Korean Studies

Auto-ethnographies tracing the fieldwork encounters of anthropologists have become integral to understand the processes of the ethnographic endeavor. In ethnomusicology, ethnographic methodology remains the sine qua non distinguishing our work from that of the musicologist. The field is ubiquitous in our work as the space within which we accumulate the experiences informing our analyses. Equally ubiquitous is the assumption that the field exists outside of our ‘real lives’ (Rasmussen 2004). Yet, with transcultural professional lives becoming increasingly common, and more scholars establishing professional roots in locations formerly allocated as ‘the field,’ there exists an obvious need for a reconsideration of and new fluidity in ethnographic research. If “fieldwork is, in reality, just living” (Reed 2003), then this way of life deserves a consideration in all its complexities, diving into the interstices of personal, professional, and artistic identities.

In this paper, I explore the overlapping and ephemeral spaces of the ethnographic self in the Korean context. Drawing on my own experiences as a non-Korean researcher of Korean music and professor in a department of Korean music, the paper inescapably takes the form of auto-ethnography. The paper uncovers the ways by which performance-based practice of bi-musicality complicates the identity of the researcher, as the ability to perform on an instrument tied to local notations of race-based nationalism transforms the scholar into a curiosity. Through an analysis of my own bimusical practice, I scrutinize the benefits and pitfalls of the constant presence of the foreign researcher in the Korean academic and social milieu.

Published in Yonsei Journal of International Studies, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Summer 2015): 140-141.

REVIEW: Blaine Harden, The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Tyrant Who Created North Korea and the Young Lieutenant Who Stole His Way to Freedom (New York: Viking, 2015); 304 pages; $27.95.

In The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot, Blaine Harden, the famed author of Escape from Camp 14, recounts the first years of the North Korean state through the experiences of Kim Il Sung and No Kum Sok.  The stories of the former, the founder of the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” (DPRK) and the latter, a North Korean fighter pilot-turned-defector, remind us of the diverse individuals who sought to navigate the DPRK’s first tumultuous years.  As Kim triumphed in power struggles at the top and sought to remake North Korea in his own image, No, whose father had worked for the Japanese before August 1945, survived at the bottom by praising communism until he could escape to South Korea...

The paper attempts to outline the urban visions and architectural ideas and vocabulary behind the formation of the large urban conglomeration in Japan, South Korea and China, and how the seeds of Western planning theories and architectural design practice have helped shaping and building the contemporary cites along the vast regions of Asia Pacific Region, and frame a local language in envisioning the city of the future.
Reflecting on the contributions from East Asia to the discourse of planning and design a city for the future as promoted by single actors, larger cultural movements and national elites fostering economic ambitions and political agendas of autocratic forces (e.g. from the experimental cities by the Metabolists in Japan, to the more “pragmatic” urban development projects fostered by local and national governments in South Korea and China), the paper tries to explain the key socio-economic factors and engines which have dramatically and radically transformed the skylines of the most dynamic and growing influential area of the world at the dawn of 21st century; it also aims at describe the origins of the various forms and elements of the modern built environments which have been shaped and molded by these same forces, and how/whether these urban forms embodies a true genuine East Asian vision of the city of the future, and what is the current trend in terms of new urban forms and architectural design research at the beginning of 21st century.

Příspěvek si klade za cíl představit problematiku konstrukce “japonskosti”, “korejskosti” a “těch druhých” a s nimi související ideu “národního dědictví” vzhledem k antropologii post-kolonialismu.
V prvé řadě budeme brát v úvahu dynamické utváření vztahů Japonci – Korejci v koloniálním a post-koloniálním období: nesmíme zapomínat, že již Japonci doby Meidži byli ovlivněni západní antropologií a Korejci jsou tedy současně “bratři” a “domorodci za humny” (van Bremen a Shimizu, 1999). Dále se budeme zabývat proměnlivým trojúhelníkem “Japonci – Korejci – ti druzí” ve vztahu k západním cestovatelům, euroatlanickému vzoru modernity a nenativnímu výzkumníku (dle Kuřík, 2013). Na základě různých faset těchto konceptů budeme moci vztáhnout antropologické zkoumání japonského post-kolonialismu k modelu koloniální urbanizace dle Anthony Kinga (1976) vycházející z konceptu “man-environment”.  Ukážeme, jakým způsobem konceptualizace “japonskosti”, “korejskosti”, “těch druhých” a “národního dědictví” formuje antropologické zkoumání japonského post-kolonialismu na příkladu autorčiny doktorské práce o urbánním nemovitém dědictví a city brandingu v současném Inčonu a Kóbe.

This article investigates the growth of cross-border movement and migration in the northern portion of the Yellow Sea during the sixteenth century, which generated ongoing interactions and tensions with the coastal governance of Chosŏn Korea and Ming China. The fluid flow of private seafarers reconnected the northern Yellow Sea and revitalised its maritime economy, making this space an integral part of wider trade networks. Meanwhile, the Chosŏn and Ming authorities also attempted to discern, categorise, and institutionalise this transmarine mobility in their discursive, administrative, and geographic spaces. Instead of considering the two polities as land based and inward looking, this article foregrounds the dynamics of their coastal control mechanisms, while at the same time paying close attention to their constraints on filtering and scrutinising maritime violence.

