VOL.74/2024.09

 

Hakgojae Publishers

Turning the Old Into the New, Towards a Broader, Richer Future

 

2023.12.04

 

A new trend in Korea - newtro (a newly coined word combining “new” and “retro”) - has recently become popular among the younger generation. It is about finding new meaning and charm in old things and enjoying them as a culture. But even before the word newtro was created, there was a publishing company that worked tirelessly to promote the beauty of Korea on the global stage with such a spirit. Hakgojae Publishers, a publisher founded in 1991, has been at the forefront of exploring Korean culture and beauty for over 30 years. It is also a company that cherishes the past yet gradually broadens its horizons according to the changing demands of readers and the needs of the times, receiving encouragement and acclaim from Korean readers beyond recognition. Hakgojae Publishers, which has been committed to promoting the true beauty of Korea, is ready to tell the entire story to readers around the world as the “K-craze” sweeps the world. Following is an interview with Hakgojae Publishers, a company creating new value from the old.

 

 

It’s an honor to have you with us on K-Book Trends. Please introduce your company to our international readers along with the meaning of the company’s name.

 

Hello, we are Hakgojae Publishers. The name of Hakgojae Publishers (學古齋) stems from the Chinese classic, ongojisin (溫故知新) which means “to learn the old and create the new.” Learning the old and creating the new doesn’t just mean accumulating knowledge of the past; it is the spirit of ongojisin at Hakgojae Publishers, which is to position ourselves on the basis of accurate perception and criticism of the old, and to create something new on that basis, contributing to the world’s cultural currents. Publishing Choi Soon-Woo’s The Choi Soon-Woo Complete Collection and Leaning Against the Entasis Solumns at Muryangsujeon Hall, as well as Kim Hoon’s Namhansanseong Fortress, Hyecho’s Wang-Ocheonchukguk-Jeon, and A Journey Through Modern Korean Literature series, we have been a pioneer in the exploration of Korean culture and beauty since the foundation of the company in 1991, standing at the forefront of promoting the genuine aspects of Korean culture and the humanities spirit.
Since then, Hakgojae Publishers has expanded from Korean culture to global culture and from the humanities to society, politics, and economics. We introduce the philosophies and achievements of various figures not only in Korea but also around the world, such as “The Analects of Confucius,” “Michelle Obama,” “Let Them Eat First” by Mother Teresa, and “My Life on the Road” by feminist journalist and social activist Gloria Marie Steinem. We also publish books that can be shared with the teenage and young adult generations, focusing on the core issues our society needs to solve together. We will continue to fulfill Hakgojae Publishers’ mission of finding and spreading the important issues and solutions of our society, covering everything from the humanities to the natural sciences, from teenagers to the elderly.

 

 

It is the ongojisin spirit of Hakgojae Publishers to build a stream of world culture, starting with an accurate recognition of the past.

 

 

The background of your publishing house is unique. It started as a gallery specializing in classic calligraphy in 1988 and was expanded into a publishing house specializing in art and cultural heritage in 1991. Why and how did you expand your business from a gallery to a publishing house?

 

When you think of “Hakgojae Publishers,” some people think of a publishing company, and some people think of a gallery. That’s right. Hakgojae Publishers started as a gallery named Hakgojae. In 1988, Hakgojae, a gallery specializing in classic calligraphy in Insa-dong, Seoul, opened its doors with the spirit of ongojisin. This spirit extended beyond the gallery to an interest in Korean culture as a whole, and in 1991, Hakgojae Publishers was founded and became a leading publisher in promoting Korean culture. The first book Hakgojae Publishers produced as a publisher in 1992 was The Choi Soon-Woo Complete Collection. At the time, many publishers were reluctant to publish a complete collection that cost more than 100 million won for production. Still, Hakgojae Publishers boldly took on the task despite being a fledgling publishing house. It was Hakgojae Publishers’ mission to publish books by Choi Soon-Woo, a leading Korean art historian and the fourth director of the National Museum of Korea, who dedicated his life to promoting the beauty of Korea and preserving and exhibiting our cultural heritage. Since then, excerpts from The Choi Soon-Woo Complete Collection have been published as Leaning Against the Entasis Solumns at Muryangsujeon Hall in 1994, and I Find My Things Beautiful in 2002. These books are now Hakgojae Publishers’ bestsellers.

