• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.7-33
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• 2023

Numerous journalistic and literary writings about the Indian writer Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian awardee of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1913), appeared in newspapers of colonial Vietnam. His stop-over in Saigon (Cochin China) in 1929 created political discussions in contemporary journalism and other publications. Tagore and his visit to Saigon inspired Vietnamese intellectuals and stirred diverse anti-colonial thought. This paper examines writings and images about Tagore in colonial Vietnamese journals and newspapers, reconstructing how intellectuals recalled and imagined him as they also engaged with anti-colonial thought, particularly anti-colonial modernity and anti-capitalism. Contextualizing the reception of Tagore in colonial projects of modernizing the Vietnamese colony, the paper argues that discussions inspired by Tagore's visit embody contemporary nationalist ideology.

• Architectural research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.101-108
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• 2015

So far, the Japanese exhibitions in the colonized Korea, especially the Joseon Industrial Exhibition of 1915, haven't been studied sufficiently; they have been understood mainly as political propaganda to legitimize the Japanese colonization of the Korean peninsula; many scholars have agreed that Japan highlighted material developments in Korea under the benevolent guidance of Japan by displaying strong visual contrasts between the modern and the traditional. So, they only acknowledge colonial modernity; this perspective regards Western forms as the sole expression of architectural modernity, not only in the exhibition but also in the colonial space and time. However, to be on a par with the West, Japan started to develop a series of historical narratives in searching for its historical origins in Asia, and it also carried out archaeological investigations in the Korean peninsula around the early 1900s. I argue that the developed historical narratives with traditional Korean artworks and architecture (i.e. the shared historical origins between Japan and Korea) influence the architectural conditions of the 1915 exhibition. And, the status of traditional Korean architecture in the Japanese exhibition expresses architectural modernity in terms of showing historical progress.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.42
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• pp.23-46
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• 2016

This article focused on heterotopian spaces of modern Korea in the colonial era. This paper attempted to understand the features of heterotopia in the era. Heterotopia was slightly grotesque in modernity, but in the colonial era, people expected to realize the hope of contemporary society. Also, while analyzing discourses on heterotopia, this study identified another point of view on modernity in the era,. Pagoda Park, where March First Independence Movement was conducted and the psychiatric hospital East Ward Eighth, were heterotopian spaces at the times. Those spaces are represented as failure of modernity. Nevertheless, those spaces functioned as utopia, where people could speak freely on 'the independence'. But the governing system considered such speech as deceptive strange stories. Strange stories that inexplicably, revealed imperfection of the governing system and caused anxiety about the foundation of daily life. In conclusion, this article could provide understanding of another side of acceptance of modernity in the colonial era i.e., anxiety. It was revealed through the finding of heterotopia and analyzing discourses on heterotopia in the colonial Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.41 no.3 s.114
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• pp.301-318
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• 2006

The purpose of this paper is to study on colonial modernity of commercial space in the case of commercial companies in Kyungsung(Seoul) during Japanese colonial period. Commercial companies in Bonjung2jungmok had the greatest growth in the numbers and the scale of company's capital from 1920s to 1930s. Japanese's commercial companies had concentrated in Bonjung1jungmok and the scale of Japanese's capital had been the greatest in Hwanggumjung2jungmok. Korean merchants had tried to change their commercial organization to modern and capitalistic system in the face of infiltration of Japanese merchant capital in Kyungsung. They had established some modern stock companies and had managed a few companies of large capital such as Hwasbinyeonshejum(a multiple shop) in Jongro2jungmok. We may observe the modernity of commercial companies in some modern stock commercial companies and the activities of commercial merchants in Kyungsung. But Korean's commercial companies had been small-scale businesses in comparison with Japanese's commercial companies. Colonialism in commercial space in Kyungsung had been appeared doubly in ethnical segregation of commercial activities and the scale of commercial capital.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.489-500
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• 2018

Since the late 19 century, the Choseon dynasty forcibly opened the door to western countries, including Japan. In addition, cultural propagation called 'modernity' caused subtle changes in dietary life. Based on the theory of colonial dual society, this study examined the dietary modernity in Kyungsung (mid 1930s~early 1940s) when 50 years had passed since the Open-Door policy. Three films, (1934), (1936) and (1941) (those made in 1930s~1940s) were analyzed. Twenty six scenes [14 scenes from , five scenes from , and seven scenes from ] related to the dietary life from films were chosen and classified according three criteria (degree of modernization, main influential countries, and benefit groups from modernization). The degree of modernization of all films was more than 80%. The average proportion of the countries that affected modernization were western (35%), western-Japan (28%) and Japan (20%). Approximately 33, 53 and 14% of the upper, middle, lower classes, respectively, benefited from diet modernization. The main places where modernized dietary culture could be enjoyed were cafes, western restaurants, tea rooms, and hotels. The main food or beverages that were considered as modernized dietary culture were liquor (especially beer), coffee, and western meals. People in Kyungsung in the mid 1930s~early 1940s experienced modernity in dietary life differently according to the social classes and these culture changes were generally accepted as a symbol of modernity.

