Abstract:O Huimun, a Joseon yangban who had never passed the civil service examination and consequently never been appointed to a government position, was travelling around Jeolla Province in 1592 when the first Japanese invasion of the Imjin War (1592–1598) occurred. From the outset of his travels at the end of 1591 until his return to Seoul early in 1601, O Huimun kept an almost unbroken daily record of his and his family’s life experiences as they struggled to survive in the adverse conditions of wartime Joseon. One of the most salient features of the “Gabo illok” (Daily record of the lunar year 1594) section of the diary is O Huimun’s frequent recourse to divination during the time when he and his family were taking refuge in Imcheon 林川 in Chungcheong Province and came into contact with Yi Bongnyeong, a divination official (myeonggwagwan 命課官) in the Office of Observance of Natural Phenomena (Gwansanggam 觀象監) of the Joseon government, who was also taking refuge there. In order to help us better understand the daily life and world view of a Neo-Confucian yangban in mid-Joseon times, this article examines O Huimun’s frequent recourse to Yi Bongnyeong’s divination in relation to health matters, his daughter’s marriage and childbirth, his sons’ prospects in the civil service examination, and general fortune telling.
{"title":"Dealing with Uncertainty: Divination During the Imjin War (1592–1598) as Recorded in O Huimun’s Swaemirok","authors":"Michael C. E. Finch","doi":"10.1353/seo.2021.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2021.0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:O Huimun, a Joseon yangban who had never passed the civil service examination and consequently never been appointed to a government position, was travelling around Jeolla Province in 1592 when the first Japanese invasion of the Imjin War (1592–1598) occurred. From the outset of his travels at the end of 1591 until his return to Seoul early in 1601, O Huimun kept an almost unbroken daily record of his and his family’s life experiences as they struggled to survive in the adverse conditions of wartime Joseon. One of the most salient features of the “Gabo illok” (Daily record of the lunar year 1594) section of the diary is O Huimun’s frequent recourse to divination during the time when he and his family were taking refuge in Imcheon 林川 in Chungcheong Province and came into contact with Yi Bongnyeong, a divination official (myeonggwagwan 命課官) in the Office of Observance of Natural Phenomena (Gwansanggam 觀象監) of the Joseon government, who was also taking refuge there. In order to help us better understand the daily life and world view of a Neo-Confucian yangban in mid-Joseon times, this article examines O Huimun’s frequent recourse to Yi Bongnyeong’s divination in relation to health matters, his daughter’s marriage and childbirth, his sons’ prospects in the civil service examination, and general fortune telling.","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/seo.2021.0002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43441947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:Jaroslav Bařinka, a leading Czech scholar of Koreanology, founding figure of Koreanology in Czechoslovakia, and among the longest–serving Czech diplomats operating in both Koreas, died at the age of eighty–nine on October 3, 2020. Bařinka made invaluable contributions introducing Korean traditional culture, archeology, and literature to non–Korean audiences, based on his extensive travels in the Koreas, Japan, and China spanning half a century. He served as an interpreter and Second Secretary at the Czechoslovak embassy in Pyongyang starting in 1955 and intermittently after that until 1976. He was the first Czech civilian to visit the ROK in 1970, returning there during the 1988 Olympics and in 1991 as Czechoslovakia’s—and in 1993 Czechia’s—first chargé d’affaires to Seoul. He was famous for his meticulous note–taking, sharp eyes, and technical knowledge. To the moment of his death he could talk at length about metallurgical deposits across Czechia and North Korea, their extraction processes, and their chemical properties—or about Confucian writings and architecture. This article recounts Bařinka’s experiences from his long career in Korean scholarship, interpretation and diplomacy, with the aim of shedding light on Czechoslovak–Korean political relations, scholarly and cultural exchanges, and physical encounters from the 1950s to the 2000s. It is a record of conversations based on fifteen long interviews with Bařinka which took place between October 2014 and August 2019, with the objective of tracing the beginnings of Koreanology in Czechoslovakia. The content and style follow Bařinka’s presentation as closely as possible, and errors, omissions, and biases are not carefully flagged, with the aim of accurately reflecting Bařinka’s own narrative. In instances where editorial intervention is warranted, references to sources of additional information and corroborations of Bařinka’s account are separated clearly from Bařinka’s own account.
