The Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society will hold its first semi-monthly Lecture-Meeting of February this Tuesday the 13th, at 7:30 pm, in the 2nd-floor Resident’s Lounge of the Somerset Palace Residence (near Anguk Station, downtown). All in English, for free and open to the public, as always; more info: 763-9483 and http://www.raskb.com/ (includes map for the Somerset, and a complete description of the talk).
This one should certainly be interesting to some of us: Prof. Brian Myers of Dongseo University in Busan, researcher of & writer on North Korea’s official culture, will speak on “Child-Race in an Evil World: Understanding North Korea Through its Propaganda.”
He will argue that North Korean propaganda has always read “like a fascist’s guess of what communist propaganda should look like.” This, he says, is no coincidence; the country’s official culture was established in the 1940s by middle-aged intellectuals who were far more familiar with imperial Japanese propaganda — having written much of it themselves — than with Marxism-Leninism. That propaganda had ushered the Koreans into a morally superior Japanese-Korean or “imperial” race. In 1945 the Koreans simply ushered the Japanese out of it. They continued to regard themselves as uniquely virtuous by dint of a pure and ancient bloodline, but that bloodline was now theirs alone, the Dangun myth achieving orthodoxy at last.
During the lecture Myers will be underscoring his points with colorful slides of North Korean paintings and posters. This touches on several subjects we’ve discussed here on the Hole, so should provide some good food-for-thought. Make it over there if you can…
12 Comments
will this one be taped as well? i couldn’t make it last time and really appreciated being able to download that (huge) file from korea.net…
Sounds very interesting. Wish I lived or worked somewhere nearby.
Me, too. Very interesting topic.
All of the RAS Lectures are digitally videotaped these days, if the speaker consents, and then if they further permit it the clip is publicly posted, linked from the front page of http://www.korea.com (NOT korea.net which is an official government news site). The “Possible Selves / Bi-cultural Identity” talk is up there now. I don’t know how often a new one will be put up; by the current pace this one by Myers should get up there in six weeks or so…
No, definitely not from Korea.net; they have been trying to filter out anything that could be remotely embarrassing, if not self-incriminating, from the government site.
I couldn’t find the map on that site.
Could someone give me an 안국 역 exit number and some easy walking directions? Thanks.
Greetings from Jinju City, Queen of the South. Go back to http://www.raskb.com/ and click on “Open Lecture” square near the top, then click the first item, “LECTURE VENUE - Change in the RAS Lecture Venue -Somerset Palace, 2nd Floor” — you’ll see map and directions. Anguk Station Exit 6, then walk west (towards Gyeongbok-gung) across the double intersection, continue half a block and its on your left — before the Hanguk Ilbo Bldg. “It is located the same block of Jogyesa Temple and Jongno-gu Office. It is also the next block of Hankook Ilbo Korea Times and the Japanese Embassy.”
Excellent. Thanks for the directions and the assistance. Found the map easily this time.
Very soon after you leave Anguk station, you can see the lighted sign on top of Somerset Palace, especially when it’s dark. It’s one of the tallest buildings in its area. VERY easy to find from Anguk if you go out exit 6 and look up.
BR Myers’ presentation promises to be one of the RAS lectures that is not to be missed this year. Since there has been quite a buzz in the community for the past month about this event, I recommend people showing up by 7:15 tonight to get a decent seat.
The RAS has recently initiated what we hope to be a new tradition — pasta and beer at the near-by Jacob restaurant (tel: 734-2030) that offers decent fare at reasonable prices following the lecture. The venue serves as a good way to meet up with others of similar interests. The restaurant is located on the north-south ally that leads from the back entrance to Somerset Palace out on to the main drag.
Be there or be square…
Tom–Whaddya mean “new” tradition? We’ve been doing that a while.
See you tonight.
I attended and have blogged superficially about Myers’s excellent presentation, but I haven’t yet seen any other reports. Have other bloggers reported their reactions?
Jeffery Hodges
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