Opinion - The Korea Times

How to get into Harvard

By Mark PetersonPersonally, my experience at Harvard, a master's degree and a Ph.D., has helped me in many ways to open doors to opportunities along the way. But it has been interesting to me that the word “Harvard” is met with such awe, particularly in Korea. Korea has an understanding of both hierarchy and the value of education, and Seoul National University is often assumed to be the best university in Korea, and Harvard is assumed to be the best university in the world. This may or may not be the case, but I have seen the reaction from many in Korea when the word “Harvard” is heard. What does it take to get into Harvard? The assumption is you need the best scores on tests (ACT or SAT) and a perfect grade point average (GPA). Well, it turns out that's not true.I was reminded of Harvard's admission policies a few days ago when I saw a press release about Harvard's change of admission requirements because of the COVID-19 situation. They announced that since many students, “particularly those from modest economic backgrounds,” would not be able to

Jun 28, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

American sijo movement

By Mark PetersonLast week I wrote about the sijo contest hosted online by the Sejong Cultural Society based in Chicago. And I've heard rumors of another sijo contest being organized in Southern California. This gives me hope that the “sijo movement” that I've been waiting for is getting off the ground! The response from the article last week was welcoming, so I've decided to write a little more about the winners in the contest.I've written several articles about sijo in the past year, and during that time I see several signs that there is more interest in America in the sijo as a widely-known, widely-practiced poetic form. Why have I termed an interest in sijo as a “movement”? It's because I see us in Korean Studies in the U.S. as playing “catch-up ball,” in regard to catching up to the popularity of haiku. Japanese haiku is well-known in America, and it is well-practiced ― meaning that all students in the last 30 years or so have been studying and writing haiku. That's the thing! Haiku is not just an abstract or object of study, but students actua

Jun 21, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

American 'sijo'

By Mark PetersonI have set up a research foundation, the Frog Outside the Well Research Center, where I work on three areas ― and only three areas ― where I have some degree of expertise. They are: traditional Confucian practice, the re-evaluation of Korean history, and encouraging the writing of “sijo” in Korean and English.Sijo is a traditional Korean poetic form. The largest online sijo writing contest recently concluded and I would like to share the results with The Korea Times readership.The contest was the 13th annual event sponsored by the Sejong Cultural Society, a private organization of mostly Korean-Americans based in Chicago. It was the 13th year for secondary school students in what they call the pre-college division; two years ago they opened an adult division. In the pre-college division, the judges selected two first-place winners ― a tie.There were first, second and third-place winners and several “honorable mentions” in each division. There was a prize of $500 for first place, down to $50 for honorable mentions. When the contest began, there

Jun 14, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Need for new history

By Mark PetersonWhen I first arrived in Korea, in November 1965, Korea was a very poor country. It had hardly begun to recover from the Korean War that had ended 12 years earlier. Per capita annual income was $125. South Korea in those days was much poorer than North Korea and was one of the absolute poorest countries in the world. Korea had been victimized by Japan and by the catastrophe of the war. The history of Korea that I started to learn then was a story of victimization ― told in terms of the many depravations Korea had suffered at the hands, or swords, of foreign invaders. It was a poverty-stricken history of victimization of a country that was poverty-stricken and victimized.In the 55 years since, Korea has progressed to where per capita annual income is around $30,000. The once-poor country is now one of the richest countries of the world. Yet, with all the changes in the standard of living, the history has not changed and it needs to. Let me introduce a radically different idea about history: history is not just that which happened a long time ago; history is now! What th

Jun 5, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

12 pillars of peaceful Korean history

By Mark PetersonAs I look back at my 10 plus articles arguing that we should look at the peaceful and stable tradition of Korea, it occurs to me that there are two more items I should cover. I'll call these the “twelve pillars” of the peaceful and stable strain within the narrative of Korean history, to which “no religious wars” and “a remarkable ability to recover from wars” should be added.At the outset I proposed that the 20th century was an aberration compared to the long haul of Korean history. It appears to me that from the time of the unification of the peninsula (or most of it) by the Silla royalty, after 668, until the Donghak Peasant Movement, launching the beginning of the tumultuous 20th century, that during that great middle period there was remarkable peace and stability.I know this runs full counter to the common narrative in Korea, but I believe that the narrative has been distorted by the event of the aforementioned 20th century, specifically, the turmoil, and also willful distortions by the Japanese. Let's begin with “no rel

May 31, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Singular Korean surnames

