• Title/Summary/Keyword: Colonial Experience

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Urban Respectability and the Maleness of (Southeast) Asian Modernity

  • Reid, Anthony
    • Asian review of World Histories
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    • v.2 no.2
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    • pp.147-167
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    • 2014
  • The urban modernity that became an irresistible model for elites in Asia in the decades before and after 1900 was far from being gender-neutral. It represented an exceptional peak of patriarchy in its exclusion of respectable middle class women from the work force, from ownership and control of property and from politics. Marriage was indissoluble and the wife's role in the male-headed nuclear family was to care for and educate the abundant children she produced. Puritan religious values underlined the perils for women of falling outside this pattern of dependence on the male. Though upheld as modern and civilized, this ideal was in particularly striking contrast with the pre-colonial Southeast Asian pattern of economic autonomy and balance between women and men, and the relative ease of female-initiated divorce. Although attractive to many western-educated Southeast Asian men, including religious reformers determined to 'save' and domesticate women, urban respectability of this type was a poor fit for women accustomed to dominant roles in commerce and marketing, and at least equal ones in production. Southeast Asian relative failure in the high colonial era to adapt to the modern market economy may also have a gendered explanation. We should not be surprised that patriarchy and puritanism became more important in Southeast Asia as it urbanized in the late 20th Century, since this was echoing the European experience a century earlier. The question remains how far Southeast Asia could retain its relatively balanced gender pattern in face of its eventual rapid urbanization and commercial development.

A Study of Careers and Traits of Railway Bureaucrat during the Japanese Colonial Period (일제 강점기 철도관료의 이력 및 특징에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Yongsang;Chung, Byunghyun
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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    • v.20 no.3
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    • pp.423-431
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    • 2017
  • This study analyzed the educational background, career, and post-retirement activities of notable bureaucrats employed at Chosun Railway Bureau during the Japanese colonial period in Korea. First, significantly, most railway bureaucrats were of Japanese origin, being specialized in railway operations and adjusted to occupation in a reserved organizational environment for a considerable time period. Second, the Japanese showed explicit eagerness to work at the Chosun Railway, which fitted their ideology of railway bureaucrats. In addition, almost 60% of the bureaucrat population had strong educational experience from Tokyo Imperial University, which is equal to the percentage of graduates from other institutions operating during the Japanese colonial period. Moreover, in the very early period of building the railway system, the demand for specialists was higher than for other jobs and divisions because of the railroad's complex infrastructure, which resulted in high job appointment rates. In a similar sense, based on a strong affiliation of bureaucrats with railways, the number of bureaucrats from Japanese Railway Worker's Bureau was higher initially because of bureaucrats from South Manchurian Railway Company. These changes essentially contributed to alteration of bureaucrats' awareness and created a more positive attitude regarding the Chosun Railway. In the meantime, as opposed to the Taiwan and Manchurian Railways, both Chosun Railway and the Taiwan Railway were operated in compliance with strong bureaucratic traditions.

The Study on the Correlation between Value Recognition and Urban Design Policy on the Urban Street - Focused on the Spatial Changes in Seoul during the Modern Periods - (도시공공환경의 변인으로서 사회가치인식과 제도의 변화상에 관한 연구 - 근대기 서울의 도시가로환경에 관한 담론을 중심으로 -)

  • Lee, Ji-Young
    • Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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    • v.22 no.3
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    • pp.164-173
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    • 2013
  • This study starts from the genealogical analysis of the urban public spaces through local history of Seoul which is significantly different from western countries. The analysis targets the discourse on the urban street, the basic unit of urban tissue and the settlement condition in urban life, which defines urban space-structure among the urban public spaces. And this research classifies and categorizes the value recognition and policy value occurred each period. Based on these, this research defines the progress levels of urban public design policy in Seoul as follows. Results Firstly, 1890's and 1900's was the period of development in commerce and industry, which caused congested and crowded streets. The open port policy allowed the experience of the foreign circumstance, and thus the identity of the urban streets and the value of symbolism come to realize among the society. During the Japanese colonization, urban streets put on modernized images through the urban remodeling out of the context according to the colonization policy. The brand-new values such as publicness and amenity are injected as well as modern regulations by system and authority. From Liberation to 1950's, it performed only street restoration as a repair from war with Japanese colonial system because of the political confusion and administrative vacuum. Finally, each period can be defined as follows. 1890's and 1900's can be defined as 'spontaneous finding the modernization' because urban street was intentionally transformed by the empire. Period of the Japanese colonization can be defined as 'the formation of modernized urban street concept and the compulsion of modernized regulation.' And period of from Liberation to 1950's, can be called as 'the absence of value recognition and maintenance of colonial system.' methodology.

