Last Thursday and Friday 24-25th September an itinerant band of Pansori sellers displayed their wares at the Korean Cultural Centre (KCC) and the School of Advanced Study, University of London. The main event was Yonsei University’s (Institute of Media Art) Jeong Taeg Lim and Jung A Huh’s talk on ‘The Aesthetic modernity of the traditional Korean music drama “Pansori”’ as part of the joint Institute for Germanic and Romance Studies (IGRS) & Institute for Musical Research conference on ‘Opera, Exoticism and Visual Culture’ mistress-minded by another Korean, Dr Hyunseon Lee of IGRS. The hors d’oeuvre (almost literally as the main focus was on ‘bibimpap’ as a metaphor for fusion in Korean culture) on the previous evening at the KCC was rather meagre fare. Chunhyang’s hanbok, feisty personality and diet, (presuming she ate bibimpap), present, so it was asserted, a rich mix for Korean authors and an exemplar for Korean women. Yes, well! A bit more evidence or analysis would have been handy. But perhaps Korean practioners of ‘media art’ are not aware of the anthropological of the parallelisms between food, dress and societal attitudes found other cultures, including Britain.

A pansori performance of Chunhyang

The ‘Pansori’ performance was much more meaty fare with a very strong claim for the uniqueness of Korean Pansori vis-à-vis Western opera. Not all agreed on the uniqueness (including one Korean) but the talk was certainly to be valued for its description of the impromptu interplay between drummer, singer and audience characteristic of Pansori. Also on sale for academic participation by Professors (at Goldsmiths and elsewhere) was Yonsei University’s “Technology - Imagination - Future” Project - apparently ‘bibimpap’ also provides food for thoughts on the extensive use of mobile phones in South Korea. Is Nam June Paik turning in his grave?

Links:

• Home page of Yonsei University Institute of Media Arts Technology - Imagination - Future project.

The editors guarantee a speedy review of manuscripts. The Korea Yearbook 2009 is due to be published in September 2009. For further information on the Korea Yearbook see www.brill.nl/koyb. For some reactions to the first edition of the Korea Yearbook see below.

“Korea Yearbook will be an indispensable resource for anyone interested in this most fascinating of countries. An international team of top-flight experts not only cover the year’s key political and economic developments in both North and South -and the growing relationship between them -but also focus in on an unusually wide range of more specific themes: from foreign investment and the Lone Star affair, via online journalism and new urban landscapes, to North Korean refugees in China. Much more than a compendium, this is an exhilarating tour of Korean economy, politics and society on both sides of the DMZ. Bravo!”

Aidan Foster-Carter, Leeds University

“A tremendously thorough, insightful and penetrating analysis, rich with information indispensable to the experts and useful to anyone interested in understanding the political, economic and diplomatic dynamics in both halves of the dynamic Korean Peninsula.”

Mark Fitzpatrick, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London

“This volume is the most comprehensive and important summary of political and economic events published on contemporary Korea. In addition, it has a number of excellent essays on both the North and the South and their interrelations, and a variety of chapters on aspects of the political-cultural Korean scene. This annual work will be an essential companion to any researcher on modern Korea, and one that every library on foreign affairs will need. We look forward to the annual production of volumes of equal caliber.”

David I. Steinberg, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

The 2008 Korea Yearbook is due to be released in November 2008.

The 2007 Korea Yearbook is still available at amazon.co.uk.

Lecture Title: The Image of Korean Women based on the Tale of Chunhyang
Date / Time: 24th September 2008, 18:30-19:30
Lecturer: Prof LIM Jeong Taeg (Director, Institute of Media Arts, Yonsei Univ.)

A Tale of Chunhyang:

13th Century, young Mongryong, Namwan Province’s governor’s son, falls in love at first sight with beautiful Chunhyang, Wolmae’s daughter. Wolmae was the former governor’s courtesan, and she’s now retired. The former governor died before being able to keep his promise to marry Chunhyang’s mother.

The two youngsters (about 15 years old) get secretly married (Chunhyang, as a courtesan’s daughter, belongs to a lower social class than Mongryong). Very soon, Mongryong’s father is appointed as a Minister in Seoul (Hanyang) and his son has no other choice than following him and studying in Korea’s capital city in order to become a high State representative. The two young married people swear faithfulness to each other until they meet again, and Chunhyang remains alone without any news from him for three years.

A new man, Byun, arrives to govern Namwan. Harsh and pitiless and having heard of Chunhyang’s great beauty, he tries to force her to his service. In spite of the law which obliges her to obey him (as a courtesan’s daughter), Chunhyang refuses because, she says: “As one can serve only one King, one can love only one man”. Tortures she’s given are powerless to make her change her mind and she’s fated to Death. Meanwhile, Mongryong passed his exams brilliantly and is charged by the King with a secret mission: to control how the State provinces work. He goes to Namwan where, disguised as a beggar, he learns his faithful wife’s imprisonnment and fate. He intervenes at the last moment, helped by his soldiers, and all is well that ends well!

Lecturer Profile:

Professor LIM Jeong Taeg is the director of the Institute of Media Arts at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea. He studied German Literature at Yonsei University and received his Ph.D. at the University of Konstanz in Germany for German 18th Century Literature. Since 1988, he has been teaching literature, film studies and digital art. In 1998 he founded the Institute of Media Arts, which critically examines the digital era’s cultural phenomena. As the director of this Institute he has been leading various projects on film, media art, cultural content, culture planning and policies for ten years. Now he is also a member of the evaluation committee for NURI (New University for Regional Innovation), which is a project supported the Ministry of Education & Science Technology. He also works as the advisor of the Asian Hub-City of Culture, an organization supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Since November 2007, he is leading a new government project called “Imagination and Technology”, which continues until 2017. For this project, he established the “Imagination Development Center”, which develops educational programs focusing an imagination and creativity. He published books and various articles on literature, film theory and digital art.

