European Journal of Korean Studies最新文献

{"title":"Winning the Korean War: Early DPRK and PRC Films","authors":"Yvonne Schulz-Zinda","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20232301.89","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20232301.89","url":null,"abstract":"This paper adopts a comparative approach by focusing on a selection of early DPRK and People’s Republic of China war films made during the years that followed the Korean War. It looks into the narrative, and the aesthetics of the films in the general framework of socialist construction but also in terms of the DPRK’s shattered dream of reunification. The Korean War broke out during the beginnings of socialist construction, a time of awakening and departure into a new world. It marked the beginning of the Cold War that drew battle lines that would remain in place over the next four decades. The war also served as the theme of a number of films in both countries that reflected their war experience. For the DPRK and PRC, film provided an occasion to address the socialist construction and supremacy over the United States. While the earliest Chinese movies, The Battle of Shangganling Ridge (上甘岭 1956) and Flying in the Sky (长空比翼, 1958), focused on the heroic battles of the Chinese troops, later films such as Friendship (友谊, 1959), Raid (奇袭, 1960) and At the 38th Parallel (三八线上, 1960) recounted incidents of Chinese and Korean soldiers fighting in cooperation against the US enemy under the background of a “Resist the US and Help Korea” campaign. The eight DPRK films discussed include Again to the Front (또 다시 전선으로, 1951), Scouts (정찰병, 1953), and The Combat Unit of a Fighter Plane (비행기 사냥군조, 1953). These productions had to confront the fact that Kim Il Sung’s attempt for (forced) unification had ended in a complete failure that permeated divisions and cut family ties. The Korean War broke out during the early stages of socialist construction in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a time of awakening and departure into a new ideological world.1 It marked the beginning of the Cold War, drawing battle lines that would remain in place for the next four decades. When Chinese Volunteer troops entered the Korean War on the DPRK side, they were motivated, rather than by friendship, by a mutual enemy, the US, which the PRC feared might further invade Manchuria.2 The war became the theme of a number of films in the DPRK, and the PRC, reflecting their war experience. For the DPRK and the PRC, film was a means to address the process of socialist construction and its supremacy as a model over that of the United States. The DPRK’s films had to deal with the fact that Kim Il Sung’s attempt at (forced) unification had ended in complete failure, which permeated divisions on the Korean peninsula and cut family ties. In addition, the films were produced at a time when Kim Il Sung and the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) sought to build North Korean society anew, in order to present the socialist system as superior to what had been before. A few years before, Mao Zedong had started to introduce socialist values among his followers during the first rectification campaign in Yan’an in 1942. However, the socialist constructi","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139329420","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"In with the New: Homoregionalism of Gay Men in Korea","authors":"Albert Graves","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20232301.145","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20232301.145","url":null,"abstract":"This article introduces “homoregionalism” as a subcategory of regionalism practiced by and as gay men in Korea. Regionalism is alive, complex, and witnessing a transformation by a new online generation. Korean gay men—with both regional identities and sexually oriented lifestyles—through their own practice of regionalism, contribute to the construction of this subregionalism influenced by consumer culture and sexual imaginaries, including perceptions of masculinity that establish subtle (not always concurrent) hierarchies of desire. In the broader landscape, homoregionalism functions as a regionalizing means of classifying gay space, place, and identity in Korea.","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139327565","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Utilizing Imperial Knowledge: Japan’s Self-Promotion in Sweden through Its Archeological Work in Colonial Korea","authors":"Hyojin Lee","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20232301.181","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20232301.181","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines Japanese archeological missions during the colonial period and how archeological knowledge was exploited by the imperial authorities both domestically and abroad. The Swedish Crown Prince Gustaf VI Adolf’s visit to Korea is an important case study to examine the connection between Japanese academia and the politics of the Japanese Government-General of Korea and to show why the Japanese government invested in acquiring hegemony in the sphere of knowledge. The history and tensions surrounding Sŏbongch’ong show the characteristics and limitations of archeological research in the colonial era and after the liberation of the country. This paper explores the Swedish Crown Prince’s visit to Japan and Korea in 1926 and its diplomatic background, along with the set-up of the excavation in Kyŏngju. After the excavation, Imperial Japan maintained its connection with the Swedish Crown Prince through scholars. The paper also examines two other events. The first is Hamada Kōsaku’s (1881–1938) and Korean Prince Yi Ŭn’s visit to Sweden in 1927, which shows the tensions between Japan and Korea. The second event is a series of lectures on Japanese archeological missions in Korea by Serge Elisséeff (1889–1975) and Sekino Tadashi (1868–1935). The Japanese used their archeological research and achievements as a propaganda tool to support their imperial power abroad. These propaganda operations were carried out not only by Japanese scholars but also by prominent Western ones who were experts on East Asia. The Japanese government thus established its authoritativeness in the colonies while at the same time displaying its “cultural rule” and imperial power and knowledge to the world. Furthermore, the Japanese repeatedly made contradictory attempts to incorporate the superior culture of the colonies into their own history while, on the domestic level, they sought to highlight the inferiority of the colonies. This paper examines the connection between modern scholarship in imperial universities and social or diplomatic policies in colonial