Hunjangûi karûch'im

New Flickr sets

2009-02-01T17:30:00.004+02:00

I have added three new photograph sets to my Flickr photostream, one being a collection of neighborhood grocery stores ("supermarkets") and the two others walks in Busan in late December 2006.

동네슈퍼 Neighborhood store
Collection of pics of inside and outside of neighborhood grocery stores from 1998 to 2006.

This photograph: 서울 신린2동, 1998년12월28일 • Sillim 2-dong, Seoul, Dec 28, 1998
• Set in detail
• Set as slideshow

부산 산책 2006.12.29 Busan walk
Walk in downtown Busan, beginning from the railway station, in Choryang-dong, Yeongju-dong and Bosu-dong.

This photograph: 부산 영주동 • Yeongju-dong in Busan
• Set in detail
• Set as slideshow

부산 산책 2006.12.30 Busan Walk
Walk in downtown Busan in Gondongeo Market, Nambumin-dong, Chojang-dong, Jagalchi Market, and Bosu-dong bookshop quarters.

This photograph: man tries to sell ssiregi at a restaurant but is refused.
• Set in detail
• Set as slideshow

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: photography ∙ cities ∙ urbanspace ∙ marketplaces ∙ self-employment

Homepage of the Finnish Anthropological Society opened

2009-01-07T10:46:00.003+02:00

The Finnish Anthropological Society, which has had its homepage housed for a long time under the auspices of the Dept of Social and Cultural Anthopology of the University of Helsinki, has finally its own homepage and domain at www.antropologinenseura.fi (here also in English). (There is a chance that I end up being the webmaster...)

And there is also a chance that this blog wakes up from its dormancy. Let's see.

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: anthropology ∙ academic

spam of the week

2008-08-12T14:27:00.002+03:00

Normally I don't bother to open spam mails (who does), but the recent phenomenon of Finnish-language spam messages intrigued me so much that I opened one that arrived today. The sender field is appropriately forged as helpdesk(a)helsinki.fi as to look like something from the U. of Helsinki, but unfortunately the level of Finnish in the text is unlikely to attract those who otherwise might err to send their passwords by mail.

Hyvä Helsinki Internet Asiakas,

Meidän tutkimuksessa roskapostin valitukset osoittaa, että Helsingin webmail-osoite on vaarantunut ja se oli käytetty lähettää spam-viestejä Helsinki webmail-järjestelmään. Käyttäjänimesi tulee poistaa, jos ei noudata tähän viestiin täyttämällä tämä lomake ja sen on lähetettävä takaisin meille.

HELSINKI ASIAKASPALVELU LASKUTUS LOMAKE.

Etunimi:
Lähi Nimi:
Sukunimi:
E-mail osoite:
Sähköposti salasana:
Asuin Osoite:

Kunnioittavasti,
helsinki@consultant.com

Finland has not been ignored by spammers and phishers but Finnish language has, until now. Those logging in at webmail.nfrance.com still have a long way to go from machine-translated or otherwise crappily-translated messages, but don't give up. At least kunnioittavasti ("respectfully") is correct.
Or, perhaps, this is a spoof spam, fake spam, done by someone just for the heck of it.

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: technicalities

Tribute to Professor Roger Janelli at Folkore Forum

2008-03-19T12:33:00.003+02:00

Professor Roger L. Janelli, scholar of folklore and anthropology of Korea, retired last year from Indiana University at Bloomington after 32 years. Folklore Forum, "a space for the free exchange of ideas on the cutting edge of folklore, folklife and ethnomusicology," honors Professor Janelli with a special online issue Folklore of East Asia (link to the archive page).

I have been very fortunate to get to know Professor Janelli early in my scholarly career, and I have benefited from his friendly advice a lot, not to say about one particular reference for a scholarship.

Here are choices from the articles with some links:

Elizabeth A. Burbach. "From the Editor-in-Chief."

Kyoim Yun. "From the Guest Editor."

ARTICLES

Adam Bronson. "Japanese Folklore Studies and History: Pre-War and Post-War Inflections."

Patricia Ann Hardwick. "‘Neither Fish nor Fowl’: Constructing Peranakan Identity in Colonial and Post-Colonial Singapore."

