Boren Fellowship and Scholarship Applications now available!

The applications for the 2011-2012 National Security Education Program's David L. Boren Scholarships for undergraduate students and Fellowships for graduate students are now available at www.borenawards.org.

Boren Awards provide unique funding opportunities for U.S. students to study in Africa, Asia, Central & Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East, where they can add important international and language components to their educations.

Boren Scholarships provide up to $20,000 for an academic year's study abroad.
Boren Fellowships provide up to $30,000 for language study and international research.

The application deadline for the Boren Fellowship isFebruary 1, and the deadline for the Boren Scholarship is February 10.

Please contact the Boren Awards staff at boren@iie.org or 1-800-618-NSEP with any questions.
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Some useful links for gaining information and insight on the NSEP Boren Program are:
http://www.borenawards.org/
http://www.borenawards.org/boren_fellowship
http://www.borenawards.org/boren_scholarship

New Korean History Class!

GW has a new Korean History Professor, Jisoo Kim, the Korea Foundation Assistant Professor of History and International Affairs. Her graduate level class is still open! Here's a brief description:

Colloquium on Modern Korean History is intended to introduce graduate students to the major secondary works on Korean history from the late nineteenth century to the present. What we may call Korea’s “long twentieth century” has been a time of extraordinary change and turmoil on the Korean peninsula, including colonization by Japan, civil war, division into two competing and mutually hostile states, and one of the most temporally compressed modernity the world has ever seen. Drawing on a wide range of approaches and materials, we will explore some of the important controversies through an examination of recent historical and historiographical literature. All required readings will be in English.

GW student in China

Elliott School student Sarah Tynan describes some of her experiences in China:

My plane arrived in Zhangjiajie (张家界) on Monday, May 3rd, 2010 around 11 pm. I was traveling through Hunan (湖南) on Spring Break during my year abroad in China. On the plane, I had decided I would go to the train station right away and get a train ticket for the earliest train to Jishou (吉首), which was the closest city to my final destination, Dehang (德夯). So when I asked the cab driver to take me to the train station, he told me the train station was closed and that I would have to wait until morning to buy tickets to Jishou. He then offered to take me to Jishou for 300 yuan. I told him no, and just asked him to take me to a hostel that I had looked up in case a situation like this happened. Then, out of nowhere, around five or six taxi drivers surrounded us, offering to take me to the hostel for a cheaper price. Looking back on it now, I realize that they were probably just trying to cheat me the entire time, and that I probably could have just gone to the train station. I'm not sure though.

Anyway, after an annoying game of musical chairs, where I moved from cab to cab, I finally settled in a cab that told me he could take me to Jishou for 150 yuan. Then at the last second he said, "Oh, actually it's going to be 180 yuan." At this point, I was so fed up, and so angry, and so tired, and so annoyed by this process, I was just like "Fine. Go." Then, he took me to a place about 10 minutes away and I got in another cab that would take me to Jishou. As soon as I got in the cab, the cab driver's wife, who was in the passenger seat, immediately starts telling me how this trip usually costs 300 yuan and how I should be paying 300 yuan. So at this point I'm just like "What the F are you talking about??" So she's all "Oh, you know, we're giving you a special discount, you're so lucky." So I calm down, but I'm still a little nervous, after all at this point it is 1:00 am and they could be kidnapping me for all I know.

Finally, I arrive in Jishou safe and sound, and I've been texting my friends in Dehang the whole time. They are unnecessarily really worried about me, and tell me that I won't be able to get into Dehang (Dehang is a National Park and they thought the gates were closed) that night. So I tell them that they shouldn't worry and that I'll find somewhere to stay in Jishou. However, when I get to Jishou at 2:30 am, I ask around and find out that a bus leaves for Dehang at 5:00 am. No way am I going to pay for a hostel for only 2 hours. So I find a little 24-hour rice noodle joint set up on the side of the road and get some noodles and pork and vegetables. It was delicious in case you are wondering.

