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When Preserving Tradition Produces Change
Rethinking Korean Confucian Academies Korean Confucian academies, or seowon, are usually described as private educational institutions of the Chosŏn period. They honoured Confucian scholars and educated the sons of local elites. This description is correct, but incomplete. It tells us what seowon were supposed to do. It does not explain how they shaped knowledge. My…
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Why Understanding North Korea Does Not Mean Defending It
Why does trying to understand North Korea so often get mistaken for defending it? This question was one of the starting points for my introductory book on North Korea. Understanding a political system does not mean approving of it.
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“Anti-Europe”: How European Thought Invented Its Confucian Other
Anti-Europa (2003) grew out of a puzzle that has occupied me for much of my scholarly life. For more than three hundred years, European thinkers have described Confucian society using remarkably similar terms.