Land of the Morning Calm: the Western View of Korea, 1741-1960

October 3 - November 8 2000

The Peter Maeng Collection on Korea features books on Korea by westerners or Koreans with a western education from 1741 to 1960. The earliest book in the collection is the four volume work of Jean-Baptiste du Halde, General History of China Containing a Geographical, Historical, Chronological, Political and Physical Description of the Empire of China, Chineses-Tartary, Corea and Thibet, published in the 3rd edition by J. Watts in 1741. This is a collection of published and unpublished accounts by Jesuit missionaries. The Jesuits were the first westerners to visit Korea.

The collection is strongest in 19th and early 20th century publications. American interest in Korea emerged in the 19th century and was largely developed by Protestant missionaries who arrived in the 1880s. Missionaries wrote some of the earliest studies of Korea such as Homer B. Hulbert's History of Korea in 1905. Japanese interests in Korea were recorded with favor by some westerners such as Arthur Diosy in The New Far East (1899) for their modernizing, or deplored for their methods as the assassination of Queen Min described by the Canadian journalist F.A. McKenzie in Tragedy of Korea (1908).

Many Korean writers in the 1930s and 1940s expressed their nationalism in English. Younghill Kang recalls his early life under the Japanese in The Grass Roof (1932) and The Happy Grove (1933). Syngman Rhee warned the United States of Japanese militaristic intentions in Japan Inside Out (1941). After the defeat of the Japanese in 1945, Korea was contested by communist and democratic forces eventually leading to armed conflict between the Koreans supported by China in the north and the United States in the south. D.M. Giangreco wrote about the conflict in War in Korea, 1950-1953 (1990) and Corporal Ted Dickinson and Sergeant Dave McNichol captured the image of the country during this time in Korea Illustrated (1952). In all some sixty books covering these three centuries from Mr. Maeng's large collection were displayed in the exhibition.

Exhibition and Lecture series organized by Jina Choi Wakimoto. Exhibition curated by Tony Gardner, Curator, Special Collections.

Lecture Series held during Korea Month in the Library

Oct. 3, 2000: Opening Reception

Introduction of Peter Maeng
Lecture "The Turn of the 20th Century: Korea's Discovery of the West"
by Prof. Kyung Moon Hwang, Assistant Professor, Dept. of History at USC

Oct. 12, 2000: Viewing of videos on the printing history of Korea (from the collection of Korean Cultural Center)

Lecture "Early Printing in Korea."
by Prof. Juliann Wolfgram, Assistant Professor of Art at CSUN, specializing in Asian Art History

Oct. 19, 2000: Viewing of short Korean War documentary (newsreel)

Lecture "The Korea Summit and Beyond"
by Prof. Gi-Wook Shin, Associate Professor of Sociology and Korean Studies at UCLA.

Oct. 26, 2000: "A Mormon Missionary's Encounter with Korea (1988-1990)"

Travelogue/slide presentation by Rick McBride, the Cultural Consultant for the Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles.

Photos

• Photos from the Exhibition
• Photos from the Opening Reception

This page is based on a page created 12-15-2000 by Jina Choi Wakimoto, with permission from Peter Maeng.