Description

This presentation addresses the contemporary ambition of Buddhist actors and institutions to redefine and affirm their place in South Korean society. On the basis of ethnographical and sociological data, it presents how Buddhist temples in Seoul have undertaken massive development projects and broadened their activities in order to adapt to the population’s demands and to promote a formal religious adhesion both on individual and collective basis. In a context of strong concurrence among religious groups, and especially between Buddhist temples and Protestant churches, many Buddhist leaders aim at strengthening their religious denomination by developing a more “conscious”, “proud” and “collective” affiliation among the believers, with the explicit aim that religiously educated and socialized Buddhists would contribute to represent Buddhism in society and subsequently to its influence. By analyzing this phenomenon, this paper will explore the ambivalent relationship of Buddhism with the Protestant “megachurch” model and the new positioning of temples in Seoul.

Florence Galmiche’s research interest lies in examining the place and roles of religion in contemporary Korean society. She received her Ph.D in sociology at the EHESS in 2011 with a dissertation on urban Buddhism in South Korea. She is now maître de conférence (associate professor) in Korean Studies at the University Diderot-Paris 7. She is a member of the research units CESSMA (Centre d’études en sciences sociales sur les mondes africains, américains et asiatiques) and CCJ (Chine, Corée, Japon).

Description

In the early 1990s, Korean Chinese began to visit South Korea, long considered a forbidden homeland during the Cold War era. Many overstayed their visas to become undocumented workers in search of the “Korean dream.” In 2005 the South Korean government granted amnesty to them, while requiring migrant laborers to move back and forth between China and Korea in complex ways. Based on the ethnographic research in Seoul, Korea and Yanbian, the Korean Chinese Autonomous Prefecture, China, for the last few years, this presentation examines how the impact of amnesty and the governmental aspects of the migratory rhythm have fashioned a new order of home and work for many Korean Chinese. I develop two inter-related arguments. First, I argue that the rhythm sets limits for the bodies, money, and futurity of Korean Chinese migrants. Second, I argue that the rhythm has reorganized the concepts of “work place” and “home,” working time and non-working time, between Korea and Yanbian—forming a transnational mode of living that I term split lives.
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Dr. June Hee Kwon received her PhD from the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University in 2013. Her research and teaching focuses on diaspora and citizenship, transnational migration and human rights, kinship and ethnicity, affect and compassion. Her area of expertise spans contemporary Korea (North and South), China, and Japan, including postcolonial and post-Cold War East Asian inter-connections.

For further information: anthro.officeofthechair@utoronto / 416-946-3318

Description

Evergreen Tree (상록수)
SHIN Sang-ok | Classics, Drama | 141 min | Korea 1961
CANADIAN PREMIERE

Korean language finds itself strangled under Japanese colonial rule during the 1930s. Lack of education and will to progress plagues those living in the more rural areas of the peninsula. A story about two lovers and a goal to promote education amid political suppression, ‘Evergreen Tree’ was directed by the legendary Shin Sang-ok and is based on the 1935 novel of the same name by prolific screenwriter Shim Hoon.

*There will be a post-screening discussion and Q&A session with Janet Poole, author of the book ‘When The Future Disappears’ and Professor in the East Asian Studies Department at the Centre For The Study of Korea, University of Toronto

For more information visit the website below.

Description

Since 2011, the genre of popular music called Kpop has established a visible presence on the web both as a corporate pop culture commodity and as a rich and complex participatory video culture that centers on the “reaction video.” The variety of video “reactions” display a common concern with consumption captured by video and, thus, with the indexicality of the reaction video as a transcultural spectacle that moves or affectively touches the viewer through its presentation of reception as corporeal event. Examining a spectrum of video reactions to Kpop, I question how reception is represented, why the re-presentability of reception is appealing, and what this may indicate about the circulation of encounters with difference on the web. Pairing the Kpop reaction video with a corollary fan-produced genre—the Kpop dance cover performance video—to compare multiple forms of video-making within the Kpop videosphere, I consider how these videos simultaneously commodify empathy, document the nature of spectator identification, and visualize Kpop commodities’ infectiousness. Against this fascination with generalized consumer affect, what also emerge are the contours of geopolitically differentiated and racialized consumption. I argue, therefore, that video of Kpop’s seemingly deterritorialized, global consumption underscore, instead, its context-specificity, belying the cosmopolitan fantasy reiterated in spectator reactions, and thus underscoring the need to address geopolitical and transcultural contexts to understand video’s subjectivating influence. Thus my talk analyzes Kpop’s video culture to consider the diagnostic function and the “cosmopolitical” potential of popular culture. Cosmopolitics more than cosmopolitanism refers to the continuing interdependence of the national and the global, and can elucidate the objects and practices that lead to the coalescence of something imagined as the global popular qua “pop cosmopolitanism.”

Michelle Cho is an Assistant Professor of Korean Studies and World Cinemas at McGill University. Her writing on gender, genre, celebrity culture, and self-reflexive media appears in Cinema Journal, Acta Koreana, Hallyu 2.0, and The Korean Popular Culture Reader. She is completing a book that analyzes the form and function of South Korean genre cinemas in the “Sunshine Policy” decade. Her new project examines the relationship between popular culture and the post-political in South Korea, with a focus on celebrity labor, minority representation, and media convergence.

Description

On Thursday, June 11th 2015 at the Munk School of Global Affairs, we will be hosting a one-day conference to critically examine various ways for strengthening bilateral relationship between Canada and South Korea, focusing on trade, defence, culture, education and immigration. We hope to bring together high-level political leaders, civil servants, business leaders, legal experts, academics, civil society representatives and interested students to generate a forum for candid and practical discussions as we look towards the future.
The CKFTA entered into force on January 1, 2015. This landmark agreement constitutes Canada’s first free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific region and provides new access for Canadian businesses and workers to the world’s 15th-largest economy and the fourth-largest in Asia. In fact, the Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement is projected to create thousands of jobs for hardworking Canadians by boosting Canada’s economy by $1.7 billion and increase Canadian exports to South Korea by 32 percent. South Korea is not only a major economic player in its own right and a key market for Canada; it also serves as a gateway for Canadian businesses and workers into the dynamic Asia-Pacific region as a whole.
Canada and Korea share an exceptionally rich history, dating back to the 1880s when the first wave of missionaries from the University of Toronto arrived on the shores of Busan. In addition to friendship forged on battlefields during the Korean War, immigration and trade between the two countries have flourished ever since. We believe that the new Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement will only accelerate partnership and cooperation between the two countries in the 21st century. As we contemplate future implications of the CKFTA, our conference aims to advance expert opinion on the future of Canadian-Korean relations and critically assess opportunities for strategic partnership in political, military and cultural spheres.
Please join us for a day of engaging and fruitful discussions on the future of Canadian-Korean partnership. We look forward to hearing your insightful ideas!