Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sodabread]

i live in cheongju, where the locals are convinced movable type was invented. most of the online stuff says gutenburg made printing practical, but that it was the chinese who got it going centuries earlier with ceramics and wood, followed by the koreans with metal.
what say you? what do non-cheongju-ian koreans tend to think?

so it's sunday and i'm bored

[the_beaver]

China -- first printing press (block printing)
Korea -- first movable type printing press
Gutenberg -- first European movable type printing press

[sodabread]

US library of congress says:

"Although China FIRST used movable type made of clay, it was in Korea that printing with movable METAL type reached a high point in the fifteenth century."

where are you getting your info?

i'm by no means suggesting that the yanks are the ultimate authority.

[Typhoon]

I teach some world history here and I hate when I get to the Gutenberg section of the text book. My students lose their mind. I have to explain to them that the importance of the Gutenberg press isn't that it was first, it is that it allowed for multiple prints of the bible to be made, so more people were able to read the bible on their own and this led into the protestant reformation. Creating something first isn't as important as what is done with an invention. Yes, Koreans were the first to invent the printing press, but it did very little to better or change the lives of average Koreans. I believe this is why the Gutenberg press is given more play in Western textbooks. It also could be that Western textbooks are pro-European and tend to ignore achievements from outside of Europe.

[the_beaver]

[DavePuff]

The moveable type museum there has a great deal of information about the subject (funnily enough).

It mentions all types of moveable type technology through the ages from Korean, China, and other parts of the world. Very interesting.