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]
Booklist: Sport and Pastimes
Media Technologies for Work and Play in East Asia: Critical Perspectives on Japan and the Two Koreas
Media technologies for play have become major industries in Japan and South Korea. Even in North Korea, citizens bypass the state to enjoy popular culture. At the same time, corporations and governments encourage people to produce economic values through play. The first comparative study of media technologies in Japan and the two Koreas, this book … [Read More]
A Team of Their Own: How an International Sisterhood Made Olympic History
The inspiring, unlikely story of the American, Canadian, South Korean and even North Korean women who joined together to form Korea’s first Olympic ice hockey team. Two weeks before the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics, South Korea’s women’s hockey team was forced into a predicament that no president, ambassador or general had been … [Read More]
Communication, Digital Media, and Popular Culture in Korea: Contemporary Research and Future Prospects
From the publisher’s website: In recent decades, Korean communication and media have substantially grown to become some of the most significant segments of Korean society. Since the early 1990s, Korea has experienced several distinctive changes in its politics, economy, and technology, which are directly related to the development of local media and culture. Korea has … [Read More]
Taekwondo: From a Martial Art to a Martial Sport
From the publisher’s website: This book provides a comprehensive overview of the historical, political, and technical evolution of taekwondo. Many of the supposedly ‘traditional’ and ‘ancient’ Korean cultural elements attached to taekwondo are, in fact, remnants of East Asia’s modernization drive, and largely inherited from the Japanese martial arts. The current historical portrayal has created … [Read More]
A History of Football in North and South Korea c.1910–2002 Development and Diffusion
For the Koreans, no sport has surpassed football in terms of its popularity and national importance, from the Japanese colonization era onwards. However, its importance has developed over time as a result of unusual and agonizing historical events, including the tragic split between North and South Korea. This volume attempts to assess football’s changing political … [Read More]
The Korean Popular Culture Reader
From the publisher’s website: Over the past decade, Korean popular culture has become a global phenomenon. The “Korean Wave” of music, film, television, sports, and cuisine generates significant revenues and cultural pride in South Korea. The Korean Popular Culture Reader provides a timely and essential foundation for the study of “K-pop,” relating the contemporary cultural landscape to … [Read More]
The Two Koreas and the Politics of Global Sport
From the publisher’s website: In ordinary circumstances, one could be forgiven for assuming that sport unites rather than divides people. But, as this first in-depth study of inter-Korean sporting life and competition over more than six decades clearly demonstrates, sport has in fact been held hostage to the ups and downs of inter-Korean political relations. … [Read More]
Transnational Sport: Gender, Media, and Global Korea
From the publisher’s website: Based on ethnographic research in Seoul and Los Angeles, Transnational Sport tells how sports shape experiences of global Koreanness, and how those experiences are affected by national cultures. Rachael Miyung Joo focuses on superstar Korean athletes and sporting events produced for transnational media consumption. She explains how Korean athletes who achieve success on … [Read More]
This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities
“In May 2000 I was fired from my job as a reporter on a finance newsletter because of an obsession with a videogame. It was the best thing that ever happened to me.” So begins this story of personal redemption through the unlikely medium of electronic games. Quake, World of Warcraft, Eve Online and other online games not only … [Read More]
Stories inside Stories: Music in the Making of the Korean Olympic Ceremonies
This volume is about the music in the opening and closing ceremonies of the Seoul Olympics (1988) that were watched on television by millions of people. More specifically, the book is about the planning and decisions that resulted in a remarkable presentation, a narrative enacted in mythic terms from Korean cosmology, archetypes from world religions, … [Read More]
Korea’s Pastimes and Customs: A Social History
From the publisher’s website: Why are there so many Gims (Kims), Yis (Lees) and Baks (Parks) in Korea? What was life like in Korea hundreds of years ago? What kinds of communities did the Korean people form? How did they celebrate their birthdays and holidays? What kinds of games did they play in their spare … [Read More]
Taekwondo: Philosophy and Culture
From the publisher’s website: Taekwondo is an international and Olympic sport which meets a growing interest in the development of increased concentration and spirit in many parts of the world. Taekwondo is one of the most popular martial arts in the world and contributes not only to the improvement of human health but also to … [Read More]
