• Title/Summary/Keyword: Colonial Modernity

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The Modern Cities of East Asia Arnold J. Toynbee Had Seen in 1929

  • Lee, Young-Suk
    • Journal of East-Asian Urban History
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    • v.1
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    • pp.7-24
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    • 2019
  • A. J. Toynbee published a book called Travel to China(1931) after traveling around the Asian continent in 1929. The book mostly focuses on Japan, China and the relationship between the two countries. Toynbee visited major cities in Japan and China by train. Most of the Japanese cities he saw were turning into modern cities in the process of spontaneous modernization mixed with its tradition. On the other hand, Chinese cities that he visited showed him various characteristics, including traditional, colonial, or semi-colonial cities. The modern cities of Japan and China in the late 1920s were transformed into various aspects under the influence of tradition, spontaneous modernization, colonial or anti-colonial modernization. How did Toynbee look at cities in East Asia? How did he recognize the relationship between tradition, modernization and colonization while visiting this area? Toynbee emphasizes the weight and influence of tradition especially in the development of modern cities in Japan and China. So, are modern European cities born out of their own traditions? Modern cities everywhere in the East and West were newly developed under the influence of tradition. Toynbee's attitude, which emphasizes especially its tradition in the modern cities of East Asia, seems to reflect his Orientalistic view.

The Modern Movement in Architecture in the West Perceived by Park Dongjin and Hong Yunsick in the 1930s (1930년대 박동진과 홍윤식의 서양 근대건축운동 인식)

  • Kim, Hyon-Sob;Kim, Jeyeon
    • Journal of architectural history
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    • v.32 no.1
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    • pp.21-34
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    • 2023
  • The purpose of this research is to investigate Korean architects' perception of the Modern Movement in architecture in the West during the Japanese colonial period, by analyzing two Korean publications in the 1930s: Park Dongjin's 'Present Architectural Tendency' (Dong-A Ilbo, March 1931) and Hong Yunsick's 'Trend in the Thought of Moderne Baukunst' (Chogwang, September 1937). As a result of the investigation, it is confirmed that the two men welcomely accepted the universal modernity, regarding the rational and functional - rather than subjective expressions of the individual - as the key to modern architecture. Although their perception of the Modern Movement in Western architecture was inevitably superficial due to the limited condition of the Japanese colonial period in Korea, there was an obvious advancement in the latter's perception from the former's, reflecting the progress in knowledge of it over the six and a half years between the two. Therefore, it is argued that their 1930s' writings are meaningful as the first Korean publications that illustrate how Korean architectural circles perceived the contemporary architectural movement in the West.

A Traumatic Face of Colonial Hawai'i: The 1998 Asian American Event and Lois-Ann Yamanaka's Blu's Hanging

  • Kim, Chang-Hee
    • Journal of English Language & Literature
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    • v.56 no.6
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    • pp.1311-1337
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    • 2010
  • This paper deals with one of the hottest debates in the history of the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) since its inception in the late 1960s. In 1998 at Hawai'i, the AAAS awarded Lois-Ann Yamanaka its Fiction Award for her novel Blu's Hanging, only to have this award protested. The point at issue was the inappropriate representation of Filipino American characters called "Human Rats" in the novel. This event divided the association into two groups: one criticizing the novel for the problematic portrayal of Filipinos in colonial Hawai'i, and the other defending it from the criticism in the name of aesthetic freedom. Such a "crisis of representation" in Asian American identity reflects on the ways in which local Hawaiians are positioned in the complicate power dynamic between oppositional Hawaiian identity and cosmopolitan diasporic identity within the larger framework of Asian American pan-ethnic identity. The controversial event triggered the eruption of Asian Americans' anxiety over the identity-bounded nation of Asian America where intra-racial classism and conflict have been at play, which are primary themes of Blu's Hanging. This paper shows how Yamanaka's Blu's Hanging becomes so disturbing a work to prevent the hegemonic formality of Asian America identity from being fully dogmatic. Ultimately, it contradicts the political unconscious of the reading public and unmasked its false consciousness by engendering a "free subjective intervention" in the ideological reality of colonial Hawai'i.

