Korea: A Walk Through the Land of Miracles

As the writer of the online articles "No Source for Winchester's Hanging-Priests Calumny" and "Simon Winchester's Smooth Forked Tongue" and having been influenced by some of the negative customers' reviews, I was very much prepared not to like this book. I read it out of curiosity because of my previous acquaintance with Winchester's writing and because Korea is a subject that is very near to my heart. I instituted a monthly full-day orientation session for new arrivals into our command when I was the director of training for the U.S. Army's 20th General Support Group in Korea in 1967-68, I once taught a college May-term course on Korean culture, and my wife of almost 45 years is a native of Korea. Last October, I was the only non-native-Korean in a 3-week tour of Korea. It was my first time back in 38 years.I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed Winchester's book, finding it entertaining, informative, and quite fair and balanced. He is very much a man of the world and a fine writer with the resultant ability to put things in their proper perspective. How anyone could read this book and come to the conclusion that he hates Korea or Koreans frankly amazes me. I recently read and reviewed  The Voices of Heaven  by Korean native Maija Rhee Devine and the impression I get is that Winchester actually likes Korea a good deal more than Devine does. And he did not spend an inordinate amount of his time with U.S. military people and among the sordid element of Korean society. He spent more time with Catholic priests and Buddhist monks and nuns. The U.S. air bases at Kunsan and Pyeontaek happened to be on his chosen route, the route that the first Westerners to encounter Korea took to Seoul, and his visit to the DMZ necessarily entailed associating with U.S. military people.I also did not find his method of interspersing historical and social observations among his own daily accounts of his experience the least bit off-putting. It's a very good way to hold the reader's attention, and it's one of the reasons that I would assign the book to my students if I ever taught another course in Korean culture. The technique might be called "the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down."Concerning his various encounters with Korean females, one must consider that he was a charming, not-bad-looking tall man in the prime of his life walking alone. This glorious male-female thing, like the spice of the food, the seasons of the year, and the political emotions, is something else that seems more intense in Korea. That's one of the reasons, I believe, that their romantic dramas are so popular now throughout East Asia. And if Winchester comments on numerous occasions on the attractiveness of the Korean women he meets, I don't think he is being sexist; he's being objective to my mind.The book is now remarkably dated not because of the great economic changes that have taken place since the year leading up to the Seoul Olympics when Winchester made his trek, but because of South Korea's wonderful political transformation. Reading the book is a good reminder of what a short time ago it was that the country was a military dictatorship ruled by the unenlightened, corrupt though thankfully rather weak despot Chun Doo Hwan. Now I think South Korea has passed the United States on the democracy scale. They have come to grips with the bad things in their recent past much more honestly, I believe, than we have in the United States. While they have become freer and more open, we have been moving rapidly in the opposite direction, particularly since 9/11.Finally, I do agree with one of the reviewers that Winchester probably isn't completely truthful when it comes to his sexual encounters. But then, who is? I also get the impression that he is not the sort of writer who would let the truth get in the way of a good story. When it concerns something as inconsequential as one person's experience as opposed to important history, who really cares? He is in the best English tradition, after all, when it comes to shading the truth, if, in fact, he did it from time to time. In the two World Wars of the 20th century, the Germans had it all over them when it came to military organization and weaponry, Blood, Tears, and Folly: An Objective Look at World War ll  but no one has ever been in the class of the English when it comes to propaganda.  Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the United States, 1939-44 (Brassey's Intelligence & National Security Library)  Remember, it was Winston Churchill who said, "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies." Winchester, I gather, has taken Churchill to heart, and not just in times of war.

Reading pleasure.

