Seoul, Korea
Monday 18 November 2019
A very cold, clear day, a day to see the mountains clearly. They stand out impressively on a day such as this and can be seen on the way to Gyeongbokgung Palace, where Koreans families and flirting couples flock dressed in hanbok, the costume of the Joseon court of the nineteenth century. Wearing this attire, families enter the palace grounds for free, to the delight of tourists and all camera-carrying persons. I was not interested in taking photos today, for I was intent on identification of a photo, and I promptly found a very bright young woman who had been trained to answer such queries as mine, which she did, and so it was a successful morning.
The afternoon was equally successful, spent with Forty-dollar chocolate professor, for he answered more questions and helped with more identifications, the results to be seen on the forthcoming “Korea 1908” once published.
Since I was at Severance Hospital, I checked their permanent history exhibit again. Without question, the missionaries radically changed Korean culture and society. O.R. Avison, the founder and driving force behind the development of Severance Hospital and its medical college, was a Canadian but placed in Korea (along with his wife and five children) by the North Presbyterians, so I think America can claim him for their own. 
Avison challenged the established class distinctions. He educated a butcher’s son, who eventually became a medical doctor and a teacher at Severance Medical School, then built his own hospital. Two of his sons became medical doctors and a daughter a kindergarten teacher. This was a monumental change in Korean society, for butchers were considered so low in the hierarchy that they were not even permitted to wear the topknot, which was adopted when a boy was considered a man and was therefore the sign of real manhood In Korea. In 1895, the King decreed that all men should have their hair cut, and topknots were no longer permitted. Our butcher asked Avison to cut off his topknot, for he wanted a friend to do it. He took his cut topknot to give to his mother and cried all the way home.
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