'Colonial Public-ness' during the Period of Japanese Forced Occupation ('식민지적 공공설'과 8.15 해방 공간)

  • Won, Yong-Jin
    • Korean journal of communication and information
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    • v.47
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    • pp.50-73
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    • 2009
  • A tendency to ignore the existence of public space in Korea under the Japanese colonial period seems to be driven from nationalist historiography in which all historical events under the colonial power have to be interpreted in terms of militant controls and resistances against them. Historical approach to mass media of that period has lasted to be saturated with the tendency and forced history students to stick to the nationalist guidelines. Struggles against Japanese imperial power by national-capital-operated newspaper have been a main menu of studies on the period's communication. The media were often hailed as fighting the colonial power for nation's independence. The present thesis aims to criticize the nationalist point of view and to reveal that nationalist interpretations may miss a variety of historical information. Even under the severe surveillance of colonial police some journalists tried either to inform officially or to smuggle into informed groups. The colonized society could experienced fields of public-ness throughout the practices of such as media fields, cultural fields, political fields. Those fields, of course, didn't come from the graceful favor of the colonial power but from the construction of the colonized. The public-ness seemed to be born for the easiness of control, but became later a constructed field of public-ness with which the colonized semiotically wrestled the power and grew a modern type of political (un)consciousness. Depicting what happened just before 815 liberation day in Korea the present paper showed that the less nationalist historiography can render help to those seeking political practices of the colonized in a micro-level.

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Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Pan-Africanism: People's Memory and Alliance to Overcome Postcolonial Nations (응구기와 시옹오의 범아프리카주의 - 포스트식민 국가를 넘어서는 주변부의 기억과 연대)

  • Lee, Hyoseok
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.42
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    • pp.107-129
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    • 2016
  • In modern history, there have been several kinds of continental unions or supranational politico-economic unions in the world, such as the United Nations, the European Union, the Union of South American Nations, the African Union, etc. Modern thinkers proposed many pan-isms on their continental base, for example, Pan-Arabism, Pan-Latin Americanism, Pan-Asianism, Pan-Celtism, etc. What is the most common in these pan-isms is that a continental union would be a politico-economic system to overcome the limits of the modern state-nation and to realize a long and happy relationship between member nations and continents. However, the concept of a supranational union differs from that of cosmopolitanism, in that the former presupposes the common cultural and historical heritage in the concerned region or continent. Ngugi wa Thinog'o' Pan-Africanism implies two keywords that are connected to his concepts such as 'decentralization' and 'African languages.' Pan-Africanism supposes that Africa may gain benefits from the union of African nations under the umbrella of anti-colonial efforts to down size the Euro-American influences. Moreover, using African languages enhances self-reliance and self-imagination among the African people. For in the former colonial regimes, the European colonial languages, such as English, French, or Portuguese, were central to the dissemination of European culture and modernity. Ngugi asserts that the African peripheralized languages could reinstate the African cultural heritage and propose an alternative to the Western modernity.

The reception of women's clothing from the 1950s to 1980s - A case study on the rural area of Naju, Jeollanam-do - (1950년대부터 1980년대 여성 의복 수용의 지역성 - 전라남도 나주 농촌 지역 사례를 중심으로 -)

  • Choi, Seungyeun
    • The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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    • v.28 no.1
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    • pp.114-130
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    • 2020
  • The purpose of this study is to reveal the cultural meaning behind modern experiences of diversity through the history of clothing in Korea. To this end, this study examines aspects that dictate clothing culture acceptance experienced and practiced by women by analyzing the case of the Naju rural area in Jeollanam-do from the 1950s to 1980s. Modern clothing was accepted later in the 20 century in this village, and the Satgolnai traditional textile tradition was an important factor after 1950s. In addition, the continuity of the rural five-day market is different from practices in the city. Limitations in access to media such as TV, films, and magazines, and the functional meaning of clothing in rural areas contributed to limitations for women to get the opportunity to access modern clothing items that were popular in the city. Unlike in the city, the event that inspired the transition to full-scale modern clothing in this village was the Saemaul Undong Movement of the 1970s. Additionally, Mombbe (labor cloth) worn during the Japanese colonial period was continuously worn as daily clothes for Naju women even after the 1950s. Therefore, colonial modernity continued through clothing.

