My favorite new blog Photoshop Disasters has a Korean Basic Instinct 2 poster in which Sharon Stone’s head has been altered from the US version: Cosmo7 cites the fact that the hair is wet, which is the photoshop ‘tell’ but can’t explain why they would do that. I suspect that the wet hair is a side-effect of needing a head shot that was oriented differently, that they wanted to shift Stone’s gaze away from the viewer, make her less …. well, here’s where my complete lack of exposure to Korean media becomes a liability. Either they want her to be less aggressive (which doesn’t entirely make sense, given the movie) or more aloof.
Dr. Virago and Dr. Crazy (Dr. Crazy’s analogy to Star Trek/Lost In Space/Heroes is worth the price of admission) among others, are having an interesting discussion about how scholars achieve “visibility” and “impact” both within their subfields and in the discipline. Their discussion doesn’t directly touch Asian Studies, but it does have some thought-provoking ideas for both young and feeling-marginalized scholars.
I just got my current Journal of Japanese Studies in the mail, and two of the three articles are about Korea: one about the development of the Korean Civil Code under Japanese protectorate and the other about middle-class Koreans in 1930s Japan. The latter is by an old grad school friend, Jeff Bayliss, who’s teaching a course combining Korean and Japanese history which is exactly the kind of thing I’ve been thinking about for a long time. I’m a little jealous, yes, but mostly I’m thrilled to see the crossover scholarship being taken seriously.
The relative low number of postings here on the Korean blog is mostly due to negligent contributors such as myself. I have a few postings in the offing but don’t seem to find the time to get them online. I assure you, Korean history is more than interesting enough to write about!
“Korean and Japanese history which is exactly the kind of thing I’ve been thinking about for a long time. I’m a little jealous, yes, but mostly I’m thrilled to see the crossover scholarship being taken seriously. ”
Why are Koreaphiles so interested on trying to claim all things Japanese as “really Korean”?
Actually, I’m a Japan scholar — neither a Japanophile nor Japanophobe — by training who’s come to believe that Korea and Japan are better understood in relation to each other than independently. Part of that is realizing that there’s a long history in Japan of borrowing from (or stealing from) Korea which undermines some of Japan’s claims to cultural uniqueness, originality and independence, a history which is unacknowledged or deliberately obscured by Japanese.
A lot if not of the stuff on this blog is about China and Japan. I guess Korea is not interesting or original enough to have much scholarly work on.
The relative low number of postings here on the Korean blog is mostly due to negligent contributors such as myself. I have a few postings in the offing but don’t seem to find the time to get them online. I assure you, Korean history is more than interesting enough to write about!
“Korean and Japanese history which is exactly the kind of thing I’ve been thinking about for a long time. I’m a little jealous, yes, but mostly I’m thrilled to see the crossover scholarship being taken seriously. ”
Why are Koreaphiles so interested on trying to claim all things Japanese as “really Korean”?
I hope you can answer this.
Actually, I’m a Japan scholar — neither a Japanophile nor Japanophobe — by training who’s come to believe that Korea and Japan are better understood in relation to each other than independently. Part of that is realizing that there’s a long history in Japan of borrowing from (or stealing from) Korea which undermines some of Japan’s claims to cultural uniqueness, originality and independence, a history which is unacknowledged or deliberately obscured by Japanese.