Korean Histories

Korean Histories 1.1 2009 INTRODUCTION 2 ChEJU 1901: RECORDS, MEMORIES AND CUrrENT CONCERNS – 3 Boudewijn Walraven KOREA’S FORGOTTEN WAR: APPROPRIATING AND SUBVERTING THE 36 VIETNAM WAR IN KOREAN POPULAR IMAGININGS – Remco E. Breuker ThE FAILINGS OF SUCCESS: THE PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS MEANING 60 IN MODERN KOREAN HISTORIOGRAPHY – Kenneth Wells HISTORY AS COLONIAL STORYTELLING: YI KWANGSU’S HISTORICAL 81 NOVELS ON FIFTEENTH-CENTURY CHOSON˘ HISTORY – Jung-Shim Lee LiST OF CONTRIBUTORS 106 ISSUING THE FIRST VOLUME OF KOREAN HISTORIES The reasoning behind the creation of this new, biannual peer-reviewed journal, Korean Histories, has proceeded from a simple idea: that the creation of history in the sense of representations of the past is a social activity that involves many more individuals and groups than the community (or rather communities) of professional historians and, of course, long predates the nineteenth-century appearance of historiography as an academic specialism in the context of the rise of modern nation-states. The involvement of other actors becomes even more obvious if one considers the many ways history actually functions in human societies. Because representations of the past in some form or another are judged to be socially relevant, historical representations are not the exclusive preserve of professional historians; in fact, historical representations are also produced by novelists, film makers, painters, sculptors, journalists, politicians and members of the general public, and are part and parcel of the discourse of many social and political debates. It is probably as difficult to imagine a society that does not in some way represent its past(s) as it is to imagine a society without any form of religion, even if one may doubt the reality of what is represented or of the objects of worship. Historical representation, in whatever form, is a social fact that cannot be ignored, and certainly not in Korea, present or past. Korean Histories does not a priori take sides in the debate over the degree to which the representation of history can be an ade- quate reflection of the past, leaving judgement in this regard to its contributors, but rather invites articles that introduce new perspectives by striving to make sense of the Korean past with a sensitivity to the richness and variety of both sources and interpretations, conscious of the social embeddedness of historiography. Approaches may be either historical or anthropological. Although ‘Korea’ (in itself a historically and socially constituted concept) is the focus, Korean Histories also welcomes contributions about regional and transnational issues that have a bearing on Korea, as well as papers that suggest methodological alterna- tives or critically question the general approach of the journal. Apart from regular articles, research notes will be published, as well as reviews of books that are relevant to the aims of the journal. The format of the e-journal will also allow Korean Histories to make sources available that are in the public domain, but not easily accessible otherwise. The intention is to publish these sources with brief introductions that suggest their possible significance. 1 The plea of Keith Jenkins for a world without historiography (“…in the best of all possible worlds, I think that we can and we ought to live our finite lives in time but ‘outside of histories’.” Keith Jenkins,At the Limits of History: Essays on Theory and Practice (London: Routledge, 2009), p. 16) appears rather utopian and ironically has its best chances of realization in limited academic circles rather than in society at large. 2 This approach has gradually developed from research done in Leiden since the 1980s, but is very similar to that proposed by Michel-Rolph Trouillot in his Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Boston: Beacon Press, 1995). 2 KOREAN HISTORIES 1.1 2009 BOUDEWIJN WALRAVEN Cheju Island 1901 RECORDS, MEMORIES AND CURRENT CONCERNS Great disturbance among the people of Chejudo. The French have propagated their faith on Cheju and the exile Yi Yongho 李容鎬, a former Fifth Counselor (kyori 敎理) [of the Office of Special Counselors], converted to it. Several tens of thousands of the people on the island fol- lowed him in this. Aiding him they instigated [all kinds of] outrages and therefore the whole island was in an uproar. The people joined in a revolt and attacked the Catholics of whom they killed more than 250. When the matter became known [at court], Hwang Kiyŏn 黃耆淵 was made Investigative Military Commander (ch’allisa 察理使) and with 100 soldiers from Kanghwa, 200 soldiers each from Suwŏn and Chŏnju, and 100 soldiers from Kwangju, he went ahead to pacify [the islanders]. In the Fifth Lunar Month he returned [to the capital]. The exiles were relocated to other islands.1 This is the way Hwang Hyŏn 黃玹(1855-1910) in Maech’ŏn those who were most directly concerned are hardly men- yarok 梅泉野錄 (Maech’ŏn’s Unofficial Chronicles) tioned. Yi Yongho, who hardly figures in other accounts of described the 1901 Cheju Island rebellion, which