Korean-Swedish relations and the Koreans in Sweden

     Tobias Hubinette a.k.a. Lee Sam-dol
    Ph.D. candidate in Korean studies
    Department of Oriental languages
    Stockholm University, Sweden
    tobias@orient.su.se
    www.orient.su.se/koreanskapersonal.html
    www.sub.su.se:591/sidor/forskning/koreaforsk/tobias/

    
  
    Tobias Hubinette (Korean name Lee Sam-dol) was born in Korea in 1971 and adopted to Sweden a year
    later.   He grew up in Sweden and graduated with a BA in Irish Studies at Uppsala University in 1991,
    and with an MA in Korean Studies at Stockholm University in 2000.  Since 2002, he is a Ph.D. candidate
    in Korean Studies at Stockholm University writing on the Korean adoption issue. He is also an active
    member of the adopted Korean community in the country, publishing widely on issues concerning Korea,
    international adoption, orientalism and postcolonial studies.

    The first contacts

     During the 1720s Lorenz Lange, a Swede in Russian service, met with Korean diplomats in Beijing and
     wrote a report on Korea. This must have been the first time when Swedes and Koreans had direct
     contact with each other. At the same time another Swede in Russian service, Johan Philip von Stralenberg,
     produced the first Swedish map with Korea included.

    Travellers and missionaries

    At the end of the 19th century, the first Swedish travellers went to China and Japan, and some of them
    visited Korea. One was Amanda Gardelin who stayed at the court of king Kojong in the 1880s and
    cured a member of the royal family for which she received a valuable tea box as a gift. Others who mainly
    passed through the Korean peninsula during the 1890s were Herman Trotzig, Alexis Kuylenstierna
    and G.O. Wallenberg.  Willy Ason Grebst visited Korea during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 and
    published the first Swedish book on the country when he came back, while the legendary explorer Sven
    Hedin spent some days in Seoul in 1908. Between 1935-36, Hedin's colleague Sten Bergman stayed
    for a longer period in the country exploring the fauna. Furthermore, missionaries from the Salvation Army
    such as Erland Richter and Verna Olsson stayed in Korea from the 1910s, the last one even up until
    1938.

   Royal exchanges

    In 1926 the Swedish crown prince, later king Gustav VI Adolf, went to Korea and took part in the
    excavations in Kyongju where he found a gold crown from the mound today known as Sobong Chong, the
    Swedish Phoenix. A year later, the Korean crown prince answered by paying a visit to Stockholm.

   Hospital personnel and officers

    At the outbreak of the Korean War, the Swedish government sent a field hospital to help the South, Swedish
    Red Cross Hospital. In 1951 the first contingent which returned home to Sweden founded Swedish-Korean
    Society as a friendship organisation. In 1954, the field hospital was transformed into the Swedish hospital in
    Pusan and closed down in 1957 after having seen around one thousand Swedes serving there.

    After the armistice, Neutral Nations' Supervisory Committee was organised and stationed in Panmunjom
    with Sweden as one out of four participating countries. The committee is still active and in place, and since
    1953 close to one thousand Swedish officers have served there. In 1961, officers from the committee
    founded the Korean association in Sweden - today the most important friendship organisation between
    Sweden and Korea.

    In 1958 the Scandinavian National Medical Centre was set up in Seoul as the then most advanced hospital
    in the country. The hospital was given to the Korean state in 1968 after having seen the service of
    hundreds of Swedish doctors and nurses.

   Immigrants and adoptees

    In 1950, the first Korean immigrant arrived to Sweden, and in 1963 Korean Association was founded for
    the Korean-Swedes who today count around 1,000 individuals including first and second generationers.
    In addition, there are two Korean stores, five Korean restaurants and four Korean churches located in
    Stockholm.

    In 1957, the first adopted child from Korea arrived to Sweden, and today the adopted Koreans dominate
    the ethnic Korean presence in the country with close to 9,000 individuals. In 1986, the Adopted
    Koreans' Association was founded as the organisation for adopted Koreans in Sweden.

   Koreanists

    From the middle of the 1950s, Korean has been taught at university level in Sweden, from 1968 at
    Stockholm University.  In 1989 a professorship in Korean Studies was instituted, and since 1968
     more than 500 students have studied Korean, the majority being adopted Koreans.

    Diplomats and businessmen

    In 1959, Sweden and Korea initiated diplomatic relations between each other, and in 1975 a Swedish
    embassy was also installed in North Korea. At the same time, trade exchange started to grow between
    the two countries, and today Korean Trade Council has an office in Stockholm and its Swedish equivalent
    an office in Seoul.

    (End)