Korea Institute Newsletter J U N E 2 0 1 5 IN THIS ISSUE: Director’s Foreword Professor Hyaeweol Choi Director’s Foreword 1 This year has been a particularly productive and 2014-2015 ANU 2 rewarding one. For some time now many col- Korea Institute leagues in Southeast Asian studies and East Asian Events studies at ANU have been engaged in conversa- tion, seeking out innovative ideas to pursue for Transnational 9 research collaborations. One of the broader intel- Humanities for lectual concerns in those conversations had to do Korean Studies with the growing discontent with the concept of Update from Core 13 "area studies," a framework seen as an outmoded product of the Cold War that is too centered on Korean Studies the "traits" of a country. We have also been in- Scholars trigued by the unprecedented pace of globalisa- tion in recent decades, which has made it impos- New Faculty 14 Members sible to ignore the dynamic flow of ideas, people, capital and materials across borders and the impact of that flow on the local cultures. Out of this ground- ANU Korea Institute 14 work have come events and scholarly activities designed to emphasise deep Postdoctoral Fellow knowledge of a place and people but also pay attention to the dynamic flow of Visiting Fellow 15 ideas, people and materials that defies conventional territorial bounda- ries. That outlook was represented in three international conferences that the ANU Korea Institute held this year: 1) “Latent Histories, Manifest Impacts: In- ANU-Hanyang 15 terplay between Korea and Southeast Asia” in cooperation with the Southeast University Exchange Asia Institute; 2) “Grassroots Regionalisation and the Frontiers of the Humani- ties in East Asia: Korea as a Hub” under the stewardship of Professor Tessa Postgraduate 16 Morris-Suzuki, and 3) “East Asia Forum: The Long Shadow of the San Francis- Students co Peace Treaty: East Asia from Post-War Settlement to Twenty-First Century Tensions and Beyond,” in cooperation with the ANU Japan Institute, the ANU Learning and 20 China Institute and the Australian Centre on China in the World. These high- Teaching: Exchange to South Korea profile conferences attracted a great deal of attention and inspired a lot of lively discussion, and we will continue to make a concerted effort to facilitate Academic 23 this kind of inter-regional dialogue and academic investigation. Achievements We would like to warmly welcome Dr Jong-sung You and Dr Chungshik Moon. Upcoming Events 28 Dr You’s area of expertise is political science, while Dr Moon’s is international relations. We are also very happy to announce that Dr Ksenia Chizhova will join us in August 2015 as the new Postdoctoral Fellow of the ANU Korea Insti- tute. On behalf of the ANU Korea Institute I want to thank the Academy of Korean Studies for its generous grant, which has made it possible for us to hold high- quality conferences and speaker series as well as support our postgraduate students. I am also grateful to many colleagues in various regional institutes for their exceptional collegiality and intellectual partnership. 1 2014-2015 ANU Korea Institute Events Latent Histories, Manifest Impacts: Interplay between Korea and Southeast Asia The ANU Korea Institute together with the ANU Southeast Asia Institute held the International Con- ference “Latent Histories, Manifest Impacts: Interplay between Korea and Southeast Asia” on 26 and 27 February 2015 at the Australian National University. The conference aimed to offer in-depth analyses of the history of contact and the increasingly significant ties between Korea and Southeast Asia in a wide range of areas, including historical connections and divergent developments in civil society, politics, sta- tus in the global economy, religious encounters, gen- der dynamics and the creative industries. Across the two days eighteen invited speakers from Australia, Korea, Singapore and Malaysia gave a number of diverse lectures related to the conference theme. Panel 1 was titled ‘Regional Politics and (In)Justice.’ Professor Paul Hutchcroft from the Australian National University compared the highly divergent legacies that came forth from the leadership of three Asian dictators: South Ko- rea’s Park Chung Hee (1961-1979), Indonesia’s Suharto (1965-1998), and the Philippines’ Ferdi- nand Marcos (1965-1986). He particularly emphasised how the three authoritarian leaders were shaped by their historical context and how institutional inheritances affected what could be accom- plished during their regimes. Dr Bo Kyeong Seo from the Australian National University examined how conflicts of “democracy after democratization” are played out in Korea and Thailand. She sug- gested that the comparison between these two countries’ democratization process is productive