Modern Korea Research Articles

Navigating Societal Stressors Through Yoga in Korea

Modernization in Korea has led to increased psychological tension driven by changes in societal expectations and social norms. The current study explores the role of yoga in promoting stress-related growth in response to psychological stress and trauma within Korean society. We adopted interpretive phenomenological analysis to explore the lived experiences of 12 adults who practiced yoga regularly through in-depth interviews. Reflexive engagement with the data led to the development of the following themes: a) societal stressors in Korea, b) emotional regulation through the mind-body connection, c) self-care and d) manifestation in other dimensions of life. Building on the theoretical foundation of cognitive appraisal theory, our findings revealed that yoga facilitated a shift in perceptions and ability to manage stress by cultivating mindfulness. This research highlights the multifaceted dynamics of yoga in managing societal expectations in Korea and emphasizes its potential to promote psychological well-being and stress-related growth.

Women in the Sky: Gender and Labor in the Making of Modern Korea

Women in the Sky: Gender and Labor in the Making of Modern Korea

Gendering a Bodhisattva: Images of Avalokiteshvara in Medieval and Early Modern Korea

Avalokiteshvara images in Korea, while adhering to traditional Buddhist artistic conventions, exhibit a different approach to gender than their Chinese counterparts, where the feminization of Avalokiteshvara is more explicitly evident. However, historical records such as Samguk Yusa 三國遺事 and The Tale of Prince Anrakkuk 安樂國太子傳, attest to the wide awareness of the femininity of Avalokiteshvara, which determined the identity, visual representation, functions, and roles of Avalokiteshvara images. While the paintings of Water-moon Avalokiteshvara from Mount Potalaka during the Koryŏ period emphasize masculine features in the depiction of the body, they were at times conflated with the femininity that was characteristic of the White-robed Avalokiteshvara, a result of the popular Avalokiteshvara cult at Naksan. This dual visual representation of Water-moon Avalokiteshvara invites more careful interpretation through a gender perspective. In contrast, writings by contemporary literati portray the White-robed Avalokiteshvara as distinctly feminine and characterized by modest and serene features. Additionally, with the spread of esoteric rituals and the circulation of Thousand-hand Sutra (Ch'ŏnsugyŏng 千手經), the roles of Water-moon Avalokiteshvara and Thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara expanded, becoming symbols of motherhood that bestowed and protected children. Avalokiteshvara images of medieval and early modern Korea embodied a range of gender identities and meanings, reaflecting the complex interplay of masculinity and femininity in their religious and cultural roles.

‘Comrade unknown to me’: colonialism, modernity, and conjunctural translation in Familiar Stranger

ABSTRACT This essay considers the possibility of what I would call conjunctural translation. While literal translation has accelerated cultural ethnocentrism as well as settler colonial violence, conjunctural translation seeks to glimpse the possibility of solidarity buried beneath the collaborative rule among the empires. This essay first retraces colonial modernity in the British Caribbean and Britain. Reading the selected chapters from Familiar Stranger, I propose that this memoir registers the three phases of colonial modernity: transatlantic slavery, migration to metropolis, and the prison-house of identity politics. In contrast to this, literal translation was at the core of cultural ethnocentrism that underpinned colonial modernity in Korea and Japan. The second part of this essay explicates the relationship between colonialism and modernity in East Asia that is punctuated by the following three phases: settler colonialism, migration to metropolises, and the curtailment of identity and citizenship. In this case, each phase appeared as deprivation of land, migration to Japan and the crises of security, and the loss of nationality during the Cold War era. The last part of the essay concerns unpredictable connections between colonial modernities. Though separately formed in the transatlantic and transpacific regions, these modernities create crosscurrents of thought, struggles, defeats and victories: conjunctures. Published in the early 1950s, the writings of Martin Carter and C. L. R. James differently refer to the Korean War. By comparing their work, this essay concludes that the future of solidarity comes from ‘the ability to be exposed’. As Hall unexpectedly encountered the Caribbean migrants in London in the key moments of his memoir, such conjunctural translation was undertaken by the Caribbean intellectuals of the 1950s. To expose oneself to these unexpected encounters is the very momentum that urges us to be vigilant to the dangers of literal translation.