Hilary Finchum-Sung. "Performing the ‘Traditional’ in the South Korean Musical World."

Mack Hagood. "Liminal States: Life as an Indie Musician on Taiwan."

Sue-Je Lee Gage. "Conversation with Roger L. Janelli."

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: anthropology ∙ academic ∙ Koreanstudies

pieces of Finnish-North Korean diplomatic history

2008-02-13T09:13:00.002+02:00

The undiplomatic endeavors of North Korean diplomats have been noted in these pages before, as in the more recent case of anti-inspectorial struggle of diplomatic pouch carriers in a Finnish train one year ago. (For later developments in the case, see here and here.)
There were more severe cases in the 1970s and early 1980s, involving diplomats based here and resulting to expulsions, first for selling alcohol and drugs, and later for attempted bribery. Keijo Korhonen, a long-time official in the Foreign Ministry, professor in Political History and a short-time Foreign Minister, gives an account of the first case in his memoirs Sattumakorpraali (Accidental Lance Corporal) :

The president gave me his personal support when as a fresh Minister of Foreign Affairs in October 1976 I had to expel the ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Korea and three of his diplomats. "Prompt expulsion" was [President] Kekkonen's order. I had one North Korean stay in Finland so that the Finnish diplomat in Pyongyang would not get in trouble.
According to the police report, in their lack of money the North Koreans had been selling alcohol, morphine, heroin, and hash, which was not quite according to the letter and spirit of the Vienna Convention about diplomatic relationships. The embassy had bought 3300 bottles of vodka from Alko [the state retail] in 1976; in the garage they had a sales stock of 600-700 bottles of Russian vodka and 180,000 cigarettes. A shop manager and a radio shop owner had received alcohol for their services; a drug dealer electrician had gotten offers from them; car drivers and plumbers had been paid with alcohol. According to my suggestion, the Government made the affair public. It was so outrageous that not even the Soviet embassy had the nerve to rush to help the loyal member of the Socialist family of nations. (p. 91, translation AL)

What is actually not so flattering for Finns in this case is that it shows how alcohol has been a passable medium of exchange. In a radio program aired sometime in the 1990s about the exploits of the North Koreans in the early stages of Finno-Korean diplomatic relationships it was mentioned how the North Koreans at first used money to pay for services, but as they became short of currency and understood the usability of alcohol, they increasingly resorted to it.

In 1983, when the Finnish parliamentarian Johannes Virolainen was the chair of IPU (International Parliamentary Union), the DPRK amassador Ju Jae Han attempted to prevent the organizing of a IPU convention in Seoul by bringing him an envelope containing USD 5000. Virolainen took the money to the Foreign Ministry, and His Excellency was shown the way to the train station or airport, not sure which one.

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: DPRK ∙ Korea-Finland ∙ food/alcohol

노래방에서 in karaoke (noraebang)

2007-08-20T12:31:00.000+03:00

박 사장님은 잘 놀고 남들도 즐겁게 할 줄 안다. 2001년9월15일.
Mr Pak knows how to have fun and make others have it too. Sept 15, 2001.

Nan'gok rescanned

2007-08-15T16:36:00.000+03:00

This late summer I've undertaken a rather big scanning project, supposedly taking place alongside writing a conference presentation, of my Korea photographs from 1999 and from my later visits. Among them are photos taken of Nan'gok, a hillside neighborhood in Sillim 7-dong, southern Seoul, which was leveled in 2003 to make room for an apartment block area. I have had the same photographs in display also before, but these are scanned from negatives and not from paper prints, so the picture quality is supposed to be much better. (Clicking the pictures below will open a 1024 pixel wide version of the photograph at Flickr.)

• Some pieces of Flickr photo set 난곡 2000년 Nan'gok, Seoul in 2000. Photographed on March 24, 2000.

In pictures above and below, the ongoing apartment house construction on the top of the hill in Sillim 10-dong is visible.

Alternatively, see the pictures as a slideshow.

• Nan'gok in September 2001: only some of the houses had been demolished, but most of the people had already left. Photographed on September 14, 2001.

• The 2001 pictures as a slideshow

• 난곡 2002 Nan'gok. Photographed on June 13, 2002.

