Director’s Message
Welcome to the Hangaram Institute of History & Culture.
We are a people with a long history. In the distant past, our ancestors began their story across vast continental lands and wide seas.
The Korean people of today emerged from the coming together of northern equestrian peoples and southern maritime peoples. We therefore inherit both continental and maritime traditions.
Korean history has repeatedly faced attacks motivated by political aims. What these attacks have in common is an attempt to narrow the time span and geographical scope of our history. Both Japanese colonial historiography and China’s Northeast Project, rooted in a hegemonic view of history, seek to reduce these dimensions.
They claim that Korean history began in the fourth or fifth century CE, or seek to confine it to the Korean Peninsula by excluding its continental and maritime dimensions. Some academic circles in Korea, which have yet to overcome the legacy of Japanese colonial historiography, continue to follow these views uncritically.
The Hangaram Institute of History & Culture seeks to restore a fuller understanding of Korean history by addressing these distortions.
That attacks on Korean history intensified with the loss of national sovereignty a century ago is deeply significant. As we enter a new century, we believe the path forward lies in returning to the founding spirit of our ancestors, whose world encompassed both the continent and the seas.