for re-analysing and demystifying “Thai-ness,” a hegemonic construction of particularity. Rather than setting Korea up as an advanced democratic model, she outlined ways in which languages of democratic politics can be translated and expanded across historical and cultural differences. Dr Jong-Sung You from the Australian National University explored how inequality increases corrup- tion via electoral clientelism, bureaucratic patronage, and elite capture of policy process through a comparative historical analysis of three countries that shared similar conditions at the time of in- dependence South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines. In panel 2, ‘Cross-Regional Flow of People, Ideas and Tastes,’ Dr Gaik Cheng Khoo from the Uni- versity of Nottingham Malaysia Campus explored the expansion of Korean restaurants and foods in Malaysia. Associate Professor Minjung Kim from Kangwon National University documented some “unnoticed” histories between the Philippines and Korea since the early 1900s and introduced the life stories of Korean women who married Filipinos during the Korean War. She suggested that their life stories serve as “a missing link” in understanding the history and configuration of the Ko- rean community in the Philippines. Assistant Professor Jiyoung Song from Singapore Management University examined the evolution in international commercial marriage migration from Southeast Asia to South Korea from a Complexity Theory (CT) framework. In panel 3, ‘Deep Historical Connections,’ Professor Hung-Guk Cho from Pusan National University dealt with the contact between Joseon and the kingdom of Majapahit between the late fourteenth century and the early fifteenth century. He examined the trade that the ancient kingdom in Indo- nesia conducted with East Asia in this period, particularly the trade that the Chinese merchants in Java were engaged in the South China Sea and the East China Sea. Professor Robert Cribb from the Australian National University spoke on the Korean soldiers in the Japanese army in wartime Southeast Asia. He drew on records assembled for the trial of a single Korean soldier, who went by the Japanese name of Kumoi Eiji, in one of the Allied military courts in order to give greater depth to our understanding of Koreans in the Japanese army in wartime Southeast Asia. Dr David 2 2014-2015 ANU Korea Institute Events Kim from the Australian National University explored Korean medieval folktales in the Vietnamese Royal narrative in the thirteenth century Goryeo. In panel 4, ‘The Politics of Trade, Migration and Aid,’ Professor Sang Kook Lee from Yonsei Univer- sity examined how new political and refugee policy environments have had an impact on Burmese refugees in Korea. Professor Hee-Ryang Ra from Pukyong National University explored the struc- tures and characteristics of the ASEAN+3 intra-regional trade through an analysis of intra-regional trade share, intra-regional trade intensity index, and regional trade introversion index of ASEAN+3 in terms of primary goods, intermediate goods (processed goods, and parts & compo- nents), and final goods (capital goods and consumption goods). Mr Nikhilesh Bhattacharyya from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade reviewed the factors that have motivated the Korean government to rapidly scale up foreign aid to South-East Asia. The International Conference “Latent Histories, Manifest Impacts: Interplay between Korea and Southeast Asia” was a highly successful and thought provoking collaboration between the ANU Korea Institute and the ANU Southeast Asia Institute. The International Conference was made possible by generous support provided by the Academy of Korean Studies, the ANU Korea Insti- tute, the ANU Southeast Asia Institute as the ANU Research School of Asia and the Pacific. 3 2014-2015 ANU Korea Institute Events Grassroots Regionalisation and the Frontiers of the Humanities in East Asia: Korea as a Hub The International Conference “Grassroots Regionalisation and the Frontiers of the Humanities in East Asia: Korea as a Hub” was held at the Australian National University on 9 and 10 March 2015. This formed part of the 2014-2015 theme under the Academy of Korean Studies institutional grant awarded to the Korean Institute in 2011. The conference explored the work of a range of vibrant East Asian grassroots social movements, and examined the ways in which these movements are helping to forge links across the boundaries of the region. Dr Lee Eunkyung from the Hope Institute in Seoul presented an overview of major social innova- tion projects in Korea, Japan, China and Thailand, and explained how the Hope Institute, by gath- ering and disseminating information on these projects, is helping diverse grassroots groups to learn from one