Comments on: Charles Cooper, Korea’s first Western businessman, had a troubled past

By: R. Elgin

R. Elgin — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:58:02 +0000

Good for you Mr. Neff. Keep up the good work and stories.

By: kpmsprtd

kpmsprtd — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 04:17:49 +0000

The false teeth trick still worked great in the late ’70s and early ’80s. I had a partial plate that substituted for a couple of my front teeth. It worked great on little kids, but a few of the kinder ladies were rather taken aback when I removed it at night and put it in a glass of water, as was my habit.

By: sewing

sewing — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:54:21 +0000

Sounds like an interesting project. I’d love to see one on the whole seongnae (城內—city inside the walls), but I guess that would be too ambitious.

P.S.: You who are working on this 3D recreation project may want to take a look at Rome Reborn 1.0, a 3D digital model of Rome as it was in AD 320.

By: user-81

user-81 — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:34:59 +0000

Spelling correction: Vladivostok doesn’t have a c.

By: robert neff

robert neff — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 20:53:51 +0000

Incidently - cut the story down from a 4,000 word article so that might explain a lot of the jerkiness to the story….held to a restriction of about 1,300 words….

By: robert neff

robert neff — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 20:44:32 +0000

P.S. Never write a response when you are happy and celebrating….

By: robert neff

robert neff — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 20:36:37 +0000

Hi - really appreciate the interests in the articles and the kind compliments - even the back-handed compliments from the resident trolls. I am really excited because the Seoul government has recently announced that a team I am working with has been selected for a historical project dealing with the 3D reconstruction of the downtown (embassy - foreign legation) section of Seoul using the computer. It is set for the 1890s and is expected that a person will be able to walk down a virtual reality street (not sure if that is grammatically correct) and enter any house and get a story about events at that time….my job is to provide some 60 articles/stories of the homes, people, and events during this period.

As to my sources - many of you know that I buy and sell historical material from that period including postcards, books, pictures, and newspapers. I have built up (over the past ten years) a fairly large data base of just about anyone and everyone who has traveled to Seoul during the 1880s-1910. I am now expanding my data base to anyone who has traveled to Korea, Japan, Vladivostock or Northern China because they are often inter-related. Naturally I owe a great deal to Prof. Lankov and other prominent Profs. who have encouraged me and put up with my anti-academia ravings….

With respect

Robert

By: Netizen Kim

Netizen Kim — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 19:16:34 +0000

The moral of the story is diversity and multiculturalism never worked, even in 1881. Put an eccentric cracker with false teeth together with Chinamen, and bad shit happens….

By: JiMong

JiMong — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:35:38 +0000

Another interesting story, thanks! Are you going to publish a book with all of your articles?

By: sewing

sewing — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 17:15:37 +0000

Whoah. I thought, “eccentric but harmless Westerner” whose business in “canned goods and … liquor” made me think of moments of weakness when I might be inclined to have some fried spam and soju.

It turns out the guy was something else altogether. Okay, I won’t spoil the surprise and say what, but it’s a very nasty twist, and let’s just say that there’s something deeply disturbing about the way in which the Russian authorities seemed to have been so reluctant, flippant, or nonchalant in pursuing the matter.

P.S.: Thanks for not apologizing for the “shameless plug,” Robert!