The agenda is now final. Something for everyone:

Monday, September 8, 2008

15.00 to 17.30: Arrival and Registration
18.00: Drinks reception
19.00 for 19.30: Dinner
21.00: Keynote Speech, Professor Meredith Jung-en Woo, University of Virginia. Title: Korea’s Free Trade: The Highest Stage of Industrial Policy

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

9.00 to 10.30: Panel One, Plenary: Political and Security Developments on the Korean Peninsula
Ambassador Chun Yung-Woo, ROK Ambassador to the UK;
Ambassador Warwick Morris, former UK Ambassador to the ROK;
Dr James Hoare, former UK Charge d’affaires, Pyongyang, former chairman of BAKS

10.30 to 11.30: Coffee break

11.00 to 12.30 Panel Two: The Two Koreas, Strategy & Ideology
Choi Jong-kyun, University of Reading: Strategic Relations on the Korean Peninsula since 1948: Strategic Culture as Commonality and Difference
Dr Tim Beal, Victoria University of Wellington: The Koreas’ Search for International Legitimacy
Johannes Gerschewski, German Institute of Global and Area Studies: An Analysis of North Korea’s Historical Development from the Viewpoint of a New Ideology-Oriented Framework of Totalitarianism

12.30 to 14.00 Lunch

14.00 to 15.30 Panel Three: Politics and Policy in South Korea
Dr Kim Young-mi, University of Edinburgh: Party system, regionalism and the Debate over the Electoral Law in South Korea
Dr John DiMoia, National University of Singapore: Challenging Nationalist Historiography, Lee Tae-kyu and the Origins of a South Korea Scientific Community, 1948-1971
Mr Aidan Foster Carter, Honorary Research Fellow, Leeds University: Lee Myung-bak: what went wrong?

15.30 to 15.45 Coffee break

15.45 to 18.15 Panel Four: Film and the Formation of Korean Identities
Jeon Yong-Woog, University of Cambridge: From victimization towards humour: Zainichi identities in Film
Oh Sung-ji, Korean Film Archive: Korean film in the late colonial/wartime era.
Dr Mark Morris, University of Cambridge: ‘Jayu mansei’ (Hurrah for Freedom): Korean Film at Liberation
Kim Chung-kang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Suturing the ‘Defiance’: South Korean Youth Film (1963-1966)
Sueyoung Park-Primiano, New York University: South Korean Cinema in the Post-Liberation Era, 1945-1948: Occupation, Hollywood and the Writing of a New Cultural Identity

18.30 Pre-dinner drinks

19.00 Dinner
21.00 Annual General Meeting, BAKS
21.30 Film Showing: Springtime on the Peninsula (Pando-ŭi pom, 1941)

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

9.30 to 10.30 Panel Five: Literature, Language and Cultural Approaches
Dr Pokholkova Ekaterina: Moscow State Linguistic University: Russian and South Korean Linguistic Approaches to Terminology
Choi Minkoo, University of Hawaii: The Discourse of Free love, the New Woman and Modernity in Cheya (Night in Seclusion)

10.30 to 11.00 Coffee break

11.00 to 12. 30 Panel Five (continued): Literature, Language and Cultural Approaches
Dr Jo Elfving-Hwang, University of Leeds: Encountering the Unspoken Other in South Korean ‘Division Literature’
Kim Jeehun, University of Oxford: Flexible Transnational Families? A Case Study on Korean Professional Migrant Families in Singapore

Conference Ends

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR KOREAN STUDIES
2008 Biennial Conference

‘The Koreas at 60: Looking Back, Looking Forward’
FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT

The Association will host its biennial conference at Clare College, the University of Cambridge from Monday 8 September to Wednesday 10 September.

The Keynote Speaker on the evening of 8 September will be Prof. Meredith Jung-En Woo, Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia, USA. There will be a plenary panel of diplomats and scholars on the first day to discuss current affairs on the Korean peninsula, followed by a series of papers on topics of historical and contemporary interest to be given by British and international scholars. The Conference will begin with the Reception at 6:00PM on Monday, and conclude at 12.30 on Wednesday.

Further particulars on the Conference arrangements and the schedule of papers will be published on the BAKS website shortly.

For information regarding registration and to secure a place at the conference, please contact:

Dr. John Swenson-Wright
BAKS 2008 Biennial Conference Organiser
Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
University of Cambridge
Sidgwick Avenue
Cambridge CB3 9BA
email jhs22 at cam dot ac dot uk

The Anglo-Korean Society through the Bursary Committee of the British Association for Korean Studies is offering a single £500 bursary on a competitive basis to post-graduate students.

The Anglo-Korean Society was founded in 1956 to foster friendship between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Korea. By providing opportunities for contacts between British nationals and Koreans residing in or visiting Britain, the Society seeks to bring together everyone in the UK who has an interest in Korean matters, and to act as a forum for social and cultural exchange in an environment of friendship and understanding.

Details of the Anglo-Korean Society Post-Graduate Bursary Programme are as follows:

1. The bursary is open to students of British nationality who are registered to do a post graduate degree at a British university.
2. The term “post graduate” includes taught and research degrees
3. The programme of study or research must be largely if not wholly focussed on Korea, past or present.
4. Preference will be given to programmes of study and research in the area of the humanities or social sciences broadly defined, although other areas could be given consideration in exceptional circumstances.
5. Preference will be given to students whose programme of study o research includes the study of and/or the use of the Korean language.
6. There is no restriction on how the bursary will be used by the student.
7. At the end of the academic session in which the bursary is received, the recipient will write a brief letter describing how the bursary furthered the recipient’s studies. This should be addressed to the Anglo-Korean Society and sent to the chairman of the Bursary Committee of the British Association for Korean Studies.

