Hyung-Gu Lynn | University of British Columbia (original) (raw)
Papers by Hyung-Gu Lynn
Introducing Korean Popular Culture, edited by Youna Kim, 2023
Since their initial emergence in South Korea during the early 2000s, webtoons have grown exponent... more Since their initial emergence in South Korea during the early 2000s, webtoons have grown exponentially to become a global force, increasing in reach and proving to be a rich source of intellectual properties that have been adapted into numerous commercially and critically successful live-action films and television dramas. This chapter addresses the question of why and how webtoons have served as virtual spaces for the construction and contestation of minority and gender identities and rights. First, the chapter outlines the efficacy of treating webtoons and popular culture narratives across all media as forms of “synthetic experiences” that help bridge the fiction–reality continuum, rather than seeing them solely as sources of distraction, escape, artworks, misinformation or revenue. Second, it argues that the ubiquity, accessibility and cost efficiency of webtoons makes it a particularly, if not uniquely, fertile space among popular culture media for a variety of minority identity constructions, confirmations, contestations and circulations, including those that reflect dominant prejudices and assumptions. Third, it discusses a selection of webtoon titles that feature protagonists or authors from minority groups, as well as others that reinforce clichés and stereotypes.
![Research paper thumbnail of 북미 연구자들의 한국역사학 인식 [Antinomies of Distance and Desire: Epistemology of Korean History in North America] (Korean) 2003](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/98920405/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](약사비평 Yeoksa pip'yong [Critical History Review], 2003
Literature overviews are common in any academic field, with the implicit assumptions that there i... more Literature overviews are common in any academic field, with the implicit assumptions that there is a critical mass of literature worth cataloguing and sorting, and that there are rapid changes that warrant au courant dispatches from the academic frontlines. Naturally, these “maps” vary considerably in terms of format, length, detail, depth, and utility, but given their abundance in the current intellectual landscape, there is no great value in reproducing such endeavors here. Rather, the essay explores more challenging issues surrounding the study of Korean history in North America, such as structural contexts and fundamental epistemologies. I organize my discussion into four levels: first, meta (epistemology); second, macro (academic structures); third, mezzo (conditions in Korean Studies or Korean History “Han’gukhak” or “Han’guk yŏksahak”); and fourth the micro, in which I discuss the basic antinomies underlying Korean history in North America. The importance of these issues is amplified by the fact they ultimately relate not only to the study of Korean history, but also to any humanities or social science field involving the understanding of the Other, in other words any history, “foreign” or “national.
Asia Pacific Memo #10, 2010
News and internet channels around the world reacted with indignation, pity, and outrage to report... more News and internet channels around the world reacted with indignation, pity, and outrage to reports that the coach of North Korea's World Cup soccer team, Kim Chong-hun, had been sent to a labour mine and forced to work for 14 hours a day after a 6 hour public harangue of most of his team and staff. Unfortunately, this looks to be the latest in a series of unreliable reports on the North Korean national soccer team. Earlier reports about the purported defection of 4 North Korean players at the World Cup were deflated when the players appeared at a practice session the following day. North Korean officials have flatly denied the story about Kim's demotion and have stated that after a lengthy assessment Kim Chung-hun has been retained to coach the team in international tournaments in 2011.
Asia Pacific Memo #370, 2016
Featuring Roleff Kråkström-Roleff.Krakstrom [at] moomin.fi The Moomins, a family of trolls living... more Featuring Roleff Kråkström-Roleff.Krakstrom [at] moomin.fi The Moomins, a family of trolls living in a valley with other colourful characters, have been beloved in their home country of Finland since the famed artist Tove Jansson published her first book featuring these characters in 1945. The stories have been translated into 50 different languages, and inspired multiple film and TV adaptations. But the Moomins have found a second home in Japan since the initial translations and an anime series loosely based on the originals were released in the late-1960s. Japan has historically accounted for around 30-40% of annual revenues for Moomin Characters Ltd., the company that owns the rights and licenses the original artwork.
Pacific Affairs v95 n2, 2022
Theories and methods to analyze different forms of mobility and related complexities abound. By e... more Theories and methods to analyze different forms of mobility and related complexities abound. By engaging with eight documentaries dealing with migrations and histories of Asia, this review essay sketches the possibilities of viewing the inextricable linkages between mobilities and immobilities of people, policies, and ideas through the metaphor of quantum entanglement.
