This article in Korean recounts the my “Jewel of Great Price” report in Korean. The question raised is how the great tradition of organic farming from Korea’s past can be brought back to life in our age.
문화일보
2012년 2월 29일
“한국 유기농의 무한한 價値”
이만열/경희대 후마니타스칼리지 교수·동아시아문명학
The New York Times carried this article today about bibimbap, the Korean dish in which a variety of vegetables are mixed together with rice in a bowl.
The article, titled “Easy Korean Bibimbap for Home Cooks” presents the dish in an aesthetically pleasing manner, and suggests it is an excellent health food–which it is. The article is indicative of a major shift in the perception of Korea. No longer a rough culture for adventurous Americans, Korea is becoming a much more polished cultural identity with cultural depth.
This article is featured in the 2012 volume of the Korean Journal “21st Century Literature” (21세기문학). The article discusses some fundamental issues concerning the effective internationalization of Korean language and Korean literature.
I will be speaking at 3:40 at the international conference of the Korea-China Social Science Conference (한중사회과학학회: 국제학술대회； 韩中社会科学学会：国际大会)to be held at Yonsei University tomorrow, Wednesday, February 22, 2012. My talk is on the complex relationship between China and the United States (talk is in Chinese).
(Location is the basement of the Daewoo Hall at Yonsei University)
See Program:
Young Seek Choue (1921-2012)
Dr. Young Seek Choue was one of most remarkable figures of the post-Korean War period. A man who devoted himself to a vision of peace and education in an age when most Koreans were concerned with the basic challenges of survival and economic development, Dr. Choue was above all a visionary, a man who established and built Kyung Hee University while remaining engaged in a far-sighted plan to “build a civilized world.” He started this project at a time when most Koreans were struggling to feed themselves. He imagined a global role for Korea, deeply engaged with the United Nations, that in the 1950s and 1960s seemed fantastic, but today, with Ban Ki Moon as Secretary General seems most prescient.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Asia Institute Seminar
“Three Global Perspectives
on
Korea’s Potential in Research and Business”
This article outlines a plan for revitalizing rural Korea with an emphasis on traditional goods and architecture.
한국경제신문
2012년2월 08일
한국 농촌 세계화 `전통` 담아야
산업화 이전 유구한 역사 못살려
마을 상징물 만들어 홍보에 주력
된장에 스토리 입히면 관광 자원
이만열 < 경희대 교수·후마니타스칼리지 >
“Let us Permit Imagination!” Kookmin Ilbo Newspaper
February 6, 2012
This article argues that in Korea there are plenty of extremely creative people. The problem is simply that organizations do not let them realize their potential.
국민일보
2012년02월06일
“상상력을 許하라!”
이만열 (임마누엘 페스트라이쉬)
“낡은 도시 잠재력 깨우려면 행정·정치가 예술가의 창의력 발휘를 뒷받침해야 한다”
More on why we need to demand more proficiency in Korean language of internationals
Emanuel Pastreich
February 8, 2012
There are several underlying factors behind the reluctance of Koreans to demand high proficiency in Korean from foreigners.
First, the Korean language is viewed primarily as an extension of Korean ethnic identity, and not as an object for objective investigation and evaluation. Many Koreans think that ethnic Koreans should speak perfect Korean and foreigners are a bit odd if they speak any Korean at all. Most Koreans evaluate ability in
It is a platitude that the world is growing smaller. Whether reading through Frances Cairncross’s “The Death of Distance” or Thomas Friedman’s “The World is Flat” one gets the impression that the growth of new technologies which link us together reduces distance between us and makes the world smaller, more connected. Although it is hard to imagine how seven billion people could ever be a single group, a global village, there will be few objections if I say that “technology is making the world smaller” at a cocktail party.
But that assumption is not necessarily true. Let me make two different, related points.