- Overview
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Yu Hongjune tells stories about people, history, and cultural heritage in Seoul, a place where the past and future coexist, with his own subtle and keen insight.
- Book Intro
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My Cultural Heritage Discovery, a major book series on Humanities and Social Sciences that has been loved by 3.8 million Korean readers, has returned with a new edition. The My Cultural Heritage Discovery series, which has seen the publishing of eight volumes on South Korean territory and nine volumes on Japan over the past 25 years, finally unveils a new volume on Seoul, consisting of The Owner of the Moon Reflected in 10,000 Streams Says and With Alcohol, You Lean Taoism; Without Alcohol, You Learn Buddhism. The author examines the cultural heritage and history of Seoul, where the past, present, and future coexist, with subtle and keen insights while delivering interesting stories behind the city in language that is easy to understand.
In the Seoul edition, the author’s skill of “discovering” the place is particularly outstanding. His extraordinary ability to put forth enormous amounts of information encompassing history, arts, and culture and explain that information in a simple way allows readers to broaden their perspectives on Korean history in a short period of time. His sentences have grown elegant over the passage of time and provided readers with a more vivid description of cultural heritage while recalling the characters and stories related to them. One of the strengths of this book is found in its delicate balance between pleasure and knowledge, which makes the book not excessively academic, critical, or light.
Today, Seoul is a quickly changing metropolis full of contradictions where the highest and lowest values coexist. Yu emphasizes that it is cultural heritage that can unite the complex aspects of the city as one. The readers may easily notice his pride and affection for Seoul, which is also his hometown. The new aspects of the unprecedentedly old city of Seoul are revealed along with the history and attractive features of Seoul that readers likely will not properly know.
- About the Author
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Yu Hongjune
Yu Hongjune was born in Seoul in 1949. Yu graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in Aesthetics and received his MA in Art History from the graduate school of Hongik University and a PhD in Oriental Philosophy from the graduate school of Sungkyunkwan University. Yu started his career as an art critic after his art critique won the annual spring literary contest hosted by Dong-a Ilbo in 1981. Yu held a lecture called "Korean Art History for Young People" a dozen times in Seoul and Daegu from 1985 to 2000, and he became a representative of the Korean Cultural Heritage Exploration Association. Yu previously worked as a professor and a museum director at Yeongnam University, a professor and dean of the Cultural Art Graduate School at Myongji University, and a director of the Cultural Heritage Administration. He currently serves as an Art History professor at Myongji University and an honorary director of Jeju Chusagwan.
