New Flickr sets

I have added three new photograph sets to my Flickr photostream, one being a collection of neighborhood grocery stores ("supermarkets") and the two others walks in Busan in late December 2006. 동네슈퍼 Neighborhood store Collection of pics of inside and outside of neighborhood grocery stores from 1998 to 2006. This photograph: 서울 신린2동, 1998년12월28일 • Sillim 2-dong, Seoul, Dec 28, 1998 • Set in detail • Set as slideshow 부산 산책 2006.12.29 Busan walk Walk in downtown Busan, beginning from the railway station, in Choryang-dong, Yeongju-dong and Bosu-dong. This photograph: 부산 영주동 • Yeongju-dong in Busan • Set in detail • Set as slideshow 부산 산책 2006.12.30 Busan Walk Walk in downtown Busan in Gondongeo Market, Nambumin-dong, Chojang-dong, Jagalchi Market, and Bosu-dong bookshop quarters. This photograph: man tries to sell ssiregi at a restaurant but is refused. • Set in detail • Set as slideshow Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: photography ∙ cities ∙ urbanspace ∙ marketplaces ∙ self-employment

Homepage of the Finnish Anthropological Society opened

The Finnish Anthropological Society, which has had its homepage housed for a long time under the auspices of the Dept of Social and Cultural Anthopology of the University of Helsinki, has finally its own homepage and domain at www.antropologinenseura.fi (here also in English). (There is a chance that I end up being the webmaster...) And there is also a chance that this blog wakes up from its dormancy. Let's see. Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: anthropology ∙ academic

spam of the week

Normally I don't bother to open spam mails (who does), but the recent phenomenon of Finnish-language spam messages intrigued me so much that I opened one that arrived today. The sender field is appropriately forged as helpdesk(a)helsinki.fi as to look like something from the U. of Helsinki, but unfortunately the level of Finnish in the text is unlikely to attract those who otherwise might err to send their passwords by mail. Hyvä Helsinki Internet Asiakas, Meidän tutkimuksessa roskapostin valitukset osoittaa, että Helsingin webmail-osoite on vaarantunut ja se oli käytetty lähettää spam-viestejä Helsinki webmail-järjestelmään. Käyttäjänimesi tulee poistaa, jos ei noudata tähän viestiin täyttämällä tämä lomake ja sen on lähetettävä takaisin meille. HELSINKI ASIAKASPALVELU LASKUTUS LOMAKE. Etunimi: Lähi Nimi: Sukunimi: E-mail osoite: Sähköposti salasana: Asuin Osoite: Kunnioittavasti, helsinki@consultant.com Finland has not been ignored by spammers and phishers but Finnish language has, until now. Those logging in at webmail.nfrance.com still have a long way to go from machine-translated or otherwise crappily-translated messages, but don't give up. At least kunnioittavasti ("respectfully") is correct. Or, perhaps, this is a spoof spam, fake spam, done by someone just for the heck of it. Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: technicalities

Tribute to Professor Roger Janelli at Folkore Forum

Professor Roger L. Janelli, scholar of folklore and anthropology of Korea, retired last year from Indiana University at Bloomington after 32 years. Folklore Forum, "a space for the free exchange of ideas on the cutting edge of folklore, folklife and ethnomusicology," honors Professor Janelli with a special online issue Folklore of East Asia (link to the archive page). I have been very fortunate to get to know Professor Janelli early in my scholarly career, and I have benefited from his friendly advice a lot, not to say about one particular reference for a scholarship. Here are choices from the articles with some links: Elizabeth A. Burbach. "From the Editor-in-Chief." Kyoim Yun. "From the Guest Editor." ARTICLES Adam Bronson. "Japanese Folklore Studies and History: Pre-War and Post-War Inflections." Patricia Ann Hardwick. "‘Neither Fish nor Fowl’: Constructing Peranakan Identity in Colonial and Post-Colonial Singapore." Hilary Finchum-Sung. "Performing the ‘Traditional’ in the South Korean Musical World." Mack Hagood. "Liminal States: Life as an Indie Musician on Taiwan." Sue-Je Lee Gage. "Conversation with Roger L. Janelli." Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: anthropology ∙ academic ∙ Koreanstudies

