A poignant return to Korea's forgotten Asian Spring--a moment ripe with possibility denied by the postwar US military occupation.
When Japanese imperial rule ended in August 1945, the Korean peninsula erupted with hopes that had been bottled up for forty years. New mother Chŏn Sukhŭi marveled at the news, envisioning her son growing up free in an independent Korea. Yi Ilchae, who only days before had been drafted into the Japanese army, threw himself into union activism. An electrifying excitement jolted Koreans into action everywhere. Peasants occupied Japanese-owned farmlands, workers seized control of factories, and women demanded political and economic equality. A Fractured Liberation brings to vivid life the brief but intense moment in postwar Korea when anything seemed possible, but nothing was guaranteed. The country had been abruptly split into US and Soviet military occupation zones, but, as Kornel Chang shows, ordinary people threw themselves into achieving self-governance throughout a unified Korea. The mostly left-leaning efforts were bolstered by an eclectic group of American supporters, including New Deal liberals, Christian socialists, and trade unionists. The Koreans' greatest obstacle, however, proved to be the US military government in the south and its rigidly anti-communist leadership. Despite promising liberation from the hated Japanese-imposed institutions, the US occupation government under General John R. Hodge hired back Koreans who had worked for the Japanese to do the dirty work of curbing protests and muzzling reformers. As concern over the budding superpower rivalry with the Soviet Union overshadowed the Koreans' democratic aspirations, the United States increasingly narrowed the possibilities for Korean independence, helping to cement the North-South divide and ensure decades of authoritarian rule on both sides.If you want to discover the captivating history of Korea, then keep reading...
The Korean Peninsula today is divided into two, but there was a time when this peninsula was divided into many states. Over the course of time, and besieged by expansive transient dynasties outside of this modest piece of land, many clans and tribes overran their lands. Of all those malicious and greedy potential overlords, none managed to prevail.
The soil is rich with the blood of the people who made Korea happen, and it is the Korean people who rose victorious among the maelstrom of dead empires led by hated tyrants and wars fought by people in lands far beyond their own. The Koreans are survivors, known for their persistence and courage.
In History of Korea: A Captivating Guide to Korean History, Including Events Such as the Mongol Invasions, the Split into North and South, and the Korean War, you will discover topics such as
So if you want to learn more about the history of Korea, scroll up and click the add to cart button
Virtue That Matters is a groundbreaking exploration of the intricate dynamics of chastity culture in Chosŏn Korea from 1392 to 1910, shedding light on its political, legal, social, and cultural significance. In this book, Jungwon Kim demonstrates how an emphasis on female chastity came to pervade society as it intertwined with state ideology and elite interests. By analyzing a copious range of sources including governmental publications, legal records, and women's own writings, Kim unveils the rich tapestry of Chosŏn society's attitudes toward female chastity and argues that extreme chastity culture was not merely a product of Confucianization but was also shaped by diverse social forces and individual agency. Furthermore, Kim reframes the discourse on chastity by focusing on women's experiences and perspectives, challenging the traditional portrayal of women as marginal to Chosŏn history.
Virtue That Matters illustrates the complex interplay between state-led indoctrination, socio-legal changes, and gender relations in Chosŏn Korea. Kim also shows how the discourse on women's chastity evolved over time and continued to influence social dynamics well into the twentieth century. By highlighting the enduring legacy of chastity culture in modern Korean society, Virtue That Matters provides valuable insights into contemporary debates on gender and sexuality.Internationalism in Practice is a timely exploration of Claudia Jones' tireless advocacy for international, anti-imperialist, and anti-war solidarity during the pivotal, tumultuous years of the early 1950s. This new scholarly collection from Iskra Books unveils Jones' enduring legacy and continued relevance through her original writings, blending sharp theoretical critique, an approachable and accessible wit, and a poignant focus on the unique exploitations experienced by women of historically oppressed ethnicities in the United States.
American mothers of all ethnic and cultural groups, Jones wrote, must emulate the peace struggles of their anti-fascist sisters worldwide to end the bestial Korean war. This impassioned plea resonates across time, inviting modern readers to reflect on the enduring necessity for a united, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, anti-imperialist front in a world where hostilities against the peoples of the Global South increase by the day.
With excellent new contributions from Gerald Horne, Denise Lynn, Tionne Parris, and Betsy Yoon, as well as a classic piece of lesser known writing from Kim Il Sung, Internationalism in Practice bridges past and present-a testament to Claudia Jones' fearless dedication to justice, her unyielding stance against imperialist aggressions both abroad and at home, and her foundational advocacy for revolutionary intersectionality and peace. Internationalism in Practice is an indispensable resource, offering profound insights into the past and present struggles for organizers, workers, educators, and students alike.
