First of all: This is not actually a question about history or the method in historical sciences. Therefore I humbly ask the mods not to delete it and give it a chance.
The knowledge of our own history is important to us. Since I have studied History, publications for everyone interested in History have greatly increased. Here in Germany nearly everyday there is a documentary about history to watch, several magazines are published, books are on the non-fiction bestseller lists etc. I believe in most of the other "western" cultures this is similar.
How is the study of History perceived in cultures like the Chinese, Korean or Japanese? Besides the stereotype that we have of the eastern civilization as being "very traditional societies", is there an effort outside of academical circles to explore the own history as a nation or people? What kind of status does History education in schools and universities have?
edit: typos
History is actually very accessible to Koreans in Korea, albeit not in a very scholarly manner. Authors often turn history in to comic books to make history easily accessible to younger demographics, however the books are not really peer reviewed (although any thing with outrageous claims will probably accrue academic and then public back lash). Not to mention many of these books also acts to bring out the jingoistic ideas that often enforces racism against neighbors of Korea(they are often riddled with colorfully racial languges of "Wa-Nom", "Orrangkae" and not to mention racist jokes like half naked Japanese men running around with swords or Chinese people talking about Jjajangmyun.
However, this is not to say that not all of history books in Korea are comics and are jingoistic. There are many books on history available in Korea, seemingly written by historians and these are widely available in bookstores for those who are interested.