So I sat there and chilled with the owner of the noodle stand, a truck driver, some extremely well-dressed young men who were potentially traveling or coming home from a bar, and some cab drivers for about 2 hours. Then randomly at 4:00 am the noodle stand lady was like "Oh, by the way, the first bus to leave for Dehang is at 7:00 am." So at this point I'm like, "No way am I waiting another 3 hours for the bus." Plus it had started to rain. So she called her nephew and was like "Get out of bed, lazy bum, and come take this chick to Dehang." So he ended up driving me to Dehang at 4:00 am and it turned out that the park gates are actually open 24 hours a day, so I could have just gone there straightaway via taxi, without having to wait around with noodle lady.

Regardless, I arrived in Dehang at 5:00 am and called my friend to let her know that I arrived. She groggily answered the phone and was like, "Yeah… I don't really know where you are or how to give you directions to our hostel… and it's raining… and dark… and the middle of the night… I have no idea what to do." So I said, "Alright, I'll figure it out." So I saw this guy in a van and I asked him for directions. Luckily, he was a nice guy who also happened to know the owner of the hostel, so he took me there and called the owner to come and open the door for me. I told him I was here to meet two other foreigners, and he took me to their room. When I walked in, my friend DD goes "Oh, thank God you're here. We definitely thought we were going to find you the next morning, dead on the side of the road, without any of your organs." We all just collapsed in laughter out of exhaustion and relief. I took a shower right away, as summer has arrived in China and it is HOT, and sticky, and passed out in my friends' bed with her.

After sleeping for about 1 hour, my friend Sean woke me up and we had breakfast together with his sister. They left a couple hours later for Chengdu in the Southwest, and DD, Jess and I would continue South that night on the train. After Sean left, DD and Jess woke up and we went hiking together. We walked to the tallest waterfall in China and discovered that in the span of less than 24 hours, the waterfall had completely dried up. "This is impossible! We were here yesterday and saw the waterfall!!" DD and Jess said. But sure enough, supposedly the most awesome waterfall in China had miraculously dried up. After talking with some other the other girls in the area, it turned out that the waterfall could be turned on and off, just like you turn on and off a light. "We just called them! They said they'd turn on the waterfall in 10 minutes!!" The girls told us. So we waited and sure enough, 10 minutes later, a small trickle of water appeared and slowly but surely, the tallest waterfall in China was turned on. Although this ruined some of the charm of this beautiful and natural place, we still figured that it was part of a very necessary damming system.

After that we went hiking through a bamboo forest, but the rocks were really slippery, so we climbed back down and started down the hiking path on the other side of town. The hike wound through scenic rice paddies, and later after a long climb up steep steps, we made it to another beautiful waterfall. After that, we decided to keep going up several flights of stairs, to the peak of one of the mountains off the side of the trail. It was a hard climb to the top! When we got to the top, the sight was absolutely breathtaking. It was also completely silent up there at the top, except for a few birds chirping in the distance. It was incredibly humid and we were at an extremely high elevation, and it started to sprinkle a little bit. The rain was a relief, as the three of us were sweating profusely. After sitting at the top enjoying the view for a while, we hiked back down.

On the hike back through the rice paddies, my friend Jess walked ahead a little bit and in the distance I saw her turn around and start laughing. When I caught up to her and DD, I asked them what happened. "Two men are skinny dipping in the pond up ahead!" they said. "Are they foreigners or Chinese?" I asked. "They're white!" they answered. So we kept walking and as I turned the bend, sure enough there were two men, in broad daylight at 2:30 in the afternoon, stark naked. Upon seeing us, they didn't even blink an eye, or even jump in the water, or grab for their clothes. They just waved and said hello, asking where we were from. They had European accents! So they were not silly Americans. Score another point for us. When we said we were from the States, they screamed, "I love Obama!!" We just giggled and ran away.
As we were arriving back to Dehang, we saw two young girls of the Miao minority dressed in their traditional clothes, squatting over a dammed area of the stream, washing clothes. When I looked over, I saw that one of the girls had whipped out an extremely fashionable and hip cell phone and was texting.

