Ch’oe Namsŏn and Identity Construction through Negotiation with the Colonizer

Abstract

With the arrival of the imperialist Western powers in Asia and the eventual opening of Korea in 1875-76 by neighboring Japan, Korea was compelled to find and to establish a new foundation of its state and identity as an independent and emancipated nation outside of the until-then prevalent Sinocentric world order, and within a new Eurocentric international community. This was necessary to avoid the calamity of colonization, which befell many other non-Western nations. At that time, China found itself in a semi-colonized situation. Many Korean intellectuals therefore considered Japan, with its methods of modernization and successful stand against the West, as a model for Korea. The forced opening after the Kanghwa-do incident and Japanese rivalry with China, and later Russia, over influence on the Korean peninsula, which respectively led to