Interested Students should apply by doing the following:

1. Complete an application form
2. Obtain two (2) letters of recommendation from tutors or lecturers.

The application and recommendation forms may be obtained from the chairman of the Bursary Committee at the address shown below. Each letter of recommendation should be placed by the recommender in a separate sealed envelope with the signature of the recommender written across the fold. Completed applications should be posted to

Prof James H Grayson
BAKS Bursary Committee (re: Anglo-Korean Society Post-Graduate Bursary)
School of East Asian Studies
The University of Sheffield
Sheffield S10 2UJ

and received by the committee no later than Friday 30 May 2008. All applications will be informed of the Committee’s decision within four weeks.

Last year the bursary was awarded to LKL contributor Beccy Kennedy, who gave a report of her trip to Korea to the AGM of the Anglo-Korean Society in February.

BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR KOREAN STUDIES

The AKS and BAKS are pleased to announce the Anglo-Korean Society Post-Graduate Bursary Programme. A single £500 bursary is being offered on a competitive basis to taught and research post-graduate students. The submission date for all applications will be 1 April, 2008.

The programme will be administered by the Bursary Committee of the British Association for Korean Studies on behalf of the Anglo-Korean Society.

Information about the bursary and application forms may be obtained from the Chair of the BAKS Bursary Committee, Prof. James H. Grayson, or from the BAKS website at www.baks.org.uk which will be put up shortly. Prof. Grayson’s contact details are:

Prof. James H. Grayson, Chair
BAKS Bursary Committee
School of East Asian Studies
University of Sheffield
Sheffield S10 2TN
United Kingdom

LKL’s contributor Beccy Kennedy was winner of the 2007 bursary.

Abstract: Barred from attending the Hague Peace Conference, the Korean delegation at first sight miserably failed in its task of representing Korea at the Conference. Reading this episode as a continuation of Kojong’s ongoing attempts to secure Korean neutrality under international law, the dispatch of the delegation to The Hague becomes a show of great acumen by Kojong who confronted the powers with the ambiguity between the lofty ideals of sovereign equality and the reality of ‘legalized hierarchies’. Approaching the Korean deputation from perspective of the international community present in The Hague and its reactions to the sudden appearance of this unexpected deputation, I rely on conference documents, diaries, dispatches and contemporary press coverage to establish the constraints the delegation faced and how under such circumstances they proved very adequate advocates of the Korean cause in the international arena. Rather than envoys from a ‘hermit kingdom’, the Korean deputation proved to be skilled spin doctors.

Notes (the usual caveats about my amateur efforts apply)

• KdC opened his talk with images of two recent postage stamps — one issued by each of the Koreas to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Hague Peace Conference in 1907. The DPRK stamp shows Yi Chun committing seppuku in the centre of the conference plenary session. The actual cause of death — in Yi’s hotel bed — is unknown, but likely to be more mundane, maybe from blood poisoning.
• KdC placed the Korean delegation as the continuation of Kojong’s attempt to achieve the “international neutralisation” of Korea, commenced in 1902 with a letter to the Dutch foreign minister with a request to sign up to the Hague Peace Convention of 1899, which (1) laid out rules about war on land, (2) applied the Geneva convention to war at sea, and (3) laid a framework for peaceful settlement of international disputes in an international court of arbitration. Korea could sign up to (1) and (2) unilaterally, but (3) required the consent of the Treaty powers — which was withheld (as Korea’s foreign policy at the time was under Japanese control)
• The Korean delegation to the Peace Conference consisted of Yi Sangsol, ex deputy prime minister, as “eyewitness”; Yi Chun, a lawyer; and Yi Wijong, as diplomat. Yi Wijong (son of Yi Pom-jin?), fluent in French, English and Russian (and married to a Russian), was a master spin-merchant and adept at handling the western press.
• The group of three Koreans behaved as a formal delegation and was treated as such by the press, but was declined access to the conference. KdC showed some of the press coverage of the conference, reflecting the generally cynical public attitude towards it (the conference was perceived as being designed to protect the interests of the military — to be about organising war rather than preventing it)
• Korea’s presence in the Hague failed to meet its objectives (it could hardly succeed given Korea’s status vis-a-vis Japan since 1905, and in an international environment where less developed nations were perceived as being there to be colonised, and rich nations as almost having a duty to develop the resources of the poorer nations). But it was a PR success if nothing else, succeeding for example in showing that Japan was not as civilised as it claimed to be (having reintroduced torture to Korea since the colonisation) and in communicating the Korean side of the story — that the protectorate treaty of 1905 was unlawful, and that there were international treaties guaranteeing Korea’s sovereignty which were being ignored.