We went back to the hostel and got our things together, as well as washed our faces and brushed our teeth in preparation for the 10-hour overnight train ride that awaited us. We couldn't shower though, because we had checked out of the hostel earlier that day and didn't have access to the bathroom. We carried our luggage to the village square and decided to also buy snacks for the train and get dinner. So we sat down and got ready to have a nice relaxing dinner before going to Jishou, as we had given ourselves about 2 hours in leeway time to have dinner and go to the Internet Café in town. So we ordered our food… and waited…and waited… and waited. We decided to embrace the countryside lifestyle of relaxation and not fret about the fact that it was taking so long to get our food, as it was an open kitchen and we could see that they were cooking in there. So finally 1 hour later, our food arrived. Keep in mind that this is literally the longest I have ever had to wait for food in China. It normally takes about 5 minutes to be served food at any restaurant.

So we were kind of annoyed but it wasn't that big of a deal. Then, a couple of bites into our dishes, the bus ticket woman came up to us and asked us if we were going to Jishou, as she could see we had luggage and probably needed to get to the train station. We said "Yes" and she cried: "Hurry up and eat! The last bus to Jishou leaves RIGHT NOW!" So we were like, "Wait, we thought the last bus left at 7:00 pm!" (at this point it was 6:00 pm) and she was like "No, this is the last bus of the evening!" So we shoveled food down our throats and ran after the bus. Out of breath, we piled into the bus and cursed our Lonely Planets for giving us wrong information yet again. As our bus traveled down the bumpy road on the way to Jishou for the next hour, we saw two more Jishou-Dehang buses traveling in the opposite direction, two buses that we could have caught if we had just been given a chance to enjoy our dinner. We thought maybe the woman was working on commission and got more money the more people get on her bus. I don't think this is the case, I think she must have just been mistaken, but we were pretty mad anyway.
When we got to Jishou, we were an hour early for our train, and we found out our train was 45 minutes delayed. So after spending a half an hour at an Internet Café, we waited in the hot and sweaty waiting room at the train station, played with some random baby that was running around, and told off some obnoxious teenagers that found it hilarious to mock the foreigners. Finally our train arrived. So we gathered our luggage and joined the huge throng of Chinese people pushing, shoving and running for the train for no apparent reason, as the train was not going anywhere until everyone boarded, but this is China, what can you say?

When we got on the train, we discovered that we were literally the only women in our car. As we were putting our luggage away, we looked up and a crowd of middle-aged men were surrounding us. "Where do you think they're from?" one of them asked. "I don't know, I think maybe Russia." "No, I think they're from Holland," one of them said. "We're Americans," I replied and then they just stared, wide-eyed at all of us. My friend Sean has a theory that Chinese people like to guess where white people are from, and when they guess right, they pride themselves in being able to distinguish which country foreigners are from. Chinese people particularly like to do this with Canadians and Americans, and frequently ask Sean if he is Canadian. Most of the time, like with Sean, they are wrong. They actually even sometimes have a hard time distinguishing Chinese from Koreans, and sometimes even Japanese. They rely on mannerisms and style of hair or clothing to accurately guess.

Anyway, the train car was stifling hot--either the air conditioning was broken or the train didn't have any—so we climbed up to our top bunks (always the cheapest, so always our choice), which was even hotter than down below (damn hot air rising and all) and tried to sleep. We would arrive at our destination at around 5 am, so we set our alarms, but I still woke up continuously throughout the night, afraid that we would miss our stop. We finally arrived in Liuzhou (柳州), a town 1 hour south of Guilin (桂林), at 5 am on Wednesday, May 5th , 2010. After bargaining with a man who said he was giving us a discount because we were foreigners (yeah, right!), we got a bus to Guilin.

