This book examines the evolution of the Korean film industry, presenting a comprehensive account from the early days of experimental screening to its current period of attracting increased foreign investment. Exploring the Korean film industry’s troubled past, this book covers occupation, civil war, authoritarianism, globalisation, and the continued uncertainties amidst geopolitical competition. It differs from … [Read More]
Booklist: Non-Fiction (page 6)
Yun Dong-ju: A Critical Biography
Historian and novelist Song WooHye chronicles the life of Yun Dong-ju (1917-1945), one of the most beloved and important poets in the modern Korean literary canon, widely considered Korea’s “National Poet”. Beginning with the history of the North Gando region (now Yanbian, China), where Yun was born, and ending with facts behind the publication of … [Read More]
Queer Throughlines: Spaces of Queer Activism in South Korea and the Korean Diaspora
Queer Throughlines draws on years of direct participation, interviews, and ethnography to examine transnational Korean LGBTQ+ activism since the 1990s. Han maps the sites and routes of leftist and queer political movements, highlighting challenges posed by Christian conservatives in both South Korea and the US. The book uses the concept of “throughlines” to weave together … [Read More]
Beyond the Sewol: Activist Theatre and Performance in South Korea and the Diaspora
On the evening of April 15, 2014, the Sewol ferry set sail on its overnight journey from Incheon, in northwestern South Korea, to Jeju Island, 240 miles to the south. There were 476 people on board. After receiving a distress call from a passenger onboard, Harbor Affairs at Jeju and at Jindo Island both urged … [Read More]
Korean New Religions
Korea has an unusually diverse religious culture. In the north, Juche, which has taken on religious overtones, monopolizes articulations of beliefs and values as well as ritual practice. In the south, no single religion dominates, with over half saying that they have no specific religious affiliation. The remainder report being Protestant, Buddhist, and Catholic. Smaller … [Read More]
Imperial Entertainers: Korean Women Performers from Military to Global Stages, 1937–75
The book uncovers the untold stories of Korean women performers who navigated successive waves of conflict as cultural laborers in military entertainment, offering insight into the intersection of war, gender, and culture in East Asia. Imperial Entertainers: Korean Women Performers from Military to Global Stages, 1937-1975 uncovers the untold stories of Korean women performers who navigated … [Read More]
Triangle Republics: Cross-Border Literary Transits Between the Cold War Koreas and Japan
In Korea, the end of the Second World War in 1945 brought both liberation from Japanese colonial rule and the division of the nation by the triumphant Allies. The peninsula was not only decoupled from its former colonial metropole but also carved up into two halves that were subsequently incorporated into the rival blocs of … [Read More]
The Healing Power of Korean Letter Writing
A charming ode to the lost art of connecting through the handwritten letter, from the owner of the beloved Seoul stationery shop Geulwoll Juhee Moon once doubted whether handwritten letters had a place in our ultra-fast-paced world, but the runaway success of her stationery shop Geulwoll, established in 2019, quickly became known as a tranquil … [Read More]
Soju Party: How to Drink (and Eat!) Like a Korean
Drinking is an essential part of Korean culture, one that’s guided by a complex web of unspoken rules, deep tradition, and lots and lots of food. With Soju Party, food writer, chef, and co-owner of Brooklyn’s Orion Bar Irene Yoo has written the book on drinking like a Korean. She introduces the classic Korean alcohols and … [Read More]
Families for Mobility: Elite Korean Students Abroad and Their Parents’ Reproduction of Privilege
Families for Mobility documents elite Korean transnational families, focusing on how they use elite education abroad as a tool for class reproduction. Drawing on over 100 interviews with both parents and children at elite U.S. colleges, the book explores the desires, aspirations, and expectations that shape these education-driven transnational family arrangements. By triangulating the perspectives of … [Read More]
Brutal Fantasies: Imagining North Korea in the Long Cold War
In Brutal Fantasies, Christine Kim examines how Western cultural representations of North Korea depend on fantasies of the inhuman. Drawing on films, fiction, and defectors’ life writings from the last two decades, Kim analyzes how these representations construct North Korea as a site of brutality and inhumanity. She recasts these stories through Asian American and … [Read More]
Hanyo (The Housemaid)
The upwardly mobile Kim family employs a young woman to help manage their new house. Mr. Kim begins an affair with the nameless ‘housemaid’, who soon drags the entire family into a terrible tragedy… The director Kim Ki-young played a formative part in South Korean cinema’s “Golden Age” of the 1960s and 1970s; his 1960 … [Read More]
Forever President: A Biography of Kim Il Sung
Pieces together the rise, achievements, and failures of North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung. Kim Il Sung ruled his country, North Korea, for longer and shaped it more profoundly than almost any other modern leader. He created a unique and seemingly bizarre and menacing political and social system, establishing a dynasty that has maintained it … [Read More]
Against the Chains of Utility: Sacrifice and Literature in 1970s and 1980s South Korea
The 1970s and 1980s were pivotal decades in South Korea, marked by rapid industrialization and urbanization. The language of sacrifice was constantly employed by the developmental state to justify its exploitation of workers and violation of countless civil rights as necessary for the nation’s economic growth and security. As a counter to this prevailing rhetoric, … [Read More]
1966 And All That: The Story of North Korea’s Greatest Football Team
1966 And All That: The Story of North Korea’s Greatest Football Team is a captivating and meticulously researched exploration of one of football’s most unexpected and legendary World Cup stories. In this unique work, Kenneth Knight brings to life the incredible rise of the North Korean team that stunned the world in 1966, not merely … [Read More]
Once You Cross a Street You’re on the Edge of a Cliff: Surviving the Sex Industry in Korea
Prostitution is the oldest “profession” in the world—that’s what they say. According to Havocsope, total prostitution revenue is $186 billion worldwide, with 40-42 million women prostituted. The number itself is staggering, but the reality is hard to grasp with the statistics only. Bomnal’s memoir Once You Cross a Street, You’re on the Edge of a … [Read More]