UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles The Troubled Category of Rural Bachelors in Contemporary South Korea A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Languages and Cultures by Hannah Saeyoung Lim 2015 © Copyright by Hannah Saeyoung Lim 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Troubled Category of Rural Bachelors in Contemporary Korean Society by Hannah Saeyoung Lim Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Languages and Cultures University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor Namhee Lee, Chair This dissertation takes the rural bachelor as a social category through whom to analyze the dialectic relationship between the rural community and state-led industrialization policies in reconfiguring the landscape of contemporary Korean society. This project is the first to examine this figure from an academic perspective and historicizes the surge of cross-border marriages between Korean men and non-Korean women in recent decades. Previous scholarship on contemporary Korea generally focuses on urbanites, industrial laborers, and issues of femininity and women’s experiences. While this scholarship tends to overlook the role of the countryside in the nation’s rapid post-1960 socio-economic transformation, this dissertation redresses this issue by focusing on the masculine subjectivity of rural bachelors as an avenue for analyzing how uneven economic development hit particularly hard in rural Korea. Through discursive analysis of post-1960s films, television programs, and newspaper articles about the countryside, this project demonstrates how public anxiety over rural bachelors and their marriage woes refracts distress over how to preserve the national “heartland” in the global turn to neoliberalism. ii This study argues that the rural bachelor embodies public concerns over the deterioration of rural communities, and by extension, the well-being of the Korean nation. This research traces how anxiety emerges in the articulation of a crisis of rural masculinity that I term “disabled masculinity” in two parts. First, I argue that while concern over the plight of the rural bachelor demonstrates a struggle over maintaining normative gender roles and a conflict between “traditional” and “modern,” the contemporary issue of rural bachelorhood is also a product of South Korea’s tenuous position in the world economy. More specifically, I highlight the role of systematic rural underdevelopment in promoting the nation’s socioeconomic growth by focusing on the nationwide proliferation of the NACF (National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, Nonghyŏp). Second, I demonstrate how concerns over the inability of rural society to continue to both feed and reproduce the traditions of the Korean nation is rooted a sense of rural nostalgia that erupts in national concern over the rural bachelor’s unmarriageability. Thus, the rural heartland of the nation is depicted as “left behind” and emasculated in representations of the countryside like The Countryside Diaries (Chŏnwŏn ilgi, 1980-2002) and My Wedding Campaign (Na ŭi kyŏrhon wŏnjŏnggi, 2008). iii The dissertation of Hannah Saeyoung Lim is approved. John Duncan Purnima Mankekar Timothy Tangherlini Namhee Lee, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2015 iv This dissertation is dedicated to Pak Chang Kŭm, without whose unwavering love, joy, and support, this dissertation would not be possible. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Table of Contents vi List of Tables vii Glossary viii Acknowledgments ix Vita xi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Introduction 1 Literature Review 7 Framework 11 Chapter Overview 14 Chapter 2: Agricultural Modernization and the Origins of Contemporary Rural Marginalization 19 Colonial Origins of State-led Agricultural Modernization 19 Post-Liberation Rural Instability 29 Restructuring the National Economy under Military Rule in the 1960s 37 Centralization of Rural Finances and the NACF 44 Conclusion 54 Chapter 3: Uneven Rapid Economic Development and The Phenomenon of Rural Bachelorhood 56 Transitioning from Aid Recipient to Trade Partner in the International Economy 56 Transformation to an Industrialized Urban Workforce 65 Fetishizing the Rural Space in Industrializing Korea 73 Crisis of Masculinity and Rural Bachelors’ Marriage Woes 84 Conclusion 94 Chapter 4: Crisis Averted? Rural Marginalization and International Marriages in Neoliberal Korea 96 Crisis and Protest in the Wake of Trade Liberalization 96 The Rise of International Marriages and Reconfiguration of the Korean Countryside 103 Obfuscation under the Banner of Multiculturalism 113 Re-establishing Stable Korean Households in Public Culture Narratives of Multiculturalism 114 Strategies for Confronting Rural Marginalization 136 