Emanuel Pastreich (director), Layne Hartsell (researcher) and Josh Lee (chairman) of the Asia Institute joined the Big Tent discussion held by Google Korea on October 30 (2013) in Gangnam, Seoul. Emanuel and Layne first gave Chairman Eric Schmidt of Google a personal tour of the National Museum of Korea in the morning which included a lively discussion about Korea’s history and culture and its implications for the future. They also took time off for a three way discussion of the implications of technology and globalization for human civilization.
Emanuel Pastreich answers questions about his book “Another Republic of Korea” from KBS anchor Yang Yeongeun at the Google Big Tent in Gangnam (October 30, 2013)
In the afternoon, Emanuel was part of a panel featuring Cho Wonkyu, CEO for research at Google Korea, Won Yongki, Director at the Ministry of Culture, Cheong Taesong, Film Director at CJ Entertainment, and Kim Hyeongjun, producer at KBS. Emanuel argued the Korea needed to create global shared values that could become part of universal culture as part of the next stage of the Korean Wave. Business Korea described his talk in the following manner:
Dr. Pastreich was asked by Ms. Yang about his perspective as a non-Korean who has studied Korean culture. He emphasized that Korea finds itself today in a unique position as a non-imperial power with global reach, and that it should use that opportunity to its advantage on the global stage. He noted that many people around the world are paying attention to Korea’s culture and values. “Many countries have very high expectations for Korea,” he emphasized. “Many people think that the future of the world will come from Asia. And Korea is the most advanced but also the most human of the major powers.”
But Pastreich also suggested Korea has a long way to go. “People know Samsung and LG, but the history of Korea is largely unknown,” he explained. “You have people in South America saying, ‘I want to be the next Gandhi.’ But you do not have anyone outside of Korea saying, ‘I want to be King Sejong.’ The reason is simple: Koreans have not made Korean culture a part of global culture.”
In
“Korean Culture becoming Part of Mobile Generation’s Universal Human Culture”
