Witnessing Gwangju
Witnessing Gwangju

Author: Paul Courtright

Publisher: Hollym

Published: 2020-05-01

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 156591497X

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As a young Peace Corps volunteer, working with leprosy patients in rural South Korea in 1980, Paul Courtright got caught in the middle of a brutal military suppression in Gwangju. Over a span of 13 days, he witnessed the unfolding Gwangju Uprising, during which he was trapped in the city, ringed by the military. The residents of the city rallied to create their own government and militia and Paul and his colleagues translated for a few foreign reporters and photographers who managed to get into Gwangju. Paul’s first attempt to get out, to get to Seoul and inform the US Embassy as to the true nature of events in Gwangju, failed. His second attempt, over the hills to his village and then to Seoul, was successful, but harrowing. This memoir is the first by a foreign witness to the Gwangju Uprising. It is both a clear-eyed record of the events and a reflection of Paul’s emotional journey as the uprising went through its various twists and turns.

Gwangju Uprising
Gwangju Uprising

Author: Hwang Sok-yong

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2022-11-15

Total Pages: 513

ISBN-13: 1788737164

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The essential account of the South Korean 1980 pro-democracy rebellion On May 18, 1980, student activists gathered in the South Korean city of Gwangju to protest the coup d’état and the martial law government of General Chun Doo-hwan. The security forces responded with unmitigated violence. Over the next ten days hundreds of students, activists, and citizens were arrested, tortured, and murdered. The events of the uprising shaped over a decade of resistance to the repressive South Korean regime and paved the way for the country’s democratization. This fresh translation by Slin Jung of a text compiled from eyewitness testimonies presents a gripping and comprehensive account of both the events of the uprising and the political situation that preceded and followed the violence of that period. Included is a preface by acclaimed Korean novelist Hwang Sok-yong. Gwangju Uprising is a vital resource for those interested in East Asian contemporary history and the global struggle for democracy.

Gwangju Uprising
Gwangju Uprising

Author: Hwang Sok-yong

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2022-05-17

Total Pages: 513

ISBN-13: 1788737148

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The essential account of the South Korean 1980 pro-democracy rebellion On May 18, 1980, student activists gathered in the South Korean city of Gwangju to protest the coup d’état and the martial law government of General Chun Doo-hwan. The security forces responded with unmitigated violence. Over the next ten days hundreds of students, activists, and citizens were arrested, tortured, and murdered. The events of the uprising shaped over a decade of resistance to the repressive South Korean regime and paved the way for the country’s democratization. This fresh translation by Slin Jung of a text compiled from eyewitness testimonies presents a gripping and comprehensive account of both the events of the uprising and the political situation that preceded and followed the violence of that period. Included is a preface by acclaimed Korean novelist Hwang Sok-yong. Gwangju Uprising is a vital resource for those interested in East Asian contemporary history and the global struggle for democracy.

South Korean Film
South Korean Film

Author: Hyon Joo Yoo

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2021-01-01

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 1501322583

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South Korean Film: Critical and Primary Sources is an essential three-volume reference collection representing three distinct phases in the development of South Korean national cinema, foregrounding how epochal characteristics inform the way in which the national cinema represents the penetrating thematic concern of auteur-ship, genre, spectatorship, gender, and nation, as well as the way in which these themes find expression in distinct visual styles and forms.

The Gwangju Uprising
The Gwangju Uprising

Author: Chŏng-un Ch'oe

Publisher: Homa & Sekey Books

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 1931907293

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This book explores the implications of the Gwangju Democratic Uprising, which took place in May 1980 when paratroopers brutally broke up a group of protesters who demonstrated against General Chun Doohwan's acceptance of the Korean presidency. People who lived in the Gwangju and South Jeolla provinces fought the paratroopers, insisting that martial law be abolished. During the event now known as the Gwangju Uprising, 191 people perished and 852 were wounded. Here, Choi Jung-woon explores the ramifications of this pivotal day in Korea's modern history on the country's society, economy and politics. Rather than give a traditional historical narrative of the event, he gives an indepth analysis of the participants' mentalities and incentives, and the type of the brutality involved in the uprising. He also examines the stages the participants went through during the uprising, from the calm and togetherness they felt before the event, to the uprising's turmoil and then a return to peace after the event. The author analyzes various discourses related to the uprising, looking into the ideological underpinnings of those who commented on the uprising. labor movements and political relationships in Korea.