Anyone genuinely curious about what makes South Korean pop culture tick should look no further than Gangnam. Celebrated in a song by an unlikely K-pop superstar named Psy in 2012, Gangnam is the epicenter of Hallyu, the Korean Wave. It is an exclusive zone of privilege and wealth that has lured pop culture industries since the 1980s and fueled the aspirations of Seoul's middle class, producing in its wake the dialectical images of the modern city described by Walter Benjamin: sweet dreams and nightmares, visions of heaven and hell, scenes of spectacular rises and great falls. In Polarizing Dreams, Pil Ho Kim presents South Korea's Gangnam-style urban development as a unique case of cultural globalization in the age of social polarization.
Unlike previous genre- or industry-focused publications on Hallyu, Polarizing Dreams mobilizes sources that may be unknown to many K-pop fans--dissident poetry and protest songs from the 1980s, B-rated adult films, tour bus disco music, obscure early works by famous authors and filmmakers, interviews with sex workers and urban entrepreneurs--to weave together Gangnam's rich backstory and give readers a deeper appreciation of such acclaimed films as Bong Joon Ho's Parasite and Lee Chang-dong's Burning and the Netflix drama series Squid Game. Kim takes an unflinching look at the darker side of Korean society that includes school bullying, entertainment industry scandals, and misogynistic violence, all of which have provided compelling narratives for an increasing number of Hallyu media products. The Gangnam portrayed in this volume is the site of rampant disaster capitalism and rising inequality as well as the engine of cultural and technological innovation. In short, Gangnam is at the heart of Korea's global-polarization. As one of a handful of books on Korean cultural history that bridges the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries, Polarizing Dreams will have a lasting impact on the study of Korean pop culture and beyond.While popular trends, cuisine, and long-standing political tension have made Korea familiar in some ways to a vast English-speaking world, its recorded history of some two millennia remains unfamiliar to most. Korea: A History addresses general readers, providing an up-to-date, accessible overview of Korean history from antiquity to the present. Eugene Y. Park draws on original-language sources and the up-to-date synthesis of East Asian and Western-language scholarship to provide an insightful account. This book expands still-limited English-language discussions on pre-modern Korea, offering rigorous and compelling analyses of Korea's modernization while discussing daily life, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ history, and North Korean history not always included in Korea surveys. Overall, Park is able to break new ground on questions and debates that have been central to the field of Korean studies since its inception.
A dramatic new telling of the dawn of modern East Asia, placing Korea at the center of a transformed world order wrought by imperial greed and devastating wars.
In the nineteenth century, Russia participated in two great games one, well known, pitted the tsar's empire against Britain in Central Asia. The other, hitherto unrecognized but no less significant, saw Russia, China, and Japan vying for domination of the Korean Peninsula. In this eye-opening account, brought to life in lucid narrative prose, Sheila Miyoshi Jager argues that the contest over Korea, driven both by Korean domestic disputes and by great-power rivalry, set the course for the future of East Asia and the larger global order. When Russia's eastward expansion brought it to the Korean border, an impoverished but strategically located nation was wrested from centuries of isolation. Korea became a prize of two major imperial conflicts: the Sino-Japanese War at the close of the nineteenth century and the Russo-Japanese War at the beginning of the twentieth. Japan's victories in the battle for Korea not only earned the Meiji regime its yearned-for colony but also dislodged Imperial China from centuries of regional supremacy. And the fate of the declining tsarist empire was sealed by its surprising military defeat, even as the United States and Britain sized up the new Japanese challenger. A vivid story of two geopolitical earthquakes sharing Korea as their epicenter, The Other Great Game rewrites the script of twentieth-century rivalry in the Pacific and enriches our understanding of contemporary global affairs, from the origins of Korea's bifurcated identity--a legacy of internal politics amid the imperial squabble--to China's irredentist territorial ambitions and Russia's nostalgic dreams of recovering great-power status.Before reading this book, you probably had some moments of curiosity in your life where you questioned certain things about Korean culture. Why is there a Pepsi logo on the Korean flag? Why do Korean kids in my class only have like... three last names (Kim, Lee, Park)? If you are a K-Drama addict, and even took the time to watch variety shows with your favorite idols, your thoughts and interest towards Korea may have grown even deeper What does 'Korea' mean, and why do Koreans love kimchi so much?
