A new global interest in Korean Studies

From Korean JoongAng Daily
July 11, 2011
By Kang Hye-ran [enational@joongang.co.kr]

Six scholars of Korean studies speak on July 7 in Seoul. From left, USC Prof. David Kang, Georgetown University Prof. Victor Cha, UCLA Prof. Robert Buswell, University of Bologna Prof. Antonio Fiori, Jawaharlal Nehru University Prof. Vyjayanti Raghavan and Shandong University Dean of Korean studies Niu Linjie. Provided by the Korea Foundation

Scholars from around the world who teach and study Korean said that Korean studies have grown substantially in other countries. The scholars were attending the 2011 Korea Foundation Assembly in Seoul, which was held earlier this month.

The event was hosted by the Korea Foundation, which promotes Korean studies around the world and is marking its 20th anniversary. Six of the 96 scholars who attended the assembly held a press conference while in Seoul to share how they become associated with Korea.

“When I told my mother that I am going to Korea to study, she asked for me to show her a map and tell her where Korea is. And even though it was 1978, Korea still had a strong war image,” said Vyjayanti Raghavan, Korean department professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. “Now, Nehru University has over 100 students who are majoring in Korean and four full-time professors, including myself.”

UCLA Professor Robert Buswell, who studied Buddhism and became interested in Korea, spent five years at Songgwang temple, North Jeolla, when he was 19. When he went back to the States, he continued his study. “Korea to me is like my home because I know a lot of monks in Korean Buddhist temples.”

“At the point when I was appointed as a professor at [UC] Berkeley and at UCLA, there was no such thing as a Korean major,” Buswell said. “However, a Korean major became one of the important fields in Asian Study in the U.S.,” he added.

The growth of Korean studies also has occurred in China. “At my university, 150 students who are in the Korean major are admitted every year and there are 28 professors,” said Niu Linjie, a Korean study dean at Shandong University, China, who graduated from Kim Hyong Jik University in North Korea, and finished his master’s and doctorate program at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul.

“I, having a father who defected from North Korea, got more interested in the tension on the Korean Peninsula,” said Professor David Kang of the University of Southern California, who has a Korean father and an American mother.Emphasizing that national security and economic growth in Korea are intriguing topics, Victor Cha, a second-generation Korean American who is a Georgetown University professor and chief of Asia research, attended a lecture by visiting Professor Han Seung-ju during his doctorate program at Colombia University and became interested in issues of East Asia and Korea. These professors agreed that the Korean Wave is having a great influence on Korean studies. “In the olden days, people studied Korea for jobs at Korean companies. However, one third of admitted students are now in the field because they like Korean popular culture,” said Professor Niu said.

According to the Korean Foundation, as of the end of 2010, the foundation has supported 987 fellows from 75 countries in field research in Korea as well as helping establish 100 Korean studies faculty positions at 69 universities in 12 countries. The assembly, which was held from July 6-9 and drew about 200 participants, centered on “new ways to approach Korean studies and understand Korea in a global context.”