World History: June 2012

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Changdeok Palace

Saturday June 30

Today after only one lectured we ventured to one of the palaces of the imperial family. As we walked through the palace and garden grounds, I saw a direct parallel to China. During China's warring state period various leaders desperately tried to maintain power of an empire that was crumbling and plagued with political and social dissension. This year we studied the philosophical approaches taken by leaders that were attempts to maintain order. Confucianism- the desire to use reason, education and filial piety to govern your actions. Legalism- strict harsh punishment to discourage wrong doing. Taoism- retreat from problems specifically to natural settings and focus more on improving one's self internally. While the Chinese emperors used these approaches at different times and had varying levels of success, these philosophies managed to find their way to Korea and other East Asian countries. This is cultural diffusion. The palace today represents elements of both Confucianism and Taoism. Confucianism is clearly seen through the use of clean structured lines and layout design. The palace buildings are based on reason, thought and precision yet the gardens represent a retreat from the stresses of life. It contains a peaceful and completely serene atmosphere. In this garden, one could surly reflect and create inner peace as a way to discover solutions to problems. This brings us back to the idea of balance. It is an essential part of life. If you find yourself completely consumed with something and you've lost site of things important, you've lost your balance. Sometimes we can be consumed with things that seem really positive like homework, work and even friendships, but ask yourself these questions... Have I told and shown my my family that I love them? Have I spent time with friends that really needs me? Have I taken time to read a book or do something that makes me feel complete? If the answer is no, then find out where you are using your time. It might be that you need to retreat to a natural setting to regroup.This could mean somethings as simple as turing off the computer or not responding to text messages for an entire night. Remember though, it goes both ways... you can't stay isolated and alone in retreat mode for too long because that is just as destructive as allowing something to consume you. Take the time to be honest with yourself and you'll know how to maintain balance. Sometimes we just need a reminder. Thanks royal palace for reminding us about cultural diffusion and balance so we don't crumble and fall a part like China's warring period.

Today's adventures included an amazing traditional lunch, the palace, an amazing traditional dinner, a drumming lesson and traditional Korean theater performance. Side note, I was pulled up on stage to help complete the opening performance to the play. For more detailed information, see notes below.

Sanchon(Mountain Village) Restaurant The menu is inspired by vegetarian Buddhist temple cooking.

Changdeok Palace
Is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Seoul. It is located within a large park at has "Five Grand Palaces" built by the kings of the Joseon Dynasty. Changdeokgung, like the other Five Grand Palaces in Seoul, was heavily damaged during the Japanese occupation of Korea. Currently, only 30% of the Palace structures remains. Construction of Changdeok Palace began in 1405, and was completed in 1412. King Seonjo expanded the palace grounds by about 500,000 square meters. The Palace experienced a many types of destruction during foreign invasion. Korea's last Emperor, Sunjong lived here until his death in 1926. Currently it is now a popular historical site. The palace garden was a sight to see. They call it a secret garden because it was grounds just for the emperor and his selected guests.

Chong Dong Theater: Drumming Lesson & Traditional Korean Art Performance
Chongdong Theater in Seoul is a traditional arts performance theater and is a popular tourist attraction.

Today's Lecture: Past, Present and future in US Korean Alliance
A more formal Alliance started in 1953 during the Korean war. Prior to more this time there was more than 100 years of relationship starting with missionaries entering the country in the lat 1800s, after the Russo-Japanese war, also with the support of Korean students studying in the US. The division of the Korean peninsula began from 1945-1948.

The present situation has mixed review. The positive aspects is that the US has provided assistance to Korea during the 1950s-1960s to aide economic development and continue to maintain a mutual security agreement. Some negative issues include withdraw of US control over Korean forces, address the issue of crimes of American soldiers. Present questions continue: Why did the US send troops during the Korean War? Why has the US maintained its forces in South Korean even after the collapse of the Cold war? Why did Anti-American demonstrations happen after 1987. The anti-American sentiment came from perceptions of Korean's perceptions of unequal treaties, difference in opinion on Iraqi War.

