RAS Korea announces 'reboot,' resumption of lectures and excursions program

RAS Korea President Denny Park, left, gives a talk at a townhall meeting in Seoul, May 22. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

The world's oldest Korean studies organization, Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) Korea, announced the resumption of its activities at a townhall meeting on May 22.

"Today is the beginning of the fruits of our labor and I'm excited," said Denny Park, the new president of the rebooted RAS Korea, during the event held in the city-run Seoul Public Activities Center (SPAC) near Samgakji Station on Seoul Metro lines 4 and 6.

"Those of us who have been working on the inside, we have been looking forward to this night for a long time, to say we're back."

The meeting was open to anyone whose membership was valid as of Dec. 3, 2024. About 13 people were present, with another six attending online through Zoom.

Park was appointed president of RAS Korea on May 9, with the support and endorsement of three former presidents — Rev. Steven L. Shields FRAS, Brother Anthony of Taizé and Jang Song-hyon.

The organization’s shutdown had been announced at a similar town hall meeting on Dec. 3 — notably the same night many members learned about the martial law declaration on their way home. At the time, organizers cited a lack of financial resources as the main reason, pointing out that it would need to be disbanded while there were still funds available to dissolve the society's property and discharge all its legal obligations. The RAS Korea Council voted to disband, and the office space, which included a library of Korean studies books, was emptied out and vacated and the office manager, Joanne Jung-wook Hong, received severance pay.

The surprise announcement of its closing shocked members and angered some, but Park and other members hinted at the possibility of a revival, which he highlighted at the May 22 townhall. Meanwhile, they did not file the paperwork for the entity's dissolution, although it went leaderless for about three months.

"Technically, we didn't close our door," Park said at the recent meeting. "We kind of kept it open just a little bit."

Even after the moves to disband, there was still a chance of reviving RAS Korea if funding could be secured in time. That came through in March, when the Asia Development Foundation (ADF) agreed to continue its generous donations, which had been essential to the organization for years.

"When I was called in by ADF to come in, I felt almost like a high school student being called into the principal's office to come and explain myself," Park said. "I kind of expected that because their question was, 'why should we fund you when you guys are closing the activities?' So we had a very lengthy meeting, we followed up and I ended up giving them a lengthy report of all our future activities and how I envisioned this organization to change and evolve and thrive. And, this is my proud moment, we got three times the funding that we got last year. Still, it's not enough money, but what that tells me is that there are people out there that are believing in us, believing in our dream or vision of what we want to be. So from here on it's making it happen, and I need help."

Resuming activities

Over the last half-year of RAS Korea's absence, the torch was carried by the Korean Literature Club and the Youth Dialogue Program. Park said that with their parent organization's relaunch, he will look for ways to assist their continued activities.

Park said he plans to revive RAS Korea by separating the business activities from the content activities.

"Many of our management team members are content providers. These are the people who are qualified to give lectures. But as some of you probably experienced in your professional life, being an expert on a specific topic and running an organization that gives lectures about those topics are two different things," Park said. "We have in the past asked our content provider to manage the organization, which is a different type of skillset."

The business operations will focus on corporate sponsorship, networking and connecting with other organizations. Park, who previously served as RAS Korea treasurer, said he will manage these efforts.

Meanwhile, Matt VanVolkenburg, who had previously held the role of secretary, will be in charge of content programming, including lectures and cultural excursions.

VanVolkenburg unveiled the schedule for the next couple months, which includes events by loyal RAS Korea members, including himself.

He will give the first lecture on June 11, about prisoners of war from Allied nations in World War II who were housed in Japan-occupied Korea. Jacco Zwetsloot will present propaganda leaflets from North and South Korea on July 8. Seoul National University professor Olga Fedorenko will present on "Dreams and Realities of South Korean Advertising" on July 22. Jack Greenberg will give a lecture tentatively titled "Truth, Reconciliation, and Korean War Mass Graves" on Aug. 12. All lectures are scheduled to take place at SPAC.

The excursion programs will include visits to Sindang-dong on June 14 led by VanVolkenburg, a walk around Cheongnyangni on June 28 with Greenberg and a visit to various museums and other sites related to Korea's independence movement around the Seodaemun area, also with VanVolkenburg, on July 12.

Park added that there are plans to introduce Korean-language lectures, intended to welcome the wider Korean community as well as language learners. He also said there is demand for social mixer events and discussed the possibility of international tours.

What happened to all the books

Park updated attendees at the meeting about the books that had been removed from the RAS Korea office.

The library books are now housed at Soongsil University in southern Seoul.

"We didn't donate our books. Our library will live on within Soongsil University," he said. "We are getting a dedicated section within their main library underneath the banner that says Royal Asiatic Society Korea. So it's more than just donating books. And I've gotten in contract that RAS Korea members will have perpetual access as long as they have our books."

He added that this arrangement hasn't been fully set up yet, and any members who wish to view the collection should contact RAS Korea.

As for the books that had been for sale, he said, "I hate to say this, but some books were discarded."

Copies of Transactions, RAS Korea's journal which has printed 98 volumes since 1900, were taken by T.J. Kim, an antiquarian bookseller who runs Tmecca Korea in western Seoul's Yeonhui-dong.

"If you want to get a free copy of Transactions, feel free to visit his store," Park said. "He might have some left. He's giving them out to customers at this point."

Support needed

He also said RAS Korea will start holding fundraising events as well as membership drives, which might be held quarterly or twice a year.

"We've never had in 125 years of history a proper fundraiser, and we're always complaining about shortage of money," he said. "We will be doing quarterly, if not once every six months, a proper fundraiser as well as membership drive. All nonprofit organizations pretty much have something like that. I don't know how we were able to get away without ever having one of those."

He added that RAS Korea needs volunteers to help with various tasks, including IT, office administrative duties, graphic design, website management and content creation, as well as door greeters at lectures.

"This is a chance," Park said. "If you put a positive spin on all this, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make this organization your organization."

Visit raskb.com for more information.