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Category Archives: Historical
By Matthew Jackson
The centrepiece of the Bozar exhibition of Korean Buddhist Art, beginning in Brussels on the 10th of October, will be the Pensive Bodhisattva statue, Korea’s National Treasure No. 83. It is difficult to describe in words why the statue is regarded so highly as a work of Buddhist art, because its qualities consist primarily in simplicity and lack of detail.
Although words may be inadequate, the statue’s renown in Asia (not least of all Japan, whose No. 1 national treasure is a near exact wooden copy of the statue) is primarily due to the feelings that it evokes in those who see it.
There are various interpretations of the statue’s meaning, but scholars agree that it is intended to depict ...
Korea at 60: Forwards and Upwards
04-Oct-08
From the KCC website:
The government of the Republic of Korea was established on August 15, 1948 after three years of U.S. military administration following liberation from Japanese colonial rule.
Date: 6 October 2008 13 October 2008
Venue: Korean Cultural Centre UK
The exhibition is organised by Korean Culture and Information Service, and presented by Embassy of the Republic of Korea, Korean Cultural Centre UK
This exhibition, Korea: Forward & Upwards, presents a success story of the Republic of Korea in celebration of the 60th anniversary of founding the Republic of Korea.
The year 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Korea (South Korea). The country has been nurtured throughout a history of thousands of years. The Republic of Korea ...
The Sarira Casket
27-Sep-08
Matthew Jackson describes one of the Buddhist treasures in the Seoul National Museum.
Of the few people I have asked who have visited the Seoul National Museum, no one has mentioned the Kameun Sarira Casket as the high point of their tour. When I visited the museum myself, even though I was specifically looking out for it, it became clear to me why. At a first glance, in room crowded full of exhibits, its initial appearance does not suggest anything special. Yet this masterpiece of gold artwork must surely rank among the greatest cultural exhibits Korea has to offer the world, both for its unique detail, and its profound religious symbolism.
[caption id="attachment_5638" align="alignright" width="220" caption="The real deal - gold granules on ...
Saturday documentaries at the KCC
29-Aug-08
Every Saturday from late August and throughout September there will be screenings of a documentary about the remarkable Silla Dynasty “Sarira Casket of Kameun Temple” at the KCC (right).
Screenings will last around 20 minutes, and are provisionally scheduled for noon, 2pm and 4pm:
Impossible to replicate with modern technology, this 1300 year-old Sarira Casket remains a mystery of ancient craftsmanship. From the golden granules that are only 0.3 mm in diameter to the carvings of expressions on faces smaller than a rice-grain, this masterpiece of Buddhist metalwork houses many untold secrets.
While you're there, you can sample the CD and DVD library downstairs, and browse around the ceramics exhibition on the ground floor.
Links:
The Sarira Casket at Seoul National Museum
Make this Saturday a Korean day
22-Aug-08
I've already told you about the films this Saturday. Take your pick between The Chaser at 4:40 in Leicester Square and Seven Days in Brunswick Square at 6:30.
How about making a whole day of it?
Turn up at the Korean Cultural Centre earlier in the day and browse the DVD / CD library and watch your favourite soap / sample the singing talents of the shapliest K-popstrel in the audio-visual section downstairs. Stroll round the exhibition of Korean and English (and Korean-English) Vessels on the ground floor.
Pop across the river to the Hayward Gallery to see Psycho Buildings. It's not often you get to see a hip international Korean artist showing at a South Bank venue. Book in advance for your ...
A veteran remembers
27-Jul-08
Today, 27 July, is the anniversary of the end of the Korean War in 1953 – a war in which millions died, and which only ended with a ceasefire, Korea remaining divided by a heavily guarded border for fifty-five years now. Jennifer Barclay marks the occasion.
Peter Poole served in the Korean War as a member of the Royal Military Police, and having met him through the Anglo-Korean Society, I asked if he would share his recollections of that time with me.
