Inside Korea: Discovering the People and Culture

What’s Inside Korea?Discovering the past and Present of KoreaKorea is a nation with about five thousand years of history and rich cultural heritage and a country realized stunning economic growth and democratic development in such a short span of time. In addition, Korea has recently been put on the proverbial global map propelled by the Korean wave which hit the world, but the country is still far from well-known across the world. What is Korea like? In fact, it is not easy for both Koreans and non-Koreans to answer to this question. It is where the idea of this book first created.This book is designed to increase understanding about Korea for people around the world and to present Korean society and culture in refined manner to foreigners who are not familiar with. Most of the information in the book can be easily accessed through the Internet, but books are still the best method to systemize information on such a broad subject and to make it understandable to a wider range of people regardless of time or place. That being said, this book has a great deal to offer people around the world.This book mainly consists of three parts. The first part (pp. 1-32) offers a brief introduction to Korea with reliable barometers in many aspects of Korean identity. The main part (PP. 33-446) of this book reveals Korea by eight categories: geography, history, politics, economy, society, culture, religion and religious culture, and scientific technology and industry. Two special commentaries on the North-South relations and East-West cultural differences are to help readers better understand Korea as a “divided country” with “Confucian culture.” Finally the last appendix part contains a lot of statistic information that readers can refer to. Read more