Seminars

  • Founded
    2019
  • Seminar Number
    797

The Korean Studies Seminar is an interdisciplinary forum that brings together scholars, artists, and professionals working on Korea-related subjects from a wide variety of disciplines: history, literature, art history, visual and media studies, architecture, religion, sociology, anthropology, music, and performance studies. The seminar discusses current research and issues in the study of Korea drawn from the dynamic intellectual community in and around New York City.


Co-Chairs
Professor Ksenia Chizhova
kchizhova@princeton.edu

Professor Jae Won Chung
jchung@alc.rutgers.edu

Professor Jenny Wang Medina
jjw2005@columbia.edu

Rapporteur
Ruby Stewart-Liberty
rs214@Columbia.edu

Meeting Schedule

02/10/2023 Faculty House, Columbia University
6:30 PM
Korean Studies and Public Outreach
Linda Tobash, The Korea Society




04/07/2023 Faculty House, Columbia University
5:00 PM
Boundless Winds of Empire: Rhetoric and Ritual in Early Chosŏn Diplomacy with Ming China
Sixiang Wang, UCLA

Abstract

Abstract

Sixiang Wang, Assistant Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA, will discuss his forthcoming book, Boundless Winds of Empire, a cultural history of diplomacy that traces Chosŏn’s rhetorical and ritual engagement with China. Chosŏn drew on classical Chinese paradigms of statecraft, political legitimacy, and cultural achievement. It also paid regular tribute to the Ming court, where its envoys composed paeans to Ming imperial glory. Wang argues these acts were not straightforward affirmations of Ming domination; instead, they concealed a subtle and sophisticated strategy of diplomatic and cultural negotiation. He shows how Korea’s rulers and diplomats inserted Chosŏn into the Ming Empire’s legitimating strategies and established Korea as a stakeholder in a shared imperial tradition. Boundless Winds of Empire recasts a critical period of Sino-Korean relations through the Korean perspective, emphasizing Korean agency in the making of East Asian international relations.