The Korea Times

AI and Korean studies

There will be a conference at the Korean Studies Institute in Andong later this month examining the future of Korean studies. I’ve always been uncomfortable with “future” studies — how can we know? — but still, it’s a topic worth looking at especially these days when everyone seems to be concerned about an artificial intelligence (AI) future and what it’s going to do to impact us all. To know the unknowable is the game of looking at the future, but there are some mileposts, some hints we can find. Take the axiom “the past is prologue” and look at some things in the past, and present, that can point to some things in the future. As far as AI is concerned, my deepest connection with it is in translation — computer-assisted translation. Years ago, a good friend of mine, Kim Han-gon, was a linguist who had been at Seoul National University, but we “scouted him” (using the term the way Koreans use it, not the way it’s used in English) — meaning we recruited him to come teach at Brigham Young University. He was looking at computer translation. He was discouraged t

22h agoBy Mark Peterson

The world of Toegye Yi Hwang

If you’ve been to Korea and spent a 1,000 won note, you’ve seen the image of Yi Hwang (1501-70), who is better known by his pen name Toegye. Recently I gave a presentation to the Toegye Association — and I spoke about the world the Master Toegye lived in, his society and social practices. It was not what most people think it was. One might assume that since Toegye was a major figure, maybe "the" major figure in Korean Confucianism, that the things he taught were what we see in Korea’s Confucianism today. But that is not the case. The Confucianism of Toegye’s day was very different from what we think of when we think of Confucianism today. Confucianism today is associated with male domination: the rights of the eldest son, primogeniture and generally the oppression of women. The common aphorisms we learn in school about Confucianism all applied in late Confucianism: "namjon yeobi" — “respect for men, humility for women." "Samgang oryun" — the three bonds and the five relationships which were: king and subject, parent and child, and husband and wife. These three relationsh

Sep 27, 2026By Mark Peterson

The concubine of the wife

I’ve been translating a short story at the request of a friend of mine. The friend is Young-Key Kim-Renaud, a retired professor of linguistics at George Washington University. But more importantly, she is the daughter of Han Moo-sook, a famous short story writer. Kim-Renaud is compiling an anthology of her mother’s short stories in English translation. Some of the stories have already been translated, but she wants to translate them all, apparently. She is asking dozens of her friends to each translate one story. The one the we decided I should translate is titled “Yi Sajong’s Wife.” It is a story that looks at a famous piece of folklore from Korean history — I do not know if the story is true or not, but it is presented as a true incident — centered on a famous love story of the most famous gisaeng in Korea, Hwang Jini. The story goes that Hwang Jini fell in love with a man who was a great singer. He was out in the mountains, singing, and she heard him and presented herself to him. She was captured by his beautiful singing, and as it turns out he was a famous singer of t

Sep 6, 2026By Mark Peterson

Korean poetry

I’ve been asked to write a book on Korean poetry. Do you think I should? I do not know Korean poetry well, but I do know what I like, and I have had several impactful experiences that have informed me of the power of poetry. The first experience came when I was at a banquet in San Francisco on the heels of a day-long conference. Sitting across from me was a businessman who was supporting the conference, but who was not an academic. It was clear from his conversation that he did not understand the academic issues being discussed at the conference. But as a financial supporter of the event, he was interested in talking to me. He asked who I was and where I was from. The banquet was attended mostly by Korean Americans — I was one of only three Caucasians in the room. The businessman sitting across the table from me asked about my position. I told him I taught Korean history and literature at Brigham Young University in Utah. Though I said “history and literature,” he picked up on the literature part and asked what I taught. I responded "hyangga," "sijo," "gasa" and folk tales in m

Aug 16, 2026By Mark Peterson

Jokbo epiphany

Recently working with two organizations that are analyzing and indexing Chinese and Korean "jokbo," I had an epiphany — actually two epiphanies. The first is that Chinese "jiapu" and Korean jokbo are very different. They serve different purposes and have very different content. I and everyone else on these two teams assumed from looking at the two styles of documents and seeing the generational lines and the Chinese characters that they are very similar. Their structure is, but in content, they are completely different. That was the first epiphany. The second difference was revealed when I looked at how wives are handled in each case. In the Chinese jiapu, women are mentioned only by their surname, with little other information. Often the document lists a home town and sometimes a father, but not enough information to find out more about them. Most importantly, the Chinese do not have a "bongwan," which is how Koreans keep track of the ancestral home of the founder of the clan. In the Korean jokbo, it is of major importance. It is the key to finding the records of the wife. Jokbo, like

Aug 16, 2026By Mark Peterson

UNESCO Jokbo?

