Broadsheet blogwatch
Set out below are the latest posts from some of the more serious blogs out there. As many of you will know, I tend to steer clear of political commentary: if you want the low-down on those blogs, visit the Marmot’s blog aggregator. Film blogs now have their separate BlogWatch page.
Posted 31 hours ago: Fooling the People All the Time Of all the famous quotes I know, the one I like the most is Lincoln’s remark about fooling people. You know the one that says: "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." I ... [
Link]
Posted 4 days ago: Conditions for Happiness A recent international survey showed that the citizens of Denmark are the happiest people in the world while the Americans who live in the richest nation ranked a distant 23rd. In a CBS-TV interview, a group of young Danes were asked what they think makes them happy, they all cited “low expectations.” “Since we don’t expect much ... [
Link]
Posted 11 days ago: “We Are Always Right” If you happen to get involved in a fender bender in South Korea, the best thing you can do, unless you are seriously injured, is to get out of your car and start arguing with the driver of the other car, shouting as loudly as you can. You must insist that it’s the other driver’s fault. ... [
Link]
Posted 18 days ago: Killing In Kumgangsan By the time he called me, we had all heard about it. Nevertheless, our conversation gravitated towards the shooting death of a South Korean tourist by a North Korean soldier at the Kumgangsan (Diamond) mountain resort in North Korea. My friend has been an ardent follower of former President Kim Dae-jung and so I knew how he ... [
Link]
Posted 4 weeks ago: Beware of netizens The following episode took place in South Korea several years ago. Thousands of Internet surfers, known in Korea as netizens, have launched a nationwide campaign to “save the life” of a popular actress from imminent death. The actress was so famous even I could recognize her name. It turned out, however, it was not the actress in ... [
Link]
Posted 7 weeks ago: Dear Friends As I am leaving on an extended trip to Europe later this week, I may not be able to post new articles for three weeks or so. I plan on returning home in mid-July and hope to be in touch with you again then. [
Link]
Posted 7 weeks ago: A Cow on Mars The National Aeronautic and Space Administration’s Mars lander, Phoenix, reportedly did some amazing scientific work on the red planet’s north-pole region. Some pictures it sent back to Earth showed a couple of bright patches beneath Phoenix where the lander’s jet thrusters may have blown off the surface soil, the report said. Dr. Peter H. Smith, the ... [
Link]
Posted 8 weeks ago: Elder Statesmen or Provocateurs? Perhaps because they spent such a strenuous and nervous time while in office, two retired and presumably relaxed former presidents of the Republic of Korea seem to blurt out remarks from time to time that are not only uncalled for but often incredibly dumb. The former presidents in question are Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, who ... [
Link]
Posted 9 weeks ago: Back to Democrazy The following is an imaginary conversation between the owner of one of South Korea’s largest candle manufacturing companies and his son who is a college student. Any resemblance to similar exchanges between actual persons is, therefore, purely coincidental and the writer is not responsible for what is said here. ---- Son: “Congratulations, Dad, on the windfall profit ... [
Link]
Posted 10 weeks ago: It’s the appearance that counts A few years back in South Korea, a friend invited me for a round of golf at a club where he was a member. Since I did not have a car of my own, I borrowed my daughter’s red Martiz and drove out to the golf course on the outskirts of Seoul. I did not ... [
Link]
Posted 6 days ago: ( Found via Mongdori ) Seriously, it’s great that the makers of this video are trying to encourage children to eat foods with fermented bean paste (된장) rather than candy, but do 8 year-olds really need to be told (0:49) that it’s good for their “S-lines” and “V-lines” too? For those few of you that don’t know [...] [
Link]
Posted 6 days ago: (Update: YouTube video fixed) It’s over a year old, but strangely I can’t find any mention of this computer-generated image of Song Hye-gyo (송혜교) in the Korean blogosphere. Click on the picture for a larger version, and you can see the whole process of its production by Indonesian artist Max Edwin Wahyudi here. I found it myself [...] [
