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Opinion

Columnists

Misconception about invasions

I realize that I am about to contradict the summary of Korean history told by 95 percent of my friends in Korea, but I am of the opinion, based on my studies, that my contrarian view is more accurate. Most of my Korean friends are of the opinion that Korea has been invaded numerous times. I don't buy it. I see relatively few invasions in Korean history, and long periods of peace and stability.

2020-03-22 17:26

Transitions of dynasties

After a diversion for two weeks to respond culturally to the “Parasite phenomenon” I want to return to the theme of Peaceful Korea. My point is that deep and inherent in Korean culture the dominant theme is peace. After all, the common greeting is “Annyeonghashimnikka (Are you at peace)?”

2020-03-15 17:54

American culture and 'Parasite'

I've been struck by how the age ratings of the movie “Parasite” differ slightly in Korea and in the U.S. I thought I'd take a minute to look at how the ratings in each country are different, and what this might mean.

2020-03-08 17:42

'Parasite' vs 'Gone with the Wind'

Both Korea and the United States have a history of slavery. They are both very different, and yet, they are both the same.

2020-02-28 17:20

Longest dynasties

I've written about this previously, but the more I think about it, and work on it, I find new dimensions to the idea. Almost all the Korean dynasties, even the earliest ones, run five or six hundred years. There are no short-lived or failed dynasties. Even the Gaya Kingdom, although it can be argued that it lacked a centralized, fully developed state, ran 500 years.

2020-02-23 17:13

Korea's peaceful history

In my first articles for The Korea Times, over a year ago, I wrote about how my own views of Korean history are different from the orthodox history taught in Korea - I described myself as a frog outside the well.

2020-02-14 17:29

Robert Jermain Thomas

Last week, inspired by the paper presented by my colleague Prof. Kirk Larsen, I wrote about the ill-fated 1866 General Sherman incident, the ship that was attacked and burned to the water line on the outskirts of Pyongyang. Prof. Larsen mentioned a missionary onboard who died with the rest of the crew. I have been curious about him and decided to look up his story and write about it today.

2020-01-31 17:26

Not USS General Sherman

My colleague at BYU, Kirk Larsen, recently made a presentation on the destruction of the ship, the General Sherman, delivered at a conference co-sponsored by the University of Utah and Seoul National University. I've been claiming that some of my views are like that of the frog that is outside the well. Prof. Larsen's presentation was exactly that - a new look at the sinking of the General Sherman that tells us we have been getting it wrong in several ways.

2020-01-19 16:32

Pre-modern Korean democracy

Last week I wrote about a specific document I would like to tell you more about. It is a petition and shows a degree of demo-cratic action in that it was signed by numerous people of the county involved in the action. Last time I wrote about the uniqueness of the signatures, and the fact that Koreans only used the dojang (stamp or seal) after the Japanese period, but in the Joseon Kingdom, they would sign documents.

2020-01-12 17:06

Petitions and signatures

We used to joke, when I was a student in Korea in the 1970s, that the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom was more democratic than the Park Chung-hee era in then contemporary Korea. The joke had some truth to it. Both at the level of criticism of the Park administration for its lack of democracy on the one hand, and the amount of democracy we find in Joseon.

2020-01-05 16:58

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