Sarah Tynen
George Washington University Class of 2011
International Affairs

Part-time Federal Work Study job at the Sigur Center

Position Title: Staff Assistant (Federal Work Study only)

Position Description:

The Staff Assistant position is located in the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs. This position is primarily responsible for staffing the center's front desk which encompasses answering the main phone line, greeting visitors, and processing mail. Other administrative duties and special projects as assigned, such as creating spreadsheets and reports, data entry, editing, etc. This is a great opportunity for someone interested in Asian Studies and International Affairs to work closely with Asian Studies faculty and visiting scholars from Asia.Approximate Hours Per Week: 10-15

Hourly Wage: $10/hour

Qualifications:

* Interest in/knowledge of International Affairs and Asian Studies
* Asian foreign language skills
* Experience living, working, or studying in Asia* Strong customer service and interpersonal skills
* Administrative experience
* Must possess a Federal Work Study Award for the 2010-2011 academic year

Application Procedures:

* Send materials to Matt Grieger, Sigur Center Office Manager, at mgrieger@gwu.edu
* Please include the amount of your FWS award in your cover letter.
* Due to a high volume of applications only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. No calls, please.

Mansfield Fellow Alum

Asian Studies Alum Jordan Heiber was pictured in the Mansfield Foundation's newsletter with Ishikawa Prefecture Governor Masanori Tanimoto. He is participating in the Mansfield Foundations' Fellows program, which places fellows with Japanese government and private sector offices. His cohort will begin their placements in Tokyo this September. Information about Jordan Heiber and other participants can be found here. Information about the program can be found here.

Four Graduate Students Publish Articles on Asia

Four Political Science PhD students have published articles and/or book reviews on issues in Indonesia, China, and Turkmenistan. Congrats to Maiko Ichihara, Charles Sullivan, John Tai, and Enze Han!

- Maiko Ichihara. 2010. "Information Availability and NGO Advocacy: Indonesian Environmental NGOs and Anti-Mining Campaigns." Josef Korbel Journal of Advanced International Studies 2 (Summer): 45-60.

- Charles Sullivan. 2010. "Halk, Watan, Berdymuhammedov!: Political Transition and Regime Continuity in Turkmenistan." Journal of Central Asian Studies, Forthcoming.

- John Tai. 2010. "Book Review: Zheng Yongnian and Joseph Fewsmith, eds., China's Opening Society: The non-state sector and governance." East Asia 27 (June): 215-218.

- Enze Han. 2010. "The Dog That Hasn't Barked: Assimilation and Resistance in Inner Mongolia, China." Asian Ethnicity, Forthcoming.

Asia Catalyst Internships

Fall 2010 Internships- Asia Catalyst

Asia Catalyst seeks three interns in New York City and Washington, D.C. for fall 2010. Interns at Asia Catalyst work independently on projects and have input into every aspect of our work. We seek self-starters with a passion for social justice and rule of law who will be an active part of the organization.

1) Graduate researcher, Advocacy – This graduate or law student will conduct research and write a short report on government relations with NGOs. Strong candidates should be generally familiar with the U.S. government and have some nonprofit advocacy background. They should also be experienced at conducting research and should write well. Candidates in either D.C. or NY are welcome to apply.

2) Graduate researcher, Human Rights in Asia – This graduate or law student will conduct online research into current issues in rights advocacy in South and Southeast Asia, and will contribute short articles and columns for our website, Asia Report (http://www.yazhoudiaocha.com/: the website is in Chinese and translation is provided separately). Strong candidates should have some background in the subject of human rights in Asia, should be experienced at conducting online research, should write well, and be able to work well independently. Candidates may be based in the U.S. or in Asia.

(There is information on two more internships based in New York. If you are interested, please go to Asia Catalyst's website or contact Erin for the details at robin_ee@gwu.edu)

Note: All graduate and undergraduate interns work for 10 hours per week, attend an orientation training, and assist with events and other administrative work. Please write to info@asiacatalyst.org with a resume and 1-page cover letter in English describing your experience and qualifications, and provide contact information for two references. Applicants who do not include these materials will not be considered. We will only contact applicants we wish to interview. We will accept applications on a rolling basis until all positions are filled. Asia Catalyst (http://www.asiacatalyst.org/) is a New York-based nonprofit that partners with activists in Asia to inspire, create and launch innovative, self-sustaining programs and organizations that advance human rights, social justice and environmental protection.