Science, Commerce, and Imperial Expansion in British Travel Literature: Hugh Clifford's and Joseph Conrad's Malay Fiction

  • Kil, Hye Ryoung
    • Journal of English Language & Literature
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    • v.57 no.6
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    • pp.1151-1171
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    • 2011
  • Conrad's novels, specifically the Lingard Trilogy-Almayer's Folly, An Outcast of the Islands, and The Rescue-and Lord Jim, set in the Southeast Asian or Malay Archipelago can be considered travel literature that played a significant role in British imperial expansion. Conrad's Malay novels were based not only on his experience in the region during his commercial journey but also on information from earlier travel writings about the Malays and their customs, including James Brooke's journals. The English traders in Conrad's novels, namely Lingard and Jim, were partly modeled on Brooke, the White Rajah, who founded and ruled the English colony on the northwest of Borneo in the 1840s. The white traders in Conrad's novels, who act as enlightened rulers, represent the British commercial expansionism, which was obscured by the phenomenon of the civilizing mission in the late nineteenth century. On the other hand, the colonial official Clifford's tales and novels about British Malaya demonstrate the typical travel accounts of the late nineteenth century that stress the civilizing mission over commercial exploitation. The concept of the enlightening mission was rooted in evolutionary anthropological thinking, which developed as part of the natural history in the early nineteenth century. In fact, the development of natural history, stimulating British expansion in search of commercially exploitable resources and lands, enabled travel writing as the collection of natural knowledge to become a profitable business. In Conrad, the white characters are mainly traders acting as colonial rulers, while in Clifford, they are scientific rulers with their commercial interests rarely apparent. In sum, Conrad's novels reveal that the new imperialism of the civilizing mission is still a commercial one, which disturbs rather than contributes to the imperial expansion-in contrast to other travel literature such as Clifford's.

Think Globally, Act Locally Environmental History as Global History in the First Global Age

  • Polonia, Amelia
    • Asian review of World Histories
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    • v.3 no.1
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    • pp.59-80
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    • 2015
  • The paper is oriented towards a reflection on the epistemological extension of world history. This discipline is currently opening up for new subjects and new foci of interest, with environmental history being one of them. The paper debates the interaction between the global and the local as one of the main issues of world history. It analyses the impacts of the interconnectivity of diverse regions as well as different geographical and cultural complexes, during the period between 1500 and 1800. Assuming that the sea in its economic, cultural and environmental dimensions contributed actively to world history, and is, in itself, a major factor of globalization, the paper intends to highlight interdependencies which fostered connections between the local and the global. It further submits to discussion which was the impact of an on-going globalization process, based on maritime dynamics, on the environment. Through an analysis centered on the impact of European overseas expansion, some environmental impacts will be analyzed. The paper aims at questioning environmental history as an emergent theme of world history, based on the historical experience of connecting worlds developed in the First Global Age (1500-1800).

The Eluded Allusion: A Satirical Reading of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

  • Lee, Seogkwang
    • Journal of English Language & Literature
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    • v.64 no.3
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    • pp.415-432
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    • 2018
  • This essay reinterprets Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness as satirical writing. In an experience-based fictional world, Conrad places imperial precursors who present themselves with a derogatory demeanor that stems from corrupt rapacity at its forefront. This rapacity is enabled by what European colonists believe to be a noble cause, regarded as a vehicle with which to enlighten African continent in his work. This essay reads this noble cause that allows such exorbitant and corrupt rapacity as a dominant element in the construction of Conrad's characters, particularly Kurtz, as objects of satire. Kurtz ends up beginning his calamitous descent into barbarism, mockingly quite opposite to what the colonial disciples misconceive themselves to be. In exhuming the satirical elements from the novel, this paper proves the significance of reading The Heart of Darkness as satire as an alternative reading to the racist book Chinua Achebe has accused it of.