Future projections about the relationship continue to be positive, but contingent on many factors. Some factors include: N. Korea- US relationship, rising US-China relationship, possible collapse of N. Korea.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Becoming an economic powerhouse- Seoul, Korea

Friday- June 29th, 2012

Today's lecture theme is based on understanding Korea's economy on a Macro level. Each lecturer began with 1945 (end of WWII) which was the point when Korea gained freedom from Japanese colonization and traced growth to 2012. It's very apparent that Korea has industrialized and grown at rapid rate. Historically by far Korea has achieved industrialization and leading nation status faster than other developed nations! I couldn't help but wonder how did they do this? Are Koreans smarter? harder workers? or is there something else? Of course the lecturers clearly outlined the complex macro goals and strategies that were utilized by policy makers. However, it seems to me that there is something else greater at work, perhaps collective norms and values have a greater influence than most people are suspect. The collective mentality of "us" rather than "me" and the emphasis on filial piety (respect and honor for family. understanding one's role in society) creates an environment that supports a unified vision for what is acceptable and good for one's self, family and society. It's this unified vision that keeps the people focused and as a result growth was seen and is maintained. Everyone knows that it is much easier when you're working together. Just like on any small or large project or goal when two or more are at work without a unified vision and goal, the project or goal is very difficult to accomplish. So what can we learn from the Korean's... understand respect, know your role in the home and outside the home. Most important work together and remember that with a collective norm set and vision success will occur!

After another long day at the Korea University (see condensed notes below for more lecture information), we set off to the National Museum. I absolutely loved the museum. Our tour guide was fabulous and gave such a upbeat presentation on 15 impressive artifacts. For more information on the museum check out the website

http://www.museum.go.kr/main/index/index001.jsp

Then after the museum a few of us ladies went in search of a highly recommended Korean restaurant- Tosokchon The menu is simple chicken ginseng soup or rotisserie chicken. We got the soup and it was just as good as the review and recommendations promised. The setting was very traditional and we got there and ate in perfect time because when we left, the line was beginning to form.

Daily Notes:
Lecture One: Korean Economy

Korean Key Milestones of Economic Development
1960s Light and labor intensive industry promotion (export) and import protection.
1970s Heavy and chemical industry promotion.
1980s Liberalization and privatization
1990s Globalization and deregulation
1997 Crisis and Reforms (regionalization)

Economic Development
How do resource poor countries industrialize? Develop labor intensive industries like textiles, increase productivity and export, import capital equipment, invest in infrastructure, expand exports and earn foreign exchange, import capital goods.
What are the sources of growth? Export oriented economic policy, savings policies, family planning, education policies, adequate accumulation of human capital (eduction), adequate accumulation of physical capital (domestic savings, foreign aid, foreign loans).
Economy grew rapidly over time!

Prospect
Currently the expectation is to maintain, but progress will be much slower than in the past.

Lecture Two: Korean Society: National Projects and Revolving Axes

National Projects

Economic Development- Capitalism (yes)
Political Democratization- Democracy (yes)
National Unification- Unified Korea (not yet)

Korea grew and developed to a great power in a very short period of time. In 2012 Korea joined the 20-50 club- countries with per capital income of exceeding $20,000 with 50 million population. Korea is now ranked 7th in this group. This demonstrates it's success and economic growth.

Multiple front of social change
population dynamics- 1960 - 6.2, 2010- 1.22 --drastic drop in fertility. What are the reasons behind this? increased longevity, aspiration of advancement for families.
education dynamics- increasing education demands for children and a majority of Korean students go to University. Pro- highly educated citizen base, Con- demand for lower level positions because most students are overqualified. Over 400 higher education institutions in South Korea.
religion dynamics- Religious affiliations has grown over time.

Lecture Three: South- North Korean Relations

How to deal with North Korea
There are many ways that nations are trying to get N. Korea to de-nuclearize. For example many nations including S. Korea have promised financial support.

II. How to deal with North Korean Nuclear Problem
Many nations are in agreement on how to deal with North Korea and are placing financial and human rights pressure on North Korean regime. Currently N. Korea is put under US Sanctions (can not buy luxury goods). North Korea has been successful in hiding nuclear weapons. As a result S. Korea is prepared for a war if the North attacked, but will not initiate because they are a peaceful country and will show honor to the armistice. A formal peace treaty was not signed only an armistice which is just an agreement to stop fighting.

III. Implications for ROK-US Alliance
The alliance started when the cold war began and has continued during the post cold war. However their are some challenges that include: Korean nationalism and anti-American sentiment, policy and perception over how to deal with North Korea, US uncertainties about traditional allies, and growing influence of China on the Korean peninsula. The vision of the alliance is maintaing status quo, creating a strategic partnership, alliance and security cooperation based on shared values, trust and desire for peace.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Korea University- Thursday July 28th

The academic portion of the trip begins today with a heavy all day schedule of learning about Korean Language, Traditional Arts and Culture. Our academic sessions are held at Korea University. This private university was established in 1905 and has enrollment around 35,000 students. The campus has a Hogwarts feel to it. The architecture reflects east coast building style with large granite buildings. It's beautiful with many tree lined paths.

