Opening Remarks for the 2002 Hahn Moo-Sook Colloquium in the Korean Humanities

 

by Mike Mochizuki

 

Good morning.  I am Mike Mochizuki, director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies.  On behalf of the Asian Studies program at George Washington University, I would like to welcome all of you to the 9th annual Hahn Moo-Sook Colloquium.

 

As noted in your program, this colloquium is made possible by an endowment created by the estate of one Korea’s most honored writers, Hahn Moo-Sook.  This colloquium is truly one of GW’s special treasures.  Its aim is to highlight, examine, and celebrate Korea’s cultural achievements, both contemporary and historical.  For me, this colloquium not only confirms how dynamic and how strong Korean studies is at GW, but also demonstrates how important the humanities are in our Asian Studies curriculum.

 

Like many of you, I had the opportunity last night to view Director Park Chul Soo’s funny and bittersweet movie Kazoku Cinema, which depicts the making of a documentary film about a dysfunctional family.  Mr. Park introduced his film by warning the audience about the movie’s various surprises.

 

When I was trying to find a seat with one of my colleagues in the crowded auditorium, I was worried that I would not be close enough to read the English subtitles.  To my pleasant surprise, I discovered that the dialogue in Kazoku Cinema is entirely in Japanese.

 

In the middle of the movie, the film crew raises the issue of whether or not to mention that the family that is the subject of the documentary is in fact a family of Korean ancestry.  They in the end decide not to mention this fact and choose instead to stress the documentary’s universality.  With this, I felt that the movie did a terrific job of alluding to the theme of this year’s colloquium: “Crossing Borders.”

 

I would like to close by thanking Ambassador Yang and the Freer Gallery for hosting last night’s elegant reception.  I would also like to thank all of the lecturers and commentators

in today’s program.  And finally, I would like to express my appreciation to the conveners, Professors Young-Key Kim-Rinaud, Richard Grinker and Kirk Larsen, for all their hard work in organizing this colloquium.