As usual, registration is required by contacting the KCC

Nami Morris performs Jindo Buk Chum

The conference opened with a bang, as the champagne corks popped in the Clare College JCR bar – generously funded by the ROK embassy – followed by some Jindo drumming from Nami Morris in the adjoining vaulted crypt underneath the Chapel. Lee Chul Jin then performed an atmospheric shamanistic dance – Salpuri – which had the audience’s rapt attention.

The opening gala dinner followed, and a keynote address from Meredith Jung-en Woo provided the perfect start to the conference, stimulating the appetite for intellectual engagement over the next two days with a thought-provoking (or even provocative, in the words of one questioner from the floor) discussion of the need for the KORUS FTA to be put in place, emphasising its geopolitical rather than its economic importance.

If the evening started with high culture it ended on a different note. As the whisky shots depth-charged into one or two pints of college lager in the JCR bar, the mighty sound of Yi Paksa’s disco ppongtchak rendition of YMCA sadly met with a mixed reception.

Lee Chul-jin performs Salpuri

The first full day of the conference started with looking forwards, with a focus on the prospect for denuclearisation, with thoughtful input from ambassadors past and present. Particularly valuable were the insights of Ambassador Chun, who was the ROK’s chief negotiator in the six-party talks. Subsequent papers from Choi Jong-hyun, Tim Beal and Johannes Gerschewski looked at the two Koreas’ strategy and ideology, with interesting analyses of the concepts of legitimacy and totalitarianism.

The afternoon started with two entertaining talks on South Korean politics: Youngmi Kim opened her presentation with photographs of shoes and fists flying in the National Assembly, and went on to analyse what went wrong with four specific initiatives of the Roh Moo-hyun administration, while the ever-engaging Aidan Foster Carter asked the same question of the current administration. In between, a fascinating talk from John DiMoia questioned the received historiography of South Korea’s most famous scientist, Lee Tae-kyu.

When matters such as politics and security issues are rehearsed in the newspapers daily there is a danger that attendees might think they have little more to learn, but each speaker gave new insights from their past experience and novel approaches. No such danger with film studies, where there is still much to research, particularly in the area of early Korean film.

In general the sessions on film looked at early Korean film history, though there was a fascinating exception in Jeon Yeon-woog’s discussion of Our School – a documentary about a school for zainichi Koreans in Hokkaido. Neither North Korean nor South Korean, the zainichi Koreans can visit both halves of the peninsula but belong to neither.

Springtime on the Peninsula (1941)

Followers of Korean film have a lot to thank the Korean Film Archive for, and we were fortunate to have Oh Sung-ji from KOFA present to discuss Korean film in the late Colonial era. Mark Morris introduced a screening of Springtime on the Peninsula (1941) an interesting product of the Colonial period, where the actors switched easily between Korean and Japanese, where all Korean dialogue had to be subtitled in Japanese, and where of course all the credits were in Japanese. But even under the authoritarian Japanese rule, Morris highlighted elements in the film where the Koreans could register their protest (for example, at a banquet where a patriotic (pro-Japanese) speech was being delivered there were some stony faces, and one person present looking like he was falling asleep). The contrast with the opening title sequence of Hurrah for Freedom (1946) was huge, as Morris pointed out, with the credits inscribed in Hangeul in a monumental typeface, as some triumphal Copland played over the soundtrack.

Meredith Jung-en Woo

But freedom from the Japanese did not mean freedom for the Korean film industry. Sueyoung Park-Primiano’s paper looked at the early post-liberation film industry. Within a couple of years, USAMGIK had imposed a film distribution regime more repressive than ever existed under Japanese colonial rule. Korea had to learn about the benefits of the American way of life, and film was a key tool for disseminating this. But rather insensitively, the first batch of 15 Hollywood films to be distributed in Korea (which included Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan) were subtitled in Japanese. Fortunately the ever-resourceful Koreans managed to bypass the rigid monopoly distribution system, and soon pirate copies of Hollywood films were in circulation.

Kim Chung-kang looked at some of the gender comedy films of the late 1960s, trashed by the critics but loved by the film-going public. A clip from Namja Kisaeng (Male hostess) had the conference attendees duly amused, while the presenter described how the comedy genre could slip in some criticism of the Park Chung-hee regime under the radar of the censors.

The last session of the conference looked at literature – the discourse of the Modern Woman in Yom Sang-seop’s Cheya (from Choi Minkoo), while Jo Elfving-Hwang gave a fascinating presentation on trauma literature, focusing on Hwang Seok-yong’s The Guest and Im Ch’ol-u’s My Father’s Land. We then returned to Korea in a globalised world, as Kim Jeehun introduced his work on the Korean migrant professionals in Singapore.

Thanks to John Swenson Wright and his helpers for a well-organised and stimulating couple of days, which gave the opportunity for new friendships to be made, old ones to be refreshed, and the latest researches to be shared. We look forward to the publication of some of the papers presented, and to the growth of Korean studies at Cambridge with the appointment of the new Korean Studies lecturer, Michael Shin, funded by the Korea Foundation.

Clare College, venue for 2008 BAKS conference

In the second season, the beginners’ classes are Saturday mornings at 11am. Those who are currently in the beginners’ class can, if they want, graduate on to the next set of classes, keeping the Wednesday 6:30pm slot.

From the KCC Website:

The Korean Cultural Centre UK continues its Korean Language Course. The Sejong Institute is kindly supported by the National Institute of the Korean Language in Korea.

• Beginners 1

- A new Beginners 1 course will start on 27th September 2008 and run every Saturday from 11 am to 1 pm for 11 weeks at the Centre.

- Number of students: 24

- No level test needs.

• Beginners 2

- This course is the continuation of the previous Beginners 1 course and will start on 1st October 2008, every Wednesday from 6.30 to 8.30 pm at the Centre.

- Number of students: 24 (students who have completed Beginners 1 will be given priority; we expect there to be 8-10 places for new students).

- Applicants who have not studied at the Centre before must be able to read and write hangul and must have knowledge of basic Korean sentence patterns including present and past tense. In order to complete the application process, applicants who have not studied at the Centre before will need to take a level test via e-mail.