이 슬라이드를 스캔하다 보니 아이들이 있더군. 2002년6월13일. Only after scannin this slide I saw the two children in it. June 13, 2002.

호남 상회. 같은 가게의 2000년의 사진도 참조. 2002년6월13일. Honam sanghoe. A disproportionally large part of the population in this kind of neighborhoods are from the southwestern Chôlla (Jeolla) province, known also as Honam, so such a name for a shop is no surprise. See the same shop in 2000. June 13, 2002.

"살림이 있으니 6월20일전에는 아무도 들어가지 마세요." 2002년6월13일. "People live here, so please do not enter before June 20." June 13, 2002.

서신 쌀, 연탄. 2002년6월13일. Rice and coal briquet shop. June 13, 2002.

2002년 여름에 남아 있는 마지막 주민들은 세입자들이었다. 집주인이 아니라 세 들어서 살기 때문에 보상금이 많이 안 나왔기 때문에 갈 곳이 잘 없었다. "난곡세입자다모임"이라는 단체를 만들고 자기 권리를 찾으려고 애를 썼었지만 결국 그대로 떠날 수밖에 없었다.2002년6월13일. In the summer of 2002, there were only renting tenants left in the area. They were unhappy with the meager compensation they had been rewarded, as it was unsufficient to find decent accommodation elsewhere. This is the office of the association they had formed. June 13, 2002.

난곡세입자다모임의 최 대표. 카메라를 갖고 있는 나한테 사진을 부탁하였다. 2002년6월13일. The head of the renters' association, Mr Ch'oe (Choi). June 13, 2002.

세입자다모임의 사무실에서 점심식사. 2002년6월13일. Lunch in the office of the renters' association. June 13, 2002.

공가 철거 결사 반대. 난곡세입자다모임이 걸었던 현수막. 결사까지 반대했다고 했었지만 결국은 철거를 막지는 못 했다.2002년6월13일. "Resisting the demolition with our lives" says the banner raised by the Nan'gok renters' association. June 13, 2002.

Nan'gok in December 2006:

• all my Nan'gok pictures in Flickr (tag: 난곡)

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: Sillim/Gwanak ∙ neighborhood ∙ photography ∙ urbanspace ∙ stratification

Pop art meets Korean painting

2007-08-15T11:26:00.001+03:00

Mirae kyônch'al No Bo-gap sônsaeng sang (未來警察勞保甲先生象)

Hankyoreh presents a selection of paintings by Son Dong-hyeon, with contemporary popular culture motives done in traditional Korean style. Besides "Future policeman No Bo-gap" (see picture), there is for example Kwemul Kollûm sônsaeng sang and Uju chônsa Yoda sônsaeng sang among others.

For more serious topics in the same vain, painting contemporary motives in traditional ink style, see Hwamado (火魔圖, fire devil picture) paintings by Jung Jae ho. The hwama (火魔) of the paintings are fighter planes.

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: art ∙ culturalhistory ∙ literature/movies

Jeong Ho-seung: Ulappa (정호승: 허허바다)

2007-07-26T11:49:00.000+03:00

허허바다
- 정 호 승

찾아가보니 찾아온 곳 없네
돌아와보니 돌아온 곳 없네
다시 떠나가보니 떠나온 곳 없네
살아도 산 것이 없고
죽어도 죽은 것이 없네
해미가 깔린 새벽녘
태풍이 지나간 허허바다에
겨자씨 한 알 떠 있네

Ulappa
- Jeong Ho-seung (Chông Ho-sûng)

Menin käymään, muttei ollut missä käydä
Palasin, muttei ollut minne palata
Lähdin taas, muttei ollut mistä lähteä
Eläessäkään ei ole elämää
eikä kuoltuakaan kuolemaa
Usvaisena aamuna
myrskyn jälkeen ulapalla
yksi sinapinsiemen

This is a translation of Jeong Ho-Seung's Hôhôbada, inspired by Kevin's (the Bighominid) post about Jang Sa-ik's use of the poem as song lyrics. Once again, cannot but say that it looks better in Finnish than in English (see Kevin's post) just as my rendering of Kim Chi'ha's Road to Seoul, but I also have to admit that I don't have much English-language poetic sense...