pieces of Finnish-North Korean diplomatic history

The undiplomatic endeavors of North Korean diplomats have been noted in these pages before, as in the more recent case of anti-inspectorial struggle of diplomatic pouch carriers in a Finnish train one year ago. (For later developments in the case, see here and here.) There were more severe cases in the 1970s and early 1980s, involving diplomats based here and resulting to expulsions, first for selling alcohol and drugs, and later for attempted bribery. Keijo Korhonen, a long-time official in the Foreign Ministry, professor in Political History and a short-time Foreign Minister, gives an account of the first case in his memoirs Sattumakorpraali (Accidental Lance Corporal) : The president gave me his personal support when as a fresh Minister of Foreign Affairs in October 1976 I had to expel the ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Korea and three of his diplomats. "Prompt expulsion" was [President] Kekkonen's order. I had one North Korean stay in Finland so that the Finnish diplomat in Pyongyang would not get in trouble. According to the police report, in their lack of money the North Koreans had been selling alcohol, morphine, heroin, and hash, which was not quite according to the letter and spirit of the Vienna Convention about diplomatic relationships. The embassy had bought 3300 bottles of vodka from Alko [the state retail] in 1976; in the garage they had a sales stock of 600-700 bottles of Russian vodka and 180,000 cigarettes. A shop manager and a radio shop owner had received alcohol for their services; a drug dealer electrician had gotten offers from them; car drivers and plumbers had been paid with alcohol. According to my suggestion, the Government made the affair public. It was so outrageous that not even the Soviet embassy had the nerve to rush to help the loyal member of the Socialist family of nations. (p. 91, translation AL) What is actually not so flattering for Finns in this case is that it shows how alcohol has been a passable medium of exchange. In a radio program aired sometime in the 1990s about the exploits of the North Koreans in the early stages of Finno-Korean diplomatic relationships it was mentioned how the North Koreans at first used money to pay for services, but as they became short of currency and understood the usability of alcohol, they increasingly resorted to it. In 1983, when the Finnish parliamentarian Johannes Virolainen was the chair of IPU (International Parliamentary Union), the DPRK amassador Ju Jae Han attempted to prevent the organizing of a IPU convention in Seoul by bringing him an envelope containing USD 5000. Virolainen took the money to the Foreign Ministry, and His Excellency was shown the way to the train station or airport, not sure which one. Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: DPRK ∙ Korea-Finland ∙ food/alcohol

노래방에서 in karaoke (noraebang)

박 사장님은 잘 놀고 남들도 즐겁게 할 줄 안다. 2001년9월15일. Mr Pak knows how to have fun and make others have it too. Sept 15, 2001.

Nan'gok rescanned

This late summer I've undertaken a rather big scanning project, supposedly taking place alongside writing a conference presentation, of my Korea photographs from 1999 and from my later visits. Among them are photos taken of Nan'gok, a hillside neighborhood in Sillim 7-dong, southern Seoul, which was leveled in 2003 to make room for an apartment block area. I have had the same photographs in display also before, but these are scanned from negatives and not from paper prints, so the picture quality is supposed to be much better. (Clicking the pictures below will open a 1024 pixel wide version of the photograph at Flickr.) • Some pieces of Flickr photo set 난곡 2000년 Nan'gok, Seoul in 2000. Photographed on March 24, 2000. In pictures above and below, the ongoing apartment house construction on the top of the hill in Sillim 10-dong is visible. Alternatively, see the pictures as a slideshow. • Nan'gok in September 2001: only some of the houses had been demolished, but most of the people had already left. Photographed on September 14, 2001. • The 2001 pictures as a slideshow • 난곡 2002 Nan'gok. Photographed on June 13, 2002. 이 슬라이드를 스캔하다 보니 아이들이 있더군. 2002년6월13일. Only after scannin this slide I saw the two children in it. June 13, 2002. 호남 상회. 같은 가게의 2000년의 사진도 참조. 2002년6월13일. Honam sanghoe. A disproportionally large part of the population in this kind of neighborhoods are from the southwestern Chôlla (Jeolla) province, known also as Honam, so such a name for a shop is no surprise. See the same shop in 2000. June 13, 2002. "살림이 있으니 6월20일전에는 아무도 들어가지 마세요." 2002년6월13일. "People live here, so please do not enter before June 20." June 13, 2002. 서신 쌀, 연탄. 2002년6월13일. Rice and coal briquet shop. June 13, 2002. 2002년 여름에 남아 있는 마지막 주민들은 세입자들이었다. 집주인이 아니라 세 들어서 살기 때문에 보상금이 많이 안 나왔기 때문에 갈 곳이 잘 없었다. "난곡세입자다모임"이라는 단체를 만들고 자기 권리를 찾으려고 애를 썼었지만 결국 그대로 떠날 수밖에 없었다.2002년6월13일. In the summer of 2002, there were only renting tenants left in the area. They were unhappy with the meager compensation they had been rewarded, as it was unsufficient to find decent accommodation elsewhere. This is the office of the association they had formed. June 13, 2002. 난곡세입자다모임의 최 대표. 카메라를 갖고 있는 나한테 사진을 부탁하였다. 2002년6월13일. The head of the renters' association, Mr Ch'oe (Choi). June 13, 2002. 세입자다모임의 사무실에서 점심식사. 2002년6월13일. Lunch in the office of the renters' association. June 13, 2002. 공가 철거 결사 반대. 난곡세입자다모임이 걸었던 현수막. 결사까지 반대했다고 했었지만 결국은 철거를 막지는 못 했다.2002년6월13일. "Resisting the demolition with our lives" says the banner raised by the Nan'gok renters' association. June 13, 2002. Nan'gok in December 2006: • all my Nan'gok pictures in Flickr (tag: 난곡) Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: Sillim/Gwanak ∙ neighborhood ∙ photography ∙ urbanspace ∙ stratification