 

 

You started out as a publisher specializing in art and cultural heritage, but now you publish books in various fields, including literature, such as fiction and non-fiction, and economics. Art and cultural heritage can be a bit difficult for the general public to absorb - is the expansion also related to broadening the publisher’s target audience? Please tell us about the reasons for the expansion.

 

As you mentioned, we initially published The Choi Soon-Woo Complete Collection, followed by Calligraphy of the Mid-Joseon Dynasty, Paintings and Writing of the Late Joseon Dynasty, Traditional Korean Paintings, and Beautiful Korean Ceramics, which served as a guide to explore the aesthetics of Korean culture. Since the 2000s, Hakgojae Publishers has expanded its horizons step by step by publishing books that explore the universality of humanity and reveal the true nature of our culture and humanistic spirit in this era, such as Kim Hoon’s Namhansanseong Fortress, Hyecho’s Wang-Ocheonchukguk-Jeon, and Traditional Performing Arts of Korea. The expansion of Hakgojae Publishers’ reach from the center of art and cultural heritage to the overall culture and humanistic spirit can be seen as a result of the demands of the times and Hakgojae Publishers’ spirit of learning from the old and creating the new. Readership has also expanded as a result.
In 2013, in order to better communicate with the public and improve the overall management, Hakgojae Publishers entered into a corporate merger with Current Korea, a public relations (PR) company, to expand our business scope and significantly strengthen our PR and marketing capabilities. Since then, we have broadened our coverage from Korean culture to world culture and from humanities to society, politics, and economics. In addition, we have widened our interests to core issues that our society needs to solve, and we are now developing content by expanding our target audience to teenagers and young adults.

 

It has been described that Hakgojae Publishers, which has been in business for more than 30 years, has a depth of flavor that is like a long-stored wine. Could you tell us a bit about what has kept you publishing for so long and the know-how you have accumulated over the years?

 

Hakgojae Publishers opened its doors in 1991, and it has been 33 years now. Throughout the years, many book editors who love Korean culture and strive to spread its values have worked for Hakgojae Publishers. We believe that their efforts, along with those of our founder, have been the power behind the establishment and continuation of Hakgojae Publishers today. The Hakgojae Publishers’ New Books series started in 1995 with Choi Soon-Woo’s Leaning Against the Entasis Solumns at Muryangsujeon Hall, which depicts the beauty of our nature and art, and has since published many classics that contain not only the essence of our culture, but also the cultures of the East and West. During this time, we created a new form from the traces of our art, not only in terms of content, but also in terms of format and design, which led to the creation of the phrase “Hakgojae Publishers Edition” in the world.
We believe that another strength of Hakgojae Publishers is the management style, which was set up as a small publishing company but has constantly pursued change. In the 1990s, when democracy and capitalism took hold in our society and emphasized productivity, Hakgojae Publishers realized the need to search for the values and roots of our culture and devoted ourselves to portraying them. Later, in order to strengthen communication with the public and improve management, we merged with Current Korea and expanded the range of published content and the target audience. Now, in the digital age, with the diversification of ways to consume content, Hakgojae Publishers is preparing for change again. Hakgojae Publishers is planning to diversify content and media.

 

 

Hakgojae Publishers is pursuing new changes, not only in the content of the books, but also in their design.

 

 

What is the book that best represents the identity of Hakgojae Publishers?

 

