Han Heung-su, an unsung pioneer
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By Choe Chong-dae
My particular interest in the scholarly work of Han Hung-su comes from my father, Choe Nam-ju (1905-1980), a pioneer in Korean archeology whose work has not yet been widely acknowledged in Korea. The published work of Han Hung-su (1909-?), like my father’s publications, has not been studied closely by present day Korean scholars.
I had the pleasure of attending a lecture on the life and publications of Han, a multi-talented but a forgotten Korean scholar in Europe, delivered by Mr. JaroslavOlša, Jr. who is currently the Czech Ambassador to Korea, at Royal Asiatic Society – Korea Branch on June 18, 2013.
Remarkably, I came to realize that Han was a polyglot scholar, who spoke at least six languages and published a substantial number of articles and books in Korean, German, Czech, Polish and English.
Han attended universities in Austria, Switzerland, and Czechoslovakia where he had studied in the 1930s and 1940s. He arrived in Vienna in 1936, at the age of 27, and he had turned 39 when he came back to his home country. He studied for two years in Vienna and one year in Bern.
Having obtained his Ph.D. in Fribourg, Switzerland in 1940, Han became a distinguished scholar and advocate of Korean studies in Central Europe. While he was working at the National Museum of Ethnology in Vienna, he began to commute between Vienna and Prague. Han returned home in 1945 after Korea regained its independence from Japan.
Until very recently, the Korean academic society has not been aware of the many biographical facts and achievements of Han, who in different historical circumstances could have become a leading Korean archaeologist. His life and work have influenced not only Korean archeology but also the study of Korean history and literature in Czechoslovakia, as well as the understanding of Korean literature in German-speaking countries in Europe.
It is worth mentioning that Han published two articles in 1935 in the Chindanhakbo, a leading Korean academic journal. One paper was about the Korean megalithic culture and the other paper was an outline of stone tool kits in prehistoric Korea. Some other articles about his trips to Europe have been published in the Chindanhakpo in 1936 and in the Chosun Ilbo Daily News in 1937 respectively. An article titled ``Studies on megalithic culture of Korea” published in the Journal of American Anthropologist in 1948 drew a great attention from scholars in the United States.
After Korea’s liberation from Japan, Han enthusiastically dedicated himself to Korean studies at his residence in Prague, and authored a history of Korea in German and had it published in Czech, called ``Korea: Yesterday and Today,” in 1949; he also translated and edited hundreds of pages on Korean literature into both German and Czech. Additionally, Han wrote numerous articles promoting Korean independence and the separation of a North Korean state.
Having joined the many Korean intellectuals who supported communism, Han returned to Pyongyang and was appointed there as a professor at the Kim Il Sung University and later became chairman of the Commission for the Preservation of Cultural Property in 1948. Like many others who opted for the North, his swift rise turned into a sudden fall when he was purged near the end of the Korean War.
Regrettably, despite all his past activities and the abundance of his publications, he ended up a forgotten figure, not only in Korea but also in Central Europe. Though his works have not been widely disseminated in Korea, Han is indeed a pioneering Korean scholar who introduced Korean studies to Western countries.
Han Hung-su’s academic achievements in Korean studies would most likely have remained in the shadows if it were not for the outstanding research of Han’s life by Mr. Jaroslav Olša, Jr., Czech Ambassador to Korea.
Choe Chong-dae is a guest columnist of The Korea Times and the president of Dae-kwang International Co., as well as a director of the Korean-Swedish Association. He can be reached at dkic98@chol.com.