Kyŏnggye ŭi yŏsŏngdŭl: Han’guk kŭndae yŏsŏngsa (Women standing on the margins: modern Korean women’s history) edited by Chŏng Chinsŏng (review)

This edited volume of works by eleven scholars closely investigates how diverse groups of women reacted to the complex dynamics of imperialism, modernity and capitalism created in colonial Korea, and how these women on the margins of society “made history” from these intricate interplays. This work is the fruit of a yearlong research project by the Institute for Gender Research (IGR) of Seoul National University seeking to illuminate modern and contemporary Korean women’s history. This volume pairs well with The Contemporary History of Korean Women (Han’guk hyŏndae yŏsŏngsa) published by the IGR in 2004 as an examination of the latest trends in Korean women’s studies. As the bottom-up approach has become dominant in historical research, this book is a noteworthy example of how to extend the historical narratives of individuals, the marginalized and the underprivileged beyond just women’s history. Taking these elements into consideration, this book reveals the potential for women’s history to become one of the major “methods of history writing” (73).

In addition to its methodological aspect, the book’s choice of themes is also noteworthy. This book largely consists of four sections: family, work (which spans two sections) and feminism. Although the book is situated in the time period of the colonial era, much of what is described can inform both contemporary Korea’s and East Asia’s political and social situations. For example, comfort women and war prostitution under Japanese colonialism (chapters 8 and 9) appeal to a broader readership because of the issue’s continued relevance in many Asian countries. Indicating the IGR’s intention of targeting a broader audience, the last page of this book notes the existence of a different version ready for textbook use in an undergraduate course. I believe such an endeavor will help undergraduate students from various disciplines to recognize that women’s history should not be treated as a separate entity, but understood within the complex historical context of the colonial period. In fact, whether in Korea or abroad, it is not so easy to find a good reference source for an introductory course about Korean women. Translating this book into other languages may help meet these needs.

Two of the book’s four sections—section two, “Emergence of new jobs” (saeroun chigŏp ŭi t’ansaeng) and section three, “Otherized sex” (t’ajahwa toen sŏng)—primarily address sexuality-related issues. This may potentially send two contrasting messages to readers. On the one hand, it reconfirms that commodified, gendered sexuality still persists and has not substantially changed. On the other hand, some readers may receive the wrong impression about Korean women’s studies as lacking in diverse research topics. Of course, this book brings other understudied issues to light as well. Several chapters attempt to place Korean women within a larger framework of nation, institutions and global capitalism, such as Japanese immigrant women in colonial Korea (chapter eleven) and the legal history of hojuje, the family head system (chapter two).

As for its application to a broader perspective in women’s issues, chapter two drew my attention by shedding new light on the hojuje (family head system), widely perceived as the heart of Korean tradition. By characterizing it as an “invented tradition” from the Japanese colonial period, the author asserts that what we believe to be traditional hojuje today actually originates from colonial civil law, which was enacted based on the colonial authorities’ nationwide survey of the customary civil code in the late Chosŏn period (45). This new civil code under Japanese rule borrowed its fundamental philosophy from Japan’s Meiji ie system. To make matters worse, post-liberation civil law, including family system law, failed to fully restore traditional civil...