This paper examines the influence of Christianity in the formation of new Buddhism and the reformation agenda of traditional Buddhism during the first half of the twentieth century in
Korea. By new Buddhism, I am specifically referring to Wŏn Buddhism (圓佛敎), established by Sot’aesan Pak Chungbin 少太山朴重彬(1891–1943) in 1916. Since its foundation, Wŏn Buddhism has grown into one of the four major religious groups in South Korea, along with traditional Buddhism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. The paper begins by reviewing some of major issues in the Buddhist reform movements and Wŏn Buddhism. It then goes on to detail the formalistic similarities between Wŏn Buddhism and Christianity. The next section examines the visible influences of traditional East Asian religions in Wŏn Buddhism. In its
final part, the paper considers Sot’aesan’s approaches to different religious traditions and the eclectic nature of Wŏn Buddhism as a possible model for an interreligious dialogue, to include Buddhist-Christian dialogue.
Keywords: Wŏn Buddhism, Christianity, new Buddhism, Buddhist reform movements, ecumenism

Religion and Orientalism in Asian Studies analyzes the role of religion in past and present understandings of Asia. Religion, and the history of its study in the modern academy, has exercised massive influence over Asian Studies fields in the past century. Asian Studies has in turn affected, and is increasingly shaping, the study of religion. Religion and Orientalism in Asian Studies looks into this symbiotic relationship - both in current practice, and in the modern histories of both Orientalism and Area Studies

According to a survey on the religious landscape in Korea, about half of the total population of Korea (53.4%) declared practicing religion. This number has shown a steady increase since the Gallup Korea conducted a survey in this field in 1984. 1 In understanding religion, religious phenomena, and religious practices in Korea, we should consider that the concept and expression of religion is relatively new in Korean culture. In this context, at least two preliminary remarks need to be made before we begin our discussion on the religions in Korea. The first is about the term religion. The expression religion did not exist in the vocabulary of East Asian languages until the late 19 th century. One origin of the modern term religion (Kor, chonggyo; Jan. shūkyō) can be traced to a trade document between Japan and Germany signed in 1869, in which the European term religion was translated into Japanese language, which was adopted by Koreans. 2 This does not mean that what is denoted by the term religion in English language did not exist in East Asia before the adoption of the expression. Instead of religion, traditional Korean religions such as Confucianism and Buddhism (which we will discuss in this chapter) were called teachings (Kor. kyo) or school (Kor. ga). This also indicates that the commonly known distinction between philosophy and religion in Western tradition does not strictly apply to Korean religious and philosophical traditions. The second issue to consider is the scope of religious phenomena. Religion is frequently and sometimes uncritically identified with religion as an institution. Institutionalized (or organized) religion features religious texts (sacred books), religious structure (church or temples), religious group (priesthood and believers), and moral and ethical codes (precepts). Religion is also often considered to be about God. Most of the major religions in the world share these components of religion, but religious phenomena are not limited to them, nor is what we denote by each of the above categories as clear as we might think. Several suggestions have been made for a comprehensive understanding of religious phenomena. One such example is to expand our concept of religion, from a singular-form religion to its plural form, religions. The pluralization of religious tradition enables us to further expand the scope of religions so that we can consider what constitutes the religious. 3 This paradigm can be applied to other concepts that are associated with religion. For example, we can expand our investigation from the concept of God to plural gods and then to the concept of the sacred (or the holy); from churches/temples to the place of worship and to the concept of the sacred space; and from examining precepts of a particular religion to the relationship between the finite and the infinite, and then to the issue of construction of value systems in human life. This is a process of creating a generic form (e.g., the sacred) from the collection of particular phenomenon (e.g., God). This process is necessary in order to have a comprehensive understanding of different religious traditions without privileging one religious tradition. This is especially relevant to our attempt to understand and evaluate Korean religious traditions. More often than not, students in the West ask how either Buddhism or Confucianism can be called a religion when these traditions do not have concepts that match what they find in Western religious traditions. Before we attempt to answer these questions, we should understand that such questions arise because we set a specific religious tradition as a standard for other religious traditions. In our discussion of Korean religions, we will divide them into three groups for the sake of convenience: the first is indigenous religions (Shamanism); the second is foreign-origin religions that became Koreanized (Buddhism and Confucianism); and the third is new religions that emerged during the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries (Tonghak and Won Buddhism).

Once viewed as an embarrassing superstition, the theatrical religious performances of Korean shamans—who communicate with the dead, divine the future, and become possessed—are going mainstream. Attitudes toward Korean shamanism are changing as shamanic traditions appear in staged rituals, museums, films, and television programs, as well as on the internet.

Contemporary Korean Shamanism explores this vernacular religion and practice, which includes sensory rituals using laden altars, ecstatic dance, and animal sacrifice, within South Korea's hypertechnologized society, where over 200,000 shamans are listed in professional organizations. Liora Sarfati reveals how representations of shamanism in national, commercialized, and screen-mediated settings have transformed opinions of these religious practitioners and their rituals.

Applying ethnography and folklore research, Contemporary Korean Shamanism maps this shift in perception about shamanism—from a sign of a backward, undeveloped Korea to a valuable, indigenous cultural asset.
https://iupress.org/9780253057174/contemporary-korean-shamanism/

Korea is a peninsula which is strategically located in East Asia. Even though it was divided into several independent principalities, in course of time the country was unified under a single political authority. The political disunity, however, did not stand on the way of emerging an identical culture, language and civilization of all Korean people. The various peoples that lived in the peninsula gradually forged a society characterized by cultural homogeneity and political unity.
This essay examines the various Peasant rebellions during the 19th Century and the reforms initiated by the Korean government as a response to these peasant rebellions.

Invention of Early Joseon’s identity as a “Lesser Middle Kingdom(小中華)” and the comparative narrativization on “others” in Songs of Flying Dragons(龍飛御天歌)”

Chong Da-Ham

Ever since modern scholarship of the studies of Korean literature and Korean history after 1945 in Korea, the text of Songs of Flying Dragons(龍飛御天歌) has always been interpreted within the narrow nationalist frame which only highlights that the text is to show “unique” origin of Korean identity, only because those small portions of the whole texts were written in Hunmin’chŏng’ūm(訓民正音) alphabet. However, in fact, Songs of Flying Dragons not only includes the texts about Joseon royal house’s “uniquely Korean” identity, but also shows elaborate descriptions and interpretations on identities such as “Middle Kingdom(中華)”, Jurchens, and “Wako” pirates that modern Korean scholarship can hardly think of as “Korean” or “proto-Korean”. This study is to rethink those different identities of others that has been seen as alien and thus secondary in the text of Songs of Flying Dragons by korean nationalist scholarship, and to reinterpret them as the necessary “others” to which Joseon royal house mirrored itself to imagine its own identity and position as “Lesser middle Kingdom(小中華)” by compiling Songs of Flying Dragons, converging into the “universal” Confucian civilization of “Middle Kingdom” and differentiating from the savagery of “barbarians”.


