Propaganda and the Protectorate: Swedish Explorer Sven Hedin’s Visit to Korea in 1908
Channel: SOAS University of London
Date: 2021-02-09

Propaganda and the Protectorate: Swedish Explorer Sven Hedin’s Visit to Korea in 1908 was recorded on 29th January 2021 with speaker Dr Anders Karlsson (SOAS University of London). Find out more at: https://www.soas.ac.uk/koreanstudies/events/seminars/29jan2021-propaganda-and-the-protectorate-swedish-explorer-sven-hedins-visit-to-korea-in-1908.html

Japan being concerned about negative images in the West of being the ‘Prussia of the East’, the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin (1865-1952), who just had completed an expedition to Tibet, was invited to the country in late 1908 to show that Japan was interested in science and culture and not only military expansion. After four busy weeks in Japan, Hedin also visited Seoul on his way back to Sweden. He stayed for nine days and gave a number of lectures, had several meetings with Resident-General Itō Hirobumi, and an audience with Emperor Sunjong. Although Itō explicitly asked him to later tell the West of “all the good things Japan was doing in Korea” (which he did), Hedin was a keen observer and his description of his visit to Korea provides interesting insights into the situation in Korea under Japanese protectorship, and he has left a very touching description of his audience with Sunjong. This lecture will describe Hedin’s visit based on his own writings as well as Korean and Swedish newspaper material from the time.