안녕 from Seoul. It’s taken me five long months since the publication of KOREAN MESSIAH to get to my first book talks on the peninsula.
And, of all the places I’ve brought KOREAN MESSIAH, there’s nowhere more rewarding (or daunting) than Seoul. This book is, after all, not just my humble attempt at coming to grips with the life of the most consequential figure to emerge from twentieth-century Korea, but my best effort at telling the story of twentieth-century Korea itself—from the last gasps of feudal Korea’s longest-running dynasty to the sweeping political and societal changes that Christianity, Japanese colonial rule, and Marxism-Leninism brought to the peninsula.
As someone who isn’t actually Korean (though, yes, I’m regularly mistaken for Korean), I’ve approached the task with much trepidation, and I can only hope that I’ve done the story justice. If you’re in Seoul, come out and give me a piece of your mind.
Before I launch into Korea, however, let me first pause to say thank you to Hong Kong. In four action-packed days, I managed to squeeze in four book talks in the city that my family has called home for two generations.
And the response was better than I could have imagined. (And not just from my parents, who attended three of the talks.)
To be honest, I didn’t know how much of an appetite there would be for Kim Il Sung and Korea missionary history in Hong Kong, a city that I recall from my years there (2005-2010) as being, above all, a money town. Boy, was I wrong.
From the Asia Society Hong Kong Center’s stunning perch in Admiralty on Tuesday evening, we packed the Miller Auditorium; thanks to Hong Kong University professor David S. Lee (이승우, 李乘雨), who reminded me of our first conversations about the book, nearly a decade ago in Seoul (sorry it took me so long to finish).
By the next day’s lunch event at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong‘s historic clubhouse in Central, we were all sold out of books. (Bookazine HK, if you’re reading this, we need more copies of KOREAN MESSIAH in Hong Kong!)
The Princeton Club of Hong Kong picked up the baton on Wednesday evening for a loose and lively book talk over drinks and Portuguese food, before the Royal Geographical Society – Hong Kong wrapped up the week with another packed house on Thursday night. At each of the talks, the audience was locked in, the vibes were good, and the questions were razor sharp.
And, of course, Hong Kong itself was magnificent. The weather was stunning, the food was superb, and the chance to catch up with old friends and colleagues in a Mando-Canto-English pidgin…priceless.
Thanks again, Hong Kong, and looking forward to the week ahead, Seoul.