Back to conference main page

Abstract: The guild system of late Chosŏn Seoul and the guild-government trade underpinned the commerce of the capital city and represented a significant slice of national commerce as a whole. This premodern commercial system rested on three planks: a government that could afford to pay high prices for commodities; long-term stability in market prices; and a system of mixed commodity payments. However, in the 1880s all three of these factors were undermined, primarily by severe inflation and government insolvency, but also by the entrance of foreign merchants into the market and increased levels of bureaucratic corruption. This paper traces the origins and development of the crisis that engulfed the traditional guild-centred commercial system of Seoul in the 1880s and early 1890s as well as the responses of both guild merchants and the Chosŏn government. Through an analysis of the accounting records of the domestic silk guild and an examination of government edicts, this paper will show how the Chosŏn state attempted to remedy the problems of soaring inflation and its own insolvency by switching to more market prices and introducing a new payment system. However, so long as there was no fundamental improvement in government finances and the state continued to demand goods from the guilds at fixed prices in order to fulfil its tribute duties to Qing China, there could be no lasting solution to the crisis of the 1880s. This crisis was finally brought to a head with the reforms of 1894-5 that abolished both the monopoly of the guilds and their fixed price trade with the government. This did not mark the end of the close market-state relations that characterised Korea’s precapitalist commerce, but rather the beginning of a completely new phase.

Notes (the usual caveats about my amateur efforts apply)

Long term fixed price contracts are fine in times of stability but when prices change that can spell ruin for the supplier. In the good times, the silk guild made margins of 30-50% - but the continuation of fixed prices in times of inflation (particularly when the government wanted to pay in debased currency rather than the cash, cloth and rice combination originally agreed) caused massive losses for the guild (In 1891 the guild was being paid 16 units for silk which cost 90).

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Abstract: An early resolution of a conflict of values is necessary if a missionary religion is to find acceptance in the culture of the receiving society. In East Asia, under the influence of Confucianism, filial piety came to be seen as the principal personal and social moral value, which moral sentiment was to be given visible representation in the performance of ancestral rituals. Christian missions, Catholic and Protestant, faced a conflict between filial piety and ancestral rites on the one hand, and the proscription of the performance of idolatrous rites on the other hand. From the end of the nineteenth century, Korean Protestants have resolved this conflict by developing a Christian ritual which is a substitute for Confucian ancestral rites. Within a century, this rite has become the central rite in a complex of Confucian-based Christian death and funerary rituals.

Notes (the usual caveats about my amateur efforts apply)

• The development of the Ch’udo Yebae, the memorial service, is easier to trace for the more liturgically-based Methodists than it is for the Presbyterians
• First Methodist records are much earlier than first thought: the first record dating to 1897 — a report of a memorial service in the papers of the Chongdong First Methodist Church.
• By 1935 the service had made it into the Korean Methodist Prayer Book — the order of service (and who does what) is specified in detail (prayers, hymns, bible readings etc)
• It is made clear that the service is a memorial, and clearly not ancestor worship. It’s conducted on the death day only, and for three years only (the period of mourning).
• More recent systematisation has detailed diagrams of the layout of the space where the ceremony is held (”Christianity being confucianised?”)

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Abstract: The first price runs for Korean rice help us develop a Smithian physiocratic model to explain the low, stable prices of the eighteenth century and the rising, volatile prices of the nineteenth. Ownership rights provided incentives, and productivity after 1600 exceeded subsistence to achieve rural commercialization. Infrastructure investment from the late seventeenth century promoted development and prosperity, but declining investment, dysfunctional institutions, bad weather, and a population crash pushed the economy towards subsistence in the nineteenth. Decline saw rice monoculture, inflation, and price volatility even before imperialism’s impact. Parallels with China suggest an “East Asian” pre-modern agricultural model.

Notes (the usual caveats about my amateur efforts apply)

• JL’s talk fleshed out some interesting price data. Relative prices of rice and finished cloth suggested, during the good times, agricultural surplus being invested in other local industry. Price spikes were correlated with particular external events.
• Price graphs were provided in copper (Korea’s local currency) and silver (the currency which Western economists can relate to).
• Decline in the late nineteenth century can be attributed to a number of inter-related factors — population fall in the 1820s (cholera, civil unrest); degradation in land productivity (floods, decline in government investment in irrigation infrastructure); declining grain reserves; lack of government tax relief following floods.

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Abstract: Korea is famous in the global history of printing not only for the concrete evidence of printing in the eighth century found at the Bulguksa but also for the development and use of movable type several centuries before Gutenberg in Europe, but there is another reason for taking interest in the Korean book in the Chosŏn dynasty (1392-1910). The creation of the Hangul alphabet in the fifteenth century made it possible for the first time to print not only Chinese texts but also Korean texts, and in this paper I shall be focusing on a range of publications which combine original Chinese texts with Korean translations and interpretations presented in Hangul. These books, known as ŏnhaebon, are remarkable for their commitment to translation, that is, for the assumption that there was a class of readers for whom the Chinese texts are too difficult and for their provision of a mediated text that was accessible to a wider range of readers. It seems that nowhere else in the East Asian world engaged with Chinese texts, even canonical texts like the Four Books of the Confucian tradition, in this way. With slides from books preserved in libraries in Korea and Britain, I shall show what is unique about these books and consider the question of the widening range of readers in Chosŏn dynasty (1392-1910).

Notes:

A fascinating talk with plenty of illustrations. The abstract summarises the talk well. In addition:

• ÅŽnhaebon were not commercial publications: their publication was politically driven
• Some ÅŽnhaebon were designed for academics, others to disseminate texts (and doctrines) more widely
• The early ŏnhaebon were of Buddhist texts: the delay in publishing the classic Confucian texts was caused by the political difficulties in determining the correct interpretations (in a climate when holding the wrong view as to interpretation could be fatal).

