Philip Jaisohn

Korean spelling
Hangeul	서재필
Hanja	徐 載 弼
Revised Romanization	Seo Jae-pil
McCune- Reischauer	Sŏ Chaep'il
See also : Korean name

Philip Jaisohn (his Korean name: Seo Jae-pil 서재필 ) (born January 7, 1864 or 1866 in Boseong , † January 5, 1951 in Norristown , Pennsylvania ) was a Korean independence activist, doctor and journalist. His stage name was Songjae .

life and work

After the failed Gapsin Putsch of 1884, he emigrated to the United States in 1885 with two colleagues. In San Francisco he joined a Christian community. A Christian patron enabled him to stay and study medicine in Pennsylvania. In 1890 he was the first Korean to receive American citizenship and in 1892 he was the first Korean to receive a doctorate in medicine from an American university. In 1894 he married Muriel Armstrong, a niece of former President of the United States, James Buchanan . The couple had two daughters.

In 1896 he founded the first modern and independent newspaper, which was aimed explicitly at Korean-speaking readers. The Independent (Doknip Shinmun) was printed in English and Hangeul . In the newspaper he denounced corruption in Korea. He continued to write for American-Korean publications, established a Republic of Korea information office in Philadelphia, and wrote for the Korea Review . In addition, he worked for a renowned medical research institute, the Wistar Institute of the University of Pennsylvania , and he founded a publishing house with a partner, but it did not last long.

Publications (selection)

• Hansu's Journey
• My Days in Korea and other essays
• My compatriots in the homeland ( 고국 에 계신 동포 에게 )

literature

• Se-ŭng O: Dr. Philip Jaisohn's Reform Movement, 1896-1898: A Critical Appraisal of the Independence Club , University Press of America, 1995, ISBN 0819199141

Web links

• Literature by and about Philip Jaisohn in the WorldCat bibliographic database
• Soh Jaipil Memorial Hall Construction Education (English)
• Sung Won Kim: Interpretation Plan for the Dr. Philip Jaisohn Memorial House (with short biography )
• Seo Jae-pil, Pioneer of Enlightenment for Independence , KBS of November 17, 2011 (English).
• Seo Jae-pil, a Korean intellectual and activist , The Korea Times, August 12, 2010 (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Born in 1866 according to normative data. VIAF query, July 9, 2012.
2. ↑ (20) Seo Jae-pil: pioneering reformer, independence fighter , The Korea Times of December 28, 2011 (English).
3. ↑ Seo Jae-pil  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Daum Enzyclopedia (Korean).  
4. ↑ Book excerpts (English)

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Seo is the family name here, Jae-pil is the first name.