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: literature/movies

neighborhoodly relations

2007-06-18T15:04:00.000+03:00

[Expletive] don't leave [expletive ]your care here [expletive]. I pass this place every morning at 6.30. [...] Sillim-dong, April 21, 1999. (c) AL
This photograph reminds me that despite all the talk I've been told about the good neighborhood life, the neighborly relations have points of strain as well.

Update, August 16, 2007
Attentive commentors have paid attention to what what I had failed to notice, that actually the expletives had been added by another person to what had originally been a fairly neutral note asking not to park in that place. One line of the note is hidden below the windscreen wiper, but the last line seems to read musûn muryehan chisiyeyo ("what is this impolite act" or whatever). Or perhaps the same person who originally put up the note added the expletives later, when the note didn't produce a desired outcome?

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: neighborhood ∙ urbanspace ∙ Sillim/Gwanak

Conference: "Crossing National and Disciplinary Boundaries in Korean and Japanese Studies"

2007-06-14T12:31:00.000+03:00

Seems like a very interesting conference on June 21 in Korea University (from the Korean Studies mailing list):

"Crossing National and Disciplinary Boundaries in Korean and Japanese
Studies"
what: recent scholarship in Korean and Japanese Studies that
transgress established boundaries in interesting ways.
when: Thursday, June 21, 2007
where: Centennial Hall, Korea University
sponsors: Asiatic Research Center Korea University and The National
Research Council for Economics, Humanities, and Social Sciences
conference organizer: Henry Em, Korea University

*Program*

(10:00 - 10:45)
Opening Remarks: Choi Jang Jip, Director, Asea munje yon'guso
Welcome: Han Sung-Joo, President, Korea University
Keynote Address: Kim Uchang, Professor Emeritus, Korea University. "Crossing Boundaries: Dangers, Fears, Historical Truths"

Session I: Imperial Ideology and Colonial Korea
(10:45 - 12:30)
chair: Henry Em, Associate Professor, Dept. of Korean History, Korea University
presenters:
Helen Lee, Assistant Professor, Dept. of African and Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Florida: "Dying as Daughter of the Empire"
Jun Uchida, Assistant Professor, Dept. of History, Stanford University: "Between Fascism and Colonialism: Japan's Naisen Ittai Policy and Mass Mobilization in Wartime Korea"
discussants:
Roger Janelli, Professor Emeritus, Folklore and Ethnomusicology, East Asian Languages & Cultures, Indiana University
Jung, Keun-Sik, Professor, Dept. of Sociology, Seoul National University

Session II: Korean Narratives and the Hegemony of the West
(14:00 - 16:30)
chair: Kwon Heok-Tae, Department of Japanese Studies, Sungkonghoe University
presenters:
Henry Em, Associate Professor, Dept. of Korean History, Korea University: "Sovereignty and Modern Korean Historiography"
Theodore Hughes, Assistant Professor, Dept. of East Asian Lang. & Cultures, Columbia University: "Death, Target, Virtuality: Cold War Memories of North Koreans and the Korean War"
Youngju Ryu, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Asian Lang. & Cultures, University of Michigan (from July): "Refractory Fictions: Countering the "Novel" in Modern Korea"
discussants: Han, Suk Jung, Professor, Dept. of Sociology, Dong-A University
Cho Chulwon, Professor, Dept. of English Lang. & Literature, and Director, American Studies Institute, Seoul National University
Jin-kyung Lee, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Literature, University of California San Diego

Session III: Colonialism, Modernity, and Memory
(16:15 - 18:30)
chair: Roger Janelli, Professor Emeritus, Folklore and Ethnomusicology, East Asian Languages & Cultures, Indiana University
presenters:
Jun Yoo, Assistant Professor, Dept. of History, University of Hawaii: "The New Woman and the Politics of Gender in Colonial Korea"
Alexis Dudden, Associate Professor, Dept. of History, and Director of the Program in Humanitarian Studies, University of Connecticut (from July): "Modern History. Old Islands."
discussants:
Jung, Tae-Hern, Professor, Dept. of Korean History, Korea University
Kwon Heok-Tae, Department of Japanese Studies, Sungkonghoe University

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: academic ∙ Koreanstudies ∙ Koreanhistory

IASS Round table: La litterature coréenne

2007-06-11T14:46:00.000+03:00

The 9th World Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies is held in Helsinki and Imatra on June 11-17. My office mate from the Dept of Religious Studies is involved in the arrangements - that's how I became aware of it, actually. Browsing the conference program (pdf), I found out something that must be taking place for the first time in this country: a session on Korean literature. The only problem is that it appears to be entirely in French, a language for which the two years of study decades ago in high school will not be of much help.

