Imperial Romance

Abstract

This chapter captures the complex phenomenon of representations of Korean–Japanese intimate relationships in Korean popular literature, media, and cinema with colonial policies during the Japanese protectorate period and colonial rule in Korea from 1905 to 1945. It cites that Koreans' experience of intimacy was rare in twentieth-century global colonialism as intermarriage and intimate relationships were encouraged by the colonial government. It also argues that Korean writers and cultural producers of the first half of the twentieth century displayed a fascination with their Japanese colonizers. The chapter analyses moments when colonial subjects become active participants in, and agents of, Japanese and global imperialism. It talks about the cracks in the colonial system, such as moments when Koreans became equal to the Japanese, with or without the support of the colonial rulers.