Asia Pacific Memo, 2016
Flashback to 2016 when Ahn Cheol-soo's People's Party (국민의당) had a key role in the National Assem... more Flashback to 2016 when Ahn Cheol-soo's People's Party (국민의당) had a key role in the National Assembly. What explained his success in 2016 was the question.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies, 2021
East Asian countries have varying levels of ethnic homogeneity. North and South Korea have long b... more East Asian countries have varying levels of ethnic homogeneity. North and South Korea have long been considered among the most ethnically homogeneous nation-states in the world. Yet, since the mid-1990s, the amount of immigration to the country as well as transnational marriages have transformed South Korea into a multiethnic state. The Japanese also view themselves as a racially distinct and homogeneous people, despite the historical presence of foreigners and ethnic minorities. China is composed of a patchwork of ethnicities with around 55 state-recognized minority groups. However, according to the 2010 census, minorities accounted for only 8.49% of the overall population or 114 million people. Despite different levels of ethnic homogeneity, China, Korea, and Japan are witnessing a rise in international (and internal) migration, which started in the late 20th century and has continued into the early 21st century. The increase of foreign migrant workers and spouses has challenged the dominant perceptions of ethnic homogeneity in Korea and Japan, while further strengthening the bonds of ethnic heterogeneity in China. These changes have not only forced a reshaping of the notions of identity and citizenship, but have also helped fuel the rise of various "reactive" forms of neo-nationalism, such as "state nationalism," "ethnic nationalism," and "cultural nationalism," that attempt to fortify or recuperate ethnic or race-based definitions of national identity.
Oxford Handbook of South Korean Politics, edited by JeongHun Han, Ramon Pacheco Pardo, and Youngho Cho, 2021
This chapter provides an overview of key questions, issues, and debates in the scholar ship on th... more This chapter provides an overview of key questions, issues, and debates in the scholar ship on the political history of Korea from 1905 to 1945. Japan placed Korea in protec torate status in 1905 and colonized the country in 1910. After nearly forty years under colonial rule, the dominant narrative in the scholarship in South Korea from 1945 to the mid-1980s focused on Japanese colonial oppression and the Korean struggle against it to achieve national independence. The focus of this chapter is on subsequent approaches that have supplemented, qualified, challenged, and refined interpretations of this era. These include analysis of the causes behind the emergence of modern nationalism in Ko rea; the internal political polarization between left and right and the internal conflicts within each camp that formed the domestic foundations for the division of the Korean Peninsula after 1945; the bureaucratization that, according to some scholars, served as the template for the developmental state that emerged in South Korea during the 1960s; and the dissolution of absolute monarchy as a viable system of governance in the post-1945 period.
Routledge Handbook of Contemporary South Korea, edited by Sojin Lim, and Niki J.P. Alsford, 2021
South Korea and Japan are democracies with close economic ties. However, contemporary bilateral r... more South Korea and Japan are democracies with close economic ties. However, contemporary bilateral relations have been fraught with tensions over history. Why has this been the case? Scholars have flagged history, domestic and economic diversionary benefits, and the role of the US as possible answers. This chapter argues that there is a need for greater specificity in scales and sectors of analysis. The 1965 Treaty of Normalization between the two countries created a system within which two divergent official interpretations of history are a constant, and policy area or sector-specific calculations and preferences are variables.
American Anthropologist, 2011
Review essay of 2 documentaries: Kimjongilia and Crossing the Line
Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies, 2020
This essay reviews six book focused on migration and mobility in modern East Asian history. 1. E... more This essay reviews six book focused on migration and mobility in modern East Asian history. 1. Eiichiro AZUMA, In Search of Our Frontier: 2. Sayaka CHATANI, Nation-Empire; 3. Sidney Xu LU, The Making of Japanese Settler Colonialism; 4. Alyssa M. PARK, Sovereignty Experiments; 5. Bill SEWELL, Constructing Empire; 6. Kirsten L. ZIOMEK, Lost Histories
Asia Pacific Memo, 2016
What did AlphaGo's victory over the top human Go player in South Korea in 2016 signal?
Pacific Affairs, 2019
Ronald Dore's 1977 article in Pacific Affairs, "South Korean Development in Wider Perspective," i... more Ronald Dore's 1977 article in Pacific Affairs, "South Korean Development in Wider Perspective," is a rare example of the scholar known for his writings on Japan applying his analytical lens on South Korea. What were some of this article's most notable areas of foresight and elision related to development studies? This essay answers this question by interpreting connections to publications before and after 1977 to analyze areas of insight under the rubric of "discernment" and overlooked subjects under "death." On one hand, Dore's essay was ahead of the curve in its deft foreshadowing of post-developmentalist, varieties of capitalism, and developmental state approaches to economic development. On the other, Dore sidestepped the effects of death on economic development in three forms: literal-effects of changing mortality rates on investments in education and human capital; industries related to death-wars, munitions production and arms expenditures; and the aftereffects of the death of a scholar-the revisiting and renewal of debates that can sometimes emerge as a result.
Oxford Handbook of the Cold War, 2013
What was the relationship between the Cold War and globalization?
Asia Pacific Memo , 2016
What were the major challenges to translating the domestic success of South Korean webtoons for t... more What were the major challenges to translating the domestic success of South Korean webtoons for the international market (circa 2016 at least)? This essay takes a brief glide through three factors.
