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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. %&

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. %?;–%>>.