Han Asia Times

Major Events   1. Hi Seoul Festival 2010   http://english.hiseoulfest. org/2010/src/hsf/ HSFIntroduction.asp     Teams and individuals from 13 countries, including France, Australia and Spain will present spectacular shows under the theme of “Non-verbal Performances.” There will be a firework event on the eve of the festival on October 1.   - Period : October 2 – October 10, 2010   - Venue : All over the city of Seoul (mainly around Han River areas)   - Theme : Non-verbal Performances   2. 2010 Bucheon World Intangible Cultural Heritage Expo   http://www.bucheonexpo.org/ index_eng.php     The Expo aims to provide its citizens with a variety of programs that are loaded with fun events that seamlessly blend traditional and modern art, as well as providing an educational juxtaposition of the Oriental and Western cultures. The programs include diverse traditional arts performances, exhibits of famous Korean and foreign a...

I love traditional Korean rice cakes (called “tteok”). Some people eat rice cakes in the morning as a grab-and-go breakfast while some others eat them to lose weight as a dietary food. These days, there are so many new kinds of rice cake, made from some unusual ingredients with new techniques. I’d say the most appealing thing about rice cake is its texture, its soft chewiness. And thus, one of the most baffling things about tteok is that they lose its signature chewiness so fast. You buy some nice chunks of tteok in the evening on your way home from work, and the next morning you find them gone all hard and dry. Hard and dry, that’s not rice cake anymore. I bet you all have this sad experience. And here is some good news for you! A new technique has been developed that can make tteok that preserves its chewiness for a long, long time. No more hardened rice cake Korea’s Rural Development Administration (RDA) developed a manufacture technique that prevents rice cake from going hard a...

The Public Procurement Service (PPS) is one of Korea’s central administrative bodies that provides public institutions with materials, facilities and services from supplying companies that they need. With the rapid spread of the Internet and Korea’s advanced level of Information Technology, the nation’s procurement system, also, is going online. Furthermore, a growing number of developing countries where issues of budget waste, lack of transparency and corruption are considerable are trying to import! and benchmark Korea’s online e-procurement system.   Procurement officials overseas visit Korea to learn Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) conducted a training program “Public Procurement System Establishment” for 18 participants from 8 countries including Uzbekistan, Egypt, Morocco, Ghana, Tunisia, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, and Uganda. From September 2 to 18, the participating officials took various courses on the strategy for establishing the e-Government and e-Pro...

The Korea Culture and Information Service (KOCIS) announced Monday (September 20) that an exchange performance will take place in late September to commemorate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and Nigeria. KOCIS is an organ of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The Abuja Arts Troupe from Nigeria will showcase a traditional dance, “A Giant in the Sun,” at KB Haneul Youth Theater of the National Theater of Korea (NTOK) this coming Tuesday, Sept. 28. In return, NTOK will perform a traditional Korean folk dance, “Hanmadang” at the Abuja Hilton Hotel in Nigeria on Wednesday (Sept. 29). Prior to the Nigerian performance, there will be a special reception to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Korea-Nigeria diplomatic relations at the outdoor stage of NTOK and KB Haneul Youth Theater, attended by top officials from both countries. Organized by the Nigerian government, the Abuja Arts troupe is one of the premier dance and performance groups in Africa. However,...

Bao Lun, a student from  China , speaks Korean as if it was her mother tongue, easily holding her own in a Korean conversation. She nurtured a dream of becoming a Korean language professor and majored in Korean language and literature at her university before coming to study at the graduate school of Yonsei University in  Seoul  in 2009. She wished to share her knowledge with the  growing  sector of Korean translators and prospective Korean company  employees  in China.  Now she is on the next step in obtaining her Ph.D. in Korean. Lun is part of a new wave of  foreign  students, numbering around 1,000, to hit Korea in order to obtain a doctorate in Korean.  One out of three students in graduate Korean language  programs  is a foreigner, an analysis of Seoul’s top universities shows. An increasing number of students, many of whom are Asian, are enrolling in the Yonsei University’s graduate course of Korean language and lit...