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No abstract is available

Notes (the usual caveats about my amateur efforts apply)

AK started with a brief account of the severe floods in Pyongan province in 1859. The records indicate that the central government sent an “admonishing magistrate” to assess the situation, provide comfort and advice, and to distribute aid. Compensation was provided for loss of life and property. AK traced the history of both types of aid:

• Loss of life
  • A practice inherited from China
  • Initially only granted to the families of high officials who lost their life in the course of their duties.
  • Subsequently extended to soldiers who died in national service
  • King Sejong in 1442 widened the scope to include anyone dying on official duty.
  • Subsequently extended to cover any unnatural death: eg:
    • Drowning, suicide (often to avoid death by starvation), murder, food poisoning, freezing to death, unjust execution, killed by tigers, even trampled to death by a crowd (AK gave the statistic that in 1754 120 people were killed by tigers in the course of one month in Kyongi Province alone, while the deaths as a result of poor crowd control occurred during a special examination by the king in 1686)
  • By 1673 the practice had become a “cumbersome task to administer” as well as being open to corrupt practices by local magistrates (who were responsible for making the initial assessment and passing the request for aid to the central government)

• Loss of property
  • Practice of providing compensation for loss of property started in early 17th century, but had become systematised by eighteenth century.
  • eg loss of housing in a fire in 1748 was compensated by a gift of millet and more timber.
  • Tax exemptions in the event of crop failure was a separate system, distinct from these compensation arrangements.
  • System worked well up until the mid 1860s (contrary to a conventional view of the Koryo dynasty as being exploitative), but thereafter economic decline meant there were fewer resources to give away.

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Abstract: The presentation will focus on the history of what I call the Korean “descent group” (ssijok) and trace its evolution from early Korea (Silla and Koryŏ, ca. fifth to fourteenth centuries) through the Chosŏn dynasty (1392-1910). It will be argued that descent groups were not only the fundamental social organization of Korean kin; they also dominated the allocation of the political and economic resources. Two momentous events had a profound impact on their development: the introduction of the Chinese-style examination system in 958 and the adoption of Neo-Confucianism as state ideology by the founders of the Chosŏn. Both these events altered the inner workings of the indigenous kin group. Yet despite its Confucian transformation into a patrilineal lineage system during the sixteenth century the Korean kin group retained certain characteristics that made it substantially different from its Chinese prototype.

Notes (the usual caveats about my amateur efforts apply)

The background

• The Silla ssijok
  • The ssijok was gender-neutral: daughters received an equal share of the patrimony
  • The family was traced through both male and female lines (the family tree spread horizontally as well as simply vertically)
• The Bone Rank system
  • Only the top ranks got the top political posts: social status determined political power
  • As branches of the family left Seoul for the country, identification with a particular locality (eg the Andong Kwons) became an important factor

The threats

• The Chinese examination system (in which anyone could take the exams)

• Potentially:
  • Replaces birth / social status with merit as the driver of political power
  • Therefore a threat to the established aristocratic order
• But
  • Korea restricted the exams to those who could pass the “four ancestors” test (father, paternal grandfather, paternal great-grandfather, maternal grandfather)
  • Passing the exams endorsed your status as a member of that family / ssijok
  • Outsiders could only enter the exams by falsifying their family history
  • While passing the exams was a passport to the civil service, it was your contacts and your family that determined how influential you became (how different is that from today…?)
  • Some clans reinforced their influence by intermarriage: a very high percentage of successful examination candidates 1391 — 1567 are named in both the Andong Kwon and Munhwa Yu records.

• Neo-confucianism
  • A patrilineal system
  • Elder brothers take precedence over younger brothers
  • Wives are classified into “primary” and “secondary” (in order to identify which is the senior son)
  • Domestic shrines are built to patrilineal ancestor. Ancestral rites are focused on the domestic shrine, and are conducted by a restricted group of male close family members, the senior family member presiding. Rites focus on ancestors back four generations. By contrast, Buddhist memorial practices were focused on the ancestor’s grave, with a much wider family circle (including women) participating; ancestors further back than four generations were honoured.
  • The Korean compromise
    • Establish a wider group than normal under conventional Confucian practice — the munjung. Ancestors honoured went back further than four generations, and the celebrant was not necessarily the clan head. In this grouping brothers were treated as equals, but women were still excluded.

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The next conference of the British Association of Korean Studies (BAKS) will take place between the 8th and 10th of September 2008. The venue will be Clare College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. The theme of the proceedings will be “The Koreas at 60 - Looking Forward / Looking Back.”

The BAKS council invites submissions of paper abstracts on the theme of the conference from individuals who wish to participate. (These can either be individual submissions or panel proposals, and submissions are especially welcome from graduate students.). The deadline for submission of abstracts is December 31st, 2007. While BAKS hopes to provide for as many papers as possible, the council acts as the final arbiter in deciding which papers will be accepted and anticipates announcing the successful paper proposals in February 2008.

Details on the conference venue can be found here: http://www.clare.cam.ac.uk/conferences/index.html

Further particulars on the anticipated cost of attending the conference will be announced in due course and will be publicised on the BAKS website at:

http://www.dur.ac.uk/BAKS/

For further information, please contact the conference organizer: Dr John Swenson-Wright on: jhs22 AT cam DOT ac DOT uk

Convenors: Professor Peter Kornicki, FBA - Professor of East Asian Studies, University of Cambridge
Professor James H. Grayson - Professor of Modern Korean Studies, University of Sheffield

Friday 7 December 2007
9.30am - 5.00pm
The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH

£30 (£15 concessions, postgraduate students may attend free of charge)

Interest in Korea has been growing steadily in the UK over the last twenty years, partly because of the political tensions on the Korean peninsula but also because of the growing awareness that Korea has had a key role to play in East Asia, and as a result the British Association for Korean Studies is now a thriving organization.

