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This paper examines how the Yeonam group, led by Bak Ji-won (1737-1805), collected and compiled Korean literature written in classical Chinese during the mid-18th and early 19th centuries. The Yeonam group attempted to prove how well Korean intellectuals had adopted and developed Chinese culture. Korean history, culture, and literature rapidly garnered the attention of Silhak (Practical Learning) intellectuals during this era. Previous studies, which tend to reflect the perspective of modern nationalism, have understood this academic trend as an early form of Korean nationalism. However, the Yeonam group held the opinion that Korean literature written in classical Chinese served as an indicator of the writer's degree of embodying Chinese culture, which was understood by the Yeonam group as the epitome of cultural advancement. For this reason, the Yeonam group explored and compiled a series of Korean literary works written in classical Chinese, the ideal language according to the group. This paper demonstrates that the Yeonam group's interest in Korean literature written in classical Chinese stemmed from the idea that Joseon was a sophisticated dynasty endowed with Chinese civilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2003, the dispute over the history of the ancient kingdom of Koguryŏ (37 bce, trad.-668 ce), located in Manchuria and northern Korea, has been one of the hottest issues between China and Korea. The debate seems to have fueled a new nationalistic or Sinocentric historiography of the ancient Chinese northeast. A ninth century BCE poem called “Hanyi” in the Classic of Poetry [Shijing] has been the cause of a far older history dispute. Whereas Chinese scholars have generally understood Han as a Zhou feudal state ruled by a Ji-surnamed scion of the Zhou Dynasty (1045–256 bce), most Korean scholars have linked the polity with Old Chosŏn (n.d.-108 bce), the earliest known state in Korean history. However, by comparing the “Hanyi” with several bronze inscriptions with similar contents, this study seeks to re-read the “Hanyi” from a perspective that transcends the dichotomy of Chinese history versus Korean history. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The ancient history of Korea has been one of the most controversial and difficult phases to incorporate into an East Asian history survey class, not only because there are indeed quite a number of contested issues, but also because very few updated materials are available in English. This essay aims to provide a comprehensive and critical overview of research on the topic of Korean ancient history in the past six decades (mainly in South Korea), so that the ancient history of Korea can be understood first within the broader frame of East Asian history, and then in relation to the intellectual and ideological evolution which has significantly impacted historical interpretations in South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Article analyzes how individual and local attempts to address low fertility rates in Korea and Japan have prompted unprecedented reforms in monocultural nationality laws. Korea and Japan confront rapidly declining working-age population projections; yet, they have prohibited the immigration of unskilled workers, until recently in Korea's case, on the claim that their admission would threaten social cohesion. Over the past two decades, both countries have made only incremental reforms to their immigration policies that fall short of alleviating labor shortages and the fiscal burdens of maintaining a large elderly population. Instead, prompted by the growth of so-called multicultural families in each country, the most significant reforms have appeared in nationality laws: Korea's introduction of dual nationality in 2010 and Japan's 2008 reform to grant Japanese nationality to children born out of wedlock to a Japanese father and a foreign mother. While neither country has introduced birthright citizenship to their nationality laws, both sets of reforms target ethnically heterogeneous immigrant women, their bicultural children, or both. This Article seeks to understand how recent reforms to nationality laws in Korea and Japan have challenged long-held conceptions of blood-based belonging and membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the interdisciplinan moves made by the soda! sciences and historical studies regarding modern and contemporary Korean history. These moves began in earnest from the to analyze the dynamic development process of Korean studies. The periods analyzed as part of this study were marked by two dramatic transitions in academic trends. The first was that of the I 980s to the mid-I 990s, a period in whidi a huge epistemological transition took place in the nationalism and internal development-based paradigm of his- torical studies, as well as in the developmentalism arid modernization paradigm of social sciences. The second transition took place in the late 1 990s, in which cultural approaches to history challenged traditional methods, and new para digfns based on postmoderity postriationalism, and posteolonialism emerged. This study analyzes the academic activities and journals of two organizations tha have continuously played a major min informing the direction of modem and contemporary Korean history since the 980s, namely the Korean Social History Association and the Institute R w Korean Historical Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heritage settings potentially play a significant role as a specific social space within which individuals are able to conceive, define, and reconstruct elements of national consciousness. This study involves an ethnographicbased examination of ways in which elements of the past are utilized to redefine and reaffirm national (cultural) identity within the context of contemporary South Korean society, where traditional norms and values are arguably influenced by globalized processes, norms, and values. It theoretically addresses and empirically substantiates the need for comprehensive and analytical insights concerning heritage and articulations of national identity, focusing on the intermediating roles of heritage tourism in establishing and facilitating the individual and contextual processes of identity reconstruction. Critical focus is placed on contextualizing ways in which South Korean nationals, particularly younger generations, encounter emotional attachments to the nation during heritage tourism experiences in Changdeokgung palace in Seoul. This study employs a range of ethnographic strategies including in-depth interviews and friendly conversations as an efficient tool to gain intimate and insightful knowledge of the specific social setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's and feminist film practices in South Korea are normally considered to have emerged in the mid-1990s, when class issues and nationalism no longer drew serious attention from the country's dominant intellectual discourse. This view tends to imply that women's filmmaking practices were virtually nonexistent before the 1990s. In opposition to the conventional view, this work shows that women's filmmaking with feminist intent arose in the 1970s in South Korea, contemporaneous with Western cine-feminism. It also argues that South Korean women's films have developed a unique narrative discourse in which patriarchal male-centrism sustaining class politics and nationalism is challenged and deconstructed. To illustrate these points, this study calls attention to the fact that women's filmmaking has taken place in the noncommercial independent cinema sector since the 1970s in South Korea. By examining four independent women filmmakers—Han Ok-Hee, Kim Soyoung, Byeon Yeong-Ju, and Ryu Mi-Rye—and their films, it maintains that independent women's films have made continuous efforts to subvert male-centered ideologies, seeking new positions for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's Northeast Project (NEP), also known as the "Research Project of Northeastern China," has unleashed national sentiment among many Korean people. Even if it originated in purely academic research, the NEP poses a grave political challenge to contemporary Korea. The Korean response to the NEP can be broadly categorized in two ways: The first is that while negative perceptions of these moves by the Chinese have prevailed in Korean society, the Korean government has been very cautious in expressing criticism of the NEP due to national interests with the Chinese government. The other point is that as time has progressed, a series of Korean self-reflections on the complex nature of nationalism in response to the NEP has emerged. With the analysis of these self-reflections, this paper attempts to address an inter-subjective nationalist perspective of history as a solution that recognizes "mutual recognition of national identity" in considering the prevailing reality of Northeastern Asian nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the gay rights movement in democratizing South Korea. It states that the transition to democracy and the process of globalization have metamorphosed the ways in which South Korea defines its national identity. It also underscores that rising public attention and acceptance of human rights concerns have resulted in perceptible political changes in the fields of human rights, but sexual minorities are still left behind such positive developments. It also examines the problems of sexual minorities and their crusade against the military, mass media, the courts, and the educational system in this country.