Korea, along with the role and influence of modern scholarship in the country.","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139325226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Preparing to Fail: Growing North–South Divisions during the Period of Recess in the Joint Commission Meetings","authors":"Mark Caprio","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20232301.23","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20232301.23","url":null,"abstract":"The United States and Soviet Union delegations to the Joint Commission talks ended the initial round of their efforts in May 1946 after but two months of talks designed to guide the creation of a unified Korean government through a process of trusteeship that would last at most five years beyond their helping Koreans form a unified provisional government. At the center of their differences were those over the concept of democracy. Without a shared understanding of this concept, selection of which Korean “democratic political parties and social organizations” to consult proved to be a difficult, if not impossible, task. The two delegations would return to the conference table in July 1947, over a year later. But in the interval between meetings, the two Koreas had distanced themselves to such an extent that, even if the Joint Commission had realized success, the odds of their being able to agree on a framework to build a unified Korean government were greater than when they had first met. Examining the rhetoric from the northern Korean media, but also to a lesser extent that from southern Korean media, this paper attempts to flesh out some of the differences. While trusteeship proved to divide extreme left and right forces, two issues emphasized on the left were the superiority of its bottom-up democracy that focused on granting basic rights to a society (emphasized in the south) over building a level society from the bottom up (as emphasized in the north). The north also emphasized a second issue, that of the actions of “reactionaries” in the south to disrupt the development of this democratic society in Korea. In the end, both sides failed to form democratic societies that matched their rhetoric.","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139328178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fire in Hansŏng: Conflagrations and Arson in Fifteenth-Century Korea","authors":"Kateřina Kocinová","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20232301.123","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20232301.123","url":null,"abstract":"The use of fire and its associated risks are universal across all cultures. In pre-industrial times, it was common for people to use open flames daily. Nonetheless, while fire brought many valuable aspects to their everyday lives, it could quickly get out of control and become a significant threat to human settlements and lives. The capital city of Chosŏn Kingdom 朝鮮 (1392–1897), Hansŏng 漢城, was no exception when it came to its susceptibility to conflagrations. Regardless of their origin, repeated fire incidents played a significant role in the formative processes of the city. While many English-language publications have been written on the fire history of various countries, the history of fire prevention and protection in pre-indus- trial Korea remains relatively unexplored and unknown to anglophone audiences. This paper aims to shed light on this lesser-known aspect of Korean history by addressing the topic of urban fires and arson in fifteenth-century Chosŏn, focusing on the capital city area and its struggles with anthropogenic fires. By examining some of the extant early Chosŏn administrative records, the paper explores how the administration of the capital city reacted to and coped with repeated incidences of fire. The paper shows that religious and practical approaches toward fire disasters coexisted alongside each other without being mutually exclusive, and introduces two major conflagrations that significantly influenced government policy towards fire incidents—the great fire of Hansŏng in 1426 and the Ch’angdŏk palace fire in 1467.","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139330581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dreams of Socialism Reflected in a 1947 North Korean School Textbook","authors":"Sergei Kurbanov","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20232301.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20232301.5","url":null,"abstract":"In 1945, with the participation of the Soviet Union, which sent naval forces to the northern coast of the Korean peninsula as well as paratroopers to Pyongyang, Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule. A limited contingent of Red Army units was dispatched in the northern part of the Korean peninsula to accept Japanese surrender and maintain law and order until the establishment of the national administration. From 1945 to 1948, Soviet citizens who worked in North Korea and the new North Korean authorities both made efforts to propagate a positive image of Soviet socialism. Their efforts would be successful among the lower classes of Korean society. The middle school textbook the “Kugŏ (Native Speech 국어),” published in 1947 in North Korea, provides a clear example of how the positive image of the USSR, when it came to village development, was presented to the Korean younger generation in the framework of traditional dreams about the lives of peasants. In particular, the Korean language textbook broke down the Japanese perception of the socialist village where, according to the former Japanese colonial authorities, peasants have no private property. The “Native Speech” textbook stated that the “peasants who choose socialism will own their land themselves and will be able to have private property.”","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139330391","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Red Star over Seoul: Facts and the Myths of the Ninety-Day-Long Communist Rule over the South Korean Capital in 1950","authors":"Mózes Csoma","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20232301.51","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20232301.51","url":null,"abstract":"During its long history, the city of Seoul has suffered three major sieges and occupations. The first happened in 1592, the second occupation of the capital was in 1636, and the third occasion when the city was besieged and occupied by an enemy army was during the first phase of the Korean War. The main goal of this study is to describe facts and myths about the ninety-day-long communist rule over the South Korean capital in 1950. During my research, I compared all available documentary sources with recollections and memoirs to