Asia Pacific Memo, 2016
Why is Moomin, a series of children's picture books authored by a Swedish-speaking Finnish artist... more Why is Moomin, a series of children's picture books authored by a Swedish-speaking Finnish artist, Tove Jansson, so popular in Japan? This essay flags four (out of more) factors.
Harvard Asia Quarterly , 2008
Is gendered migration a new phenomenon in South and North Korea? This article shows via a histori... more Is gendered migration a new phenomenon in South and North Korea? This article shows via a historical overview that modern gendered migration has occurred throughout the modern period; but that post-1987 forms of emigration and immigration is based on new demographic shifts; and state involvement in migration has decreased in South Korea since 1987, while remaining constant in North Korea.
Journal of International Area Studies, 2004
'Modernity' encompasses a multitude of concepts and definitions. This article take a material mar... more 'Modernity' encompasses a multitude of concepts and definitions. This article take a material marker of modernity-clothing-and uses it as an analytic prism to examine the changes in social, economic, and political arenas and discourses of Korea's colonial period (1910-1945). I analyze the meanings of clothing in specific contexts such as: the contemporary re-association of Korean ethnic identity with traditional clothes; the beginnings of change in the language of clothes; the utility and limits of the standard colonial oppression-resistance binary; transformations in socioeconomic structure; and the di fusion of visual technology and constructions of gender in multiplying sartorial selection and meaning.
Toho Gakkai, 1998
What did Vice Governors of colonial Korea (seimu sokan; 政務総監) do? What were their roles? This art... more What did Vice Governors of colonial Korea (seimu sokan; 政務総監) do? What were their roles? This article takes the case of one Vice Governor known as an able regional and municipal level administrator in Japan using primarily his unpublished memoirs and other contemporary accounts to dive behind the textbook cliches and sweeping generalizations that characterize too much of English-language writing on the Government General of Korea.
Introducing Korean Popular Culture, edited by Youna Kim, 2023
Since their initial emergence in South Korea during the early 2000s, webtoons have grown exponent... more Since their initial emergence in South Korea during the early 2000s, webtoons have grown exponentially to become a global force, increasing in reach and proving to be a rich source of intellectual properties that have been adapted into numerous commercially and critically successful live-action films and television dramas. This chapter addresses the question of why and how webtoons have served as virtual spaces for the construction and contestation of minority and gender identities and rights. First, the chapter outlines the efficacy of treating webtoons and popular culture narratives across all media as forms of “synthetic experiences” that help bridge the fiction–reality continuum, rather than seeing them solely as sources of distraction, escape, artworks, misinformation or revenue. Second, it argues that the ubiquity, accessibility and cost efficiency of webtoons makes it a particularly, if not uniquely, fertile space among popular culture media for a variety of minority identity constructions, confirmations, contestations and circulations, including those that reflect dominant prejudices and assumptions. Third, it discusses a selection of webtoon titles that feature protagonists or authors from minority groups, as well as others that reinforce clichés and stereotypes.
약사비평 Yeoksa pip'yong [Critical History Review], 2003
Literature overviews are common in any academic field, with the implicit assumptions that there i... more Literature overviews are common in any academic field, with the implicit assumptions that there is a critical mass of literature worth cataloguing and sorting, and that there are rapid changes that warrant au courant dispatches from the academic frontlines. Naturally, these “maps” vary considerably in terms of format, length, detail, depth, and utility, but given their abundance in the current intellectual landscape, there is no great value in reproducing such endeavors here. Rather, the essay explores more challenging issues surrounding the study of Korean history in North America, such as structural contexts and fundamental epistemologies. I organize my discussion into four levels: first, meta (epistemology); second, macro (academic structures); third, mezzo (conditions in Korean Studies or Korean History “Han’gukhak” or “Han’guk yŏksahak”); and fourth the micro, in which I discuss the basic antinomies underlying Korean history in North America. The importance of these issues is amplified by the fact they ultimately relate not only to the study of Korean history, but also to any humanities or social science field involving the understanding of the Other, in other words any history, “foreign” or “national.
Asia Pacific Memo #10, 2010
News and internet channels around the world reacted with indignation, pity, and outrage to report... more News and internet channels around the world reacted with indignation, pity, and outrage to reports that the coach of North Korea's World Cup soccer team, Kim Chong-hun, had been sent to a labour mine and forced to work for 14 hours a day after a 6 hour public harangue of most of his team and staff. Unfortunately, this looks to be the latest in a series of unreliable reports on the North Korean national soccer team. Earlier reports about the purported defection of 4 North Korean players at the World Cup were deflated when the players appeared at a practice session the following day. North Korean officials have flatly denied the story about Kim's demotion and have stated that after a lengthy assessment Kim Chung-hun has been retained to coach the team in international tournaments in 2011.
