Lifestyle - The Korea Times

An informative guide to biblical cities

By Do Je-hae The Bible is an historic record of real people and places. Biblical cities can be concentrations of faith as well as evil, and of culture and progress as well as destruction and oppression. An encyclopedia of around 700 cities mentioned in the Bible was recently released by a local publishing house. Through “Bible City 700,” readers will be able to learn the significance of these places, their stories and the meanings of their names. “This book contains information and the history of all the cities mentioned in the bible,” Lee Bun-sung, producer of the book, said in a press release. The book carries around 2,760 color photos of the cities. Much of the bible has an urban setting, but many cities are losing traces of their holy past. “Many find it hard to travel to biblical cities today, because a lot of them have undergone significant transformations,” Lee added. The book is written by Lee Won-hee, a minister and expert on biblical geography. He has travelled through the cities for the past 19 years. The book also includes a map of majo

Oct 19, 2012By Do Je-hae

Koreana marks 100th edition

By Chung Ah-young The Korea Foundation will hold a symposium to celebrate the 100th edition of Koreana, a quarterly magazine published in eight languages, at the gallery of the organization’s culture center in Suha-dong, central Seoul, Friday. The symposium will deal with globalization strategy of publication content and seek the expansion of the role of the public sector. Experts from the publication sector such as Kang Eung-cheon, Han Seong-bong, Wayne de Fremery and Young-Key Kim-Renaud will discuss visions and strategies for the globalization of publication content and the achievements and role of Koreana. The magazine was first published in 1987 to cover Korean art and culture for international readers. It is printed in Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Arabic, Spanish and Russian. The quarterly is distributed in some 160 countries and plays a crucial role in raising the national image and promoting Korean culture around the world.

Oct 15, 2012

Recent books

Ask a Korean Dude Kim Hyung-geun; Seoul Selection: 344 pp., $30 This book is a collection of articles from the “Ask a Korean Dude” column from Seoul Selection’s monthly travel and culture magazine, SEOUL, designed to answer questions posed by readers regarding aspects of Korean society and culture. The book is filled with questions from real-life experiences to questions that make us look back on the modernization process of Korea. By covering the overall cultural aspects of Korea, including lifestyle, culture, history and language, the reader is able to view Korean society from a wider perspective. Through this book, the reader will be able to understand what foreigners really want to know about Korea and which parts are misunderstood. Also, more than 20 columns are by expatriates who relate their own experiences of Korean life, offering a unique perspective on different topics and aspects of expat life in Korea. The author is a former Yonhap News Agency reporter. A journalist for 14 years, he established a publishing house, Seoul Selection, in 2002. It publishes a

Oct 12, 2012

Milestone in Czech Korean studies

Czech translation of the complete ‘Samguk Jusa’ published By Do Je-hae The Czech translation of the important Korean chronicle “Samguk Yusa,” a collection of legends, folktales and historical accounts relating to the Three Kingdoms, was recently published by the Prague-based Lidove Noviny publishing house. The Three Kingdoms of Korea refer to the ancient kingdoms of Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla, which dominated the Korean Peninsula and parts of Manchuria from 57 AD until Silla’s conquest of Goguryeo in 668. Translated from classical Chinese by Miriam Lowensteinova and Marek Zemanek, it is a milestone for Korean studies in Czech. “Samguk Yusa,” the oldest preserved unofficial Korean chronicle and a treasure of Korean literature of the 13th century, known as one of the most remarkable books that has ever been written in Korea. Published in 1281, it contains myths, historical stories, anecdotes of kings and eminent monks. Its author, Buddhist monk Iryeon, wrote the book in an amusing way that it could speak even to the postmodern European reader. Translating such a

Oct 12, 2012By Do Je-hae

Poet sings of family, love

Kang In-suk's first poetry book, New Zealand, is beautiful from the front cover to the back, portraying a young woman facing a distant island in the blue ocean. The art work on the cover represents the 60 poems inside the book ― a sister's love and prayers for her younger brother's new life in New Zealand. She herself is an immigrant to the United States long ago. She is a professional career woman in Northern Virginia, a beloved wife and mother of two children. More than that, she is a poetess who attempts to make her everyday life poetry. "New Zealand" is here translated into English from Korean. New Zealand A small island Next to Australia In the South Pacific: Fresh, clean, crisp air A beautiful environment-- A relationship between human and nature exists On the island. My brother, How happy are you on this isolated island? I wish you the very best every day: “There are always green forests Wherever you go,” As our father said. Every night I dream of sailing to your island. She made her literar