역사학자 이광수 교수, 설화 확대재생산 과정 추적 “‘인도 아유타국에서 온  공주 ’ 허왕후는 후대의 ‘역사만들기’에 의한 결과물일 뿐이다.” 인도  델리 대학에서 역사학을 공부한 이광수  부산외국어 대 교수는 최근 펴낸 <인도사에서 종교와 역사 만들기>(산지니)에서 문헌을 더듬어 설화의 확대재생산 과정을 분석해 이렇게 지적했다. 또 1970년대 한 아동문학가의 문학적 상상력에 일부 학자가 가세하고 일부 신문에 의해 부추겨지면서 국가 주의의 색채마저 띠고 있다고 비판했다. 8세기 혜공왕대 김유신 가문의 후예들이 편찬한 것으로 보이는 ‘개황력’ 또는 ‘개황록’을 시작으로 1076년(고려 문종조) < 가락 국기>, 1281년 일연의 <삼국유사> ‘가락국기’로 전승되면서 변모를 거듭한 허왕후 설화는 인도 아유타(아유디야)에서 배를 타고 온 공주가 수로왕과 결혼한다는 이야기. 이 교수는 이 설화가 다른  건국 설화와 달리 끊임없이 확대재생산된 점과 그 근원지가 신라중기 무열왕계, 김해주변의 사찰, 허씨·김씨 문중으로 특정할 수 있는 점에 주목했다. 남편  수로왕에 대한 현창은 금관소경 설치, 문무왕 때의 수로왕묘 제사 등과 함께 이뤄진 것으로 추정한다. 이 시기는 김유신, 문명왕후 등 가야계 후손들의 권력이 정점에 이르렀던 신라중대 이후. ‘개황록’은 일련의 현창작업 중 하나로 추정한다. 허왕후의 결혼모티브는 나말여초에 삽입된 것으로 본다. 수로왕과 부인 허씨를 지칭하는 ‘세조’, ‘왕후’가 그 무렵에 쓰인 점, 국가와 불교교단의 이해가 맞아 떨어진 불국토 관념이 널리 유포된 시기라는 것이다. 허왕후의 출신지라는 ‘아유타’는 나말여초 불학연구  분위기 에서 ‘인도’라는 의미로 삽입되었다고 본다. <경상도지리지>(1524)가 허왕후 출신지를 아유타와  무관 한 남천축국으로 기술하거나, <경상도속찬지리지>가 허왕후를 보주태후로 기록한 ...

A book that South Korea’s mission chief in Shanghai authored has become a bestseller in China. It is “English Vocabulary Workshop,” an English vocabulary build-up guide, which was published by consul-general Kim Jeong-kee, 50, last June.   According to China’s largest Internet bookstore, dangdang.com, Kim’s book is ranked ninth in the foreign language category, Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday. Kim was a famous English teacher in South Korea 20 years ago. Most South Korean college students at that time read his book to ramp up their English vocabulary.   Kim graduated from the State University of New York with honors. He worked for President Lee Myung-bak when Lee was a presidential candidate. Since June last year, he started his diplomatic mission in Shanghai. His book, a translation of the Korean edition, was a product of 3-year-translation work by Peking University professors.   In Korea, Kim’s book sold more than a million copy.   source:Korea T...

In a misguided attempt to help multiethnic families and their children and to bolster falling birthrates, the Korean government took another small but important step towards reverse ethnic discrimination both as a means to aid multiethnic children as well as encourage more multiethnic unions. According to reports, all "multicultural" children regardless of income will enjoy free daycare services from the government starting next year, the government announced Thursday. About 28,000 multicultural children are expected to benefit. Children between birth and age five will be eligible and under the program, parents will receive a state subsidy to enroll their multicultural child in daycare centers. Currently, only parents who earn less than 2.58 million won are eligible. Korea Times welcomes reverse discrimination While we personally find any form of legalized racial discrimination appalling, the  Korea Times  newspaper appeared to cheer the decision in an editorial that in...

There are certain first moments that are magical for mothers: The birth of their first child, when their child makes first eye-contact, their child’s first steps, and the first time their child says the word “mother.”  For Tsagaan Ankhtuya from Mongolia, that last magical moment took four years. “I forced myself to speak Korean to my son for the first three years of his life,” said Ankhtuya, who left her home country to marry a Korean taxi driver eight years ago. “People told me if I spoke Mongolian to my child, he would fail to speak any languages at all so I at least wanted him to speak Korean properly.” Ankhtuya realized what she had been told was totally wrong when she first visited a multicultural library called Modoo, meaning “all-together,” in Imun-dong, Seoul. Unlike many other Korean-immersion multicultural institutions, the library staff encouraged her to speak her own language to her child. It is still emotional for Ankhtuya to recall the moment when her son first called...