Asia Pacific Memo #370, 2016
Featuring Roleff Kråkström-Roleff.Krakstrom [at] moomin.fi The Moomins, a family of trolls living... more Featuring Roleff Kråkström-Roleff.Krakstrom [at] moomin.fi The Moomins, a family of trolls living in a valley with other colourful characters, have been beloved in their home country of Finland since the famed artist Tove Jansson published her first book featuring these characters in 1945. The stories have been translated into 50 different languages, and inspired multiple film and TV adaptations. But the Moomins have found a second home in Japan since the initial translations and an anime series loosely based on the originals were released in the late-1960s. Japan has historically accounted for around 30-40% of annual revenues for Moomin Characters Ltd., the company that owns the rights and licenses the original artwork.
Pacific Affairs v95 n2, 2022
Theories and methods to analyze different forms of mobility and related complexities abound. By e... more Theories and methods to analyze different forms of mobility and related complexities abound. By engaging with eight documentaries dealing with migrations and histories of Asia, this review essay sketches the possibilities of viewing the inextricable linkages between mobilities and immobilities of people, policies, and ideas through the metaphor of quantum entanglement.
Asia Pacific Memo, 2016
Flashback to 2016 when Ahn Cheol-soo's People's Party (국민의당) had a key role in the National Assem... more Flashback to 2016 when Ahn Cheol-soo's People's Party (국민의당) had a key role in the National Assembly. What explained his success in 2016 was the question.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies, 2021
East Asian countries have varying levels of ethnic homogeneity. North and South Korea have long b... more East Asian countries have varying levels of ethnic homogeneity. North and South Korea have long been considered among the most ethnically homogeneous nation-states in the world. Yet, since the mid-1990s, the amount of immigration to the country as well as transnational marriages have transformed South Korea into a multiethnic state. The Japanese also view themselves as a racially distinct and homogeneous people, despite the historical presence of foreigners and ethnic minorities. China is composed of a patchwork of ethnicities with around 55 state-recognized minority groups. However, according to the 2010 census, minorities accounted for only 8.49% of the overall population or 114 million people. Despite different levels of ethnic homogeneity, China, Korea, and Japan are witnessing a rise in international (and internal) migration, which started in the late 20th century and has continued into the early 21st century. The increase of foreign migrant workers and spouses has challenged the dominant perceptions of ethnic homogeneity in Korea and Japan, while further strengthening the bonds of ethnic heterogeneity in China. These changes have not only forced a reshaping of the notions of identity and citizenship, but have also helped fuel the rise of various "reactive" forms of neo-nationalism, such as "state nationalism," "ethnic nationalism," and "cultural nationalism," that attempt to fortify or recuperate ethnic or race-based definitions of national identity.
Oxford Handbook of South Korean Politics, edited by JeongHun Han, Ramon Pacheco Pardo, and Youngho Cho, 2021
This chapter provides an overview of key questions, issues, and debates in the scholar ship on th... more This chapter provides an overview of key questions, issues, and debates in the scholar ship on the political history of Korea from 1905 to 1945. Japan placed Korea in protec torate status in 1905 and colonized the country in 1910. After nearly forty years under colonial rule, the dominant narrative in the scholarship in South Korea from 1945 to the mid-1980s focused on Japanese colonial oppression and the Korean struggle against it to achieve national independence. The focus of this chapter is on subsequent approaches that have supplemented, qualified, challenged, and refined interpretations of this era. These include analysis of the causes behind the emergence of modern nationalism in Ko rea; the internal political polarization between left and right and the internal conflicts within each camp that formed the domestic foundations for the division of the Korean Peninsula after 1945; the bureaucratization that, according to some scholars, served as the template for the developmental state that emerged in South Korea during the 1960s; and the dissolution of absolute monarchy as a viable system of governance in the post-1945 period.
Routledge Handbook of Contemporary South Korea, edited by Sojin Lim, and Niki J.P. Alsford, 2021
South Korea and Japan are democracies with close economic ties. However, contemporary bilateral r... more South Korea and Japan are democracies with close economic ties. However, contemporary bilateral relations have been fraught with tensions over history. Why has this been the case? Scholars have flagged history, domestic and economic diversionary benefits, and the role of the US as possible answers. This chapter argues that there is a need for greater specificity in scales and sectors of analysis. The 1965 Treaty of Normalization between the two countries created a system within which two divergent official interpretations of history are a constant, and policy area or sector-specific calculations and preferences are variables.
American Anthropologist, 2011
Review essay of 2 documentaries: Kimjongilia and Crossing the Line
Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies, 2020
This essay reviews six book focused on migration and mobility in modern East Asian history. 1. E... more This essay reviews six book focused on migration and mobility in modern East Asian history. 1. Eiichiro AZUMA, In Search of Our Frontier: 2. Sayaka CHATANI, Nation-Empire; 3. Sidney Xu LU, The Making of Japanese Settler Colonialism; 4. Alyssa M. PARK, Sovereignty Experiments; 5. Bill SEWELL, Constructing Empire; 6. Kirsten L. ZIOMEK, Lost Histories
Asia Pacific Memo, 2016
What did AlphaGo's victory over the top human Go player in South Korea in 2016 signal?
