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Korean surnames

Korean family names are unlike those of any other country. First, there are so few. Roughly 250, traditionally. In recent years there is a scattering of new names, mainly of immigrants, some from China and some from other countries. But traditionally, there were only around 250; compare this with Japan - over 10,000 surnames.

2019-06-11 18:10

Korean folktales as protest literature

Last time I wrote about the Heungbu-jeon - the story of Heungbu, also called the story of Heungbu and Nolbu. My point was that the story was written at a point when younger sons (like Heungbu) were being disinherited and the eldest son (like Nolbu) were taking control of all the property of the parents' generation. I presented my thesis that the story is really a form of protest literature, giving voice to the disenfranchised and pointing out that the newly emerging changes in inheritance practice were unfair to the sons who were not the eldest. This is one of the themes of my “frog outside ...

2019-05-26 17:24

Heungbu and Nolbu

All Koreans love the story of the two brothers, Heungbu and Nolbu. I'm going to tell the story today, but conclude with a twist that most people don't know when they tell the story. Let's start with the story (or you'll never get the “twist” that I will offer).

2019-05-20 16:40

Registry of adoptions

I had a heartwarming experience on my recent trip to Korea. Met an old friend who I had never met before!

2019-05-03 16:45

1694 wedding gift

Once in a while a researcher finds a document that changes everything. Such was the case for a 1694 document where a mother-in-law gives a wedding present to her daughter-in-law.

2019-04-25 17:30

Ancestor ceremonies today

After writing about modern “jesa” - ancestor ceremonies in today's Korea - it occurs to me that many readers do not understand much about ancestor ceremonies, either today or yesterday. Korea readers will largely know from their own experiences, but the foreigner has probably only read about “ancestor worship” and has not attended a ceremony. Let's look at the ancestor ceremonies briefly today.

2019-04-08 17:34

Understanding ancestor ceremonies

On my recent trip to Korea I was privileged to be invited to the annual meeting of the Gwangsan Kim lineage association. I didn't realize at the outset that it was virtually a modern version of the ancestor ceremonies, without the ancestor ceremonies!

2019-03-29 17:49

Thousand-year border

Today, I want to return to an earlier theme that I like to write about - that of the stability of Korean history. The stability argument runs counter to the general perception of Korean history among the average Korean citizen these days. Of course, the 20th century was not very happy for Korea, with the Japanese takeover, division, war and unresolved division, but if one looks beyond the 20th century - both forward to the 21st century, and back into the 19th century and earlier, leaving the 20th century, the hallmark of Korean history and culture is stability.

2019-03-17 17:41

'Show me the money'

One of the primary cultural symbols of any country are the figures they put on their money. In most cases these figures are historic people. The United States has a law that only deceased people can appear on the money; by contrast a living Queen Elizabeth is on the currency of many countries in the commonwealth (like the Bahamas, where several years ago I visited and was surprised to see the Queen staring back at me when I looked at the new money in my hands).

2019-03-12 11:40

Traditional ancestor ceremonies

I've been writing about the 1688 inheritance document that was one of the first to espouse the disinheritance of daughters. I've written on that aspect of the document the last two weeks. There is more. The document said that daughters would only receive a one-third share of property (compared to the sons), and it also said that daughters would no longer be able to participate in the rotation of hosting the ancestor ceremonies.

2019-02-21 17:01

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