Contributor
Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books, including Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.
Following the establishment of the Imperial Korean Customs in 1883, international smuggling has been a problem in Korea. Chinese and Japanese junks frequently attempted to avoid inspections, passengers aboard the handful of steamships hid goods among their luggage, and perhaps even more egregious were foreign representatives who used their diplomatic immunity for their own gains.
The General Sherman, an American merchant ship, sailed up the Taedong River in August 1866 — right up to the very gates of Pyongyang. Ostensibly, the ship’s mission was one of peace: to establish trade and open the Hermit Kingdom to the rest of the world. However, the expedition ended disastrously. The General Sherman was destroyed, its crew slaughtered and its anchor chain became a symbol of defiance against foreign intervention. To this day, North Korea cites the General Sherman incident as an example of early unwanted American adventurism on the Korean Peninsula.
For many, sea travel is viewed as a romantic adventure, but in the 19th century it was a necessary evil, filled with danger and uncertainty. This was especially true in August 1889, when the waters around the Korean Peninsula, Japan and China were plagued by a series of powerful storms.
Homer Hulbert is arguably one of the most beloved early Westerners in Korean history. He came to Korea in July 1886 as an American educator (a task he performed admirably) and went on to write prolifically about Korea — subsequently educating his fellow Westerners of the peninsula’s culture, history and charms. Of course, his efforts weren’t always appreciated, even by his own government; he was occasionally dismissed as troublesome and “going native.” Hulbert was, right up to his death, a champion of Korea’s right to self-government.
In 1907, Thomas Sammons, the American consul in Seoul, described six of the most “notable hot springs” on the Korean Peninsula in a report to the State Department. According to him, five were in the north and only one was in the south — Onyang Hot Spring in South Chungcheong Province.
Over the past couple of decades, saunas (jjimjilbang), spas and hot springs have become popular attractions for foreign tourists. North Korea has a large number of hot springs, and many of them have interesting histories centered around healing. One such place is Jangdol Hot Spring, which traces its history back to an ancient legend involving a skylark (jangdolsae) with a broken leg that landed near a hot spring and was quickly healed.
What did Namdaemun and Gyeongbok Palace have in common in 1891?As part of the currency reforms, their images were proposed for the design of a paper bill that would make business transactions easier.
The summer of 1892 was, a foreign resident in Jemulpo (modern Incheon) declared, the hottest summer in Korea he had experienced. According to him, “the oldest resident” in the community could not remember a hotter summer, and, the narrator added, the old man had a “pretty lengthy” memory to draw upon. Unfortunately, we do not know if the elderly gentleman was Korean or foreign — but regardless, considering Jemulpo was a fairly new port, it was a pretty bold assertion.
In the early 1900s, Charles M. Root, an aptly named American, wrote, “When China thinks about [Korea] it is not about its political status, its queer customs or its [strategic] importance to China, but the ginseng that comes from [Korean] mountains.” He added, “This root is the foundation of all the commercial dealings between China and ‘The Land of the Morning [Calm].’”
Family albums and scrapbooks are treasure chests filled with memories — good and bad. Old photographs, their edges curled with age and humidity, inspire curiosity, but unfortunately the questions as to the identities of the people in the pictures and their locations are often left unanswered due to the carelessness of the compiler who neglected to annotate them. Perhaps they thought they could do it later or just assumed they would always remember the information. Memories are often flawed — especially with age — and the younger generations, self-absorbed with their own lives, are not interested in the anecdotes of the past.