󰡔龍飛御天歌󰡕에 나타난 조선왕실의 “小中華”적 정체성 창출과 타자인식: 그 ‘比較’의 서사를 중심으로

정 다 함

그간 龍飛御天歌에 대한 연구들은, 근대 국민국가의 형성이라는 역사적 맥락 속에서 진행되어 왔기 때문에, 龍飛御天歌를 민족의 “고유”한 정체성과 직결시키는 민족주의적/일국사적 관점을 견지해 왔다. 그러나 龍飛御天歌는, 그 “고유성”을 증명하는 증거로 읽힐 수 있는 내용 못지않게, 사실 그 “고유성”이라는 것이 “中華”와 “女眞族”과 “倭” 등의 이질적 정체성들과 끊임없이 관계를 맺고 있었음을 보여주는 내용으로 가득하다. 그렇다면 민족주의적/일국사적 관점 때문에 해석되기 어려웠던 龍飛御天歌의 이러한 성격을 어떻게 이해해야 할까?
결국 우리는 이 용비어천가가 지니고 있는 조선왕실의 “고유”한 정체성을 보여주는 부분과 그와는 다른 타자들의 “이질적”인 정체성을 보여주는 부분 모두를 함께 이해할 수 있어야 하며, 그러기 위해서는 용비어천가의 찬자들이 어떤 시각과 목적에서 이러한 다양한 타자들을 용비어천가에 등장시켰는가라는 새로운 화두로 이 문제에 접근해야 한다. 이 연구는, 훈민정음으로 쓰인 부분 때문에 한국적 “고유성”을 상징하는 텍스트로 조명되어 온 龍飛御天歌를, 그 텍스트가 담고 있는 조선왕실과 다양한 타자들과의 관계성이라는 역사적 맥락에 초점을 맞춰 다시 읽어봄으로써, 이를 당대 조선 지배층의 세계관 내지 역사인식 내지 타자인식의 틀이 어떻게 창출되었는가를 표상하는 텍스트로서 새롭게 해석해 보려는 시도이다.
기존의 민족주의적/일국사적 관점에 입각하여 진행된 연구지형의 담론지층들을 지식의 고고학을 통해 벗겨내고, 탈중심적/탈경계적/초지역적인 관점을 바탕으로 다시 살펴보았을 때, 용비어천가는, 그간의 민족주의적 관점이 본질화시켜왔던 그 한국적(조선적)인 고유한 정체성이라는 것이 오히려 14세기 말에서 15세기 초반 조선왕실이 동아시아의 여러 타자들과 조우하는 역사적 맥락 속에서 ‘발명된 전통’이었음을 보여주는 텍스트로, 다시 해석될 수 있다. “中華”와 女眞族과 倭寇는, 조선왕실이 이렇게 자기 정체성을 상상할 때에 이를 구체적으로 가늠하기 위해서 비추어보는 거울과 같이 반드시 필요한 타자로서 기술된 존재들이었던 것이다.
龍飛御天歌에서, 조선왕실의 정체성은, 中華의 역대 왕조들의 “보편” 문명과의 유사점을 강조하면서도 이를 위해서라도 반드시 中華와의 최소한의 차이점은 남겨두는 ‘비교’의 방식을 통해, “중화”와 같아질 수는 없더라도 이에 버금가는 상한선의 좌표에 설정되는 것이었다. 동시에 조선왕실의 그 정체성은, 中華의 “보편” 문명의 대척점에 위치한 女眞族과 倭寇와 같은 존재들과의 차이점을 강조하면서도 이를 위해서라도 반드시 이들과의 최소한의 공유지점(유교적 “보편” 가치)은 남겨두는 ‘비교’의 방식을 통해, 이들보다는 그 敎化의 정도에서 훨씬 앞서 있는 하한선의 좌표에 설정되는 것이었다. 결국 용비어천가에 담긴 조선왕실의 고유한 정체성이라는 것도, 그와는 다른 정체성들과의 역동적 관계성 안에서 존재하던 그 정체성을, 유교적/중화중심주의적인 비교와 위계질서의 서사를 통하여 재구성한 것이었다. 그리고 이 과정은 조선이 문명의 중심으로 여기고 있던 중화중심주의를 전유함으로써 스스로를 문명과 반야만의 사이에 위치하는 이른바 “小中華”로 창출해내는 과정에 다름 아니었던 것이다.

On September 18, 1996, Lee Jin Gyu, a South Korean taxi cab driver, was taking a passenger on the Gangneung-Tonghae coastal highway.  A little before one in the morning, the driver noticed a group of men clustered on the side of the highway

Original article at NKNews: http://www.nknews.org/2012/09/this-day-in-the-history-of-the-dprk-2/

A sequel to the groundbreaking volume Race and Racism in Modern East Asia: Western and Eastern Constructions, the present volume examines in depth interactions between Western racial constructions of East Asians and local constructions of race and their outcomes in modern times. Focusing on China, Japan and the two Koreas, it also analyzes the close ties between race, racism and nationalism, as well as the links race has had with gender and lineage in the region. Written by some of the field's leading authorities, this insightful and engaging 23-chapter volume offers a sweeping overview and analysis of racial constructions and racism in modern and contemporary East Asia that is unsurpassed in previous scholarship.


TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations and Tables
Conventions
Preface

1. Introduction: The Synthesis of Foreign and Indigenous Constructions of Race in Modern East Asia and Its Actual Operation, Rotem Kowner and Walter Demel
I. Antecedents: A Detailed Examination of Early Western Racial Constructions of East Asians
II. Interactions: The Fusion of European and Asian Constructions of Race
III. Nationalism: Interactions between Race and Ethnic Nationalism in East Asia
IV. Gender and Lineage: The Impact of Domestic and Foreign Racial Constructions

PART I: ANTECEDENTS
2. East Asians in the Linnaean Taxonomy: Sources and Implications of a Racial Image, Rotem Kowner and Christina Skott
The Linnaean Revolution and View of Humankind
Sources of Linnaeus’ Racial Perspective on East Asians
The Essence of Asia: Swedish Views of China
Swedish Reports and Linnaeus’ Revision of His Human Taxonomy
Linnaeus’ Legacy and the Unfolding Racial View of East Asians
3. Constructing Racial Theories on East Asians as a Transnational “Western” Enterprise, 1750-1850, Walter Demel
The Founding Fathers of Racial Theories: Linnaeus, Buffon, Kant and Camper
The Second Generation: Multiple Directions
4. The ‘Races’ of East Asia in Nineteenth-Century European Encyclopaedias, Georg Lehner
Classifying the Peoples of Asia
The Encyclopedias' Main Sources for Remarks on the “Races” of East Asia
Chinese, Japanese and Koreans: Descriptions of East Asian peoples
Stereotypes of East Asians in General Knowledge
Visual Representations of Race in Works of General Knowledge
Concluding Remarks
5. The Racial Image of the Japanese in the Western Press Published in Japan, 1861-1881, Olavi K. Fält
Background
The Oldest People on Earth
The Shining Japanese Race
Weak and Inferior Race
Praising the Endeavors of a Poor Race
Conclusion

PART II: INTERACTIONS
6. The Propagation of Racial Thought in Nineteenth-Century China, Daniel Barth
The Background: Imperial China and the “Other”
Stage I (1846-1851): Marques and Wei Yuan
Stage II (1851-1855): Hobson and Muirhead
Stage III (1855-1872): The Self-Strengthening Movement
Stage IV (1872-1892): John Fryer and the Chinese Scientific and Industrial Magazine
Conclusion: Chinese Intellectuals, Social Darwinism and Race
7. Learning from the South: Japan's Racial Construction of Southern Chinese, 1895-1941, Huei-Ying Kuo
The South Seas as Japan’s Backyard, 1895-1914
Japan's Expansion into the Southern Chinese Networks, 1914-1928
Chinese Anti-Japanese Nationalism and Japanese Discourses on South Seas Chinese, 1928-1936
Southern Chinese as Non-Han Races, 1936-1941
Conclusions
8. “The Great Question of the World Today”: Britain, the Dominions, East Asian Immigration and the Threat of Race War, 1905-11, Antony Best
Immigration and “the Awakening of Asia”
The Prophets of Race War
Critics of White Solidarity
Finessing the Racial Divide
Conclusions
9. “Uplifting the Weak and Degenerated Races of East Asia”: American and Indigenous Views of Sport and Body in Early Twentieth-Century East Asia, Stefan Hübner
Sportive Citizenship Training in the Philippines
Chinese Cooperation and Acceptance of American-Style Modernization
Japanese Resistance and its Defeat by American Style Modernization
Conclusion
10. Racism under Negotiation: The Japanese Race in the Nazi-German Perspective, Gerhard Krebs
Early Nazi Views on the Japanese Racial Position
Becoming More Aryan
The Problem with the Japanese in the Nazi Worldview
Continuing Mutual Mistrust
The End
11. Discourses of Race and Racism in Modern Korea, 1890s-1945 , Vladimir Tikhonov
Race and Its Uncertainties
The Emergence of Race Theories in Modern Korea: One of the Logics of the “Civilized World”
“Race” and “Ethnic Nation” in Colonial Korea, 1910-1945
Conclusion: Race as a Path to Modernist Self-assertion?
12. The United States Arrives: Racialization and Racism in Post-1945 South Korea, Nadia Y. Kim
Contextual Background: America Marches In and Mass Mediates
The American Military, Whiteness, and Imperialist Racial Formation
American Mass Media, White Heroes, and Counter-Hegemony
Blackness and Imperialist Racial Formation
Racism and Invisibility in Korean “America”
Concluding Remarks
13. A Post-Communist Coexistence in Northeast Asia? Mutual Racial Attitudes among Russians and Indigenous Peoples of Siberia, David Lewis
Discrimination against Siberian Peoples as an Outcome of Racial Prejudice
The Origin and Legacy of Russian Attitudes to Asians
Racial Attitudes among Indigenous Siberian Peoples
The Communist Model of Racial Modus Vivendi
The Impact of Prolonged Racism on Indigenous Siberian Peoples
Marriage as an Anti-Racist Means in a Multi-Racial Society

PART III: NATIONALISM
14. Nationalism and Internationalism: Sino-American Racial Perceptions of the Korean War, Lü Xun
Descendants of the Mongolian Hordes: American Perceptions of the Chinese
The Ambitious Wolf: Chinese Perceptions of Americans
The Mirrored Self: A Nation-State in the Making
15. Gangtai Patriotic Songs and Racialized Chinese Nationalism, Yinghong Cheng
Gangtai Patriotic Songs: A “Colored” Political Genre of Pop Music
A Tacit Collaboration between the Party-State and Capitalist Cultural Producers in Hong Kong and Taiwan
The Interaction between Gangtai Patriotic Songs and Chinese Popular Nationalism
Analyses
Concluding Remarks
16. Japanese as Both a “Race” and a “Non-Race”: The Politics of Jinshu and Minzoku and the Depoliticization of Japaneseness, Yuko Kawai
The Historical Trajectories of Jinshu and Minzoku
Being a “Race” and a “Non-Race” in Present-day Japan: An Empirical Study
Conclusions and Implications
17. Ethnic Nationalism in Postwar Japan: Nihonjinron and Its Racial Facets, Rotem Kowner and Harumi Befu
Premises of Nihonjinron
Nihonjinron as a Manifestation of Japanese Nationalism
Nihonjinron and Its Concern with Origin, Blood and Racial Hierarchy
The Impact of Race-Related Tenets on Everyday Life
Functions of Ethnic Nationalism in Contemporary Japan
Concluding Remarks
18. Ethnic Nationalism and Internationalism in the North Korean Worldview, Tatiana Gabroussenko
The Soviet Discourse of the Outside World: Conditional Internationalism
The North Korean Worldview in the “Soviet Era”: Echoing the Soviet Paradigm
Mono-Ethnicity as a Special Korean Virtue: The Evolution of the North Korean World Vision under the Influence of Juche
North Korean Propaganda about Foreigners from Inclusive and Alienating Perspectives
Conclusion

