Money Games is a riveting tale of one of the most successful buyout deals ever: the acquisition and turnaround of what used to be Korea’s largest bank by the American firm Newbridge Capital. Full of intrigue and suspense, this insider’s account is told by the chief architect of the deal itself, the celebrated author and private … [Read More]
Archives: Books (page 27)
Culture and Customs of Korea
For centuries, although strongly influenced by the Chinese, Koreans have maintained a unique civilization with their own language, social organization, food, national costume, political institutions, and customs. The disruptions of the 20th century have included a long and difficult period of foreign rule and a devastating civil war. However, Koreans continue to prize their traditional … [Read More]
Myths and Legends from Korea: An Annotated Compendium of Ancient and Modern Materials
This book contains 175 tales drawn equally from the ancient and modern periods of Korea, plus 16 further tales provided for comparative purposes. Nothing else on this scale or depth is available in any western language. Three broad classes of material are included: foundation myths of ancient states and clans, ancient folktales and legends, modern … [Read More]
Excavations
Sae is waiting with two clingy toddlers for her husband to come home from work when she learns of a horrific disaster, the collapse of a massive skyscraper where Jae is an engineer. Minutes, then hours, and then days pass. Speculations of North Korean terrorism and structural instability circulate as possible causes of the Tower’s … [Read More]
The Defections
Seoul, South Korea Mia is an outsider. Half-English, half-Korean, a translator at the British Embassy; she treads a boundary between her roots and the acceptance she desires from the English – especially her boss, Thomas: a married diplomat. Thomas’s career is jeopardized by an outrageous indiscretion until Mia comes to his rescue. At first grateful, … [Read More]
Surviving Squid Game: A Guide to K-Drama, Netflix, and Global Streaming Wars
Korea has fully stepped onto the global stage in stunning strides. From the Oscar-winning film Parasite to the pop juggernaut known as BTS, Korean popular culture has taken the world by storm. This new Korean wave has influenced global tastes in drama, music, fashion, and can even be seen in the beauty industry’s obsession with Korean … [Read More]
Borderland Dreams: The Transnational Lives of Korean Chinese Workers
In Borderland Dreams June Hee Kwon explores the trajectory of the “Korean dream” that has fueled the massive migration of Korean Chinese workers from the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in northeast China to South Korea since the early 1990s. Charting the interplay of bodies, money, and time, the ethnography reveals how these migrant workers, in … [Read More]
Cornerstone of the Nation: The Defense Industry and the Building of Modern Korea under Park Chung Hee
Cornerstone of the Nation is the first historical account of the complex alliance of military and civilian forces that catapulted South Korea’s conjoined militarization and industrialization under Park Chung Hee (1961–1979). Kwon reveals how Park’s secret program to build an independent defense industry spurred a total mobilization of business, science, labor, and citizenry, all of … [Read More]
The Late and Post-Dictatorship Cinephilia Boom and Art Houses in South Korea
Examines the 1990s growth of art film exhibition, consumption, and cinephilia within South Korean cinema. This book is a narrative history of art film exhibition and cinephilia in post-dictatorship South Korea It is the first study to consider the practical, cultural, and social experience of cinema-going during a formative period of Korean film history It … [Read More]
Love Songs Sung with the Body
I want to love, I want to hug, I want to be together, I want to be together and look at the same place, but it doesn’t work out. It seems to work but it doesn’t, it seems to work but it doesn’t work. It’s not just an erotic relationship. The appearance of thirst among … [Read More]
I’ll write again tomorrow
May my poetry not lean on plausible deniability, may it not mask or embellish the present me with the past me that has already passed. I hope the things I get angry about don’t harden into conventions, and I hope the things I love are written down waiting to be deepened. From“ Poet’s Essay” He … [Read More]
A Gospel for Workers: Cho Chi Song, Yeongdeungpo Urban Industrial Mission, and Minjung
This book tells three overlapping stories: first, the life story of Rev. Cho Chi Song, a pioneer of urban and industrial missions, which served Korean society’s working population; second, the Urban Industrial Mission (UIM) in Korea, which Cho Chi Song pioneered; and third, the story of how UIM provided the roots for Korean Minjung Theology. … [Read More]
The Korean Welfare State: Social Investment in an Aging Society
The birth and remarkable expansion of Korean social welfare policy over the last several decades has taken place amidst the socio-economic burdens of a rapidly aging society. This book surveys these developments through the analytic lens of the Social Investment State, under which contemporary policies have altered the essential character of the 20th century welfare … [Read More]
Leverage of the Weak: Labor and Environmental Movements in Taiwan and South Korea
Comparing Taiwan and South Korea strategically, Hwa-Jen Liu seeks an answer to a deceptively simple question: Why do social movements appear at different times in a nation’s development? Despite their apparent resemblance—a colonial heritage, authoritarian rule, rapid industrialization, and structural similarities—Taiwan and South Korea were opposites in their experiences with two key social movements. South … [Read More]
The New Asian City: Three-Dimensional Fictions of Space and Urban Form
Under Jini Kim Watson’s scrutiny, the Asian Tiger metropolises of Seoul, Taipei, and Singapore reveal a surprising residue of the colonial environment. Drawing on a wide array of literary, filmic, and political works, and juxtaposing close readings of the built environment, Watson demonstrates how processes of migration and construction in the hypergrowth urbanscapes of the … [Read More]
From Orphan to Adoptee: U.S. Empire and Genealogies of Korean Adoption
Since the 1950s, more than 100,000 Korean children have been adopted by predominantly white Americans; they were orphans of the Korean War, or so the story went. But begin the story earlier, as SooJin Pate does, and what has long been viewed as humanitarian rescue reveals itself as an exercise in expanding American empire during … [Read More]