ascertain how the city and its citizens survived that difficult period. I collected impressions about the North Korean invaders to examine everyday life in the occupied city. I also attempted to determine if there is any truth to the myth that the North Korean leader Kim Il Sung visited occupied Seoul. The main primary sources used here are the contemporary newspapers of the DPRK: the Rodong Sinmun, which published several news items about occupied Seoul, and the Haebang Ilbo (Liberation Daily), which was published in Seoul during the North Korean occupation. The documentation about the ninety-day-long occupation of Seoul began right after the liberation of the capital in fall 1950. The first book, which collected the experiences of some elite members of South Korean society, was published by the Soodo Munhwasa company, under the title Konan ŭi 90 il (90 days of suffering).1 The reminiscences of the authors—university professor Yu Chin-oh, poet Mo Yun-suk, lawyer-scholar Yi Geon-ho, and news reporter Ku Chul-hoi—were published in English soon after the Korean version. The Reds Take a City was the first non-Korean book that collected available pieces of infor- mation about the occupation.2 In the second year of the Korean War, another important collection titled Chok Hwa Sam Sak Kuinjip (赤禍三朔九人集, Three Months under the Reds) was published.3 The book contained nine recollections from those who experienced communist rule and were forced to collaborate with the North Koreans regarding minor matters. Its publisher was the anti-communist Podo yŏnmaeng (보도연맹, Podo League) organization, which was established before the Korean War to “erase” citizens’ leftist ideologies.4 Some other important sources of the ninety-day-long occupation of Seoul are the personal recollections, written by well-known South Korean intellectuals. Park Wan-suh’s popular novel Ku manhtŏn shinga nun nuga ta mŏgŏssŭlkka? (그 많던 싱아는 누가 다 먹었을까? Who Ate up all the Shinga?) and Kim Seong-chil’s famous diary, Yŏksa ap’ eso (역 사 앞에서 In Front of History), included important observations about that period. Kim Won-Il’s reminiscences, which are particularly meaningful because his father had been involved in the developments, also provide useful information.5 To add more North Korean elements to the puzzle of the ninety-day-long occupation, one important source is the novel 50 nyŏn yŏrŭm (50년 여름, Summer of the year 50), which contains details about Kim Il Sung’s allege","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139326408","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Together but Separate: Relationships and Boundaries between North and\u0000South Koreans in Multiethnic Britain","authors":"Jihye Kim","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20232202.45","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20232202.45","url":null,"abstract":"The United Kingdom hosts the largest North Korean immigrant community in Europe, and the majority have settled in New Malden, London’s Koreatown. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this study examines the relationships North Korean immigrants have established with their South Korean counterparts in the course of secondary migration from South Korea to the UK, focusing on how the shift from a majority–minority relationship between the two communities in ethnic-hierarchical South Korea to a minority–minority relationship in multi-ethnic Britain has influenced the North Koreans’ perceptions of and boundaries with South Koreans. Faced with language barriers and many other disadvantages in the host society, North Korean immigrants in the UK make pragmatic use of commonalities they share with their South Korean counterparts as well as of previous experiences and skills learned in South Korea. However, instead\u0000of fully assimilating into the South Korean immigrant community, they freely\u0000acknowledge the differences in the post-partition era, resulting in an enduring invisible boundary between the two groups. In doing so, they perceive that the two groups are in a relatively equal position as respective minorities vis-à-vis broader society, and the sense of ethnic stratification and hierarchy between them is largely dissolved. This study thus offers insights into how ethnic relations are contingent on social contexts and how migrants as transnational agents use and navigate their experiences, resources, and relationships to position themselves in the host society and shape their everyday life practices in a complex migration context.","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91102699","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mother, Warrior, and Prophet: The Myth of Kim Jong Suk in DPRK Cinema","authors":"Roman Husarski","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20232202.99","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20232202.99","url":null,"abstract":"In the late 1970s, North Korean propaganda began to increasingly idolize various members of the Kim Il Sung family. Among the hagiographies of the so-called bloodline of Mt. Paektu is that of Kim Jong Suk (1917–1949), the first wife of Kim Il Sung and the mother of Kim Jong Il. Although her cult has attracted the attention of many scholars, this is the first study on the representation of Kim Jong Suk on the screen. The article provides an analysis of five movies dedicated to her, created between 1979 and 1985. All were written by Paek In-jun, the most important screenwriter in Kim Jong Il’s film production unit. The image of Kim Jong Suk in cinema is highly idealized and she is ascribed attributes that exceed typical human capacities; however, cinematic representations of her are careful not to suggest any that might be interpreted as supernatural. Kim Jong Suk is a master in both the male and female spheres. She is a compassionate mother, healer, and nurturer, and at other times as ruthless, merciless warrior. The Mother-Warrior figure she represents refers to paradigms popular in the Communist sphere, and Kim Jong Suk’s selflessness is characteristic of the so-called hidden heroes of North Korean cinema. The\u0000uniqueness of Kim Jong Suk lies in her close relation with Kim Il Sung, not as a wife but as his most faithful follower. It makes her a convincing messenger of his messianic role.","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80723025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Gradual, Diverse, Complex—and Unnoticed: Korean Migration in Europe","authors":"Jihyea Kim, Yonson Ahn","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20232202.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20232202.1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76173264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}