[KS] The June program of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch

[Brother Anthony]

The RAS Korea welcomes all scholars and students of Korean Studies, and everyone who wishes to learn more about Korea, to its activities.
Brother Anthony
President, RAS Korea

The program for June is as follows:

Lectures

In June the RAS will offer 3 lectures, always in Somerset Palace at 7:30pm :

Tuesday, June 11, Dr. Tatiana Gabroussenko (Korea University) will talk about “Y?ngye kunin and North Korean national identity.” This will introduce a quite unfamiliar topic from North Korean art, fiction and movies, involving the practice of proposing to an invalid “honourable veteran” and becoming his or her spouse-cum-nurse, often without ever seeing the future husband/wife before marriage.

Tuesday, June 19, Jaroslav Olsa jr., the Czech Ambassador, will introduce the life and work of Han H?ng-su: a multi-talented but forgotten Korean scholar, who spent many years in Europe in the 1930s, then returned to live and work in North Korea, where he disappeared without trace near the end of the war.

Tuesday, June 25, Professor Wayne Patterson will talk about “Christianity, American Missionaries, and Korean Immigration to the United States, 1903-1915.” He is a recognized expert on this topic, which marks the beginning of the Korean presence in North American society.

Videos of recent lectures, and full details of our programs, can be seen through the RAS Korea home page http://www.raskb.com/


Excursions

In June we plan to offer several shorter walking tours, since so many people have only limited free time:

June 6 (walking) Yeongsan-jae performance at Bongwon-sa temple (David Mason)
June 16 Walking in Incheon (Robert Fouser)
June 22 Walking in Jongmyo/Jongno 3-ga (Robert Fouser)
June 23 Naejang-San National Park (Sue Bae)
June 29 Sobaek-san (Sue Bae) 
June 30 (walking) Introducing Korea’s unique Gods and indigenous Faiths (Jun (Y.K.) Shin)

Guided Visit to the National Museum of Korea
Wednesday June 19, 7pm. Special Exhibition: Buddhist Guardian Deities of Late Joseon. Please email to the RASKB if you would like to join this visit.
There will be no visits in July and August.

Reading Group
Monday, June 3, 7pm. Lee Oyong “The General’s Beard”
in the library of Jong-no district office.
If you are interested in this group, please email to Patrick Bourgo pbourgo at gmail.com or join the Facebook Group.

A new book

“Eerie Tales of Old Korea, compiled by Brother Anthony of Taize” has just been published by Seoul Selection. One hundred years ago, the Founding Fathers of the RAS in Korea, Homer B. Hulbert and James S. Gale, translated various old Korean stories about ghosts, demons, fairies and other such creatures, and published them in volumes that are now very hard to find. Brother Anthony has chosen a few of these “ghost stories” that he finds especially entertaining and Seoul Selection have published them to mark the 150th anniversary of the births of Hulbert and Gale in 1863. They are highly recommended for summer (or winter) reading. The book can be ordered from the RAS office.

At last, the complete list of the books related to Korean Studies that the RAS have for many years had for sale is available in our home page, http://www.raskb.com/node/7 arranged according to subject-matter. From June 1 until June 20 there will be an Online RAS Birthday Book Sale with discounts of 10% (non-members) ? 20% (members) on the prices of all the books we have for sale, so long as stocks last.