A Study on Avant-Garde Fine Art during the period of Japanese Colonial Rule of Korea, centering on 'Munjang' (a literary magazine) (일제강점기 '전위미술론'의 전통관 연구 - '문장(文章)' 그룹을 중심으로)

  • Park, Ca-Rey
    • The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
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    • no.4
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    • pp.57-76
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    • 2006
  • From the late 1920s to the 1930s, Korea's fine art community focused on traditional viewpoints as their main topic. The traditional viewpoints were discussed mainly by Korean students studying in Japan, especially oil painters. Such discussions on tradition can be divided into two separate halves, namely the pre- and post-Sino-Japanese War (1937) periods. Before the war, the modernists among Korea's fine art community tried to gain a fuller understanding of contemporary Western modern art, namely, expressionism, futurism, surrealism, and so forth, on the basis of Orientalism, and borrow from these schools' in order to create their own works. Furthermore, proponents of Joseon's avant-garde fine arts and artists of the pro-fine art school triggered debate on the traditional viewpoints. After the Sino-Japanese War, these artists continued to embrace Western modern art on the basis of Orientalism. However, since Western modern fine art was regressing into Oriental fine art during this period, Korean artists did not need to research Western modern fine art, but sought to study Joseon's classics and create Joseon's own avant- garde fine art in a movement led by the Munjang group. This research reviews the traditional view espoused by the Munjang group, which represented the avant-garde fine art movement of the post-war period. Advocating Joseon's own current of avant-garde fine art through the Munjang literary magazine, Gil Jin - seop, Kim Yong-jun and others accepted the Japanese fine art community's methodology for the restoration of classicism, but refused Orientalism as an ideology, and attempted to renew their perception of Joseon tradition. The advocation of the restoration of classicism by Gil Jin-seop and Kim Yong-jun appears to be similar to that of the Yasuda Yojuro-style restoration of classicism. However, Gil Jin-seop and Kim Yong-jun did not seek their sources of classicism from the Three-Kingdoms and Unified Silla periods, which Japan had promoted as a symbol of unity among the Joseon people; instead they sought classicism from the Joseon fine art which the Japanese had criticized as a hotbed of decadence. It was the Joseon period that the Munjang group chose as classicism when Japan was upholding Fascism as a contemporary extremism, and when Hangeul (Korean writing system) was banned from schools. The group highly evaluated literature written in the style of women, especially women's writings on the royal court, as represented by Hanjungnok (A Story of Sorrowful Days). In the area of fine art, the group renewed the evaluation of not only literary paintings, but also of the authentic landscape paintings refused by, and the values of the Chusa school criticized as decadent by, the colonial bureaucratic artists, there by making great progress in promoting the traditional viewpoint. Kim Yong-jun embraced a painting philosophy based on the painting techniques of Sasaeng (sketching), because he paid keen attention to the tradition of literary paintings, authentic landscape paintings and genre paintings. The literary painting theory of the 20th century, which was highly developed, could naturally shed both the colonial historical viewpoint which regarded Joseon fine art as heteronomical, and the traditional viewpoint which regarded Joseon fine art as decadent. As such, the Munjang group was able to embrace the Joseon period as the source of classicism amid the prevalent colonial historical viewpoint, presumably as it had accumulated first-hand experience in appreciating curios of paintings and calligraphic works, instead of taking a logical approach. Kim Yong-jun, in his fine art theory, defined artistic forms as the expression of mind, and noted that such an artistic mind could be attained by the appreciation of nature and life. This is because, for the Munjang group, the experience of appreciating nature and life begins with the appreciation of curios of paintings and calligraphic works. Furthermore, for the members of the Munjang group, who were purists who valued artistic style, the concept of individuality presumably was an engine that protected them from falling into the then totalitarian world view represented by the Nishita philosophy. Such a 20th century literary painting theory espoused by the Munjang group concurred with the contemporary traditional viewpoint spearheaded by Oh Se-chang in the 1910s. This theory had a great influence on South and North Korea's fine art theories and circles through the Fine Art College of Seoul National University and Pyongyang Fine Art School in the wake of Korea's liberation. In this sense, the significance of the theory should be re-evaluated.

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Performance Activities and Social Role of the Theater in Ulsan during the Japanese Colonial Period (일제강점기 울산지역 극장의 공연활동과 사회적 역할)

