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<div style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Dear Colleagues,</div><div style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br>
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<span style="margin:0px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black;background-color:transparent" lang="EN-US">I would like to announce to the academic community the publication of my book titled<i> New Goddesses on Mt. Paektu: Transformation, Myth and Gender in Korean Landscape</i>,
co-authored with Robert Winstanley-Chesters. The book is available for free at the following link:<span style="margin:0px"></span></span></p>
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<span style="margin:0px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black" lang="EN-US"><a href="https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.academia.edu%2F44542538%2FNew_Goddesses_on_Mt_Paektu_Transformation_Myth_and_Gender_in_Korean_Landscape&data=04%7C01%7C%7C590a9ac7f2574bdadac508d8af701ce9%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637452243795925464%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=oFCl7teyiomlSpUeEl%2BEkLuAucp1uWt0iKBWFdcwVTU%3D&reserved=0" style="margin:0px" target="_blank">https://www.academia.edu/44542538/New_Goddesses_on_Mt_Paektu_Transformation_Myth_and_Gender_in_Korean_Landscape</a></span></p><p style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);margin:0in;text-align:justify;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black" lang="EN-US"></span><span class="gmail-js-work-more-abstract-untruncated"><br></span></p><p style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);margin:0in;text-align:justify;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span class="gmail-js-work-more-abstract-untruncated" style="background-color:transparent">Mountain worship has
always been one of the central features of Korean cultural landscape.
While specific traditions of mountain culture have been utilized by
North Korea’s leadership for the purpose of promotion of the state
ideology, in South Korea mountain culture has acquired different forms.
We argue that contemporary South Korean <i>ki suryŏn</i> (氣 修練) practices for
perfection of mind and body constitute such manifestation of
mountain-related culture. The ancient tradition of mountain gods (山神,
<i>sanshin</i>) is a source from which the legendary figures of New Goddesses
on Mt. Paektu emerge. We study origination and development of
Paektu-related myths of South and North Korea, focusing on two
divinities. The first goddess is Ch’ŏnsŏnnyŏ (天仙女, the Woman of Heaven)
from the contemporary legend of GiCheon (氣天, <i>Kich’ŏn</i>), one of the <i>ki
suryŏn</i> training methods. Our second goddess is Kim Chŏng-suk, the first
wife of Kim Il-sŏng, founder of North Korea. In order to study
simultaneous processes of origination and development of Mt.
Paektu-related myths of South and North Korea, we consider sources from
different fields of knowledge, such as folklore, art, philosophy and
religion, politics, literary criticism, political science and
environmental science. We apply an interdisciplinary approach to two
seemingly incompatible processes of mythmaking of contemporary South and
North Korea. The two countries, divided geographically, politically,
economically, have for many centuries been one nation and one people,
one language and one culture. This commonality has not disappeared into
the depth of history, but comes to the cultural surface even in this
most difficult contemporary time.<br></span></p></div><div><br><span class="gmail-js-work-more-abstract-untruncated"></span></div><br><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">Sincerely,<div>Victoria Ten (Jeon Yeonhwa)<br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>