• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.67-85
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• 2009

The Trans-Central Asian Railway consists of the Trans-Caspian Railroad, the Kazalinsk Route, the Turk-Sib, and the Trans-Kazakhstan Trunk Line. Currently, one-fifth of the residents in Central Asia are living around these railroads on which 70% of the economic activities in the region depends. The construction of the railroads in Central Asia was motivated by the Russian Empire's competition 'with its maritime rival, the United Kingdom, over the Eurasian heartland in a geostrategic sense. Using the railroads, the Russian Empire aspired to connect its central industrial regions in European Russia with the remote frontier areas in the Central Asian republics and to increase economic specialization of the region. After the breakdown of the USSR, however, the rail network, which had well been linked among the regions in the former Soviet nations, has been in a deteriorated linkage with their non-Soviet neighboring nations. Despite a lot of problems to be solved, the Trans-Central Asian rail network is expected to play a crucial role as a land bridge between East Asia and Europe as well as between Russia/the Baltic sea and the Indian Ocean/the Persian Gulf in the long-term.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.37 no.8
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• pp.1029-1043
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• 2013

The pearl is a highly valuable gem that has historically represented wealth and power. Pearl necklaces have developed intro various types and represent an essential status item for modern women. This study first examines the symbolic and various meanings of pearls. Second, this study examines wearing types and pearl necklace patterns based on historical figures and modern fashion icons famous for personal displays of pearls. This study examines and analyzes various specialty publications about jewels, history of costumes, fashion magazines, academic research data, and internet search results. The conclusion of this study is as follows. Pearls have various symbolic meanings that are unlike other gems. Pearls represent purity, innocence, marital fidelity, an intimate relationship with the moon, frozen tears of God, solitude, triumph over adversity, wisdom, and sensual attraction. The societies and people traditionally famous for pearls were the Roman Empire, Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, Queen Theodora of the Byzantine Empire, Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Marie Antoinette, Empress of Eugenie Napoleon III, and Queen Alexandra. They showed a special affection for pearl necklaces and various wearing patterns unique to the time. Their pearl necklaces became a historic and symbolic legacy. Reestablished through the costume jewelry of cultivated pearls designed by Coco Chanel in the $20^{th}$ century, the pearl necklace has showed a variety of fashion trends in addition to a traditional symbolism of wealth and power. Josephine Baker, Louise Brooks, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Jacqueline Kennedy, Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Diana, Michelle Obama and Sarah Jessica Parker have worn notable pearl necklaces and established an individual style that utilizes the adornment of fashionable and stylish pearl necklaces. They have worn pearl necklaces while applying various fashion trend motifs to symbolic pearl features of that have changed the perception of the pearl and themselves.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.45
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• pp.479-496
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• 2016

The aim of this essay was to investigate Marlow's desire for constructing enlightenment subject of knowledge and power sustained by the collusion of imperialism and patriarchy in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Marlow's narrative, based on his journey up the river in Africa to retrieve Kurtz, attempts to conceptualize himself as the subject of the enlightenment reason and rationality. In the novella, collusive network of ideologies of empire and gender contributes to the making of a Western Enlightenment subject. Marlow eulogizes himself for realizing the harsh realities of imperialism, political domination and economic exploitation of the natives in Africa. However, Marlow is a colonial subject who has been ruled by the hierarchical system of thought in the Western logocentrism. He is not aware that his narrative has already been infiltrated by the ideological discourse of the totalitarian enlightenment. His narrative in effect is not a self-congratulatory testimony to truth and realities but a narcissistic and self-defeating document. Marlow unconsciously employs the totalitarian ideologies of empire and gender in order to relegate the African natives to the inhuman existence and to consign women to the sphere of illusion.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.151-160
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• 2018

There is a variety of opinions about the first translation activities within the Turkic Empire. It is widely believed that some Buddhist sutras were translated into the Turkic language in the period of Taspar Qagan (572-581). This theory is based on certain arguments: Some Turks practiced Buddhism, Buddhist monks translated sutras in the center of the Turkic Empire, Taspar brought sutras from China and had them translated, and the monarch of Northern Qi had a sutra translated and sent to Taspar. However, in my opinion, these arguments lack credibility. This article, which is based on primary Chinese sources, will question the likelihood of such translation activities having occurred. Some Chinese records for these claims exist: Da Tang Nei Dian Lu (大唐內典錄) and Xu Gao Seng Chuan (續高僧傳) by the Buddhist monk Jinagupta and the records of Hui Lin in Sui Shu (隋書) and Wen Xian Tong Kao (文獻通考). These are known as "primary sources." Secondary sources, namely contemporary history and language studies, such as those in books and articles, must be based on primary sources. It can be seen that claims relating to the first Turkic translation activities at the time of Taspar are mainly derived from secondary sources, and that the arguments in these secondary sources vary. Sometimes researchers make suppositions on the existence of information that is not referred to in primary sources. However, this is not normal practice. If a researcher relies on unknowns for the evidence of information existing, it can cause false information, ideas and anachronisms to be created. It is important that primary sources, such as the Chinese sources mentioned above, be translated correctly in language and history studies. If only a word is mistranslated, very different results may occur. Mistranslating or misinterpreting a primary source allows conclusions to be reached that are not supported by dissemination of information from primary sources. This can mislead experts and result in information that is not correct being considered as being true. As well as helping to prevent such misinterpretations occurring, another aim of this paper is to question the interpretations of the first Turkic translations in contemporary studies on history and language. The origin of such assessments will be explored and the validity of that information will be examined.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.48.4-49
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• 2018