Pacific Affairs, 2019
Ronald Dore's 1977 article in Pacific Affairs, "South Korean Development in Wider Perspective," i... more Ronald Dore's 1977 article in Pacific Affairs, "South Korean Development in Wider Perspective," is a rare example of the scholar known for his writings on Japan applying his analytical lens on South Korea. What were some of this article's most notable areas of foresight and elision related to development studies? This essay answers this question by interpreting connections to publications before and after 1977 to analyze areas of insight under the rubric of "discernment" and overlooked subjects under "death." On one hand, Dore's essay was ahead of the curve in its deft foreshadowing of post-developmentalist, varieties of capitalism, and developmental state approaches to economic development. On the other, Dore sidestepped the effects of death on economic development in three forms: literal-effects of changing mortality rates on investments in education and human capital; industries related to death-wars, munitions production and arms expenditures; and the aftereffects of the death of a scholar-the revisiting and renewal of debates that can sometimes emerge as a result.
Oxford Handbook of the Cold War, 2013
What was the relationship between the Cold War and globalization?
Asia Pacific Memo , 2016
What were the major challenges to translating the domestic success of South Korean webtoons for t... more What were the major challenges to translating the domestic success of South Korean webtoons for the international market (circa 2016 at least)? This essay takes a brief glide through three factors.
Asia Pacific Memo, 2016
Why is Moomin, a series of children's picture books authored by a Swedish-speaking Finnish artist... more Why is Moomin, a series of children's picture books authored by a Swedish-speaking Finnish artist, Tove Jansson, so popular in Japan? This essay flags four (out of more) factors.
Harvard Asia Quarterly , 2008
Is gendered migration a new phenomenon in South and North Korea? This article shows via a histori... more Is gendered migration a new phenomenon in South and North Korea? This article shows via a historical overview that modern gendered migration has occurred throughout the modern period; but that post-1987 forms of emigration and immigration is based on new demographic shifts; and state involvement in migration has decreased in South Korea since 1987, while remaining constant in North Korea.
Journal of International Area Studies, 2004
'Modernity' encompasses a multitude of concepts and definitions. This article take a material mar... more 'Modernity' encompasses a multitude of concepts and definitions. This article take a material marker of modernity-clothing-and uses it as an analytic prism to examine the changes in social, economic, and political arenas and discourses of Korea's colonial period (1910-1945). I analyze the meanings of clothing in specific contexts such as: the contemporary re-association of Korean ethnic identity with traditional clothes; the beginnings of change in the language of clothes; the utility and limits of the standard colonial oppression-resistance binary; transformations in socioeconomic structure; and the di fusion of visual technology and constructions of gender in multiplying sartorial selection and meaning.
Toho Gakkai, 1998
What did Vice Governors of colonial Korea (seimu sokan; 政務総監) do? What were their roles? This art... more What did Vice Governors of colonial Korea (seimu sokan; 政務総監) do? What were their roles? This article takes the case of one Vice Governor known as an able regional and municipal level administrator in Japan using primarily his unpublished memoirs and other contemporary accounts to dive behind the textbook cliches and sweeping generalizations that characterize too much of English-language writing on the Government General of Korea.
East Asia, 2008
The mass media can be counted on to occasionally fixate on apparently significant cultural exchan... more The mass media can be counted on to occasionally fixate on apparently significant cultural exchanges between North Korea and the rest of the world. In September 2000, the airwaves were filled with breathless coverage of an allegedly important development in summer 2000 at the Sydney Olympics: North and South Korea entered the stadium together during the opening and closing ceremonies under a flag symbolizing a unified Korean peninsula. The North Korean cheerleading squads of young women who made trips to Pusan Asian Games in 2002, the Summer Universiad in Taegu in 2003, and the Asian Athletics Championship in Inch'ǒn in 2005 became celebrities in their own right due in large part to the saturation coverage provided by South Korean and Japanese media of their every mesmerizing move. The New York Philharmonic's concert in Pyongyang in February 2008 also triggered another flurry of headlines, tailed by cautiously optimistic messages about the long-term and indirect effects of such performances. All of these news stories have usually been accompanied by brief summaries of the history of inter-Korean relations along with the requisite line about the absence of a peace treaty after the Korean War. Despite the proliferation of such journalistic coverage of inter-Korean cultural exchanges, it remains difficult to find sustained and systematic analyses in English on the subject. Perhaps unavoidably, the media coverage has tended to emphasize the newness and the importance of every exchange, and their potential impact in facilitating unification or at least generating improvements in North Korea's relations with the outside world. Thus, readers are left to ponder the extent to which these developments are actually new, and whether or not such exchanges in fact lead to short or long-term changes in international relations. Gabriel Jonsson's book, Towards Korean Reconciliation, aims to fill this lacuna by examining "what actual impact" these social-cultural exchanges and cooperation have had on inter-Korean relations (p.4). As Jonsson notes, there are numerous studies of inter-Korean socio-cultural exchanges by South Korean scholars, but this
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 2011
