NEWS, AUTUMN 2006

We open this issue with the Good News (but don? worry, there isn? any particularly Bad News to come!). The future of Korean Studies at Oxford University, which eighteen months ago seemed bleak, now shines with new brightness. In June 2005, the University of Oxford decided to establish a permanent post in Korean History. By June 2006, a generous endowment from the YBM Si-sa Company and its philanthropic arm, the International Communication Foundation, was matched by the Korea Foundation to establish another permanent post with the title, 'The Young Bin Min-Korea Foundation Lectureship in Korean Language and Linguistics'. According to Dr Jay Lewis, the establishment of a full undergraduate degree in Korean Studies awaits permanent funding for a third post in Korean Literature; until then, Oxford offers Korean subjects as options within existing undergraduate programmes in Chinese and Japanese. Undergraduate interest is strong and growing.

On the broader university front, talk of brightness in connection with Korean studies might yet be hyperbole, but at least the candle hasn? gone out, and efforts are being made to fan a bigger flame. Earlier in the year Drs Hoare and Swenson-Wright gave evidence to the parliamentary Select Committee enquiring into East Asia about the need for Korean studies, and their views were reflected in the final report published in August. An all-party group of MPs recently visited South Korea. In an effort to capitalise on any momentum this may represent, BAKS is joining with the UK-Korea Forum for the Future and other interested organisations to write a forceful letter to the government about the need to take Korea and Korean studies seriously. Nor should the possible influence of the Korea Discussion Group, organised by Dr Swenson-Wright at Chatham House, and sponsored by the Korea Foundation, be discounted. Any BAKS members who do not know about this, and who may wish to register, should contact: Linda Bedford, Programme Administrator, Chatham House, tel: 0207 314 2761 fax: 0207 957 5710 (lbedford@chathamhouse.org.uk)

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Perhaps the positive branding exercise embraced by the South Korean government, ?ynamic Korea? might also represent a hopeful sign as far as future popular awareness of Korea is concerned in the longer term. It certainly seems to have prompted a more regular flow of information this summer about a growing number of Korean cultural events in the UK (with not a little unsolicited publicity assistance, too, from BAKS member Philip Gowman (http://www.londonkoreanlinks.net), and it will be marked ? surely with considerable fanfare ? later this year by the opening of a new Korean Cultural Centre in Pall Mall. The London Korean Festival took place during the summer, and Asia House will help to maintain the Korean spirit of things by hosting music and dance for Chusok on October 12th, performed by the Korean Artists Association in the UK. Here perhaps I may note that while it is no doubt inevitable that the majority of Korean cultural events should take place in London and the South-East, those of us who live in out-of-the-way places do appreciate it when they occasionally occur in Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh etc.

Another sign of the awareness on the part of both ROK and DPRK embassies that opinion in the UK needs to be informed comes in the regular email bulletins now being circulated by each. Both, of course, forward policy pronouncements on behalf of their respective government agencies and neither, it must be said, always makes compelling reading. Nevertheless, the ROK Embassy? ?orea News? published in June 2006, was a more varied mixture of economics, politics, sport and culture. By ay of contrast, the two ?ews items?(if they can be called that) that most caught my eye in recent weeks came courtesy of electronic BAKS. The Korea Herald reported on 8 September that

?here is mounting concern among members of the foreign community [in Seoul] about the future sanctity and security of certain graves at the Yangwhajin Foreigners` Cemetery. Those not classified as missionaries face the possibility of being disinterred, or possibly even worse, having the grave markers removed and the ground put to other use. At the center of the controversy is the 100th Anniversary Church (HAC), which claims to be the caretaker of the almost 550 graves containing the remains of missionaries, diplomats, soldiers, businesspeople and expats from 16 nations. Adding to the anxiety of the foreign community and many of their Korean relatives, are the mixed and ambiguous messages they are receiving from the HAC and the local government regarding which graves could be moved, the criteria to be used, and ultimately, the real motive for the project. Buried here are numerous famous personalities from Korea`s past: Ernest Bethell and Homer Hulbert - icons of support for Korea`s independence movement; Franz Eckert, who created an early national anthem for Korea; Clarence Greathouse and Charles Legendre, both important American advisers to the late Choson period, and a number of missionaries such as Horace