10.30–13.00 Round table: La litterature coréenne (Chair Chie-Sou Kim), U40 room 5
Kim, Chie-Sou: Mythe contemporain dans le roman de LEE Cheong-Jan
Song, Ki-Jeong: La Communication entre les vivants et les morts - Etude sur L’Invité de WHANG Suk-Yong
Choi, Yong-Ho: The Azaleas
Liu, HyoSook: L’analyse de l’espace théatral à travers Le Cordon ombilical d’Oh Tae-Seok

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: academic ∙ literature/movies

Busan panoramas

2007-06-08T14:42:00.000+03:00

Busan is a photogenic place - at least as far as using the panorama function of digital cameras is concerned - with its hills and the sea, and houses that are more colorful than in Seoul.

Ever since I visited Korea during the latter half of last December and early January I've been thinking of putting up some of my gratuitious use of the aforementioned camera function. The small photos below are from Flickr, and the adjoining links to a larger file of the same picture stored at Imageshack.

Busan (Dec 29, 2006)
• Link to a large picture at Imageshack (2702x700, 890K)

Busan downtown and Yeongdo (Dec 29, 2006)
• Link to a large picture at Imageshack (2491x700, 890K)

Busan fishing harbor (Dec 30, 2006)
• Link to a large picture at Imageshack (4594x700, 911K)

• Link to a large picture at Imageshack (2654x700, 836K)

부산 자갈치의 국밥집 A rice soup restaurant in Jagalchi, Busan; see also the blog header (Dec 30, 2006)
• A large file at Imageshack (2025x700, 475K)

Yeongdo, Busan (Dec 30, 2006)
• Large file at Imageshack (3770X700, 774K)

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: photography ∙ cities ∙ urbanspace

Youtube says: you have nothing

2007-06-01T15:44:00.000+03:00

Visited my Youtube account after a long time.
A look at my profile was not too encouraging:

You have nothing in your video log.

User info continues:

You have no favorites.

Further:

You have no subscribers.

And finally:

You have no Friends.

What is one to do?

Find some solace in Ain't Got No/I Got Life by Nina Simone in... Youtube.

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: music

paeksu paksa

2007-05-31T15:15:00.000+03:00

So little to say after so much has been done (see the two previous posts), so I'll listen to Lee Sang-eun via Youtube instead.

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: music

defending

2007-05-14T19:32:00.001+03:00

Defending my thesis on Friday, May 11. From the left, the opponent prof. Nancy Abelmann from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Custos or the officiator, prof. Jukka Siikala from the Dept. Social and Cultural Anthropology at the U. of Helsinki, and to the right the defendant giving his opening address, or Lectio Precursoria. (Click for a bigger pic to open in a new window.)

They say it all went well, even though things look so different from the perspective of the defendant.

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: academic ∙ anthropology

dissertation defense

2007-05-11T08:36:00.000+03:00

Today I have the public defense of my dissertation, in case someone's been wondering why I haven't been making much notes here lately. Just wondering whether I've prepared myself well enough.

핀란드에서의 ucc - 유러비전 / Eurovision UCC from Finland

2007-05-02T10:24:00.000+03:00

유러비젼 가요제 앞두고 있는 가운데 세계시민들은 핀란드에 대해서 관심을 모으고 있습니다. 최근에 유튜브에서 핀란드를 알리는 데 마르꾸라는 분이 활약하고 있습니다. 마르꾸의 짧으면서고 정확한 핀란드 소개를 들으시고 우리나라 ucc 콘텐츠와 기술의 우수성을 느껴 보십시오.

이 링크에서 마르꾸 씨의 더 많은 비디오를 찾을 수 있습니다.