Last year Professor Dr Martina Deuchler was elected to a corresponding fellowship in the British Academy, the first Koreanist to be so honoured, and the conference is designed to bring Korean studies within the Academy’s horizons. It will focus on Korea in the Choson dynasty (1392-1910) and the centerpiece will be a lecture by Professor Deuchler herself. Other papers will explore social and economic change in pre-modern Korea, disaster relief, education and print culture.

Detailed programme is below:

9.00 Coffee and registration
9.30 Welcome
9.35 Professor James Grayson, President of British Association for Korean Studies

Session 1
Chair: Professor Peter Kornicki - Professor of East Asian Studies, University of Cambridge
9.40 Professor Martina Deuchler - Professor of Korean Emerita & Professorial Research Associate, SOAS
The social in society: some reflections on the meaning of descent groups in Korean history [abstract]

10:50 Tea/coffee

Session 2
Chair: Professor James Grayson, President of British Association for Korean Studies
11.15 Dr Anders Karlsson - Lecturer in Korean, SOAS
Royal benevolence and disaster relief in Chosŏn Korea
12.00 Professor Peter Kornicki - Professor of East Asian Studies, University of Cambridge
Publishing and translation in the Chosŏn period [abstract]

12.45 Buffet Lunch

Session 3
Chair: Ms Grace Koh - Lecturer in Korean Literature, SOAS
1.45 Dr James B. Lewis - University Lecturer in Korean History, Oxford University
Economic changes in the late Choson period
2.30 Professor James Grayson - Professor of Modern Korean Studies and Director of Centre for Korean Studies, Sheffield University
Ch’udo yebae: a Protestant substitute for Confucian ancestral rituals [abstract]
3.15 Dr Owen Miller - Research Fellow, Centre for Korean Studies, SOAS
The crisis of Seoul’s traditional commercial system, 1876-1895 [abstract]

4.00 Tea/Coffee

Session 4
Chair: Dr John Swenson-Wright - Fuji Bank Lecturer in Modern Japanese Studies, Cambridge University
4.15 Dr Koen De Ceuster - Docent, Leiden University
The Korean delegation at the 1907 Peace Conference in The Hague
5.00 Close of conference

Links:

• Book your attendance via the British Academy website

My notes from the conference (with the usual caveats)

• Martina Deuchler on descent groups
• Anders Karlsson on royal benevolence
• Peter Kornicki on publishing and translation
• James B Lewis on economic expansion and decline
• James Grayson on memorial services
• Owen Miller on the silk guild
• Koen De Ceuster on the Hague peace conference

We started with early views of Western civilization as viewed from Korea through their tributary missions to China. Shin Il-cheol discussed the account by Kang Hobu of an embassy to Beijing originally written in 1727 and then re-published in 1839 with additional commentary by the author’s great-grandson. The account contains passages on Western learning introduced to China by the Jesuits, and therefore provides insights into Korean attitudes to this learning over that period.

Kang Hobu showed an open-mindedness towards Western astronomy and the calendar, but what struck him most was the realism in the Western-style paintings

To me, while ghouls appeared to have embedded themselves in the images of persons found in the paintings, the animals also seemed to be possessed by some kind of evil spirits

As western powers began to encroach eastwards in the 19th century, attitudes became more sceptical. Cho Yang-won’s paper described the account of an embassy to Beijing in 1832, which followed the alarming appearance of a British ship, the Lord Amherst, in Korean waters demanding a commercial treaty. Admiration of western technology - particularly navigation technology - is again expressed. But Cho also pointed out that many other accounts of the time stressed the Western exploitation of China:

Such reports also pointed out how Qing had been losing thousands of silver coins every year as a results of the fact that Western merchants, rather than engaging in the barter of goods, were simply selling their wares within the Chinese market in exchange for silver coins, a practice which caused a serious run on Chinas’ supply of silver currency.

Both of the accounts also touch on Korean views on Christianity. Kang, without having the luxury of immersing himself in theological college, views the Christian life through Eastern eyes:

The doctrine of this religion is based on the notion of purity in that it emphasises the need to make efforts to remove desire and greed and to find the right path so as to become a mountain god. This religion appears for the most part to be a combination of the principles of Mountain Taoism and Buddhism.

But in the 1832 embassy, the author was reluctant to visit a church:

The Choson and Chinese governments have prohibited us from coming into contact with Western Learning. Having heard that their religion possesses the power to make people delusional, I did not even attempt to fix my eyes on or step into this particular space.

Back in Korea, the catholic persecutions in 1791 (the Chinsan Incident) and 1801 (the Hwang Sayong Silk Letter incident) signaled a rejection of Western Learning, which explains the frosty reception awaiting Basil Hall and his colleagues in 1816. James Grayson’s paper provided some of Hall’s family background, locating Hall as a product the Scottish Enlightenment, son of Sir James Hall who

was one of the most important and creative scientific thinkers and researchers of his time making major contributions to the development of the modern science of geology.

Basil shared his father’s scientific interests, and his account of the voyage to Choson “provides the earliest Western description of the geology of Korea”. Grace Koh’s paper focused more on passages of Hall’s book dealing with interaction with the natives:

These people have a proud sort of carriage, with an air of composure and indifference about them, and an absence of curiosity which struck us as being very remarkable.