Our representative books, which represent the identity of Hakgojae Publishers, can be broadly categorized into Korean culture books, humanities books, art books, books on Korea’s intellectual legacy, and practical books.
The first is a book about our culture, Leaning Against the Entasis Solumns at Muryangsujeon Hall by Dr. Choi Soon-Woo, mentioned above. Choi dedicated his life to promoting the beauty of Korea, writing about the “beauty of what is ours” through various publications during his lifetime, and spent decades working in museums to preserve and display our cultural assets. The book is a collection of more than 120 essays that draw on the entire spectrum of Korean artworks, including paintings, potteries, sculpture, and architecture, and illustrate their sheer beauty. The book has been loved by many, being selected on several lists, as “a must-read for freshmen at KAIST,” “the book of the year selected by MBC’s Exclamation Mark in 2002,” “one of the top 100 books selected by 100 experts,” and “one of the top 50 neo-classic works in the 21st century selected by Donga Ilbo in 2005.” Since the first edition was published in 1994, more than 500,000 copies have been sold, and it has grown into a steady seller, still sought after by many. It can be said to be a neo-classic of our time.
The second book we would like to introduce is Namhansanseong Fortress by novelist Kim Hoon. The book tells the story of King Injo, who fled the army of the Qing during the Manchu Invasion in the winter of 1636 and moved into Namhansanseong Fortress, and the conflict between the anti-Chinese faction that wanted to confront the Qing and the pro-Chinese faction that wanted to reach a peace agreement. In Namhansanseong Fortress, Kim Hoon meticulously depicts the harsh 47 days of isolation and the lives of ordinary citizens suffering under the fate of their country. After the first edition was published in 2007, it was chosen as “the book of the year selected by netizens,” won the “Daesan Literary Award,” became a “bestselling book across genres,” and was selected as a “book of the year,” receiving much love from readers. In 2017, it reached its 100th printing and was released as a movie. To commemorate the 100th printing of Namhansanseong Fortress, Hakgojae Publishers released an “Art Edition” featuring 27 new paintings by Korean artist Moon Bong-Sun, a professor at Hongik University. To date, Namhansanseong Fortress has been a steady seller that continues to attract readers’ attention, raising the reputation of Hakgojae Publishers. In addition, Black Mountain, another novel by Kim Hoon, published in 2011, has also become a steady-seller after Namhansanseong Fortress - it is a good book to read together as well.

 

* K-Book Trends Vol. 56 – Go to the article about Namhansanseong Fortress

 

 

The third representative art book is 50-Day Journey in European Museums by art critic Lee Ju-Heon. In 1995, Lee Ju-Heon wrote this book about his 50-day journey through European museums with his family. He shared his vivid experiences and appreciation of artworks in simple language, making European art accessible to even the most non-artistic people. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the book’s publication in 2015, Lee Ju-Heon took a second trip of 30 days and published a revised edition of 50-Day Journey in European Museums, making it an “80-day journey” rather than a 50-day trip. The revised edition features 44 museums in 16 cities across 10 countries (the UK, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain). The book includes dozens of new museums from the previous edition, as well as updates to existing museums. It replaces guidebooks for those traveling to European art museums by offering basic knowledge of Western art history as well as the writer’s impressions. It was selected as an “Excellent Book Recommended by the Gyeonggido Office of Education in 2003” and a “Must Read Book for Young People by the POSCO Educational Foundation in 2005.”
As our fourth archive of Korean intellectual heritage, we would like to introduce Hyecho’s Wang-Ocheonchukguk-Jeon. It has been a classic favorite since its publication in 2004. As the oldest surviving Korean book and the only record of 8th-century India and Central Asia, it tells the story of what Hyecho, a monk from the Silla period, saw and heard while traveling through India and Central Asia. The 6,000 Chinese characters are fully annotated and deciphered by the book’s writer, Jung Su-Il, who is an established figure in the field, allowing you to learn about the dynastic and civilizational history of the countries Hyecho mentioned, as well as what the regions are like today. It is comparable to the Great Tang Record of the Western Regions in China and The Travels of Ibn Battuta in Islam. The book was selected as one of the “Outstanding Liberal Arts Books Recommended by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism in 2004” and as one of the “100 Beautiful Books of Korea” by the Guest of Honor Organizing Committee of the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2005.

 

 

The fifth representative practical book is the Coloring Book for Your Memory series. Published in 2018, this book is a series that focuses on the needs of new readers and contains a program of cognitive activities tailored to the needs of the elderly. The book provides difficulty levels that take into account the poor eyesight and slower fingering of older adults, and encourages brain activities that are directly related to their daily lives to prevent their concentration and memory from deteriorating. It stimulates memory in a healthy way with materials that bring back good memories of the past. It also provides effective cognitive training by connecting brain recognition and free hand movement through coloring. In addition, the design and style preserve their taste, self-esteem, and sense of accomplishment. The series has been adopted as teaching materials by more than 200 dementia care centers nationwide. Hakgojae Publishers will continue to publish the series in the future.

