There are still relatively few non-fiction books written about Korea, but this one by New York Times Bestselling author Simon Winchester, has been on the bookshelves since the 1980s. (I read the 2009 edition).

Winchester walks from one end of the country to the other and begins his travels on the southern island of Jeju where Hendrick Hamel (1630-1692), the first westerner to write about Korea, was shipwrecked in the 17th century.

Hamel was on the Dutch ship Sparrowhawk and was taken up north with the other sailors to the capital Hanyang (Seoul) to the court of King Hyojong (r.1649–1659). Korea was closed to the outside world at that time and the sailors were not allowed to leave Joseon and spent 13 years in the country before 8 of them escaped to Nagasaki, Japan. Hamel later wrote about his experiences. 

Winchester follows Hamel’s journey up north on foot. Without knowledge of the language he relies on interpreters, locals with varying abilities of English, and foreigners living in the country – from Irish Catholic missionaries to American soldiers.

He stays with Buddhist monks at a temple, socialises in red light districts, visits a ginseng factory and experiences the public baths. Finally as he nears the end of the journey there’s a brief chapter on Seoul before he reaches the North Korean border which he is not allowed to cross much to his disappointment.

KOREA in the 1980s

Korea in the 80s was a completely different country to the one in Hamel’s 17th century writings, but foreigners were still few and far between. Winchester gets stopped by locals and foreigners alike who are surprised to see this white man in their midst. Industrialisation was in full swing but the country was under a military dictatorship. He notes the heavy police presence everywhere and the lack of freedom compared to what he’s used to – for instance, Koreans (under the age of 50)  were not allowed to have passports which was one reason why Jeju Island became a popular honeymoon destination. 

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I liked the mix of well researched historical details mixed with comments from strangers he meets along the road as he travels north. Through Mokpo we hear about the history of famous General Yi Sun Sin (whose statue now stands proud in central Seoul) and the turtle ships who defeated the Japanese invaders in the 16th century.

In Gwangju he recounts the horrendous massacre that had happened only a few years earlier (1980) when the police started shooting at student protestors. (The moving film Taxi Driver is set during the Gwangju Massacre) He’s clearly well travelled and has some noteworthy comments about other countries too – I didn’t know that Afghanistan also has underfloor heating.

And he meets up with various prominent westerners living in Korea such as Rev. Patrick James McGlinchey a catholic missionary who founded a farm on Jeju Island and has since been given awards for his work in developing farming techniques. The priest died in 2018, but the farm is still there and has opened a cafe on site too.

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There are some fun observations along the way – at one point he notes that there are clothes and fish drying together on the village washing lines! I would have liked more simple objective observations like this.

But I get the sense that his target reader is male. And there is definitely an 80s western man in Asia vibe to the book – if you know what I mean. With limited time and space he chooses to dwell on his experiences with local women in unnecessary detail. Did we really need to hear about the dalliances with prostitutes where we are assured that he turned down sex due to fatigue and concerns of transmitted diseases rather than morality? Or the bawdy ‘banter’ of US military personnel on Gunsan base? In Seoul he turns down a night with two young women and then laments ‘I wished (as I dare say the reader might wish too) that I had said yes’. Well, as a female reader, rest assured that I had no wishes on this matter at all.

With limited experience in the country, (he’s a visitor not a resident or scholar in Korean studies) subjective observations with a western bias are inevitable. When he has difficulty understanding an address written in English, he explains rather clumsily that he can’t understand it because the older Korean man had ‘written his address backwards as many old-fashioned Koreans still do ’. The address must have been written in the Korean way (still used today) with the city name first and the house/apartment last. It’s not ‘backwards’ or old fashioned. It’s just different to what he’s used to.

Yes the book has some dodgy parts, but they are thought-provoking in their own way. So I think the book is worth reading to get a sense of Korea in the 80s from a western visitor’s point of view.