Marc Orange, former professor at the University of Paris VII. Paris Cité University Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences website
French first-generation Korean scholar Marc Orange, former professor at Paris 7 University, has passed away. He is 86 years old.
According to the French Korean Studies Association on the 6th (local time), Professor Orange, a senior Korean scholar, died in Paris on the 27th of last month at the age of 86.
Professor Orange Jeon is a first-generation Korean scholar who has struggled in France since the days when French people knew little about Korea and cultivated Korean studies. He served as a professor of Korean Studies at the University of Paris VII, the Mecca of Korean Studies in France, and vice president of research, before serving as Director of the Institute of Korean Studies at the Collège de France, a prestigious institution for higher education in France.
Yannick Bruneton, a professor at the University of Paris 7, announced the news of the deceased’s death and paid tribute to him for leaving a significant mark on the growth of Korean studies in France and Europe. He said, “The deceased, thoughtful, competent, serious, but never condescending, never missed an opportunity to devote himself to Korean studies, which had long been weak,” and “Korean scholars owe him a great debt.”
The deceased was one of the first to receive a bachelor’s degree in Korean in 1964 from the Institute of Oriental Languages, the predecessor of the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Cultures (INALCO) in France.
Originally majoring in law at the Sorbonne University, he enrolled in school with the intention of learning Chinese together, but as the number of Chinese students increased, the deceased, who failed the exam due to competition, returned to his friend’s words that there was no one in the Korean lecture next to him. It was the first time I encountered a Korean class.
And there, I met the late Professor Ok Lee (1928-2001). Lee Ok, former professor emeritus at Paris 7 University, was the first Korean to teach Korean at a French university, and has worked hard to spread Korean studies in France and Europe.
From 1971 to 2002, the deceased taught Korean studies for over 30 years at the National Research Institute (CNRS), and also translated novelist Hwang Seok-young’s short works into French. He is considered a hidden contributor and a living witness to the development of Korean studies in France, contributing to the maintenance and development of Korean Studies in France even in various crises, such as when the Department of Korean Studies was almost closed due to a shortage of students.
He showed endless love for Korea during his lifetime and even adopted a daughter in Korea.
In 2013, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Korea selected the deceased as the recipient of the Sejong Culture Award in the academic category for his contributions in laying the groundwork for the development of Korean Studies in France and awarded him the award.