off to Sheffield

It doesn't feel like it's already more than two years since the last AKSE (Association of Korean Studies in Europe) conference in Frascati near Rome, but tomorrow I'm off to Sheffield, where there'll be almost four days of conferencing and shoulder-rubbing. Kotaji will be talking about 19th century economic history, and my topic is the hairdressing shop keepers and their husbands. Exiting, no? A snippet: According to Mrs Chông, her husband wasn't suited for working under others, so his company employment turned into driving a taxi when the young family moved to Seoul soon after the marriage. Her husband did not oppose her work at the time of their marriage. "My husband knew that I was a hairdresser when we were getting married. And the man has to be capable (nûngnyŏk) if he is going to be against it. Those who don't have nûngnyôk usually don't oppose because in that case also the woman has to earn. My husband is of a helping and cooperating sort. He cleans here in the morning." In an earlier occasion she had compared to herself to her husband saying that she had a lot of saenghwallyôk, that she earns money. "Mrs Hong" and her husband in her hairdressing shop talking about housing. (c) AL 2000 We'll see what the online accessibility in the city or in the conference facility is, but I guess there won't be much updating in the next week. (We'll stay over the weekend after the conference in York and come home on Monday night next week.) Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: academic ∙ anthropology ∙ Koreanstudies ∙ businesskeepers