SEOUL – first book on Czech history available in Korean language

The first concise Korean-language book on the Czech history from the earliest times up to the 21st century has been published as a part of the HK research project team on Eastern Europe at the Sogang University, one of the leading Korean research institutions. Its official launching took place at Gonzaga Hall, Sogang University on April 26, 2011.

The Brief History of the Czech Lands by well-known Czech historians Petr Čornej and Jiří Pokorný has already been published not only in the original Czech version, but also in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Japanese, all of them by Prague-based publishing house Práh (www.prah.cz). These foreign-language editions were produced with a support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic (www.mzv.cz), while the first Korean-language edition 간추린 체코 역사 이야기 is the only one published by a foreign publisher, this time with the assistance of the Embassy of the Czech Republic to the Republic of Korea and with an approval of its authors and Práh publishing house.

 

(l-r) Professor Lee Kyung Young, Vicepresident Jung Taek Kim, Ambassador Jaroslav Olša, jr., and Professor Kim Kyuchin

Sogang University research team led by professor Lee Kyung Young, expert on German and Central European history, presented the book at the launching dinner in the presence of thirty professors, translators and historians with Professor Jung Taek Kim, Executive Vice-President of Sogang University and H. E. Mr. Jaroslav Olša, jr., Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Republic of Korea as the guests of honour. This book is an important milestone in the Czech-Korean relations as it replaces now outdated and for many years out of print History of Czechoslovakia, published almost two decades ago by Professor Kwon Jae-il, one of the founding-fathers of the Czech-language studies in the Republic of Korea. And it is also not the last such publication by this team – soon it will be followed by the similar book on history of another Central European country, Hungary.

This book is one more „turning point of deeeper and wider bilateral cooperation between the two countries,“ said Professor Lee. It is also a very useful tool of information for the increasing flux of Korean tourists visiting the Czech Republic, which reached almost 80,000 in 2010. „Knowledge of my country in the Republic of Korea is now really based on high quality Korean-language sources“, said Ambassador Olša, jr., and mentioned recent new translations by leading Czech writers, such as Karel Čapek, Václav Havel and Bohumil Hrabal, the first Korean-language anthology of Czech short stories – Praha: City Loved by Writers – and seemingly unfinishing string of Korean-language travelogues about the Czech Republic published in Korean and by Koreans. „With such a wide range of books on and from the Czech Republic, our mutual understanding has the most useful tools to succeed,“ added Ambassador Olša, jr.