Please note: This lecture will be held in person in room 1010 Weiser Hall and virtually via Zoom. This webinar is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Once you've registered, the joining information will be sent to your email. Register for the Zoom webinar at: https://myumi.ch/RmN4G

The Korean scholar-bureaucrats (yangban) have been drawing public attention among Japanese intellectuals since the beginning of the 20th century. This lecture reviews how Japanese magazines represented yangban, tracing how their image changed from the evil noblemen that kept Korean society stagnant to the graceful embodiers of vanishing authentic Korean culture. Both these images, and even the transition from one to the other, were driven by a Japanese version of orientalism.

Shimpei Cole Ota is a sociocultural anthropologist trained both in Seoul National University (ABD, 2003) and Osaka University (Ph.D., 2007). His basic question focuses on what brings drastic changes to societies and cultures, especially before and after modernization, liberalization, and globalization in South Korea and Korean America.

This lecture is made possible with the generous support of the U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at umcjs@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.