UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Romancing race and gender : intermarriage and the making of a 'modern subjectivity' in colonial Korea, 1910-1945 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9qf7j1gq Author Kim, Su Yun Publication Date 2009 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Romancing Race and Gender: Intermarriage and the Making of a ‘Modern Subjectivity’ in Colonial Korea, 1910-1945 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Literature by Su Yun Kim Committee in charge: Professor Lisa Yoneyama, Chair Professor Takashi Fujitani Professor Jin-kyung Lee Professor Lisa Lowe Professor Yingjin Zhang 2009 Copyright Su Yun Kim, 2009 All rights reserved The Dissertation of Su Yun Kim is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California, San Diego 2009 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page…………………………………………………………………...……… iii Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………... iv List of Figures ……………………………………………….……………………...……. v List of Tables …………………………………….……………….………………...…... vi Preface …………………………………………….…………………………..……….. vii Acknowledgements …………………………….……………………………..………. viii Vita ………………………………………..……………………………………….……. xi Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………. xii INTRODUCTION: Coupling Colonizer and Colonized……………….………….…….. 1 CHAPTER 1: Promotion of Interracial Marriage in Colonial Chos ŏn.……….......……. 39 CHAPTER 2: Colonial Domestic Space in Intermarriage Texts .…………………...…. 83 CHAPTER 3: “International Marriage” as Intermarriage.………………………....…. 121 CHAPTER 4: Constructing Race and Gender: Yi Hyo-sŏk and Otherness..……..…... 157 CONCLUSION: Empire of Intimacy ……………………………………………....… 203 WORKS CITED…………………………………………………………………......... 207 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Pictures of Ŭimin and Princess Pang-ja ………………………….……… 49 Figure 1.2: Wedding photo of Prince Ŭimin and Princess Pang-ja.……………….…… 50 Figure 1.3: Cover image, Naisen Ittai (1941. 1)………………………………………... 73 Figure 3.1: “Sarangen,” Tonga Ilbo (1934.8.11)..………………………………..…… 125 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: The number of Korean-Japanese marriage between 1923 and 1937………... 63 Table 1.2: Chart of Korean-Japanese marriage between 1923 and 1937…………….… 63 Table 1.3: The number of Korean-Japanese marriage between 1938 and 1942..…….… 64 Table 1.4. Chart of Korean-Japanese marriage between 1938 and 1942……………..… 64 vi PREFACE Notes on Romanization: I use the McCune-Reischauer system for Korean and the Hepburn system for Japanese. Korean names in Korean language sources are Romanized following the McCune- Reischauer System, unless personally preferred Romanization is known or previously published names are already in wide circulation, such as for Syngman Rhee and Yi Kwang-su. For geographical places, I follow the above-mentioned Romanization with exceptions for well-known cities such as Seoul and Tokyo (rather than S ŏul and T ōky ō). vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project would not have been possible without generosity of my teachers. I could not have wished for a better advisor than Lisa Yoneyama. Professor Yoneyama’s supreme mentorship and genuine belief in my scholarship have nurtured me over the years not only as a scholar but also as a person. My scholarship is forever indebted to her. I also wish sincere thanks to my committee members, Tak Fujitani, Jin-kyung Lee, Lisa Lowe, and Yingjin Zhang. They witnessed my struggle in my graduate years and guided me tremendously and beyond their responsibilities. I am very fortunate to have such an incredible group of people help me through this dissertation process. Professor Namhee Lee at UCLA read portions of the earlier version of this dissertation and has been always encouraging. I also benefited from the great scholarship of other UCSD faculty: the mentorship and scholarship of Rosemary George, Shelley Streeby, and Stefan Tanaka have been invaluable for building the theoretical frame of this dissertation. As a Korean Studies student and a non-US citizen, I was only eligible for funding to cover some of my research and writing years. I am fortunate to have received support from the Center for Humanities at UCSD, the Pacific Rim Research Program at University of California, and NEAC Korean Studies travel grant of AAS for my research trips to Korea and Japan. I am especially grateful for generous support from the Japanese Studies Naiman Fellowship at UCSD. I am thankful to the Institute of Korean Studies at Yonsei University for providing me affiliation as a visiting fellow and an office on campus. viii During my research year in Seoul, many teachers and scholars let me join their established study groups, and their scholarship