The First Protestant Martyr in Korea from Wales: The Life and Ministry of Robert Jermain Thomas explores the life and legacy of Robert Jermain Thomas, a Welsh missionary who played a pivotal role in the early Korean church. Despite facing historical misunderstandings and political distortions — especially during Japanese colonial rule and Cold War tensions … [Read More]
Archives: Books (page 6)
City in a Future Tense: The Making of a Smart City in South Korea [forthcoming]
Songdo, South Korea, is one of the earliest and most ambitious smart city projects. Mythical narratives have painted it as a promised land of the future where the problems and struggles of the present have been efficiently transcended—or concealed—by technology. In City in a Future Tense, Chamee Yang interrogates these myths and traces Songdo’s story to show how it … [Read More]
Zainichi (Koreans in Japan): Diasporic Nationalism and Postcolonial Identity
This book traces the origins and transformations of a people-the Zainichi, or Koreans “residing in Japan.” Using a wide range of arguments and evidence-historical and comparative, political and social, literary and pop-cultural-John Lie reveals the social and historical conditions that gave rise to Zainichi identity, while exploring its vicissitudes and complexity. In the process he sheds … [Read More]
The State’s Sexuality: Prostitution and Postcolonial Nation Building in South Korea
The State’s Sexuality uncovers how the lives and work of women engaged in prostitution, long considered the most abased members of society, have been strategically intertwined with the lofty purpose of building South Korea’s postcolonial nation-state. Through a complicated, contradictory patchwork of laws and regulations, which Park Jeong-Mi conceptualizes as a “toleration-regulation regime,” the South Korean … [Read More]
ImagiNation: Deconstructing South Korea’s Modern Miracles [forthcoming]
In less than a century, South Korea has remarkably transformed its image from one of the world’s poorest nations to a center of global influence. Not just one but a series of so-called modern miracles transformed the country into an exceptional case of national image-making and image-shifting. In contrast with the utilitarian focus of much … [Read More]
Have you had your rice?
Kieun Kiaer’s food poems are rich with emotion – intimate, layered and unexpectedly expansive. Food may not speak in words, but in her poetry, it speaks volumes. Her voice is gentle yet precise, full of clarity and care. When asked why someone with such an accomplished academic career would turn to writing poetry about Korean … [Read More]
Supernatural Encounters in South Korea
Twenty years of whispered stories, haunted places, restless spirits, and things that linger where history runs deep. These are real claims from real people across Korea. Read, wonder, and decide for yourself. Over the past twenty-plus years, folk heritage researcher Shawn Morrissey has collected paranormal claims from across South Korea. The creepiest and most intriguing … [Read More]
Opposing Desires: The Contentious Politics of the South Korean Anti-LGBT Movement
In times of right-wing populists gaining traction worldwide, conservative Christians engage in both continuous and dynamic action forms to gain societal and political hegemony. Hendrik Johannemann delves deeply into the contentious practices of the South Korean anti-LGBT movement, investigating its roots, framing strategies, transnational ties, and political endeavors. Sociologists, political scientists and practitioners alike will discover … [Read More]
Death Without End: Korea and the Thanatographics of War
The Korean War was never formally declared, and no peace treaty ending the war was ever signed. The 1953 armistice did not stop the war but marked its extension and expansion into a warlike state of emergency. How did the new reality of life under armistice shape visions of the possible in North and South … [Read More]
The Glosters in the Korean War
On 25 June 1950, the simmering Cold War suddenly turned hot when North Korea, backed by the Soviet Union, crossed the 38th parallel and invaded the South. The United Nations responded rapidly, urging member states to aid South Korea, and among the nations that committed troops was the United Kingdom. One of the British units … [Read More]
And the River Drags Her Down
And the River Drags Her Down is a haunting, lyrical tale of grief, sisterhood and revenge that blends Gothic horror, mystery and Korean folklore, perfect for fans of She Is a Haunting, House of Hollow and CG Drews. ‘This unsettling, poetic YA horror is full of fury, grief, love and hard-won acceptance.’ Guardian Soojin has … [Read More]
Honey in the Wound
Spanning the 20th century, Honey in the Wound follows a mysteriously gifted lineage of Korean women as they are displaced across Asia by Japanese imperialism. At this novel’s heart is Young-Ja, whose family is killed by Japanese soldiers. Her magical gift – the ability to infuse her cooking with her feelings: love, peace, delight – … [Read More]
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever
One of the most famous poets in Korea, Kim Yeong-nang spent most of his life in Gangjin county, Jeolla province, in the southern part of Korea. He wrote 86 poems and published 2 books in his lifetime. Though he was a noted performer of traditional Korean music he also loved classical Western music and was … [Read More]
I was a North Korean Diplomat: Inside the Secret World of Pyongyang’s Foreign Service
What Does the North Korean System Look Like from the Inside? Han Jin-myung served for years within the North Korean state apparatus before leaving the regime in January 2015. Although more than a decade has passed since his departure, the fundamental structures of power in Pyongyang remain largely unchanged. His testimony therefore offers a rare … [Read More]
American Hagwon [forthcoming]
Min Jin Lee, the acclaimed author of Pachinko, returns with a breathtaking contemporary epic that follows one family as they reckon with personal dreams and familial duty. John and Helen Koh and their three children – Bo, DH and Mido – are building new lives in Korea when they find their worlds upended, first by … [Read More]
Daesoon Jinrihoe in Modern Korea: The Emergence, Transformation and Transmission of a New Religion
East Asian nations shared a similar environment of modernisation in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. None had been colonised under Western imperialism, but all of them commonly became subjected to new authorities, whether directly or indirectly. This change of the political landscape also challenged religious communities, as many new religious movements (NRMs) emerged to … [Read More]