• The Journal of Korean Medical History
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.49-59
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• 2023

This paper describes the transformation of the knowledge system of Korean medicine in the early 20th-century colonial context of the 1920s in terms of 'identity formation'. At the time, newly introduced Western medicine was the dominant form of medical knowledge due to strong support from the colonial government but had did not enjoy popular support from the general public especially when compared to Korean medicine. Furthermore, the Japanese colonial government needed to utilize Korean medicine practitioners' labor due to a serious shortage of Western medicine doctors. In this context, Dongseo uihak youi (Essentials of Eastern and Western Medicines) provides an overview of the role of Korean medicine practitioners in the colonial healthcare system of the time. The book contains a figure of a 'modern' Korean medicine practitioner working within a healthcare system influenced by colonial modernity. The association of Korean medicine doctors at that time not only published Dongseo uihak youi but also attempted to establish a school specializing in both Eastern and Western medicines or integrated Korean medicine, which would produce "the Chosŏn doctors" (Chosŏn ŭisa) on a par with doctors trained in Western medicine. Although their attempts did not materialized, they provide a clue as to how and in what direction Korean medicine pursued its identity in the 1920s.

• Asian review of World Histories
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.147-167
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• 2014

The urban modernity that became an irresistible model for elites in Asia in the decades before and after 1900 was far from being gender-neutral. It represented an exceptional peak of patriarchy in its exclusion of respectable middle class women from the work force, from ownership and control of property and from politics. Marriage was indissoluble and the wife's role in the male-headed nuclear family was to care for and educate the abundant children she produced. Puritan religious values underlined the perils for women of falling outside this pattern of dependence on the male. Though upheld as modern and civilized, this ideal was in particularly striking contrast with the pre-colonial Southeast Asian pattern of economic autonomy and balance between women and men, and the relative ease of female-initiated divorce. Although attractive to many western-educated Southeast Asian men, including religious reformers determined to 'save' and domesticate women, urban respectability of this type was a poor fit for women accustomed to dominant roles in commerce and marketing, and at least equal ones in production. Southeast Asian relative failure in the high colonial era to adapt to the modern market economy may also have a gendered explanation. We should not be surprised that patriarchy and puritanism became more important in Southeast Asia as it urbanized in the late 20th Century, since this was echoing the European experience a century earlier. The question remains how far Southeast Asia could retain its relatively balanced gender pattern in face of its eventual rapid urbanization and commercial development.

• International Journal of Costume and Fashion
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.87-101
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• 2015

From the 1920s to 1945, East Asia experienced radical social change with the introduction of new fashion styles, and new ways of thinking, from the West. The emergence of a new generation of "new women" educated in modern schools was part of this phenomenon, and functioned as a trend-setting influence in East Asian society. In schools, education in dressmaking, sewing, and home economics were important parts of female education. Adopting a new fashion style is, by necessity, accompanied by the new technology of dressmaking. Given that ready-made clothing was not generally available, dressmaking education also served to introduce a new material culture. In Korea and Taiwan under Japanese colonization, the greater part of school curricula and textbooks mirrored those in Japan, which enabled these countries to develop and adopt transnational styles as well as local styles. This research explores the transition of women's fashion in East Asia in modern and colonial conditions from the 1920s to the 1940s by analysing curricula and textbooks on dressmaking in comparison with the prevailing styles in each region. This is expected to suggest the impact of modernity in East Asia and the transnational styles of fashion in colonial Korea and Taiwan, as well as Japan, developed within the local culture. Colonial conditions are also discussed in terms of their impact and limitations in the transition of styles.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.44 no.8
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• pp.143-150
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• 2006

Life Science or Home Economics has its own history of scholarship. In South Korea, the School of Home Economics was regarded as the best school of 'producing best brides' in the early stage of its academic history. Since the 1980s when South Korean society went through a speedy economic growth with development of culture and service industry, the school was transformed to educating highly professional career women in the field of industry which deals with everyday lives. As an applied science in nature, the school of Home Economics has had a heavy emphasis on engineering the familial and social life. It also has heavily depended on imported theories and statistical researches. In the crisis of familial and social disintergration, the role of School of Home Economics needs to be redefined. Reexamination of the premises of Home Economics and methodology is necessary. Decolonializaton of the scholarship in the changed condition of global capitalism is particularly urgent in the late modern era of reflexion.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.64 no.4
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• pp.617-628
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• 2018

The aim of this essay is to discuss the relationship between Korean literature and Korean intellectual scenes. Since its first introduction to the local context, literature as a genre has served as a field in which colonial and post-colonial intellectuals have attempted to win the accreditation of Western enlightenment. Literature has been regarded as a crucial instrument of liberal arts and education in Korea. Literature has functioned as a social movement in Korea since its inception. During the colonial period, radical intellectuals and literary writers published essays and articles in literary journals. This status as a social movement is still a distinctive characteristic of Korean literature. From the outset, Korean literature has functioned as an enlightenment project for cultural development. As such, Korean literature retains a political meaning of "literariness," which reshuffles the hierarchy of the sensible and creates novelty against given aesthetic regimes. As a result, in the process these regimes are thereby de-purified of their status as purely aesthetic movements; their perspectives thereby come into contact with other discourses and practices outside the art world. This essay argues that as a genre, Korean literature always functions as "world literature" in Korean intellectual scenes.