PART IV: GENDER AND LINEAGE
19. In the Name of the Master: Race, Nationalism and Masculinity in Chinese Martial Arts Cinema, Kai-man Chang
From Anti-imperialist Nationalism to Cultural Nationalism
Masculinities That Matter
Conclusion
20. Sexualized Racism, Gender and Nationalism: The Case of Japan’s Sexual Enslavement of Korean “Comfort Women”, Bang-soon Yoon
Korean “Comfort Women”: Drawn in as Substitutes
The Nature of Victimization
Colonial Policies and the Mobilization of Korean Women
Treatment of Korean “Comfort Women”
Lives under Sexual Slavery
Nationalism, Gender and Sexual Violence
Conclusion
21. “The Guilt Feeling That You Exist”: War, Racism and Indisch-Japanese Identity Formation, Aya Ezawa
Power, Discourse, and “Mixed Blood”
The Indisch and the Dutch East Indies
The Indisch Community under Japanese Occupation
Indisch-Japanese Relationships
Indisch-Japanese Descendants
Conclusion
22. ‘The “Amerasian” Knot: Transpacific Crossings of “GI Babies” from Korea to the United States, W. Taejin Hwang
“An Act of Both Humanity and Patriotism”: The Amerasian Immigration Act of 1982
“Confucius’ Outcasts”: The Korean Amerasian “Plight”
Inter-country Adoption of Korean “GI Babies”
Living as a “Mixed-Blood Child” (Honhyeola) in Cold War Korea
“Half-American Also is American”: Towards Migration
Conclusion and Postscript

PART V: CONCLUSIONS
23. The Essence and Mechanisms of Race and Racism in Modern East Asia, Rotem Kowner and Walter Demel
The East Asian Contribution to the Study of Race and Racism
East Asia’s Role within the Rise of Racial Theory and the Resulting Hybridity
Sources and Manifestations of Racism
The Close Links between Racism and Nationalism
The Role of Gender and Lineage in Constructions of Race and Racism
East Asia and the Future of Race and Racism
Contributors
Bibliography
Index

Airbnb’s remarkable growth is applauded, but there is certainly room for expansion in the Korean market. In this study, the authors conducted a background analysis of Airbnb, studying the strengths and weaknesses of the firm and devising strategies for further success in Korea.
In regards to price, the authors decided the price strategy currently held is applicable in Korea as well. There is no need for change in that aspect. The authors did observe the need for a premium service centered on business travelers, those who travel most frequently. The premium service would have an annual fee, but it would provide benefits to customers in the form of additional services and exclusive deals.
Brand awareness is relatively low in South Korea. To inform the Korean audience, who are potential guests and hosts, there is the need to adopt widely used Korea online platforms, including Kakaotalk and Naver. Not only does this widen Airbnb’s footing in the market, but it also establishes new ground for which promotions can take place.
Airbnb stands at an advantage due to the ubiquity of Internet and mobile phone users in a highly technologized country. Numerous network platforms are ready to accept Airbnb’s entrance into its user base, and upon entrance, Airbnb will already be ahead of competitors in claiming South Korea’s market for room accommodations.

The New Global Politics of the Asia Pacific: Conflict and Cooperation in the Asian Century, 3rd Edition
©2017 Routledge: London & New York. 341pp. + x. Link: https://www.routledge.com/The-New-Global-Politics-of-the-Asia-Pacific-Conflict-and-Cooperation-in/Connors-Davison-Dosch/p/book/9781138647022

Now in its new and fully updated third edition, The New Global Politics of the Asia Pacific continues to provide a compelling analysis of a region undergoing dramatic changes. Based on new research and offering fresh interpretation, this edition evaluates the prospects for continuing US dominance in the ‘Asian Century’. Whilst presenting evidence for a multifaceted ‘Beijing Strategy’, which aims to counter the US by building an alternative regional order, it also explains Japan’s definitive departure from its limited military role. Key content includes:
- Intra-regional conflicts in the South China Sea and the Korean peninsula,
- The different responses within the Asia Pacific to globalisation and western ideas of democracy and political economy,
- The underappreciated success of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in building a regional identity
- The European Union’s soft power in the region.
A highly topical account, which offers an overview of the main actors, institutions and contemporary issues in the Asia Pacific, the book will be essential reading for students of Asian Studies, International Politics, and anyone interested in the region.

Michael K. Connors teaches at the University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus and is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University. He is the co-editor of Thai Politics in Translation: Monarchy, Democracy, Constitution (forthcoming).
Remy Davison holds the Jean Monnet Chair in Politics and Economics at Monash University. He is the author of The Political Economy of Single Market Europe (2011).
Jörn Dosch is Professor of International Politics and Development Cooperation at the University of Rostock, Germany, and Adjunct Professor at Monash University Malaysia. His recent publications include Malaysia Post-Mahathir: A Decade of Change (2015).

The article examines three feature-length films produced in South Korea—director Hwang Dong-hyeok’s Silenced (2011), Song Il-gon’s Always (2011), and An Sang-hun’s Blind (2011)—that highlight a problem in contemporary disability rights cinema. While privileging individuals and groups that challenge normative understandings of character-based drama or documentary filmmaking, these motion pictures reflect an infantilizing tendency in popular culture more generally. The representations align with the standard medical approach to the topic, which sees disability as a sickness, a childlike helplessness (regardless of the person’s age) that results from an inability, a marked deficit in one’s physical or mental performance. However, it is argued that Silenced, a film that provoked legislative changes strengthening the protection of minors in South Korea, at least gestures toward the social model of disability.

