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The Tongnip Sinmun (The Independent) and the Popularization of Social Darwinism in the 1890S

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The Tongnip Sinmun (The Independent) and the Popularization of Social Darwinism in the 1890S /A.B95C 9AC55 SOCIAL DARWINISM FOR THE PUBLIC: THE TONGNIP SINMUN (THE INDEPENDENT) AND THE POPULARIZATION OF SOCIAL DARWINISM IN THE 1890S Tongnip Sinmun and Koreans as a ‘Superior Race’ $e Tongnip Sinmun (!e Independent) was published from April ,, %&'<, until December >, %&'', by a dedicated group of reformers headed by Sŏ Chaep’il (%&<>–%'-%). A member of the scholar-oFcial yangban class and former participant in the abortive December %&&> coup, Sŏ subsequently went to America via Japan, where he became naturalized under the name of Philip Jaisohn in %&'( and obtained his M.D. from the Columbian College (now George Washington University) in %&';. He returned to Korea on December ;<, %&'-, as an adviser to the pro- Japanese reformist government, and began the newspaper a*er King Kojong’s (r. %&<?–%'(,) historic )ight to the Russian Legation (February %%, %&'<), with the close support of the new, pro-Russian and simulta- neously pro-American regime. $e newspaper was bilingual; the Korean part was edited by Chu Sangho1 and the English part by several foreign missionaries. Sŏ Chaep’il himself was the foremost editorial writer for both sections. But, as King Kojong became weary of Sŏ Chaep’il’s pre- sumed radicalism and the Tongnip Sinmun’s campaign against ministers who were supposedly too pro-Russian, royal favour toward the newspa- per enterprise began to run out. From May %;, %&'&, as Sŏ Chaep’il was forced to return to the U.S., the editorship passed to his old acquaintance and collaborator Yun Ch’iho. Under his leadership, the Korean edition of the Tongnip Sinmun, previously printed three times a week, became a daily newspaper with a circulation of almost %,-(( copies. Initially, both Korean and English editions were two parts of a single newspaper, but from January %&', onwards they were separated, and the English edition was printed only three times a week until the very end of the newspaper’s 1 Chu Sangho, also known as Chu Sigyŏng (%&,<–%'%>), later became a famous nationalist linguist. -& /A.B95C 9AC55 publication. Both the vernacular and English editions were discontin- ued on December >, %&'', due to changed circumstances: Yun Ch’iho, the leader of the reform-minded Tongnip hyŏphoe (Independence Club), which was forcibly dissolved in November %&'&, had to leave Seoul, and management of the newspaper passed to missionaries who ultimately found it impossible to continue publication.2 $e perceived radicalism of Sŏ Chaep’il and his associates eventually brought about a strong response from the government and serious persecution of many of the Tongnip hyŏphoe activists. In Western academia, the Tongnip hyŏphoe and Tongnip Sinmun were long considered important milestones in the process of shaping Korea’s modern nationalism in all its aspects—linguistic as well as political and social. Currently the most comprehensive book on the %&'(s reform movement is the study by Vipan Chandra, which makes good use of the existing Western and South Korean scholarship. Making extensive references to the Social Darwinist views espoused—in varying forms— by Sŏ Chaep’il and Yun Ch’iho, as well as to their o*en clumsy attempts to link Christianity with nationalist ideals, Chandra draws a coherent picture of the creation of Korea’s nascent nationalist ideology during the %&'(s on the basis of their neophyte admiration for the newly-imported Western ideas. Chandra de+nes the general attitude of Korea’s self-styled civilizers toward the newly discovered ‘civilized world’ as one marked by ‘enthusiastic curiosity’ and, on some occasions, even the ‘zealotry of new converts.’He also shows how their optimistic views on the advent of foreign (primarily American) enterprise were underpinned by a Social Darwinist belief in the inevitability and positive e=ects of competition. But this same optimism was simultaneously tempered by well-founded worries about the possible ‘impoverishment of the nation.’ $us, Chandra raises the question of the underlying ambiguity in the early nationalistic attitudes toward the foreign models being applied to Korea’s own nation building project.3 Sŏ Chaep’il’s ideas and role in this period were the subject of heated debates in South Korean academia during the %'&(s and %''(s, when 2 Yi Kwangnin, “Sŏ Chaep’il ŭi tongnip sinmun kanhaeng e taehayŏ.” [On the Pub- lishing of !e Independent by Sŏ Chaep’il] in Han’guk kaehwa sasang yŏn’gu [Studies on Korean Enlightenment !ought in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries]. (Seoul: Iljogak, %'&%), Pp. %<>–%<,. 3 Vipan Chandra, Imperialism, Resistance, and Reform in Late Nineteenth-Century Korea: Enlightenment and the Independence Club (Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Stud- ies, University of California, %'&&), Pp. %?;–%>>..
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