No, I guess I'm not talented enough to win a contest without even entering. But that's the name of the winning entry in the Korea Times essay contest. The winning entries are now available online.
Some 700 people entered the contest. I'm not interested in getting too far into it---and with an 800-word limit, the essays didn't get too far into it, either---but I'm seeing a lot of recycled information, and few attempts to debunk the Japanese claims. The third-place winner tried a little, and was given nearly 1,200 words to do so. The fourth-place winner has a very readable essay here, but is lighter on the evidence than others. Given the word limit supposedly imposed, it'd be too difficult to give the issue a fair treatment, but I think by chopping up some of the essays and mixing them together you'd come out with a fairly solid position paper.
You can read my thoughts on the contest here. Not that I've ever been afraid of writing on quote-unquote sensitive issues, but I believe that getting involved in a war of words on this unresolvable topic runs antithetical to the spirit of openness and cross-cultural understanding many of us came over here to experience in the first place.
1 comment:
"I believe that getting involved in a war of words on this unresolvable topic runs antithetical to the spirit of openness and cross-cultural understanding many of us came over here to experience in the first place."
that might be the best dodge I've ever read.
well said, sir.
ah dokdo. it's like when I start telling Geoffrey Chaucer jokes that reference graphic novels, and my friends start to just smile and nod.
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