The Dehistoricization Trend in Historical Plays: Play with History and Everyday Life History Writing (역사극의 탈역사화 경향: 역사의 유희와 일상사적 역사 쓰기)

  • Kim, Sunghee
    • Journal of Korean Theatre Studies Association
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    • no.48
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    • pp.51-84
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    • 2012
  • In Korea, historical plays took an epoch-making turn from the previous historical plays in terms of approaches to topic and material and methods of rewriting history in the 1990s. Historical plays became dehistoricized with individual, everyday life, and faction emerging as major codes of historical plays according to mistrust in history and grand narrative as the original and disappearance of trust in the growth and totality of history. A new trend became dominant of presenting fictionality prominent instead of reproduction of history and freely playing with history outside the context. While modern historical plays were subject to the content of history, post-modern historical plays sought after new history writing to tell a new story on history within a framework of fiction. Focusing on some of the trends in post-modern historical plays since the 1990s, which include play with history, daily life-style history writing, and reproduction patterns of colonial modernity, this study examined the goals, representations, and text strategies of new history writing in three historical plays, Generation After Generation(2000) by Park Geunhyung, The Mercenaries(2000) by Park Sujin, and Chosun Detective Hong Yunshik(2007) by Sung Giwoong. In Generation After Generation, the author adopts a plot of starting with the present and tracing back to the past, breaking down the myth of racially homogeneous nation. At the same time, he discloses that the colonial history is not just by the oppressive force of Japan but also by the voluntary cooperation of Korean people. That is, we are also accountable for the colonial history of the nation. The Mercenaries contrasts the independence movement during the colonial period against the modern history developed after Liberation, thus highlighting the still continuing coloniality, namely post-colonial present. The past is presented as the "phantom of history" making its appearance according to the request of the present hoping for salvation. The author politicizes history and grants political wishes to history by summoning the history by personal memories such as fictional diaries and letters with Messiah-like images opposed to the present of collapse and catastrophe. In Chosun Detective Hong Yunshik, the author makes an attempt at the microscopic reproduction of daily life by approaching the 1930s as the modern period when capitalist daily life started to take root. The lists of signs comprising daily life in colonial Gyeongseong are divided between civilization and savagery and between modern and premodern. With the progress of narrative, however, they become mixed together and reversed in the representation system in which the latter overwhelms the former.

새로운 불교학 연구의 지평을 위하여

  • Jo, Seong-Taek
    • Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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    • v.16
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    • pp.151-166
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    • 2003
  • Contemporary Buddhist scholarship in Korea has been strongly affected by its origins in the Victorian era, when Western religious scholars sought to rationalize and historicize the study of religion. Modern Korean scholars, trained within the Western scholarly paradigm, share this prejudice which tends toward the rational. The result is a skewed understanding of Buddhism, emphasizing its philosophical and theoretical aspects at the expense of seemingly "irrational" religious elements based on the direct experience of meditation practice. This paper seeks to look at the historical context in which modern Korean Buddhist scholarship had been shaped during the colonial period of Japan. Two case studies will be examined particularly in the light of post-colonial perspectives of Buddhist studies: the case of Jonghong Bak(1903-1976) and the case of Donghwa Gim(1902-1980), two pioneering scholars in the field of Buddhist studies. They share similarities as well as differences. Both were born and active at almost the same period, during which Korean peninsula experienced modernization forced upon by Japanese colonialism. And thus, the experience of colonialism and modernization brought them into conflict between tradition and modernity. Their responses, however, were different. Pak, originally trained in Western philosophy, especially German philosophy, wanted to study Korean Buddhism in the context of the so-called Korean Philosophy per se. He was motivated to seek for the national and cultural identity of Korea. And thus his scholarship on Korean Buddhism naturally led him to look for an original Korean Buddhism distinct from the Buddhism of India, China and Japan. On the other hand, Gim, who became a monk in his youth, later went to Japan for college where he was exposed to modern Buddhist scholarship. He was the first to introduce modern Buddhist scholarship to Korea, and since then, contemporary Korean Buddhist scholarship owes much to his contributions. Despite his contributions to contemporary Korean Buddhist scholarship, if we look at his efforts in the light of post-colonial perspective, his ideas need to be reevaluate.

