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Thu, January 24, 2019 | 15:52

Opinion > Columnists > Mark Peterson >

'Our family is different from other families'

Some years ago, in my study of Korean history and culture, I came upon a document that was revealing on many levels. It was a 1688 will or inheritance document of the Buan Kim family. In the preamble to the document it states they are going to change their procedure of giving property to the next generation.

Mark Peterson | 2019-01-21 17:16

Confucianization in family trees

Korea has known Confucianism for over 1,500 years. But Confucianism in Korea was not always the same kind of Confucianism. Social practices changed over time: initially Confucianism was adopted and adapted to fit Korean society of the Silla period (beginning roughly in the 4th century), but later, Confucianism conformed to the texts on ritual and social behavior and transformed into a totally orthodox - or as one of my readers likes to say - “fundamentalist” style of Confucianism.

Mark Peterson | 2019-01-15 17:25

Changes in Jokbo

Jokbo is the Korean word for the published genealogical tables. The term is well-known in Korea, and for good reason. Korea probably has the greatest concentration of genealogical publications of any country on Earth. In other words, more Koreans are recorded in genealogical books than any other people in any other country on Earth. Koreans publish a lot of jokbo.

Mark Peterson | 2019-01-06 18:03

Korean textbook improvements

Last week I wrote about some of the work I've done over the last 24 years to try to improve American textbooks - specifically, on how they cover Korea. I think I will spend the next 24 years trying to improve Korean textbooks on how they cover - not America - but Korea.

Mark Peterson | 2018-12-31 17:54

Textbook checkers

I returned recently from Korea where I attended a conference sponsored by the Academy of Korean Studies. The purpose of the conference was to celebrate the 15th year of the “understanding Korea project” - the title of the program aimed at correcting mistakes in foreign textbooks in their coverage of Korea.

Mark Peterson | 2018-12-26 17:12

Sijo conferences

In the last month I've been invited to two, count them! two!, conferences on sijo. The first was in Korea, in the tiny town of Cheongdo, south of Daegu, where a prominent sijo poet and even-more prominent artist, Min Byoung-do, has a studio. He put together an international conference on sijo. And two weeks after that, I spoke at a conference on teaching sijo for secondary school teachers held in Chicago sponsored by the Sejong Cultural Society, based in Chicago.

Mark Peterson | 2018-12-17 17:14

In recent weeks, I have documented the birth of sijo in English in America. And I've contrasted the rise of sijo in English with the death of sijo in Korean. Today, I am proposing a way to revive sijo in Korean.

Mark Peterson | 2018-12-03 17:38

More American sijo

Last week, I wrote about high school students in America writing sijo in English - and I gave several examples. That point was that sijo, basically a dead form in Korea, is alive and well in America.

Mark Peterson | 2018-11-25 17:07

Whereas many Koreans consider sijo a dead art form, the poetic genre is starting to catch on in America.

Mark Peterson | 2018-11-19 17:50

Sijo, Korea's contribution to world

Sijo, the famous Korean, three-line, short poetic form, should be understood in a cross-cultural perspective. As the frog outside the well - that is as a non-Korean Koreanologist - I see sijo differently than most Koreans, and the view I have is that sijo is one of Korea's best contributions to world literature.

Mark Peterson | 2018-11-09 17:40

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