Underwood, Henry G. Appenzeller and John Heron. "If any grave is not suitable for the original purpose of the Foreign Missionary Graveyard, it should be relocated after the notice to relatives," proclaimed the 100th Anniversary Church in an internal document dated Aug. 14, 2005.?o:p>

North Korea, on the other hand, seemed to be intent on bidding both for the Christian vote and the most unlikely report of the year. According to Der Spiegel,

?he first-ever Russian Orthodox church will open in Pyongyang, North Korea this weekend. It's an odd project considering that freedom of religion exists almost exclusively on paper in the closed communist country?On August 13, the country's first Orthodox church is to be opened in the capital city of Pyongyang. Russian Metropolitan Bishop Kyrill, second in command within the Church after the Patriarch, will travel to Pyongyang to christen the new house of worship?In North Korea, freedom of religion exists only in name, and the reasoning behind Kim's current favoring of the Orthodox religion remains unclear. What is known is that the dictator first came up with the idea of building the church on trip to Russia in a 2002 during which he visited an Orthodox house of worship. The next year, he sent four young men from the newly established North Korean Orthodox Committee -- all of whom had worked for the North Korean intelligence service -- for spiritual training at the Orthodox Seminary in Moscow. During a crash course, the men were taught to become servants of the Church. There, they exchanged their dark suits with Kim's insignia for priests' robes. Following their visit to the seminary, the freshly baptized Christians, who had previously known nothing but the personal ideology of Kim Jong-Il and his father, were sent to the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok for practical experience. Fyodor Kim, one of North Korea's new Orthodox deacons, admitted that it had been "very difficult" to adopt the Orthodox religion. But he didn't have much choice: the "Dear Leader" had already made the decision to build the church.?o:p>

Perhaps Western tourists to both Koreas will soon be able to judge for themselves. The Foreigners?Cemetery is well known and an eye can be kept on it easily enough. But the church in Pyongyang? Well, The Times reported on 23 September that from next April Bales Tours would introduce package tours to the DPRK. Of course Regent Holidays (http://www.regent-holidays.co.uk) have been offering them for quite a long time, but the remarkable thing about the latest development is that Bales were first approached by the North Korean authorities themselves, and will be the first of the big travel companies to put the secretive country into their brochures(www.balesworldwide.com). BAKS members who can? get there in person may be interested in the report by Kathi Zellweger, Director of International Cooperation for Caritas-Hong Kong, who visited the DPRK from 18 to 29 July 2006. She has made very many trips to the North and is, in Jim Hoare? words, ? sympathetic but never uncritical observer?

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Conferences

Nearer to home, the 2006 BAKS Conference held in Sheffield early in September was judged to be both enjoyable and successful. For a list of papers, please go to www.durham.ac.uk/BAKS/conferences. Work has already started on the editing for publication of BAKS Papers 11. The organisers were grateful to the Korea Foundation and the Korean Embassy for their support, and we were glad that Mr Jae-kyung Park (First Secretary) and Mr Kyuhak Choi (Counsellor) were able to attend. Mr Choi is to be the Director of the new Korean Cultural Centre, to be opened in Pall Mall later this year (more news of this in our next edition, Spring 2007).

Another conference this summer that caught our eye was held from 15 to 18 August at the College of St John, York. Entitled ?heology & Korean reconciliation? the promotional advert read, ?/span>Establishing a common identity is an important part of any process of reconciliation. In the case of reconciliation between North and South Korea, this is particularly pertinent. The nature of the conference is interdisciplinary but perspectives from theology and religious studies will be particularly to the fore.?For a report on the conference click here.

