Notebook on Cities and Culture

Korea Tour: Ruled by the Heart with Andrew Salmon


Listen Later

In Seoul's Susong-dong, Colin talks with Andrew Salmon, author of To the Last Round: The Epic British Stand on the Imjin River, Korea 1951Scorched Earth, Black Snow: Britain and Australia in the Korean War, 1950; and All That Matters: Modern Korea. They discuss how Korean culture has influenced the names of his cats; the dullness of London by comparison to Seoul, especially in drinking term; the provocative positions he has taken, such as finding the Koreans "a little unfair toward the Japanese"; how he sees the conflict between Korea and Japan over the Dokdo islets; the "drab, miserable-looking" Seoul full of "fierce" people to which martial arts brought him in 1989; the Korean shift from diligence as the sole virtue to diversity of lifestyle; how Korea came to look like a place he could live; why he "wanted answers" from Korea since his time here began; how everything Korean, in this land "ruled by the heart, not the head," opposes everything English; the meaning of the 1988 Olympics and the 2002 World Cup as the "signposts" of modern Korea; the opening up of Korean national markets and Korea itself to international markets, resulting in the improvement of such native products as makgeolli; Korean sensitivity toward the awareness of "the Korean brand"; to what extent outside interest has shifted from North Korea to South; why editors don't tend to ask for the North Korea stories that matter; what happens if reunification day ever comes; what Korean students "simply don't learn" about their country's history; why plaques in Korea give dimensions of bricks rather than tell stories; what the Korea neophyte should know in order to contextualize everything else they learn about the country; the mismatch between Korea's "hardware" and its "software"; whether he hopes for a grand Korean deceleration; and what he's stopped dreaming about quite so much before his trips to Europe.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Notebook on Cities and CultureBy Colin Marshall

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

123 ratings


More shows like Notebook on Cities and Culture

View all
Bookworm by KCRW

Bookworm

573 Listeners

In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,389 Listeners

Fresh Air by NPR

Fresh Air

38,189 Listeners

The Political Scene | The New Yorker by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

3,936 Listeners

The Tennis Podcast by David Law, Catherine Whitaker, Matt Roberts

The Tennis Podcast

1,375 Listeners

Making Sense with Sam Harris by Sam Harris

Making Sense with Sam Harris

26,462 Listeners

Hidden Brain by Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam

Hidden Brain

43,442 Listeners

The Bill Simmons Podcast by The Ringer

The Bill Simmons Podcast

30,107 Listeners

The New Yorker Radio Hour by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The New Yorker Radio Hour

6,668 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

111,785 Listeners

The Harper’s Podcast by Harper's Magazine

The Harper’s Podcast

136 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

15,237 Listeners