Eugenia Kim's Blog, page 10
February 3, 2010
My Innocent Uncle, by Ch'ae Man-Sik
Another noir Korean family story from the occupation period.
Syncretism: The Religious Context of Christian Beginnings in Korea, by David Chung
A review by Young-Chang Ro, George Mason University, included in the Korean Studies Internet Discussion List is here.
Traditional Korean Designs, Madeleine Orban-Szontagh
A Dover pictorial series book of copyright-free black-and-white line art.
Man Sei! The Making of a Korean American, Peter Hyun
Memoir of a twelve-year old boy who witnessed the Korean Independence gathering on March 1, 1919, the first of numerous national demonstrations to protest Japan's occupation of Korea, that ended in violence and failure, though it ignited nationalistic passions that persist to this day.
February 1, 2010
Korea Today by George McCune
Professor George McCune (1908-1948) was the son of the missionary George Shannon McCune, and was born in Pyongyang. He cofounded the McCune-Reischauer system of romanization of Korean, which was accepted as the academic standard until the South Korean government offered their new, more web-friendly method of standardization in 2000. A Korea scholar, this book was born out of U.S. involvement in
Burton Holmes Travel Stories: Japan, Korea and Formosa, by Eunice Tietjens
The 16 pages about Korea in this book is of interest to me. This 1920s series of travel books were targeted to upper elementary grades to "furnish interesting silent-reading material of informational value...devoted to the most interesting and important countries of the world. Korea was an acknowledge colony of Japan by this time, and the chapter on Korea, titled "Korea—The Land of Hats" reflects
Corea: The Hermit Nation by Wm. Elliot Griffis
Originally published in 1882 (my copy, fifth printing, 1907), this early history of Korea in English by Japanese historian William Elliot Griffis became the dominant text on Korea during a critical period of history when Western interests began to converge on the peninsula. While Griffis has a distinctively pro-Japan pont of view, and much of his research is based on Japanese texts, his
Jia: A Novel of North Korea by Hyejin Kim
This novel is based on the life of a young woman whom the author met during a one-year stay in China while doing humanitarian work near the North Korean border. Having just read two harrowing memoirs about coming of age in North Korea, it seemed awkward to be reading a novel about similar circumstances, but I think it was because the fictionalized voice of the narrator felt startling in
October 25, 2009
The Guest, by Hwang Sok-yong, translated by Kyung ja Chun and Maya West
This review contains spoilers.This novel by the famed Korean author who suffered prison as a result of visiting North Korea was created with the intent of healing fifty-plus years of truly deep and bloody wounds between North and South Korea that continue to mar an open dialogue between the two nations and even between family members. Interestingly the book is organized in twelve chapters that
