Tag: Korea

  • Secret Story of Cross-Border Smuggling

    Secret Story of Cross-Border Smuggling

    Introduction by Joseph Seeley, University of Virginia. Published on Dec 18, 2020. Smuggling had long thrived along the fluid Sino-Korean border spaces of the Yalu and Tumen Rivers, but a number a factors caused it to explode—both in terms of sheer numbers and pop cultural impact—during the early 1930s. Rural impoverishment in Depression-era northern Korea… Read more

  • A Message to Rural Youth

    A Message to Rural Youth

    Introduction by Sayaka Chatani, National University of Singapore. Published on Dec 18, 2020. Right after the 1919 March First Independence Movement across the Korean peninsula and brutal arrests and crackdown by the colonial government, the Japanese authorities relaxed restrictions on publications, leading to the birth of major Korean-language newspapers and literary magazines. Kaebyŏk (Gaebyeok) is probably the most well-recognized… Read more

  • Building and Street Use Codes in the Japanese Empire

    Building and Street Use Codes in the Japanese Empire

    Introduction by Tristan R. Grunow, Pacific University. Published on Aug 20, 2021. Japanese colonial officials arriving in Taiwan after 1895 and Korea after 1910 quickly set about transforming the urban space of colonial cities like Taipei and Seoul. By erecting monumental new buildings constructed in Western designs, installing new parks, and improving urban infrastructure like… Read more

  • “We Are Two Sisters”: Korean and Taiwan Anti-Japanese Volunteers in China

    “We Are Two Sisters”: Korean and Taiwan Anti-Japanese Volunteers in China

    Introduction by Shaun Lee Yi Xian (Supervised by Sayaka Chatani), National University of Singapore. Published on Jul 31, 2023. Despite not being a Japanese colony, China became a site of many Korean and Taiwanese nationalist efforts in the 1920s. This was so especially before the Kuomintang (KMT; Nationalists)–Chinese Communist Party (CCP) United Front ended and… Read more