and enthusiasm in reading colonial materials provided broad knowledge and inspiration. Professor Kim Chul generously helped me in many ways during my research stay in Korea. I am grateful for the introduction to the Korea-Japan Literature Study Group (or the Wednesday Group), where I had opportunity to meet some of the top scholars of the Korean colonial era. Also one of the members of the group, Professor Lee Kyoung-hun, generously allowed me to audit his graduate seminars on Yŏsŏng and Yi Hyo-sŏk. Professor Lee’s class was instrumental in reformulating some chapters. The members of Samch’ ŏlli Reading Group at Yonsei provided material and psychological support for my research year in Seoul. I am also thankful to Professor Michael Kim at Yonsei for his continuous interest and support for my research. Sonja Kim, Hijoo Son, and late Sophia Kim were the best office mates/study partners at the Institutes of Korean Studies. Their friendship made my archival research less daunting. I must thank many friends at UCSD and beyond with whom I have exchanged ideas and criticism that contributed to this dissertation. Asian Studies Group grads in the Literature department provided me a platform to present my work-in progress. My on- and-off long-distance writing group of past three years, Sonja Kim and Steven Chung, gave me the most helpful criticism and encouragement through out years, and I thank them for being excellent scholars and heartfelt friends. Friends I met in California became my best friends in the U.S., provided me homes away from home. Thanks to Inyi Choi, Michael Cronin, Julie Hua, Shih-szu Hsu, Peter Holderness, Ji Hee Jung, Denise Khor, Jinah Kim, Gabriella Nuñez, Kazuyo Tsuchiya, Tomo Sasayuki, George Solt, and ix Rika Yonemura. My colleagues at Hamilton College were more than supportive and understanding of my condition of being dissertator and instructor at the same time. I thank faculty of Asian Studies Program and Department of Comparative Literature. Some parts of this dissertation were presented in different conferences and workshops. I thank my fellow panelists and discussants for their comments and questions. There are many more people for whom I am very thankful, who have shown me that this dissertation is a process, not the goal of my life. I am especially grateful for the love of Newman Center community at UCSD. I dedicate this dissertation to my family in Korea: Kim Bong-woon, Kim Jeol-ja, Kim Su-jin, Kim Su-mi, Park Yong-su, Park Jun- sung. This dissertation would not have been possible without great mentorship and contributions from mentors, colleagues and friends, but any fault in the work is mine alone. x VITA 1997 Bachelor of Arts, French Literature and Language Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea 2000 Master of Arts, Comparative Literature Yonsei University 2000-2002 Teaching Assistant, Korean Language Department of Literature University of California, San Diego 2002-2003 Teaching Assistant, Making of the Modern World Eleanor Roosevelt College University of California, San Diego 2003-2004 Teaching Assistant, Critical Gender Studies Program University of California, San Diego 2004 Candidate in Philosophy in Comparative Literature University of California, San Diego 2004-2005 Teaching Assistant, Third World Studies Program University of California, San Diego 2005-2006 Visiting Researcher, Institute of Korean Studies Yonsei University 2007 Spring Teaching Assistant, East Asia in Global Perspective: the 20 th Century Department of History University of California, San Diego 2007-2008 Teaching Assistant, Korean Language Department of Literature University of California, San Diego 2008- Visiting Instructor/Postdoctoral Fellow Asian Studies and Department of Comparative Literature Hamilton College, Clinton, New York 2009 Doctor of Philosophy in Literature University of California, San Diego FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Colonial Era Korean Literature and Culture Minor Fields: Transnational Feminism, East Asian Cinema and History. xi ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Romancing Race and Gender: Intermarriage and the Making of a ‘Modern Subjectivity’ in Colonial Korea, 1910-1945 by Su Yun Kim Doctor of Philosophy in Literature University of California, San Diego, 2009 Professor Lisa Yoneyama, Chair This dissertation investigates the discourse and representation of interracial marriage and transnational romance through an examination of popular texts and colonial policies during the Japanese colonial era in Korea (1910-1945). For the colonial ruler, the unusual promotion of interracial marriages between the colonizer and colonized (Japanese and Koreans), which was a part of an assimilation policy, could act as a means to