Typographic Hegemony and Bibliographical Monoculture: The Ascendancy of Mechanical Print in Modern Korea

Typographic Hegemony and Bibliographical Monoculture: The Ascendancy of Mechanical Print in Modern Korea

한국의 기독교 선교가 독립운동에 미친 영향

The purpose of this study was to look at the devaluation of Christianity and its alienation from the people and ask, “What is the meaning of Christianity being introduced into Korean society, and what impact has it had?”. In the process of accepting Christianity, the analysis focused on political and social situations, economic and religious situations as acceptance factors. Politically and socially, the pressure for reform and opening by Western powers, the signing of treaties, and the introduction of new systems were analyzed. In terms of the economic situation, the economic impoverishment suffered by the people of countries that failed to adapt to world historical changes and quickly accept the culture of modernization explained. In addition, referring to the suppression of Catholicism in the process of introducing Catholicism and the failure of the Catholic introduction process in the religious situation, various methods were tried and the situations in which the gospel was gradually spread were explained. It was pointed out that Christianity had a great influence on the modernization of Korea during the Enlightenment period, including the spirit of patriotism and love for the people, prohibition of discrimination between people and books, and the abolition of the caste system. In addition, the fundamental reason for the acceptance of Christianity was that it was recognized as a powerful religion that made wealth possible, and thus the gospel expanded from the powerless ruled class to the ruling class. Meanwhile, Christianity had a great influence on the March 1st Independence Movement, and the changes in the consciousness of the Joseon people due to Christian missions were examined through the establishment of independence association branches, differences in active participation, and a confession written by a nobleman. In addition, we looked into the teachings of Christianity, focusing on the subject of the independence movement, the purpose of the movement, and the methods of action in the independence movement as shown in the Declaration of Independence, and the relationship between Christianity and the role of the March 1st Movement and Christian schools. Lastly, it concludes that in the face of the decline of Christianity, which had a great influence during the turbulent times of Korean history, the Korean people need to know and learn about history.

Analysis on the Updates of Research in Wang Wei in Modern Korea : Centered around the Official Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Korea (ROK) and China

Analysis on the Updates of Research in Wang Wei in Modern Korea : Centered around the Official Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Korea (ROK) and China

Minor Settler Grief: Korean Diaspora, Settler Colonialism, and the Pastoral Fantasy in Minari (2021)

Abstract: The critically acclaimed film Minari (2021), directed by Lee Isaac Chung, has been recognized for its emotionally moving on-screen representation of a rural Asian American experience. Building on transpacific scholarship, the present essay examines Minari as a narrative of "minor settler grief," an expression of grief by minor settlers that is closely tied to colonial and militarized aesthetics of earth across the Pacific. The article ties Minari's Korean American farming efforts in 1980s Arkansas to the intersecting histories of settler colonialism in the US and Japanese empires and South Korean authoritarian developmentalism. It considers the Korean nativist aesthetics of earth at work in Minari , an aesthetics of pastoral fantasy that had served imperialism and authoritarian developmentalism, as well as anticolonial imaginations in modern Korea and the diaspora. The essay argues that minor settler grief functions by obscuring relationalities, such as the histories of Native American removal in present-day Arkansas. Mining these histories and visual references enables a critique of certain expressions of grief that produce settler colonial recognition and forgetting.

한말~일제 초기 형사법의 추이와 사형제의 변화

Modern Korea implemented the Gab‘o Reform(甲午更張) and unified the type of death penalty by hanging in 1895. The beheading and Neungji execution sentences that had been implemented since the late Joseon Dynasty were abolished. The government of Korean Empire revived the beheading in 1900 through civil rights movements and political upheaval. In addition, the death penalty was strengthened by expanding the death penalty for thieves.
 The Government of Korean Empire promulgated the Penal Code(『Hyeonbeob Daejeon(刑法大全)』 in 1905. At this time, the beheading was abolished and the hanging was unified again. This criminal law was too specific and peripheral for death penalty crimes, and the statutory sentence was defined as the death penalty, so judges could not sentence them in consideration of the norm of the crime. From the Gab’o Reform (1895) to the Korean Empire (1909), the number of executions totaled 1,189, with 17 beheading and 1,172 hanging.
 The Japanese Empire colonized Korea and maintained this criminal law until 1912. The purpose was to punish Koreans who strongly resisted the invasion of Japanese imperialism.

치료약과 강장제 사이에서

This paper illustrates how South Koreans encountered and adopted vitamin supplements in the 20th century and analyzes what is unique about the Korean case. Koreans were first introduced to vitamin supplements by Japanese pharmaceutical companies during the Japanese colonial period. As beriberi was not as prevalent in premodern and early modern Korea as in Japan and Southeast Asia, the advertising strategy of emphasizing the risk of deficiency was not as successful as in Japan. During the mid-to-late Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula, vitamin supplement advertisements shifted their focus from the threat of beriberi to emphasizing potential benefits, such as recovery from fatigue and growth and development in children. This idea of vitamins as a “modern tonic” was so ingrained in the public that, although there was no demand as a remedy, the market for vitamin supplements in Korea kept growing in the age of economic development.

한말~일제 초기 형사법의 추이와 사형제의 변화

Modern Korea implemented the Gab‘o Reform(甲午更張) and unified the type of death penalty by hanging in 1895. The beheading and Neungji execution sentences that had been implemented since the late Joseon Dynasty were abolished. The government of Korean Empire revived the beheading in 1900 through civil rights movements and political upheaval. In addition, the death penalty was strengthened by expanding the death penalty for thieves.
 The Government of Korean Empire promulgated the Penal Code(『Hyeonbeob Daejeon(刑法大全)』 in 1905. At this time, the beheading was abolished and the hanging was unified again. This criminal law was too specific and peripheral for death penalty crimes, and the statutory sentence was defined as the death penalty, so judges could not sentence them in consideration of the norm of the crime. From the Gab’o Reform (1895) to the Korean Empire (1909), the number of executions totaled 1,189, with 17 beheading and 1,172 hanging.
 The Japanese Empire colonized Korea and maintained this criminal law until 1912. The purpose was to punish Koreans who strongly resisted the invasion of Japanese imperialism.

Women in the Sky: Gender and Labor in the Making of Modern Korea by Hwasook Nam (review)

Women in the Sky: Gender and Labor in the Making of Modern Korea by Hwasook Nam (review)

Textual study of the “The Sun and the Moon” in modern Korea - Focusing on Inseop Jeong and Jintae Sohn’s materials

Textual study of the “The Sun and the Moon” in modern Korea - Focusing on Inseop Jeong and Jintae Sohn’s materials

Pyeongsaeng-do, Paintings of an Ideal Life by Chae Yong-sin - Self-fashioning by display of selected memories

<i>Pyeongsaeng-do, Paintings of an Ideal Life</i> by Chae Yong-sin, a part of the Lee Kun-hee Bequest now stored at the National Museum of Korea, is a ten-panel folding screen that depicts scenes from the painter’s life: at eight years old, he learns to read from his father; at thirty-one, he marries his wife; at thirty-seven, he passes Kwagŏ, the civil service examination and takes up a government position; at fifty-one, he paints a posthumous portrait of King Taejo; he serves as governor to Ch’ilgok-gun and Chŏngsan-gun; and celebrates his 60th birthday in 1910.</br>On the ten panels, Chae Yong-sin depicted important events of his life such as his successful career and participation in the production of King Taejo’s portrait, to present to and commemorate with his progeny his moments of glory. Important events were carefully chosen, edited, and drawn on each screen. The correspondence of represented events with the record of Chae’s life made by Kwŏn Ch’ŏlsu in 1924, the similarity in style of the people, buildings and other motifs to his other paintings, and the fact that he referred to himself as “an old man of eighty years” since he was seventy years old, all suggest that Chae actively participated in the making of this ten-panel painting around 1920. In addition, the painting faithfully reflects contemporary culture—the white patterns for pŏsŏn, changsŭng that acted as a signpost—, serving as an important visual document to how people lived in early modern Korea.

Perceptions on disabilities and illnesses in late Joseon Korea

This paper seeks to delineate and explain changing public perceptions towards those who suffered from deafness, blindness, or intellectual disability in Joseon Korea. In the fifteenth century, the Great Code of State Administration (경국대전, 經國大典 Gyeongguk Daejeon) prohibited discrimination against the disabled. The deaf and blind in particular even enjoyed favorable attention. The state provided such economic benefits as exemption from taxes as a way to compensate them for their impaired abilities, thereby fostering a rather favorable social climate towards persons with disabilities. Some blind persons were even believed to have such special talent as fortune telling. In the eighteenth century, however, negative perceptions towards the disabled began to gain strength. Increasing frequency of documented references to disability as an object of mockery suggests that the state and the society alike viewed the disabled as ‘useless people’ (폐인). Mainly utilizing court histories, literary anthologies, army rosters (군적), and military division (군영) records, this paper argues that overall change in the Joseon economy fueled discrimination against the disabled. In particular, changes in the military defense system and its associated military tax (군포) significantly contributed to the negative portrayal, as the new practice tended to divide the population into households collectively responsible for tax levies. By the nineteenth century, the state’s harsher treatment of the disabled set the stage for outright discrimination against disabled in modern Korea, exacerbated by the introduction of the Western notion of eugenics.

Non-Human Creatures in Joseon Wangjo Sillok: Pragmatics, Myth and Morality

Abstract From the modern point of view, The Annals of Joseon Dynasty (Joseon Wangjo Sillok 朝鮮王朝實錄)—one of the major literary windows into the discourse at the royal court of premodern and early modern Korea—may appear strongly anthropocentric. The nonhuman dimension is especially underutilized in research on the Joseon era whenever animals and legendary creatures are taken into consideration, as they have often served multiple functions in high-level discussions—for example, as exemplifications of moral judgments, sociocultural “otherness,” or purely within the frameworks of husbandry, taxation, and rural administration. Indeed, a closer look reveals that “miscellaneous” or even “posthuman” topics are often strongly connected with this-worldly attitudes of Joseon-era Confucian scholar officialdom. In this article, the pragmatic aspects of the “birds and beasts,”, including indigenous as well as Chinese nonhumans, and the influence their associated notions exerted on the theory and practice of Joseon’s Confucian statesmanship will be analyzed.

이승만의 농지개혁과 교육개혁

Although it is receiving mixed evaluations according to the camp's logic, it is undeniable that Lee Seung-man has succeeded and failed at almost every juncture of modernization in Korea. He himself was one of the chaotic modernization of his country. However, Rhee Syng-man is still an ill-fated leader whose credits are covered and only his mistakes are highlighted. Rhee Syng-man gave us a great gift of liberal democracy along with the importance of economic equality in a space of liberation from severe confrontation. His achievements were often distorted or overlooked due to excessive ideological debates.
 However, we can meet the decisive moments of Rhee Syng-man in the process of the birth of the Republic of Korea, ranging from the Manmin Community to farmland reform, the signing of the Korea-U.S. mutual defense treaty, and education reform, which led to the first step toward a democratic republic. Recently, the evaluation of the first President Rhee Syng-man has been newly made. The mood is to properly evaluate such contributions as the Korea-U.S. alliance and farmland reform. There is no doubt that the Korea-U.S. alliance is the number one contributor to preventing communization across the Korean Peninsula. Farmland reform is generally evaluated as an opportunity to transform society as a whole from modern to modern. If you add one more to this, it is a ball that laid the foundation for Korea's physical and human infrastructure. Rhee Syng-man made efforts to expand infrastructure despite the poverty of relying on aid.
 The present Republic of Korea is called the era of the most abundance in its half-million-year history. This era of abundance was not created all of a sudden one day. It is the product of more than 70 years of accumulation since the establishment of the Korean government. The secret to its success lies in making liberal democracy and a market economy the foundation of the state. Based on this, it succeeded in reforming farmland and prevented North Korea's invasion. The mutual defense treaty with the United States also played a major role. This credit cannot but be attributed to Rhee Syng-man more than anyone else.
 Based on this awareness of the problem, this paper will examine Rhee Syng-man's track record leading up to the enactment of the Constitution and conduct a constitutional evaluation of land reform and education reform.