Asia Pacific Perspectives, Volume XIII Number 1, Spring/Summer 2015

https://web.usfca.edu/uploadedFiles/Destinations/Institutes_and_Centers/center-asia-pacific/perspectives/v13n1/APP%20XIII1%2002%20French%2008-17-15.pdf

This paper, based on archival research undertaken in the General Headquarters (GHQ)/ Supreme Command of Allied Powers (SCAP) archives and employing geospatial data, examines the origins of a number North East Asia's territorial disputes through looking at the seizures of Japanese fishing boats during the initial postwar years. Through the hitherto unexploited medium of geospatial analysis, the paper looks at the mass seizures of Japanese fishing vessels by the maritime arms of the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea (and US Military Government of Korea), the USSR, the Republic of China, and the UN naval forces in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The paper examines and maps the incidence of the capture of these vessels as well as contextualizes the captures within the importance of the fishing industry to Japan, and Japan's neighbors' differing positions on their maritime boundaries with Japan. The policies of GHQ/SCAP and the Japanese government towards the seizures are also examined, as is the role the fishermen themselves played. The paper concludes by employing a geospatial dataset to test assumptions about the nature of the seizures of fishing vessels during the period and their significance in relation to today's territorial disputes in the region.

Until the late nineteenth century, the Chinese-Korean Tumen River border was one of the oldest, and perhaps most stable, state boundaries in the world. Spurred by severe food scarcity following a succession of natural disasters, from the 1860s, countless Korean refugees crossed the Tumen River border into Qing-China's Manchuria, triggering a decades-long territorial dispute between China, Korea, and Japan. This major new study of a multilateral and multiethnic frontier highlights the competing state- and nation-building projects in the fraught period that witnessed the Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and the First World War. The power-plays over land and people simultaneously promoted China's frontier-building endeavours, motivated Korea's nationalist imagination, and stimulated Japan's colonialist enterprise, setting East Asia on an intricate trajectory from the late-imperial to a situation that, Song argues, we call modern.

Religious and Philosophical Traditions of Korea, by Kevin N. Cawley, London and New York: Routledge, 2019, xxiii + 197 pp.

