KoreaTimes - Blogs

Entertainment & Arts

Qatar 2022

SCMP
Asia

Entertainment & Arts

Qatar 2022

SCMP
Asia

Opinion

Blogs

Sun, November 27, 2022 | 01:41

Adventurous eating in Joseon

Adventurous eating in Joseon

When Sumner Vinton and his wife traveled to Japan and Korea in 1918, they found themselves under strict surveillance. The world was still at war and visitors were few. It was only natural that they were suspected of being German agents and were questioned unmercifully.

2021-10-03 08:41

Joseon's first encounter with a 'wheel'

Joseon's first encounter with a 'wheel'

The wheel has been described as one of the greatest inventions of humanity and has been around for millennia. Who invented the wheel and when are not known, but the first known encounter Koreans had with a Yankee-style bicycle “wheel” occurred in the winter of 1884-85.

2021-09-26 09:05

Horace Allen's arrival in Joseon

Horace Allen's arrival in Joseon

Horace N. Allen, an American missionary, arrived in Jemulpo on Sept. 20, 1884, at age 26, aboard the English steamship Nanzing. He had come to Korea - leaving his wife and infant son in Shanghai - in search of opportunity and adventure as a doctor.

2021-09-25 09:29

Hunting tigers in Manchuria in 1912

Hunting tigers in Manchuria in 1912

In March 1912, Sontag Hotel was the place to be in Seoul. Some described it as a place of political intrigue - backrooms haunted with shady characters plotting anarchy and unrest. Others, like Roy Chapman Andrews, saw it as a place to begin a great adventure. It was filled with gold miners from the Western-owned concessions in the northern part of the peninsula. In fact, acco...

2021-09-19 09:07

Hunting 'devilfish' in Korea in 1912

Hunting 'devilfish' in Korea in 1912

In February 1912, an American arrived at a small Japanese whaling station near Ulsan, Korea. He was 28 years old, a naturalist and an explorer, and possibly the inspiration for Indiana Jones; he was Roy Chapman Andrews.

2021-09-18 09:59

Joseon women and their manifest destiny (II)

Joseon women and their manifest destiny (II)

A frequent observation by Western visitors to Korea in the late 19th century was the constant sound of tapping coming from most houses in the middle of the night. This was the sound of women ironing their clothing. According to Isabella Bird Bishop, the only sound that broke the stillness of the night in Seoul was the “regular beat of the laundry sticks.”

2021-09-12 09:22

Joseon women and their manifest destiny (I)

Joseon women and their manifest destiny (I)

Joseon women and their manifest destiny (I)

When Isabella Bird Bishop, an intrepid British travel writer, visited Korea in the mid-1890s, she declared that Korean women were slaves to laundry and that it was to be their “manifest destiny” as long as their husbands wore white. According to George Gilmore - one of the first American English teachers here in the late 1880s - the “most wearing and incessant labor” for a Ko...

2021-09-11 09:14

Joseon women and their manifest destiny (II)

Police brutality in 19th-century Joseon (II)

Police brutality in 19th-century Joseon (II)

On Oct. 27, 1884, three policemen accused of badly beating a British citizen were put on trial in Incheon. This may have been the first mixed court in Korea involving a British citizen. Although he had insisted that he would attend, W.G. Aston, the British Consul-General, decided not to (possibly because the Korean governor was not presiding over the trial) and instead sent h...

2021-09-05 08:39

Police brutality in 19th-century Joseon (I)

Police brutality in 19th-century Joseon (I)

Police brutality in 19th-century Joseon (I)

In the summer of 1884, the streets of the fledgling port of Jemulpo (part of modern Incheon) were awash with violence. British Vice-Consul William Richard Carles reported that clashes between knife-wielding Japanese residents and Koreans were an “almost daily occurrence and on every occasion hundreds of Japanese have hurried to the spot ready to take the part of their country...

2021-09-04 09:29

Police brutality in 19th-century Joseon (II)

Charlotte Christine: shipwrecked on Ulleung Island in 1873

Charlotte Christine: shipwrecked on Ulleung Island in 1873

On Aug. 27, 1873, the Charlotte Christine, a German barque, departed Vladivostok bound for Chefoo (modern Yantai), China. We don't know much about the ship save that it was relatively small (286 tons) and apparently arrived in the Far East the previous year or so, mainly transporting goods, including cotton, along the Chinese coast.

2021-08-29 09:10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Top 10 Stories

1	PHOTOSWorld Cup 2022 Korea vs Uruguay

2	Crowd control measures keep fans safe during Korea's World Cup game

3	Baemin, Coupang Eats hit for 'inadequate' responses to soaring online orders

4	DPK lawmaker continues 'poverty porn' claim against first lady, sends people to Cambodia

5	Hyundai Motor seeks to recover legacy of Pony

6	Builders on edge over looming construction site shutdowns

7	Wemade stocks plunge to daily bottom on delisting of Wemix coin

8	DPK spokesperson faces growing pressure over false accusations

9	'Canada is predictable, stable partner for Korea,' says Canadian minister

10	Joseon-era calendrical book with details on Admiral Yi Sun-sin returned to Korea

DARKROOM