After sitting through the very informative lectures from the day, something that really stood out was the symbolism of the Korean Flag. Both are rich in symbolism and provide food for thought.
The flag of South Korea has three parts: a white background; a red and blue taegeuk in the center; and four black trigrams, one in each corner of the flag. These trigrams are carried over from the eight trigrams (Pal Gwae), which are of Chinese origin.
The general design of the flag also derives from traditional use of the tricolor symbol (red, blue and yellow) by Koreans starting from the early era of Korean history. The white background symbolizes "cleanliness of the people". The Taegeuk represents the origin of all things in the universe; holding the two principles of yin and yang in perfect balance; the former being the negative aspect rendered in blue, and the latter as the positive aspect rendered in red. Together, they represent a continuous movement within infinity, the two merging as one. The four trigrams are based on the 5 elements. The components of the flag demonstrates that there are many forces at work at any given moment and one must be aware of them and understand how all parts are working together so peace can be created. Just like in life, there must be balance. You can't be focused on only one aspect of life and expect to feel happy. You must cultivate all parts of yourself and harmoniously life with others and it is then that you can feel at peace.

After our long sessions, a group of us went on an outing in search of food and local markets. We found some markets and crossed the street and found ourselves at a hip mall with western music, food and shopping. Below the photos if you are interested... are the notes from the sessions. The lectures were thought provoking on many levels.

Korean Language
About 80 million people speak Korean worldwide 91 % live on the Korean peninsula, 9 % live overseas (China, USA, Japan, Central Asia). Many scholars believe the language originated in northern Asia. Korea is not the same as Chinese or Japanese. However, some of the sentence structure is similar to Japanese.
Prior to the first written system, Koreans borrowed Chinese characters to write Korean. During King Sejong's (1397-1450) reign he invented Hangul (1443) which became the official writing system. This new system had only 28 letters that were easy to learn rather than the very complicated 3000 Chinese character writing system. This allowed the Korean people to express Korean emotions and it was easier for common people to learn and use. The book that King Sejong outlined his new writing system is called Hunminjeongeum. This book is considered a national treasure in addition to being registered and recognized as a UNESCO Memory of the World. Now Hangul consists of 40 letters (21 vowels, 19 consonants).

Korean Traditional Art

Like most early art, rock carvings and bronze were very important to early civilization. Rock carvings represent animal motifs (whales and deer). Scholars do not know the significance of these carvings, but it appears that animal motifs are the dominant art subjects during the earliest times in history. Bronze (1000 BCE) was used in ceremonies and rituals. Bronze then went on to be used in sculpture, farming, and weapons.

As time went on materials like bronze, wood, granite, clay, porcelain were used in enhance and create art.
1.Buddhism (emerged in India and then spread to East Asia, it became very popular immediately) was the most important subject of art. Korea acted like a transmitter because Buddhism spread from China to Japan through Korea.

2. Celadon pottery was also used in Buddhist practices i.e. tea ceremonies, pots. Therefore the art of creating the pottery transformed and advanced because of the importance of the subject matter. While other East Asian countries had Celadon pottery, Korea created innovative colors and designs.

During the period of Japanese invasions, the advanced techniques halted. All designs were very simple and did not reflect precision and creativity because the instability. Most of the pottery, kilns and art products were stolen or destroyed. After invasion and stability returned, Koreans returned to their attention to detail and elegance in fine art.

3.The trend of landscape painting emerged. It was viewed as philosophy because viewing paintings is activity where you can cultivate your mind. These ideas reflect Taoism/Daoism. The focus on retreating from instability and finding peace in the tranquility of nature. Artists used actual places in Korea as their subject.

Korean Culture
The lecture was based on the four most important categories to the people( Symbols, Language, Norms and Values)

Symbols- Two of the most important Korean symbols are the Buddhist swastika and Christian cross that show they are the two largest religions in the country. Christianity
emerged in 1884 and is the second largest religion in Korea. It has the greatest impact in Korea because Korea sends more missionaries abroad than most other countries. As of 2003, Korea had 12,000 missionaries in more than 160 countries, which is second to the United States. Another important symbol is the Rose of Sharon which is the national flower which represents immortality and endurance. Like the flower Korea is strong and has been able to maintain it's culture over time even during hard times. Some other symbols can be linked to Shamanism which is linked to good luck. Bujeok is one for good luck. people fold this into the size of business cards and keep in your wallet as protection from evil spirits. They also have messages on them about for bringing in good fortune, acing the exam, conception, marital harmony, getting a job, etc. You purchase these from fortune tellers.

Language
Koreans use the pronoun "our" rather than "mine." This demonstrates their focus on having a collective mindset. They have specific terms for family members and friends. Confucianist honorific terms is embedded into the Korean language as it has clear hierarchal structure. Terms to demonstrate older, younger, man, woman, superior and subordinate. Koreans call each other by their title because of the emphasis on structure and roll in society. In addition sexism/patriarchal terms are still used in Korea for example adding on reference to inside referring to wife and outside referring to husband.