By Mark PetersonWhen I came to understand that surnames in Korea were unlike those in other countries ― a high concentration of the population having one of only a few names ― it occurred to me that this was indeed a measure of what I had been looking at in other perspectives. In fact, of my top 10 list I've been treating in the last few weeks, perhaps the surnames is one of the most interesting, if not the most convincing. Here at the end of this series, let me list the “top 10” evidences of Korea's peaceful and stable history:1. The longest dynasties in the world2. Smooth transitions between dynasties3. Relatively few invasions4. Has never invaded another country5. The longest-unchanged border in the world6. Royal tombs not plundered7. Seonbi culture, not samurai culture8. Civilian control of the court9. Slavery, the longest, unbroken chain in the world10. Few surnames, a symbol of long-running aristocracySince beginning this discussion I've found two exceptions to the surname situation. I had begun by comparing Korean surname distribution to that in Japan, China and th

May 24, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Gwangju after 40 years

By Mark Peterson On Saturday I was asked to serve as a judge for the May 18th commemoration student speech contest in English, for middle and high school students of Gwangju. As a judge I was not prepared for the power of the speeches that I heard.The students of Gwangju spoke of how the event, 40 years ago, has impact on their lives today. Many of them thanked their ancestors who fought and died so that they can enjoy freedom and democracy today. I was struck over and over with the memory that I have of honoring my ancestors and older generation that fought in World War II so that “we can have freedom and democracy today” ― parallel ideas from a younger generation in a different land.The sentiments the students expressed were powerful without being emotional. To them, 40 years ago is more than 20 years before they were born. They have no reason to remember the Gwangju Democratization Movement except that they have been taught by their parents and teachers.One student said she knew nothing about it until a few years ago when her father took her to the Memorial Park and Ce

May 21, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Korean names as measure of peace (part 1)

By Mark PetersonThis is No. 10 or the last in my series of articles advocating that Korea was a remarkably peaceful and stable place historically. And perhaps this is the most compelling one. The issue is the high population of a few number of surnames ― in other words, 21 percent of the population are Kim, 15 percent are Yi (Lee, Rhee), 9 percent are Pak (Park, Bak). A total of 45 percent of the population had one of three surnames. Add Choe (Choi) at 5 percent, and Jeong (Chung) at 5 percent, and you have 55 percent of the population with one of five surnames. This is really unusual compared to other countries.I've written about this previously, but I have two angles of approach here. One is to re-emphasize and re-situate what I wrote before, and the other is new comparative material (that will appear in “part 2,” next week).The first point is to emphasize that the concentration of so few surnames evidences the peaceful history of Korea. In making this point I need to emphasize that this is a matter of comparison with other countries. Korea has suffered great invasions!

May 17, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Korean slavery

By Mark PetersonI can't write everything I would like to write about Korean slavery in one article, but here my purpose is to refer to Korean slavery as the ninth item on my list of top ten arguments showing Korea's history as a peaceful and stable country. When I read studies of slavery from an international perspective, and discovered that Korea has the longest, unbroken chain of slave-holding in the world, it was a real eye-opener. Because if there was never a break in the chain of slave-holding in Korea, it meant that there was never sufficient chaos to disrupt the ruling class who were the slave owners.At the outset, we must deal with the definition of slavery. There are some Korean scholars who are quick to argue that Korean slavery is different from every other slavery in the world. It shows up in the language. Korean slaves are called “nobi” whereas slaves in every other culture ― EVERY other culture ― are called “noye.” The translation into English comes up as slavery for both, although some try to gerrymander the definition and call it “servitu

May 10, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Royal control of court

By Mark PetersonToday, I want to go into more detail on point number 8 in my series of ten evidences for Korea having a peaceful and stable history. Actually, I have revised my list and included at number 9 Korean slavery. Yes, slavery. Korea has the longest held, unbroken chain of slavery of any country in the world. But we will look at that next time. This time, I want to emphasize number eight, which was civilian control of the military and add to that concept of civilian control, the idea that the king relied on the civilian government and did not yield control to the military or to the eunuchs. At the outset, I must add that Korea did have one weakness in its civilian control of the court, and that was the influence of the royal in-laws.Last week's article listed the “Top Ten” evidences of Korean history as remarkably and uniquely peaceful and stable. If differs from the list I posted several weeks ago when I began this series. We will look at the new item, number 9, slavery, next week. And therefore in this article, I will write more about the stable governments of

May 1, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Read more

How to get into Harvard

American sijo movement

American 'sijo'

Need for new history

12 pillars of peaceful Korean history

Singular Korean surnames

Gwangju after 40 years

Korean names as measure of peace (part 1)

Korean slavery

Royal control of court

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