{"title":"Jaroslav Bařinka: Reflections on Czechoslovak-Korean Cold War Encounters","authors":"V. Hlasny","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3869721","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3869721","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Jaroslav Bařinka, a leading Czech scholar of Koreanology, founding figure of Koreanology in Czechoslovakia, and among the longest–serving Czech diplomats operating in both Koreas, died at the age of eighty–nine on October 3, 2020. Bařinka made invaluable contributions introducing Korean traditional culture, archeology, and literature to non–Korean audiences, based on his extensive travels in the Koreas, Japan, and China spanning half a century. He served as an interpreter and Second Secretary at the Czechoslovak embassy in Pyongyang starting in 1955 and intermittently after that until 1976. He was the first Czech civilian to visit the ROK in 1970, returning there during the 1988 Olympics and in 1991 as Czechoslovakia’s—and in 1993 Czechia’s—first chargé d’affaires to Seoul. He was famous for his meticulous note–taking, sharp eyes, and technical knowledge. To the moment of his death he could talk at length about metallurgical deposits across Czechia and North Korea, their extraction processes, and their chemical properties—or about Confucian writings and architecture. This article recounts Bařinka’s experiences from his long career in Korean scholarship, interpretation and diplomacy, with the aim of shedding light on Czechoslovak–Korean political relations, scholarly and cultural exchanges, and physical encounters from the 1950s to the 2000s. It is a record of conversations based on fifteen long interviews with Bařinka which took place between October 2014 and August 2019, with the objective of tracing the beginnings of Koreanology in Czechoslovakia. The content and style follow Bařinka’s presentation as closely as possible, and errors, omissions, and biases are not carefully flagged, with the aim of accurately reflecting Bařinka’s own narrative. In instances where editorial intervention is warranted, references to sources of additional information and corroborations of Bařinka’s account are separated clearly from Bařinka’s own account.","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44007125","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:This article investigates repertories of the Yiwangjik aakpu regular concert to examine how court musicians in colonial Korea reacted to the continuing influx of Western musical culture. The Yiwangjik aakpu was formerly the Changagwŏn in charge of music performed at the royal palace of Chosŏn Korea. The name change, along with a reduction in the number of affiliated musicians, occurred with the fall of the dynasty and the establishment of the Japanese colonial government. In the face of declining court music, court musicians established a training institute for younger generation court musicians and held monthly concerts from 1932 to 1945 to preserve their music. They provided the public with opportunities to enroll at the training institute and watch the regular concerts. This article reveals that court musicians incorporated elements of Western classical music, which held a dominant position in the performing arts fields during the 1930s, into their concert programs in addition to promoting institutional changes. The court musicians' new attempts, beyond merely preserving an old tradition, demonstrate their adaptation to the rapidly changing musical culture of the time. These findings overall elaborate on the innovative and adaptive efforts of Korean court musicians, thereby expanding the range of prior studies on the Japanese colonial period.
{"title":"Adapting to New Cultural Environments: An Analysis of the Yiwangjik aakpu Regular Concerts (1932–1945)","authors":"H. Choi","doi":"10.1353/seo.2020.0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2020.0015","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article investigates repertories of the Yiwangjik aakpu regular concert to examine how court musicians in colonial Korea reacted to the continuing influx of Western musical culture. The Yiwangjik aakpu was formerly the Changagwŏn in charge of music performed at the royal palace of Chosŏn Korea. The name change, along with a reduction in the number of affiliated musicians, occurred with the fall of the dynasty and the establishment of the Japanese colonial government. In the face of declining court music, court musicians established a training institute for younger generation court musicians and held monthly concerts from 1932 to 1945 to preserve their music. They provided the public with opportunities to enroll at the training institute and watch the regular concerts. This article reveals that court musicians incorporated elements of Western classical music, which held a dominant position in the performing arts fields during the 1930s, into their concert programs in addition to promoting institutional changes. The court musicians' new attempts, beyond merely preserving an old tradition, demonstrate their adaptation to the rapidly changing musical culture of the time. These findings overall elaborate on the innovative and adaptive efforts of Korean court musicians, thereby expanding the range of prior studies on the Japanese colonial period.","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/seo.2020.0015","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43140114","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tonghak thought and its legacy, since the very beginning of the DPRK regime, were part of its political and ideological structure and a frequently discussed part of North Korean historical discourse. Evaluations of the Tonghak movement, the Kabo Peasant War, Ch’oe Cheu, or the anti-Japanese struggle of Ch’ŏndogyo members variegated through seven decades of the regime to a certain degree, but in spite of partial criticism always remained positive. This attitude was further strengthened in the last two decades when Tonghak gained an even more prominent position in the historical narrative and became a highlighted chapter in the history of the anti-feudal and anti-imperialist struggle of the Korean people.1 These changes in interpretation of Tonghak are especially