 

 

You recently published four books in the A Journey Through Modern Korean Literature series at the same time: The Seoul Story, The Pyeongando Story, The Hamgyeongdo Story, and The Tokyo Story. It must have been a huge undertaking. It is quite surprising that you published four books covering modern Korean literature at once, especially nowadays when people prefer smaller books and lighter stories. Can you give us a brief introduction to the books and how they were planned and published?

 

Novelist Kim Nam-Il has embarked on a grand project called A Journey Through Modern Korean Literature series, which includes The Seoul Story, The Pyeongando Story, The Hamgyeongdo Story, and The Tokyo Story. It is a kind of travelogue, or a navigation of literary history, that closely explores the modernity of this land using literature as a map, created out of our interest and love for literature as novelists. The four books took almost three years from planning to publication. The series focuses on demonstrating vividly where modern Korean literature is rooted and what kind of features it has. That is why we adopted the “literary travelogue” format from the beginning, instead of a formal framework of literary history. Using old literary works as coordinates, we travel back through the cities, villages, mountains, and fields depicted in the novels and look at the people and lives behind the scenes. The vast A Journey Through Modern Korean Literature series was also intended to be a story that can be read like a novel and draw the big picture of Korean literary history on its own.
While Hakgojae Publishers highly value the novelty and necessity of the project as a new approach to understanding modern Korean literature, we were heartbroken about the readers’ choice. The writer felt the same way, but unexpectedly, many readers showed interest and anticipation in the series and encouraged us by saying, “I should read Korean literature again,” “Oh, the place I’m passing through is the one that I read on the book” and “This is a must-have book to understand ourselves.”

 

 

While most of Hakgojae Publishers’ books target mature audiences, its children’s books also stand out. It is impressive how it manages to incorporate Eastern classics like Mencius and Caigentan into children’s daily lives and explain them in a simple way. How do Hakgojae Publishers’ children’s books differ from those of other publishers?

 

Around 2010, we attempted to broaden our offerings to include children’s books based on our accumulated text production and design capabilities. As a result, we have published a variety of children’s books based on Korean culture, Eastern and Western classics, such as the Hakgojae Publishers’ Eastern Classics series, the Let’s Learn About Multi-Culture series, the Hakgojae Publishers’ Traditional Life series exploring the traditional life of Koreans, and the Hakgojae Publishers’ Steel Key series featuring our food and culture. Hakgojae Publishers’ children’s books are storytellers that use classics and Korean culture as leverage, borrowing from the way we encounter the old in children’s daily lives and the way we find the lives of children today in the old to translate them into pictures and texts. This is perhaps what distinguishes our books from other children’s books: we embody the spirit of ongojisin in them.
For example, Confucius Analects Shake Our Classroom, the second book in the Hakgojae Publishers Eastern Classics series, tells the story of Ye-Beom, a great fan of Confucius Analects who lived in the mountains of Jirisan and loved reciting Chinese characters. The book describes his conflicts, worries, and friendships with his classmates as he transfers to the fifth class of the fourth grade at Dongjum Elementary School in Seoul. Aside from the Confucius Analects passages, the book also features heartwarming stories of children. Many other books based on Korean culture are loved by young readers, including Celebrating the Mastery, which revives the beautiful Korean tradition of “treating teachers and colleagues with food when mastering a book,” I Want Some Tteokbokki, which introduces the origins of Korean food, and It’s Dried Yellow Croaker, which explains the history and culture behind traditional foods.

 

 

How do you discover good writers or content, and what are some of the things you pay attention to make Hakgojae Publishers’ books competitive?

 

Finding good writers and content is the most important task that all publishers struggle with, and we do not have a special solution. Our editors meet with many external experts and search for a lot of materials, and based on this, we create keywords and plan content through internal editorial meetings. We find writers and content in a variety of ways, including finding the most suitable authors, discovering quality content from submissions and various content platforms, and seeking out writers who come to Hakgojae Publishers directly because we have a reputation as a publisher that produces quality books. Many of our best-selling books and the know-how contained in them are also our competitive advantage. In addition to this know-how, how to communicate with new generations to create and discover new content is currently a concern for Hakgojae Publishers.

