Literature
Adoptees and the Politics of Belonging
Thursday, July 12, 2012 | 6:30 PM
Since the end of the Korean War, an estimated 200,000 children from South Korea have been adopted into families in North America, Europe, and Australia. While these transnational adoptions were initiated as an emergency measure to find homes for mixed-race children born in the aftermath of the war, the practice grew exponentially from the 1960s through the 1980s. At the height of South Korea’s “economic miracle,” adoption became an institutionalized…
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Knowing North Korea Book Event: Only Beautiful, Please: A British Diplomat in North Korea
Tuesday, June 19, 2012 | 6:00 PM
What is it like to serve as one’s national representative in North Korea? How is one received, from leaders to ordinary North Koreans? How does one deal with the political fallout of a nuclear test soon after one’s arrival? How free is a foreign emissary to travel and see the “real” North Korea and its residents? The Korea Society welcomes as part of its ongoing Knowing North Korea series the…
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Book Cafe: Hearts of Pine
Thursday, May 3, 2012 | 6:30 PM
In the wake of the Asia-Pacific War, Korean survivors of the "comfort women" system—those bound into sexual slavery for the Japanese military—lived under great pressure not to speak about what had happened to them. Joshua Pilzer’s Hearts of Pine provides a window into the lives of three such survivors: Pak Duri, Mun Pilgi, and Bae Chunhui. Over the course of ten years, the author worked with these elderly women: smoking…
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Book Cafe: Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
Thursday, April 12, 2012 | 6:30 PM
Author and journalist Blaine Harden speaks about his remarkable and harrowing account of refugee Shin Dong-hyuk’s birth into and eventual escape from the North Korean gulag. A monumental and moving book, Harden reveals the hardships of prison life and provides a lasting testimony to the endurance of the human spirit. This literary event features a special display of refugee artwork. Book Cafe: Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey…
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Book Cafe: Reassessing the Park Chung Hee Era, 1961-1979
Thursday, February 16, 2012 | 6:30 PM
University of Washington Korean Studies Director Clark W. Sorensen discusses Reassessing the Park Chung Hee Era, 1961-1979, his and Professor Hyung-a Kim's edited volume on development, political thought, democracy, and the cultural influence of the Park era. An important addition to work on this critical period, especially in light of the upcoming national election in Korea, this highly readable volume draws perspectives from across the political spectrum. Professor Sorensen will…
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Banker to the World
Thursday, July 21, 2011 | 12:00 PM
William Rhodes, retired senior advisor at Citigroup and board member of The Korea Society, will discuss his newly released Banker to the World on July 21 at noon. Ambassador Thomas Hubbard, chairman of The Korea Society, will moderate the discussion as Rhodes reflects on decades of experience in international finance, especially the lessons learned in Korea during the financial crisis of the late 1990s. On July 19, Bill Rhodes will…
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The Martyred Re-Released
Thursday, June 23, 2011 | 6:30 PM
In marking the sixtieth anniversary of the Korean War, The Korea Society salutes the late Richard Kim, as Penguin Classics re-releases his National Book Award-nominated The Martyred. Kim's first novel is a critically acclaimed bestseller about the Korean War, and was later made into a play, opera, and film. Book Cafe: The Martyred Re-Released Thursday, June 23 with Susan Choi AuthorA Person of Interest, American Woman
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Book Café: The Women Divers of Jeju Island
Thursday, June 2, 2011 | 6:30 PM
Award-winning author, editor and photojournalist Brenda Paik Sunoo presents images from Moon Tides: Jeju Island Grannies and the Sea. Jeju Island’s sea women, or haenyeo, scour the sea floor as their maternal ancestors did, harvesting seaweed, octopus, sea urchins, turban shells, and abalone. Driven by economics, these women divers plunge more than 20 meters underwater, hold their breath for over two minutes, and labor well into their 80s. Their numbers…
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The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea
Thursday, May 26, 2011 | 6:30 PM
Harvard University Professor Ezra Vogel visits The Korea Society to discuss the monumental new political history he co-edited, The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea. South Korea was mired in poverty in 1959, yet by 1979 was gaining significant economic influence both regionally and globally. Park is credited with modernizing South Korea, but at a huge political and social cost. The state was predatory yet technocratic, reform-minded,…
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My Korean Deli
Thursday, May 12, 2011 | 6:30 PM
Ben Ryder Howe, formerly of The Paris Review and a contributor to The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, and Outside, discusses his recently published memoir, My Korean Deli. Howe describes the trials and triumphs of his Korean-born wife’s decision to repay her parents' self-sacrifice by buying them a store. My Korean Deli follows the store's tumultuous life, and paints the portrait of an extremely unlikely partnership among characters from Brooklyn, Seoul,…
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