He was eighteen years old, with two years of national service ahead of him. After eighteen weeks of training at Woking, they were off on the troop ship. Like many of his comrades, he hadn’t heard of Korea before. ‘We ...
Saturday documentaries at the KCC
24-Jul-08
This Saturday there will be a screening of a short film entitled "The History of Gold" at the Korean Cultural Centre at 12pm, 2pm and 4pm.
Each screening will last around 30 minutes.
Silla dynasty gold earrings, 6th century AD. Diameter 3.5cm, Height 8.3cm. National Treasure No. 90, Seoul National Museum.
Silla people decorate their houses with silk interwoven with golden thread, and use golden plates and cutlery at meals
(Arab historian, 10th century)
A country that is filled with the splendour of gold and silver, such is the Kingdom of Silla
(Chronicles of Japan, AD 720)
Referred to as a "Nation of Gold" by its neighbours, Korea is a country with an extraordinary history in gold craftmanship. Of the ten pure gold crowns from ancient times, ...
Maps political and pictorial
16-Jun-08
I'm sorry I never had any time to write up the Map exhibition at the KCC properly. Alas, it's over now. I managed to miss most of Beth McKillop's informative talk, and never had the chance to persuade Shin Eunjeong to show me around. If I get a moment I'll do a quick Reader's Digest version of the catalogue, but in the meantime here's the map I found most fun - because it's a little bit controversial.
It looks innocuous enough to start with. Here's the little label that goes with it.
Sorry it's a bit blurred, but you can read it.
A nice pretty pictorial map. The coastline has nice pretty crinkly edges. It's not a terribly good photo, but I think ...
Something completely different at the KCC in May-June, and rather interesting: a collection of Choson dynasty maps, in an exhibition organised by the KCC's librarian Eunjeong Shin. The exhibition has an associated education programme aimed at local schools, while for the grown-ups there will be a lecture from the V&A's Beth McKillop. Full details below.
Period: Wednesday 21 May – Friday 13 June
Venue: Korean Cultural Centre UK
Tel. +44 (0)20 7004 2600/ Email: info at kccuk dot org dot uk
Website: http://london.korean-culture.org
THE EXHIBITION
Antique Korean Maps, Since 1600 is an exhibition of Korean maps made in the Choson dynasty, to be held at the gallery of the Korean Cultural Centre UK. Old Korean maps embody the principles of natural topography pursued by the ...
Harvard Online: The Two Koreas
27-Jan-08
Beginning January 31, students living anywhere in the world can examine key historical forces that have created and shaped the two Koreas before, during, and after the actual partition of the country in 1945 in a new Harvard Extension School online course, HIST E-1814 The Two Koreas.
Harvard's Carter J. Eckert, PhD, Yoon Se Young Professor of Korean History, offers students a broad historical context in which to understand the contemporary political division on the Korean peninsula.
Topics include nascent nation-building efforts between 1876 and 1910, the impact of Japanese colonialism and the cold war, and North/South development and interaction after 1948. The course interweaves political, socioeconomic, and cultural themes within a historical framework centered on nation-building while also highlighting a number ...
Class struggles
20-Jan-08
Those Koreanists who looked at the timing of the talk by Loren Goldner and decided to give it a miss were probably well advised. 6pm on a Saturday night is not the best time to pull in the punters. But inside the rather pokey Kings Cross bookshop it was standing room only. Those who turned up early and got one of the rickety seats were wondering whether it was safer and more comfortable to join the latecomers standing. The audience was made up of the alternative clientele which I assume frequents this alternative bookshop. Shaggy beards and unkempt pony-tails predominated among the men, while strangely the women were much better turned out. Judging by the questions afterwards, the interests of ...
Us and Them in Kenkanryu
02-Dec-07
Wednesday's talk on the Japanese manga Kenkanryu was packed to overflowing -- a strong contrast with the generally much sparser attendance at the Centre for Korean Studies seminars. Whether that's a reflection of the greater number of people enrolled in Japanese Studies courses, or the popular culture subject matter I don't know.
