observations of Seoul c.1882 by John Carey Hall

Reading the account by John Carey Hall of his visit to Seoul in October 1882, http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/1882Hall.pdf
--posted to koreanstudies.ws on 15 Nov 2014 by Brother Anthony, President of the Royal Asiatic Society's Korea branch

photobooks, 1950 and 1960

The eBook store at Amazon included these sets of 100 images in book 1 (Korea 1960s Book 1: 100 Color Photographs) and book 2 (Korea 1950s Book 2: 100 Photographs) by the editor, Heedal Kim.

http://www.amazon.com/Korea-1960s-Book-Color-Photographs-ebook/dp/B00NYB4AT4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1412854815&sr=1-1
Korea 1960s Book 1: 100 Color Photographs - Kindle edition by Heedal Kim. Arts & Photography Ki...

http://www.amazon.com/Korea-1950s-Book-100-Photographs-ebook/dp/B00NMOML8U/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1412854815&sr=1-3
Korea 1950s Book 2: 100 Photographs [Kindle Edition] - Heedal Kim (Editor)

Since the images are color, to buy the eBook (priced at $0.00 but treated as a transaction nevertheless by Amazon for statistical purposes) you will need to view in the free "cloud reader" (http://read.amazon.com) or else use a tablet. The original eBook reading devices ('kindle') is monochrome and therefore misses much of the value of the work.

The image quality varies widely, as does the setting (for the 1960s there are rural and urban, aerial and streetview, port and inland locations). What is missing is text to identify, caption or otherwise provide context. But an enterprising e-list reader could usefully create a companion set of commentary no doubt.

At the very least the close-up views of life in the 1950s and also then the 1960s is eye-opening for those of us younger than 55 or 60 years old.

pop culture KR, book review

How One Nation Is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture

by Kindle Editors on 08/19/2014

The Birth of Korean Cool reveals how a really uncool country became cool, and how a nation that once banned miniskirts, long hair on men, and rock 'n' roll could come to mass produce boy bands, soap operas, and one of the world's most important smart phones. Here, the author, Euny Hong, gives a guide to modern Korean etiquette. [see full article by clicking headline, above]

early photos from National Museum of Korea

The director-general Dr. Youngna Kim of The National Museum of Korea stated that we can now download and use freely the high resoluation (HD) images of7,000 works from the museum's image database on the home pages.  We need to
credit the images to the museum but there is no need to fill out the forms any more for the free use of these images.  For the database, see
http://www.museum.go.kr/program/relic/relicSearchListEng.jsp?menuID=002004001&langCodeCon=LC2

Further details from the registrar's contact person, Ms. Jieun Jung of the registrar (dept
of Collections) at lethe11@korea dot kr

article, "Korean Wave" (Hallyu)

http://www.aaanet.org/sections/seaa/2014/07/the-korean-wave-hallyu/
Written from an anthropologist's eye:
 [excerpt, with reference to new book edited by Youna Kim]
...Since the late 1990s South Korea has emerged as a new center for the production of transnational popular culture, exporting its own media products into Asian countries including Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The spread of Korean popular culture overseas is referred to as the "Korean Wave" or "Hallyu" – a term first coined by Chinese news media in the middle of 1998 to describe Chinese youth's sudden craze for Korean cultural products. Initiated by the export of TV dramas, it now includes a range of cultural products including Korean pop music (K-pop), films, animation, online games, smartphones, fashion, cosmetics, food and lifestyles. While its popularity is mainly concentrated in neighboring Asian markets, some of the products reach as far as the USA, Mexico, Egypt, Iraq, and most recently, Europe. This is the first instance of a major global circulation of Korean popular culture in history.

scenes from DPRK - planes, trains and automobiles

The Planes, Soviet Trains, and Rare Automobiles of North Korea

			The Planes, Soviet Trains, and Rare Automobiles of North... Definitive guidebook and friendly tour-guide to the world's most wondrous places. Travel tips, articles, strange facts and unique events.
			View on www.atlasobscura.com	Preview by Yahoo

While the observations are from a non-specialist, they do bring together a number of related threads for understanding daily life and worldview on the northern half of the peninsula.

updates to photo site, Pictori

[excerpt from koreanstudies.ws e-list posting]

Unlike Flickr, Pictori offers the option of watermarking your images. I also noticed that several of my images on Pictori that I had not watermarked were shared on Facebook without any mention of the source, so I would recommend watermarking your images, and even allowing only smaller-size versions of your images to be viewed. I have so far not found any of the watermarked ones (small or large) to have been shared without my permission.

http://www.pictori.net

Please note that the site now includes approximately 100 unique photos taken by Harold Hardy-Smith, a mining engineer who lived in Korea and Japan around the years 1914 to 1916. Among the scenes are weddings, shaman rituals and market places.

photos, KR war

large number of photos of the Korean war (origin is unclear) http://www.flickr.com/photos/china-postcard/

early accounts of Korean scenes

...account of Korea published by Alexander Williamson in 1870. He got about as close as anyone could by selling Christian books to Koreans at the Palissade Gates in Manchuria, see http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/WilliamsonCorea1870.html where there is already another fascinating account of Koreans from about the same time, also from Manchuria, by an interesting American, Walton Grinnell. See http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/ManchuriaWaltonGrinnell.html with the full list of Old Books about Korea at http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/BooksKorea.htm

For early photos from the Prints and Photograph collection at the Library of Congress in USA, see http://old-koreaphotos.wikispaces.com

View the world with these 40 surprising maps‏

Visual context for worldview in 40 maps: These visual treats will prompt lots of thinking and talking. Share with others keen on understanding the world and its people.

http://asheepnomore.net/2013/12/29/40-maps-will-help-make-sense-world/