  • Kim, Joung-Ho
    • (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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    • no.42
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    • pp.107-146
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    • 2021
  • This article examined the current status of performance activities in the theaters in Ulsan during the Japanese colonial period, and examined the characteristics and social roles of performance culture at that time.,The cultural space during the Japanese colonial period can be divided into theater space and semi-theater space.,The theater spaces in Ulsan include Daejeonggwan, Sangbanggwan, and Ulsan Theater. The semi-theater spaces include Ulsan Youth Center, Ulsan Youth Alliance Hall, Barrack Youth Hall, Eonyang Youth Alliance Hall, Eonyang Christian Hall, Eonyang Christian Hall, Eonyang Inn, Eonyang Public Inn, Eonyang Public Normal School, Seosaeng School, Ulsan Public Aid Auditorium, Night school.,These spaces not only held events or performances for a specific purpose, but also played a role as public spaces producing local discourse. The theater was a complex cultural space where performances are performed along with movie performances, and artists and audiences meet.,Furthermore, the theater provided a special experience of producing and consuming various issues such as colonial modernization, modern city formation, and the emergence of new popular culture beyond the meaning of stage space.,The theaters in Ulsan also functioned as a space to represent the foreign culture acceptance, leisure activities, the performance and viewing of cultural contents, and the artistic skills of local artists in accordance with the purpose of establishing local theaters.,It was a base space for local discourse production and enjoyment activities by holding political rallies, meetings, lecture activities, and various conferences.,Political rallies were also concerts, enlightenment activities were also accompanied by film screenings, and music performances were associated with dance performances and charity gatherings.,In particular, Ulsan Theater, which is the first theater in Ulsan, and the role of the public hall, held a lecture, debate, and oratory for public enlightenment along with performances such as musical drama, children's song contest, fairy tale contest, small-sized play performance,, It was widely used as a large-scale rallying place, and served as a public hall, such as a place to visit outside theaters. Thus, the theater and semi-theater space in Ulsan during the Japanese colonial period improved the cultural level of the region, fulfilling the aesthetic needs of the local people and faithfully fulfilling the social role as a public sphere leading the public opinion and agenda.,And it was also positioned as an alternative public area of ​​modern society and also played a role as a public institution.

Taking Expedience Seriously: Reinterpreting Furnivall's Southeast Asia

  • Keck, Stephen
    • SUVANNABHUMI
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    • v.8 no.1
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    • pp.121-146
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    • 2016
  • Defining key characteristics of Southeast Asia requires historical interpretation. Southeast Asia is a diverse and complicated region, but some of modern history's "grand narratives" serve to unify its historical experience. At a minimum, the modern history of the region involves decisive encounters with universal religions, the rise of Western colonialism, the experience of world wars, decolonization, and the end of the "cycle of violence". The ability of the region's peoples to adapt to these many challenges and successfully build new nations is a defining feature of Southeast Asia's place in the global stage. This paper will begin with a question: is it possible to develop a hermeneutic of "expedience" as a way to interpret the region's history? That is, rather than regard the region from a purely Western, nationalist, "internalist" point of view, it would be useful to identify a new series of interpretative contexts from which to begin scholarly analysis. In order to contextualize this discussion, the paper will draw upon the writings of figures who explored the region before knowledge about it was shaped by purely colonist or nationalist enterprises. To this end, particular attention will be devoted to exploring some of John Furnivall's ways of conceptualizing Southeast Asia. Investigating Furnivall, a critic of colonialism, will be done in relation to his historical situation. Because Furnivall's ideas have played a pivotal role in the interpretation of Southeast Asia, the paper will highlight the intellectual history of the region in order to ascertain the value of these concepts for subsequent historical interpretation. Ultimately, the task of interpreting the region's history requires a framework which will move beyond the essentializing orientalist categories produced by colonial scholarship and the reactionary nation-building narratives which followed. Instead, by beginning with a mode of historical interpretation that focuses on the many realities of expedience which have been necessary for the region's peoples, it may be possible to write a history which highlights the extraordinarily adaptive quality of Southeast Asia's populations, cultures, and nations. To tell this story, which would at once highlight key characteristics of the region while showing how they developed through historical encounters, would go a long way to capturing Southeast Asia's contribution's to global development.

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A Study on the Clan Community Library in Korea (문중문고(門中文庫)에 대하여 -특(特)히 수봉정사(壽峰精舍).영규헌(映奎軒) 우문고(雨文庫)를 중심(中心)으로-)

  • Lee, Choon-Hee
    • Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.88-101
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    • 1974
  • The libraries that existed during the latter period of the Yi Dynasty may be categorized into four types: the royal library, the school library, the clan community library, and the private library. Of these, the clan community library has yet received very little attention in the study of Korean libraries. In this study the author discusses the purposes, functions, and collections of the clan community library to clarify what that particular type of old libraries in Korea was. The clan community library functioned within individual clan communities to give young people Korean traditional education protecting them from possible influences of. Japanese version of Western scholarship which had threatened the traditional value systems of the society. The author believes that the clan community library was a unique community institution created by Korean people, and the Korean public library movement should trace its origin back to the activities of the libraries. Unfortunately the growing suppression and control of the Japanse colonial regime upon the traditional schools made the purposes and development of the clan community library movement a tragic experience before its flowering. The clan community library was a Korean native public library which came out in response to a historical situation and community need. It may deserve more attention in future study of the national library movement of Korea.

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