This volume is a comprehensive intellectual guide to the religio-philosophical landscape of Korean history in the context of East Asian cultural transmission. The six chapters of this textbook for courses on the history of Korean religion, philosophy, or culture demonstrate the transformation and glocalization of both transnational and local religions, such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Shamanism, and native new religious movements. What are the religious traditions of East Asia? How did they interact with Korean thought? What geopolitical affect did these regional philosophical movements have on Korean kingdoms and dynasties? How were Korean religions unique? What were the identities of the new religions and how did they emerge in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? Kevin Cawley explores the cultural and political roles of each religion as the key ideology of given eras of Korean history, from the Three Kingdoms to contemporary times. The author argues not only that Korea’s religious and philosophical traditions will continue to shape the country’s future, but also that perceiving the combination of those traditions is a way of understanding “how Koreans think, live, and practice religions, which in the Korean context is inseparable from a long philosophical tradition” (xvi).
First, in terms of definition, religion and philosophy are regarded as “pathways” towards self-transformation in a Korean/East Asian context. The author warns that insofar as its etymological meaning, the Western word “religion” should not to be applied to East Asia. Rather, it is argued, the ideological traditions of Korea should be understood as cultural ideas (the “Three Teachings” in the form of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism) from ancient China, with shamanism an indigenous concept of the people of the Korean Peninsula. Philosophy in the East Asian context is understood as the set of teachings by morally cultivated scholars, wherein wisdom is seen as a realistic and achievable goal, and “which emphasizes that learning should transform how one thinks” (p. 19). Chapter 2 points out the process of cultural adoptation and interaction whereby Chinese traditions were transmitted to the Korean Peninsula in what the author calls unique “Korean ways.” Although the Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk yusa 三國遺事) details the myth of Tan’gun, who is known as the progenitor of the Korean ethnic group, Buddhism and Confucianism were introduced to the peninsula during the Three Kingdoms period (trad. 57 CE–668). Cawley makes particular mention of the Silla military tradition of the Hwarang (“Flowering Youth” knights), who “followed Buddhist precepts and morality in order” to upgrade the prestige of the royal family  for its prestige to further validate their rule” (p. 29). The author explores the Korean monks Wŏnhyo and Ŭisang as Buddhist pioneers. The il-sim (one-mind) teaching of Wŏnhyo is reflected as “t’ong pulgyo” 通佛敎 (being with others), or “integrated Buddhism,” in Silla (617–686), while Ŭisang (625–702) is examined as the founding patriarch of the Hwaŏm 華嚴 lineage (a tradition of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy based on the Avatamsaka Sutra [華嚴經]).
Chapter 3 provides evidence on the emergence of Sŏn (Ch. Chan, J. Zen) Buddhism (with its focus on meditation) during the Unified Silla (668–935) period. The transformative feacture of Sŏn Buddhism tradition becamse integrated with other Buddhist traditions. The works of Ŭichŏn (1055–1101), with their emphasis on kyo (doctrine?), and Chinul (1158–1210), who taught kanhwa Sŏn (a method of meditation through studying or examiningmeaning?), brought about a consolidation in Sŏn thought. The Koryŏ dynasty (918–1392) witnessed the further development of Sŏn Buddhism as it transformed into “hoguk pulgyo” (state-protecting Buddhism). The completion of the Koryŏ Taejanggyŏng (高麗大藏經 (Tripitaka Koreana 高麗大藏經Great Buddhist Scriptures), comprising 81,000 print blocks, demonstrated this close relationship between the state and religion. In the following Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1897) the state ideology transitioned away from Buddhism to Neo-Confucianism. Cawley maintains that Kihwa’s thought of the Way of Humanity (injido 仁之道) was one of the main rejoinders to period socio-religious critiques of Buddhism and Shamanism. Chapter 4 introduces the Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning (Sŏnghak sipto 聖學十圖Korean title) of T’oegye Yi Hwang (1502–1571) and Essentials of the Learning of the Sages (Sŏnghak chibyo  聖學輯要 Korean/hanmun) of Yulgok Yi I (1537–1584) as the canonical texts of the early Neo-Confucian tradition in Korea of the sixteenth century. The metaphysical prosperity of the Chosŏn dynasty then confronted the new thinking called “Western learning” (sŏhak) when Catholic texts, such as Matteo Ricci’s The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven (Ch’ŏnju sirŭi 天主實義), arrived in Korea via Beijing. Based on Hwang Sayŏng’s Silk Letter, Cawley argues that the method of early evangelization was extended through the publication of the han’gŭl (Korean) Catechism and the work of women (a marginalized group of the society). Tasan Chŏng Yakyong (1762–1836) was also mentioned as one of the Confucian scholars who turned away from the Catholic belief but became a synthesizer of sirhak thought 實學 thought (sil/sir meaning “actual” or “practical,” and hak “studies” or “learning”), a Confucian social reform movement.
In chapter 5, narratives of Tonghak (Eastern learning) is reviewed by Cawley as a reaction to sŏhak (Western learning). Su-un Ch’oe Cheu (1824–1864), the founder of this anti-Catholic movement, had “a sense of hostility toward Western Learning” (p. 118). The movement’s canonical texts, like the Songs of the Dragon Pool (Yongdam Yusa 龍潭遺詞) and the Eastern Scripture (Tonggyŏng Taejŏn 東經大全), expose the key teachings of Korea’s first new religion, including Su-un’s personal experience of encountering God. The practioners of Tonghak y, unlike elsewhere in East Asia, used locally generated talismans and incantations that were “initially two very specific features of the new religion” (p. 122). The key Tonghak doctrine of in nae ch’ŏn 人乃天 (man is heaven) was transmitted into later new religions in a slightly different formation. Cawley’s book addresses the close relationship between Tonghak and the peasant rebellion of 1894 (led by Chŏn Pongjun, a Tonghak follower) in terms of the idea of kaebyŏk 開闢, referring to a new time of “creation.” The Jeungsan (Jeungsan) movement is also explored in case studies of Jeung Ssan Ddo (better known overseas) and Daesoon Jinrihoe (better known in Korea), but the history of the Jeungsan movement can best be traced in the philosophy of its major leaders, including Kang Jeungsan (1871–1909), Cha Gyeongseok (1880–1936), and Jo Cheol-Je Cho Ch’ŏlche (1895–1958). The myth of Tan’gun is re-reformulated pictured by Na Chŏl (1863–1916) in the anti-Japanese new religion of Taejonggyo. Among these new religions, Cawley also discusses the newly arrived Protestants. The Protestant chŏndo puin 傳道夫人 (Bible women), with their enlightened education, proved a useful means of proselytizing, but the choice of terminology for the name of God became a controversial issue among both missionaries and locals.
The final chapter focuses on the complex modernity of Korea in the early and mid-twentieth century. The Korean Buddhists tried to protect their own distinctive legacy from Japanese Buddhist groups in Korea, if one sees The Korea’s independence efforts of the monk Manhae Han Yongun (1887–1944) “in the context of conflict vis-à-vis Japanese colonization” (p. 152). The establishment of Sot’aesan (1891–1943)’s Wŏn Buddhism is another illustration of the creative work of Korean Buddhism under the social and legal oppression involvement of Japanese Buddhism in the Korean peninsula. The Irish scholar investigates the so-called “new post-Christian movements” that emerged during the post-Korean War period, such as Pak T’aesŏn’s (1916–?) Olive Green Church (Ch’ŏndogwan) and Moon Sun Myung’s (1920–2012) Unification Church (T’ongilgyo). The juche (chuch’e) thought of Kim Il-sung, promoting the principles of North Korea’s chaju (independence), charip (self-sustainability), and chawi (self-defense), is included in this study of religious and philosophical traditions. The fact that Korean shamans (mudang), numbering over 300,000 in 2007, no longer limit themselves to physical space, but now promote themselves in cyberspace, is also considered a contemporary pathway for Korean religion.
Thus, Religious and Philosophical Traditions of Korea does not take a political or military perspective on Korean history, rather, it encourages readers to consider the intellectual wisdom and knowledge transmitted from traditional Chinese philosophies. Each generation of the Korean people, who were self-transformative, sublimated these key teachings into their own geopolitical environment as new pathways. This volume contains integral collective and insightful material for those scholars, students, and practitioners in Asian studies, philosophy, sociology, history, anthropology, ethnology, cultural studies, and religious studies.

  David W. Kim
  Australian National University

[By Christopher Lotis and Michel D. Lee; Foreword by P.M. Taylor. This full book is uploaded here while the Smithsonian website, where it was published online, is being revised.]

An important theme of this volume is the relationship between ceramics and cultural identity, especially as it relates to a particular family’s collection, and also to the broader study of the personal and social aspects of collecting. The book thus forms a contribution not only to the study of Korea’s material heritage but also to Korean-American or Asian-American studies, and to the
history of collecting. It will surely be of interest to art as well as social historians, and to all those who appreciate the aesthetic quality of Korea’s ceramic art.

The authors’ “behind-the-scenes” study of this private collection included the creation of an extensive research database about it, not only the ceramics included in this volume but also paintings, costumes, bronze works, and many other objects that could form the basis for subsequent studies. The collection includes some important twentieth-century ceramics that have not been included within this volume; these await study alongside other works by contemporary artists in this wide-ranging
collection. As the authors emphasize, the component of the Chang collection selected for publication here has been extensively tested using thermoluminescence testing. For this reason, these objects constitute an important “type collection” of tested pieces for this type of materials analysis, against which other ceramic works may be compared.

This book should therefore serve as an important reference for work on its topic, as a unique and well-illustrated introduction to this private collection and its significance; and hopefully also as a stimulus for other studies within this and related private collections.

[NOTE: 2 photos, available in the print edition (p. 12), have been extracted from this online book because the copyright holder disallows online publication of those photos.]