Kim Pyong Il's on-the-spot guidance

2007-04-27T07:38:00.001+03:00

Aidan Foster-Carter left a note on the Korean Studies List about a set of photographs of the DPRK ambassador to Poland, Kim Pyong Il, visiting some kind of a solidarity cultural event. I guess having such pictures available on the North Korean leader's half brother makes news in Pyongyangology. Once again it's interesting to note the remarkable physical likeness of Kim Pyong Il to his father.

Kim Pyong Il was the DPRK ambassador to Finland in the mid-1990s until the embassy was closed, and Mr Kim was assigned to Poland. There were all kinds of rumors about Kim Jong Il having sent Kim Pyong Il abroad in order to avoid power struggle with his allegedly more capable half brother, but who knows. I also get the feeling that he was sent away for looking too similar to his father... A Pyongyangological factoid on Kim Pyong Il: KCNA, the DPRK news agency based in Tokyo, does not give a single hit for a Korean-language search on Kim Pyong Il. Neither does any of Google hits on his name go to DPRK-affiliated sites.

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: DPRK

Kim Chi-ha's "Road to Seoul", translation

2007-04-26T16:08:00.000+03:00

In the final lecture of my course, I used Kim Chi-ha's famous poem "Road to Seoul" from the 1970 collection Hwangt'o (Yellow earth) to illustrate how the rural migration, urbanization and societal change in general were represented at the time.

김지하-서울길 간다 울지 마라 간다 흰 고개 검은 고개 목마른 고개 넘어 팍팍한 서울길 몸팔러 간다	Kim Chi-ha: Tie Souliin Menen älkää itkekö, menen yli valkoisen, mustan, janoisen solan raskasta tietä Souliin itseäni myymään
언제야 돌아오리란 언제야 웃음으로 돌아오리란 댕기풀 안스러운 약속도 없이 간다 울지 마라 간다 모질고 모진 세상에 살아도 분꽃이 잊힐까 밀 냄새가 잊힐까 사뭇사뭇 못 잊을 것을 꿈꾸다 눈물 젖어 돌아올 것을	Lupaustakaan antamatta siitä palaanko joskus palaanko joskus nauraen Menen älkää itkekö, menen Vaikka maailma olisi kuinka julma unohdanko kukat, vehnän tuoksun koskaan ei unohdu unista kyyneltyneenä, paluu
간다 울지 마라 간다 하늘도 시름겨운 목마른 고개 넘어 팍팍한 서울길 몸팔러 간다	Menen älkää itkekö, menen yli taivaankin murehtiman janoisen solan raskasta tietä Souliin itseäni myymään

This is a difficult poem, and for some lines I just had to cut corners, especially 댕기풀 안스러운 약속도 없이. But otherwise, it looks nice and should convey what Kim meant it to. Kim Chi-ha has been translated to English, "The Road to Seoul" included. I can't find the whole translation of that poem online, but from the excerpts I gather that line repeated twice, 몸팔러 간다, has been rendered as I'm going to sell my body. Maybe I'm partial, but doesn't the Finnish itseäni myymään sound much more true to the original?

Other translations in this blog:
• 처음처럼 / 용혜원 Kuin ensi kertaa / Yong Hye-won
• 山中問答 in the post Hunjang in the mountains, via Korean-language translation
• Yom Sang-jin in Finnish (from Taebaek sanmaek)

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: literature/movies ∙ Korea-Finland ∙ Koreanlanguage ∙ Seoul ∙ culturalhistory

dissertation

2007-04-25T14:29:00.000+03:00

From E-thesis - Electronic Publications at the University of Helsinki:

Full-text will be available 01.05.2007
The permanent address of the publication is http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-10-3900-3
Title: Neighborhood Shopkeepers in Contemporary South Korea: Household, Work, and Locality
Author: Leppänen, Antti
Contributor: University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Date: 2007-05-11
Level: Doctoral dissertation (monograph)
Abstract: This is an ethnographic study [...]

The printed book will be available next week.

