• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.101-141
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• 2014

Idealistic Rural Community Movement(Rural Utopia Movement) was one of the most powerful rural community movements in the world. Regardless of the East or the West, people started dreaming of happiness through idealization of rural communities as early as several centuries ago and have tried to implement this as a social movement to make the dream come true. Western rural utopia movement started when Thomas More published "Utopia" in England in 1516 and spread to many other countries in various forms. Chinese version of rural utopia was well portrayed in both "So Gook Gwa Min" (small population in a small country) written by Lao-tzu in the 6th century B.C. and "Arcadia" by Do, Yun-Myoung in the $4^{th}$ century. In Korea, the rural utopia people pursued was vividly described in the following three. First, Yul Do Gook portrayed in "Hong Gil Dong Jun" written by Hu Gyoon. Second, Gong Do portrayed in "Hu Sang Jun" written by Park Ji Won. Third, Sin Min Hwe's rural utopia movement made in the entire nation as well as Manchuria and America so as to save the country, which contributed to protecting the rural communities and arousing hopes in farmers by making a good model. This movement is especially important in that it became the foundation of modernization of Korea through Ga Na An(Canaan) Farmers' School and Sae Ma Ul Woon Dong(New village movement), which were heavily influenced by continued Sin Min Hwe's rural utopia movement.