{"title":"Tonghak: A Progressive Ideological Heritage Indigenous to the Chosŏn Nation","authors":"Hak Hui Keiran Ro, Keiran Mcrae","doi":"10.1353/seo.2020.0021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2020.0021","url":null,"abstract":"Tonghak thought and its legacy, since the very beginning of the DPRK regime, were part of its political and ideological structure and a frequently discussed part of North Korean historical discourse. Evaluations of the Tonghak movement, the Kabo Peasant War, Ch’oe Cheu, or the anti-Japanese struggle of Ch’ŏndogyo members variegated through seven decades of the regime to a certain degree, but in spite of partial criticism always remained positive. This attitude was further strengthened in the last two decades when Tonghak gained an even more prominent position in the historical narrative and became a highlighted chapter in the history of the anti-feudal and anti-imperialist struggle of the Korean people.1 These changes in interpretation of Tonghak are especially","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/seo.2020.0021","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48236068","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:South Korea has one of the oldest non-amended constitutions in the world. However, while the comparative literature has been neglecting this puzzling case as such, Korean literature on the matter has been lacking theoretically informed investigation. Therefore, this article studies the mechanisms and dynamics responsible for this outstanding endurance from the perspective of comparative constitutional amendment theory. Developing an analytical framework that integrates insights from quantitative and qualitative approaches, the article examines the last constitutional reform in 1987, and against the background of reform attempts since then, the constitutional amendment attempt in 2018. The analysis reveals how the core variables inclusiveness, specificity, and flexibility interplay with the contextual variables environment, formal institutions, and culture, particular to the case of South Korea. The study finds that a combination of highly exclusive political power structures with typically elite-driven political decisionmaking practices, in a political environment characterized by strong antagonism prompting an extreme conflictual constitutional ethos, are crucial to understanding the constitutional petrification.
{"title":"Understanding the Politics of Constitutional Resilience in South Korea","authors":"Hannes B Mosler","doi":"10.1353/seo.2020.0018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2020.0018","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:South Korea has one of the oldest non-amended constitutions in the world. However, while the comparative literature has been neglecting this puzzling case as such, Korean literature on the matter has been lacking theoretically informed investigation. Therefore, this article studies the mechanisms and dynamics responsible for this outstanding endurance from the perspective of comparative constitutional amendment theory. Developing an analytical framework that integrates insights from quantitative and qualitative approaches, the article examines the last constitutional reform in 1987, and against the background of reform attempts since then, the constitutional amendment attempt in 2018. The analysis reveals how the core variables inclusiveness, specificity, and flexibility interplay with the contextual variables environment, formal institutions, and culture, particular to the case of South Korea. The study finds that a combination of highly exclusive political power structures with typically elite-driven political decisionmaking practices, in a political environment characterized by strong antagonism prompting an extreme conflictual constitutional ethos, are crucial to understanding the constitutional petrification.","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/seo.2020.0018","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48371362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:Using the perspective of cultural and critical geography, this paper discusses the fabric of Songdo, South Korea, a mega-urban project declared the paragon of a "smart city" and intended to house about 250,000 inhabitants by 2020. After demonstrating how Songdo fits David Harvey's (1975, 2001b) concept of a "mega-project," we deconstruct the development of Songdo to show how the city is a "spatial fix" (Harvey 1981, 2001a). Then, according to Henri Lefebvre's (1974) theory of space (conceived, perceived, and experienced), we analyze Songdo's smart city marketing. This method allows us to interrogate the logics of actors in the fabric of Songdo and the articulation between the fabric, the meaning, and the living, focusing on residential scale. What does it mean to live in such a "smart city" in the making? Are the housing, planning, and public facilities appropriate for the pioneering residents' actual practices in the new city? Has digital intelligence had any effects on building and managing a city? If so, what are they? By analyzing data collected through ethnographic methods, we present a better vision of the complex temporalities of such a mega-project under construction. A city in the making leads to functional and morphological discrepancies: from the presence of idle lands nearby brand new towers to vegetable gardens in front of glamorous urban facilities. Our approach to Songdo is remote from the usual boasting discourse on the "smart city." Songdo is hardly smarter than any contemporary city; rather, it is a smart city only because digital life enhanced by the use of smartphones has become a "total social fact" (Mauss 1973) in South Korea and in urbanism.
