[Dialogue] New Korean Studies and the Keyword Gaebyeok (“Great Opening”) / Kim Sungmoon, Baek Min Jung, Baik Young Seo, Ryu Youngju
The Quarterly Changbi 197, Autumn 2022
Abstract
We live in the world where the signs of crisis in capitalist civilization, such as the pandemic, climate crisis, and wars, are surging. The Dialogue corner in this issue is a space where scholars explore the role of Korean Studies in this period of civilizational transformation. Moderated by historian Baik Young Seo, political scientist Kim Sungmoon, philosopher Baek Min Jung, and Ryu Youngju, director of the Nam Center for Korean Studies, University of Michigan, evaluate Korean cultural capacity, evident through the Korean Wave, examine the current tasks of domestic and overseas Korean Studies, and discuss the necessity of a new direction for it. In particular, noting the concept of gaebyeok (“great opening”) as a motivating force for the restructuring of Korean studies, they persuasively argue for the importance of reviving indigenous Korean thought in the work of the current task of civilizational transformation. Readers will feel the vitality of the discussion, which begins with the diagnosis of Korean studies’ tasks and expands to include gaebyeok (“great opening”) and the Candlelight democracy, and the currents and possibilities of Korean thought inherent in that vitality.