I’ll admit most readers are not following goings on in the world of Korean jokbo — a kind of genealogical record — but things are happening. The most important issue is Korea’s preparation to apply for UNESCO recognition of Korean jokbo and enlist it in the Memory of the World program. Korea has received UNESCO recognition in three categories: World Heritage, which includes physical monuments, archaeological sites and cultural landscapes; Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, covering living practices and traditions; and Memory of the World, which oversees documents and archival collections. Jokbo would fit into the third category, Memory of the World, where we find the Hunmin Jeongeum documents that helped codify the Korean alphabet, the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, the Tripitaka Koreana and the 718 titles included in the Confucian Printing Woodblocks collection, as well as modern documents concerning the Saemaul Movement and the May 18th Democratic Uprising in Gwangju for a total of 21 recognized collections. Jokbo is both historical and contemporary, bridging the current

Jul 19, 2026By Mark Peterson

The 'new' 6.25 of Korean genealogy

Americans call it the Korean War. Koreans call the three-year fratricidal war that broke out on June 25, 1950, the “yug-i-o,” meaning the day the war began. Like Dec. 7, 1941 (“a day that will live in infamy” — FDR), or Sept. 11, 2001, these were days so horrific that the event is known by that day as a numeric. I’m going to suggest another meaning for 6.25. I’ve mentioned this briefly in a previous column when I was writing about the new jokbo in Korea. I presented this idea to the audience at the Global Forum that The Korea Times sponsored on the new Korean jokbo — “Not just grandfathers, but grandmothers jokbo, too.” In my presentation there, and I wrote about it in my column here, I suggested the new Korean jokbo will be similar to the Western jokbo — and at the same time, will recapture the traditional Korean jokbo before the male dominance, before the patrilineal takeover of the Korean jokbo. Koreans, before the late 17th century, kept what was called a “pal gojo-do.” The beginning structure in Western jokbo, or genealogy, what we now like to call “fami

Jul 5, 2026By Mark Peterson

New jokbo research

In my last column, I wrote about the shifting paradigm of the Korean family. I looked at how things have changed in my lifetime and how they might change more in the future. I also wrote about the changing "jokbo" — the traditional Korean genealogical registers — last November, which led to the Korea Times sponsoring a forum on the changes in the jokbo. Today column discusses how the changes are being played out and how new technology (and yes, artificial intelligence) are changing the traditional jokbo in Korea today, and how it will change in the near future. The paradigm shift from a jokbo that is predominantly male — what the sociologists call an “agnatic” organization, meaning “men related to men, through men,” to an egalitarian, or gender balanced approach to family and ancestry, means a different view of family and the ancestors. Which way is Korea going? In the direction of Western family and jokbo. Yes, Western jokbo. The Korean view of jokbo is such that from time to time, when I tell a Korean friend about my own jokbo, the reaction is almost always, “you have

Jun 14, 2026By Mark Peterson

Paradigm shift in the family

I’ve seen a lot of changes in Korea in my 60 years here. Aside from the country's dramatic economic growth, I’m interested in looking at the family and how it has been impacted by the rapid changes in Korean society. When I first came to Korea, I was impressed with two things: families and the educational system. Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world in 1965, after being exploited by the Japanese, divided against its will and recovering from a senseless war. Yet families were strong and there was a lot of pride in family and tradition. Part of the family tradition and one’s identity was the “jokbo” or Korean genealogical records outlining family history. I was impressed with how families did everything they could to ensure that the younger generation has access to education. These two values of family and education have shifted between then and now, and are likely shifting again as we go into the future. In 1965, it was still important to have a large family, but sometime in the 70’s, the social paradigm shifted and it became important to control population gr

May 28, 2026By Mark Peterson

Kim Koo

I was recently interviewed by a representative of the Kim Koo commemorative organization. They told me that UNESCO has designated 2026 as the commemorative year for independence leader Kim Koo’s 150th birth anniversary. His birth date was Aug. 29, 1876, but is celebrated all year long. Kim Koo was an important figure in 20th century Korea. Perhaps best known as the rival to Syngman Rhee until he was tragically assassinated on June 6, 1949. He is not a figure without controversy. The Japanese, during the Japanese occupation called him “the assassin” because he killed a man whom he thought was responsible for the death of Queen Min, wife of King Gojong, in 1897. She is better known by her posthumous title Empress Myeongseong. It turns out the man he killed was not one of the squad of Japanese samurai wannabes who raided the palace and killed all the palace women there. They killed them all because on an earlier attempt on her life, she switched clothes with a maid and thus survived. So on the final attempt, the Japanese killed all the women in the queen's quarters. Kim Koo spent mos

May 17, 2026By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson