The Arrival of New Women

Abstract

The exhibition The Arrival of New Women held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art at Deoksugung Palace in 2017 and 2018 visually demonstrates the phenomenon and discourse of “new women” in Korea’s modernization (Figure 1). This process continued from the second half of the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century through paintings; handicrafts; and mass media such as movies, advertisements, and magazines.In this exhibition, the term “new women” is used not as a proper noun with a specific appearance at a particular time but as a concept with a broad scope referring to women who abandoned old customs and traditions and tried to practice new ways of living in a modernized world. The term “new women” was introduced to Asian countries, including Japan, from Western Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century and signified a new female image.In Korea, women began to receive a modern education in the 1890s, and this trend gradually continued. It was not until the twentieth century that, inspired by educational opportunity, the number of women who pursued social independence by rejecting the passive position in the traditional Confucian society increased. This emergence posed problems for the political and institutional inequality of women who were seeking freedom and liberation. Furthermore, beginning in the 1910s, the term “new women” began to appear in the print media, such as newspapers and magazines, and came to be used frequently from the mid-1920s to the end of the 1930s.The exhibition consists of three parts, and in the first part titled “New Women on Parade,” images of “new women” reproduced by popular media, including songs and movies, are displayed. The most notable exhibits here are magazines. Even though they might have looked strange at the time, beautiful women wearing modernized hanbok (traditional Korean clothes) with short hair and high heels were depicted on the covers of various magazines published in the 1920s and 1930s (Figure 2).Most of these figures were painted by men, and we can see how they interpreted the “new women” who introduced new cultural trends that flowed from Western European countries. Such “new women” wearing new fashions were also called “modern girls,” which evoked negative connotations such as vanity, luxury, decadence, and corruption. Particularly through the illustrations of newspapers, these women faced criticism for their actions and appearance as “new women.” The imagery likely represented a sense of embarrassment in Korean society at that time of women wanting to leave the home and enter public spaces that were mainly dominated by men (Figure 3). In the woodcut prints displayed at the entrance to the venue, What Is That? by Na Hye Seok (1896–1948), a prominent female artist, shows a young man casting longing glances at a “new woman” with a violin, along with a man from an older generation who is ridiculing her for being cocky (Figure 4). This is one of the noteworthy works of art that shows how gender issues surrounding “new women” were drawn from the viewpoint of women.In the second part of the exhibition, titled “I Am Painting, and Painting Becomes I,” subjective, expressive activities by women are taken up as the main theme, influenced by modern women’s education. Yeogwon-tongmun, published for the first time as a declaration of women’s rights by Yangban class women, emphasized an awareness of being an independent woman and the necessity of women’s education (Figure 5). Early women’s education was positioned as part of national education in the modern state by the male intellectuals of the Enlightenment Party. However, after the annexation by Japan of Korea in 1910, the female intellectuals who worked in the 1920s struggled to encourage women to participate in the race while advancing the March First Independence Movement in 1919. Their enlightenment activities were shown in women’s magazines such as Shin Yeoja (New Girls) (Figure 6). Nonetheless, being a “new woman” basically meant being “a good wife and wise mother,” as transplanted by the Japanese Empire. In other words, being a good wife and wise mother was idealized and set as a goal in women’s education.“New women” in the 1920s and 1930s played the roles of mothers nurturing children and managing families. Shifting to a wartime system at the end of the 1930s, they were forced to take charge of protecting their families, as their husbands went to war as subjects of the Japanese Empire. Education aiming for the independence and liberation of women additionally imposed a new framework called “the good wife and wise mother.” Meanwhile, another version of a “new woman” also emerged—this type of woman rebelled against such provisions; breached old customs; pursued love affairs, free marriage, sex, and love; and practiced feminism’s consciousness, values, and ideals (Figure 7). In total, the framework of “new women” in Korea was formed on a complicated foundation that included educational policy, body and gesture, and feminist consciousness, as well as urbanization and Westernization, consumer culture, and mass culture, while remaining a colony.The second part of the exhibition also shows the ability and potential of women as creative entities, as represented by the works of female artists. Actually, there are not many because female artists were so rare at that time. However, some paintings by female artists who studied domestically with male artists were trained as Gisaeng (Korean geisha) and gained a special education at the Women’s School of Fine Arts in Tokyo (now Joshibi University of Art and Design). Also displayed are embroidery works of students who also studied in Japan. Through these works, we can catch glimpses of some of the activities of female writers during their early years. Nude (1927) by Na Sangyun (1904–2011), who studied at the Women’s School of Fine Arts, in particular is an epic and remarkable work; a woman drew a woman’s naked body and expressed a reality different from that created by male artists (Figure 8). Peacock (1937), an overwhelming artwork by Jeong Chanyoung (1906–1988), precisely painted on silk, demonstrates the artist’s exquisite drawing ability and could be distinguished among the male-centered painters’ sphere of influence at that time (Figure 9).The third part of the exhibition, titled “Woman Is Everything: 5 New Women,” displays a series of works by female Korean contemporary artists that pay homage to the five “new women” artists. It includes an introduction to pioneers in the fields of art, literature, the socialist movement, and popular culture: painter Na Hye Seok, writer Kim Myeongsoon (1896–1951), social activist Ju Sejuk (1901–1953), dancer Choi Seunghee (1911–1969), and popular singer Lee Nanyoung (1916–1965) (Figure 10). Although these five artists were often the subject of criticism rather than praise, their exceptional challenges in trying to overturn Korean social conventions provide an opportunity to reconsider modernity in Korea from a gender perspective. Furthermore, the works of contemporary female artists enable a new interpretation of “new women” by connecting past and present.The exhibition can be seen as an attempt to view the discourse and phenomena surrounding “new women” in Korea in the first half of the twentieth century through many materials and works, which is a worthy goal. However, it is regrettable that it is hard to have a multilayered and complex milieu surrounding Korea’s “new women” in the colonies that can be understood through exhibitions because the composition of the exhibition is somewhat diagrammatic. For example, the position of “new women” in the Korean context differs from that of their counterparts in Japan.It is challenging to understand how the ideological, moral, social, and political changes in colonized Korea, where modernity and premodernity were always colliding, influenced the complex and subtle tensions and conflicts of that time regarding “new women.”However, the fact that the exhibition is popular and provides an overview of popular culture in the first half of the twentieth century from a female perspective through magazines, music, fashion, and other aspects is admirable, as many young women viewed the exhibition. Using this exhibition as a starting point, it may be possible to take this a step further by holding more exhibitions to consider the transition and changing circumstances of women in Korea.Inaba Mai was born in Kyoto, Japan. She received her PhD in literature from Kookmin University in 2018. She is an associate professor at Kwangwoon University and studies modern and contemporary art from Japan and Korea.