The students will receive 4 course books designed to develop writing, listening, speaking, and reading skills. Additional materials for self-study will be given to the students during the course.

The course is highly recommended. I’m never going to be fluent in Korean, but going back to school is quite fun, and a very pleasant change from work.

The agenda is now final. Something for everyone:

Monday, September 8, 2008

15.00 to 17.30: Arrival and Registration
18.00: Drinks reception, including two performances of Korean dance: Salpuri (performed by Lee Chul-jin) and Jindo Buk Chum (performed by Nami Morris)
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-hyun, 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.
Kim Chung-kang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: From Codification to Transgressiveness: ‘Gender comedy films’ of 1960s South Korea

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 Four continued: Film and the Formation of Korean Identities
Dr Mark Morris, University of Cambridge: ‘Jayu mansei’ (Hurrah for Freedom): Korean Film at Liberation
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

10.30 to 11.00 Coffee break

11.00 to 12. 30 Panel Five: Literature, Culture and Sociological Approaches
Choi Minkoo, University of Hawaii: The Discourse of Free love, the New Woman and Modernity in Cheya (Night in Seclusion)
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

We’ll be getting an extra dose of our favourite 선생님 next week: he will be lecturing at the KCC on Tuesday evening on the subject of Korean Honorifics – a topic which justifies its own entry in wikipedia.

Here’s his own introduction to his talk

In this lecture, after describing the linguistic forms of Korean honorifics, I investigate two patterns of honorifics use in modern Korean society (normative use and strategic use).

“Honorifics” are linguistic resources that speakers use to express their relationship with the people they are talking to and the people they are talking about. In Korean, this system of honorifics is particularly complex and intricate. Not only can speakers signal social relationships through different pronouns, terms of address and lexical forms, but honorifics are also encoded in the grammar of the language. In every single sentence uttered, speakers of Korean apply different verb endings depending on their relationship with the hearer.

When describing the use of the Korean honorifics system, it is useful to distinguish between “normative” and “strategic” modes of use. The former refers to unmarkedusage that follows societal expectations; the latter refers to marked usage that speakers employ to pursue personal situation-specific goals.

Looking at “normative usage” first of all, the factors that plays the most decisive role in influencing the use of Korean honorifics is “power” in other words, the relative age, rank or status of interlocutors. The usage of honorifics towards notable elders (for example, grandparents and teachers) is heavily imbued with strong cultural thinking and neo-Confucian beliefs such as kyongnosasang (敬老思想; lit. respect-old-thought), which are still prevalent and actively promoted within Korean society. However, in line with recent social changes in Korea, normative honorifics use is moving away from the marking of hierarchical relationships towards more equalitarian and democratic patterns of use.

“Strategic usage” involves deliberate context-specific switching of honorific levels. For example, a husband and wife who usually use intimate language may upgrade to honorific language when arguing to signal a temporary increase in psychological distance. Alternatively, a young child may upgrade his/her language in the same way when asking for pocket money from his/her parents. From the opposite direction, speakers may suddenly drop honorific language to signal anger or scorn and decrease psychological distance.

As usual, pre-booking is required by emailing info at kccuk.org.uk or phoning 020 7004 2600

Full details here.

A bit beyond me I’m afraid. I’m still struggling with my counting words.

The objective of the prize is to promote, and make public, materials useful for teachers of undergraduate courses on modern Korea. Possible translations include academic essays, series of newspaper articles, magazine features, or original archival sources, to name just a few.

Submissions for this year’s competition must be received at the CSK by September 1, 2008.

For more information see the CSK website at www.utoronto.ca/csk, where you can also find last year’s winner, Memories of a Zainichi Korean Childhood by Kang Sangjung, translated by Robin Fletcher.

Report by Saharial, with photo by Matthew Jackson

This informative lecture by Dr. Hyunsun Yoon examined the way the elderly are represented in both British and Korean advertising.

A growing demographic, the elderly population is regarded with a great difference between the two cultures, something demonstrated well when comparing various advertising clips. Confucian values of family, filial duty and respect for the elderly provide the basis for the Korean perception, the elderly portrayed as helpful, doing gentle activities, imparting wisdom and embodying the feeling of ‘Han’. ‘Han’ is a concept of wistfulness, nostalgia and reminiscence, often related to the unique political situation in Korea.

This advert for Werthers in the UK, ran for 15 years until it was pulled in the early years of this decade as the public were obviously unable to relate to the imagery.

and, albeit tongue in cheek, adverts such as those for Safe Storage and John Smith’s Beer regard the elderly as useless and disposable.

Safe Storage

John Smith Bitter

Adverts shown for companies like KT (Korea Telecom) show communication between parents and children on a daily basis, a government sponsored advert shows the grandmother helping to raise the children whose parents must go to work and feel they ‘abandon’ their filial duty. The UK adverts for BT usually deal with families that are dysfunctional in some way, an odd concept if you think about it – for a communications device.

It was definitely a lecture that gave one a lot to think about in terms of how cultural differences still rule the nature of advertising and marketing, even if the financial and product aspects get closer together. Both cultures use ‘overflow’ from popular dramas and ‘worlds’ to create a familiar feel. In the UK we have Sibyl from ‘Fawlty Towers’ transposed to Tesco while Korea has Dae Jang Geum transposed to advertise instant noodles.

An interesting point made by one of the many attendees for the lecture was that the Korean portrayal of the elderly is far more passive than those of the UK – the UK elderly are vociferous complainers, stubborn and determined and that we like it that way. We, he went on to add, will always take the humorous route in advertising whereas Koreans will always select the sentimental and emotional angle.

Commercial breaks will never be the same again…

The event was partly to celebrate the launch of the Selected Writings of Han Yongun (above right), which was done in style, with plenteous wine and nibbles plus a traditional dance from Lee Chul Jin, who performed in Trafalgar Square the week before. He will be based at SOAS for the next six months.

The launch and conference was a who’s who of Korean studies, a great way of networking and hearing the gossip. Jane Portal, for example, was present, and people were speculating as to who was going to take on her Korean responsibilities at the British Museum now she’s off to Boston.

