Border-Crossing and the Shaping of an Imagined Citizenship: The Case of Korean Picture Brides

Abstract

This article engages with the way in which Korean picture brides imagined themselves emotionally in connection with their affective route toward survival and a spirit of liberation in early twentieth-century Hawaii. Exploring the implication of border-crossing as a framework for understanding the dynamics of the brides’ lives, from their decisions to become picture brides to engagement with anti-Japanese activities, this article focuses on how a variety of border-crossings formulate these women’s consciousness in that their act of border-crossing prompted the shaping of an imagined citizenship of Korea. In doing so, this article offers a new methodology for understanding the Korean picture brides’ lives in relation to a more complex dynamic of their emotional experience, the formulation of alternative citizenship, and the construction of modern subjects, thereby contributing to transpacific histories of women’s mobility.