This paper intends to excavate and examine the long-forgotten naturalization practices and policies of traditional Korea that existed before the advent of a single-raced nationalism, based on the transformation of Dangun from the first king into the biological ancestor of Koreans. The following three points will be made: first, the so-called ethnic nationalism that underlines the purity of Korean blood is not an integral part of Korean tradition. Traditional Korea did not consider itself to be ethnically homogeneous. In addition, it is erroneous to say that Koreans lack a historical experience of living together with foreigners. Second, ethnic homogeneity in Korean nationalism is a relatively recent phenomenon. Korean nationalism was based on a profound sense of cultural distinctiveness and superiority. The idea of Koreans as being the descendants of Dangun was originally introduced to emphasize the Korean political and cultural life as being old as that of China. Third, those who identify ethnic homogeneity as the main cause for prejudice and discrimination against foreigners are actually engaging the wrong enemy, because the real cause is this very sense of being civilized and culturally superior. This is why multiculturalism is so easily embraced by nationalists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the transnational appeal of the Korean folk song "Arirang" in the cultural and political strains of the colonial encounter between Korea and Japan. The author believes the status of the song as an emblem of Korean national identity depended on Japanese imperialism and mass culture. Koreans believe the song expressed sorrow, indignation and resistance in the face of subjugation. However, for the Japanese, the song revealed truths about the abandonment of traditional lifeways in Japan.

The article focuses on the foreign concept of the Korean culture. The Japanese concept of culture has affected those of the Koreans because they were once a colony of Japan. Intellectuals attempted to form their own cultural identity and representation by trying to oppose the idea of Japan. They also tried to reconstruct the national character so that they will realize their own values and philosophies.

The article discusses the development of Korean diasporic nationalism on following Japan's violent suppression of the 1919 March First movement in Korea. It offers information on how Korean nationalists developed a close working relationship with American missionary groups integral to nationalist appeals for Korean independence at the Korean Congress in Philadelphia. It explores how the globalization of American power following World War I heightened the significance of the Korean independence movement.

The article examines the novel titled "Ewa: A Tale of Korea," by William Arthur Noble. The novel was analyzed as an example of missionary discourse that reflects the dynamics of a contact zone where American and Korean missionaries met each other with different cultural assumptions. The investigation focused on Noble's narrative and motives in engaging to a complex discourse on civilization.

The article presents a comparative study that examines the different responses and social affects of Protestantism in Korea and Japan between the late nineteenth century and mid-1940s. One factor is the difference in socio-political contexts concerning political instability. Another is the contrast in the efforts of the missionaries. Lastly, the dissimilarity in the religio-cultural milieu regarding religious opposition of traditional religions and Shinto-centered unity.

Argues that the continuing presence of Cheondogyo, a religious movement in Korea, in contemporary nationalist and tourist publications is related to its connection with the Donghak Revolution of 1894. Acceptance of the religious movement in both South and North Korea in the post-colonial era in order to legitimize political goals; Effect of the connection to the Donghak Revolution on Cheondogyo's legitimacy as a religious movement.

Examines forms of Korean agrarianism for illustrating the diversity in representations of national community under colonial rule. Relationship between colonialism, nationalism and modernity; Effect of capitalism on colonial economy and society; Interaction between tradition and modernity; Bifurcation of Korean nationalism into bourgeois capitalist and communist forms.

Civil religion refers to a country's beliefs, symbols, and rituals that bolster national unity and strengthen its citizens' sense of identity and belonging. However, the literature on civil religion is divided between those who attribute it to bottom-up cultural spontaneity and those who see it as an ideological top-down construction. Moreover, there has been a relative lack of scholarly attention to Korean civil religion. This paper addresses both issues by arguing that a strong civil religion indeed exists in the country and that it has been an important part of the "nation-building" process since the founding of the Republic of Korea in 1948. The paper highlights how a succession of authoritarian regimes (1948–1987) successfully mobilized a strong civil religion for political purposes. The resulting civil religion targeted economic growth as the national goal to overcome all social ills, focused on the country's ethnic and cultural homogeneity to boost national confidence and pride, exalted its traditional religions, especially Confucianism, as repositories of Korean traditional culture, and rendered sacred meanings to national symbols such as the flag and national anthem. Even after democratization, Korean civil religion remains largely ideological, as the Korean government is heavily involved in framing, planning, sponsoring, and promoting the country's civil religion. Nevertheless, the paper concludes by observing that this civil religion is entering a period of crisis due to political fragmentation among Korean elites and deeply rooted cultural and societal change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]