Royal Asiatic Society Korea

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☞Payment to be remitted to the following account:
SHINHAN BANK ACCOUNT # 100-026-383501 (RAS-KB)

*Reservation is not confirmed until payment has been received by RAS Korea in advance of the event.

In the Seodaemun area stand a number of preserved houses connected to the independence movement that have been converted to museums. As the weather grows hotter and wetter, we will spend much of our time indoors as we move from museum to museum and learn about independence movement figures and Seodaemun’s history while also examining the ways in which the past has been preserved in the area.

We will set off from Dongnimun Station and visit the recently-opened National Memorial of the Korean Provisional Government, which overlooks Seodaemun Prison. After learning about overseas attempts to gain Korea’s independence, we will walk past the Independence gate to Dilkusha, the former home of Albert and Mary Taylor. Albert Taylor was involved in mining in northern Korea, but it was his work as a journalist that led him to document aspects of the 1919 March 1 independence movement. After years of being subdivided into apartments, the city bought the house and restored it, converting it into a museum which displays mementos donated by the Taylors’ descendants.

From there we will walk to the nearby, recently-opened Lee Hoe-yeong Memorial Hall, which is set in one of two houses built in the early 1900s where missionaries teaching at the nearby Baehwa Girls’ School lived. Lee Hoe-yeong was a Korean independence activist, anarchist, and one of the founders of Shinheung Military Academy in Manchuria. He used his considerable wealth to contest the Japanese occupation of Korea and died in prison in China in 1932.

After passing by the home of musician Hong Nan-pa, a western-style ‘Culture House’ which was built in the 1930s, we will walk along the restored city wall to Gyeonggyojang, which was built in 1938 and served as the home of independence activist Kim Ku from 1945 until his assassination in 1949 – which took place in the house. Today it has been converted into a museum, which we will visit.

We will end our walk in Donuimun Museum Village, a restored neighborhood which features a local history museum, a memorial hall dedicated to Francis Schofield, a Canadian missionary and supporter of Korean Independence, and numerous buildings in which theaters, photo shops, and comic book reading rooms of the past have been recreated. The current city government plans to demolish this village by next year, so chances to visit it grow shorter by the day.

This walking excursion will set off at 1:00 pm from exit 5 of Dongnimmun Station (독립문역) #326 (subway line number 3). The excursion will last until about 5:00 and end between Gwanghwamun Station and Seodaemun Station (Subway Line 5). Participants may join Matt afterwards for a coffee or an early dinner (not included in the excursion fee) nearby. The walk is mostly flat, but comfortable walking shoes are recommended.

VENUE: Seoul Public Activities Center (SPAC, 서울시공익활동지원센터). ‘다목적홀’
(ADDRESS: Basement Floor, 40 Baekbeomro 99-gil, Yongsan Verdium Friends #101(용산베르디움프렌즈 101동), Yongsan-gu, Seoul), 2-3 minutes walking from Exit 8 of Samgakji-Station (Line 6 & Line 4)

ADMISSION (Online & In-person):
- Free for Members;
- W10,000 for Non-members;
- W5,000 for Non-member students (Student ID requested)

- If you would like to attend online Zoom.

• RSVP by July 21 (Monday). Zoom Link Request ☞ CLICK
• We will email you the link on Tuesday morning.
• For Non-member, payment to be remitted to the following account:
  SHINHAN BANK ACCOUNT # 100-026-383501 (RAS-KB)

- To attend in-person, RSVP is not required.

SUMMARY:
In South Korea, the cultural logic of advertising (encapsulated by the cliché “advertising, the flower of capitalism”) historically downplayed its marketing purposes and privileged its potential for promoting virtue and enabling diverse mass media, even if those public-service aspirations sometimes collided with the business interests of advertisers. Flower of Capitalism: South Korean Advertising at a Crossroads (University of Hawaii Press, 2022) ethnographically examines the clash of advertising’s older obligations and the new freedoms that ensued when the previously-accepted vision of advertising came under attack with neoliberalization, particularly after 2008, when freedom to advertise became constitutionally protected. This lecture will introduce the book and share insights from a chapter that examines the cultural environment of South Korean advertising professionals, based on time spent observing and working alongside them at an ad agency in Seoul.

BIO:
Olga Fedorenko is Professor of Anthropology at Seoul National University. She received her Ph.D. from the East Asian Studies Department at the University of Toronto and taught at New York University before joining SNU. A scholar of Korean Studies and anthropology of media, Dr. Fedorenko has published on South Korean advertising and celebrity culture. Her new research explores Korean socialities and resurgence of analogue media in postdigital South Korea.

VENUE:
The Seoul Public Activities Center(SPAC, 서울시공익활동지원센터) is located at Yongsan Verdium Friends #101 (용산베르디움프렌즈 101동) B1, 40 Baekbeomro 99-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Walk 2-3 minutes from ‘Exit 8’ of Samgakji Station (LINE 6 & 4) and take the elevator down to the B1 Floor.