The South Korean Film Renaissance
The South Korean Film Renaissance

Author: Jinhee Choi

Publisher: Wesleyan University Press

Published: 2011-07-21

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0819569860

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For the past decade, the Korean film industry has enjoyed a renaissance. With innovative storytelling and visceral effects, Korean films not only have been commercially viable in the domestic and regional markets but also have appealed to cinephiles everywhere on the international festival circuit. This book provides both an industrial and an aesthetic account of how the Korean film industry managed to turn an economic crisis—triggered in part by globalizing processes in the world film industry—into a fiscal and cultural boom. Jinhee Choi examines the ways in which Korean film production companies, backed by affluent corporations and venture capitalists, concocted a variety of winning production trends. Through close analyses of key films, Choi demonstrates how contemporary Korean cinema portrays issues immediate to its own Korean audiences while incorporating the transnational aesthetics of Hollywood and other national cinemas such as Hong Kong and Japan. Appendices include data on box office rankings, numbers of films produced and released, market shares, and film festival showings.

Museums and the Act of Witnessing
Museums and the Act of Witnessing

Author: Ross J. Wilson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-10-20

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 100046329X

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Museums and the Act of Witnessing examines how representations of traumatic histories and the legacies of the twentieth century in museums and heritage sites across the world shape political, social and cultural identities. Drawing on an interdisciplinary analysis of a variety of museum exhibitions around the globe, the book demonstrates how the narrative of ‘witnessing’ has shaped representation of war, genocide, repression and violence. Revealing that this form of presentation is inherently Western in its origins and nature, Wilson goes on to argue that witnessing the past is to colonise the future, as we project a certain view of the events of the past onto the present. Detailing the character, content and meanings of representation that focus on the traumatic events of the twentieth century, the book demonstrates the way in which visitors are cast as ‘witnesses’ and questions what the true purpose of witnessing really is. Museums and the Act of Witnessing draws attention to the fact that we have inherited a distinct, and often limited, mode of seeing the past and considers how we can more effectively engage with the past in the present. The book will be of interest to academics and students engaged in the study of museums, history, sociology, conflict, politics and memory.

Horror to the Extreme
Horror to the Extreme

Author: Jinhee Choi

Publisher: Hong Kong University Press

Published: 2009-06-01

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 9622099734

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This book compares production and consumption of Asian horror cinemas in different national contexts and their multidirectional dialogues with Hollywood and neighboring Asian cultures. Individual essays highlight common themes including technology, digital media, adolescent audience sensibilities, transnational co-productions, pan-Asian marketing techniques, and variations on good vs. evil evident in many Asian horror films. Contributors include Kevin Heffernan, Adam Knee, Chi-Yun Shin, Chika Kinoshita, Robert Cagle, Emilie Yeh Yueh-yu, Neda Ng Hei-tung, Hyun-suk Seo, Kyung Hyun Kim, and Robert Hyland.

California Dreaming
California Dreaming

Author: Christine Bacareza Balance

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2020-08-31

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0824872061

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California Dreaming is a multi-genre collection featuring works by Asian American artists based in California. Exploring the places of “Asian America” through the migration and circulation of the arts, this volume highlights creative processes and the flow of objects to understand the rendering of California’s imaginary. Here, “California” is interpreted as both a specific locale and an identity marker that moves, linking the state’s cultural imaginary, labor, and economy with Asia Pacific, the Americas, and the world. Together, the works in this collection shift previous models and studies of the “Golden State” as the embodiment of “frontier mentality” and the discourse of exceptionality to a translocal, regional, and archipelagic understanding of place and cultural production. The poems, visual essays, short stories, critical essays, interviews, artist statements, and performance text excerpts featured in this collection expand notions of where knowledge is produced, directing our attention to the particularity of California’s landscape and labor in the production of arts and culture. An interdisciplinary collection, California Dreaming foregrounds “sensing” and “imagining” place, vividly, as it hopes to inspire further creative responses to the notion of emplacement. In doing so, California Dreaming explores the possibilities imagined by and through Asian American arts and culture today, paving the way for what is yet to be.

Fate and Freedom in Korean Historical Films
Fate and Freedom in Korean Historical Films

Author: Kyung Moon Hwang

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-10-15

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 3031272684

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This open access book examines the depiction of Korean history in recent South Korean historical films. Released over the Hallyu (“Korean Wave”) period starting in the mid-1990s, these films have reflected, shaped, and extended the thriving public discourse over national history. In these works, the balance between fate and freedom—the negotiation between societal constraints and individual will, as well as cyclical and linear history—functions as a central theme, subtext, or plot device for illuminating a rich variety of historical events, figures, and issues. In sum, these highly accomplished films set in Korea’s past address universal concerns about the relationship between structure and agency, whether in collective identity or in individual lives. Written in an engaging and accessible style by an established historian, Fate and Freedom in Korean Historical Films offers a distinctive perspective on understanding and appreciating Korean history and culture.