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Opinion

Columnists

Sejong and feudalism

Last time I wrote about how “feudalism” was not a major stage in Korea's historical development. After Korea was occupied by Japan it fell under historical points of view based on those of the Japanese. Japan had a strong feudal era, from the 12th to the mid-19th century. It assumed a superior intellectual position, as well as superior military and industrial positions in its domination of Korea in the early 20th century. The Japanese historical ideal coincided with the European tradition of feudalism, thus reinforcing the idea of an evolutionary superiority. But that is not the only way to ...

2021-04-25 16:50

Phony feudalism

There are still people who refer to Korean history in terms of “feudalism.” The evidence is quite to the contrary - there was no real feudalistic stage in Korean history. The problem is two-fold: (1) that there was no feudalism, and (2) that there was no “stage” of history to be labeled as feudalism. If there was no feudalism in Korea, why then do we find people repeatedly referring to feudalism and a feudalistic stage in Korea?

2021-03-28 16:52

Harvard and former sex slaves

Again, I really dislike this topic, but I dislike Harvard being besmirched in this situation even more. Thus, I feel compelled to enter the fray one more time with this article.

2021-02-28 16:38

Controversy over 'comfort women'

The Korean press has been buzzing with reports of a Harvard Law School professor's academic journal article on Korean "comfort women" saying there were hired prostitutes. I've been dragged into the fray by many friends and some people I don't know who have asked that I respond since I, after all, have a PhD from Harvard. I've taken the bait and have prepared responses and criticisms for a Korean ministry article, a Korean TV station, I've made a video for my YouTube station, and I think more requests are coming.

2021-02-14 17:05

Rootstech 2021

Rootstech 2021 is an international conference on genealogical records. Originally, it was called “A World Conference on Records”; now it's called “rootstech” meaning technological studies of our “roots” - genealogical and family history. The conference this year will be held online - Feb. 25-27. I've been asked to make one of the “prime-time” presentations on Korean genealogy.

2021-01-31 16:50

Thank you, LTI Korea

I have two reasons to offer gratitude to the LTI - the Korean Literature Translation Institute. The first reason for appreciation for what the LTI does - and I would like to inform my readers of this organization and its work - is that the Institute fosters the translation of Korean literature into foreign languages. They have several programs: they host translation seminars, they give grants to young translators to encourage the development of the translation skills of young translators in multiple languages, and they give awards to translators of novels into various foreign languages. They...

2021-01-17 16:48

Property ownership in traditional Korea

Since I have been writing recently of changes in Confucianism involving changes in property inheritance, I have been thinking that most readers have no idea about how complicated property ownership was in traditional Korea. It was surprisingly complicated and unlike anything you would expect

2021-01-03 17:02

It was not the wars

I need to follow up from last week's article about Korea's penchant for stability in spite of wars and the social change that takes place, not as a result of the wars, but afterward unrelated to the war. I think it's true of the Japanese invasion of the 1590s and the Korean war of the 1950s.

2020-12-20 16:31

Changes after two wars

I suppose most who see the reference to two wars would assume I'm going to write about the Korean War and World War II, but no, - put on your history hat - I'm writing about the Japanese Invasion of 1592, and the Manchu Invasion of 1636.

2020-12-06 17:05

Korean-Americans

My attitude about Korean-Americans has changed over the years. When I first encountered Korea, living there, I met people who wanted to go to America “by hook or by crook.” And indeed, many were able to cobble together reasons to get a visa to visit America, and then they disappeared or overstayed their visas, but eventually ended up gaining American citizenship. I thought the whole enterprise was corrupt and I wanted to have nothing to do with it.

2020-11-08 16:49

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