Pop art meets Korean painting

Mirae kyônch'al No Bo-gap sônsaeng sang (未來警察勞保甲先生象) Hankyoreh presents a selection of paintings by Son Dong-hyeon, with contemporary popular culture motives done in traditional Korean style. Besides "Future policeman No Bo-gap" (see picture), there is for example Kwemul Kollûm sônsaeng sang and Uju chônsa Yoda sônsaeng sang among others. For more serious topics in the same vain, painting contemporary motives in traditional ink style, see Hwamado (火魔圖, fire devil picture) paintings by Jung Jae ho. The hwama (火魔) of the paintings are fighter planes. Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: art ∙ culturalhistory ∙ literature/movies

Jeong Ho-seung: Ulappa (정호승: 허허바다)

허허바다 - 정 호 승 찾아가보니 찾아온 곳 없네 돌아와보니 돌아온 곳 없네 다시 떠나가보니 떠나온 곳 없네 살아도 산 것이 없고 죽어도 죽은 것이 없네 해미가 깔린 새벽녘 태풍이 지나간 허허바다에 겨자씨 한 알 떠 있네 Ulappa - Jeong Ho-seung (Chông Ho-sûng) Menin käymään, muttei ollut missä käydä Palasin, muttei ollut minne palata Lähdin taas, muttei ollut mistä lähteä Eläessäkään ei ole elämää eikä kuoltuakaan kuolemaa Usvaisena aamuna myrskyn jälkeen ulapalla yksi sinapinsiemen This is a translation of Jeong Ho-Seung's Hôhôbada, inspired by Kevin's (the Bighominid) post about Jang Sa-ik's use of the poem as song lyrics. Once again, cannot but say that it looks better in Finnish than in English (see Kevin's post) just as my rendering of Kim Chi'ha's Road to Seoul, but I also have to admit that I don't have much English-language poetic sense... Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: literature/movies

neighborhoodly relations

[Expletive] don't leave [expletive ]your care here [expletive]. I pass this place every morning at 6.30. [...] Sillim-dong, April 21, 1999. (c) AL This photograph reminds me that despite all the talk I've been told about the good neighborhood life, the neighborly relations have points of strain as well. Update, August 16, 2007 Attentive commentors have paid attention to what what I had failed to notice, that actually the expletives had been added by another person to what had originally been a fairly neutral note asking not to park in that place. One line of the note is hidden below the windscreen wiper, but the last line seems to read musûn muryehan chisiyeyo ("what is this impolite act" or whatever). Or perhaps the same person who originally put up the note added the expletives later, when the note didn't produce a desired outcome? Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: neighborhood ∙ urbanspace ∙ Sillim/Gwanak

Conference: "Crossing National and Disciplinary Boundaries in Korean and Japanese Studies"

