• Korean journal of communication and information
• /
• v.77
• /
• pp.137-163
• /
• 2016

In the early 1900, photography, magic lantern and cinema were simultaneously introduced and experienced until the mid-1910s as mysterious and magical symbol of modern science and technology. The technology of vision, cinema in particular demonstrated its commercially expandable potentials through serial films in the mid-1910s, silent cinema in the 1920s and talkies in 1930s. I argue that a metaphor 'like a movie' which was would be spoken out by peoples as a cliche ever since the late 1910s whenever they encountered something uncanny, mysterious, and looking wholly new phenomena informs how cinematic technology worked in colonial society at the turning point to the early 20th century. Mass in colonial society accepted cinema and other visual technologies not only as an advanced science of the times but as texts of modernity that is the reason why cinema had so quickly taken cultural hegemony over the colony. Until the mid-1920s, discourse on cinema focused not on cinema itself, rather more on the theatre matters such as hygiene, facilities for public use, disturbance, quarrels and fights, theft, and etc. Since the mid-1920s and especially in wartime 1930s, discourses about negative influences and effects of cinema on behavior, mind and spirit of masses, bodily health, morality and crime were articulated and delivered by Japanese authorities and agencies like as police, newspapers and magazines, and collaborate Korean intellectuals. Theories and research reports stemming from disciplines of psychology, sociology, and mass-psychology that emphasized vulnerability and susceptibility of the crowd and mass consumers who would be exposed to visual images, spectacles and strong toxic stimulus in everyday lives. Those negative discourse on influences and effects of cinema was intimately associated with fear of the crowd and mass as well as new technology which does not allow clear understanding about how it works in future. The fact that cinema as a technology of vision could be used as an apparatus of ideology and propaganda stirred up doubts and pessimistic perspectives on cinema influence. Discourse on visual technology cinema constructed under colonial governance is doomed to be technology of mass control for empire's own sake.

• SUVANNABHUMI
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.81-99
• /
• 2013

Đoạn tuyệt is the representative of not only Nhất Linh's literary life but also of the Tự Lực Văn Đoàn [Self-Strength Literary Group]. Đoạn tuyệt's contributions are emphasized in the following aspects: 1) critique of the feudal family model, 2) an advocate of female and individual liberation, 3) nationalistic content, though rather vague. Based on analysis of gender power relations in the masculinization of femininity exemplified in the character Loan of the novel, this paper addresses the following points: - In Đoạn tuyệt, the woman is eager to free herself from feudalist ties not to construct her own identity but to identify her with men's identities. - The construction of new feminine identities was conditioned in new rising discourses of Western modernity-based nationalisms in pre-revolutionary Vietnam. - The feminization of masculinity echoes the crisis of Vietnamese masculine in facing colonial power.

• Archives of design research
• /
• v.18 no.2 s.60
• /
• pp.335-344
• /
• 2005

This paper aims to examine how the history of modern design has been described and what has been turned out to be shortcomings and limitations in its description. Traditionally, description of the history of modern design shows over generalization, which means that it suppresses or distorts various and individual designs, stressing on the mainstream of design history. Also it, focusing on some selected designs in hegemony, depicts their characteristics and relations too lineally, and regards a hero-centered history as universal or absolute one. As this tradition is generalized, we are ofter reminded of 'modern design' when touched by ‘design,’ and of colonial heroes and heroism when touched by ‘modern design.’ In this context, this paper will argue that we need to accept various design histories, keeping the subjective attitudes toward history.

• Architectural research
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.21-26
• /
• 2017

This research examines the historic preservation of Korean modern architecture by applying Kenneth Frampton(1930-)'s concept of critical regionalism. It explores the representative Korean modern architect Gil-ryong Park (1898-1943) and two of his buildings: the Hwashin Department Store (1935) and the No-soo Park house (1937-1938). The former was in the hot spot on the preservation. There were plans to preserve this building but that it ended up being demolished in 1987. The latter building, however, has been preserved and is currently being used as a museum. These two Korean modern buildings are explored through the frame of Kenneth Frampton's critical regionalism, in particular focusing on three important concepts: "dialectical expression," "place-form," and "sustainability." In this sense, this research will provide pioneering research in understanding the preservation of Korean modern architecture through a representative Western modern theory. In the early $20^{th}$ century, Korean modern architecture, which was built during the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945), could be interpreted as critical regionalism because it represented a dialog between the West and the East, in particular between Western modernism, Japanese modernity, and Korean tradition in the East Asian context. Understanding Korean modernism in this context of a cross-cultural perspective enables scholars to define both the origins and uniqueness of Korean modern architecture.

