Trinity University’s Dr. Donald Clark will be giving a lecture Wednesday for the Royal Asiatic Society that’s a must for anyone interested in the history of lost white folk in Korea.
LIVING DANGEROUSLY IN KOREA: The Western Community on the eve of World War II
A colorful and diverse community of Westerners called Korea home in the late 1930s. From the Russian exiles’ hunting resort near Paektu-san to the American gold mining town at Unsan to the missionary Jerusalem in Pyongyang and the multinational community in Seoul, the hundreds of Westerners active in pre-war Korea represented key currents in modern history. They were Korea’s own Western adventurers, humanitarians, capitalists, idealists, and cynics. And they developed a way of life typical of Westerners everywhere in the East, with one major exception: in Korea under Japanese rule they were completely non-military and un-imperial, having to live, like the Koreans themselves, under rules laid down by the Japanese colonial government.
This illustrated lecture remembers this remarkable community and its diverse style in pre-war Korea. It concludes with the story of how the Japanese systematically forced it out of business in 1940-42. In the late 1940s, when the war was finally over, the West returned to Korea but under vastly changed circumstances and with a completely different role and character.
Follow the link for time, place and more on the lecturer.
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13 Comments
Don’t think I can make the lecture but Donald Clark’s book looks like it would make a fascinating read.
Joel’s Far Outliers blog points to an earlier version of one of the book’s chapters which is titled Vanished Exiles: The Prewar Russian Community in Korea.
Woah, that was not the best html. My apologies… jajaja
That lecture sounds fascinating. If I can carve time out of my schedule this Wednesday, I’m going to go.
I too would like to go but wednesday is usually too busy a day for me.
/sigh
Thanks for the heads up. Sounds quite interesting.
I’d be there if I were living there. Man: sounds fascinating.
I have read elsewhere that the one and only Pyongyang was indeed called the “Jerusalem of the East” for its large Christian and Missionary population. In fact, KIS’s own parents were quite active in the NK Christian community early on, apparently.
The March 1969 National Geographic had an article on South Korea. The writer visited the “Seoul Club, social headquarters of expatriates in Korea.” (Does it still exist?) He met an Englishman who had first come to Korea in 1931 as an engineer for a gold mine in what is now NK. He said that the Japanese starting arresting foreigners in September 1939, when Germany was attacking Poland. He escaped to Manchuria, “just ahead of a prison camp.” He returned after independence to work on a gold mine his father owned on Yeongjongdo off Incheon (where the airport is now).
“In fact, KIS?€™s own parents were quite active in the NK Christian community early on, apparently.”
Well, it wasn’t NK at the time, of course….
Speaking of memoirs of expats in Korea, I highly recommend A Year In Pyeongyang. The author worked in NK for a year editing propaganda texts for foreign consumption. The full text is online.
“A colorful and diverse community of Westerners called Korea home in the late 1930s.” Some things never change, huh? I mean this place is no Hollyweird, but Itaewon on Friday night it’s “the woodwork squeaks and out come the freaks,” to quote…err, I forgot.
The writer visited the ?€œSeoul Club, social headquarters of
expatriates in Korea.?€? (Does it still exist?)
Sure it does, and it’s still the social headquarters, at least of the very elite ex-pats. It’s on the eastern shoulder of Nam-san, uphill
(south) of the Shilla Hotel. Members are company CEOs, ambassadors,
English-speaking Korean elite and etc — membership is expensive. Great exercise gym etc, great restaurant with lunch and dinner buffet every day, quiet coffee shop, polite staff, meeting rooms and etc.
Nice place…
No kidding? Sounds as if you’ve had the privilege of visiting there….
The lecture was quite interesting, especially for someone like me who likes looking at pictures of old stuff. I even bought the guy’s book (and had Dr. Clark sign it) and read part of it on the subway ride home.
Cool!
I remember reading the journal of a couple of guys from Scandinavia who travelled to Korea in the 20s or 30s. They went by train from Europe all the way to Seoul. That must have been quite a journey.