In Quest of Modern Womanhood: Sinyŏja, A Feminist Journal in Colonial Korea

This article appraises the impact and significance of Sinyŏja (New Woman; 1920), the first feminist journal published in Korea after the March 1, 1919, movement, in the development of discourses on the “Woman Question” in colonial Korea. Created and managed by women—with the pioneering feminist writer Kim Wŏn-ju (1896–1971) as its editor and centrifugal force—the journal provided a public platform exclusively for women, who publicized feminist ideas, criticism, and visions. The journal’s major goals included: women’s awakening, empowerment, and self-realization through education; stimulation of women’s socio-cultural and historical consciousness; reform of oppressive Confucian patriarchal familial and marital institutions; and, ultimately, gender equality. This study traces the journal’s trajectories, focusing on its prime movers, editorials, articles, and short stories. In the end, this article sheds light on Sinyŏja’s contribution to authenticating modern Korean women’s mass media engagement as well as legitimizing their feminist aspirations for socio-cultural intervention and subversion, which was rarely duplicated in colonial Korean journalistic history.