Publisher description: One peninsula, two uniquely contrasting sovereign states; Korea’s role in modern world history has been disproportionately large relative to the size of its territory and population. In the twentieth century it experienced colonial rule and military occupations, played a significant role in the Cold War and underwent the split into North and South … [Read More]
Archives: Books (page 117)
Korean Cuisine: An Illustrated History
Publisher description: The spicy tang of kimchi, the richness of Korean barbecue, the hearty flavours of bibimbap: Korean cuisine is savoured the world over for its diversity of ingredients and flavours. Michael J. Pettid offers here an illustrated historical account of Korean food and its intricate relationship with the nation’s culture. Over the last twelve centuries, Korean … [Read More]
When the Future Disappears: The Modernist Imagination in Late Colonial Korea
Publisher’s description: Taking a panoramic view of Korea’s dynamic literary production in the final decade of Japanese rule, When the Future Disappears locates the imprint of a new temporal sense in Korean modernism: the impression of time interrupted, with no promise of a future. As colonial subjects of an empire headed toward total war, Korean writers in … [Read More]
Pathways to Korean Culture: Paintings of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392–1910
Publisher description: Introducing the major works and currents of Joseon painting, Pathways to Korean Culture explores the various social, cultural and political perspectives of this dynamic, dynastic era (1392–1910), uncovering the fascinating history of more than 500 years of Korean art and visual culture. In this book Burglind Jungmann examines an array of themes and aspects … [Read More]
A New Middle Kingdom: Painting and Cultural Politics in Late Chosŏn Korea (1700–1850)
Historians have claimed that when social stability returned to Korea after devastating invasions by the Japanese and Manchus around the turn of the seventeenth century, the late Chosŏn dynasty was a period of unprecedented economic and cultural renaissance, in which prosperity manifested itself in new programs and styles of visual art. A New Middle Kingdom questions this … [Read More]
20th Century Korean Art
In recent years the increase in interest in Asian art has led to a number of books being published about Japanese and Chinese artists. However, the exciting Korean scene is still largely undocumented. Now Kim Youngna reveals Korean modern and contemporary artists to the West. Twentieth-Century Korean Art provides a comprehensive, engaging survey that places … [Read More]
War Trash
Publisher description: Ha Jin’s masterful new novel casts a searchlight into a forgotten corner of modern history, the experience of Chinese soldiers held in U.S. POW camps during the Korean War. In 1951 Yu Yuan, a scholarly and self-effacing clerical officer in Mao’s “volunteer” army, is taken prisoner south of the 38th Parallel. Because he … [Read More]
BTS, Art Revolution
Publisher description: Recently, a seven-member boy band from Korea called BTS has captivated the globe, forming the most massive and powerful fandom in history. The BTS phenomenon reaches far beyond the typical achievements of pop stars: as Jiyoung Lee illustrates, the changes that have been shown by BTS and their fandom ARMY are not confined … [Read More]
No River to Cross: Trusting the Enlightenment That’s Always Right Here
Publisher description: It is often said that enlightenment means “crossing over to the other shore,” that far-off place where we can at last be free from suffering. Likewise, it is said that Buddhist teachings are the raft that takes us there. In this sparkling collection from one of the most vital teachers of modern Korean … [Read More]
Jehol Diary
This is the first translation into English of the eighteenth-century Korean masterpiece entitled Yŏrha ilgi (‘The Jehol Diary’) by Pak Chiwŏn (1737-1805). The original text was written in classical Chinese and is a notoriously difficult work to translate. Pak Chiwŏn diarises the experiences of his remarkable overland journey on horseback from the northern border region of … [Read More]
Korea: Art and Archaeology
This illustrated book, the first authoritative general introduction to the distinctive culture of this country to be published in English, traces its development chronologically from the Neolithic period (c. 6000 BC) right up to the present day. Korea, published in association with the opening of a major new permanent Korean Gallery in the British Museum, … [Read More]
The Orphan Master’s Son
Publisher’s description: Citizens of our beloved Democratic Republic of North Korea! Imagine the life of an orphan boy from nowhere who is plucked from his orphanage by the military, to be trained as a tunnel assassin, a kidnapper, a spy. He has no father but the State, no sweetheart but Sun Moon, the greatest opera … [Read More]
The Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practice in Contemporary Korea
Publisher description: Robert Buswell, a Buddhist scholar who spent five years as a Zen monk in Korea, draws on personal experience in this insightful account of day-to-day Zen monastic practice. In discussing the activities of the postulants, the meditation monks, the teachers and administrators, and the support monks of the monastery of Songgwang-sa, Buswell reveals … [Read More]
Living Reed
Synopsis from Goodreads and Amazon: The Living Reed follows four generations of one family, the Kims, beginning with Il-han and his father, both advisors to the royal family in Korea. When Japan invades and the queen is killed, Il-han takes his family into hiding. In the ensuing years, he and his family take part in … [Read More]
Virtual Hallyu: Korean Cinema of the Global Era
From the publisher’s website: “[T]his fine book . . . . enlarges our vision of one of the great national cinematic flowerings of the last decade.”—Martin Scorsese, from the foreword In the late 1990s, South Korean film and other cultural products, broadly known as hallyu (Korean wave), gained unprecedented international popularity. Korean films earned an … [Read More]
The Remasculinization of Korean Cinema
From the publisher’s website: In one of the first English-language studies of Korean cinema to date, Kyung Hyun Kim shows how the New Korean Cinema of the past quarter century has used the trope of masculinity to mirror the profound sociopolitical changes in the country. Since 1980, South Korea has transformed from an insular, authoritarian … [Read More]