The Korea File

What role did public polling play in the spectacular political collapse of President Park Geun-hye? How effective is political polling today? And with social trends pointing to a continuing decrease in the rate of democratic participation, how can polls remain representative?

In our conversation prior to his recent lecture at the University of Michigan, UC Berkley Professor Taeku Lee discusses how the political science of public polling, until recently a primarily American area of study, has gained academic traction in South Korea over the last decade.

This episode was produced in collaboration with the Nam Center for Korean Studies. Subscribe to the Nam Center’s Youtube channel at umichncks.

Music on this episode is 7080 star 김연자 with 봄비가.

Joshua Van Lieu is a historian of 20th century East Asian politics and international relations and an authority on the histories of Joseon Korea and Late Imperial China.

In this conversation, Van Lieu discusses the diplomatic intrigue of the Qing-Korea relationship and explains how the pageantry of tributary practice successfully manipulated Western preconceptions of the “unknowable orient”.

This episode was produced in collaboration with the University of Michigan’s Nam Center for Korean Studies.

To see Joshua Van Lieu’s full lecture, find “The Act was Oriental between Orientals: The Persistence of Late Victorian Translations of the Twilight of Qing-Chosun Tributary Practice” on Youtube.

What has the literature of division meant for the two Koreas over the years?

They remain officially at war, a situation unchanged since 1953 when the Armistice Agreement, signed by China, North Korea and the United States, brought an end to active hostilities on the peninsula.

But the Armistice was not a peace settlement and tensions along the DMZ, the 38th parallel, have continued ever since. This long stalemate between the divided Koreas has prevented most kinds of social, cultural and political exchanges, with some exceptions.

In the conclusion to our conversation, I. Jonathan Kief, a Korea Foundation post-doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan’s Nam Center for Korean Studies, continues to explore the unconventional perspective on the relationship between writers in North and South Korea, in both the real and imagined ways in which literature of the post-war period managed to cross the 38th parallel in the post-war era.

This episode was produced in collaboration with the University of Michigan’s Nam Center for Korean Studies.

The Koreas are officially at war, a situation that’s remained unchanged since 1953 when an Armistice Agreement was signed by China, North Korea and the United States, ending hostilities on the peninsula without achieving a final peace settlement.

The long stalemate between the two Koreas has prevented countless opportunities for social, cultural and political exchanges, with occasional exceptions. Which is why I. Jonathan Kief’s area of study is so interesting.

In his research, Kief, a Korea Foundation post-doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan’s Nam Center for Korean Studies, explores an unconventional perspective on the relationship between writers in North and South Korea.

Here, in the first of a two-part conversation, he discusses the real as well as imagined ways in which literature of the post-war period managed to cross the 38th parallel and attempts to outline a more complicated and nuanced understanding of what division literature has meant in Korea over the years.

This episode was produced in collaboration with the University of Michigan’s Nam Center for Korean Studies.

To find our more on Kief's research or to view other lectures from the Nam Center Colloquium series , visit https://www.youtube.com/user/umichncks/featured

Photo credit: http://www.notesonslowtravel.com/a-peek-into-north-korea-visiting-the-dmz-in-korea/

In her recent book, ‘The Capitalist Unconscious: From Korean Unification to Transnational Korea’, professor of sociology Hyun-ok Park, of Toronto's York University, demonstrates that the unseen currents of capitalism, rather than territorial integration or family union, are driving a movement towards peninsular integration and a united Korea.

In this conversation, prior to her recent lecture at the University of Michigan’s Nam Center for Korean Studies, she discusses how migrant labor, identity politics, social activism and media spectacle are each playing a part in the gradual trend towards unification and why she sees the capitalist integration of the peninsula and its diaspora as a new democratic moment for the Korean people.

Music on this episode: Park In-Hee - 방랑자 (1976)

For more information on the University of Michigan's Nam Center for Korean Studies go to https://www.ii.umich.edu/ncks

At a recent lecture at the University of Michigan's Nam Center for Korean Studies, Pepperdine University sociologist Rebecca Kim spoke on the phenomena of South Korean evangelical missionaries proselytizing in the United States.