An extended version of Koh’s paper is available online at the AKS and is a fascinating read. Both Koh and Grayson highlighted the unfortunate lack of preparation by the British explorers, arriving in Korea without anyone who could speak or read the language. Elaborate sign language was sometimes but not always effective, and Koh records how Hall envied the natural ability of the common sailors somehow to get on with the locals more easily that the officers.

Kim Seung-u followed with an analysis of a kasa (narrative poem) written about a 1902 diplomatic mission to London to attend the enthronement of Edward VII. London’s busy streets are reported, amazingly, as not having an ounce of dirt. And here’s an impression of the reception at Buckhingham Palace:

Five and six hundred beauties / bloom their flowers
They must be from fairy tales / or queens of yaochiyuan
Their beautiful scents stimulate noses / and astonish the eye
At the doors of the rooms on each floor / thunderous music springs out
Magnificence and splendor / can this be heaven on earth?

Jo Yoong-hee then focused on a late Victorian account of two British travellers in Korea. Embarrassingly, all they seemed to be interested in was shooting a few tigers, and got annoyed when Johnny Foreigner seemed too scared to take them hunting. Not all Brits abroad are good ambassadors for their nation. (See link at the bottom of this post for an interesting article on Korean tigers).

The last session of the day discussed materials which reflected Korean soul-searching as their country seemed powerless to respond to the encroachment of Western and Japanese imperialism. Kim Yun-hee presented Kim Hanhong’s travel kasa, an account of his lengthy peregrinations in 1903-1908. His admiration of the way of life in the United States - he made it to San Francisco - is tinged with regret that “his own country never got the opportunity to achieve such advancements as it lost its sovereignty just as it started to open its doors to the outside world”:

Vexatious, the loss of national sovereignty in the year of Ulsa /
Abolishment of diplomatic legations
Whom can I appeal to / overcome with deep grief and resentment
In a hurry to pack my luggage / must board at night and reach my next destination.

Lee Hyung-dae then analysed the writings in Korean Enlightenment period newspapers, which reflected the different attitudes to modernising Korea. In the 1880s the general thrust seemed to be in favour of introducing Western technologies, which brought with them military strength, but retaining Eastern ways, while the 1890s seemed to favour wholesale adoption of western ways, including political systems and cultures.

I am always amazed and grateful that these events are free and open to all, and thanks are due to the sponsors for this. Particularly useful were the very high quality translations of the Korean papers which were provided, and we were all appreciative of the consideration of the Korean scholars in presenting their papers in English. For the record, the conference programme is set out below.

Modern Encounters: Mutual Perceptions of Chosŏn Korea and the West as Reflected in Literature of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries

A One-Day Workshop jointly organised by the Centre of Korean Studies, SOAS & The British Association for Korean Studies

Wednesday, 25 April 2007

1-1.15pm Welcome and Opening Remarks

SESSION 1 — Early 19th Century Korean Encounters with the West: Travel Accounts by Chosŏn Envoys in China

1.15-1.45pm Dr Ik-Cheol Shin (Academy of Korean Studies)
Chosŏn literati’s understanding of ‘Western Learning’ in the 19th century based on Kang Hobu’s Sangbongnok

1.45-2.15pm Mr Yang-won Cho (Academy of Korean Studies)
Chosŏn literati’s perceptions of the West in the early 19th century as reflected in Kim Kyŏngsŏn’s Yŏnwŏn chikji.

SESSION 2 — Early 19th Century British Encounter with Chosŏn Korea: Basil Hall’s Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea (1818)

2.15-2.45pm Professor James H. Grayson (University of Sheffield)
Basil Hall’s Account of a Voyage of Discovery: The value of a British naval officer’s account of travels in the seas of Eastern Asia in 1816

2.45-3.15pm Ms Grace Koh (SOAS, University of London)
British perceptions of Chosŏn Korea as reflected in Basil Hall’s Account of a Voyage

3.15-3.45pm Coffee Break

SESSION 3 — Late 19th Century Encounters: Mutual Perceptions of Korea and Great Britain as Reflected in Travel Literature

3.45-4.15pm Dr Yoong-Hee Jo (Academy of Korean Studies)
Travel accounts of two Britons in Chosŏn Korea in the late 19th century: A. E. J. Cavendish’s Korea and the Sacred White Mountain

4.15-4.45pm Mr Seung-u Kim (Korea University)
Travel account of a Korean envoy in London: Yi Chongung’s Sŏyu kyŏnmunnok

SESSION 4 — Early 20th Century Korean Reactions to Foreign Encounters: Perceptions and Literary Modes

4.45-5.15pm Ms Yun-Hee Kim (Korea University)
Provincial literati’s perceptions of the West as reflected in the Haeyuga

5.15pm-5.45pm Dr Hyung-dae Lee (Korea University)
Perceptions of Western civilization and literary modes of expression in newspapers of the Korean Enlightenment period: Editorials and poems published in the Tongnip shinmun and Taehan maeil shinbo

5.45-6.00pm Closing Remarks

Links:

• British Perceptions of Joseon Korea as Reflected in Travel Literature of the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century - paper by Grace Koh
• When Tigers Stalked Korea - article by Robert Neff at OhMyNews - with a great watercolour of two rampaging tigers terrorising a Korean family. If you’re feeling lazy, there’s a podcast here, but obviously it doesn’t come with pictures.

the two films that best represent the modern face of the South Korean nation.