Freeman Chair Internship, CSIS

The Freeman Chair in China Studies at CSIS is currently seeking a full-time, unpaid intern for the fall semester. Applicants should be interested in China’s current social and domestic transformation. It is preferable that applicants have knowledge of public and global health issues in China as well as China and the BRICS, and have interest in building further understanding of these issues. They would be expected to assist with the Freeman Chair’s ongoing efforts to examine China’s healthcare reform policies and China’s global health engagement, using both English and Chinese language sources. Also, they would have the opportunity to conduct research and write essays for publication with input and support from the Freeman Chair. They are also expected to provide administrative support to program meetings, conferences and other tasks.

Eligibility:
Must be at least a college junior in good standing, an advanced student or a recent graduate.
Must have at least a 3.0 GPA (on a 4.0 scale) from an accredited U.S. institution or equivalent from a non-U.S. institution.
Must be eligible to work in the United States.

To apply: http://www.csisopportunities.org/internships/application/

North Korea International Documentation Project Internships!

NKIDP Fall Internship Opportunities

The North Korea International Documentation Project is currently accepting internship applications for Fall 2010
Application Deadline: Friday, 20 August 2010
Interns at the Project will assist with research at local archives and libraries, cataloging and editing documents, assembling and publishing document collections, disseminating NKIDP publications, coordinating scholarly conferences, and answering various information requests. Interns at NKIDP will develop an appreciation for the deep continuities in North Korean policies and the relevance of history in contemporary policy formation toward the DPRK. Interns will also gain valuable knowledge from interaction with NKIDP staff, visiting scholars, and Woodrow Wilson Center Fellows.

Application Deadline: Friday, 20 August 2010

NKIDP's internship appointments are generally consistent with academic semesters (i.e. Fall, Spring, Summer / three to four months); although appointments are made throughout the year for periods of varying length. No internship will exceed one year in duration.

Successful applicants should have strong research and/or administrative skills; be extremely attentive to detail; be able to work independently and as part of group; be enrolled in a degree program, have graduated, and/or have been accepted to enter an advanced degree program within the next year. Knowledge of a foreign language (especially Korean, German, Romanian, Polish, Mandarin Chinese, and Russian) and past coursework in modern Korean history or the Cold War in Asia is helpful, but not necessary.

This internship with the North Korea International Documentation Project is unpaid, though we do offer interns the opportunity to earn academic credit in accordance with their programs' requirements. As a general rule, our office is looking for individuals who are willing to devote at least 14 to 21 hours per week.

NKIDP will select up to 3 interns for Fall 2010 to assist with two specific projects:
Publication of the 2010 critical oral history conference transcript. Primary responsibility will include editing and formatting the transcript and document appendix for publication as a book. Previous editing experience desired, but not necessary.
Interns to catalog newly acquired document collections on North Korea's inner workings and foreign policy from North Korean, South Korean, Polish, Russian and (East) German archives (fluency in Korean, Polish, Russian, or German necessary).All NKIDP interns will be expected to provide logistical support as needed for occasional conferencesThe Wilson Center is an equal opportunity employer and follows equal opportunity employment guidelines in the selection of its interns. Internships are open to all U.S. residents and qualified foreign students with U.S. Student Visas (F1).To apply, email a resume and cover letter to the North Korea International Documentation Project at: NKIDP@wilsoncenter.org

Application Deadline: Friday, 20 August 2010

Call for Submissions

The Yale Journal of International Affairs is seeking submissions!


