
My Korea
40 Years Without a Horsehair Hat,
Kevin O'Rourke(Author)
Renaissance Books (Publisher)
Published on 1. July 2013
Book
Hardback
340 pages
978-1-898823-09-4 (ISBN)
Description
My Korea: Forty Years Without a Horsehair Hat is a cultural introduction to Korea, part memoir and part miscellany, which introduces traditional and contemporary culture through a series of essays, stories, anecdotes and poems. The book seeks to tell the reader all that he or she needs to know for a full and rewarding life in Korea or as a visitor passing through. Confucianism, Buddhism, relationships, everyday living, language and literature are comprehensively covered. Newcomers to Korea are provided with insights into daily life. They are told how to deal with people and the intricacies of honorific language, how to handle business dealings, how to be comfortable with social ranking, and how to react when they bump into the cultural wall.
More details
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Folkestone
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Global Books
Target group
Academic
Edition type
New edition
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
562 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-898823-09-4 (9781898823094)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
approx. 12/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
€69.00
Not yet published

E-Book
10/2025
Routledge
€60.49
Available for download

E-Book
10/2025
Routledge
€60.49
Available for download
Person
Kevin O'Rourke, professor emeritus (Kyunghee University), is an Irish priest (Columban Fathers), who has lived in Korea since 1964. He has published many translations of classical and contemporary fiction and poetry including Tilting the Jar, Spilling the Moon (Dedalus 1993), Poems of a Wanderer: Selected Poems of So Chongju (Dedalus 1995), Looking for the Cow (Dedalus 1999), the Yi Munyol novella Our Twisted Hero (Hyperion 2001); The Book of Korean Shijo (Harvard 2002); A Hundred Love Poems from Old Korea (Global Oriental 2005), and The Book of Korean Poetry: Songs of Shilla and Koryo (Iowa University Press 2006).
Content
Acknowledgements
INTRODUCTION
1. KOREA IN THE 1960s
2. THE COLUMBANS
3. LEARNING THE ROPES
4. CULTURAL ADAPTATION
5. IN AT THE DEEP END
6. THE CULTURAL EXPERIENCE: WHERE TO BEGIN
7. THE CONFUCIAN MONOLITH
8. THE CHOS? N BUREAUCRACY
9. THE BUDDHIST INGREDIENT
10. EXCLUSIVITY MYTHS
11. CHILMAJAE SONGS - S? Ch?ngju
12. KOREA'S GREATEST ASSET
13. TALES OF THE IMMORTALS
14. AT THE CULTURAL COALFACE: IMMERSION, SUBMERSION? - TAKE YOUR PICK
15. NINE PRIEST IMMORTALS
16. SEEKING THE WAY
17. FOR THOSE OF US WITH LESS THAN IMMORTAL STATUS
18. LEARNING KOREAN
AFTERWORD
Bibliography
Index
INTRODUCTION
1. KOREA IN THE 1960s
2. THE COLUMBANS
3. LEARNING THE ROPES
4. CULTURAL ADAPTATION
5. IN AT THE DEEP END
6. THE CULTURAL EXPERIENCE: WHERE TO BEGIN
7. THE CONFUCIAN MONOLITH
8. THE CHOS? N BUREAUCRACY
9. THE BUDDHIST INGREDIENT
10. EXCLUSIVITY MYTHS
11. CHILMAJAE SONGS - S? Ch?ngju
12. KOREA'S GREATEST ASSET
13. TALES OF THE IMMORTALS
14. AT THE CULTURAL COALFACE: IMMERSION, SUBMERSION? - TAKE YOUR PICK
15. NINE PRIEST IMMORTALS
16. SEEKING THE WAY
17. FOR THOSE OF US WITH LESS THAN IMMORTAL STATUS
18. LEARNING KOREAN
AFTERWORD
Bibliography
Index