• Acta Via Serica
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.131-148
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• 2022

While much has been written about Imperial Japan's encounter with geopolitics and developing ideas about Geography as a political and cultural discipline, little if anything has been written about relational and research Geographies between Japan and Silk Roads both ancient and modern. Memories of the ancient Silk Road were revivified in the late 19^th century in tandem with the Great Game of European nations, as Japan modernized and sought new places and influence globally following the Meiji restoration. Imperial Japan thus sought to conquer and co-opt spaces imagined to be part of or influenced by the ancient Silk Road and any modern manifestation of it. This paper explores a particular process in that co-option and appropriation, research collaboration between institutions of the Empire. In particular it considers the exploration of Mengjiang/Inner Mongolia after its conquest in 1939/1940, by a collaborative team of Korean and Japanese Geographers, led by Professor Tada Fumio. This paper considers the making knowable of spaces imagined to be on the ancient Silk Road in the Imperial period, and the projecting of the imperatives of the Empire back into Silk Road history, at the same time as such territory was being made anew. This paper also casts new light on the relational and collaborative processes of academic exchange, specifically in the field of Geography, between Korean and Japanese academics during the Korean colonial period.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.287-306
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• 2016

This paper aims to explain the Korean urbanization, which can be characterized by the development of apartment complexes and new towns, in relation to urban ideology in Korea. In particular, it examines the impacts of the ideological processes of Gangnam-ization on the ways in which 'the urban' has been represented, imagined, aspired, and consumed by the Korean urban middle class in particular ways. For this research, we interviewed 22 urban middle class people living in three important urban centers (Gangnam, Bundang, and Haeundae).

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.540-556
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• 2006

The purpose of this paper is to analyze a process of formation of an ethnic community in the global era, taking an example of foreign workers in Igok-Dong, Dalseo-gu, Taegu. Previous studies suggest that playing a role as a hub of culture, resources and ethnic networks an ethnic community becomes an imagined space where its members can feel "us". Through this imagined space, ethnic people communicate and exchange information with each other and establish transnational linkages between their origin and destination countries or the third countries. In my research in Igok-Dong it was observed that ethnic shops had become the centers of the community of foreign workers and helped them connect with their own ethnic people from wider areas than their residence. Partly because of such networks exclusively focused on their own ethnics, there was little connection developed between foreign workers and locals. A social distance between the two parties may turn into antagonism as the ethnic community grows in number. Since it is foreseen that demands for foreign workers will continue to rise in Igok-Dong it is necessary to seek ways to achieve a more inclusive and harmonious multi-ethnic society for both foreign workers and locals.

• Korean Journal of Comparative Education
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.213-238
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• 2017

This paper aims to point out that the contemporary textbook is a common cognitive construct, and that the realistic drawings in the textbooks have played an important role in shaping the world recognition. The main subjects of this study are the racial-ethnic illustrations of elementary school geography textbooks, published by the Japanese Ministry of Education, the Japanese Government-General of Taiwan and Korea, the educational association of Manchu. By comparing the same factors in various textbooks, it examines how the temporal and spatial recognition of the world is adjusted by visual representation. The main findings of this study are three fold. First, the world was introduced to the extent of the sum that the census and the classifications of racial and ethnic groups were adopted. And the world appeared later in the year supported by the racial and ethnic minorities. Second, the expressive style of racial and ethnic groups changed from an emphasis on a heterogeneous part as an object of scientific observation in the early stage to a later one with a life culture similar to the reader. Third, racial ethnic illustrations have been used differently depending on the publishing region in the Empire, giving readers in different regions with different images of the same category. In many cases, it was possible to know the politics of representation and the use of certain racial ethnic illustrations. The textbooks of the first half of the 20th century gave great recognition to the people who could not meet with the readers by using the illustrations. A child in the mainland is aware of his position in a "viewing position" while viewing various empire people through the textbook. On the other hand, in the textbooks of the colonial children, they stood in the position of 'being seen', and showed a change in internalizing the position of the mainland along with the expansion of the empire.