Beyond assimilation and national resistance: ‘education fever’ during the colonial period in Korea, 1910 – 1945

Abstract

ABSTRACT By examining the widespread enthusiasm for education during the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910–1945), this article sets out to contribute to historiography on so-called ‘education fever’ (kyoyungyŏl), which so far has largely concentrated on researching the period after 1945. In the 1920s and 1930s the term was used to describe a multifaceted phenomenon that was driven by a striving for upward social mobility and the idea of national self-strengthening. Based on a wide range of sources including newspapers and journals, official documents as well as missionary reports, the article argues that ‘education fever’ was, on the one hand, closely linked to Korean nationalism, whose proponents made frequent recourse to the ubiquitous phenomenon in order to strengthen Korean political power through education. On the other hand, despite efforts to restrict school access, colonial authorities to a certain degree were forced to respond to these demands for education, highlighting Korean agency in the process.