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A Study of Do Jinwoo's Dongseo uihak youi (東西醫學要義) (도진우(都鎭羽)의 『동서의학요의(東西醫學要義)』에 대한 연구)

  • KIM Hyunkoo;AHN Sangwoo;Kim Namil
    • The Journal of Korean Medical History
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    • v.36 no.1
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    • pp.99-112
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    • 2023
  • This paper analyzes the historical context, the author, and the organization of contents of Dongseo uihak youi (Essentials of Eastern and Western Medicines), which was written by Do Jinwoo. In the colonial situation of the early twentieth century, the tradition of Korean medicine faced crises and challenges in many ways. Members of the Korean medicine community were simultaneously faced with continuing the tradition of Korean medicine and becoming healthcare providers with a specific role within the healthcare system of the time. Dongseo uihak youi is the result of the collective and official efforts of the Association of Korean Medicine of the time to maintain its tradition where only Western medicine was officially allowed to be taught and tested after the promulgation of the Rules of the Medical Student (ŭisaeng). Dongseo uihak youi was the first Korean medicine book to precisely describe and compare the names of diseases in Eastern and Western medicines. Dongseo uihak youi contained not only medical theories and prescriptions but also laws and forms, in that the purpose of the book was not simply to cultivate clinical skills but also to demarcate the boundary of medical knowledge and activities required of a practitioner of Korean medicine in the modern colonial health care system of the time.

Dress and Ideology during the late $19^{th}$ and early $20^{th}$ centuries Korea, 1876~1945

  • Lee, Min-Jung;Kim, Min-Ja
    • International Journal of Costume and Fashion
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.15-33
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    • 2011
  • The late $19^{th}$ and early $20^{th}$ centuries of Korea were the times when the Confucianism (牲理學) ideology was shaken heavily under the influences of modernism and capitalism by Western and Japanese military and political-economic forces. Under such circumstances, alteration of clothing was much influenced by ideologies than changes in social structure or technological advance. In this study, an ideology was defined as "the force which drives people into a particular social order". Ideologies were postulated as an ongoing process of socialization with dialectic features rather than being a static state. Comparative analyses on conflict structures and different clothing patterns symbolizing the ideologies of the Ruling (支配) and the Opposition (對抗) were conducted. Investigating dresses as representations of ideologies is to reconsider the notion of dichotomous confrontation between the conservatives (守舊派) and the progressives (開化派) and a recognition of Koreans' passively accepting modernity during the Japanese occupation. This may also have contributed to enlightening Koreans about modernization. Here are the results. First, the theoretical review found that ideologies were represented by not only symbols of discourse, but also dresses, and that dresses embodied both physical and conceptual systems presenting differences between ideologies and their natures, Second, during the late 19th century Korea, conflict between conservatives' Hanbok (韓服) and progressives' Western suits (洋服) was found. Moderate progressives showed their identity by "Colored Clothing" (深色衣), and radical progressives by black suits with short hair (黑衣斷髮) or by western suits (洋服). The ultimate goal of both parties was a "Modern Nation". With these efforts, pale jade green coats and traditional hats symbolizing the nobleman class was eliminated within 30 years from 1880 to 1910, and then simple robes and short hair emerged. However, the powerful Japanese army had taken over the hegemony of East Asia, and Korea was sharply divided into modernization and pro-Japanese camps. Third, during the time of Japanese colonial rule, the dress codes having set by the modernization policies during the time of enlightenment were abandoned and colonial uniforms for the colonial system was meticulously introduced. During this period, Western or Japanese-style uniforms were the symbol of the ruling ideology. In the mean time, Hanbok, particularly "White Clothing (白衣)", emerged as a representation of the opposition ideology. However, due to Japan's coercive power and strong zeal for "Great orient (大東亞)", white clothing remained as a mere symbol. Meanwhile, Reformists (實力養成論者) movement toward improving quality of life followed a similar path of the Japanese policies and was eventually incorporated into the ruling ideology. Fourth, dresses as representations of ruling ideologies were enforced by organizational powers, such as organizations and laws, and binding policies, and changes in such dresses were more significant when the ruling ideologies were stronger. Clothing of the opposition ideology was expressed as an aggregation of public consciousness. During the period, the subjects of ruling ideology and the objects who were granted modernization benefits were different although their drives for colored clothing with short hair (色衣斷髮) for modernization were similar.