• Korean journal of communication and information
• /
• v.31
• /
• pp.261-293
• /
• 2005

This article aims at investigating the origin of 'gookmin', which is currently working as the dominant discourse and leading identity in the South Korean society. Like 'nation', 'people' or/and 'citizen', the term of 'gookmin' is a very much particular and historical outcome of the colonial modernity. Nevertheless, however, there have been not so much serious socio-linguistic, cultural-political studies about its root. It is theoretically as well as practically quite important to trace back the birth of 'gookmin', which is working as an ideological, epistemological frame in/between subject and reality. In this regard, this article will consider the late Japanese colonial period as a key period of the birth of 'gookmin'. It will then critically scrutinize how the total mobilization system by adopted the colonial government has formed the discourse and subjectivity of 'gookmin' based on various physical apparatuses. By revealing that a totalistic nation/state of Japanese colonialism is behind 'gookmin', which wanted to mobilize every individuals into a so-called article of empire, this article tries to show the fascist and propaganda nature of 'gookmin' continuing even after the liberation. As a historical-materialist work of deconstruction the dominant discourse of 'gookmin', this study will basically take a cultural studies approach.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
• /
• v.23
• /
• pp.33-55
• /
• 2011

In the late Japanese colonial period, from the Sino-Japanese War until the Pacific War, critical discourses on the modern were prevalent in Japan and the Joseon. Despite the absence of a consensus about the specific definition of the modern, most thinkers agreed that the modern was something to be overcome. While some regarded naturalism and capitalism of the West as the essence of the modern, some others named scientism and humanism as the nature of the western modernity. Additionally, some criticized the temporal concept of historicism and brought new meanings of 'tradition' into relief, and some others advocated overcoming 'the West inherent in us'. This study is to consider the temporality of the theory of overcoming the modern focusing on the following three notions-world history, tradition, and emergency-, and examines the antinomy of them. The first notion to consider is 'world history'. The theorists of overcoming the modern, including the Kyoto school, discarded the progressive ideology that had led the Western modern history, and instead introduced 'world history' as a new notion. Although this resulted from the imperialistic embracement of the theories of Ranke, a major positivist historian from Germany, it contained antinomy of remaining in 'history' which was the modern temporal view. The second notion is 'tradition'. While the critical mind of 'world history' brought 'time of world' into question in the context of temporal realization, the notion of 'tradition' was to understand 'time of history' itself as the modern and overcome it. The critical mind of the notion involves the attempts to criticize regarding history as a 'progressive' process and to discover tradition as 'the present past' or 'the eternal present'. However, it also contained antinomy; the 'tradition' here was a notion that was created in the modern times, not passed down from ancient times. The third notion to consider is 'emergency', which was a method to define the present time as a transition period toward a new era, relating to states of war. However, the theorists of overcoming the modern did not regard 'emergency' as a particular time that strayed from normal states, instead they thought is as 'a regularized exceptional state', namely 'a state in which exceptions have become regulations'. However, the notion also contained antinomy since the word 'emergency' connotes abnormality.

• Journal of architectural history
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.7-22
• /
• 2006

The Industrial Revolution brought a variety of new forms of structure, and as a group they are usually called 'industrial architecture'. Steam engines contributed greatly to architecture with a unique structure called 'water tower' to provide water for steam engines, especially the adoption of it. This study is to examine the changes of the building materials and architectural features of the water towers of railway stations built in the early twentieth century in South Korea. This study also attempts to describe the modern features of the industrial architecture, which did not get a chance to be noticed. Through this examination on water tower, which is a part of industrial architecture with sheer integration of function and pure geometric form, we would like to find the meaning of modern architecture in Korea. As we can see in the Korean oldest railway station water tower constructed in masonry at Yeonsan Station in 1911, early water towers were divided into the masonry machine room and the steel water tank. However, the masonry structure was soon turned into concrete structure with its formal features maintained as it was. The steel water tank was also replaced with concrete structure. As a result, while its basic structure remained, concrete structure had substituted for the every components of water tower. Concrete-built water towers were the high-tech architecture of that time and the most perfect structures built in concrete. Nevertheless, the perfection of the water tower form and the technology it attained were not transferred to other modern and contemporary architecture in South Korea. Since the subject to railway station water towers was the Japanese government, and steam engines were replaced with diesels in the midst of a complicated domestic situation after the independence, the need for water towers in railway stations disappeared and therefore, it became ignored and was difficult to look over the architectural features and values of early railway station water towers.