My day job got in the way of attending the full conference, but I managed to hear most of Vladimir Tikhonov discussing the merits and demerits of available Korean history textbooks available in English. None were thought to be totally ideal, with the standard work, Korea Old and New, lacking a little in regional perspective, while other more recent works in English did not take into account the latest historical research available in Korean. Tikhonov suggested that a new text book was needed, reflecting all the latest research, maybe written by a number of different scholars. But in discussion afterwards there weren’t any volunteers to write a chapter.

A similar problem was identified by Charlotte Horlyck, who reviewed the available literature on Korean art history in English – a rather short list compared with the wealth of information and different viewpoints available in English on Chinese and Japanese art. This means that any Westerner who is serious about studying Korean art history has to learn Korean: if restricted solely to western texts a student could potentially find the subject “boring” because more or less the same artefacts are discussed in more or less the same way in many of the texts.

Some of the texts available were catalogues linked to exhibitions of Korean art in the West. Dr Horlyck gave a useful summary of recent opportunities to view Korean artefacts: earlier exhibitions gave a broad overview of the Korean art world:

• A touring show in the US in 1979-1981: 5,000 Years of Korean Art.
• In 1984 came Treasures from Korea: Art through 5000 years at the British Museum
• In 1998 the Met published Arts of Korea to coincide with the opening of their permanent Korean gallery
• Korea - die alten Koenigreiche showed in Munich and Zurich in 1999.

More specialist exhibitions followed in 2003:

• The (New York) Japan Society’s Transmitting the Forms of Divinity: Early Buddhist Art from Korea and Japan, and
• Goryeo Dynasty: Korea’s age of enlightenment at the Museum of Asian Art in San Francisco.

All these exhibitions produced catalogues - most of them now only available on the second hand market, though the Met’s magisterial Arts of Korea is readily available. The British Museum and the V&A have also published books to accompany their permanent collections - respectively Jane Portal’s Korea: Art and Archaeology and Beth McKillop’s Korean Art and Design. Portal’s book has unexpectedly ended up as a text book in one US school: she gets the occasional complaint that the book wasn’t written with one chapter for each week of a term.

After the slightly gloomy picture painted in the lecture theatre, it was good to see the books available in the foyer. Saffron’s translation of Lee Dongju’s The Beauty of Old Korean Paintings and Francis Mullany’s Symbolism in Korean Ink Brush Painting from Global Oriental didn’t stay on the display table for long.

Here are some of the titles that were on display:

Links

• Saffron Korea Library
• Global Oriental
• Brill

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 event will take place at SOAS in the Khalili Lecture theatre at 1pm. It coincides with the publication of the “Selected Writings of Han Yong-un” by Global Oriental, stalwarts of Korean Studies publishing, a representative of whom will be speaking at the conference. Also represented will be Saffron Books - a niche publisher with a Korean specialism - and Brill, who publish the Korea Yearbook among other things. There’s a review of one of Saffron’s publications coming very soon on LKL, just as soon as I can check a fact.

Click on the below for a full-size version of the flyer

Details of the Han Yong-un book from the Global Oriental website:

This volume concentrates on translations of Han Yongun’s principal non-literary works, which are published here in English for the first time, focusing on his ideas for the revitalization of Korean Buddhism in the modern world, the nature of Buddhism as a religion, a critique of atheist movements fashionable among the communists of his time, together with his memoirs of his early life and travels.

One of Korea’s most eminent Buddhists and political activists in the independence movement during the long years of Japan’s colonization of his country, Han Yongun – sobriquet ‘Manhae’ (1879-1944), was a prolific writer and outstanding poet, known especially for his poetry collection Nim ui ch’immuk (‘The Silence of the Lover’).

Selected Writings of Han Yongun, published in collaboration with The Academy of Korean Studies, also contains supportive introductory essays on Manhae’s life, his relationship with socialist ideas as well as the significance of some of the ideas discussed in the translated writings.

Students and researchers in Korean Studies, Studies in Buddhism, in particular Zen Buddhism, and Comparative Religions will find this collection an invaluable source of reference.

Full details of the conference programme are as follows:

1.00pm Opening remarks (Anders Karlsson)

1.10pm Session 1: Scholarship and translation across borders (Chair: Grace Koh)

• Keith Howard: ‘Korean and Western Scholarship: Divergence or Convergence’
• Anders Karlsson: ‘Publishing Korean literature in Swedish’

2.40pm Tea and coffee

3.00pm Session 2: Publishers’ roundtable (Chair: Jim Hoare)

• With short presentations from Sajid Rizvi (Saffron Books), Albert Hofstadt (Brill) and Paul Norbury (Global Oriental)

4.00pm Tea and coffee

4.20pm Session 3: Providing materials on Korea for university students (Chair: Jaehoon Yeon / Owen Miller)

• Vladimir Tikhonov: ‘Our own textbook problem: Korean history textbooks in English’
• Charlotte Horlyck: ‘Publishing on Korean art history’

6.00pm Finish

6.30-8.00pm Book Launch for Selected Writings of Han Yongun (in Khalili Lecture Theatre foyer). The book launch will include a talk by the translator Prof. Tikhonov, a Korean dance performance and a wine reception.

Korea Discussion Group
Thursday 12 June 2008
1.15-2.30
Lunch – 12.45 (£10)

Prospects for Korea’s Energy Diplomacy

SPEAKER: DR Jae-Seung LEE, Associate Dean and Associate Professor at Korea University

CHAIR: DR JIM HOARE, Chargé d’Affaires, British Embassy in Pyongyang, DPRK (2001-2003)

Dr Lee is currently an Associate Dean and Associate Professor in the division of International Studies at Korea University. Before joining the University, he served as professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security (IFANS), Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He received Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University. As a scholar of international political economy, Dr Lee has published a number of books and articles regarding Korea, East Asia and Europe. His current research covers energy security and Korea’s energy diplomacy. He is currently a member of the Policy Advisory Board of the Presidential Secretariat and is a Managing Director of the Korea Energy Forum.