Oct 5, 2012By Do Je-hae

Recent books

Herbert Von Karajan: A Life in Music Richard Osborne; translated into Korean by Yang Sang-mo; Shimsan Culture Publishing; 636 pp., 30,000 won This is a comprehensive and well-balanced biography of one of the greatest and most celebrated performing artists of the 20th century, maestro Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989). This meticulously researched biography provides a compelling portrait of a complex man who was driven to achieve power, success, and perfection in his career and in his personal life. As the young Karajan told his brother, “Whether it’s conducting, skiing, or motor racing, I simply want to be the best.” The book has been translated into Korean for the first time and was published here last week. Osborne draws on his own extensive conversations with Karajan as well as interviews with those who personally knew the conductor. The author discusses some of the canny highlights of Karajan’s life, particularly those relating to his joining the Nazi Party, which he allegedly did in 1935 to obtain a conducting appointment. While the decision haunted him

Oct 5, 2012

Master novelist's writings published posthumously

By Kim Ji-soo A delightful discovery by her daughter ― a stack of writing by the late author Park Wan-suh that was not published ― has materialized into an emotive book, “Things Beautiful in This World.” The late author’s first daughter found the essays which were written after 2000. Among them, 38 were gathered for this book. The renowned novelist whose numerous works include “The Naked Tree,” “That Year the Winter was Warm,” “Are you Still Dreaming?” passed away in 2011 from cancer. Park’s words have always been powerful. In one essay titled “My Experience, My Literature,” she writes how “a good sentence resuscitates the downtrodden senses” and that’s one of the reasons that she spent days to write one right word. This was the compilation of a question and answer session that the author held in 2009 to mark the first anniversary of the death of another renowned author Park Kyung-ni (“Land.”) In an essay titled “A Cute Grandmother,” the author wrote about a 70-something friend who overcame disappointment in her daughter-in-law by reading the first “Harry Potter” book

Oct 5, 2012By Kim Ji-soo

Recent books

Win With Your Heart (formerly ‘Cool Head, Warm Heart’) Chung Un-chan; Humandom Corp.: 240 pp., 13,000 won This book made the bestseller list under the title “Cool Head, Warm Heart” when it was first published in 2007, and the revised edition by former Prime Minister Chung Un-chan is the right mix of personal history and the views he holds as an economist and policymaker. Chung details how he, the last of 10 children born near Gongju, South Chungcheong Province, was won over by Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” to eventually adopt Keynesianism. As a bright young boy from a poor family, the book is invariably wistful when he recounts his early life — the death of his father and his hardworking mother and later siblings — as well as the support from renowned public figures such as Dr. Scofield and his professor and former deputy prime minister for economics Cho Soon. The book details activism in his college days and his proactive push for a revised plan for the Sejong administrative city and for mutually-benefiting growth between large conglomerates and smal

Sep 28, 2012

Unique quest for peace

Korean-American businessman builds universities in socialist states By Do Je-hae What motivated a Korean-American educator to build universities in China and North Korea? “Loveism” chronicles the life of Kim Chin-Kyung, founding president of Yanbian University of Science & Technology (YUST) and Pyongyang University of Science & Technology (PUST). Kim is a Christian businessman who emigrated to the United States. Born near Seoul, he fought in the Korean War (1950-1953) and moved to the U.S. in the 1970s. Now a U.S. citizen, the 76-year-old travels to North Korea frequently and is also an honorary citizen in Seoul, Pyongyang and Yanji in Northeast China. The Christian idea of loving one’s neighbor has been driving force for Kim. A key message he likes to give out is that he is a “lovist.” He has given interviews to the local press, but never comments on sensitive issues regarding inter-Korean relations. “Whenever people ask me why I founded a university in North Korea, I respond I’m a lovist, not a communist nor a capitalist,” Kim said in a previous interview wi

Sep 28, 2012By Do Je-hae

Gov't unveils five-year plan to promote publishers

The government will push to build a center to support exports of publications and give tax benefits to book buyers as part of measures to boost the local publishing industry suffering from dwindling domestic demands, the culture ministry said Wednesday. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced a five-year plan, including those measures, to promote the publishing industry. "The importance of publishing becomes increasingly larger but the traditional publishing industry focused on paper books is in a recession," Park Yeong-guk, chief of the ministry's media policy bureau, said during a press briefing. "The five-year plan has a strategy to deal with changes in circumstances such as the rapid growth of e-books and the rise in overseas demands." The number of new paper books published in the country has dwindled from 102 million in 2010 to 100 million in 2011 while the e-book market has continued to explode. By contrast, the e-book market is expected to grow from US$280 million last year to $400 million in 2015, according to the ministry. A total of 203.8 bil

Sep 26, 2012

Books

Books

An informative guide to biblical cities

Koreana marks 100th edition

Recent books

Milestone in Czech Korean studies

Poet sings of family, love

Recent books

Master novelist's writings published posthumously

Recent books

Unique quest for peace

Gov't unveils five-year plan to promote publishers

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