Link]
Posted 7 days ago: It’s over a year old, but strangely I can’t find any mention of this computer-generated image of Song Hye-gyo (송혜교) in the Korean blogosphere. Click on the picture for a larger version, and you can see the whole process of its production by Indonesian artist Max Edwin Wahyudi here. I found it myself via browsing [...] [
Link]
Posted 8 days ago: It’s been a while since I’ve discussed the lengths many Korean women will go to achieve and maintain white skin, but like I say in my most-commented ever post on the subject, the result of avoiding the sun so much is that Korean women have the lowest Vitamin-D rates in the world. Surely at that [...] [
Link]
Posted 8 days ago: It’s been a while since I’ve discussed the lengths many Korean women will go to achieve and maintain white skin, but like I say in my most-commented ever post on the subject, the result of avoiding the sun so much is that Korean women have the lowest vitamin-D rates in the world. Surely at that [...] [
Link]
Posted 12 days ago: If I’d originally seen this recent commercial on TV, I’d probably have found it a little surreal, and the cutesy song off-putting…and that’s after living here for over eight years. But now that I’ve read the ideas behind it, then it does make a strange sort of sense: ( Source ) 소비자의 추억을 자극하라 Stimulating Consumer’s Memories 롯데리아 아바카도 [...] [
Link]
Posted 13 days ago: Not strictly about Korea sorry, but I couldn’t resist. From 1960: ( Source: Boing Boing ) :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: [
Link]
Posted 16 days ago: Not strictly about Korea sorry, but I couldn’t resist. From 1960: ( Source: Boing Boing ) :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: [
Link]
Posted 16 days ago: Introduction (WARNING: The THIRD image in this post features partial nudity) ( Image by DunkelFeld. Full video of 2007 advertisement available here ) ( Source: Unknown ) An effective way to advertise shampoo to women? Why not? I’m sure I don’t need to tell readers that both sexes are at least subconsciously aroused by semi-exposed cleavage and the oh-so-subtle symbolism ... [
Link]
Posted 16 days ago: Introduction (WARNING: The THIRD image in this post features partial nudity) ( Image by DunkelFeld. Full video of 2007 advertisement available here ) ( Source: Unknown ) An effective way to advertise shampoo to women? Why not? I’m sure I don’t need to tell readers that both sexes are at least subconsciously aroused by semi-exposed cleavage and the oh-so-subtle symbolism ... [
Link]
Posted 13 hours ago: Hi, I’m new to the blog, and just wanted to introduce myself. I’m primarily a Historian of Science / Medicine, with a significant investment in East Asia (South Korea and Japan). I just started at NUS (National University of Singapore), and will be teaching in the former area (Social History of Disease), while assisting with the latter as we offer ... [
Link]
Posted 18 days ago: I had a chance to watch a Korean movie from the colonial period, called “Homeless Angels (집없는 천사, 家なき天使),” at the Korean Film Archive (KFA) in Susek, Seoul, the other day. This movie was made by the infamously pro-Japanese director of the time, Choi Inkyu, in the late 1930s, and released in 1941. The Korean Film Archive listed it as ... [
Link]
Posted 4 weeks ago: The Asian History Carnival #20 is now up at Jottings from the Granite Studio! It comes in three parts: Asian History Carnival #20 Part I Asian History Carnival #20 Part II Asian History Carnival #20 Part III We are looking for volunteers to host the September and November installments. Read more on the carnival homepage. [
Link]
Posted 6 weeks ago: I’ve recently been looking through 한국전쟁과 집단학살 (Organized Massacres and the Korean War) by 김기진. The work focuses primarily on crimes against civilians carried out by United States forces or Korean forces and has a large section which reproduces, in a regretfully somewhat badly edited form, a lot of US archival documents found at the National Archives. My impression, and ... [
Link]
Posted 13 weeks ago: I had a chance to look into two primary sources on ’school strikes (同盟休校)’ (mostly in common schools) in the colonial period of Korea (the Kominka period in particular), and translated some of the records from Japanese to English. The documents I looked at are: 高等外事月報 (朝鮮総督府警務局) and 朝鮮思想運動概況(朝鮮軍). It is quite interesting and I would like to share some ... [
Link]
Posted 3 months ago: I reported in my recent posting on the Korean National Archives that online registration for the site is broken for all non-Koreans. This is unfortunate since the National Archives advertises that it is for “everyone” to use. Registration online is required for many of the services provided, including the printing of online documents (which in any case, seems to be ... [
Link]
Posted 3 months ago: Jeremiah Jenne over at Jottings from the Granite Studio1 will be hosting an Asian history carnival sometime during the week of May 5th. If you have postings you would like to nominate for the carnival, please send them directly to Jeremiah. You can reach him at jgjenne at ucdavis.edu. Another way to submit nominations is to tag it on del.icio.us ... [
Link]
Posted 3 months ago: The relationship between Korean martial arts and Japanese martial arts is usually a touchy one. This is because, like the history of so many other things in modern Korea, it is susceptible to what I like to call the “Colonial Death Touch.” The Colonial Death Touch works like this. Any practice which can be demonstrated to have its origins in ... [
Link]
Posted 4 months ago: I just came back from a day at the Korean National Archives headquarters in Taejŏn (Daejeon) and thought I would share some details of the experience in case someone comes across this posting who will be making the trip down there at some point in the future. I also plan to get around to making a detailed entry on the ... [
Link]
Posted 4 months ago: Thanks to a posting at The Marmot’s Hole I learned about a project being undertaken by the National Archives to display a variety of information, archival documents, and media about school architecture during the colonial period. The project home page can be found here: 일제시기 학교건축도면 컬렉션 You can also read more about the 3D materials being put up related ... [
Link]
Posted 69 minutes ago: Today is the 63rd anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki that played a critical role in eventually ending World War II. I highly recommend everyone read my prior posting about the dropping of the bomb on Nagasaki. Likewise I highly encourage everyone to read my prior posting about the decision to drop the bomb that was the subject of ... [
Link]
Posted 32 hours ago: How come I have a hard time believing either side of this issue?: President Bush offered poverty-wracked North Korea hope Wednesday that it could share in South Korea’s economic prosperity, while warning that it first must take concrete steps to live up to a promise to end its nuclear weapons program. Bush, kicking off a three-nation Asian visit, made clear ... [
Link]
Posted 32 hours ago: I started to leave this as a comment on one of Kalani’s posts when I decided it might be better done as a post of its own. It meanders - so sorry about that… The posts theme is: The K-blogsphere is one of the newest and freshest elements in South Korean protest culture. Some of us will remember back to ... [
Link]
Posted 40 hours ago: Captain Grenig and Family The young Captain Grenig — then regimental S1 and later regimental S3 — and came to Kunsan via the Philippines and Okinawa in July 1946. He was joined by his family (wife, son, and daughter) in the winter of 1947. The family departed for the Philippines in late 1947. The Grenig’s, now in their 80s, revisited ... [
Link]
Posted 2 days ago: Today is the 63rd anniversary of the nuclear bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima. I recommend everyone read my prior posting where I trace how the bomb went from the Trinity Site in New Mexico to eventually being dropped on the unsuspecting citizens of Hiroshima. [
Link]
Posted 3 days ago: Repatriation: Prior to the 63d Infantry Regiment, the Japanese were told to report to a central collection point. 33,845 Koreans were processed through Kunsan on the way to relocation centers in Korea. According to reports there were 2 million Koreans in Japan at the end of the war. 1.4 million were voluntarily repatriated, but 600,000 remained in Japan. In the ... [
Link]
Posted 4 days ago: Boy Soldier: Coming of Age during World War II Russell E. McLogan Hardcover - 432 pages (December 7, 1998) Price: $29.95 Reviews Publisher Comments …a fascinating account of an 18-year-old rifleman who joined K Company, 63rd Infantry Regiment during some of the 6th Infantry Division’s bitterest fighting…Read this story by putting yourself in the place of this patriotic, dedicated youth ... [
Link]
Posted 4 days ago: Just when things were getting quiet before Bush’s stop-over summit a bozo robs a convenience store on 2 Aug. Police officers arrested the U.S. soldier, whose full name wasn’t disclosed, for the alleged robbery at the store in Pyeongtaek, about 65 kilometers south of Seoul, as of about 2:00 a.m. on the same day. The U.S. soldier, who is stationed ... [
Link]
Posted 5 days ago: Korea Between The Wars A Soldier’s Story by Fred Ottoboni ISBN 915241-02-1, paperback, 332 pages including 12 pages of photos. Price: $19.95 Published by Vincente Books, Inc., PO Box 50704, Sparks, NV 89435. Also available direct from the publisher, postpaid, $19.95. Amazon.com readers rate this book as a 4 1/2 star offering. It contains a wealth of information of the ... [
Link]
Posted 6 days ago: I recommend everyone read this interview with Korean political analyst Lee Jung-hoon that pretty well sums up the issue of the protests against US beef in Korea. Here is an excerpt: The Korean government has put into place rather stringent measures to check all the beef imports, but would you say that this is enough to silence all the opponents? ... [
Link]
Posted 11 weeks ago: Maps can be defined as two-dimensional representations of the land surface, thus differing entirely from aerial photos taken from satellites and airplanes. For that reason, what is represented on maps varies according to who makes the maps and why. Numerous maps were produced during the Joseon period, including world maps centered around East Asia and national and provincial maps of ... [
Link]
Posted 6 months ago: Multicultural Korea, as reflected in such headlines as “One Million Foreign Nationals” and “One out of Four Men in Rural Areas Marrying Foreign Women,” has become a familiar topic, and the Korean government, NGOs, and academics are competing to produce theoretical frameworks for understanding this phenomenon. Among these, the multicultural discourse and policies articulated by the government have encountered some ... [
Link]
Posted 8 months ago: The Autumn 2007 issue of the Korea Journal features the topic “Theories of Beauty in Korean Art History,” along with four research papers and a book review. Theories of Beauty in Korean Art History This issue examines what constitutes Korean beauty and how it can be understood, as well as how it has continued into the present-day, with a focus ... [
Link]
Posted 8 months ago: We are very proud to announce the new editorial members for 2007-2009. Korea Journal is honored to welcome the following editorial board members and advisors. (more…) Copyright © 2008 The Korea Journal Blog. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of ... [
Link]
Posted 11 months ago: The topic of the present issue of the Korea Journal has, interestingly enough, been written up in the Korea Times. Read the review in its entirety after the jump, and please be sure to post your reactions in the comments after logging in! (more…) Copyright © 2008 The Korea Journal Blog. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If ... [
Link]
Posted 12 months ago: We are pleased to announce the publication of the summer 2007 issue of the KOREA JOURNAL. This issue features the special topic: “The ‘Religious’ in Contemporary Korean Culture.” It also includes five research papers produced across diverse disciplines. The “Religious” in Contemporary Korean Culture Three papers under the topic can be dubbed as a religious reading of the enthusiasm around ... [
Link]
Posted 15 months ago: We are pleased to announce the publication of the spring 2007 issue of the KOREA JOURNAL. This issue features the special topic: “A Postmodern Turn in Korean Literature.” It also includes four research papers and two book reviews A Postmodern Turn in Korean Literature (more…) Copyright © 2008 The Korea Journal Blog. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. ... [
Link]
Posted 16 months ago: Call for Papers and Participation The World Congress for Korean Studies 2007 - Korea in the World: Democracy, Peace, Prosperity and Culture - The World Congress for Korean Studies 2007 by the Korean Political Science Association will be held in Busan, South Korea, from 23 to 25 August. The main theme for the Congress is “Korea in the World: Democracy, ... [
Link]
