KOREA FOCUS

"The Dawn of Modern Korea "
By Andrei Lankov, Eunhaeng Namu Publishing Co., 376 pages, 13,000 won

This is a book written in English. It was delivered to me about two weeks ago, but I did not even consider reading it at first. It was because of my prejudice that I had hardly seen English books about Korea worth reading. I, however, found myself absorbed into the book while putting a pile of books in order last weekend.

The book covers the last decades of the Joseon Dynasty, the Japanese colonial period and postwar modernization. It describes interesting episodes from the introduction of the first camera (1871), the first Korean studying abroad (1881), the first telephone (1882), the first newspaper (1883), and the first rickshaw (1884). Then it takes a decade by decade look at how Korean society has evolved: the 1940s when prostitution became illegal but red light districts remained in business; the 1950s when movies with kissing scenes were produced for the first time; the 1960s when secondary school entrance examinations were abolished; and the 1990s when foreign migrant workers started to arrive in Korea.

The author is Professor Andrei Lankov at Kookmin University. He was born in Russia, attained his degrees in Korean and Chinese history from Leningrad State University (currently St. Petersburg State University), and taught at the Australian National University.

The first and foremost virtue of the book is that it is interesting to read. No wonder. Most of historical information referred to here is from contemporary newspapers or popular magazines, rather than from solemn official records. For instance, it says when the first telephone was installed, King Gojong used it mostly to inquire whether everything was all right at the tomb of his wife, Queen Min; Korea's first modern bank took a donkey as security for its first loan; and drivers of the first streetcars in Seoul had to keep a nervous watch because homeless people found the rail track to be as comfortable as a pillow to lay their heads on.

Such stories made me leaf through the pages. I felt as if I were reading an English version of "Permit a Dance Hall to Open in Seoul," another fascinating book written by Kim Jin-song. Just as "Permit a Dance Hall to Open in Seoul" did, "The Dawn of Modern Korea" helps us realize who we are, how our current lifestyle, cityscape and frame of thought came into being. This is another important virtue of the book.

Above all, the biggest reason I introduce the book here is that an English book of such a level about the modern and contemporary history of Korea was published by a commercial publisher in Korea. Although written in English, the book can compete with any Korean book on similar subjects. Those who have not read English books for a long time or students who have just started reading English books may find the book easy because it discusses Korean history in relatively plain English. It surely is worth recommending to foreigners who do not speak Korean.