Online Korean classics boost culture studies

A database for studying the flow of history and culture between Korea and China has been set up by the Run Run Shaw Library of City University of Hong Kong (CityU) in conjunction with three international collaborators.

The online catalogue contains 3,000 literary works by over 1,000 classical and contemporary Korean authors. The project is co-run by the Run Run Shaw Library, the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley) East Asia Library, Jeju National University, and Kyungin Publishing Company.

The writings, acquired by the Run Run Shaw Library in 2007, and called the Series of Korean Literature Anthology in the Past Dynasties, were written in Chinese and cover philosophy, history, literature, politics, society, economics, military, geography and astronomy.

With the support of the Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics and the Chinese Civilisation Centre, the Library has created over one million index entries for the individual titles and authors. Partners in the US and Korea transcribed the Chinese entries into Hangul, the Korean alphabet, romanised them, and linked them to the full text images provided by Kyungin Publishing Co.

Professor Steve Ching Hsianghoo, University Librarian at CityU, introduced the online database to Mr Han Jae-heuk, Consul (Culture and Press) of the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea, Professor Cheng Pei-kai, Director of the Chinese Civilisation Centre, and CityU students and staff at a briefing session on 28 March. Professor Ching expects to collaborate with the Korean Consulate in two to three months to promote the database through local and Korean media.