This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Donald Baker. They speak about the history of religion on the Korean peninsula, the rise and place held by Shamanism, Buddhism and Confucianism, the arrival of first Catholicism and then Protestant Christianity, the ways in which Koreans tended to not associate themselves with specific religious identities during the Chosŏn Dynasty and into the Japanese colonial period, how religion emerged after the end of the Second World War, the transformative impact that Protestantism had on the religious landscape, how this new religiosity affected ideas of modernisation and democracy, the role that religion played in the Gwangju Uprising (including Don’s firsthand account of the massacre), how Korea’s religious scene can be best described as a marketplace, and the future of religion in Korea.
Donald Baker is a Professor in Korean History and Civilization at the University of British Columbia. He received his Ph.D. in Korean history from the University of Washington and has taught at UBC since 1987. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on Korean history and thought (religion, philosophy, and pre-modern science). In addition, he teaches a graduate seminar on the reproduction of historical trauma in Asia, in which he leads graduate students in an examination of how traumatic events in Asia in the 20th century.
He was a co-editor of the Sourcebook of Korean Civilization and editor of Critical Readings on Korean Christianity. He is also the author of Chosŏn hugi yugyo wa ch’ǒnjugyo ŭi taerip (The Confucian confrontation with Catholicism in the latter half of the Joseon dynasty) and Korean Spirituality (University of Hawaii Press, 2008). In 2008, he was awarded the Tasan prize for his research on Tasan Chŏng Yagyong, a writer and philosopher in Korea in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 2013 he was been asked by the National Institute of Korean History to serve as the chairperson of the International Advisory Committee for the English Translation of the Annals of the Chosŏn Dynasty.
Pertinent to this podcast Don is also the author of: ‘The Impact of Christianity on Modern Korea’ (https://www.academia.edu/26306252/THE_IMPACT_OF_CHRISTIANITY_ON_MODERN_KOREA_AN_OVERVIEW), ‘The Emergence of a Religious Market in Twentieth-century Korea’, (https://www.academia.edu/26306251/The_Religious_Market_In_Korea), and ‘The Transformation of Confucianism in 20th Century Korea’ (https://www.academia.edu/35433613/THE_TRANSFORMATION_OF_CONFUCIANISM_IN_20th_CENTURY_KOREA_-HOW_IT_HAS_LOST_MOST_OF_ITS_METAPHYSICAL_UNDERPINNINGS_AND_SURVIVES_TODAY_PRIMARILY_AS_ETHICAL_RHETORIC_AND_HERITAGE_RITUALS).
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The Korea Now Podcast #63 – Sharon Yoon– ‘Korean Enclaves in China’
The Korea Now Podcast #62 – Merose Hwang – ‘Shamanism in 1920s Korea - Gender, Transgenderism and Colonial Drag’
The Korea Now Podcast #61 – Merose Hwang – ‘Korean Shamanism in the Colonial Period’
The Korea Now Podcast #60 – Vladimir Tikhonov – ‘Korean Ethno-Nationalism’
The Korea Now Podcast #59 – Steven Lee – ‘The Korean Armistice and the Making of War, 1953-1976’
The Korea Now Podcast #58 – Erik Mobrand – ‘South Korea's Democratic Transformation - Limited Pluralism, Party Law, Political Incorporation, and the Shadow of Authoritarianism’
The Korea Now Podcast #57 – Liora Sarfati – ‘Public Dissent, Mass Mobilization and Street Protests in South Korea’
The Korea Now Podcast #56 – Joe Phillips – ‘Communities, Rights and Activism - The LGBTQ+ Landscape in South Korea’
The Korea Now Podcast #55 – Edward Reed – ’25 Years of Food Insecurity - Agricultural Failure in North Korea’
The Korea Now Podcast #54 – Gregg Brazinsky – ‘Nation Building, America, and Cold War Rivalries’
The Korea Now Podcast #53 – Jeffrey Robertson – ‘Watching the Watchers - Analysing Policy Discourse on North Korea’
The Korea Now Podcast #52 – Brendan Wright – ‘Memory Politics from the Korean Civil War Period (1948-1960)’
The Korea Now Podcast #51 – Albert Park – ‘The Rise of Christianity in Modern Korea’
The Korea Now Podcast #50 – Alon Levkowitz – ‘The Two Koreas, Israel and the Middle East’
The Korea Now Podcast #49 – David Tizzard – ‘Nietzsche, Korea, and Social Change’
The Korea Now Podcast #48 – Peter Banseok Kwon – ‘Rich Nation, Strong Military - National Development under Park Chung-hee’
The Korea Now Podcast #47 – Brad Glosserman – ‘The Future of Japan-Korea-America Trilateralism’
The Korea Now Podcast #46 – Lee Seong-hyon – ‘China's Strategy on the Korean Peninsula’
The Korea Now Podcast #45 – George Lopez – ‘The Effectiveness of North Korean Sanctions’
The Korea Now Podcast #44 – Jamie Doucette & Seung-Ook Lee – ‘Korean Extra-Territoriality - The Kaesong Industrial Complex and Beyond’
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