Korea's only university department teaching 'Go' faces closure

Daniela Trinks plays Go at the Prime Minister Cup at the Korea Baduk Association's headquarters in Seoul in 2016. Courtesy of Daniela Trinks

Faculty, foreign supporters oppose Myongji University's decision to shut down 'Go' department

By Ko Dong-hwan

Nam Chi-hyung is the head of Department of Baduk Studies at Myongji. Courtesy of Daniela Trinks

YONGIN, Gyeonggi Province ― Daniela Trinks probably would not have stepped foot in Korea if it wasn't for the small "Go" (a Chinese strategy board game) club in her neighborhood in Berlin and her mother who had read about the board game in a novel and got intrigued.

At age 10, Trinks, who was used to playing chess at home, gave the club a try. She had no idea the board game, invented in China over 2,500 years ago, would make her forget about chess and plunge her into a new world of mind-numbingly complex strategies.

That quest led her to dream about teaching Go, known as "Baduk" in Korea, and promote it further.

In 2006, she left Germany and started studying at Myongji University in Yongin in Korea, the only university in the world back then that offered a program specializing in the game. After giving lectures at different universities while studying Go, she earned her doctoral degree in 2014 and became a professor at her alma mater the following year. She was the first foreign national to teach in Myongi's Department of Baduk Studies.

Now, Trinks fights for something greater than her individual purpose: the fate of her entire department.

To streamline itself to follow ongoing trends and demands, the school decided to merge with Myongji College in Seoul and shut down departments they deemed are low in popularity. Jang Young-soon, a professor at the university's Business Department who's been directing its planning affairs, and Samil PwC, an accounting firm that the school hired as a consultant for the merger, put the Baduk Department on the list to close for good.

The list also includes the math, physics, chemistry and philosophy departments. They are to be replaced by new programs including Global Korean Language, Global Cultural Contents, Metaverse/Game Contents, Global Beauty Design and Global K-pop.

Trinks first heard about the school's plan to close her department early this month when the school's merger committee announced it. She was blindsided by the news.

"Since its establishment in 1997, the department had earned global recognition faster than any of the school's other departments," Trinks told The Korea Times in one of the classrooms in the school where she teaches. There were Go boards and jars of black and white stones tucked under each pair of desks and an electronic blackboard at the front of the class. "Some 85 students from 25 countries have graduated with their bachelor's, master's or doctoral degrees in Go. Since 2005, about 30 alumni of the Baduk Department have gone to countries in North and South America, Asia, Europe and Oceania to teach and promote the game."

Daniela Trinks, at the top of the photo, teaches students during the "Baduk Culture" course at Myongji University on Dec. 7. Courtesy of Daniela Trinks

Trinks said that her department has been pivotal in prompting other schools overseas to introduce the same program and has jointly hosted academic forums with universities in China, Taiwan, Japan and Russia over 35 times. A Chinese graduate from Myongji is now teaching at Shanghai Jian Qiao University in China, where a Go program was introduced in 2018.

"Many Go fans overseas either hope to learn from our department's alumni outside of Korea or come here to learn about the game," Trinks said. "I recently received an email from a high school student overseas who said she will apply to Myongji in two years and has started learning Korean. Many foreigners aren't hiding their bitterness over the department's closure after its 25-year legacy."

The university hosted meetings with teachers and students over the merger in November and early December and said that the reshuffle will boost the school's competitiveness and sustainability while focusing on its unique fields. Nam Chi-hyung, head of the department, who also teaches Go there, told The Korea Times that the university cited a Gallup Korea survey from 2016 indicating that Go might be losing ground in Korea in terms of popularity. The survey showed the adult respondents who enjoy Go had decreased from 26 percent to 23 percent and that only nine percent of those aged between 20 and 35 were interested in the game.

Both professors, however, rebutted that 23 percent is still a robust figure to hold the field. Nam added that the survey is also outdated, as it was conducted before the world watched Korean Go master Lee Se-dol play against AlphaGo in 2016. Trinks said that 95 percent of Korean adults were found to consider Go as good for children's mental growth and that the number of minors playing the game has recently increased.

"The senior population in Korea has greatly increased and the majority of Go players are in that age group," Nam said. "So I think Go's future market is bright. But the school, looking at the same index, interpreted it differently, saying that the market isn't worth investing in."

Daniela Trinks gives a presentation to teachers from the European Go Federation during the European Go Congress 2017 in Oberhof, Germany. Courtesy of Daniela Trinks

The Baduk Department has been an independent department at Myongji without any other sister programs under a larger umbrella division. Nam suspected that's why the school thought the department would be an easy target to remove.

"The school said Baduk isn't a proper program to teach at a four-year university," Nam said. "The school first suggested that the program be moved to the Mind Sports Business Department in the School of Continuing Studies as a non-degree program for elderly students. We rejected the offer. The school didn't yield and then said the program would then have to be closed."

Myonji's faculty will hold a meeting Friday to discuss the merger and planned shutdown of the targeted programs, including the Baduk Department. Some of the faculty objecting to the merger are looking at legal measures to prevent their departments from disappearing. Having never experienced this kind of downsizing at the university, the professors right now are wracked with uncertainty and worried about not being able to change the situation.

At least the discouraging mood was upended by a flood of messages by Go supporters from outside the country who have spoken out against shutting down the Baduk Department.

Alexey Lazarev, vice president of the Russian Go Federation, said that the existence of the Baduk Department at Myongji "makes a very significant contribution to the development of Go in other countries, including the Russian Federation."

Thomas Hsiang, secretary general of International Mind Sports Association and a professor emeritus at the University of Rochester, New York, sent a letter to Myongji President You Byong-jin on Dec. 4 urging the university not to close down the Baduk Department. "I urge you not to abandon this treasure…Nurture it, cultivate it; let it continue to be a pride of your university!"

Jang, the professor in Myongji's Business Department directing the school's planning affairs, declined to talk to The Korea Times regarding the merger and the plan to close the Baduk Department. He said that "nothing has been formally confirmed and there is nothing to discuss at this point."