Korea
Upcoming -- Reports by Soonja Yoon from Pusan, Korea. Land &PeopleLANDThe Korean Peninsula extends southward from the north eastern section
of the vast Asian contient, spanning 1,000 kilometers north to south.
It shares most of its northern border with China and touches Russia.
Since 1948, the peninsula has been divided into two parts, the Republic
of Korea in the south and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in
the north.
Korea has a varied terrain,though about 70 percent of the territory is
mountainous. The spectacular Taebaek mountains run the full lengh of
the east coast, where the lashing tides of the East sea, have carved out
sheer cliffs and rocky islets.
The western and southern slopes are very gentle, forming plains and many offshore islands honeycombed with inlets. the irregular shoreline is dotted with over 3,00 islands. The yellow Sea, lying between Korea and the People's Republic of China and the ocean south of the peninsula form a continental shelf with the shallow sea floor providing valuable resources for the fishing industry. Surrounding the peninsula on three sides, the sea has played a remarkable
role in Korean life since ancient times, contributing to the early development
of shipbuilding and navigation skills. In recent years, the seabed off the
southwestern coast has been explored for petroleum deposits.
PeopleThe Koreans are one ethnic family speaking one language. Linguistic and anthropological studies as well as legendary sources clearly distinguish Koreans from the Chinese and Japanese. Sharing distinct physical characteristics, they are believed to be descendants of several Mongol tribes which migrated onto the Korean peninsula from Central Asia.
Koreans were a homogeneous people by the beginning of the Christian era. In the 7th century A.D. They were politically unified for the first time by the Shilla Kingdom(57B.C.-935A.D.) and subsequently witnessed a great cultural flowering. The Koreans people struggled successfully for millennia to maintain their cultural and political Identity despite the influence of neighboring China and the more recent aggressive inclinations of the Japanese. They are a proud people with one of the longest national histories in the world. LanguageKoreans all speak and write the same language,which has been a crucial factor in their strong national identity. Modern Korean has several different dialects including the standard one used in Seoul and central areas,but they are similar enough that speakers do not have trouble understanding each other. Linguistic and ethnological studies have established that the Korean Language belong to the Ural-Altaic language group of central Asia, which also includes Turkish,Hungarian,Finnish,Mongolian,Tibetan and Japanese. Korean bears considerable resemblance to Japanes in grammatical structure,and both languages have many Chinese leased word. The Korean alphabet,called Han-gul,was invented in the 15th century by a group of scholars under the patronange of King Sejong the Great, the 4th monarch of the Choson Dynasty(1392-1910). Before the invention of these simple phonetic symbols,Korean was written by Chinese characters which depend on a totally different linguistic system. The Korean alphabet,which is considered one of the most scientific writing systems in the world,consists of 10 vowels and 14 consonants, which can be combined to form numerous syllabic groupings. It is simple, but systematic and comprehensiv at the same time. It is also easily appliable to computer systems. Korean Newspapers: Korea Web Weekly (English)Chosun Ilbo Han-Kyoreh Shinbum Joong´Ang Daily News Korea Economic Daily Korea Herald Chosun Ilbo Korea Times (NY) Maeil Shinmum Munhwa Ilbo Seoul Shinmum News E-mail the polyzine.com staff at editor@polyzine.com Polyzine.com is an aesthetically intellectual zine. |
