[KS] Jin Hee Kim /Korean Research Foundation

[Frank Hoffmann]

>>Probably the other materials that I would like to get will be about the
>>sources of Korean immigrants to European countries at that time.
>>Can anybody point me out where I need to go to find, and whom I need to
>>contact?


A few unpopular remarks -- but first a tip:

For GERMANY you may want to contact Alexander Kneider (who resides in 
Korea) -- visit his Web page "Germans in Korea prior to 1910" at: 
http://maincc.hufs.ac.kr/~kneider/  -- and Professor Ingeborg Göthel 
(now retired, formerly at Humboldt University in Berlin). For THE 
NETHERLANDS most obviously Henny Savenije 
(http://www.henny-savenije.demon.nl), who also lives in Korea, could 
be of some help -- and of course Professor Boudewijn Walraven at 
Leiden University (walraven at letmail.let.leidenuniv.nl).

As far as I know, other than in the French case, there were no 
missionary activities in Korea before the 1920s by German orders. BUT 
there is a great number of publications in different German language 
missionary journals from the late 19th century to the end of the 
colonial period. Only part of it appears in bibliographies.

The city of Berlin offers an unbelievable wealth of published and 
unpublished materials on Korea. Many buildings were destroyed in 
World War II, but many of the archives survived nonetheless. Even 
during a short visit (already a decade ago) I "discovered" a wealth 
of materials in both city and private archives (in the western part 
of the city) about some Koreans I was interested in at the time. 
Berlin is a real treasure box, and I am sure Paris and London are as 
well. However, in spite of all the nice funding from the Korean 
Research Foundation it will be very hard for you to succeed: there 
are many different places, many different archives -- apart from the 
Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, the libraries, the museum 
archives, private archives, etc.  I wonder if the Korean Research 
Foundation (or you) would not do MUCH better to hire some German, 
French, British students in Korean studies to do this as a summer 
job. I cannot speak for Paris and London, but at least in the German 
case I can assure you that someone interested in the subject who 
actually knows his city and its institutions, and who has all the 
connections or is able to quickly make the connections, speaks the 
language etc., is very likely to be much more successful in such a 
search. The Korean Research Foundation would do itself a double 
favour: it would most likely have sponsored a very successful 
project, and it would help Korean studies students in Europe. 
Besides, the entire project would be cheaper (no hotel costs, no air 
tickets, etc.).

Just my opinion.

Much success!

Frank


-- 
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Frank Hoffmann * 4903 Manitoba Dr.#202 * Alexandria, VA 22312 * USA
E-MAIL: hoffmann at fas.harvard.edu  *  Fax: (520) 438-4890
W W W : http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hoffmann/


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