Hmm. A Hollywood style action flick and a feel-good movie about a spoilt brat who can’t get his choco-pies when staying with his impoverished granny out in the sticks. How could either of these films be said to represent South Korean modernity? Andrew Jackson accepted the challenge. It was an interesting compare and contrast exercise which was maybe a little forced at times, as with any such exercise, but which in the end came up with some good answers to the question.

Jackson set the scene pointing out that each film was in its own way a landmark. Swiri was Korea’s first major film to use Hollywood-style techniques ^[1] and was the first record-breaker of the Korean new wave ^[2], while The Way Home was the first Korean film to be bought by a major US distributor. He also noted that Swiri was made immediately after the IMF crisis and some embarrassing building collapses which questioned Korean construction standards: South Korea was in need of a morale-booster and Swiri gave it. Jackson noted how despite the fact that armed agents were rampaging all over Seoul blowing up office buildings and having major shoot-outs, there was not an American in sight. This is a struggle that the South Koreans can win on their own ^[3]. The Way Home premiered in 2002 when the South Korean economy had recovered somewhat from the IMF crisis. Korea could therefore afford to start looking back to some of its heritage and consider its relevance in a modern context.

Jackson concluded by synthesizing the views of modernity to be found in the two films: that South Korea could partake in western-style modernity, but can do so without foreign interference and while retaining its own distinct culture.

A fun and thought-provoking session.

1. which Jackson identified as a linear narrative, character-led plot and narrative closure
2. Someone from the floor also noted that Swiri was the one and only film ever made by the Samsung Group. At the time Sumsung had a big chain of multiplexes, which clearly helped in getting good distribution and hence box office; and they also incentivised employees to go see it
3. Kang Je-gyu’s follow-up blockbuster, Taegugki, similarly pretty much airbrushes out the US forces from the Korean war
4. excuse me if I’m a bit vague on plot details - I don’t know this film as well as I should
5. Jackson highlighted however the impassioned critique of the South given by the Choe Min-sik character, which is not really addressed or answered by the Han Suk-kyu character

We opened with Margaret Drabble giving an insight into her experiences writing The Red Queen. The book took 5 years to realise, much of which was taken up in senseless battles over copyright. It’s a mystery to me why the scholar responsible for the best translation of Lady Hyegyong’s memoirs should turn her nose up at free publicity and a fulsome endorsement, and withhold consent to have parts of her translation paraphrased in the novel (particularly when presumably Drabble could have hired an underpaid student to retranslate the original texts).

Drabble’s battle with the lawyers (7 in all) failed to dim her enthusiasm for the project. She described how she was gripped by Lady Hyegyong’s narrative — it was like reading Macbeth or Hamlet, but without knowing the ending. Her book has been well-received in Korea, where it is now in its third print run.

The wine had been flowing freely at dinner, thanks to the generosity of the Korean embassy, but that did not stop the assorted scholars requiring further refreshment at the bar after Drabble’s talk. The absence of any proper beer only slightly blunted people’s thirst. Fortunately for the state of people’s heads the next day the bar closed after two pints, but nevertheless the fine fry-up in the canteen the following morning was required to see at least one attendee through the first part of the day.

First up the next day was an interesting talk on Chosun dynasty medical understanding of madness at the time of Prince Sado’s death, given by Kang Han-rok. Park Sowon then examined the trans-cultural and trans-temporal exchanges taking place in Drabble’s book. I look forward to seeing these papers in print, because my head’s complaints about my abuse of it the previous evening was drowning out much of what the speakers were communicating.

The surprise hit of the morning was Andrew Logie’s talk on Choe In-hun, a long-established novelist whose works focus on the human fallout of the Korean war. Logie’s chosen subject was Choe’s novel The Grey Man, less well-known (because less approachable) than his previous novel, The Square. While in The Square the protagonist saw no escape from Korea’s troubles and ends up committing suicide, The Grey Man offers more hope in that the solution to Korea’s problems is to be found in nationalism. In discussion afterwards, it was commented that Choe’s views on nationalism were 20 years ahead of his time. Both novels have been translated into English, but are hard to obtain now.

David Prendergast restarted after the coffee break with an interesting study of family relationships — in particular looking at the circumstances in which elderly relatives choose to live with their children, comparing and contrasting rural with urban practice.

Son Key-young then looked at the “sadae” relationship between Yi dynasty Korea and China, and considered the application of the concept to Korea’s current relationship with the US.

In the last session before lunch, David Lee gave a lively account of how Kangnam — a district in southern Seoul — has developed over the past 30 years as a result of a conscious urban planning strategy. From being an undeveloped area of farmland and orchards 40 years ago it is now the only place to live in Seoul. Lee described how residents of Kangnam effectively now have a strangehold on places at the top schools and universities, and form an almost impregnable elite. Property prices are the most expensive in Seoul, so there are some fortunate former farmers who are now very rich indeed. Conversation over lunch revealed some first-hand stories of interacting with some of these nouveaux riches ^[1].

After lunch we launched into film. Cho Mi-hye described how the Korean government’s cultural policy has changed from trying to preserve culture to trying to create it. Her final slide overlaid a map of Seoul setting out the different proposed cultural zones with the industrial zones related to these.