'Assimilation' encompasses a complex and varied range of practices, goals, and measures, and enge... more 'Assimilation' encompasses a complex and varied range of practices, goals, and measures, and engenders associations with a host of synonyms. The term can be assessed through multiple lenses: socioeconomic measures, such as income, occupation, and educational achievement; spatial concentration in residential patterns; second language acquisition and first language retention; and naturalization rates and intermarriage rates. In addition, there is the issue how or if the concept might differ from similar spaces occupied by its relatives, 'acculturation', 'socialization', 'integration', and 'incorporation'. Some of the implied differences in nuance between these terms can often be unclear; moreover, the issue of the extent to which some of the divisions within each term are applicable to their synonyms remains. For example, the common distinction between 'socialization' from 'below' or 'above' may not be as common in discussions of 'incorporation' or 'assimilation', especially in colonial contexts, as the implicit assumption might be that all assimilation is from 'above'. Into this rather daunting conceptual morass jumps Japanese Assimilation Policies in Colonial Korea. Challenging the common distinctions between assimilation processes in colonial contexts with those involved in nationbuilding, the author analyzes the factors that drove the emergence, application, and failure of Japanese assimilation policies in colonial Korea from 1910 to 1945. The organization of the book follows a largely chronological sequence, consisting of an introduction, six chapters, notes, bibliography, glossary, and index. The 'Introduction' outlines four central questions posed by Caprio. First, what were the contemporary templates and benchmarks for assimilation policies? Second, how did Japanese experiences prior to the start of colonial rule in Korea in 1910 influence the decision to adopt an assimilationist policy? Third, how did assimilation policy evolve once applied to Korea? And fourth, how did Koreans interpret Japanese assimilationist efforts? Starting definitions and assumptions are also laid out in an accessible manner, with the discussions drawing on Edward Said,
Pacific Affairs, 2011
126 intrafamily gender inequality, workplace equality seems largely to rest in the details of the... more 126 intrafamily gender inequality, workplace equality seems largely to rest in the details of the school and exam systems. The continued poor economy since the 1990s in Japan, combined with the deregulation of dispatch labour, has had a dampening effect on women's stable employment, with single women worse off than before. Taiwanese women have not suffered these fates. And while the demographic decline may eventually lead to Japanese women's employment equality in the future, Yu does not see this happening soon. This elegant work contributes to our understanding of how and why women's opportunities can differ.
Journal of Asian Studies, 2015
Pacific Affairs, 2018
812 to Hallyu, the core message should be redefined: if Korea can do it, so can anybody else. Whi... more 812 to Hallyu, the core message should be redefined: if Korea can do it, so can anybody else. While this book offers insights into the various aspects of Hallyu, it still leaves much to be desired.
Pacific Affairs, 2018
The term Japonisme was coined by the French art critic Philippe Burty in a series of articles pub... more The term Japonisme was coined by the French art critic Philippe Burty in a series of articles published in 1872 to describe the impact of Japanese art and objects in a variety of media and forms throughout Europe from the mid-1850s on. Academic literature on Japonisme as inspiration and (mis) appropriation has accumulated in volume and range since the inception of the term, but this work has been largely fixated on France, England, the Netherlands, and the United States, in large part due to the prominence of artists who were influenced by Japanese woodblock prints in these countries, such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh, James McNeill Whistler, and B.J.O. Nordfelt. The beautifully produced and lavishly illustrated Japanomania in the Nordic Countries aims to fill a lacuna by a close look at the less-studied transmissions, manifestations, and interpretations of Japanese art in Scandinavia during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Based on an exhibit that was initially held at the Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki, where I saw it in February 2016 (it moved to the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo later in the same year, and then to the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen in 2017), the chief curator and lead editor Gabriel Weisberg, who has published extensively since the 1960s on Burty, Impressionism, Naturalism, Realism, and Japonisme in France, has organized the book into seven sections. As might be expected of a work positioned in art history and based on an exhibition, there are close analyses of individual works and artists, with notable Norwegians, famed Finns, and decorated Danes making significant appearances. But it moves beyond fine-grained studies of specific artworks to explore a wider range of collectors, curators, exhibitions, and media involved in the dissemination and reinterpretation of Japanese art and objects throughout Scandinavia. Section 1 establishes the international context via an overview chapter by Weisberg, and a summary of Japonisme in English artists, including the famous wallpapers of William Morris, by Widar Halén. Section 2 describes the ways in which Japanese art and objects were transmitted and collected, with Weisberg providing an account of the progression from travel books, photographs, and commercial activity, to artists' networks, exhibitions, and eventually to wider mass consumption of Japonisme. Halén describes the early collections of Japanese art in Nordic countries in museums in his chapter, and Leila Koivunen focuses on Finland's Museum of Applied Arts holdings of the same period. Section 3 overviews the early history of Nordic discovery and