The speaker will talk on the record, the discussion will be held under the Chatham House Rule.

The Korea Discussion Group is made possible thanks to the generous support provided by The Korea Foundation

The Korean Cultural Centre UK embarks on its first Korean language programme for beginners on Wednesday 25 June in the Centre. This course is a social education facility that teaches the language and culture of Korea to people in the UK and overseas Koreans who wish to learn the language.

Aiming for the practical learning of Korean helps people find the joy of learning by the system supported by the National Institute of the Korean Language.

The beginners’ course will run every Wednesday from 6.30 to 8.30 in the evening for 11 weeks in the Seminar room at the Centre. The students will receive 4 course books designed to develop writing, listening, speaking, and reading skills. Additional materials for self-study will be given to the students during the course.

The targets for education are people in the UK with an interest in Korea. The first course is for people who have never known any Korean and will also help people brush up on the language.

Cultural outings will be organised twice per course. One will be a trip to see the Korean Collections at the main museums in London such as British Museum or Victoria & Albert Museum. The other one will be dinner at a Korean restaurant. The students will learn about Korean food and table manners.

LEVEL: BEGINNERS 1
APPLICATION PERIOD: 28/05/08 – 20/06/08, 5pm
COURSE PERIOD: 25/06/08 – 3/09/08 (11 weeks)
Every Wednesday 6.30 – 8.30 pm
LECTURE ROOM: Seminar room, KCCUK
TUITION FEE: ₤ 40.00 (Course books)
Email: info@kccuk.org.uk / Tel. 020 7004 2600

Links:

• Application form and press release on KCC website

Questions and answers were translated on the spot by Seh Hyun Rho to whom we extend our thanks and also to the Korean Cultural Centre for hosting the event.

The following is a complete transcription of the Q&A session by Saharial, to whom even bigger thanks are due. The transcription reflects the conversational style of the evening, with only minor editorial changes made where necessary to aid understanding: Im Sang Soo, uncut.

Seh Hyun Rho: ‘The President’s Last Bang’ is one of the many films director Im Sang Soo has written and directed. In 1998 he presented his first film ‘Girl’s Night Out’, and ‘Tears’ in 2000 provided us with a glimpse of the teenagers in Korea, then in 2003 a Good Lawyer’s wife, ‘The Old Garden’ in 2007 with the Kwangju democratisation movement as his backdrop. Having studied sociology at the prestigious Yonsei University in Korea, it appears that socio-political themes are current in his movies. Now we have a chance for a question and answer session where you can put the director under the microscope and ask him any questions you like. I will take the liberty of asking the first question.

Could you please tell me what your favourite political movie is?

Im Sang Soo: To be honest, I can’t think of any famous Korean or any famous political movies, and although there are elements of politics in my work, I’d be unsatisfied to call them political as such. My apologies.

If you look at the international film landscape currently, if you were to name political movies or directors as such, you could say Ken Loach or Costa-Gavras – they could be seen as directors who make political movies or deal with political issues. I don’t want my work to be compared with theirs, and I don’t think my films should be in the same category as theirs.

My three movies ‘The President’s Last Bang, ‘The Old Garden’ and ‘The Good Lawyer’s Wife’ are frequently labelled as the trilogy depicting Korea’s political or the state of modern Korean society, I think that would be inaccurate. This apparent label, which occurs when I am outside of Korea, can be interpreted as the mockery, or my mockery, of Korea currently and that’s a guilt I have to bear – it’s uncomfortable. This is unfortunate and unavoidable if you actually reflect on Korea’s modern history. For the past 35 years we were colonised, or Korea was colonised by Japan, there was World War 2, there was a military dictatorship for about three years, so you have to be critical. One of the reasons why I love of my degree in sociology so much is that you have to use these events and depict them as such.

Questions were then taken from members of the audience who seemed very familiar with his movies and eager to delve deeper into his perceptions and opinions.

Q: Did you expect ‘The President’s Last Bang’ to be censored and are there any plans for the release of the uncensored version?

‘The President’s Last Bang’ was made prior to the change in government that took place in Korea a few months ago and before, the government was quite liberal so I felt free to make such a movie. To be strictly straight, there is no censorship in Korea - that would be illegal to do so. The reason why there was a censorship with this movie was because Park Chung-hee, the president who was assassinated in the movie, his son appealed to the Seoul district court, and the court ordered the scenes to be taken out.

When this movie was first released in Korea, I predicted there would be conflict, or at least problems, with the entire Korean community, but I didn’t realise it would be to the extent that some of the scenes would have to be censored. The film was released in France as well, that was the edited version, but earlier this year in Japan, they released a Director’s cut which means all the censored scenes were put back in. Yesterday, I just found out that there would be a DVD release in England using the Director’s uncut version, which means the movie would have English subtitles. The whole international community can then purchase the DVDs from England and see the film, so I’m very much happy about that.

For the movie ‘The President’s Last Bang’ when you look at the audience we have here today, we have Koreans as well as foreigners. Foreigners might perceive this as a military dictatorship where an army general takes over the country and takes power, which happens frequently in Africa and Asia, so it might seem not petty but hilarious or comical in your point of view. As opposed to the foreign audience, for Korean people it has to be a shocking film. Park Chung-hee, the President at the time, he ruled for 18 years as a dictatorship and there were many liberals who were tortured and captured and many died during this protest. At the same time Park Chung-hee was also known as the Father to modernise Korea and help with the economic status, so for the Korean audience to see such a negative view of this character must have been shocking.

When the original uncut version is released, I hope that all audiences, Korean and international will be able to perceive the film slightly differently. The film is not intended to be satirical or mock Park Chung-hee or the dictatorship, but to show the lifestyles of him and his entourage. Upon the release of the movie no Korean community could laugh or enjoy this film and he had to wonder why this was so, and possibly it reflects our state of understanding of the whole incident.

