Throughout history the Korean peninsula has functioned as a crossroads of interaction with other states and cultures. In particular, its meaningful and significant negotiations with Sinitic and Manchurian civilisations have generated original perspectives on the human condition.Until recently the study of Korea , however, has been overlooked or was regarded as merely an academic subdivision of the study of China and Japan . It is only in the past few decades that Korean studies have been recognised as an independent, academic field. This development has found concrete expression in the establishment of various, worldwide, departments of Korean Studies.Korean Studies, however, have also benefited from its past embeddedness in other disciplines or regions. Specialists in Korean Studies often find themselves in a position whereby they have to be conversant with the particularities of neighbouring fields of specialisations, and where they have to take into account different disciplinary