Seems like a very interesting conference on June 21 in Korea University (from the Korean Studies mailing list): "Crossing National and Disciplinary Boundaries in Korean and Japanese Studies" what: recent scholarship in Korean and Japanese Studies that transgress established boundaries in interesting ways. when: Thursday, June 21, 2007 where: Centennial Hall, Korea University sponsors: Asiatic Research Center Korea University and The National Research Council for Economics, Humanities, and Social Sciences conference organizer: Henry Em, Korea University *Program* (10:00 - 10:45) Opening Remarks: Choi Jang Jip, Director, Asea munje yon'guso Welcome: Han Sung-Joo, President, Korea University Keynote Address: Kim Uchang, Professor Emeritus, Korea University. "Crossing Boundaries: Dangers, Fears, Historical Truths" Session I: Imperial Ideology and Colonial Korea (10:45 - 12:30) chair: Henry Em, Associate Professor, Dept. of Korean History, Korea University presenters: Helen Lee, Assistant Professor, Dept. of African and Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Florida: "Dying as Daughter of the Empire" Jun Uchida, Assistant Professor, Dept. of History, Stanford University: "Between Fascism and Colonialism: Japan's Naisen Ittai Policy and Mass Mobilization in Wartime Korea" discussants: Roger Janelli, Professor Emeritus, Folklore and Ethnomusicology, East Asian Languages & Cultures, Indiana University Jung, Keun-Sik, Professor, Dept. of Sociology, Seoul National University Session II: Korean Narratives and the Hegemony of the West (14:00 - 16:30) chair: Kwon Heok-Tae, Department of Japanese Studies, Sungkonghoe University presenters: Henry Em, Associate Professor, Dept. of Korean History, Korea University: "Sovereignty and Modern Korean Historiography" Theodore Hughes, Assistant Professor, Dept. of East Asian Lang. & Cultures, Columbia University: "Death, Target, Virtuality: Cold War Memories of North Koreans and the Korean War" Youngju Ryu, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Asian Lang. & Cultures, University of Michigan (from July): "Refractory Fictions: Countering the "Novel" in Modern Korea" discussants: Han, Suk Jung, Professor, Dept. of Sociology, Dong-A University Cho Chulwon, Professor, Dept. of English Lang. & Literature, and Director, American Studies Institute, Seoul National University Jin-kyung Lee, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Literature, University of California San Diego Session III: Colonialism, Modernity, and Memory (16:15 - 18:30) chair: Roger Janelli, Professor Emeritus, Folklore and Ethnomusicology, East Asian Languages & Cultures, Indiana University presenters: Jun Yoo, Assistant Professor, Dept. of History, University of Hawaii: "The New Woman and the Politics of Gender in Colonial Korea" Alexis Dudden, Associate Professor, Dept. of History, and Director of the Program in Humanitarian Studies, University of Connecticut (from July): "Modern History. Old Islands." discussants: Jung, Tae-Hern, Professor, Dept. of Korean History, Korea University Kwon Heok-Tae, Department of Japanese Studies, Sungkonghoe University Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: academic ∙ Koreanstudies ∙ Koreanhistory

IASS Round table: La litterature coréenne

The 9th World Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies is held in Helsinki and Imatra on June 11-17. My office mate from the Dept of Religious Studies is involved in the arrangements - that's how I became aware of it, actually. Browsing the conference program (pdf), I found out something that must be taking place for the first time in this country: a session on Korean literature. The only problem is that it appears to be entirely in French, a language for which the two years of study decades ago in high school will not be of much help. 10.30–13.00 Round table: La litterature coréenne (Chair Chie-Sou Kim), U40 room 5 Kim, Chie-Sou: Mythe contemporain dans le roman de LEE Cheong-Jan Song, Ki-Jeong: La Communication entre les vivants et les morts - Etude sur L’Invité de WHANG Suk-Yong Choi, Yong-Ho: The Azaleas Liu, HyoSook: L’analyse de l’espace théatral à travers Le Cordon ombilical d’Oh Tae-Seok Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: academic ∙ literature/movies

Busan panoramas

Busan is a photogenic place - at least as far as using the panorama function of digital cameras is concerned - with its hills and the sea, and houses that are more colorful than in Seoul. Ever since I visited Korea during the latter half of last December and early January I've been thinking of putting up some of my gratuitious use of the aforementioned camera function. The small photos below are from Flickr, and the adjoining links to a larger file of the same picture stored at Imageshack. Busan (Dec 29, 2006) • Link to a large picture at Imageshack (2702x700, 890K) Busan downtown and Yeongdo (Dec 29, 2006) • Link to a large picture at Imageshack (2491x700, 890K) Busan fishing harbor (Dec 30, 2006) • Link to a large picture at Imageshack (4594x700, 911K) • Link to a large picture at Imageshack (2654x700, 836K) 부산 자갈치의 국밥집 A rice soup restaurant in Jagalchi, Busan; see also the blog header (Dec 30, 2006) • A large file at Imageshack (2025x700, 475K) Yeongdo, Busan (Dec 30, 2006) • Large file at Imageshack (3770X700, 774K) Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: photography ∙ cities ∙ urbanspace

Youtube says: you have nothing

Visited my Youtube account after a long time. A look at my profile was not too encouraging: You have nothing in your video log. User info continues: You have no favorites. Further: You have no subscribers. And finally: You have no Friends. What is one to do? Find some solace in Ain't Got No/I Got Life by Nina Simone in... Youtube. Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: music

paeksu paksa

So little to say after so much has been done (see the two previous posts), so I'll listen to Lee Sang-eun via Youtube instead. Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: music

defending

Defending my thesis on Friday, May 11. From the left, the opponent prof. Nancy Abelmann from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Custos or the officiator, prof. Jukka Siikala from the Dept. Social and Cultural Anthropology at the U. of Helsinki, and to the right the defendant giving his opening address, or Lectio Precursoria. (Click for a bigger pic to open in a new window.) They say it all went well, even though things look so different from the perspective of the defendant. Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: academic ∙ anthropology