We studyed an Korean astrolabe made by Ryu Geum (1741~1788), the late Joseon Confucian scholar. It has a diameter of 17 cm and a thickness of 6 mm and is now owned by Museum of Silhak. In the 1267 of the reign of Kublai Khan of Mogol Empire, Jamal al Din, an Ilkhanate astronomer, present an astrolabe to his emperor together with 6 astronomical instruments. In 1525, an astrolabe was first made in Korea by Lee, Sun (李純, ?~?), a Korean astronomer and royal official of Joseon Dynasty. He was referred to Gexiang xinshu, a Mongloian-Chinese book by Zhao, Youqin (1280-1345), an astronomer of Mongolian Empire. This astrolabe has not been left. In the mid-17th century, an astrolabe was introduced to Joseon again through Hungai tongxian tushuo (渾蓋 通憲圖設) edited by Chinese Mathematician Li Zhi-zao (李之藻, 1565~1630), that originated from Astrolabium (1593) of Christoph Clavius (1538-1612). It seems that Ryu refered to Hungai tongxian tushuo which affect to Hongae-tongheon-ui (渾蓋通憲儀) edited by Nam, Byeong-Cheol (南秉哲, 1817~1863). We analysis lots of circles on the mother and a set of index from the rete of of Ryu's astrolabe. We find that the accuracy of circles has about 0.2~0.4 mm in average if the latitude of this astrolabe is 38 degrees. 11 indices of the rete point bright stars of the northern and southern celestial hemisphere. Their tip's accuracies are about $2^{\circ}.9{\pm}3^{\circ}.2$ and $2^{\circ}.3{\pm}2^{\circ}.8$ on right ascension and declination of stars respectively.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.47-70
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• 2016

Under the inhumane oppression of imperialism, the Third World's political violence has been often represented as an immediate and explosive one with an instant, concentrated visibility. Yet the ecological and psychological exploitation of the Third-World countries by empires, as Rob Nixon insists, shows the relative invisibility of slow violence. This paper is to reveal this slow violence of the marginalized areas symbolized as the lowland. Although Arne Naess' deep ecology promotes the inherent worth of living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs. this paper deals with three postcolonial ecological textbooks which criticize the white-centered deep ecology: Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace, Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland, and Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible. Through postcolonial critical study, this paper finds out that all these three works have some themes in common. First, these postcolonial works assume a shape of family saga which is parallel to the slow violence of ecological and psychological plundering of empires in the postcolonial countries. Second, like the mangroves which have a tenacious hold on life, these postcolonial people rather overcome the heterogenic challenge with the sturdy and tough mind than defeated. Third, the native people's ethics of earth functions as the stronghold for their respectable lifestyle in their indigenous historicity. Finally, as a big fat brother, the Americanized globalization or neoliberalism is warned as the neocolonialism which is often shown as the disguised pattern of greenwashing. Namely, the people's self-enhancement is always prior to the imperialistic development or neoliberalism in the postcolonial ecological texts which sharply contrast the native's life consciousness and the empire's development theory.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.63-71
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• 2020

K-Pop is powerful. Once considered to be at the periphery of global music scene, it is now reaching the whole world. Not surprisingly, the media, domestic and foreign, have scrambled to unlock the secrets of K-Pop's phenomenal growth. In doing so, they have not failed to highlight the underside of its success, such as cut-throat competition among idol-group members and the programmed member replacement by their agencies. One of the most notable characteristics in this process is called, in their business jargon, 'the graduation system'. This paper attempts to explicate this management practice unique to K-pop industry. To do so, this paper draws on Rene Girard's work on desires, particularly his notion of mimesis, violence and the scapegoat mechanism. Based on a documentary film, interactive online sites and a monograph that have chronicled how the K-pop girl group <9 Muses> have 'graduated' during their debut process, this paper applies, as its main analytical tool, the scapegoat mechanism and attempts to explore on its basis what 'the system' entails for the K-pop industry in general and the actors working within it in particular.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.3-24
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• 2009

