Missionary contributions toward the revaluation of Hangeul in late nineteenth-century Korea

Abstract

Soon after their arrival to Korea, Christian missionaries were confronted by decisions regarding how they would present written materials to the Korean people. While many Koreans used their indigenous script (Hangeul) for everyday purposes, higher status literacy materials were expected to be presented using Chinese characters (Hanja), a system unfamiliar to most but considered more prestigious by all. In deciding to publish the majority of their materials in the more accessible but lower-status script, the missionaries contributed to a revaluation of Hangeul as a fully legitimate means of written communication in a broader range of functional domains.