis Vinciguerra Rina Kang Young-sook Translated by Kim Boram These are in addition to last year's 14 Dalkey Archive Korean Literature volumes: Stingray by Kim Joo-young One Spoon on This Earth by Hyun Ki Young When Adam Opens His Eyes by Jang Jung-il My Son?s Girlfriend by Jung Mi-kyung A Most Ambiguous Sunday, and Other Stories by Jung Young Moon The House with a Sunken Courtyard by Kim Won-il At Least We Can Apologize by Lee Ki-ho The Soil by Yi Kwang-su Lonesome You by Park Wan-suh No One Writes Back by Jang Eun-jin Pavane for a Dead Princess by Park Min-Gyu The Square by Choi In-Hun Scenes from the Enlightenment: A Novel of Manners by Kim Namcheon Another Man?s City by Ch?oe In-Ho Asia Publishers have continued to add to their K-Library of Korean short fiction in bilingual volumes in 2015: Kong?s Garden by Hwang Jung-eun Danny by Yun I-hyeong Homecoming by Cheon Myeong-kwan
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