So the film deals with the entourage of Park Chung-hee, the way it deals with people and community, his lifestyle and his principles and can see this reflects fascism and chauvinistic attitudes. If you look at the Bush Administration and the Bush/Blair pact leading to the Iraqi war, you can see that… well, I feel that this is not completely different to Park Chung-hee’s way of working. Overall, these kinds of attitudes and principles are not new to Korea or to any time era and the film which deals with this is not, I suppose, so enjoyable to watch.

Q: Firstly have you any plans or hopes to direct in Hollywood? And with remakes of ‘Dark Water’ and ‘The Ring’ etc. - how do you feel about remakes of some of these Asian films?

Currently, I’ve moved to Paris and have been living there for the past 6 months. This is because I am working with a French producer and we are filming a film in Paris using French actors and mostly going to be in French dialogue. This is not Hollywood, but an international project for me, and if successful, yes, I have plans to work with the English community as well. That’s my direction to a more International level.

The remakes that you mentioned – most of them are Hollywood financed and given the enormous wealth that Hollywood has, it’s not so imperative that they make a large profit or even a loss. The producers and directors that allow these remakes – well all I can say is ‘Money Talks’.

The Austrian director Michael Haneke remade the movie ‘Funny Games’ and won a prestigious prize internationally. If you look up the actors, I presume that the paycheque had an additional two zeros at the end, so I guess money rules and money is power.

Q: Still on the subject of money, In order to get through the US Free Trade Agreement the current government has had to agree to import more US ‘mad cows’ and the previous government agreed to import more US movies. So now, two years on from the relaxation of the screen quota, what impact has it had on the Korean film industry and what impact will it continue to have?

I don’t know about the UK, but in my point of view Korea is in terms of economics and politics America’s colony. The current government cannot refuse any demands from the American government whether it’s a liberal or a conservative government. Secondly, despite theoretically having a liberal Korean government, I don’t feel that they would know the impact or the importance of having Korean movies out there on the international scene.

I imagine all of you here are great fans of the Korean movies and cinema, but I feel that in the next 5 years you will see a difficult time for Korean movies and whether the Korean movie industry can resuscitate itself or completely die even that I can’t answer. The Korean government that accepted the relaxation of the Korean screen quota was the most liberal one so far, and the change to our more conservative government and accepting cows with potential mad cow disease, well I am just glad to say that I have now moved to France!

Q: Do you think there are any similarities between the Korean political scene and the French one?

Despite Sarkozy being a very conservative leader, and France being more liberal, I don’t think you can compare that to the Korean. Lee Myung Bak is extremely conservative and the more liberal Korean society right now you definitely can’t say the Lee Myung Bak is in the same category as Sarkozy.

Does the government appease themselves to America?

Well, I don’t see the French importing US beef! [Laughs] I would just like to remind everyone, that this event and place today has been funded by the Korean government. I guess we can still talk liberal.

Continued on next page… (click below)

Reflecting the more formal nature of this meeting, Dr Jun spoke from a prepared text, though there was also a generous amount of time afterwards for Dr Jun to take questions from the floor.

It was a whistle-stop tour for Dr Jun. Earlier in the week he had been at the IOSCO meeting in Paris, where he was appointed Chair of IOSCO’s regional committee for Asia. He was only in London for the day and was heading back to Seoul immediately after the Chatham House session. He will be back at his desk at the FSC on Sunday. It’s a 24/7 administration.

Usefully, Dr Jun began his talk by explaining what his Commission is called. If you go to the website (www.fsc.co.kr) you will variously see “Financial Services Commission”, “Financial Supervisory Commission” and “Financial Supervisory Service”. Like other ministries, the Commission has been through one of President Lee’s reorganisations. The new Financial Services Commission is the result of merging the Financial Policy Bureau of the Finance Ministry and the (old) Financial Supervisory Commission - thus bringing together under one roof both policy-making and supervision. The Financial Supervisory Service remains as the arm of the Financial Services Commission which conducts on-the-ground supervision of financial institutions.

Having got that out of the way, Dr Jun gave a regional perspective on some of the recent financial turmoil, and highlighted ASEAN Plus 3 ^[1] and the Chiang Mai Initiative as regional efforts to coordinate financial stability.

Dr Jun then moved on to setting out his domestic agenda:

1. A “Big Bang” to reorganise Korea’s financial sector, with the Capital Markets Consolidation Act coming in to force next year. An English translation of this is currently being prepared. Dr Jun considered the UK’s Big Bang in 1987 to be a good model, and preferred it to the more gradual approach adopted in Japan
2. The establishment of Financial Clusters, where resources and financial expertise are concentrated, with an aim to assisting in the formation of new business ventures
3. Strengthening international cooperation between regulators. Dr Jun stressed the importance of information exchange between national supervisors when dealing with international banking groups. Korea currently has formal memoranda of understanding with 19 regulators in 13 countries (including the UK, but excluding the US - that’s work in progress at the moment). Dr Jun also stressed the importance of risk-based supervision, and also expressed a strong desire to move towards principles-based regulation. Earlier in the day he’d had a chance to compare notes with Calum McCarthy at the FSA.
4. Enhancing the competitiveness of the financial sector through privatisation and introduction of new investment. In this context he noted the upcoming privatisation of Korea Development Bank.

A lot of these changes require a gradualist approach. In respect of the introduction of new capital into the financial services industry - particularly capital from the chaebol - Dr Jun envisaged a step-by-step raising of the maximum shareholdings permitted, and he recognised that the move to a more principles-based framework could not happen overnight. But he viewed the arguments for both as compelling: complex rule-based frameworks inhibit innovation, increase compliance costs and prevent effective enforcement, while when industrial groups such as POSCO have more cash flow than they can reinvest internally there was a strong argument for allowing some of this surplus to be directed towards investment in the financial services industry.

President Lee’s aim is growth, and a vibrant financial sector is seen as crucial to long-term economic expansion. Dr Jun’s job is to help to deliver that.

