From the publisher’s website: “Just south of the thirty-seventh parallel in Korea a long, jagged peninsula extends westward far out towards China into the Yellow Sea. At its extreme northwestern tip lies Sŏkp’o, a fishing and farming village of slightly more than a hundred households. This book is an attempt to describe the way of … [Read More]
Archives: Books (page 63)
Politics and Policy in Traditional Korea
From the publisher’s website: James B. Palais theorizes in his important book on Korea that the remarkable longevity of the Yi dynasty (1392–1910) was related to the difficulties the country experienced in adapting to the modern world. He suggests that the aristocratic and hierarchical social system, which was the source of stability of the dynasty, was … [Read More]
Korea: As Seen by Magnum Photographers
From the publisher’s website: More than 230 full-color images by some of the world’s most-renowned photographers. South Korea, with its craggy hillsides, gnarled trees, and ancient temples, is steeped in tradition yet, at the same time, is thoroughly modern—the tenth-ranking industrial power in the world. Its capital city, Seoul, is one of the most populous … [Read More]
Seoul & Chemulpo Railroad: The First Railroad of Korea
From the description on Amazon: An account of the construction of the Seoul & Chemulpo Railroad, the first railroad of Korea, and its relationship to the murder of Queen Min. The book also includes a summary of the railroad’s place within the framework of the history of Korean-American diplomacy and is illustrated with over 200 … [Read More]
Treacherous Translation: Culture, Nationalism, and Colonialism in Korea and Japan from the 1910s to the 1960s
From the publisher’s website: This book examines the role of translation—the rendering of texts and ideas from one language to another, as both act and trope—in shaping attitudes toward nationalism and colonialism in Korean and Japanese intellectual discourse between the time of Japan’s annexation of Korea in 1910 and the passing of the colonial generation … [Read More]
In Pursuit of Status: The Making of South Korea’s “New” Urban Middle Class
From the publisher’s website: In this ethnography of the everyday life of contemporary Korea, Denise Lett argues that South Korea’s contemporary urban middle class not only exhibits upper-class characteristics but also that this reflects a culturally inherited disposition of Koreans to seek high status. Lett shows that Koreans have adapted traditional ways of asserting high status … [Read More]
Anti-Americanism in Democratizing South Korea
From the publisher’s website: Americans think of South Korea as one of the most pro-American of countries, but in fact many Koreans hold harsh and conspiratorial views of the United States. If not, why did a single U.S. military traffic accident in 2002 cause hundreds of thousands of Koreans to take to the streets for … [Read More]
On the Move for Love: Migrant Entertainers and the U.S. Military in South Korea
From the publisher’s website: Since the Korean War, gijichon—U.S. military camp towns—have been fixtures in South Korea. The most popular entertainment venues in gijichon are clubs, attracting military clientele with duty-free alcohol, music, shows, and women entertainers. In the 1990s, South Korea’s rapid economic advancement, combined with the stigma and low pay attached to this work, led to … [Read More]
Trafficking Women in Korea: Filipina migrant entertainers
From the publisher’s website: Based on in-depth ethnographic work, this book presents a study of Filipinas trafficked to South Korea, focusing on women who entered South Korea as migrant entertainers and subsequently became deployed in exploitative work environments around US military bases there. It contributes to the extension of our knowledge about human trafficking in … [Read More]
North Korea: Like Nowhere Else – Two Years of Living in the World’s Most Secretive State
From the publisher’s website: What happens when you travel to a place where even basic truths are ambiguous? Where sometimes you can’t trust your own eyes or feelings? Where the divide between real and imagined is never clear? For two years, Lindsey Miller lived in North Korea, long regarded as one of the most closed … [Read More]
Ginseng and Borderland: Territorial Boundaries and Political Relations Between Qing China and Choson Korea, 1636-1912
From the publisher’s website: Ginseng and Borderland explores the territorial boundaries and political relations between Qing China and Choson Korea during the period from the early seventeenth to the late nineteenth centuries. By examining a unique body of materials written in Chinese, Manchu, and Korean, and building on recent studies in New Qing History, Seonmin Kim … [Read More]
Great Journeys of the World
From the dust jacket: In Great Journeys of the World, six talented individuals – among them writers and actors, a poet and a musician – embark on journeys of special interest in some of the most spectacular parts of the world. … In Korea, the world’s leading solo percussionist, Evelyn Glennie, explores Korea’s musical culture … [Read More]
Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom
Patriots, Traitors and Empires is an account of modern Korean history, written from the point of view of those who fought to free Korea from the domination of foreign empires. It traces the history of Korea’s struggle for freedom from opposition to Japanese colonialism starting in 1905 to North Korea’s current efforts to deter the threat … [Read More]
Every Falling Star: The True Story of How I Survived and Escaped North Korea
From the publisher’s website: Every Falling Star, the first book to portray contemporary North Korea to a young audience, is the intense memoir of a North Korean boy named Sungju who was forced at age twelve to live on the streets and fend for himself. To survive, Sungju creates a gang and lives by thieving, … [Read More]
This is Paradise! My North Korean Childhood
From the publisher’s website: Hyok Kang was eighteen when he escaped from North Korea, a country locked away from the outside world. This personal, illustrated account of school days in a rigidly communist institution and everyday life with his family and community provides a rare glimpse of this secretive nation. His shocking and moving portrayal … [Read More]
South Korea’s Education Exodus: The Life and Times of Early Study Abroad
From the publisher’s website: South Korea’s Education Exodus analyzes Early Study Abroad in relation to the neoliberalization of South Korean education and labor. With chapters based on demographic and survey data, discourse analysis, and ethnography in destinations such as Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United States, the book considers the complex motivations that spur families … [Read More]