The archive of the late Professor Seung-bog Cho handed over to Uppsala University
Professor Seung-bog Cho was instrumental in negotiating agreements with East-Asian universities for Swedish universities thanks to his network in East Asia. The handover of the archive occurred in the library of Carolina Rediviva on November 13, 2023.
The late Professor Seung-bog Cho introduced oriental studies (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) at Uppsala University in the mid-1950s under the governance of Rector/President Torgny Segerstedt and in Korean and Japanese in Sweden at Stockholm University in the early 1960s researching in East Asian philology for Professors Bernhard Karlgren and Björn Collinder.
Professor Seung-bog Cho arrived in Sweden after a short stay at the home of Oslo University Rector/President and several years as a researcher and lecturer in philosophy in the US (Minnesota State University) having graduated from Tokyo Imperial University (now University of Tokyo). He was born on March 6, 1922, in the province of Hamkyong Pukto (in today’s North Korea) and was brought up in the part of northern China at that time called Manchuria and since the late 1950s the Autonomous Prefecture of Yanbian, Jilin Province of People's Republic of China.
He was instrumental in negotiating agreements with East-Asian universities for Swedish universities thanks to his network in East Asia some universities or research institutions to mention are the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking University and Yanbian University, Seoul National University, and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies apart from his Japanese Alma Mater University of Tokyo.
He came to Sweden as a political refugee protesting the American interference in the Korean War and dedicated his whole life to the unification of the two Koreas, his credo shared by his many prominent fellows, in all spheres of society, politics, culture, religion, and academia all over the world.
Among the rare documents handed over to Carolina Rediviva can be mentioned correspondence with Elisabeth Tamm at Fogelstad via Andrea Andréen, Professor Joseph Needham, Cambridge University, President and Nobel Peace laureate Kim Dae-Jung, Korean composers Yisang Yun and Eak-tai Ahn. Stockholm University's archive has received the agreements negotiated under Rectors/Presidents of Stockholm University Staffan Helmfrid and Inge Jonsson, two of several presidents of Stockholm University whom Seung-bog Cho worked with from his start at Stockholm University in 1963 up to his retirement in 1989.
Last updated: April 15, 2024
Source: The Faculty of Humanities