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Chapter 4 - Researcher

For this chapter, I chose to do some research on celadon, to better understand how it fit historically into Korean and Chinese market systems. It appears that, true to the novel, Korean celadon was prized in Imperial China as much as Chinese celadon. The techniques really were different enough to justify specifying where the pottery comes from. It turns out that a specific province of Korea was famous for inventing a technique that was not known in China, and therefore made these pieces of pottery highly valuable to Chinese royals. There is more information on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's website.

 I also researched Korean expressions of respect, which were slightly discussed in this chapter and throughout the book, and many of those mentioned are still in practice to this day. For example, bowing is still a common form of respect, though shaking hands has also become more popular with the proliferation of Western culture. Eye contact between an inferior and superior is considered disrespectful, and touching anyone who is not a relative or close friend is unacceptable. When passing items, it is proper to use both hands, and never just the left hand. This was depicted multiple times in the book, when Tree-Ear passed his lunch bowl to Min's wife, or when he gave gifts to Crane-Man or Min. Learn more about cultural expressions of respect here.

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