these the revolt, is mentioned by name, while those considered days is best known as the Disturbance of Yi Chaesu (李 to be the leaders of the rebellion and who died for the 在守의 亂Yi Chaesu-ŭi nan). Maech’ŏn’s Unofficial Chron- rebellion, are not mentioned at all. As the cause of the icles is in several ways a remarkable text (apart from the revolt Hwang Hyŏn only mentions the behavior of native fact that the numbers are highly inaccurate: the number Catholic converts, leaving out another factor that is often of Catholic converts and catechumens on the island did mentioned: the levying of excessive taxes. His succinct not exceed a thousand, while the victims were much more account is but one of the many retellings of the events numerous than Hwang reported). Although Hwang lived and each of these narratives applies the perspective of the life of a retired scholar in Kurye in South Chŏlla Prov- certain persons or groups and is shaped by the conven- ince which was closer, as the crow flies, to Cheju Island tions of the genre to which it belongs. I cannot pretend than to the capital, his rendering of the events is very in this paper to consider all the sources, nor to weigh the much written from a centralistic, bureaucratic perspec- validity of those sources establishing an objective truth. tive. Judging by the relevant entries in the dynastic his- However, I will attempt to trace what kind of historical tory of the period,2 one of the main concerns of the gov- representations have been created over the years and by ernment was the question how to deal with the exiles, who whom. I will moreover survey how these representations were members of their own status group. Most curiously, have interacted in turn with new events and with each 1 Hwang Hyŏn, Maechŏn yarok, kwŏn 3, p. 140 in the original text (from the 1955 Kuksa p’yŏnch’an wiwŏnhoe edition) that is a supplement to the modern Korean translation by Kim Chun (Seoul: Kyomunsa, 1996). 2 Kojong t’aehwangje shillok, kwŏn 41, 31 May, 2 June, 5 June, 7 June, 15 June, 12 July, 9 October 1901. 3 KOREAN HISTORIES 1.1 2009 BOUDEWIJN WALRAVEN CHEJU ISLAND 1901 other, probing their significance in the larger framework of social inter- action. Limited in scope though this exer- cise may be, it is complicated by the number of groups that were and are, directly or indirectly, involved. At the time of the rebellion alone we can distinguish the central government (represented by the governor, moksa 牧使, of Cheju, and three prefects, kunsu 郡守, the tax collector and later the officials who were sent to sup- press and investigate the rebellion); exiled members of the metropolitan elite; the local gentry; the common Cheju island people of the island, among whom were the Catholic converts; the approximately 400 Japa- the “religious disturbances of the year shinch’uk” (辛丑 nese who made a living on or near the island; the Japa- 敎難shinch’uk kyonan), the “holy teachings disturbance” nese press and government; the French Catholic priests (聖敎亂sŏnggyonan), the “Cheju peasants’revolt of 1901” proselytizing on Cheju, and, because of their presence on (1901年濟州農民蜂起 1901nyŏn Cheju nongmin ponggi), the island, the French legation in the capital. In addition, the “Cheju[’s people’s] resistance of 1901 (1901年濟州抗 the American William Franklin Sands, who acted as an 爭1901nyŏn Cheju hangjaeng), and the “people’s revolt of adviser to the Korean king, headed the first detachment of the year shinch’uk” (辛丑民亂 shinch’uk millan), are but soldiers that entered Cheju City, leaving behind his own some of the expressions, in addition to the already men- narrative of what he condescendingly called “my little tioned “disturbance of Yi Chaesu.”4 comic-opera war.”3 It would not be difficult to sub-divide Hwang Hyŏn’s account is insufficient to grasp even the some of these groups again, singling out, for instance, basic issues at stake in the revolt. In order to contextual- the women or the shamans among the common people ize the different ways in which the events of 1901 on Cheju of the island. Not all of these groups, however, have left Island have been viewed, an outline of the most funda- narratives that allow us to hear their voices. Regrettable mental facts regarding these events is needed. First, how- as this may be, this simplifies matters somewhat. On ever, I should make clear that by “facts” I do not mean a the other hand, in the century that has passed since the comprehensive collection of objective data from the past; rebellion took place different groups and individuals of rather, the term refers to pieces of more or less reliable later generations have formulated their own take on the evidence, documenting a socially determined selection events: professional historians of various political and from the data of the past, which are almost infinite in num- religious persuasions, relatives of the protagonists, local ber and can never be assembled in their fullness to recon- historians and story-tellers, political activists, writers and stitute “wie es eigentlich gewesen.” We can, and should, filmmakers, and employees in the tourist industry.

Load more