In these few paragraphs I can't do justice to the richness of Nicola Liscutin's analysis -- and with all the Japanese names flying around I was getting a little confused. It would be fascinating to get hold of an English translation of the books, but I can't imagine that many people apart from me would buy one.
For those unfamiliar with the manga, it presents a strongly conservative Japanese view ...
Unequal treaties
16-Sep-07
A quick notice of a seminar upcoming this week:
Centre of Korean Studies Seminar
18th of September 2007.
Venue: SOAS Room B111
Time: 5pm - 7pm
Han Seunghoon (Korea University)
The Beginning of the Unequal Treaty System in Late-Nineteenth century Choson
As usual, the event is free and no pre-booking is required
Yesterday's edition of The Reunion had Sue MacGregor talking with five veterans reminiscing about the Korean War. A familiar theme - the British troops being poorly equipped and having to scrounge off the Americans; a clip of an interview with Michael Caine talking about night patrol - trying to outwit the Chinese in paddy fields when he's more familiar with the landscape of the Elephant and Castle; an account of how the Brits were caught by surprise by the Chinese as they watched a Doris Day film one evening; and some amusing tales of attempted re-education by their Chinese captors.
Well worth a listen.
Links
Listen to the Radio 4 programme (NB link will have limited life)
The Reunion website
The Korean peasants’ revolt
03-Aug-07
Anyone who has read Yi Mun-yol's popular book The Poet may be interested in a new book which sets out the historical background. In Yi's fictional biography, the poet Kim Sakkat is ostracised from society, condemned to life as a vagabond, because of his grandfather's actions during the peasants' revolt in Northest Korea in 1812. From the publisher's website:
Marginality and Subversion in Korea
by Sun Joo Kim
In the history of Korea, the nineteenth century is often considered an age of popular rebellions. Scholarly approaches have typically pointed to these rebellions as evidence of the progressive direction of the period, often using the theory of class struggle as an analytical framework. In Marginality and Subversion in Korea, Sun Joo Kim argues that ...
Koryo Saram - the Unreliable People
10-May-07
Report of a documentary film screening at SOAS on 2 May, by Michael Rank
Koryo Saram - The Unreliable People is a fascinating one-hour documentary about the 200,000 ethnic Koreans who were deported to Kazakhstan by Stalin in 1937. It includes archive footage never seen before outside the former Soviet Union as well as interviews with some of the deportees. Koreans first started setting in the Russian Far East in the 1860s, fleeing extreme poverty, and their numbers grew after the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910.
Grotesquely, Stalin suspected them of being pro-Japanese and dubbed them "unreliable people" and deported them some 4,000 miles west to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and parts of the USSR, together with other minorities whom he distrusted including ...
Free documentary screening
26-Apr-07
Date: Wednesday, 2 May 2007
Time: 17.00-19.00
Title: Koryo Saram - The Unreliable People (one hour documentary film)*
Director: Y. David Chung
Director of Photography and Editor: Matt Dibble
Executive Producer: Meredith Woo
Historical Consultant: German Kim (Kazakh State University)
Venue: Khalili Lecture Theatre, Main Building, SOAS
*The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with David Chung and German Kim, makers of the film
In 1937 Stalin began a campaign of massive ethnic cleansing and forcibly deported everyone of Korean origin living in the coastal provinces of the Russian Far East, near the border with North Korea to the unsettled steppe country of Central Asia 3,700 miles away. This story of 180,000 Koreans who became political pawns during the Great Terror is the central focus of ...
The Irish Contribution to Joseon Korea
18-Mar-07
Another post in honour of St Patrick: OhMyNews has a piece on the Irish contribution to Korea's early modern history
Arguably the first Irishman to live in Korea arrived in Seoul in the mid 1890s. His name was John McLeavy Brown, and he was a lawyer by trade, but was employed with the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs Department.
