Ambassadors Book Offers Rare Perspective of Korea
By J.R. Breen
Contributing Writer
"Koreans are childlike... constitutionally lazy... densely ignorant." On the other hand the place is "a country of students." Such were the perceptions of some of the first Western travelers to Korea, recorded in 19th century magazines and newspapers such as Living Age and Missionary Review.
The articles they came from, hidden away in libraries, collections and old book stores, have been republished by British Ambassador Martin Uden who published them in a book, ``Times Past in Korea,'' which recently went into its paperback edition.
The book is a collection of 366 excerpts from Uden's personal collection. The books, magazine and newspaper articles provide an insight into the encounters, customs and daily life recorded by foreigners, from the 17th century to the Japanese colonial era in the first half of the 20th century.
"The book is a way for me to show some of my collection to people," Uden said last week at the Royal Asiatic Society, Seoul.
He has also written an introduction for the book ``Korea: Caught in Time,'' by Terry Bennett - a history of photography in Korea.
Uden's shelves of foreign language material printed on Korea amount to one of the largest private collections in the world.
Asked how his hobby affects his work, Uden said, "It gives me a sense of confidence that I know what this place is about."
Uden, who has been collecting since 1981, says he realized his interest when he caught himself paying over the odds for a reprint of an old English language book on Korea.
"I realized it when I was first here in the '80s. I paid 30 pounds for a reprint of Isabella Bird Bishop's book. Thirty pounds (about 60,000 won today) was a lot of money back then," he said.
Uden said that he hopes a university will buy his collection from him and that "one thing is for sure ― I won't be taking it with me."