Description
The Yale Journal of International Affairs (YJIA) is a graduate student-run academic journal that publishes articles, interviews, book reviews and op-eds by scholars, graduate students and policy practitioners on topics pertinent to current international affairs. Past contributors to YJIA include: Tony Blair, Paul Collier, Joseph Stiglitz, Ambassador John Negroponte, Mary Kaldor, Nancy Birdsall, and Steven Walt, among others. To view the online version of our past issues, please visit our website: http://www.yalejournal.org/.

Upcoming Issue: Spotlight on Women
In recognition of the United Nations General Assembly’s unanimous vote in July 2010 to establish the body, UN Woman, the Fall 2010 issue of the Yale Journal of International Affairs will include a special Spotlight on Women with the aim of contributing to academic and policy discussions concerning the enhancement of women’s rights around the world. In this regard, we encourage submissions that focus on an international women’s issue. Approximately half of the Fall 2010 issue will be committed to the theme of women, thus YJIA will also consider submissions on other topics of international import.

Submissions
The Yale Journal of International Affairs accepts three types of submissions: 1) Articles (3,000 to 5,000 words), 2) Book reviews (2,000 words or less), and 3) Op-eds (800 words or less). Details about these submissions can be found online at: www.yalejournal.org/submissions.
When sending your submission, please adhere to the following guidelines:
Cover letter: Submissions must include a cover letter indicating the author's name, institutional affiliation, contact information (including email address and phone number), and a brief biography.
Abstract: A 100-word abstract must accompany all submissions.
Format: Submissions must conform to the conventions of the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition. Citations must take the form of endnotes and be formatted according to the YJIA Style Guide, available on the YJIA website: www.yalejournal.org/submissions.
Deadline: Submissions for the upcoming issue must be submitted electronically as Microsoft Word documents to mai.truong@yale.edu no later than October 31, 2010. Authors will be notified of the status of their submissions mid-November 2010.
Please share this call for submissions with appropriate faculty, students and policy practitioners.

For further information, please contact:
Mai Truong (mai.truong@yale.edu), Editor-in-Chief, Yale Journal of International Affairs
34 Hillhouse Avenue; New Haven, CT 06511; http://www.yalejournal.org/

Summer Research in South Korea

by

Justin Collier

MA Candidate (2010)

It is an exciting time to study Asia! If you are able to actually study in Asia you should consider yourself most fortunate. Thanks to George Washington University’s Sigur Center’s Field Research Grant, I was one of those lucky people. I was afforded the opportunity to conduct my research in South Korea this summer (2010). I will get to my research a little later first I want to take the time to make a quick plug for studying in Asia. On average about 250,000 American students study abroad every year, which is astounding considering that this number has quadrupled in the past 20 years. Interestingly, despite consistent annual increases in study abroad in Asia, notably China, American students still overwhelming prefer to study in Europe. In fact, nearly half of the students that study abroad, study in Western Europe. The rest of the students are divided up between Latin America, Australia and Asia (mostly China and Japan). By contrast, the largest numbers of international students, studying in the US, overwhelmingly come from Asia. In fact according to the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors report, of the top 5 countries who study abroad in the US are:

1 India

2 China

3 South Korea

4 Canada

5 Japan

(with Taiwan running a not so distant 6^th)

This is significant because the world’s economic power is rapidly shifting to Asia. For the fast-growing countries of East Asia and South Asia, there is a continuing opportunity for rapid growth. Some economic calculations suggest that, under sensible assumptions, Asia’s share in world GDP could grow to more than half of the world economy over the next thirty years. In layman’s terms the party is going to be in Asia and if this is indeed a globalized world it would be in the US’ best interests to have a working knowledge of the histories, cultures, politics and languages of this dynamic region. For now, sadly, it is a one way street, with Asian students, in large numbers, studying in the US and learning English (sometimes with great difficulty) and American students often choosing the comfortable and the culturally familiar.

So to future study abroad students, try Asia! Sure learning Korean is not the easiest language you can choose, (although it is not as difficult as you might think). Sure, the Thai climate, especially in summer, may leave you a sweaty mess. It may be a new and uncomfortable experience to be the only person that looks like you on the subway car in Taipei. Living in Tokyo may be more difficult than living in London particularly for an American. However, should you choose to go to Asia, I guarantee it will change your life forever.