Maybe, if you're a Koreaboo, you may wonder why you become a year (or two years) older as soon as arriving in Korea, why there's so much drama in those street tent bars, and how Koreans drink so much soju from those infamous green bottles. And, probably the question on everyone's mind in 2020, why is BTS so dang popular (honorable mention: What the heck does Gangnam Style mean)?
Well, if you get lost in translation, you can simply look up the word in the dictionary or on the latest phone app. But what if you get lost between cultures and there's no one to kindly fill you in on what's going on? You can get by with a lucky guess, but not only is there no guarantee that you will get lucky next time, but you are also missing a valuable opportunity to learn about Korean culture indepthly
Regardless of who you are and where you come from - a K-Pop/K-Drama fanatic, an expat living in Korea, a student who just got accepted to study abroad in Korea (congrats ), or even a second-generation Gyopo from the Korean diaspora, you no longer have to stay puzzled and irritated by not being able to understand the peculiarities you find in Korea overall
This book is jam-packed with over 350 essential topics and most frequently asked questions, covering every aspect of Korean culture by laying out all the details on the Five Ws (Who, What, When, Where, Why) and How. After reading, you can fully understand Korea and appreciate its culture inside and out
Most importantly, we've written this book with people like you in mind, so having zero knowledge about Korea is absolutely fine However, if you are the proud K-Culture know-it-all of your friend group you can put your knowledge to the test and even learn some new interesting facts to surprise your friends with by jumping between sections of your choice.
To maximize your learning, we've included the following in every section
- QR Code For YouTube Clips: Let's see how Koreans do it in real life Scan the QR code with your smartphone and you will be taken to amazing YouTube clips which will help you understand.
- Must-See Korean Dramas, Movies, and Documentaries: We've carefully selected a list of titles that can help you further appreciate the topic.
- Must-Know Terms and People: We've marked important Korean terms with Bold and Italics so you can use them as a study aid
By the time you've finished the last chapter, you will have learned so much about Korea, including all the minute details (E.g., Why do Koreans love sitting on the floor? Why is it rude to pour drinks with one hand?)
An added bonus is that Korean dramas, movies, and K-Pop music videos and lyrics will mean so much more So next time you hang out with a Korean friend, you can flaunt your knowledge by telling them why you hit the neck of the bottle with a Taekwondo chop when opening it (don't forget to turn your body away when drinking with an older person).
And if someone compliments you for having a Small face, you will correctly respond by saying Thank you. Now let's start this book with an example of Bbali Bbali culture - hurry up and start reading
A powerful tale of trauma and endurance that transformed a nation's understanding of Korean comfort women
During the Pacific War, more than 200,000 Korean girls were forced into sexual servitude for Japanese soldiers. They lived in horrific conditions in comfort stations across Japanese-occupied territories. Barely 10 percent survived to return to Korea, where they lived as social outcasts. Since then, self-declared comfort women have come forward only to have their testimonies and calls for compensation largely denied by the Japanese government.
Kim Soom tells the story of a woman who was kidnapped at the age of thirteen while gathering snails for her starving family. The horrors of her life as a sex slave follow her back to Korea, where she lives in isolation gripped by the fear that her past will be discovered. Yet, when she learns that the last known comfort woman is dying, she decides to tell her there will still be one left after her passing, and embarks on a painful journey.
One Left is a provocative, extensively researched novel constructed from the testimonies of dozens of comfort women. The first Korean novel devoted to this subject, it rekindled conversations about comfort women as well as the violent legacies of Japanese colonialism. This first-ever English translation recovers the overlooked and disavowed stories of Korea's most marginalized women.
If you want to discover the captivating history of Korea, then keep reading...
The Korean Peninsula today is divided into two, but there was a time when this peninsula was divided into many states. Over the course of time, and besieged by expansive transient dynasties outside of this modest piece of land, many clans and tribes overran their lands. Of all those malicious and greedy potential overlords, none managed to prevail.
The soil is rich with the blood of the people who made Korea happen, and it is the Korean people who rose victorious among the maelstrom of dead empires led by hated tyrants and wars fought by people in lands far beyond their own. The Koreans are survivors, known for their persistence and courage.
In History of Korea: A Captivating Guide to Korean History, Including Events Such as the Mongol Invasions, the Split into North and South, and the Korean War, you will discover topics such as
So if you want to learn more about the history of Korea, scroll up and click the add to cart button