January 9, 2008 – 4:07 pm
Horace Allen once described an encounter that took place during a dinner party at one of the legations in Seoul in which a Korean noble man fainted with fear. Allen wrote:
“One of these men [Korean nobles], who was sitting next to me, on one occasion suddenly pitched over, his wide hat brim upsetting his glasses while [...]
December 24, 2007 – 3:00 pm
Once again Christmas is upon us. As most of you are well aware, Christmas is a relatively new event in Korea. It is next to impossible to say when it first arrived - maybe with the early missionaries, or perhaps with Lucius Foote the first American Minister to Korea. We do, however, know when the first [...]
December 16, 2007 – 4:02 pm
In Choson, one of the greatest fears for city dwellers was fire. Because Korean homes were built so close to one another and made of highly combustable material, fires quickly spread from one house to another. Within a short period of time, whole blocks, and in some cases large parts of the city, were destroyed.
One of the worst fires in [...]
December 14, 2007 – 3:11 pm
In 1896, Russia was the fourth country to provide military advisors to Korea. Prior to the Russians, the Chinese and Japanese provided instructors in the early 1880s, and the Americans in 1888-1890 (longer if you count the efforts of General Dye and Colonel Nienstead). In 1898, a Russian newspaper declared proudly “the former teachers of [...]
December 5, 2007 – 12:53 pm
Many people in Korea - including Koreans - may not realize the importance of December 4th, but in 1884, at an inaugeration party held in the newly-built post office, there was an attempt to remove the Min faction from control of the government by a group of progressive young leaders led by Kim Ok-kyun . [...]
December 4, 2007 – 6:33 pm
Albert Hakim was the banker involved in the Iran-Contra affair. Unlike most of the participants, he was found guilty (plea-bargained to a lesser offense) and fined. He soon disappeared from the public’s view and it was only after his death was it discovered that he was here in Korea operating and teaching at an English [...]
December 4, 2007 – 6:00 pm
The Marmot has graciously allowed me to post a long article about crime in the streets of Seoul during the 1890s. It is part of a project I am doing that, unfortunately, will only be published in Korean so I thought this would be a good place to make it available to those expats [...]
November 23, 2007 – 10:09 am
People come to teach in Korea for many reasons: some just enjoy teaching while others need something temporary to tide them over until they decide what they want to do with their lives. Others teach in order to finance their travels around Asia; some just like Korea, and others are trying to hide from their [...]
November 16, 2007 – 5:26 pm
Here is the second part of the Wreck of the German schooner, Chusan.
History has often depicted Korea’s shores as inhospitable to wrecked sailors, but, in fact, the Koreans often treated the sailors fairly well and generally returned them to China or Japan where they often met with misfortune. The recovery of the Chusan is an [...]
November 12, 2007 – 3:41 pm
Considering that the 1871 conflict between Korea and the United States has become such a popular posting here, I thought I would add my own.
The word Choson is said to mean “land of the morning calm,” but in the eyes of many Westerners, especially in the 1800s, Choson Korea was viewed as an almost mystical land [...]
November 5, 2007 – 5:46 pm
I realize it is a little too late for more monster tales, but an Italian news team has evidently discovered monsters dwelling in Paekdu-san’s lake. The video can be seen here.
Considering that many of China’s lakes are claimed to be inhabited by monster _____ (fill in the blank) it shouldn’t be surprising that Paekdu-san is [...]
October 31, 2007 – 10:09 pm
Once again it is time for my annual Halloween post. This year I decided to write about Korean ghosts and how they were sometimes used to influence society or to disguise transgressions against social norms.
We often read that we foreigners are maligned by the press and viewed in negative ways by the general Korean population. [...]
October 4, 2007 – 9:05 pm
Korea in the late 19th century was known in the West as a land of fabulous natural wealth — especially gold. Gold, said to fill every stream, was there for the taking by anyone willing to develop it, but surprisingly few Westerners were willing to take the chance. Potential investors prudently abandoned Korea and sought [...]
September 19, 2007 – 10:07 pm
For many of us, going to the dentist is a test of courage and sanity. The mere sound of the drill increases our heart rate to a dangerous level, and no amount of gas, Novocaine or hand holding will alleviate that fear, but imagine how it was in Korea a hundred years ago.
Dr. Horace Allen [...]
September 13, 2007 – 11:31 pm
”In the early 20th century, Korea had several Western mining communities spread mainly throughout the northern part of the peninsula. Although many of these mining communities were quite small — only a handful of Westerners and a couple hundred Korean, Chinese and Japanese workers — others were huge with several thousand employees. The largest was [...]
September 5, 2007 – 1:17 pm
“Historically, Korea has long been known as a land of great mineral wealth. Gold was, and still is, found scattered throughout the peninsula. But it is not only the wealth found on land that has attracted fortune hunters but also the fabled wealth that lies hidden in the seas. Over the past couple of years, [...]
August 24, 2007 – 2:30 pm
If you missed the fairly large anti-American Unification demonstration near Seoul’s city hall on August 15, 2007, I have included these pictures so that you can get a feel for what it was like.
This guy was one of the few leading the parade - he was part of the group armed with Ak-47’s and tormenting [...]
August 22, 2007 – 9:13 pm
“South Koreans are becoming increasingly frustrated over what they perceive as US intransigeance in not facilitating the release of 19 Korean hostages held by the Taliban in Afghanistan. For them, the US pledge of “not negotiating with terrorists” rings hollow. Richard P Lawless Jr, who is the new former US deputy under secretary of defense for [...]
August 22, 2007 – 3:38 pm
Once again another tummy-tempting scandal has been revealed in China. It appears that Mr. Wu, an unlicenced merchant, found a niche that no one else has thought of (or at least been caught doing): recycled chopsticks.
“A BEIJING factory recycled used chopsticks and sold up to 100,000 pairs a day without any form of disinfection…The owner, [...]
August 10, 2007 – 11:56 pm
Choe Sang-hun has done it again - another article about Korea that few people, even those who have lived here for a long time, are aware of. This time he has chosen to write about the Foreigners’ Cemetery at Yanghwajin. Of course, many of the readers of Marmot’s Hole are familiar with this issue through [...]