Andrew Jackson’s title — which sounded a little dry — was the highlight of the afternoon for K-film fans, and I’ll post separately about that. Finally, Aramchan Lee spoke about the fractured and traumatic images of masculinity to be found in post IMF crisis film, focusing on four specific areas:

• Men inflicting violence on women (Happy End, The Isle, A Bittersweet Life)
• Men suffering from a traumatic past, revealed through flashbacks (Peppermint Candy, Oldboy)
• Men enjoying distorted or sadistic pleasures (Bad Guy, Lies, Friend)
• Men suffering from posttraumatic stress (Taegugki, Attack the Gas Station, H)

The final session of the conference turned to politics. The stand-out performance was the passionate and exuberant Kim Hyung-a, who described the ideologies of the different political generations in Korea:

• The 6.3 generation — Born in the early 40s, this generation participated in the 24 March - 3 June 1964 protests against Park Chung-hee’s accommodation with Japan. This generation was the standard-bearer of Korean nationalism and saw itself as the heirs of the April 19 student uprising. The watchwords of this generation were anti-foreign dominance and anti-dictatorship. Kim Chi-ha was one of the prominent intellectuals in this movement. One of the most memorable events was the mock “funeral of nationalistic democracy”, at which masked dances made one of their early appearances.
• The Yushin generation — Born in the 50s, this is the generation which started the minjung culture movement. The most memorable incident of the Yushin generation was the self-immolation of Cheon Tae-il. The key themes of this generation were human rights and anti-Yushin democratization.
• The 386 generation — In their 30s by 2000, at university in the 80s and born in the 60s. The footsoldiers of the minjung movement. This is the first post-war generation never to have been hungry. One of the key themes of this generation is their anti-americanism.

Kim Young-mi described the tension between the “civil society” (the 386 & Yushin generations) and the “veteran society” (the 6.3 generation), and suggested that views in relation to the DPRK were more determined by generation than by political party. She speculated on how votes would emerge if party discipline were not so strong.

Finally Alon Lefkowitz talked about how the South’s perception of threat from the North has changed over time, depending on geopolitical and national circumstances.

Many thanks to the organisers, especially James Grayson, for putting together such a stimulating conference.

More snaps of the conference are available here.

1. I can claim to have had my hair cut in Kangnam. I was surprised that it was almost as expensive as Bond Street prices — but this was the same hairdresser that I was privileged to know in W1

British Association for Korean Studies
2006 Biennial Conference Programme

Theme: ‘Generations in Korea: Past, Present and Future’

Venue: Halifax Hall, The University of Sheffield
6 - 7 September, 2006

Wednesday, 6 September
2 - 5:45 PM Registration

6 - 6:30 PM - Reception

6:30 - 8 PM Conference Dinner

8 - 9:30 Opening Session
Margaret Drabble - The Writing of The Red Queen.

Chair and Commentator - Dr. Agnita Tennant

Thursday 7 September
7:30 - 8:45 AM Breakfast

9 - 10:30 AM Panel 1 Chair - Dr. Grace Koh
Han-rog Kang Sickness of the Spirit: Madness in Choseon Korea.

Sowon Park Metempsychosis and Chiasmatic Encounter: On Margaret Drabble’s The Red Queen.

Andrew Logie The Grey Man’s fight for intellectual identity in early post-war Korea.

10:30 - 11 AM Refreshments

11 - 12:30 Panel 2 Chair - James Hoare

David Prendergast Ties that Bind: Ageing and Inter-generational Relations in Korea.

Son Key-young ‘A Millennium-Old Tale of Two Actors in Alliance Politics: An Elite Norm of Serving the Great and Grass-root Defiance in US-South Korea Alliance’.

David Lee Seoul Status: The Rise of Kangnam and Its Implications for Modern Korea.

12:30 - 1:45 Lunch

1:45 - 3:15 Panel 3 Chair Mark Morris

Mihye Cho Korean Cultural Policy in Paradigm Shift: from Preserving National Culture to Creating Culture.

Andrew Jackson Neither Here nor There: Positive Responses to Modernity in South Korean Film.

Aramchan Lee A Shift toward Masculinity in Korean Cinema since the Economic Crisis of 1997.

3:15 3:45 Refreshments

3:45 5:00 Panel 4 Chair John Swenson-Wright

Hyung-A Kim Evolution of Generational Change Within Koreas Democratisation Movement: From the 6.3 Generation to the 386 Generation.

Young-mi Kim Generational Change and Ideological Preferences in South Korea.

Alon Levkowitz Threat Perceptions in Korea: Generation or Political Change?

5:00 Closing Session

The application form to attend is pasted below:

BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR KOREAN STUDIES
2006 CONFERENCE

APPLICATION TO ATTEND

Name (Surname in block capitals):

Postal Address (please print):

Telephone (home):

(mobile):

I plan to attend the 2006 BAKS Conference:

I require accommodation at the Conference:

I have the following dietary needs (if any):

I have the following special accommodation needs (if any):

Please send this form by POST to:

Prof. James H. Grayson, 2006 BAKS Conference Organiser,
School of East Asian Studies,
The University of Sheffield,
Sheffield S10 2TN

accompanied by a £10 cheque made out in favour of The University of Sheffield as a deposit.

Charges for the conference are as follows: the Conference Fee of £40 and an Accommodation Fee of £35. The Conference Fee includes the registration fee for the Conference and all charges for the Conference Dinner (a 3-course sit-down meal) on 6 September, all refreshments during the Conference, and the Conference Lunch on 7 September.

The Accommodation Fee is for a single occupancy, en-suite room with toilet, shower and wash basin facilities. The Accommodation Fee also covers breakfast on the morning of the 7^th. Anyone needing addition on-site accommodation must notify the Conference Organiser of this fact at the time of making an application. Conference attendees are free to make their own accommodation arrangements if they so wish.