Norms
These are the rules of conduct. Some of the easily seen norms are bowing to greet each other except with same aged friends. Honorific rules always apply still, you must bow to superiors first and subordinates bow to superiors. Using honorific terms in speaking to strangers especially older people and superiors. Use both hands to pass objects. Do not use red ink in writing a person's name. When drinking in a group, Koreans do not fill their own glass, they fill each others glasses. Turning sideways when drinking alcohol in front of an older person.

Values
Most important! A person's value leads is seen in personal conduct. It is the judgement about what is desirable, beautiful and good. These were some that our group established were American values: emphasis on money, equality, egalitarian, self reliance, independence, patriotism, pride, success, prestige, individualism, family, freedom, democracy, do it yourself, charity toward others. Emerging American values include emerging leisure, self fulfillment- being all you can be, personal development, physical fitness, youth fullness, concern for environment, romantic love, education
These were the top values of Koreans presented by our lecturer.
1.Success and prosperity
2. health and long life- smoke heavily, they try to eat and drink whatever it takes to be healthy.
3. Filial Piety
4. ancestor worship 2/3 of koreans practice, even Christians.
5. Emphasis on family
6. deference to elderly
7. emphasis on education
8. hard work
9. collectivism
10. hierarchy
11. social harmony
12. conformity
13. loyalty

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Seoul, Korea- The first day!

After a long 12 hour flight from LAX, I arrived at the Incheon airport where I met the rest of the fellowship teachers. We travelled by bus together to the capital, Seoul, where we checked into our hotel and went straight to sleep.

Fun facts on Seoul:
Located on the Han river, it is the largest city in South Korea with over 10 million inhabitants. 1/4 of the population lives in the metropolitan area. It's considered one of the top economic cities because of it's leading global companies: Samsung, LG, Hyundai- Kia. It hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics, 2002 Fifa World Cup, 2010 G20 Summit. It is a thriving modern city.

Now, after a good night's sleep it's time for the trip to begin.

Of course this modern city has a clean and efficient subway, so that was our first stop to pick up a subway card and start the journey. We went to what is considered "old town/downtown." This is where most government buildings, palaces, businesses, markets and shopping is located. The main street had a garden in the center and at the end of the street is the Royal Palace. As we approached the palace we saw a large statue of King Sejong the fourth king of the Choson kingdom. He was a visionary that structured his leadership on Neo-Confucianism values. His leadership improved society in many ways. One way was through his dedication to knowledge and communication with all people of society. He improved education, technology, bureaucracy and is seen as a cultural icon for Korean people. The Gwanghwamun Palace is the first major royal Korean palace. During Japanese occupation it was nearly destroyed, but has been renovated to its original structure and location. The colors used are royal colors and the architecture design reflects Neo-Confucian ideology with simple natural styles and a structured purpose.

After we went to the National Folk Museum. The outdoor exhibit included wood and stone tall pillar like objects that are placed at the entrance of a village. They are considered guardians of the village. Inhabitants bring food and offerings in exchange for protection and blessings for crops. We also saw a cemetery that is almost similar and is an example of ancestor veneration.

In the past, scholars, aristocrats lived in this area surrounding the palace, but now this location is a more of a boutique trendy restaurant and shopping location. We ate lunch in a cafe and continued to stroll through this very cute neighborhood called Bukchon.

Time to rest a bit before the opening formal dinner tonight. I decided to go for a quick jog. As I jogged across the Han river and up the river front, I saw beautiful views of the city. The city has a large buildings along the river, but the views of the hills behind those buildings is amazing. It's an excellent combination of a nature and cosmopolitan. I loved seeing all the families and people walking around this huge grassy area, keeping cool by soaking their feet in these small fountain structures. As I ran back across the bridge,I was excited to learn more about what the lies within the structures. More to come tomorrow. For some reason I can't load the pictures. I will include it tomorrow!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

End of the Year

Dear Students, I can't believe another year has come to an end. It seems like just yesterday that we were starting the year and eager about all the new things we would learn together. Now we have finished our goal for 2011-2012 and I am sad to see you go. I've had so much fun on this journey with you and am proud of each of you. You've all come a long way and I will never forget the memories we made this year. Sophomores, the end of the year Genocide project were outstanding! Your attention to detail, symbolism and capturing the mood of a monument was fantastic. Freshmen, your ancient civilization project have prepared you for the next journey AP. I will miss you all and look forward to seeing you on campus next year. Enjoy your summer! You deserve it!

Mrs. Jordan
p.s. Enjoy all the pictures.