1. the extra 3 being China, Japan and Korea

Two years ago I went along to the Samulnori summer school run by the excellent Dulsori and had a ball. Last year, LKL woman of the year 2006 Rowan Pease went along with her daughter and had a whale of a time. This year it’s your turn.

Korean Samulnori Percussion
Dulsori Ensemble
Date: 7 July 2008, Time: 6:00 PM
Finishes: 11 July 2008, Time: 8:00 PM

Venue: Russell Square: College Buildings

Type of Event: Summer School

Series: Summer Music School Timetable

Course Dates: 07-11 July, Mon-Fri 6-8pm
Course Fee: £75 (concs £55)

Samulnori is the contemporary form of a rural percussion tradition stretching back into antiquity. Today, Samulnori is the most popular style in the Korean traditional music scene, equally at home in the countryside or on urban stages. The rhythms are said to create balance in the cosmos, combining yin and yang.

Instruments will be provided. With members of the Dulsori Ensemble.

Contact email: musicevents@soas.ac.uk
Contact Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4500
Contact Fax: +44 (0)20 7898 4519
Organised by: Department of Music

Here’s Dulsori in action, captured by Samuel Cho at last year’s Chuseok festivities at the British Museum:

Links

• Full details of the course on SOAS website
• Dulsori website
• Articles on LKL featuring Dulsori, including a blow-by-blow account of the 2006 classes

He will also be speaking to the Korea Discussion Group at Chatham House on Friday afternoon at 4pm. His subject is Korea’s responses to challenges from the global financial markets. The gathering will be chaired by Dr John Llewellyn, Senior Economic Policy Advisor at Lehman Brothers. Interested parties can join the discussion group by pre-registering (details at the bottom of this article). Further background on Dr Jun’s talk:

Developments in international financial markets have brought opportunities for faster growth and expansion. At the same time, developments also mean that the knock-on effects of financial crises spread faster. In this regard, Dr Jun will share his views on changes and challenges facing global financial markets today and elaborate on Korea’s plans to meet these challenges effectively under the new administration.

Dr Jun was appointed Chairman of Korea’s Financial Services Commission, a cabinet-level position, by President Lee in February this year. Previously he was head of Deloitte Korea and served as Korea’s ambassador for international finance (source: JoongAng Ilbo)

No doubt HSBC’s bid for Korea Exchange Bank will loom large in one or more of Dr Jun’s meetings this week: the front-page article in yesterday’s FT that HSBC is getting cold feet about the deal was likely politically timed to coincide with Dr Jun’s visit, but given past pronouncements from Seoul that Lone Star’s involvement with KEB needs to be sorted out first there doesn’t seem to be much wiggle-room without there being a volte-face. However, Dr Jun reportedly made some encouraging noises at a press conference at the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club on 29 April.

Other items on the agenda? Given the new “CEO President” administration, expect a message that Korea is open for business and open for investment. Expect some discussion of the Capital Markets Consolidation Act, effective in 2009. The Act was pushed at the KRX / Daewoo Securities investors conference in London two weeks ago (12 May) as a major step forward in the development of the Korean financial services industry ^[1].

Dr Jun can also expect to be asked questions about precisely how foreigner-friendly is the system of Korean financial regulation.

Observations made in the past have concerned:

1. Demanding requirements in relation to the number of local directors to be appointed
2. Thorough (over-thorough?) supervision of local operations of foreign banks
3. A punctilious application of data security standards, possibly stricter than those applying in other markets.

None of these factors, however, seem to stop foreign banks from wanting to do business in Korea, and certainly in respect of the first two, these charges are equally applicable to other jurisdictions past or present. Korean bank supervisors would not be alone in wanting to maintain a close watch on foreign-owned banks which have a significant local market share.

Those wishing to attend the discussion at Chatham House (4:00 – 5:00pm, Friday 30th May) need to pre-register by emailing the Asia programme coordinator, asia [at] chathamhouse [dot] org [dot] uk, giving their name, details of their affiliation and their phone number. Alternatively you can register at the Chatham House website here.

Links:

• What Dr Jun had to say: The Financial Sector as engine of growth, LKL 31 May 2008

1. If anyone can lay their hands on a decent summary in English of what the Act does, please let me know. I can’t find anything via the normal internet searches

I first met Dr Hyun-key Kim Hogarth, fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, at an Anglo-Korean Society gathering at the Korean Cultural Centre, and wanted to find out more about her work. So I was delighted when she agreed to come and have lunch with me at Asadal and tell me her story. She arrives in a bright pink dress and knee-high black boots, very chic, but I know it’s been a very difficult few years for her since her husband died. I ask her to start at the beginning, which she does as she enjoys a bibimbap.

Dr Hyun-key Kim Hogarth (left) and Jennifer Barclay

Hyun-key was born and brought up in central Seoul, a stone’s throw from the Secret Garden. She was one of five children of Hahn Moo-sook, the acclaimed literary author of Encounter and And So Flows History, which was ‘dumbed down’ and sexed up for TV serialization in the late 80s and early 90s. Her father was the powerful president of a bank and later chairman of a merchant banking corporation, and much was expected. She attended Kyunggi Girls’ High School, of course, which had high academic standards. In the end, four of the five siblings would have PhDs and one become a medical doctor.

But it happened in a roundabout way for Hyun-key. In her second year studying English Language and Literature at Ewha Woman’s University, she was invited to attend the Queen’s Birthday Party. This was her first time attending a party like that on her own – she’d had a sheltered upbringing – and she was ‘eighteen, very thin, I wanted to look like Audrey Hepburn with my hair up and long black gloves…’ The inevitable happened, and a young British diplomat named Robert Hogarth fell for this pretty young scholar who knew English literature and appreciated his sense of humour. He asked if he could meet her again.

In those days, interracial marriage was virtually unknown in good families; it was for American GIs and loose women. In families like Kim’s, you were introduced to a nice Korean boy in the company of a chaperone. Her elder sister had paved the way somewhat by meeting a Frenchman while studying at the University of California at Berkeley, but he was a Frenchman with a PhD. The twenty-six year old Robert Hogarth didn’t even have a degree, having done national service and then diplomatic exams, and although his family was a good middle-class one, their romance brought tension to the Kim household. Meanwhile, Hyun-key attained excellent results in her undergraduate studies and was offered a place at Berkeley in 1968.

