Teaching East Asia: Korea Teaching East Asia: Korea | Page 272

T r a d i t i o n a l a n d C o n t e m p o r a r y K o r e a n P o p u l a r C u l t u r e
Asia in Focus
The Koreas
M ARY C ONNOR , E DITOR
ABC-CLIO, 2009
499 P AGES , ISBN 978-1-59884-160-2, H ARDCOVER
Reviewed by Todd Golding
A
nation torn asunder by Cold War animosity and ideologies is
again united, at least in book form, by chief author and editor,
Mary Connor. The latest release in a series on East Asia by pub-
lisher ABC-CLIO draws on the editor/author’s vast experience with
Korea and taps into the expertise of five other Korea specialist co-au-
thors. While these East Asian nations may unfortunately receive short
shrift in our K-12 social sciences classrooms, Connor presents an air-
tight case that the peninsula has attained a primary importance we can-
not ignore. The Koreas was written with teachers in mind (the editor is
herself a veteran educator), but its in-depth and timely material offers
business people, non-governmental organization (NGO) workers, mili-
tary personnel, and anybody who intends to travel here an informative
handbook for survival and success. The comprehensive, authoritative
survey of Korean history will attract post-secondary Asian history schol-
ars to consider this publication as a course textbook. Its scope, however,
extends well beyond the peninsula’s past. From the first pages, we are im-
mersed in everything Korean: politics, geography, food, music, language,
art, and belief systems. Additionally, we take in a timely briefing on what
could soon be one of the world’s ten leading economies.
Connor launches her ambitious volume with a detailed, yet engag-
ing and accessible, description of Korean geography and its several
thousand years’ traditions. Though later chapters progress to more cur-
rent issues, each contributor continues to braid topics of East Asian his-
tory with vibrant descriptions of contemporary culture. Educators
wishing to enrich their knowledge of this world region will appreciate
the way authors guide the reader through several millennia of East
Asian civilization. The accounts are enlightening and relevant to Korea’s
role in the twenty-first century. This country’s unique heritage and
deep-seated Confucian ethic are not mere curiosities of a bygone era,
rather, the co-contributors demonstrate how these elements exert a fun-
damental influence on the lives of today’s Korean population and, in
turn, the people who interact with Koreans.
The twentieth century saw the peninsula transformed into a par-
adox among the world’s countries—it is one nation but two states; it is
perhaps the world’s most linguistically, ethnically, and culturally ho-
mogeneous population, yet it is of late the most physically and tragically
divided. The North Korean conundrum is addressed in the history and
politics chapters where readers are afforded a wide-ranging account of
life in the world’s last Orwellian communist regime. Although the
North receives the brunt of today’s negative press, we observe how the
South, with its once byzantine political system, suffered its share of
human rights woes for decades following the 1950–53 Korean War.
Extensive data tables, a glossary, an index of curricular resources,
and a vast annotated bibliography make this collaborative effort the lat-
est, most relevant, and timely in-print resource on both the ROK and
the DPRK. Anyone who has traveled to either or both of these states
knows that both are rich in color. Though photos and illustrations are
printed in black and white, the contributors’ captivating descriptions of
the Korean people’s rich art, culinary, and other customs will no doubt
move readers to take every opportunity to experience this colorful cul-
ture firsthand.
Short of a college “Korea 101” course or substantial study tour in
country, this resource may be our best hope for comprehending a re-
gion that is increasingly catching world attention. Academics, Kore-
aphiles, travelers, and anybody with a stake in this part of Asia will
greatly appreciate Mary Connor’s contribution. Her book offers a sound
and thoroughly researched survey of Korea’s fascinating history and
vividly shares with us its enduring magnificence. That this one coun-