The Harry Potter series is considered to represent the multicultural aspect of contemporary British society and to show critical perspectives of racism. This series, however, also includes many elements of British imperialism. This paper examines the ideas about education and Harry's role in relation to British imperialism. One of the main ideas prevalent in 19th century British boys' public schools was that people's blood origin is the most important element in determining their characteristics, ability and moral qualities. The students' inherited capacity and their family background are more highly regarded than their secondary learning and training. This reflects a 19th century concept that ultimately, inborn quality makes 'a hero', a truth presented in the educational policies of Hogwarts. Hogwarts' educational policies and systems can also be related to 'developmentalism', which defines children as imperfect, in-progress and incomplete, thus needing proper training and discipline. As this concept functioned to justify the control of children while educating them, Hogwarts adopts diverse controlling devices and oppressive policies, which are mainly justified in the name of education. On the one hand, child characters are controlled and oppressed by the school authorities, on the other hand, some of the students such as Harry have remarkable magic powers enough to resist the adult authority and even to save the magic society from the evil power. Harry plays dual roles, which the British boys of the Empire were assigned from their society; they are important heirs to conquer the 'evil' or 'barbarous' world but need to be obedient to a 'good' authority to achieve the mission. Harry's magic power and self-discipline ultimately contribute to fulfilling Dumbledore's mission, which mirrors 19th century British boys' roles as the heirs of the British Empire.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.79-94
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to examine the descriptions of the transmission of plague along the Silk Road in Orhan Pamuk's 2022 novel Nights of Plague. Pamuk won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, the first prize for Turkish literature. Pamuk's vast knowledge of epidemiological history, which has long fascinated him, comes to life in this novel as he describes the characters' battles against the plague in the East and West and how the plague was brought to the islands and spread along the Maritime Silk Road. One of the most important trade routes in human history, the Silk Road was not only a link between East and West trade and cultures but also a route for the transmission of bubonic plague during the medieval period onwards. It was this epidemic that contributed to the decline of the Silk Road. In the novel, a plague originating in China strikes the Ottoman coastal cities of Smyrna and Mingheria on its way to Europe via India. The epidemic is contained in Smyrna but the death toll spirals out of control when the plague reaches the island of Mingheria by sea. The spatial setting of the novel is an island, which means that it communicates with the outside world by sea. The only way the plague could have spread to an isolated island was by ship. Rats from different ports and ships would have traveled to other parts of the world or even countries to spread the plague. In Nights of Plague, the fact that the plague reached Mingheria via the maritime Silk Road is also proven by the route of the ships and various narratives. The novel confirms what many scholars have argued, that the Silk Road brought various goods from the East to the Roman Empire, along with deadly diseases, and that the sea routes were an important way for the plague to travel and spread.

• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.19
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• pp.153-192
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• 2009

Appearing newly on June 1894, Gaboh regime enforced modern reformation policy. In light of archives' management, it was totally different from before. Government established individual department of record management in every division and proclaimed a legislative bill which was stipulated about record management process. They modified archives' form including peculiar declaration of the name of an era and use together with Korean and Chinese. Also they tried to conserve the original copy of the archives. As King Gojong announced the Great Han Empire(Taehan Cheguk, 大韓帝國) on October 1897, he reinforced Gaboh regimes' weakened royal authority and enforced reformation policy which was designed for himself. First he abolished the administration which restricted royal authority, and established new department called Euijungbu(議政府). To restrain the royal power, he separated the Royal House and government and reinforced Gungnaebu(宮內府). In addition, King Gojong enforced the policy which he can manage directly about troops, policies, and finances. Consequently, He established Wonsubu(元帥府), Kyungbu(警部), and made direct belonging of an emperor. Also, department called Naejangwon(內藏院) tried to levy many kinds of taxes directly to build up the financial foundation under the emperor. The record management system of Great Han Empire succeeded to that of Gaboh regimes Times'. First, government and powerful organization directly under the emperor set up the department of record management. Euijungbu (議政府) and governmental department, of course, Gungnaebu(宮內府), Wonsubu(元帥府), Kyungbu(警部), Tongshinwon(通信院), Jikyeahmun(地契衙門) which support the right of an emperor established document division and record division individually. To carry out government's service effectively and systematically, it was considered effective to divide record management department. Moreover, despite the difference between the divisions, they were separated into current record division and non current record division. Generally, document department took charge of acceptance, sending and crafting of current document and archives department was eligible for preservation and compilation of major document and eternal conservation document. This seems to consider life cycle of the record and keep the evaluation of record in mind. Finally, perception for the record management has revealed to modern configuration.