I’d thought South Koreans were not allowed to travel during those years, but Hyun-key explains that they were allowed to travel for study. Study abroad was very expensive and only for the academically gifted, and it was hard to get a student visa because of complicated restrictions to thwart fraudulent claims. Hyun-key’s application encountered no problems and she went to Berkeley, but circumstances made her change her mind and decide to marry Robert.

They planned a wedding at a twelfth-century church at Cudham near Orpington where his parents were living at the time, and he met her in the US to escort her back on a cruise on the QE1. But they had to get married in the States, since Cunard would not allow unmarried couples to share the same cabin and he could not afford two single cabins. And so the newlywed Hyun-key Kim Hogarth from Seoul moved to Kent and, after too many mix-ups with her unusual name, became simply Kim Hogarth.

She worked as a teacher until the Foreign and Commonwealth Office offered Robert a posting to Israel, followed by Botswana. Alexander McCall-Smith’s Precious Ramotswe novels bring it all back vividly, she says, but it was also in Botswana that she first started to become interested in the Bushmen and tribal customs, the beginning of her passion for anthropology. During the years in Botswana and in Cameroon, while bringing up their two children, she observed and read influential books like The Harmless People by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, one of the first westerners to live among the Kalahari Bushmen.

And then her husband was posted to South Korea in 1987. Hyun-key had been away for twenty years and, having had a cloistered childhood in Seoul, she’d never really travelled around her own country except to resorts on family holidays. So now she saw her own culture with the dual perspective of insider and outsider. Four years later when they returned to England, she applied to do an MA in social anthropology at the University of Kent at Canterbury – with a thesis on Korean shamanism.

The first tangible evidence of shamanism is in Paleolithic rock carvings in Siberia, but it’s probably been around as long as people have, and it has pervaded everyday lives throughout Korea’s long history. Known in other cultures sometimes as medicine men, witch doctors, mediums or oracles, shamans mediate between the spirit world and human beings in order to help the suffering. The healer often uses an ecstatic or altered state of consciousness to commune with the supernatural. Even in twelfth-century Korea, shamanism was seen by intellectuals as nonsense, laughable, primitive.

After the Korean War, South Korea’s succession of authoritarian governments concentrated on modernising the country. In her book Korean Shamanism and Cultural Nationalism (1999, Jimoondang), Hyun-key writes that she remembered the kut or shamanistic rituals as ‘noisy, colourful, but strangely eerie events, which used to be held by women, mainly in the countryside’. When she left Korea in 1968, they were rarely performed publicly in Seoul. President Park Chung-hee’s New Village Movement abolished such ‘superstitions’ and destroyed shamanistic village shrines, so it only survived on the periphery of society.

In the late eighties, when she returned, South Korea had gone through a complete metamorphosis from an impoverished agricultural country to a newly industrialised nation, and globalisation fever swept through it, culminating in the Olympics in 1988. The old city gate of Namdaemun, which once had been so prominent, was dwarfed by high-rise buildings. And yet, oddly, the shamanistic rituals were back, being performed right outside City Hall. What Hyun-key observed was that in a rapidly industrialising, modern, westernised Korea, shamanism was being revived as an expression of nationalism.

The time was right, she says. Anthropologist Maurice Block found that in Madagascar circumcision was once considered barbaric but later revived by the elite. When people no longer have to worry about food and shelter, they can revive their traditions. I wonder if it’s a bit like the revival of the Cornish language today.

‘It’s a reaction against homogenisation,’ says Hyun-key. It’s natural to crave something exotic, but only when the conditions are right. It fits with the world trend towards the revival of ethnicity. With globalisation, people are forced to exist side by side, buy the same and eat the same. There’s a need to belong to something. And, I suggest, perhaps we also crave something mystical, something that can’t be fully explained? Yes, says Hyun-key. ‘With shamanism, the roots go very deep – Korea is an ancient culture – what better than your own exotica?’

She’s been criticized for saying the rediscovery of Korean heritage is not something especially Korean but part of a global trend. But it makes a lot of sense to me. The author of four books and numerous articles on English literature, anthropology, Korean culture and society, Hyun-key Kim Hogarth gave two papers last year, and is going to give two more this year in the UK and US on her most recent area of study, Shamanism and Christianity. She’s hardly shying away from controversy with the title ‘Jesus as a shaman’. But she has no agenda, she simply follows her interests and observations. Her next project is a book on Korean Christianity, which she hopes to complete next year.

Today’s shamans in South Korea are around 80 per cent women, usually from families with no opportunity for social advancement, sometimes orphans, sometimes psychologically disturbed, not part of the mainstream. Accepting the spirits allows them to help other people with misfortunes. They are compassionate and defiant. It’s a hard society to penetrate, and it took Hyun-key several months to be allowed in, but once they trust you they’re very supportive. Shamanistic rituals cost thousands of pounds, and it’s certainly in the shamans’ best interests to encourage the fresh nationalistic support for their practices. In 2006 she participated in the first international conference entirely sponsored by a shaman.

In the meantime, for herself, she’s been working on a memoir of her beautiful, sad love story. Her late husband Robert Hogarth used to work at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, just around the corner from the new Korean Cultural Centre, where now you can read some of her work in the excellent reference library. Accessibly written and fascinating for anyone with an interest in Korean culture, the books are also available from Jimoondang in Seoul.

Bibliography

• Kut: Happiness Through Reciprocity (1998, Budapest, Academiai Kiado)
• Korean Shamanism and Cultural Nationalism (1999, Seoul, Jimoondang)
• Syncretism of Buddhism and Shamanism in Korea (2002, Edison & Seoul, Jimoondang)
• Tasks and Times: Memoirs of Lee Tong Won, Foreign Minister who Finalized the ROK-Japan Normalization Treaty (2004, Seoul, Jimoondang)