Exploring the relationship between the two countries since World War 2, her talk addresses how Korean missionaries with the University Bible Fellowship attempted to evangelize the college-educated and why the UFB's outreach efforts focused racially only on white Americans.

From the colloquium's webpage:
This lecture highlights how South Korean Protestants are contributing to the changing dynamics of missions in world Christianity and examines the phenomena of Korean evangelical missionaries proselytizing Americans in the United States. Exploring South Korea’s relationship with the United States particularly since World War II, this lecture addresses why and how Korean missionaries evangelized Americans, especially white Americans, and how their mission efforts evolved over time in the West.

Rebecca Y. Kim is the Frank R. Seaver Professor of Social Science. She is Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Ethnic Studies program at Pepperdine University. She specializes in immigration, race, and religion and has published broadly on topics related to Korean Americans and Korean Christianity. She is the author of God’s New Whiz Kids? Korean American Evangelicals on Campus (New York University Press 2006) and The Spirit Moves West: Korean Missionaries in America (Oxford University Press 2015)

To see Kim's talk in full, go to https://www.youtube.com/user/umichncks

Music on this episode is from 70s Christian singer 민희라.

This conversation was recorded in March, 2016. It's the first in a series of episodes in collaboration with the University of Michigan’s Nam Center for Korean Studies.

In part three of a conversation with conscientious objector, pacifist and 1950s aid worker Joe Smucker, he discusses the paranoia and chaos that he witnessed in a country in the grip of a post-colonial and post-war reality. Plus, more on the Mennonites and their relationship with South Korea.

Also: an e-mail from a listener whose grandparents participated in educational and agricultural efforts in Daejon during the post-war period.

Music on this episode is from 단장의 with her 1960's trot classic '미아리고개'.

Photo credit: Morning Calm Weekly News on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/imcomkorea/3198333337

Pacifist and conscientious objector Joe Smucker left for Korea by freighter in 1956 to help with the country’s post-war reconstruction. His three years on the peninsula participating in relief work efforts were life-changing.

In part two of our conversation, Smucker reveals how the Mennonite Central Committee’s reconstruction efforts and work with orphans in the 1950's led to the founding of an Anabaptist church on the peninsula 40 years later. He also reflects on the post-colonial social and structural chaos he witnessed in the post-war wreckage of a divided Korea.

Music on this episode is Lee Soo Mi 1950's release '미워도 다시 한 번'.

Refugee image from http://www.umcmission.org/learn-about-us/news-and-stories/2015/january/75thanniversary5060s

A pacifist and conscientious objector, Joe Smucker left for Korea by freighter in 1956 to help with the country’s post-war reconstruction. His three years on the peninsula participating in relief work efforts with the Mennonite Central Committee would change his life forever.

In the first of a two-part interview, Smucker discusses the origins of the MCC, a relief organization similar to today’s Oxfam or Doctors Without Borders, their efforts to help cope with the post-war refugee crisis in Daegu and the sorry state of South Korea`s civil government in the post-war era.

Music on this episode is from 김정호 with a live performance of his song `이름모를 소녀'

Corporate stereotyping, the cult power of Chaebol leadership and the structural differences before and after the 1997 IMF financial crisis. This is part three of a conversation with Michael Prentice, a PhD Candidate in the University of Michigan’s Department of Anthropology, on South Korea's hugely influential Chaebol.

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Prentice interned for a year at a Seoul-area company, conducting semi-covert academic research on the country's unique corporate culture. On this episode, he discusses Korean corporate security protocol and the complex relationship between Chaebol development and the narrative structure of Korean history. He also explains how he obtained his position as an undercover anthropologist.

Music on this episode is 1972's '안개속의 여인' with Ji-Hyun on vocals and the legendary Shin Jung-hyun on guitar.

This episodes image is taken from
https://anti-imperialism.com/2015/01/12/neoliberalism-in-south-korea-financial-crisis-fascism-and-the-rise-of-precarious-work/