by Je-Hun Ryu

size: 23.5x15.5cm 340pages. publisher: Hollym, 2000.

About this book
Let's see Korea from the geographical perspective, focused on culture.

The 21st century is the age of culture, and thus cultural competition will intensify among countries. The internal or regional diversity in a national culture is necessary for a nation to develop its own cultural capability. If Koreans comprehend their own national culture as a mixture of many regional cultures, they will be more prepared to adapt themselves to the process of globalization.

Cultural geography is still not a popular field in Korea. However, Dr. Ryu shows its usefulness here as a tool for seeking a new vision. He adapts his deep experience in cultural geography to Korea's long history of over 5,000 years and its complicated cultural phenomena. He looks forward to seeing widened geographical discussion of Korean culture in the future.

Books about geography usually show areas with their provinces, boundaries or geographical districts, but Dr. Ryu shows Korean landscapes with their religious, folk, linguistic, rural and urban aspects. With this book, you can see many interesting stories of Korean landscapes related to towns, cities, and districts.

About the author
Dr. Je-Hun Ryu earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He has been on the faculty of the Department of Geography, Korea National University of Education since 1987, and was a visiting scholar at the Institute of Chinese Historical Geography, Fudan University in China, from 1996 to 1997. He is the author of two books: A Historical Geography of Modernization: Honam Plain in Korea and A Historical Geography of China (both in Korean). He dedicated this book to his late mentor, Dr. Paul Ward English who wrote A Question of Place: World Regional Geography.

LC#: 00-106349