Introduction During its long history, the city of Seoul has suffered three major sieges and occupations. The first happened in 1592, the second occupation of the capital was in 1636, and the third occasion when the city was besieged and occupied by an enemy army was during the first phase of the Korean War. The…
Abstract This paper adopts a comparative approach by focusing on a selection of early DPRK and People’s Republic of China war films made during the years that followed the Korean War. It looks into the narrative, and the aesthetics of the films in the general framework of socialist construction but also in terms of the…
Abstract The use of fire and its associated risks are universal across all cultures. In pre-industrial times, it was common for people to use open flames daily. Nonetheless, while fire brought many valuable aspects to their everyday lives, it could quickly get out of control and become a significant threat to human settlements and lives.…
Abstract This article introduces “homoregionalism” as a subcategory of regionalism practiced by and as gay men in Korea. Regionalism is alive, complex, and witnessing a transformation by a new online generation. Korean gay men—with both regional identities and sexually oriented lifestyles—through their own practice of regionalism, contribute to the construction of this subregionalism influenced by……
Abstract This paper examines Japanese archeological missions during the colonial period and how archeological knowledge was exploited by the imperial authorities both domestically and abroad. The Swedish Crown Prince Gustaf VI Adolf’s visit to Korea is an important case study to examine the connection between Japanese academia and the politics of the Japanese Government-General of…
Abstract In the framework of the former West German government’s “guest worker” (Gastarbeiter) recruitment policy between 1955 and 1973, more than 11,000 South Korean nurses and nurse assistants moved to Germany to work in medical or nursing institutions to fill a gap in the provision of healthcare services as “guest workers.” Drawing on personal accounts,…
Abstract The United Kingdom hosts the largest North Korean immigrant community in Europe, and the majority have settled in New Malden, London’s Koreatown. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this study examines the relationships North Korean immigrants have established with their South Korean counterparts in the course of secondary migration from South Korea to the UK, focusing…
Abstract This article consists of a study of how the first wave of Korean adoptees to Sweden were imagined and represented in a political debate that raged throughout the 1960s concerning whether or not Swedes would adopt non-white children from abroad. The study examines how the arrival of the Korean adoptees came to transform Swedes’…
Abstract In the late 1970s, North Korean propaganda began to increasingly idolize various members of the Kim Il Sung family. Among the hagiographies of the so-called bloodline of Mt. Paektu is that of Kim Jong Suk (1917–1949), the first wife of Kim Il Sung and the mother of Kim Jong Il. Although her cult has…
Abstract In postwar southern Korea from 1945, the term ch’inilp’a is loosely used to describe a wide range of collaboration during the Japanese-administered colonial period. Although the term has been used to include questionable acts, many ambiguities among the criteria of ch’inilp’a are often overlooked or ignored. Tracing the origin of the criteria, this article…