• Journal of Korean Society of Archives and Records Management
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.253-271
• /
• 2011

The modern age is such an era of time and space compressed. The central axis having compressed the time of the modern Busan city was the very trains and trams. The development of the means of modern transportation, such as trans and trams, came to change the time-space characteristics of cities in the modern age. Through trains and trams regarded as symbols of modern cities, this study attempted to find the localities of Busan as a modern city. The development of the modern Busan city was actually based on modernity and colonial exploitation. Documents of localities provide data to read humans' local-related experiences. 'Documenting localities' related to the means of modern transportation is a work process to read the localities of Busan in the modern age. Through this process, it is possible to understand how means of transportation can be correlated with a local community, local residents' daily lives and spatial change. Overall, this study is such a small attempt for this concern.

• The Southeast Asian review
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.191-221
• /
• 2014

South Sumatra's capital, Palembang, has long maintained a river-oriented transportation system. With road transportation's increased importance for exploiting natural resources, however, hundreds of roads have been constructed since the Dutch colonial period. This article examines how the construction of roads and bridges affected people's lives and social networks in Palembang, and what social and political significance it has in the context of a region in the postcolonial Indonesia, with a focus on the huge river called the Musi River, which horizontally crosses the city. After independence, there has been strong aspiration to link these two parts by road, and in 1965 the Musi Bridge (then the Sukarno Bridge) over the river was eventually opened. The construction of the bridge apparently initiated socioeconomic transformations and development in the region, including Ulu (the southern river bank)'s rapid urbanization. However, the features of regional development actually were prerequisites for "national" development. The regional development was impossible without financial support from the central government, and the local or regional aspiration for development was often supported only when it fitted with national envision. The Musi Bridge was a model case that fitted with such national envision. While it was the symbol of regional development, it was also celebrated as an exemplary sign of "national" development, by both Sukarno's government and Suharto's New Order regime. By analyzing the discussions and discourses regarding the Musi project since early 1950s, in addition to its social and economic impact after the construction, this article explores the continuities and changes in the roles and significance of the (construction of the) Musi Bridge with the changing political backstops in both regimes. Together with it, this article also aims to reexamine the interplay between "the national" and "the regional" in the prevalent aspiration for the national and regional "development" throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
• /
• v.33
• /
• pp.53-75
• /
• 2013

It is well-known that Chinese saw themselves as the centre of the world until the early 20th century. Since the Opium War 1840, however, belong to the 'general world' the past century. The Opium War made China break away from the Sinocentric spirit. This writing(essay) examines movies from China and the World concern the historical event 'the Opium War.' It also discusses desires that are inherent in narration of each movie and how accord with the real world. The movie The Opium War(1997) directed by XieJin is a work that intended: to wash off the memory of history of disgrace and; to successfully put a disparate piece, Hong Kong, of a puzzle named China together. The Japanese movie Wànshìliúfāng(1943)and The Opium War(1943) were also made for the victory of the Pacific War. They were part of project for uniting the domestic Japan and the colonial outlands - Manchuria and Joseon - that reenacted humiliating history of China, which had been the suzerain of the East Asia The Korean movie The Opium War(1964) was not recalled due to the demand for a lesson from China's painful history, but was recreated by imitating Hong Kong, into where capitalism was transplanted through the Opium War before Korea. History is eventually recalled to the present and the histories, that each different present invokes, are recreated in respective fashion. From their plan to wash off the history of disgrace and successfully return Hong Kong to its native country, China, Japan, and Korea portrayed China, once their cultural suzerain, as impotent East Asia. From their proposition that they should resist the present enemy, the West, together, they imitated the west of the East, which lead the way to achieve modernity. Finally, from their ambition to deviate from their status as developing country, they recalled and reorganized the history, the Opium War.