Let's start here: A mature author like Simon Winchester (who has written several accomplished literary masterpieces - I've read them), hopefully, looks back at this early-in-career attempt to write something of substance about Korea based on a mere one month trek (not knowing the language or customs, yet dead-set on walking a historic trail incarnating his suspected Indiana Jones fantasy) and contemplates what a young, naive, ego-centric, journalistic depraved individual he once was. To think that in 1988 he was able to find Gafton Books Publishers willing & able to publish this shallow conglamoration of unresearched diary entries while larking through the Land of the Morning Calm is a wonderment to his audience. If he had taken a taxi, train, motorcycle or helicopter, it would not have diminished the impact of these superficial journal entries in the least.My family & I lived and taught at Seoul Foreign School during this same period of political/economic development, and what Winchester failed to discover and accentuate throughout his two week trek is the constant love, warmth, kindness, generosity and humility of the Korean people - their appreciation for Americans and Brits, while standing strong in their own proud, national spirit. Yes, you can find depravity & backwardness in any nation if that is what's in your heart and what you're inclined towards. And, you can also partake in isolated dysfunctional temptations, as well in Korea, if that's how you choose to present your spiritual waywardness, that also attesting to the nation you are inadvertantly representing (whether you intend it or not). The question begging to be asked is this: Why does these pockets of isolated moral depravity exist within any culture, how did it evolve and come to pass within this individual before me, and what can I do as a compassionate, moral individual to encourage and speak spiritual truth & compassion into this person's life as Jesus did. Winchester's youthful diary entries barely hit the surface of the depth of Korean culture. He's merely looking through binoculars that are backwards and therefore seeing small people far off in the distance. Winchester somehow thinks he knows something about them that is worthy of writing a novel. Basically, he merely has the bucks, sponsors, and aloof attitude to pull it off and leave without offering much of anything in the way of a short legacy that effects any Korean individual whom he met along the way. The end of the book left me wondering, what was the point of Winchester's time in Korea that had anything to do with anything other than himself and his critical opinions of Korean people over OB beer and soju? Remember the line from the Avatar movie, "It is hard to fill a cup that is already full. Learn well, Jake Sully, and we will see if your insanity can be cured." Hopefully, the your Simon Winchester has been cured of his insanity, as I have been, over the decades to a place of personal humility and cultural appreciation & compasssion. In Korea, you may think you have something to offer. In the long run, just keep your mouth shut, listen and learn what God has to teach you about life in this particular culture. With two ears, one mouth, and a humble, discerning eye, perhaps the log within the eye of people like Winchester eventually falls out and one can see plainly the goodness of the Korean people living within the Land of Morning Calm, born in the image and likeness of God just trying to find their way like young Winchester. Consider, our youthfull pride and ignorance is often our own worst enemy to which we are given a lifetime to conquer not in our own strength, nor Buddhas, nor Confucius, but our creator and savior, Jesus Christ. --KG

Written in 1988, this book tells of a walking trip Winchester took from southernmost Korea (the island of Cheju) to the border with the North. Winchester structured the trip to follow the route of a group of dutch sailors shipwrecked there in the 17th century. Winchester was a newspaper reporter and this early book sounds like a long piece for the Guardian. He mixes personal observation, the historical record, informal encounters, and some formal interviews with business figures. The story is uneven: some really interesting stories and some long, dull sections. It is not the best intro to Winchester, who did much better books later. It is also quite dated, so not a good guide to modern Korea. Probably best as a picture into a particular time in S Korea when it was emerging from poverty. Interesting to see Hyundai and Samsung (Goldstar) before they became global powerhouses. Some nice stories about inns and temples he visited. Worth reading with a browser at hand to check on “what happened next” (democracy for one) and get pictures

I should have checked when this book was written. Sadly I found it reflects some rather outmoded views re women’s roles and their social standing. I guess this reflects the era in which it was written. Hopefully things have changed in S. Korea but more importantly in Mr Winchester’s views and interactions with women. JB

I was very relieved to read that Kwan Yon decided to travel through South Korea after reading this book. Actually, I thought the book wasn't anywhere near the qualities all the other books by S. Winchester had.I'd warmly recommend as some of my all-time favourites Krakatoa, The Man Who Loved China (!) and The River at the Centre of the World to anybody interested in Asia. But this one book on Mr. Winchester's traveling around Korea is just superficial and drawing on stupid stereotypes. Not that it pretended to be as well-researched as all the other books I know, but even as a mere travel report it stands out very far and low from the high level I appreciate so much in his other books.I really hope, nobody will be kept from reading his so much better books by having read this one.

Se programmate un viaggio in Corea questo il (un) libro da leggere per farvi un'idea di come vivano e pensino i Coreani.