{"title":"Smart City Songdo? A Digital Turn on Urban Fabric","authors":"S. Peyrard, Valérie Gelézeau","doi":"10.1353/seo.2020.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2020.0019","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Using the perspective of cultural and critical geography, this paper discusses the fabric of Songdo, South Korea, a mega-urban project declared the paragon of a \"smart city\" and intended to house about 250,000 inhabitants by 2020. After demonstrating how Songdo fits David Harvey's (1975, 2001b) concept of a \"mega-project,\" we deconstruct the development of Songdo to show how the city is a \"spatial fix\" (Harvey 1981, 2001a). Then, according to Henri Lefebvre's (1974) theory of space (conceived, perceived, and experienced), we analyze Songdo's smart city marketing. This method allows us to interrogate the logics of actors in the fabric of Songdo and the articulation between the fabric, the meaning, and the living, focusing on residential scale. What does it mean to live in such a \"smart city\" in the making? Are the housing, planning, and public facilities appropriate for the pioneering residents' actual practices in the new city? Has digital intelligence had any effects on building and managing a city? If so, what are they? By analyzing data collected through ethnographic methods, we present a better vision of the complex temporalities of such a mega-project under construction. A city in the making leads to functional and morphological discrepancies: from the presence of idle lands nearby brand new towers to vegetable gardens in front of glamorous urban facilities. Our approach to Songdo is remote from the usual boasting discourse on the \"smart city.\" Songdo is hardly smarter than any contemporary city; rather, it is a smart city only because digital life enhanced by the use of smartphones has become a \"total social fact\" (Mauss 1973) in South Korea and in urbanism.","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/seo.2020.0019","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48474088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Korean Vernacular Story: Telling Tales of Contemporary Chosŏn in Sinographic Writing by Si Nae Park (review)","authors":"Charles la Shure","doi":"10.1353/seo.2020.0023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2020.0023","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/seo.2020.0023","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43467259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:This article discusses two adaptations of Korean "classics" by Ch'oe Inhun (1936–2018), Kuunmong (1962) and Kŭmo sinhwa (1963), offering an in-depth comparative analysis of these works with their canonized Chosŏn Dynasty models by Kim Manjung (1637–1692) and Kim Sisŭp (1435–1493) to identify and interpret intertextual ties. I hypothesize that Ch'oe Inhun's unusual transformations of these core works of the national Korean canon—written in a South Korea churned by internal and external conflicts, during an age when historical and cultural memories were forged and a national heritage and identity designed to legitimize, demarcate, and mobilize were created—constitute narratives of intellectual dissent. This paper argues that Ch'oe Inhun's adaptations of Kuunmong and Kŭmo sinhwa, both developing meaning and impact out of the creative interplay with their premodern models, can be understood as having been specifically geared to run counter to policies of simplification, linearization, collectivization, and glorification of tradition brought forth by the government under Park Chung Hee (1917–1979).
