In this blog post, we’ll explore how Europe leveraged its scientific, climatic, and geographical advantages to build a powerful empire. Empires contributed to the fusion of countless small cultures into a few large ones. Within empires, ideas, people, goods, and technologies spread more easily than in politically fragmented regions. The benefits of information sharing, the ease of...
What meaning lies behind books with the same title?
In this blog post, I’ll examine how two books titled ‘The Blind Watchmaker’ convey different messages, focusing on Richard Dawkins’ philosophy of science and the science fiction novel by Kim Tak-hwan and Jeong Jae-seung. Two Books with the Same Title One day, while browsing the library to borrow a book, my eyes fell on ‘The Blind Watchmaker’, co-authored by Kim Tak...
Is ‘No Longer Human’ really just a novel that chronicles one man’s despair?
In this blog post, we’ll examine the protagonist Yōzō’s anguish and wanderings through Osamu Dazai’s masterpiece ‘No Longer Human’, as well as the themes of innocence, faith, and the turmoil of the era embedded in the work, to explore why this novel continues to be read to this day. ‘No Longer Human’ is Osamu Dazai’s posthumous work, which continues to be read and...
Was ‘Wandering’ Lu Xun’s cry against a turbulent era?
In this blog post, we will examine the anguish of intellectuals and the reality of the common people living through turbulent times through the lens of Lu Xun, a master of modern Chinese literature, and his short story collection ‘Wandering’. We will also reflect on the significance for us today of Lu Xun’s critical perspective—as someone who abandoned medicine to pursue...
What makes Katherine Mansfield and her work so special?
In this blog post, we’ll provide an overview of Katherine Mansfield’s life and literary world and analyze her major short stories. Katherine Mansfield was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1888 as the second daughter of a businessman. She had a passion for the arts from a young age and went to study in London. After studying at Queen’s College, she married a musician, but the marriage...
Why Do the Chinese Still Refer to Lu Xun as the “Soul of the Nation”?
In this blog post, we’ll explore why Lu Xun, a master of modern Chinese literature, is still referred to as the “Soul of the Nation” today. Focusing on ‘The Diary of a Madman’ and ‘The True Story of Ah Q’, we’ll examine his literary world, his critique of the nation, and his timeless influence. In the history of modern Chinese literature, just as Hu Shi is regarded...
In Search of the Chinese Classic ‘Records of the Warring States’: How to Read the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period, and the Qin Unification
In this blog post, we’ll focus on ‘In Search of the Chinese Classic ‘Records of the Warring States’: How to Read the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period, and the Qin Unification’ to naturally summarize and examine—in a single sentence—the background, main content, and the core meanings and impressions revealed throughout the text. The Contemporaneity...
Did Li Baojia’s ‘Civilization Stories’ expose the hypocrisy of the Reformists and criticize the revolution?
In this blog post, we will examine, through specific examples and focusing on the narrative structure and main characters of this work, how Li Baojia satirized the conflicts between the Reformists and the revolutionaries, as well as between bureaucrats and Westerners. Overview Li Baojia (李寶嘉, 1867–1906), a native of Wuzhen, Jiangsu Province, was a writer in the late Qing Chinese literary...
Why is Yuan Zaju considered the starting point of traditional Chinese theater?
In this blog post, I will summarize and explain how the name, development process, script structure, musical system, and casting system of Yuan Zaju—which took shape during the Yuan Dynasty—combined to lay the foundation for subsequent traditional Chinese theater. Name and Formation The works discussed in this article are translations of Zaju (雜劇) plays written during the Yuan Dynasty...
Why is ‘The Scholars’ considered an autobiographical masterpiece that exposes a corrupt intellectual community?
In this blog post, we will examine how Oh Gyeong-jae’s ‘The Scholars’ bitingly satirized the corruption and contradictions of the Qing Dynasty’s intellectual community, and how this work has been reevaluated by academic circles in China and Korea. Introduction ‘Rulin Waishi’ is considered one of the six masterpieces representing Chinese classical fiction, alongside...