May 13, 2022

Hyokyoung Yi Publishes Book on Tateuchi EAL Korean Collection

Wosington Taehak ui Hanguk chaektul: Tong Asia Tosogwan ui pomul 1900-1945 워싱턴대학의 한국: 책들동아시아 도서관의 보물 1900-1945 (Korean Books of the University of Washington: Treasures of the East Asia Library, 1900-1945). Seoul: Yuyu Press 유유 출판사의, 2021.

While on research leave in the 2019-20 academic year, Korean Studies Librarian Hyokyoung Yi researched and wrote a book introducing to Korean audiences distinctive Korean works from Tateuchi EAL’s special collections. For each of forty-four selected titles, Yi presents interesting facts, colorful stories, and personal reflections relating to not just the works’ contents, but to their covers, designs, authors, publishers, collectors, bibliographic histories, and provenances. The book showcases the uniqueness and significance of the selected works, and by extension of Tateuchi EAL’s Korean collection.

Due to Covid-19, publication was delayed by over a year, until December 2021. Major daily newspapers such as Hangyore Sinmun and Tonga Ilbo have featured it as a noteworthy new book. News articles recommend it not just as a good read, but as enhancing understanding of the chaotic colonial Korea from the early twentieth century to the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945. Each of the forty-four publications reveals much about its historical context. Professor Seung-Bum Kye—a UW alumnus, the last Ph.D. student of the late Professor James B. Palais, and a professor of Korean history at Sogang University in Seoul—wrote in his review blurb on the back cover:

Reading this book makes you feel as if you are travelling back a hundred years in time to a bookstore in Kyongsong [the historical name of Seoul]. Through the prism of books, you can sense time and embark on a fascinating exploration of the humanities. Genres covered include novels, poetry, children’s songs, plays, essays, textbooks, translations, and more. Themes include history, literature, the Korean language, travel, religion, proverbs, folk songs, independence, nation, enlightenment, science, women, love, and cuisine. It’s like a department store with a wealth of interesting products on display. The concerns and experiences of Korean intellectuals from a century ago melt into its pages, and are transported to us in the present. With just forty-four books, you can feel the breath of the Korean nation in the first half of the twentieth century.

Yi’s book recently featured in Booksori, a series of discussions about Korean books hosted by TEAL. Recordings (parts 1 and 2) of the session are available on YouTube.