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.