Professors wish for ‘new beginning’ for 2013

Professors have picked the four-character Chinese phrase “除舊布新” (jeguposin), which means old things are removed and new things begin, as an idiom to characterize the year 2013.

The phrase from an ancient Chinese history book represents people’s wish for reform, according to a professors’ journal, Sunday.

The journal said 30 percent of its 626 members chose it.

Seoul National University professor Lee Jong-mook, who recommended the phrase, said that a reform is needed for Korea to move forward in 2013.

“We need to drop old things and adopt new things but we also have to review the value of the old and see the evils of the new. This is how we bid farewell to the old year and meet the new year,” Lee said.

Professor Yoon Chang-sik of Chodang University said, “History moves forward through unending dialogue between the present and the past. I hope Korea’s future will move forward by overcoming the dark past.”

Chung-Ang University professor Park Myeong-jin said, “With the presidential election, the chronic disputes between regions, between ideologies and between classes have been aggravated. The new government will have to root out the old evils and bring new values.”

The journal said, “Professors wanted a new era where people communicate, bidding farewell to the year 2012 when President Lee Myung-bak failed to communicate with others until the last stage of his term and the presidential candidates in the liberal camps failed to reach a single candidacy smoothly.” <The Korea Times/Kim Rahn>