Koreans and Concession in Shanghai in the 1910's and 1920's

Abstract

A small-scale Korean society began to be created in Shanghai in 1910 as Koreans exiled to one of the then largest international city. Speaking of before 1919, Shanghai Korean society was centered in the International Settlement.BR After Korean Provisional Government was established in the French Concession in 1919, Korean society in Shanghai moved its main area from the International Settlement to the French Concession, but the International Settlement was still closely connected with Koreans. Korean Provisional Government or Koreans in the French Concession were routinely exposed in the busy Inetrnational Settlement due to their daily routines, memorial events, independence movements, or jobs.BR No barriers and boundaroes existed between the French Concession and the International Settlement, and if any, they were just psychological boundaries which were formed later. Koreans, who conducted independence movements or businesses in the French Concession, perhaps forgot about freely entering and leaving the International Settlement as they emphasized their pure activities, but selectively remembered only their experience of hard uphill struggles in the French Concession. As a result, the International Settlement was regarded as a thing of others and mystified as a negative target. As a result, the history of Koreans in the Shanghai Concession space and their activities was divided into the dichotomic aspects.