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: academic ∙ anthropology ∙ books ∙ Koreanstudies ∙ businesskeepers

Hankyoreh and Chosun fonts available

2007-04-19T06:53:00.000+03:00

Found out that Hankyoreh has made its own font available for download at the newspaper site in late 2005. Here's the direct link to the zip file (0.8mb). Below is a capture from my word processor. The Hankyoreh font looks quite nice and should be pleasing for the eye to read - not insignificant for us who've learned the characters as adults. The specific trait is that the character blocks break the square pattern. For example, in the syllables 레 and 체 as seen below, the consonant is smaller in height than the vowel.

Chosun Ilbo has followed suit and also put its own font available for download. The direct link to the zip file is here (6.9 mb).

Below is a capture, from this site, comparing the two fonts. Chosun's one is less original, a variation of the Myôngje font, and as I mentioned above, Hankyoreh font appears to be good to read on paper, but as a lot of my reading of Korean is done online, I may not end up using it much, and other fonts, especially Gullim (or Gulim) are better when writing a document with a word processor.

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: technicalities ∙ Koreanlanguage

cover photograph

2007-04-17T09:38:00.000+03:00

This is the cover photograph of an academic dissertation on keepers of small neighborhood businesses in Korea that will be published on April 30 and publicly defended on May 11. More about those later; I chose this pic because I did not want to have the mosts obvious choice of a street scene with shops and signboards (takes the focus to shops and out of people) or a pic of a shop front (same reason); this is a real person about whom the work is about. Moreover, her face is not visible. I got quite a many photos of real people in the work, but I chose all of them so that they are not recognizable.
What I'm a bit worried about is how clearly this will come out in print, as it's full of details, so to say.

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: academic ∙ books ∙ photography

exhibition: "Ecstatic Architecture" by Jung Jae Ho

2007-04-12T08:06:00.000+03:00

ECSTATIC ARCHITECTURE

황 홀 의 건 축

Jung, Jae Ho/정 재 호

2007. 4.18 - 5.1

관훈갤러리 / Kwanhoon Gallery

The style for this announcement copied from Jung Jae Ho's blog entry on this topic.

• 관훈갤러리/Kwanhoon Gallery, located near the Anguk station on line 3 (orange line) in Seoul; see the link for directions.

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: art ∙ urbanspace ∙ housing

Daily NK interviews with DPRK women traders

2007-04-11T23:42:00.000+03:00

Daily NK has a very interesting article based on interviews with six North Korean women who have crossed the border to China and settled there. These women once again attest that in North Korea it's women who maintain the livelihood of their husbands and children by trading (changsa), as the rationing system has not functioned properly since the 1990's famine years, and salaries don't carry long in buying foods. So women have been packing their bags and gone out to do all kinds of businesses.

[...]
김영순 씨는 "식량난 이전 시기에는 대체로 남자들이 생계를 책임졌다. 김일성이 한때 여성간부들을 많이 등용하라는 교시도 내리긴 했지만, 여자 간부의 급수에 맞춰 남자의 직급도 올려주는 등 가정의 구조가 남자 위주로 돌아갔다. 그러나 고난의 행군 이후 여자들 90% 이상이 가정을 책임지게 되면서 남자들을 (불필요하다는 의미의) 낮전등, 불편이, 멍멍이라고 부르고 있다"고 설명했다.

여성들이 처음 장마당에서 할 수 있는 것은 먹는 장사가 대부분이었다. 그러나 돈이 모이고 장사 방법에 눈이 트이면서 달리기(지역을 이동하며 물건을 중계 또는 판매하는 행위)와 장마당 장사에도 뛰어 들었다.

안 씨는 "처음부터 장사를 시작하지 못한 여자들도 나중에는 다 장사에 뛰어들었다. 써비차(화물차)나 열차를 타고 다니며 달리기 장사에 나섰다. 여자들은 날마다 50kg짜리 배낭을 두개 세 개 들고 다닌다. 열차에 많은 사람이 타다보니 떨어져 죽는 경우도 많았다. 그러면서도 장사를 계속했다"고 덧붙였다.
[...]

Perhaps more about this when time allows.

Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: DPRK ∙ businesskeepers ∙ self-employment

Title:	Neighborhood Shopkeepers in Contemporary South Korea: Household, Work, and Locality
Author:	Leppänen, Antti
Contributor:	University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Date:	2007-05-11
Level:	Doctoral dissertation (monograph)
Abstract:	This is an ethnographic study [...]