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PhD statistics

Frank Shulman has sent the following statistics on Korea-related PhDs awarded in the UK between 1960 and 2004:

TOTAL NUMBER OF DISSERTATIONS: 817

Primary dissertations: 587

Secondary dissertations: 230

Dissertations by Koreans: 535

Dissertations by Westerners: 190

Dissertations by Others: 92

Dissertations by Men: 587

Dissertations by Women: 164

Author's Gender not Known: 66

DISSERTATIONS BROADLY CLASSIFIED BY ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE

Agriculture and Agricultural Economics : 4

Anthropology 11

Architecture and Urban Development 38

Art 7

Communications and Mass Media 14

Earth Sciences 12

Economics 219

Education 33

English Language and Literature 5

Engineering 33

Film Studies 0

Geography 13

Government and Politics 144

History 52

Health Sciences and Medicine 9

Language and Linguistics 35

Law 22

Library and Information Science 7

Life Sciences 8

Literature 5

Music and Dance 14

Philosophy and Religion 61

Physics and Chemistry 2

Psychology 1

Sociology 40

Social Work and Social Welfare 21

Others / Not yet determined 7

DISSERTATIONS BY YEAR (SELECTED FIVE YEAR INTERVALS ONLY)

1960 0

1965 1

1970 1

1975 2

1980 4

1985 9

1990 24

1995 39

2000 66

2004 * 51

* NOT complete (I am certain that there are more Korea-related dissertations that have been accepted by British universities in recent years, but I have not yet been able to identify them). FS.

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Work in Progress

Professor Chris Rowley, Director of the Centre for Research on Asian Management at City University, studies areas of business and management in Korea, especially human resource management. He was recently awarded research grants from the British Academy to examine management in Korean multinational companies in Malaysia, and an ESRC AIM International Study Fellowship (one of only two awarded nationally) for UK-Korean comparisons in management research. He is editor of Asia Pacific Business Review, and is working on a book entitled The Changing Face of Management in Korea (2007.

Okkyoung Jeeyeon Kim (Sociological Studies Dept, Sheffield University), has submitted her thesis entitled 'Confucian Values, Patriarchy and Women? Computer Mediated Communication: Modern Korean Daughters-in-law and their Mothers-in-law'.

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Bibliographical matters

BAKS members registered for Electronic BAKS should have received catalogues of recent books on Korea from Taylor & Francis (Routledge) publishers, and Arthur Probsthain booksellers. New titles by BAKS members and other authors in the UK include

Ian Jeffries, North Korea, a Guide to Economic and Political Developments (Routledge)

Francis Mullany, Symbolism in Korean Ink Brush Painting (Global Oriental)

Ian Pirie, The Korean Developmental State, from Dirigism to Neo-Liberalism (Routledge)

Keith Pratt, Everlasting Flower, a History of Korea (Reaktion Books)

Chris Rowley, 'Women in Management in South Korea: Advancement or Retrenchment' (with H.R.Kang) in V.Yukongdi & J.Benson (eds) Asian Business: Women in Management (Routledge), 2006, pp.79-91

?????, 'Factors in Team Effectiveness: Cognitive & Demographic Similarities of Software Development Team Members' (with H.R.Kang & H.D.Yang), Human

Relations, 59, December 2006

Son Key-young, South Korean Engagement Policies and North Korea (Routledge)

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Forthcoming course

The National Library of Korea will host a Workshop for overseas librarians from 30 October to 5 November (7 days). Please contact k_l_pratt@yahoo.co.uk for further details and registration form.

PUZZLES:

Can any reader (a) identify the location of the picture above, and (b) say what the object pictured left was used for? No prizes, but undying honour (surely?) for the first person to send the correct answers before next April to k_l_pratt@yahoo.co.uk. Answers in the Spring Newsletter.