Korea: The Past and the Present (2 vols)

Susan Pares is a former member of the Research and Analysis Cadre of the British diplomatic service. Susan served in the Beijing embassy in 1975-76. She is married to Jim Hoare and has lived in overseas for many years. She is closely associated with the British Association for Korean Studies and on her own and with Jim has published a number of articles and books.



J.E.Hoare is a former member of the Research and Analysis Cadre of the British Diplomatic Service. He served in Seoul (1981-85), Beijing (1988-91) and finally as Chargé d’Affaires and Consul General in Pyongyang (2001-2). He is a former Research Associate of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and is currently Research Associate at the London School of Oriental and African Studies. He has published extensively on both Korea and Japan, including Japan’s Treaty Ports and Foreign Settlements: The Uninvited Guests (1994), Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Vol. III (1999) and with his wife Susan Pares, A Political and Economic Dictionary of East Asia (2005) and North Korea in the 21st Century (2005).

Professional and scholarly

Preface; PART 1: The transition into the modern period: analysing and interpreting history; 1 Tonghak in the aftermath of the Tonghak rebellion:1895-1901; 2 Fascinating and dangerous: Japan in Korea’s Enlightenment thought in the 1900s; 3 Pro-Japanese economic alliance theories during the period of the Taehan empire; 4 Narrative politics, nationalism and Korean history; 5 Socio-cultural implications of the recent invention of tradition in Korea: an overview; 6 Yanagi Sóetsu and Korean crafts within the Mingei movement; PART 2: The Korean peninsula since 1945; 7 Leadership transition in Korea and its significance for the region; 8 Where is the king buried? Legitimacy struggles on the Korean Peninsula; 9 Abductions and divisions: the human cost in inter-Korean and PRK-Japanese relations; 10 Music of the Fatherland: North Korean soundscape in the construction of Chongryun identity in Japan; 11 How different is Pyongyang speech from Seoul speech?; 12 The Ilhae Foundation: beyond a scandal; 13 Kônjôn kayo: South Korea’s propaganda pop; 14 South Korean television policy and programmes: a question of localism; 15 ‘Protecting the nation’: Korean Buddhism under the rule of Park Chung Hee, 1961-79; 16 Minjung theology and culture; 17 Protestant Christianity and the state: religious organizations as an example of civil society in South Korea; 18 Korea and the Gulf crisis; 19 The juche doctrine and Kim Il Sung’s success; 20 The place of religion in North Korean ideology; PART 3: Economy, industry and development; 21 Explaining Korean development: some issues of ideology and method; 22 The quality puzzle: how has Korean industry mastered technology so fast?; 23 The recent development of labour relations in Korea and their implications for international investors; 24 The globalization of South Korean automobile firms and the Korean government in the 1990s; 25 The political economy of the Korean-Japanese trade imbalance; PART 4: The cultural tradition; 26 Reverse syncretism and the sacred area of Muak-tong: the accommodation of Korean folk religion to the religious forms of Buddhism; 27 Why should Korean shamans be women?; 28 Eschatology and folk religions in Korean society; 29 Mumunt’ogi and megalithic monuments: a reconsideration of the dating; 30 Social structure in a megalithic tomb society in Korea; 31 Crowning glory: headdresses of the Three Kingdoms period; 32 Ancient glass trade in Korea; 33 Technological parallels between Chinese Yue wares and Korean celadons; PART 5: Literature and the performing arts; 34 The tradition of Korean poetry; 35 Thomas Hardy in Korea; 36 Fire and ice: the search for values in Yi Munyôl’s novella Kû hae kyôul [The winter of that year]; 37 The improper desire for knowledge: de-gendering curiosity in contemporary Korean women’s literature; 38 Reappraisal of the origins of p’ansori; PART 6: Traditional and modern society; 39 Change and continuity in Chosôn military techniques during the later Chosôn period; 40 The rise of chungin and their characteristics; 41 Korea: the land of the kye; 42 Korea as the wave of a future: the emerging dream society of icons and aesthetic experience; 43 In the eye of the hurricane of change: Korean contemporary art of the new millennium; 44 Domesticating communication technologies in Korean families; 45 State intervention in housing provision and high-rise housing development in the Seoul metropolitan area; 46 High tech made by North Korea: communication technology in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and its impact on society; PART 7: History: the Western presence in Korea; 47 Robert Hart and Chinese domination of Korea: a study of misguided imperialism; 48 John McLeavy Brown in Korea; 49 The British community in Korea: the colonial period 1910-1942; Consolidated Bibliography; Index