Brown was described as a "learned man" with a personal library of nearly 7,000 books -- an extraordinary number considering it was the 1890s and books were much harder to obtain. He had sunken eyes, a heavy Edwardian moustache and walked with a cane that he occasionally used to thump some sense into those he felt were disrespectful.
He was sent to Korea by Sir ...
Restoring Seoul’s faded past
25-Feb-07
Visit OhMyNews for an interesting article from Robert Neff. Great pictures too.
Here's a list of all of Neff's articles. Well worth a browse for those interested in Korea's early modern history.
Death of the worlds oldest company
15-Dec-06
A Japanese company which, according to the Chosun, has its roots in Korea, is to go into liquidation in January 2007. The company, temple builder Kongo Gumi, was founded in 578.
Links:
Family Business list of the world's oldest companies
Time Magazine article (Feb 2004)
Kongo Gumi website
Beer-bottle VC honoured
21-Nov-06
The Korean War featured briefly in the first episode of a Channel 5 series, presented by Prince Charles, on Sunday. The series is about holders of the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest award for military bravery.
The first Victoria Cross awarded by our current monarch was to Bill Speakman (left) of the Black Watch, attached to the 1st Battalion of the King's Own Scottish Borderers, who saw service in the Korean War. This is from an online encyclopaedia on Manchester:
Altrincham born Bill Speakman was a tall man of 6 feet 6 inches who began a military career as a drummer boy in the local Army Cadet Corps. He later joined the King's Own Scottish Borderers, and went on to be awarded the ...
The passing of a Korean war veteran
22-Sep-06
From a recent obituary in the Telegraph:
Vice-admiral Sir Charles Mills, who has died (on July 27) aged 91, was a talented staff officer whose one chance of independent command came in the destroyer Concord during the Korean War.
In the course of six patrols over 95,000 miles with Dutch and New Zealand ships of the United Nations force, he first enforced a coastal blockade. He then steamed at full speed overnight to launch a dawn attack far behind the North Korean front line. After impressing his young officers by leaving them to navigate the dangerous passages while he stayed in his cabin to be fresh for the morning, he directed firing on ammunition dumps and trains passing between tunnels and over ...
Some good pictures
27-Aug-06
Firstly, some photos from 1970s Seoul. Commentary on Antti Leppänen's site here and here.
Antti's site has a number of good posts with photos. All his photography posts can be found collected together on this del.icio.us page. Enjoy at your leisure.
Also, some images from the Korean war, courtesy of the Chosun.
And finally, something from the BBC: South Korean riot police block demonstrators protesting against a plan to relocate US military bases, during a rally outside the US embassy in Seoul.
It's taken the interview over a week to make it from the BBC World Service onto BBC TV primetime (News at Ten) but on Friday evening the Beeb had a feature on the British military presence in Afghanistan. The interview was with Lt Gen David Richards (left).
He is commanding the Nato force in the country and has described the threat as "persistent low-level dirty fighting".
Extra helicopters and equipment were required to cope, he said.
"This sort of thing hasn't really happened so consistently, I don't think, since the Korean War or the Second World War," he told the BBC World Service.
"It happened for periods in the Falklands, obviously, and it happened for short periods in the Gulf on both occasions. But ...
Alternative takes on Independence Day
17-Aug-06
The Chosun provides some interesting alternative takes on Independence Day. It's not just the day that Koizumi visited the Yasukuni shrine again, or when Koreans held anti-American demonstrations.
First, the event was marked in Japan, as it has for the past 16 years, by a "Concert for Peace" given by the Tokyo Phil, this year conducted by a Korean conductor. The encore was Arirang; one of the performers was a new age Japanese pianist who has worked with Yonsama and who counts Lee Young-ae among his fans.
"You have worked a lot with Korean Wave stars like Bae Yong-joon and Lee Young-ae, what was that like?". Kuramoto said because his music was used in Korean TV dramas, it was only natural for ...