치료약과 강장제 사이에서

Abstract

This paper illustrates how South Koreans encountered and adopted vitamin supplements in the 20th century and analyzes what is unique about the Korean case. Koreans were first introduced to vitamin supplements by Japanese pharmaceutical companies during the Japanese colonial period. As beriberi was not as prevalent in premodern and early modern Korea as in Japan and Southeast Asia, the advertising strategy of emphasizing the risk of deficiency was not as successful as in Japan. During the mid-to-late Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula, vitamin supplement advertisements shifted their focus from the threat of beriberi to emphasizing potential benefits, such as recovery from fatigue and growth and development in children. This idea of vitamins as a “modern tonic” was so ingrained in the public that, although there was no demand as a remedy, the market for vitamin supplements in Korea kept growing in the age of economic development.