Literature
Zainichi, Part Two
Okubo is Tokyo’s main Koreatown and one of the very few large immigrant enclaves in the entire country. It’s a downtown area around two very busy railway stations, a little world to itself where people [more…]
Korea
Literature
Zainichi, Part One
Imagine an England where race matters. Where natives come first in hiring and housing. Where foreigners are barred from certain locales, by signs in the windows. Where people openly judge you by your skin colour [more…]
20th Century
Memories of the first World Cup held in Asia: Final rounds
The Japan-Korea World Cup in 2002 was the first time the competition had been co-hosted. It was the first time it had been held in Asia, and the first time a country that had never [more…]
20th Century
Memories of the first World Cup held in Asia: Early rounds
The Japan-Korea World Cup in 2002 was the first time the competition had been co-hosted. It was the first time it had been held in Asia, and the first time a country that had never [more…]
Christianity
Korea, Suwon, Part 3
Attending a Korean Mega-Service Towards the end of my stay in South Korea in 2017, I attended one of the mega-services Korean churches specialise in. It was a meeting of the Baptist Church, which, the [more…]
Christianity
Korea, Suwon, Part 2
Christianity in Korea—Just Why? The Catholics formed the vanguard of Christianity’s march into East Asia. They first arrived in Korea in the late 1700s, and met with the same hostile reception as they had in [more…]
Hobbies
Korea, Suwon, Part 1
Samsung City Suwon is a city of about a million people, about an hour south of central Seoul by train. I suppose you could call it a scaled-up Korean version of Guildford, on the edge [more…]
Arts
In Praise of Mono-Culturalism
What is “monoculturalism”? Take a trip around the internet and you’ll find out that monoculturalism is defined as “the cultivation of a single crop in a given area”. That’s all well and good and the [more…]