Conclusion 138 Conclusion 139 Bibliography 146 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1-1. Average Annual GDP Growth Rates in Four Year Increments, 1955-2004 3 Table 2-1. Establishment of Irrigation Associations, 1920-1934 22 Table 2-2. Changes in Average Land Price per Panbo in Provinces with Irrigation Associations23 Table 2-3. Number of Rehabilitation Villages by Province, 1933-39 27 Table 2-4. Outcomes of Economic Rehabilitation, 1933-38 28 Table 2-5. Price Increases in Agricultural Products, February 1946 to February 1947 31 Table 2-6. Farm Household Income and Off-Farm Migration, South Korea, 1954-79 36 Table 2-7. Difference between the Announced January 1962 Plan and the Adjusted 1964 Plan 42 Table 2-8. Agriculture's Share in GNP and Population, 1955-1975 45 Table 2-9. NACF Lending Trends, 1955-1974 50 Table 3-1. Trends in Land Price Increases during the Developmental Authoritarianism Period, 1963-1979 59 Table 3-2. Major Macroeconomic Indicators, 1974-1988 61 Table 3-3. Government Expenditures for the Heavy and Chemical Industry (HCI) 62 Table 3-4. Overestimation of Korean Exports, 1970-1985 (million US$) 66 Table 3-5. Employment by sectors, 1963-81 (in percentages) 68 Table 3-6. Proportion of Labor Force by Gender, 1960-1980 69 Table 3-7. Women's Economic Participation, 1960-1989 69 Table 3-8. Changes in Relative Position of Farmers and Laborers, 1965-1981 72 Table 3-9. Regional per Capita Gross Farm Income, 1959-1975 76 Table 3-10. NACF employees, selected years, 1970-1995 79 Table 3-11. Percentage Distribution of the Labor Force by Industry Sectors and Intermediate Industry Groups by Gender, 1970-1980 90 Table 4-1. Korean Firms' Overseas Financing 100 Table 4-2. Government Purchase of Rice, 1985-2003 102 Table 4-3. Number of Migrant Workers by Status, 1990-2002 108 Table 4-4. Number of Foreign Spouses of Korean Nationals by Gender and Nationality, 1990- 2005 110 Table 4-5. Comparison of Number of International Marriages to Total Number of Marriages per year, 2000-2008 111 Table 4-6. Number of Marriages between Korean Husbands and Foreign Brides by Year and Country of Bride's Origin, 2000-2008 111 Table 4-7. Female Marriage Migrants' Length of Marriage, 1990-2007 112 vii GLOSSARY Abbreviation English Romanized Korean Chosŏn Organization of 朝鮮金融組合聯合會 Chosŏn kŭmyung chohap Credit Associations yŏnhaphoe Decree on Korean 朝鮮農會令 Chosŏn nonghoe ryŏng Agricultural Associations EPB Economic Planning 經濟企劃院 Kyŏngje kihoekwŏn Board FYEDP Five Year Economic 經濟社會發展五個年 Kyŏngje sahoe paljŏn 5- Development Plan kaenyŏn kyehoek 計畵 HCI Heavy Chemical 重化學工業政策 Chunghwahak kongŏphwa Industrialization Policy chŏngch’aek IAE Irrigation association 水利組合事業 Suri chohap saŏp enterprises MAF Ministry of Agriculture 農林部 Nongnimbu and Fisheries MCI Ministry of Commerce 商工部 Sangkongbu and Industry Mutual Aid Association 殖産契 Siksan kye to Increase Production NACF National Agricultural 農業協同組合 Nongŏp hyŏpdong chohap; Cooperative Federation abbr. Nonghyŏp PIRP Program to Increase Rice 産米增殖計劃 Sanmi chŭngsik kyehoek Production PMNR People’s Movement for 國土建設團 Kukt’o kŏnsŏl tan National Reconstruction RDA Rural Development 農村振興廳 Nongch’on chinhŭng ch’ŏng Administration RRM Rural Revitalization 農村振興運動 Nongch’on chinhŭng undong Movement SCNR Supreme Council for 國家再建最高會議 Kukka chaegŏn ch’oego National Reconstruction hoeŭi USMGIK United States Military 在朝鮮美陸軍司令部 Chae Chosŏn Miguk kunsa Government in Korea ryŏngbu kunjŏngch’ŏng 軍政廳 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to many in the process of researching and writing this dissertation. Thank you to the faculty, staff, and graduate students of the UCLA Asian Language and Cultures Department for your support. I am particularly grateful to my advisor, Professor Namhee Lee, for her steadfast mentorship, kindness, and academic and personal support. I also sincerely thank Professors John Duncan, Purnima Mankekar, and Timothy Tangherlini for their generosity and advice as members of my dissertation committee. Thank you, also, to Jennifer Jung-Kim for her guidance throughout my graduate career. In Korea, I am grateful to the guidance I received from Professors Kim Dohyung, Kim Hyun Mee, and Chung Jina. I am also thankful to Professors Eugene Park, Lynn Mally, Victoria Silver, and Anne Walthall for inspiring me to pursue Korean history. I owe deep gratitude to my colleagues for their intellectual and personal support. Thank you for your feedback, advice, and the great privilege of your friendship. To Hanmee Na Kim, Sinwoo Lee, Clara Iwasaki, Sarah Walsh, Elli Kim, Hieyoon Kim, Sangmee Oh, Andrea Kim Cavicchi, Dennis Lee, Youme Kim, Janet Lee, Timothy Goddard, and Maya Stiller, thank you for your insightful comments on my work and your unflagging encouragement. Support in Korea from Kimberly Chung, Hijoo Son, Nora Hauk, Daisy Kim, Jiyun