Pacific Affairs, 2018
South Korean (hereafter "Korea") popular music, a range of genres often stuffed under the rubric ... more South Korean (hereafter "Korea") popular music, a range of genres often stuffed under the rubric of "K-pop," has been an ubiquitous global presence in the 2010s. Aside from diffusion in established markets for Korean popular culture such as China and Japan, K-pop has increased its reach from Antofagasta in Chile to Zanzibar in Tanzania, and secured its foothold in global cities such as New York, London, and Paris, through dissemination via Youtube, SNS, and precisely choreographed live concerts. Nonetheless, analyses that move beyond clichés and display a solid command of the history and the specifics of the Korean popular music scene have not grown with commensurate rapidity, at least in English. Made in Korea, part of a Routledge series of edited volumes with similar titles and formats, such as Made in Japan, Made in Brazil, and Made in Italy, addresses this relative lacuna. With contributors from various social sciences and humanities disciplines, the book is an assemblage of seventeen essays organized into four sections: history, genres, artists, and issues. Preceding these are a preface by one of the editors, Hyounjoon Shin, which explains the core questions and the background of the book, and an introduction by both co-editors that provides definitions of key concepts, a brief description of the historical contexts of twentieth-and twenty-first-century Korea, and some anecdotal comments on the state of Korean popular music studies. The four chapters in the Histories section focus on live performances (Hyounjoon Shin); recorded music (Keewoong Lee); broadcasting of music on radio and television (Jung-Yup Lee); and digital forms of music distribution focused on the ubiquitous 2012 song by Psy, "Gangnam Style" (Sun Jung). The Genres chapters analyze trot and ballad (Yu-Jeong Chang); rock (Pil Ho Kim); folk (Aekyung Park); and soul and hip-hop (Jaeyoung Yang). The Artists section features four studies by Junhee Lee, Dohee
Pacific Affairs, 2009
Japan is highlighted by Naoki Sakai. There is also discussion of the way the idea of "Asia" becam... more Japan is highlighted by Naoki Sakai. There is also discussion of the way the idea of "Asia" became "embedded in the national imaginary" (6) of the East Asian states.
Journal of Social History, 2018
University of Toronto Quarterly, 2007
Journal of Japanese Studies, 2007
Alexis Dudden starts with a promising premise that discourse-particularly that of international l... more Alexis Dudden starts with a promising premise that discourse-particularly that of international law-was as significant as politics, economics, and military power in enabling Japan's annexation of Korea. She sidesteps the issue of causality but "aims to confound the view that only military strength truly prevails in power politics" (p. 4). After a short introduction, she focuses on the Hague Incident. The next chapter reviews how the new vocabulary of international law infused Meiji foreign policy. Chapter three looks at how this "vocabulary" was used in the colonization of Korea. Chapter four, "Voices of Dissent," describes the activities of Tarui Tōkichi, Kōtoku Shūsui, and Hǒ Wi. Chapter five outlines Gustave Boissonade's contributions to Japanese modern law, legal discourses mobilized during the buildup to 1910, and the "105 Persons Incident." The final chapter, "Coda: A Knowledgeable Empire," is composed of brief sections on Nitobe Inazō, Tōyō Kyōkai, and "Concluding Notes." The section on the Hague Incident reminds us that the failure of Korean emissaries to gain entry into the official conference halls was not only due to politics, but also stemmed from larger issues of language and representation. This contrasts with some existing scholarship that overlooks the larger discourse of legality and civilization permeating the Hague conference. Chapter three's section on Durham Stevens is lively, making good use of quotations from the San Francisco Chronicle. The underused Hōritsu shinbun provides the basis for a brief discussion of two key figures in the construction of a "modern" legal regime in Korea, Ume Kenjirō and Kuratomi Yūzaburō. The occasional "theoretical" nods are welcome, although I would have preferred more extensive engagement with the relevant theories. Unfortunately, the moments of solid scholarship are undermined by problems that range from technical issues to thin contextualization and loose argumentation. To start with the technical, the index is sparse, characterized by omissions of major figures. Several endnotes lead to underdeveloped observations about contemporary parallels. Other endnotes for crucial assertions contain citations without page numbers. Particularly frustrating is Dudden's repeated omission of page numbers in major works by two leading scholars of the "annexation," Moriyama Shigenori and Unno Fukuju. This is highly problematic when she hints at major disagreements but fails to provide specifics. Transliteration errors are ubiquitous. Too many book and article titles (generally Korean ones) do not follow any standard system, while missing 202
Pacific Affairs, 2006
Book Reviews based phenomenon, the volume misses an opportunity to examine this undoubtedly intri... more Book Reviews based phenomenon, the volume misses an opportunity to examine this undoubtedly intriguing trend in depth. The section with comparative interregionalism, and especially chapters that compare interregional institutions that have some systemic presence (e.g., chapter 14 comparison of APEC and ASEM) or a relatively long history (e.g., chapter 16 on ACP) provided the most fruitful analysis of the importance and effectiveness of interregionalism. Meanwhile, those chapters that focus on minor and very young interregional institutions seem to struggle with thin contents and provide limited analytical validity. In sum, I applaud the editors' ambition in extending their reach into this uncharted territory with this very wide coverage, and I hope many complementary research projects striving for depth and a more systematic comparison of those interregional institutions will follow shortly.