“We’ll Be Farmers When We Grow Up”: Education for Humanization and the Legacy of Critical Literacy Education in Korea

Purpose This article explores the literary work of a teacher and activist, Yi O-Deok, as a lens to approach historically and culturally embedded notions of humanization in education in Korea. Anchored in the ethos of “Asia as Method,” this study offers a unique perspective that exemplifies the importance of the local sociocultural context in Asia in enriching our understanding of universal concepts. Design/Approach/Methods This study adopts a methodological approach centered around the examination of Yi O-Deok's work and his influence on critical literacy education. Key source materials include Yi's extensive five-volume diary and the various literary pieces he edited from the 1950s to the 1980s. Findings Yi O-Deok's philosophy on humanizing education, deeply influenced by local contexts, provides a distinct, non-Western perspective. It offers a critical counterpoint to Western-centric educational paradigms and enriches the broader understanding of humanization in education. Originality/Value The uniqueness of this study resides in its focus on children's writings, affirming faith in the unfiltered expressions of their pure spirits encapsulated in the raw “languages of the soil,” which have persevered through the sociopolitical upheavals of Korea's modern history. This in turn strengthens the call for a nuanced, non-Western interpretation of the concept of “humanization” in education.

연희전문의 역사와 학풍을 통해 본 기독교대학의 정체성

The purpose of this article is to examine the historical mission of Christian universities in Korea's modern and contemporary history, focusing on the history and academic traditions of Yeonhee College, the predecessor of Yonsei University. In addition, through this, it is intended to macroscopically reflect on the meaning and content of Christian education that Korean Christian universities facing various crises should have. Horace Grant Underwood (1859-1916) and Oliver R. Avison (1860-1956), during the patriotic enlightenment period at the end of the Chosun Dynasty, established modern higher education that could replace the crumbling feudal order through university education based on the Christian spirit. They established an interdenominational Christian university based on the ecumenical spirit, and wanted to provide equal educational opportunities to Chosun, which was captivated by the feudal status order. During this period, the person who established Christian liberal arts classes and chapels in Yeonhee College was missionary Harry A. Rhodes (1875-1933), who studied theology at Princeton University in the United States. He made Bible education and chapels possible, which were impossible to operate as regular subjects under the Private School Law of Japanese Government-General of Korea. Since then, Yeonhee's nationalistic academic style based on the Christian spirit was naturally formed around Jeong In-bo, Choi Hyeon-bae, Baek Nak-jun, and Baek Nam-un. This anti-Japanese nationalistic academic tradition had a profound influence on Yoon Dong-ju, who entered Yeonhee college in 1938. Yoon Dong-ju can be said to be a representative figure that symbolizes the Christian spirit of Yeonhee College. The history and academic tradition of Yeonhee College, which began as a Chosun Christian University, can provide a valuable precedent for how Christian higher education can merge with the history of the nation to Christian universities in Korea.

Doing Educational Research by Taking Seriously Chen's Account of “Asia as Method”: In a Korean Case of Modern Schooling

Purpose This paper aims to exemplify how Chen's idea of “Asia as method” can be employed in a case study on Korean experiences of modern schooling. Design/Approach/Methods It does so by focusing on the author's personal experiences of modern schooling as both a student and a teacher in modern Korea. In this description, the author makes two seemingly contradictory moves: a move toward decolonialization by keeping a critical distance from her own native culture and a move toward deimperialization by keeping her distance from the West. Findings This shows the challenges and tensions in the Korean experience of modern schooling as a student or teacher dealing with different moral languages such as Confucian and rationalist or rationalist and post-rationalist. Originality/Value This experimental work suggests the possibility of forming a uniquely East Asian subjectivity while showing how educational research in East Asia can be performative in the sense that it changes the way East Asians understand themselves and the world around them.