Posted 16 months ago: The 13th Sogang-KF Korean Studies Forum will be held as follows: Subject: A Search for New Perspectives in Colonial Studies: Physical Education and Sports in Korea, 1895-1945 Presenter: Sophia Kim (KF fellow, Ph.D. Candidate , UCLA) Panel: Prof. JUNG Gun Sik (Sociology, Seoul National University) Date: Mar. 30th. 2007, 5 p.m. Venue: K-building, 506, Sogang Univ. * This forum has ... [
Link]
Posted 17 months ago: It’s nice to see so many people subscribing to the blog, which makes it easier for us to keep in touch and form a safe community of interested scholars. That’s the easy part. As we continue to gather people, I’d like to ask about ideas for content – what you’d like to see go up as content, stuff you’d like ... [
Link]
Posted 4 months ago: While looking for something else I came upon this page, which has scans of a 1919 Korean Red Cross pamphlet about the suppression of the Samil independence movement (which I talked a lot about here). It includes the declaration of Korean independence, 34 photos, and a statement from the Korean Red Cross. What's most remarkable are the photos, many of ... [
Link]
Posted 4 months ago: In this post I compared the images below, showing how an image of the American merchant ship General Sherman (destroyed on the Taedonggang in 1866) had been reproduced on a beer cap for the North Korean beer Taedonggang:That post was linked to today in Andrew Leonard's column at Salon called How the World Works. Neat. But... in the comments to ... [
Link]
Posted 5 months ago: I looked briefly at the book "I Married A Korean" in my last post. The author, Agnes Davis Kim, described the American occupation of Korea, which I've transcribed below (I've looked at that period before - the photos come from this site). The author's husband, David Kim, worked for the Office of Civil Information. They had previously lived near Seoul ... [
Link]
Posted 5 months ago: When I was at home over Christmas my mom mentioned a book she'd read as a kid titled "I Married A Korean," so when I was at my grandparents I looked through the bookcase and found it. It proved to be a fascinating read. Agnes Davis Kim met her future husband David Kim (we never learn his Korean name) when ... [
Link]
Posted 5 months ago: [An update is here.]Here is a photo of the USS Princess Royal, taken from this Wikipedia entry. Strangely enough, it doesn't mention that after it was renamed the General Sherman and turned into a merchant ship, it was sunk on the Taedonggang, the river that flows through Pyongyang, in 1866 (as the entry on that incident relates). Worth remembering, of ... [
Link]
Posted 5 months ago: A while ago I wrote a post on the 1941 film Volunteer, which was included in the box set "Unearthing the Past", which Mark over at Korea Pop Wars first brought to my attention. I finally got around to watching another film in the box set, Angels on the Streets ("Homeless Angels" is the direct translation). A synopsis and discussion ... [
Link]
Posted 5 months ago: My Samil post took a little longer that I'd thought it would. As usual, what I thought would only involve linking to a few articles has involved linking to... more than that. I've written about Samil before, looking at Francis Schofield's part in the movement here and, the influence of the 1918 Rice Riots in Japan on the Samil movement ... [
Link]
Posted 5 months ago: It's the beginning of the school year, and I realized the other day that the kids in a kindergarten class I taught back in 2001, and who graduated in 2002, will start middle school today. Most of them I never saw again after they graduated. The other day I came across the photos that made up a 'silent film' I ... [
Link]
Posted 5 months ago: Yi Wan-yong and familyAndrei Lankov's latest column in the Korea Times is about Yi Wan-yong, and has a lot of details about his life I was unaware of. Lankov describes him thusly:He was an opportunist, pure and simple: smart, to be sure, but always looking for opportunities to increase his power and, in later years, his fortune.Born in 1858 into ... [
Link]
Posted 5 months ago: Joe Mondello over at the Joshing Gnome documents the simmering antipathy between English language Korea bloggers and Ajumma bloggers, known as 와이프로거. Woe to anyone who would suggest that this is hilarious piss-take on the sniping seen in the English language blogosphere. This is most certainly a troubling aspect of the complex relationship between English language and Korean language bloggers, ... [
Link]
Korean Artists Association