 

Are there any books from Hakgojae Publishers that you would like to introduce to international readers?

 

We would like to recommend Namhansanseong Fortress by Kim Hoon and Leaning Against the Entasis Solumns at Muryangsujeon Hall by Choi Soon-Woo, but since they were introduced earlier, we will leave them out. Instead, we would like to introduce three books that exemplify Korean values like these two.

 

 

Jeon Kyung-Wook, author of Traditional Performing Arts of Korea, is one of the most extensive and unrivaled researchers on the subject of “traditional play” in Korea. The author, who majored in classical novels and oral literature, has spent the past 30 years meticulously researching the history of Korean traditional mask play, puppetry, tightrope walking, acrobatics, witchcraft, pungmul, shamanism, pansori, witticisms, and nongak. His research ranges from performance-oriented field performances such as Bukcheongsaengnori, Bongsan Mask Play, and Yangju Byeolsandae Nori, to East Asian shamanism that serves as the spiritual background of the arts and culture. Of course, it also includes the study of folk-based Jangbadak plays, as well as specialty theater cultures such as royal events and court performances. It is a natural extension of finding the origins of our traditional dramatic arts, defining their meaning and scope, and analyzing performance forms that have changed over time. As a scholar of comparative East Asian cultural history, author Jeon Kyung-Wook has not only analyzed Korean, Chinese, and Japanese folk performance culture in detail, but has also extensively studied cases from the West, China, and Japan to shed light on the cultural uniqueness and universality of Korean traditional performing arts. The results of his long and diligent collection and comparative analysis of scattered field records and materials have contributed to the field of Korean studies as a valuable database in the field of traditional performing arts.
Advertisement Genius Lee Je-Seok is a book about advertising genius Lee Je-Seok’s philosophy and vision, including his success as a country boy, his challenges in advertising, how Jeski Social Campaign came to be, his success as an advertiser, and what advertising should be like in the future. By developing the innate ability to fight through the battlefield where large corporations clog up billboards with their sheer volume, the book reveals the writer’s ambition as an advertiser to change society through not just commercial advertisements, but also public service announcements that deal with political, economic, social, and cultural issues. The book features Lee Je-Seok’s biggest projects, his latest ads, stories of work that have made headlines, and stories about the making of his ads. It was named Book of the Month in 2008 and Teen Book of the Year in 2010. It is still the most sought-after book for teens interested in design and advertising.
Oh Kyung-Hwan’s Art Brochure is a catalogue raisonné of 230 pieces of “space paintings” from the life of contemporary artist Oh Kyung-Hwan. While most artists paint landscapes or the female figure, Oh Kyung-Hwan found a painterly fascination with the cosmic landscape and began to paint space as an entirely different world. His cosmic journey, from his first solo exhibition in 1969 with the Apollo lunar missions, has continued consistently for more than 50 years. His initial fascination with space as an “infinite and vast abyss” has evolved over the years to include “the instinct and fascination of untethered spacewalks.” This book brings together the work of Oh Kyung-Hwan, who has consistently reflected upon his life with “space” at its center from the moment the earth, moon, and distant outer space were revealed to the world, and has experimented with the extremes of contemporary art with that philosophy and thought.

 

 

We will fulfill the duty of Hakgojae Publishers through close communication with readers and high-quality content development.

 

 

We look forward to the future of Hakgojae Publishers - a publisher that puts timeless values into books. Could you tell us about your new publication plans and future goals?

 

The way we consume content is changing rapidly. While the quality and value of content are important, if you don’t interact with readers, it will be wasted. Hakgojae Publishing has two goals: to expand the areas and ways to communicate with the public, and to discover high-quality content. Hakgojae Publishers has completed projects that are difficult for anyone to undertake, such as the A Journey Through Modern Korean Literature series and the Dictionary of Urban Planning Concepts. The work of discovering and protecting value will continue in the future.
On the other hand, we plan to diversify the way we develop content. We aim for “One-Source Multi-Use” and envision a systematic system from content planning to finding writers. We are looking for ways to enjoy our content in a way that matches how the public consumes it. In addition, we will significantly bolster our PR and marketing capabilities to communicate with the public, and discover and create something unique to us based on the principle that the most local is the most global.

 

 

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