(Steps down from soapbox)

I went to South Korea for two months this summer to conduct my research on Asian Regional Community. I am interested in whether or not shared socio-cultural factors can serve to create an economic and political union in Asia similar to the European Union. I tried to understand such daunting questions as: “What is Asia?”or “Who are considered to be Asians?” I chose South Korea for many reasons, none the least of which being its strong sense of national pride and unity. I figure, perhaps rather naively, that if the idea of regional community has legs in South Korea then conceivably it may in other countries as well. This was not my first trip to South Korea. I worked as an English instructor in Pusan, South Korea’s 2^nd largest city. Pusan is located in the peninsula’s southeast tip, it is a city divided by mountains with roughly 4 million inhabitants. With all the sunshine and numerous beaches it isn’t hard to figure out why so many Koreans holiday there. People often try to draw some comparison between Pusan and LA or Miami but it really isn’t fair to do so. For risk of sounding cliché, Pusan really is a very unique piece of Korea. Don’t get me wrong, Seoul is an extraordinary city and it is a true testament to the South Korean economic miracle and any visitor to South Korea should try to spend significant time there. With its numerous skyscrapers, copious palaces and temples, hip, cosmopolitan citizens, and (of course) the infamous demilitarized zone, Seoul is often the destination of choice for most visitors. It is the seat of government and culture for South Korea, after all. Walking around one of the trendy, fashion conscious, pristine, upscale districts of Gangnam like Apkujongdong (or even across the Han river at City Hall and Myeongdong) you can quickly forget that you are in Korea at all. However, I chose Pusan because it is not cosmopolitan (people openly gawk at foreigners on the street), it doesn’t have all the skyscrapers or a DMZ but nowhere in its sprawling streets will you ever forget that you are in Korea. Pusan is just different. It is a city settled and designed by the Japanese, Pusan people speak a special dialect which is much different from what is heard in Seoul and politically they have very distinct political views and have proven to be influential throughout Korean political history. In short Pusan in not Seoul and may therefore (I hope) provide my research with some regional diversity of thought.

If you want to survey South Korean people it is important to factor in the regional differences. So, although I was based in Pusan, I traveled to Seoul and also to Kwangju (in Jeolla province and is unique in its own right) surveying university students in each city. Needless to say during summer it is not easy to find students on any college campus in the world and Korea was no different. Nevertheless, I was able survey nearly 70 Korean students. I, also, interviewed some faculty and journalist, not only about my research topic but international relations, gender issues and Korean nationalism. Speaking of nationalism, the World Cup in South Africa had just kicked off when I arrived and Korea was a wash in a sea of red, red being the color of the Korean men’s national soccer team. Every store and street kiosk was draped in red and the Korean flag was EVERYWHERE! You could hardly turn on the TV without seeing some actor or singers singing national soccer fight songs and cheering on their team. On game day everyone (well almost everyone) was wearing red and chanting: “Daehan Minguk!!!” or other songs to cheer on their team, affectionately known as the “Red Devils”. This was particularly impressive since the games usually were broadcast in the early hours of the morning. Visiting Korea during a World Cup is an experience unto itself and once you have experienced it you will have a little “Red Devil” in you.

All in all I enjoy myself when I visit South Korea. This isn’t to say everything in Korea is great. The suicide rate is high, nationalism can be extreme bordering on intimidating, people work too hard, binge drinking and chain smoking is a ubiquitous way of life and women are still struggling to be on equal footing with men. Nevertheless, all countries have their issues and these things should not dissuade anyone from visiting. Nestled between two giants and a short train ride away from its mortal enemy it is the perfect place for the aspiring Asia scholar to study politics business and culture. As I said before, the party is going to be in Asia and Korea is right in the thick of it. So, go to Korea, bring your open mind and you will leave a part of yourself. What you will get in exchange is a piece of Korea.

DAEHAN MINGUK!!!