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Opinion

Columnists

Registry of adoptions

I had a heartwarming experience on my recent trip to Korea. Met an old friend who I had never met before!

2019-05-03 16:45

1694 wedding gift

Once in a while a researcher finds a document that changes everything. Such was the case for a 1694 document where a mother-in-law gives a wedding present to her daughter-in-law.

2019-04-25 17:30

Ancestor ceremonies today

After writing about modern “jesa” - ancestor ceremonies in today's Korea - it occurs to me that many readers do not understand much about ancestor ceremonies, either today or yesterday. Korea readers will largely know from their own experiences, but the foreigner has probably only read about “ancestor worship” and has not attended a ceremony. Let's look at the ancestor ceremonies briefly today.

2019-04-08 17:34

Understanding ancestor ceremonies

On my recent trip to Korea I was privileged to be invited to the annual meeting of the Gwangsan Kim lineage association. I didn't realize at the outset that it was virtually a modern version of the ancestor ceremonies, without the ancestor ceremonies!

2019-03-29 17:49

Thousand-year border

Today, I want to return to an earlier theme that I like to write about - that of the stability of Korean history. The stability argument runs counter to the general perception of Korean history among the average Korean citizen these days. Of course, the 20th century was not very happy for Korea, with the Japanese takeover, division, war and unresolved division, but if one looks beyond the 20th century - both forward to the 21st century, and back into the 19th century and earlier, leaving the 20th century, the hallmark of Korean history and culture is stability.

2019-03-17 17:41

'Show me the money'

One of the primary cultural symbols of any country are the figures they put on their money. In most cases these figures are historic people. The United States has a law that only deceased people can appear on the money; by contrast a living Queen Elizabeth is on the currency of many countries in the commonwealth (like the Bahamas, where several years ago I visited and was surprised to see the Queen staring back at me when I looked at the new money in my hands).

2019-03-12 11:40

Traditional ancestor ceremonies

I've been writing about the 1688 inheritance document that was one of the first to espouse the disinheritance of daughters. I've written on that aspect of the document the last two weeks. There is more. The document said that daughters would only receive a one-third share of property (compared to the sons), and it also said that daughters would no longer be able to participate in the rotation of hosting the ancestor ceremonies.

2019-02-21 17:01

More on 1688 document

Recently I wrote about the 1688 inheritance document of the Buan Kim family that marked the beginning of the end for female inheritance rights and property ownership rights. In the document the family says “Our family is different from other families.” The document was written mostly in Chinese with some sections in “idu” - the modified Chinese character format that captured Korean grammatical particles with Chinese characters.

2019-02-12 17:39

'Our family is different from other families'

Some years ago, in my study of Korean history and culture, I came upon a document that was revealing on many levels. It was a 1688 will or inheritance document of the Buan Kim family. In the preamble to the document it states they are going to change their procedure of giving property to the next generation.

2019-01-21 17:16

Confucianization in family trees

Korea has known Confucianism for over 1,500 years. But Confucianism in Korea was not always the same kind of Confucianism. Social practices changed over time: initially Confucianism was adopted and adapted to fit Korean society of the Silla period (beginning roughly in the 4th century), but later, Confucianism conformed to the texts on ritual and social behavior and transformed into a totally orthodox - or as one of my readers likes to say - “fundamentalist” style of Confucianism.

2019-01-15 17:25

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