VOL.69/2024.04

 

Hangilsa Publishing Co., Ltd.

The Square of Humanities Connected through Virtuous Pathways

 

2022.09.05

 

Every person in this world has the right to show their opinions or ideologies without constraint. While the generation we are living in today allows anyone to open up their ideas freely, there have been so many hardships and trials on the way to getting to this point. In Korea, too, the little flame that sparked during the days when publishing and media were oppressed by the government became Hangilsa, which has been burning for a just and rightful society. Hangilsa Publishing has been living up to the founder’s will, who firmly believed that they should make the right books for a democratic society. Following is an interview with Hangilsa Publishing, which has been contributing to the history of publishing with pride in humanities and an extraordinary love for books.

 

 

It’s a pleasure to have you on K-Book Trends. Please introduce Hangilsa Publishing to our readers overseas.

 

Hangilsa Publishing was founded in 1976. It was the time when the authoritarian ruling of former president Park Chung-Hee’s Yushin (reformative) government challenged the entire country. Thus, the birth of Hangilsa Publishing was a symbol that opened the door to a new publishing movement. The new movement carried out by a number of young publishers along with Hangilsa Publishing was the source of ideology and theory for promoting Korean society’s democratic movement. The name “Hangil” is a pure Korean word meaning a great path – it also means a spacious square.

 

Since the establishment of Hangilsa Publishing, you have deepened your roots in the industry as a company that publishes books on humanities and society. How does Hangilsa Publishing think about the values of the humanities as a genre? What should it be in this world?

 

Since the establishment of Hangilsa Publishing, the company has been planning and publishing the Ideology of the Day series, which is about ideologies and theories meaningful to “today.” Also, including the Hangil Great Books series that cover ancient masterpieces of all ages and countries, we have been publishing large-sized series about Korean history and humanities. Hangilsa Publishing, focusing on the publication of humanities books, pursues the values of a democratic national society. We aim to spread just and moral ideas and theories through books, as we believe that a democratic and just national society can be achieved by making and reading good books.

 

Hangilsa Publishing has been producing books for 46 years now, becoming a living record of the history of the Korean publishing industry. As a publisher of numerous million sellers, what was the driving force behind the history of Hangilsa Publishing so far?

 

It is true that Hangilsa Publishing has published a number of million-seller books until today, but we have also published books that don’t seem to be selling well even if they hold any meaning in this era. Our view is that the publishing industry should be more than just making commercial gains. It is our belief that all publishers are responsible for social, cultural, and educational tasks. Hangilsa Publishing does not publish books just to gain commercial benefits. We take book value and quality as a basis for publication. We believe this philosophy and state of mind have enhanced Hangilsa Publishing’s reputation. We think there was a virtuous cycle in which good books ultimately increased commercial value, and this cycle requires the creative participation of readers. The notion that a book can admirably change people and the world is our publishing philosophy.

 

 

We did not hesitate to publish books if they had meaning in this era, even though they might not be popular.

 

 

Hangilsa Publishing has a number of brands, including Hangil Art, Sonyun Hangil, Tomato House, and Island. What is each brand specializing in?

 

Hangilsa Publishing has published more than 3,500 masterpieces centered on humanities books. The best examples are Reinterpretation of the Independence Era, The Right Way of Writing Korean, Talk: The Life and Ideology of an Intellectual, and Arsenal of Masks: Walter Benjamin’s Critical Mind. And the work of Hangilsa Publishing to compile the humanist intelligence of the world and Korea still goes on today.
We have also been promoting specialization through our subsidies. Hangil Art focuses on art books, and Tomato House, Sonyun Hangil, and Island each publish books for preschoolers, elementary schoolers, and young adults. The best examples are the Art & Ideas series (18 volumes, Hangil Art), Achtung! Bissiges Wort! (Tomato House), I am a Bad Friend! (Sonyun Hangil), and R. Caldecott’s Picture Book Collection (Island).

 

We know that it is a must-have attitude for a publishing company, but Hangilsa Publishing’s love for books seems to be extraordinary. So, how do you feel about the decrease in the number of people reading books around the world?

 

It is true that fewer people are reading books around the world, but we believe that the paper book culture still remains strong. Hangilsa Publishing has been staying close to the meaning and values of “good paper books” that give readers the unique analog vibe by steadily publishing large-sized books for readers to keep. This is something the digital civilization cannot do. The best examples include the recently-published Come Even When the Flowers Fall (size 300×360mm), Gustave Dore’s Holy Bible (size 285×423mm), and Gustave Dore’s La Divina Commedia (size 300×370mm).

 

 

The book A Tour of the World’s Bookstores by Kim Eun-Ho, CEO of Hangilsa, showed remarkable achievements, going in its second printing as soon as it was published by renowned publishing houses in countries such as China and Taiwan. What efforts is Hangilsa Publishing making to strengthen its reputation in the international marketplace, and what other books have been popular around the world?

 

We have been inviting people from overseas agencies to our company when they visit Korea, introducing our books. The book Jirisan Mountain by Lee Byung-Joo, our representative book, was published in Japan, and now we are preparing the English edition of Prince Sado and His Last Eight Days by Cho Sung-Ki.

 

If there are any books that have not yet been published abroad, but you would like to introduce them, please do so.

 

Publishing books that can be read over a long period of time has been our philosophy. So, to recommend a few books, they would be The Birth of the Liberal Arts by Lee Gwang-Joo, The History and Aesthetics of the Eyes by Lim Cheol-Kyu, Shakespeare, the Cannon of the Empire by Lee Gyung-Won, and War and Peace in East Asia by Lee Sam-Sung.
The book The Birth of the Liberal Arts is a high-quality essay that gives a general overview of the history of intelligence and the spirit of humanities in Europe. Furthermore, The History and Aesthetics of the Eyes is like the best result of Korean humanities, which is about the theory of general arts seen with our eyes. The book Shakespeare, the Canon of the Empire, takes a critical look at Shakespearean literature. Meanwhile, War and Peace in East Asia is a great set of four books, which is like the fruit of Korean politics that can be proudly presented to the world.

 

 

As a mature publishing company, what is your next move? What are your plans and goals for the future?

 

We will stick to humanities. We have been putting heads together to find better ways to teach the spirit of humanities to the younger generation these days. Hangilsa Publishing has met our readers for the past 46 years through various lectures, and now we’re looking to start over on Youtube as a “new school.”

 

 

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