As an incredibly diverse religious system, Buddhism is constantly changing. The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism offers a comprehensive collection of work by leading scholars in the field that tracks these changes up to the present day. Taken together, the book provides a blueprint to understanding Buddhism's past and uses it to explore the ways in which Buddhism has transformed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

The volume contains 41 essays, divided into two sections. The essays in the first section examine the historical development of Buddhist traditions throughout the world. These chapters cover familiar settings like India, Japan, and Tibet as well as the less well-known countries of Vietnam, Bhutan, and the regions of Latin America, Africa, and Oceania. Focusing on changes within countries and transnationally, this section also contains chapters that focus explicitly on globalization, such as Buddhist international organizations and diasporic communities. The second section tracks the relationship between Buddhist traditions and particular themes. These chapters review Buddhist interactions with contemporary topics such as violence and peacebuilding, and ecology, as well as Buddhist influences in areas such as medicine and science.

Offering coverage that is both expansive and detailed, The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism delves into some of the most debated and contested areas within Buddhist Studies today.

This is a paper I presented at a conference on Buddhist-Christian relations held in Germany in 2015. I found that there was not much to say until I got into the last quarter of he 20th century. Even then, I found only a few Christians reaching out to Buddhists for dialogue, and fewer Buddhists responding to that outreach.

In the early twentieth century, the sovereignty of a territory north of the China-Korea Tumen River border was under severe dispute between China, Korea, and Japan. Based on a Jesuit memoir and map of Korea published in eighteenth-century Europe, a Japanese colonial bureaucrat and international law expert, Shinoda Jisaku, asserted that a vast region north of the China-Korea border should be regarded as a “no man's land.” Employing Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and European materials, this article traces the origin and evolution of such a definition. It demonstrates that the Jesuit map and description were based on false geographic information, which the Korean court deliberately provided to a Manchu official in 1713 in order to safeguard its interests. During prolonged intercommunication between diverse areas of the globe during the past three centuries, spatial and legal knowledge has been produced, reproduced, and transformed within imperial and colonial contexts.

The presidential election that took place in South Korea on May 9, 2017, produced a clear winner. The Democratic Party candidate, Moon Jae-in, received 41.1 percent of the vote, thus becoming the country’s 19th president. In this issue of the Asia Policy Brief, Hannes B. Mosler, assistant professor at the Institute of Korean Studies and the Graduate School of Asian Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, analyzes the election and the reform agenda of the new president.

He argues that Moon Jae-in has the potential to master the many challenges of South Korea. The success of his presidency, however, will depend on whether Moon can unite a divided society. He also needs the support of civil society and the opposition to implement his ambitious reform agenda. One of Moon’s biggest political challenges is that, for the time being, he has to rely on a minority government running the risk that the opposition will block key reforms in order to protect its own or others’ interests.

In current day South Korea pseudohistory pertaining to early Korea and northern East Asia has reached epidemic proportions. Its advocates argue the early state of Chosŏn to have been an expansive empire centered on mainland geographical Manchuria. Through rationalizing interpretations of the traditional Hwan’ung- Tan’gun myth, they project back the supposed antiquity and pristine nature of this charter empire to the archaeological Hongshan Culture of the Neolithic straddling Inner Mongolia and Liaoning provinces of China. Despite these blatant spatial and temporal exaggerations, all but specialists of early Korea typically remain hesitant to explicitly label this conceptualization as “pseudohistory.” This is because advocates of ancient empire cast themselves as rationalist scholars and claim to have evidential arguments drawn from multiple textual sources and archaeology. They further wield an emotive polemic defaming the domestic academic establishment as being composed of nationa...

Se presenta una visión general de los avances de los derechos humanos y la calidad de la democracia en Corea del Sur durante las últimas tres décadas. En el documento se realiza una crítica del marco que prevalece hasta el momento para comprender adecuadamente el debate sobre la relación democracia-derechos humanos en Corea del Sur. Se examinarán los logros y el progreso de los derechos humanos desde la democratización de 1987, a lo que seguirán los cambios recientes hacia una tendencia regresiva y luego otra transformación progresiva. El documento analizará las fortalezas y debilidades de los diversos puntos de vista que predominan acerca de los derechos humanos y  argumentará en favor de la consideración de condiciones y contextos más fundamentales. La parte final ofrece una nueva forma de analizar el nexo entre derechos humanos y democracia en Corea.

Vào những thập niên cuối thế kỷ XX, sự phát triển thành công ngoạn mục trong các lĩnh vục đời sống xã hội của các nước và vùng lãnh thổ Đông Á như Nhật Bản, Hàn Quốc, Singapore, Đài Loan, Hồng Kông, và ở chừng mực thấp hơn như Malaysia, Thái Lan, đã lôi cuốn sự chú ý của giới nghiên cứu và bình luận chính trị - xã hội. Một thực tế khó phủ nhận là, giai đoạn phát triển cao (thành công của công nghiệp hóa - hiện đại hóa đất nước), trừ Nhật Bản, đều gắn liền với một cấu trúc chính trị tập trung quyền lực cao độ trong tay một cá nhân hay một nhóm cá nhân, mà giới khoa học gọi là Chế độ độc tài. Thông thường, người ta quan niệm “Độc tài” đối lập với “Dân chủ”, đối lập với “Phản tiến bộ”, “Phản phát triển”, tức một hình thái chính trị gắn liền với phá hủy, tàn bạo và tội ác! Với cách đặt vấn đề như vậy, người viết cho rằng, từ thực tiễn Hàn Quốc, rất cần thiết nhìn nhận một cách nghiêm túc, khách quan và khoa học các căn nguyên của các chế độ độc tài như nguồn gốc, đặc trưng, vị trí lịch sử và vai trò của nó trong phát triển. Tác giả tập trung hai vần đề:
Xuất hiện chế độ độc tài ở Hàn Quốc - sự lựa chọn tất yếu mô hình quản lý xã hội tập trung quyền lực?
Chế độ độc tài Park Chung-hee với tiến trình hiện đại hóa đất nước - thành công và bi kịch.