We need a ‘Seoul school’
Joongang Daily
Emanuel Pastreich
February 10, 2014
Korea is getting a lot of attention around the world, whether it is for the rise of Korean female golfers or for the promotion of Koreans to the top positions in the international community at places like the United Nations or the World Bank. Nevertheless, despite Korea’s rapid emergence on the world stage, there remain some glaring blanks in Korea’s impact on the world that suggest there are fundamental problems that hold Korea back and can be rather baffling for a long-time resident like myself.
Let me give an example. One of the greatest advantages for someone with a background in East Asian studies about living in Korea is the large number of experts in Chinese, Japanese and Korean studies from just about every field (history, literature, economics and anthropology) that you can find in Seoul. If you want to put together a seminar on the poetry of ninth-century China, Japan and Korea, you can find 30 people, often with considerable specialization, for an in-depth discussion.
It is a unique advantage for Korea because you could not put together that sort of a group of experts in Chinese, Japanese and Korean studies in Tokyo, Beijing or Boston. Although University of Tokyo and Harvard University produce excellent doctorate degrees in Asian studies, in terms of scale, and increasingly in terms of quality, there is no comparison with the number of Ph.D. students trained at the top Korean universities. And yet Korea has not become the center for Asian studies you might expect.
Koreans say that Korea simply does not have the quality of the scholarship in Korea on a par with the United States. Although the United States does have a few exceptional scholars, I simply do not agree. Korea has all the conditions to be the leader in Asian studies. What is missing is a distinct Korean methodology for Asian studies. The primary reason that