{"title":"A Fusion of Dreams, a Crossing of Borders: On Ch'oe Inhun's Transformations of Korean Classical Literature","authors":"Dennis Wuerthner","doi":"10.1353/seo.2020.0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2020.0017","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article discusses two adaptations of Korean \"classics\" by Ch'oe Inhun (1936–2018), Kuunmong (1962) and Kŭmo sinhwa (1963), offering an in-depth comparative analysis of these works with their canonized Chosŏn Dynasty models by Kim Manjung (1637–1692) and Kim Sisŭp (1435–1493) to identify and interpret intertextual ties. I hypothesize that Ch'oe Inhun's unusual transformations of these core works of the national Korean canon—written in a South Korea churned by internal and external conflicts, during an age when historical and cultural memories were forged and a national heritage and identity designed to legitimize, demarcate, and mobilize were created—constitute narratives of intellectual dissent. This paper argues that Ch'oe Inhun's adaptations of Kuunmong and Kŭmo sinhwa, both developing meaning and impact out of the creative interplay with their premodern models, can be understood as having been specifically geared to run counter to policies of simplification, linearization, collectivization, and glorification of tradition brought forth by the government under Park Chung Hee (1917–1979).","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/seo.2020.0017","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43471082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thanks to the support of the Academy of Korean Studies, in recent years the quantity of English translations of primary texts in Korean studies has increased enormously. Especially prolific in this respect has been a team of translators assembled by the Center for Buddhist Studies at UCLA (full disclosure: I am also one of the translators, although I have no connection to the translator of the reviewed work). It is especially welcome that among these texts is the T’aengniji. A literal translation of the title might be “Treatise on Selecting a Village,” but the translator’s title, A Place to Live, is short, striking, and memorable. The author, Yi Chung-hwan (1690–1756), was a marginalized member of an aristocratic yangban family who was pushed into exile on account of factional politics. A Place to Live, which he likely completed during the early 1750s, is a geographic account of eighteenth-century Chosŏn written with the purpose of helping fellow yangban aristocrats select a good place to live. After an introductory survey of the Chosŏn’s system of social status, Yi Review Essay
{"title":"Translating the T'aengniji: A Review of Inshil Choe Yoon's A Place to Live","authors":"Adam Bohnet","doi":"10.1353/seo.2020.0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2020.0022","url":null,"abstract":"Thanks to the support of the Academy of Korean Studies, in recent years the quantity of English translations of primary texts in Korean studies has increased enormously. Especially prolific in this respect has been a team of translators assembled by the Center for Buddhist Studies at UCLA (full disclosure: I am also one of the translators, although I have no connection to the translator of the reviewed work). It is especially welcome that among these texts is the T’aengniji. A literal translation of the title might be “Treatise on Selecting a Village,” but the translator’s title, A Place to Live, is short, striking, and memorable. The author, Yi Chung-hwan (1690–1756), was a marginalized member of an aristocratic yangban family who was pushed into exile on account of factional politics. A Place to Live, which he likely completed during the early 1750s, is a geographic account of eighteenth-century Chosŏn written with the purpose of helping fellow yangban aristocrats select a good place to live. After an introductory survey of the Chosŏn’s system of social status, Yi Review Essay","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/seo.2020.0022","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48816997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:This paper examines the intellectual discourse regarding the place and function of Korean-language writing in Manchuria during the Manchukuo period. I look specifically at several editorials that appeared in the Korean newspaper Mansŏn ilbo. These primary sources appeared during the literary zenith of the Manchukuo period between 1937 and 1942, five years mainly characterized by widespread debates about what constituted Manchukuo national culture. I argue that the participation of Korean intellectuals in these debates indicates their desire to be seen as an autonomous group disassociated with the Japanese. The fact that some of the subsequent writing appeared in Chinese translation suggests that it was important for Chinese people as well to see Koreans in a new light. The newspaper articles discussed below show a propensity to change perceptions about Korean belonging in Manchuria through literature and intellectual production. From another perspective, the Mansŏn ilbo articles shed light on how Korean intellectuals understood their production value vis-à-vis the nation-building discourses of Manchukuo.
{"title":"Writing \"Manchurian-Korean Literature\" in the Mansŏn ilbo, 1937–1942","authors":"Lehyla G. Heward","doi":"10.1353/seo.2020.0016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2020.0016","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This paper examines the intellectual discourse regarding the place and function of Korean-language writing in Manchuria during the Manchukuo period. I look specifically at several editorials that appeared in the Korean newspaper Mansŏn ilbo. These primary sources appeared during the literary zenith of the Manchukuo period between 1937 and 1942, five years mainly characterized by widespread debates about what constituted Manchukuo national culture. I argue that the participation of Korean intellectuals in these debates indicates their desire to be seen as an autonomous group disassociated with the Japanese. The fact that some of the subsequent writing appeared in Chinese translation suggests that it was important for Chinese people as well to see Koreans in a new light. The newspaper articles discussed below show a propensity to change perceptions about Korean belonging in Manchuria through literature and intellectual production. From another perspective, the Mansŏn ilbo articles shed light on how Korean intellectuals understood their production value vis-à-vis the nation-building discourses of Manchukuo.","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/seo.2020.0016","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44265530","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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