Each year when I come to write this review, I wonder whether Korean culture in the West has reached its high water mark. And every year so far I’ve come to the same conclusion. Korean music and film, TV and food continue to win admirers, and we can expect to see it continue to thrive … [Read More]
Author: David A Mason
Selected publications by David A Mason
- Solitary Sage: The Profound Life, Wisdom and Legacy of Korea’s “Go-un” Choi Chi-won, Sanshinseon 2016
- An Encyclopedia of Korean Buddhism, Unju-sa 2013
- Baekdu-Daegan Trail: Hiking Korea’s Mountain Spine, Seoul Selection 2010
- Spirit of the Mountains, Hollym 1999
When a PowerPoint presentation can hold your attention for almost two hours…
How long is it since the time when we could go in person to a talk given by a real person in an actual physical room? I reckon it’s around 15 months. Since the beginning of March last year, Zoom has been the norm. Online talks do have advantages over a traditional lecture theatre: you can … [Read More]
Online talk: Korean Neo-Confucianism and its Shrines
This is a first for LKL. After more than 15 years online, we’re organising our first ever event! Having sat through rather too many online seminars which I logged on to because they happened to be available, I suddenly realised that I really didn’t find many of them all that interesting. And then I discovered … [Read More]
Book review: Walking the Baekdu-Daegan trail
Roger Shepherd & Andrew Douch, with David A Mason: Baekdu Daegan Trail Seoul Selection, 2010, 446pp Korea is a mountainous country. If you google that phrase you will learn that 70% of South Korea’s land mass is designated as upland or mountains. And everyone knows that a lot of Koreans love hiking in the hills. … [Read More]