Pacific Affairs, 2003
The Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR) was founded in 1925 to "study the conditions of the Paci... more The Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR) was founded in 1925 to "study the conditions of the Pacific peoples with a view to the improvement of their mutual relations," and immediately became one of the most significant nongovernmental organizations involved in trans-Pacific "track-two" diplomacy. In theory, the organization was made up of self-supporting, privately financed councils from each of the participant countries. The Pacific Council, which was the general convention of representatives from each national council, met once every two to three years for a total of thirteen times, ranging from the first meeting in Honolulu (1927) to the last meeting in Lahore (1957). Moreover, it was the leading vehicles for research on Asia in English language countries in the pre-1945 period. In fact, two of its progenies, the journals Pacific Affairs (established in 1926) and its sister publication, the Far Eastern Survey (established in 1932, the Asian Survey after 1961), continue to be published to this day. The IPR has been the subject of numerous articles and monographs in Japanese and English, and Akami's volume is a solid addition to the literature. Using a variety of archival and published sources, she provides a clear overview of the background and activities of the IPR from 1919 to 1945. The book is composed of four parts, but in essence, it is the story of the internal debates and shifts within the IPR that propelled the gradual qualitative changes in its activities. The coverage begins with the background of what she terms "post-League internationalism" and extends to the last years of Edward Carter's presidency (1945-46). One of the obvious strengths of this work is Akami's command of a range of sources. In particular, her use of previously under-used Australian primary archives allow for more detailed analysis of the internal debates. One of the more interesting contributions of this book, especially for those familiar with the existing literature, is its detailed discussion of the roles of Lionel Curtis and Joseph Greene, two figures who had been relatively neglected in previous studies of the IPR. Nonetheless, the source coverage is not quite exhaustive. Although Akami states that this is the "first book to make extensive use of archival sources on the IPR," she leaves out several major collections of relevant papers from archives in New York and Stanford that she had visited. In addition, there are several relevant published works and primary sources in Japanese that are not cited. In terms of the analysis, the primary questions Akami wants to address move in and out of focus. Terms such as "gender" and
Pacific Affairs, 2002
The mechanisms of love and desire have been a magnet and a mystery for many. Neurobiologists anal... more The mechanisms of love and desire have been a magnet and a mystery for many. Neurobiologists analyze the activities of the anterior cingulate, chocolatiers wax lyrical about the effects of phenylethylamine, philosophers dust off their Hegel, psychoanalysts pore over their Lacan, and an estimated 50 million women in North America turn to their Harlequin romances in search of insight. Anthropologist Karen Kelsky guides us along another route into landscapes of desire, cogently mapping contemporary Japanese women's "Occidental longings" in the intersection of power, race, economics and social structure. Women on the Verge is a groundbreaking work, the first systematic study of not only Japanese women's eroticization of the white (American) male, but also of the underlying racial hierarchies of sexual desirability. Her basic argument is that in providing the means of escape or resistance for Japanese women from the constraints of domestic social structure, the discourse of internationalization reinforces the existing hegemony of Western phallocentrism, generating consumption of the white male (figuratively and literally) among some, and constructing a transnational purgatory for others. The book is also coterminous with recent studies on Occidentalism (the construction of the "West" by "non-Western" societies), and misandry (the sexist counterpart of misogyny-in this case, disdain for Japanese men). Kelsky begins by tackling various conceptual issues in the introduction, then charts the historical origins of the images of the victorious and liberating American male from the late Meiji era through the Occupation period (chapter 1). Chapter 2 discusses the discourses mobilized to position "internationalization" against Japanese patriarchy. Incorporating her earlier work on the "yellow cab" phenomenon, chapter 3 explores the explicit eroticization and commodification of the foreign male in various forms of contemporary Japanese media. In chapter 4, Kelsky outlines the contradictions and frustrations experienced by many internationalized Japanese women. The conclusion ends with a reflexive section that recounts, among other things, the range of reactions Kelsky encountered over the course of her research. Kelsky writes lucidly, and mobilizes a diverse array of sources for her analysis. The eclectic materials, including popular magazines, bestsellers (fiction and non-fiction), scholarly works, English textbooks, TV advertisements, manga, and interviews with women, not only illustrate the specific points she makes, but also reinforce the larger assertion about the extent to which the discourse of "Occidental longing" has permeated everyday culture and discourse in Japan.
Journal of Korean Studies, 2018
American Historical Review, 2014
Global Asia, 2014
Review of the revised edition of Don Oberdorfer's The Two Koreas