Cartoons and Education in Korea

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The question on our minds is: what is unique about Korean education? Well Barack Obama spoke of Korean education several times in his 2011 State of the Union Address, but I did not have the impression that he had any concrete sense of what is unique about Korean education.

If you ask many Koreans, they will tell you that Korean education is a mess and many wish they could send their kids to the United States to escape from the land of forced memorization. But this story also doesn’t seem quite right. I meet many extremely well educated and thoughtful

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“Establishing a Korean Tradition of Democracy to Inspire” (한국어)

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“Establishing a Korean Tradition of Democracy to Inspire”

An essay arguing that Korea’s democratic tradition must be traced back over the last thousand years to properly have the depth necessary to inspire the world. We have mistakenly assumed that the Korean democratic tradition is a product of the 1980s, thus unnecessarily limiting its possible impact.

Emanuel Pastreich (이만열)

아시아인스티튜트 

2012년 1월 15일

 

“전통의 재발견과 한국식 민주주의”

민주주의 발전이라는 주제를 갖고 아시아 각국을 바라보면 긍정적인 변화와 더불어 부정적인 변화도 동시에 나타나고 있음을 알 수 있다. 선거를 통해 최고 권력자를 선출하는 나라가 많아지는 현상은 긍정적이지만 정치에 깊은 관심을 잦고 참여 하는 시민들은 오히려 줄고 있다. 그 결과 2년에 한 번 정도 정치인을 상품으로 생각하고 선택하는 형식적 민주주의에서 그친다면 시민들이 정치에 대해 실질적인 영향을 미치지 못하고 의식이 있는 사람들이 정치를 하지 않는 악순환이 조성된다. 이런 현상은 현대 아시아에서, 그리고 전 세계적으로 나타나고 있고 민주주의 위기가 임박했다는 진단을 내릴 수도 있다.

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“Korea’s Unique Tradition of ‘Propriety Studies’ as a Treasure in a Network Society” (한국어)

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“Korea’s Unique Tradition of ‘Propriety Studies’ as a Treasure in a Network Society”

 

An essay advocating in Korean for the value of Korea’s tradition of propriety studies as an inspiration in our efforts to formulate new strategies for responding to the challenges of a network society.

 

Emanuel Pastreich (이만열)

아시아인스티튜트

 

2012년 1월 14일

 

 “한국의 독특한 예학 전통: 네트워크 시대를 위해 신이 하사한 선물”

 

하버드대 에서 한국 고전 문학을 공부 했을때 조선시대 의 문학가들, 김만중, 박지원, 정약용의 글을 좀 읽어봤엉요. 그글안에서 “禮學”이라는 학문 에 대 한 언급이 참 많았어요. 중국에 있는 禮 에 대 한 연구 와 같 같은 인 데 중국에도 없었던 포괄적인 학문 까지 발전 했나봐요. 단지 冠婚葬祭의 사례 모이는 것 보다 전사회질서를 평화로운 수단으로 유지 하는 헌법에 가까운 성격의 제도 있었다는 느낌이 들었어요. 그리고 고대 에 대 한 사례가 예학 연구에 많이 나오지만 왠지 매우 현대적인 인간 인간 사이를 관리 하는 방긱으로 보이고 매우 신선 했어요.

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Asia Institute Seminar with Noam Chomsky (December 3, 2011)

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December 3, 2011
Emanuel Pastreich with Professor Noam Chomsky

Asia Institute Seminar

The Asia Institute with GPYC Korea (Global Peace Youth Corps)

 

Emanuel Pastreich:  

Recently we have seen quite a bit reporting about a reengagement of the Obama Administration in East Asia and actions that are perceived as an effort to encircle and contain China. Most notable is the agreement to deploy 2,500 US Marines in Darwin announced during President Obama’s November visit to Australia. Well certainly reading through the New York Times you might think that the United States has surrounded China. But there is plenty of evidence that it is in fact the United States that is increasingly isolated from the world. We find increasingly that it is the United States that is difficult to get visas for entry and the United States that is isolated in the international community.

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Korea’s Unique Tradition of Propriety: Godsend for the Network Society

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Korea’s Unique Tradition of Propriety:  Godsend for the Network Society

Emanuel Pastreich

January 15, 2012

In this age the complex relations developing between individuals outside of the workplace or the family, whether those that develop through on-line communications within organizations, or those found in social networks such Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, are having a profound impact on our society. Connections between people from vastly different backgrounds, who serve at different levels within organizations, can subtly, or bluntly, influence policy.

Almost all actions within social networks are legal, but the practice can be

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Is today’s Google yesterday’s Google: The Rectification of Names

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Confucius speaks repeatedly about the essential moral imperative for the intellectual: “The rectification of names” (zhengming 正名 in Chinese). What Confucius meant by the rectification of names was the resolution of the discord between the names that we employ to describe institutions and systems and the reality of how those institutions evolve and transform. In a sense we can explain many of the moral imperatives of the political realm in terms of the rectification of names: government, universities, lawyers, doctors, the military are not what they once were. They have become corrupted or debased with the passage of time. Perhaps it would be better for us to redefine what is meant by a “corporation” or “The Department of Defense” rather than getting angry at current institutions for not being what they once were, perhaps. 

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“The Importance of Women for the Future of Korea” (essay)

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 I made this presentation at Korea’s Federation of Women’s Science and Technology Association’s “21st Century Women Leaders Forum.” I was invited by the chairman, Dr. Myungja Kim, who is a close friend. She served as the minister of the environment previously and has distinguished herself as one of the few scientists deeply engaged in the policy debate. I was the only man at the event and perhaps the only man to ever present at the forum. Most likely i was invited because of my recent article arguing that the next president of KAIST should be a woman.

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Emanuel’s Photographs of Daejeon

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As part of my work on the website “Daejeon Compass” I took numerous photographs of Daejeon to show just how beautiful a city it is. Here are a few selections for those who might be interested in this remarkable place. We miss is already after less than a year in Seoul.

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Nano-Art and Bio-literature

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November 18, 2010

Nano-Art and Bio-literature

 

We have worked with a variety of institutes on the question of “convergence” –a term so broad that it is sometimes unnerving. It so happens that I am meeting the Director of Convergence at KRISS tonight to discuss this topic. Much discussion of convergence in terms of the coming together of computers and communication devices (ICT) and also convergence between new fields: IT-bio & nano-bio. But Korea has conceived of “convergence” as applying to larger themes such as the marriage of technology and art and the new for potential spaces for expression thus generated. This last theme seemed secondary to me at first, but in fact, I have come to see it as perhaps the core for “technology convergence” in our age.

 

At first I thought about the whole matter of technology-art convergence humorously. I asked friends facetiously whether we would soon have “bio-literature” or “nano-painting.” It took me a while to comprehend the essential issue.

Art and literature allow us to conceive of what is happening to our world at the nano level and the macro level. How cells divide and how global networks evolve that span the world. In fact, the use of art, enhanced by the next generation of animation technology, is the best hope we have to help average people (which includes most policy makers) to understand how technology is changing our reality. Similarly, literature, the inspiring and entertaining description of our world, will give us the tools to comprehend what otherwise seems like an invisible process by which Moore’s Law is remaking our world. First one must be able to conceive of the process and then one can make informed decisions.

 

Alex Lee of Woosong University sent me today this link from the New York Times about the effort to animate the micro-nano level. It is just the start of a new field, but one that may eventually lead us to have clear images and special relations we can assign to processes that previously were wrapped in a mystery appropriate to the high priests of alchemy.

 

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/11/15/science/1248069334032/the-animators-of-life.html

 

The Inner Life of a Cell

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz4lFeqJPdU