뉴스레터

The NAHF-hosted panel session was held at AAS on March 29

Despite its long history of expansion to the Western academia, Korean studies is admittedly still less developed than Chinese studies or Japanese studies, with a smaller number of researchers and relatively shallow depth of research. To overcome these limitations, the NAHF has endeavored to introduce our latest research results to the Western academia and spark interest in related research since its foundation.

The NAHF's book booth at AAS

It is also in line with this purpose that the NAHF decided to participate in the AAS annual conference this year, with the King Gwanggaeto panel session team and the publication team to set up a booth to exhibit books published by the NAHF. They were also accompanied by the staff in charge of discussing with the Western academia for collaborative research and establishing networks with Western libraries.

The Gwanggaeto Stele is already well known to the Western academia because about 100 years have passed since its discovery and its inscriptions contain a description about Wa. But it has been receiving a new spotlight since the Jian Koguryo Stele (집안고구려비, 集安高句麗碑) was revealed last year. In particular, new research about related issues is led by NAHF Research Fellows and the Korean academia. In this respect, the NAHF's proposed topic ("Koguryo Stele Inscriptions as Historical Sources") was a timely one.

Things to Remember When Introducing Our Research to the Western Academia

The NAHF's panel session was scheduled in the first time slot on the morning of March 29, Saturday. We were worried that it was too early to see a large audience, but, as it turned out, more people than expected showed interest in the Koguryo Stele. The presentation dealt with the birth myth of Koguryo and the grave keeper as featured on the Gwanggaeto Stele inscriptions, the historical significance of the Gwanggaeto Stele, and Koguryo's writing system and culture. The presentation was on a level so easily understood by those who didn't major in the history of Koguryo or weren't knowledgable about Korean history that it seemed to effectively communicate the value of the Gwanggaeto Stele to the audience. The proof was the response from the audience asking various questions. Listening to the questions from the audience, I learned what we should remember when introducing our research to the Western academia. It is that we should think about how to describe the uniqueness of Korean history in order to make it sound convincing. For example, the birth myth of Koguryo in which the progenitor of the nation was hatched from an egg and went on to do marvelous things is a historical material that illustrates the uniqueness of Koguryo. At the same time, it is also linked to a number of tales of figures hatched from eggs spread across the Northeast Asian region. In another example, the description of a grave keeper who guards the royal tomb is a major part of the Gwanggaeto Stele inscriptions, but it is a common case in ancient China and Japan as well. If such inter-comparison and review is made in the background of East Asia, it will help draw the Western researchers's attention to the uniqueness of the inscriptions. Remembering that the Western academia knows and understands Chinese history or Japanese history better, we need an approach to choosing and presenting topics in such a way that features the uniqueness of Korean history within the universality of East Asian history.

But this still requires caution. There were a number of panel sessions on Korean history other than by NAHF Research Fellows. One of them was about Choi Chi-won, a Korean scholar from the late Silla period. It is without doubt that Choi Chi-won, who used to study in China (Tang), is a figure worthy of a topic of joint research for Korean, Chinese, and Japanese scholars. However, if too much emphasis is placed on his intellectual background of being a student in China, as I could see watching the presentation, it could cause misunderstanding of the East Asian world of the time. The Western academia still views the international relations of the time in terms of China and its surroundings, and I thought this should have been taken into consideration when presenting such a topic. I suggest we should consider this point, in addition to the approach to choosing topics as I explained earlier, before we present our research results to the Western academia in the future.

Need Plans to Introduce NAHF Activities

There was a panel session on "The Chosŏn Wangjo Sillok (Annals of the Chosŏn Dynasty)," which I found interesting in many ways. Organized by the National Institute of Korean History (NIKH), this panel gave a presentation associated with the NIKH's project, which is to translate the annals into English. This project naturally became known to the Western academia through this panel session. I thought that plans to introduce the NAHF's activities, in addition to Korean history, to the international academia such as AAS were also needed.

At AAS, as in annual history conferences held in Korea, there were various booths set up by publishers of books on Korean studies. In 2010, the NAHF joined them in setting up a booth for books of its own publication. We could see that the NAHF's booth was receiving more attention than before. Instead of simply passing by the NAHF's booth, visitors showed interest in the books on display. Furthermore, there was not a small number of visitors who read the contents of the English edition of the Northeast Asian History Network with interest.

In addition, the NAHF's initiative in writing The Cambridge Edition of Korean History and Medieval Korean History received more positive response than expected during the discussion. Professor John B. Duncan at UCLA and Professor Donald Baker at British Columbia University, leading researchers of Korean history in the Western academia, quite agreed that the English edition of Korean history was needed, and promised to lend full support. However, considering the small number of researchers of Korean history in the Western world, we can't expect to see any immediate results. The NAHF will have to start preparing a project proposal after due consideration. And I think that the discussion at AAS was significant because it was the first step in that direction.