A creative guide to a unique and beautiful form of Korean art, steeped in ancient tradition. Bojagi (wrapping cloths) are textiles pieced together from small scraps of fabric – they are a unique form of Korean textile art. The careful arrangement of shapes and colours shows an abstract composition which has made bojagi popular with … [Read More]
Archives: Books (page 30)
The Dawn of War in South Korea (1947-1950): The South Korean Workers’ Party and the April Third Massacre
This book offers an analytical account of the April Third Massacre in Korea, a bloody confrontation between supporters of the Syngman Rhee Administration and those suspected (largely incorrectly) of being Communists, or members of the South Korean Workers’ Party―the second largest Communist Party after Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule. As a result, some 80,000 … [Read More]
Precious Beyond Measure: A History of Korean Ceramics
This is a captivating, richly illustrated history of the use of fired clay in Korea, spanning ancient times to the present day. Drawing on the latest research from Korean scholars, Precious beyond Measure features a wide range of examples from archaeological sites and museums. In addition, it offers a rare glimpse into the world of … [Read More]
The Three Kingdoms of Korea: Lost Civilizations
Korea’s Three Kingdoms period is a genuine ‘lost civilization’, during which ancient realms vied for supremacy during the first millennium CE. Nobles from this period’s feuding states adopted and adapted Buddhism and Confucianism through interactions with early medieval Chinese dynasties. In the mid-seventh century, with the assistance of the mighty Chinese Tang empire, the aristocratic … [Read More]
Activism and Post-activism: Korean Documentary Cinema, 1981 – 2022
Activism and Post-activism: Korean Documentary Cinema, 1981—2022 is a new book about nonfiction filmmaking in the private and independent sectors of South Korean cinema and media from the early 1980s to the present day. Drawing on the methodologies of documentary studies, experimental film and video, digital cinema, local discourses on independent documentary, and the literature on … [Read More]
Tilting the jar, spilling the moon: poems from Koryo, Choson and contemporary Korea
This book represents the very best of the Korean poetic tradition, from Yi Kyu-bo to the present, a poetry alert to humour and transcendence. Kevin O’Rourke is an Irish priest working with the Columban Fathers in Korea. Currently he is professor of English at Kyunghee University. Source: back cover [Read More]
Korean Cinema in Global Contexts: Post-Colonial Phantom, Blockbuster and Trans-Cinema
Offering the most comprehensive analysis of Korean cinema from its early history to the present, and including the films of Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho and Kim Ki-young, Korean Cinema in Global Contexts: Postcolonial Phantom, Blockbuster and Trans-Cinema situates itself in the local, Inter-Asian, and transnational contexts by mobilizing the critical frameworks of feminism, postcolonial critique and comparative … [Read More]
Fate and Freedom in Korean Historical Films
This open access book examines the depiction of Korean history in recent South Korean historical films. Released over the Hallyu (“Korean Wave”) period starting in the mid-1990s, these films have reflected, shaped, and extended the thriving public discourse over national history. In these works, the balance between fate and freedom—the negotiation between societal constraints and individual will, … [Read More]
ReFocus: The Films of Yim Soon-rye
Highlights the cinematic oeuvre of Yim Soon-rye, one of the most influential Korean female filmmakers First comprehensive English-language book on Yim Soon-rye and her films, placing her within the larger perspectives of Korean cinematic history and women’s cinema First English volume on any Korean woman filmmaker, that calls for a need to address the work … [Read More]
The Liberators
At the height of the military dictatorship in South Korea, Insuk and Sungho are arranged to be married. The couple soon moves to San Jose, California, with an infant and Sungho’s overbearing mother-in-law. Adrift in a new country, Insuk grieves the loss of her past and her divided homeland, finding herself drawn into an illicit … [Read More]
The Korean Cookbook
350 authentic and delicious Korean recipes for the home cook, written by the perfect guides to this extraordinary cuisine – an acclaimed Korean chef and a Korean culinary expert The Korean Cookbook celebrates traditional regional dishes and everyday food found in home kitchens from Seoul to Jeju Island. This stunning collection features more than 350 recipes organized … [Read More]
Miss Kim Knows and Other Stories
A woman is born. A woman is filmed in public without consent. A woman suffers domestic violence. A woman is gaslit. A woman is discriminated against at work. A woman grows old. A woman becomes famous. A woman is hated, and loved, and then hated again. Written in Cho Nam-Joo’s masterful, razor-sharp prose, Miss Kim … [Read More]
Greenlight to Freedom: A North Korean Daughter’s Search for Her Mother and Herself
What does the word “lucky” mean to you? This true story of a girl’s harrowing escape from North Korea, will cause you to re-examine the meaning of the word luck. Despite enduring abuse, starvation, homelessness, surveillance, and endless hardships, Songmi feels lucky and grateful to have escaped from North Korea. She shares her account of growing … [Read More]
My Father’s North Korea Story: Walk to Freedom
My Father’s North Korea Story: Walk to Freedom is a non-fiction memoir written by the father of a North Korean defector that high-lights the tumultuous journey faced by millions of individuals still struggling to escape the harrowing conditions under the Kim regime. About the Author Won-chae Han, born in 1943, lived in the North Korean … [Read More]
When May Comes: A story of a Refugee from North Korea and his Critical Reflections on Japanese Imperialism, North Korean Communist Rule, South Korean Democracy, and the Multiracial American Society
This book is an autobiography of my life in Korea and in the United States of America, experiencing Japanese imperialism, North Korean Communist rule, South Korean Democracy, and the life in the United States. When I left my home in Pyeongyang, North Korea, as a refugee during the Korean War in 1950, like many other … [Read More]
A Mark of Red Honor
This autobiographical novel narrated by the author’s eponymous character candidly shares the story of his birth, childhood as a sensitive boy, school years marked by infatuations with a male friend and teacher, military service as superiors’ favorite, agony as a newlywed realizing that he is unfit for marriage, roving through China as a North Korean … [Read More]