Abstract
This chapter explores the representation of erotic desire and romance in the works of one of the most influential authors of colonial Korea, Ch’ae Mansik (1902–50), focusing on his short story “Kwadogi” (Transition , 1923) and his novella Naengdongŏ (Frozen Fish, 1940), which revolve around sexual intimacy between Koreans and Japanese. It investigates the intersectionality of race, gender, and sexuality in colonial period literature, in particular, how Ch’ae fits Korean masculinity into the colonial hierarchy as regards encountering Japanese women in their private spaces. The chapter suggests that Ch’ae’s fictions reveal the tension between making a Japanese woman, on the one hand, an object of erotic desire for Korean men and, on the other hand, a respectable lady. This chapter shows that the male writers were not colonized subjects in crisis, as they have often been described in literary scholarship, but active participants and agents of Japanese and global imperialism.
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Notes
- 1.
Ch’ae Manshik [Ch’ae Mansik] (2005, 102–3). Originally published in Tonga ilbo , March 7–14, 1938. “Chosŏn” refers to Korea and “mainland” refers to Japan . I made minor revisions to all the cited translations in this chapter.
- 2.
I borrow the term “respectability” from pervious colonialism studies that discuss settler communities and their positions in the colony.
- 3.
For the details on the Korean military conscription in the Japanese Empire , see Fujitani (2011, Chapters 1 and 2).
- 4.
- 5.
Several newspapers and magazines from 1939 onward published tables on the number of intermarried couples. The numbers were not high, mostly because they were not captured well, but the visibility of the census tables as scientific evidence to the readers was important in the public discourse. See Su Yun Kim (2009, Chapter 1).
- 6.
Some examples are Yi Kwangsu’s unfinished novels, Kokoro aifurete koso (When hearts truly meet, 1940) and Kŭdŭl ŭi sarang (Their love, 1941), which focus on family adoption and communal relationships rather than on romantic relationships. Kim Saryang’s “Hikari no naka ni ” (Into the light, 1939) focuses on a mixed-blood child’s predicaments, whereas Chŏng Int’aek’s “Kara ” (The shell, 1942) depicts the generational confrontation that arises when Korean parents do not want to accept their Japanese daughter-in-law.
- 7.
Waseda’s Taiichi kōtōgakuin was equivalent to senior high school.
- 8.
The original manuscript has traces of censorship by the Japanese authorities and was not published during Ch’ae’s lifetime. It was first published in the journal Munhak sasang [Literary thought] in 1973 over two issues and later collected in Ch’ae Mansik chŏnjip [Complete works of Ch’ae Mansik], vol. 5 (1989). Ch’ae Mansik ch’ŏnyŏjak: Kwadogi [Ch’ae Mansik’s first work, Transition] (2006) is an annotated reproduction of the original manuscript, including the censorship marks.
- 9.
- 10.
Kwŏn Yŏngmin (2010), 174.
- 11.
For example, in “Transition” and Frozen Fish, some short phrases spoken by Japanese characters are written in Japanese without translation in between Korean conversations.
- 12.
- 13.
There are several reasons for this. One is that scholars avoided the topic because they did not want to label leading Korean writers as “collaborationists.” Presenting more information about these texts increased the risk of heightening their authors’ previously unknown history of collaboration.
- 14.
Kim Chiyŏng (2009). According to Kim Chiyŏng, most of Ch’ae’s “collaborationist” writings are essays, and the above-mentioned two fictional works are the only ones supporting Japanese imperialism. She also argues that between 1940 and 1944, several short stories that Ch’ae published did not have any trace of “pro-Japanese” ideas.
- 15.
This might be due to his rather short stay in Japan . He once confessed to his fellow writer, Chŏng Int’aek , that he was not confident in writing letters in Japanese. Yu Sŭnghwan (2012, 176, fn. 60).
- 16.
The story refers to her as Munja, the Korean reading of her Japanese name Fumiko. I here follow the author’s reading.
- 17.
The part that Chŏngsu shows his lust is censored.
- 18.
P’yŏngya (J. Hirano) should be the family name. Yŏngja’s brother is referred to by his family name, following the Japanese convention.
- 19.
This story is Ch’ae’s first fictional work thus far in the archive. According to the editor of Chŏnjip, the original manuscript has traces of censorship . Ch’ae had probably submitted the manuscript to a magazine and gone through the censorship process. However, it is not certain if Ch’ae gave up publishing the work due to the censorship or for other reasons.
- 20.
Originally published in Inmun p’yŏngnon [Humanities critique] (April 1940), 100–76, and (May 1940), 138–81. For the Korean-language text of Frozen Fish, I use Ch’ae Mansik chŏnjip [Complete works of Ch’ae Mansik], vol. 5 (1989), 367–468. For an English translation, see Ch’ae Man-sik (2013a). I use the English translation for long quotes and add E in front of the page number for reference. All quoted English translations are modified by me. I add K for the Korean-language text as well.
- 21.
The Korean-language literary journal Inmun p’yŏngnon turned into the Korean-Japanese bilingual literary journal Kungmin munhak [J. Kokumin bungaku] in 1941. The term “kungmin” [J. kokumin, national subject] was indicative of the imperialization of Korean writers.
- 22.
Ch’ae is considered as being one of the “fellow travelers” or tongban chakka , group of writers who did not join the KAPF movement but were sympathetic to socialism . For a discussion of a broader leftist writing culture, see Sunyoung Park (2015).
- 23.
I follow the Korean Romanization of Sumiko. In “Transition,” Japanese names were written in Korean pronunciation but here, a Japanese name appears with Japanese pronunciation.
- 24.
By “racialization,” I mean the process of constructing and defining one’s racial identity as a series of universal characteristics ascribed to one race. Sŭmik’o, for example, is constructed as a Japanese woman , but in her attempt to become Korean, she fails miserably, proving once again that she is fully Japanese. Also see Jin-kyung Lee (2006).
- 25.
The ending, in which the Japanese woman leaves the Korean male protagonist, is similar to stories by other colonial period writers; see Su Yun Kim (2013).
- 26.
We can see this contemporary stereotype of a leading actress being a mistress of powerful men in the entertainment companies in the movie Pando ŭi pom 半島の春 (J. Hantō no haru, Spring in the Korean Peninsula, dir. Yi Pyŏng-il 1941).
- 27.
For the venerability of female Japanese colonial setters, see also Helen J. S. Lee (2013).
- 28.
For “scholar and beauty” (C. caizi jiaren 才子佳人) studies, see Han Ŭisung (2013). Another similarity to the “scholar and beauty” genre is that, in the common narrative about Sŏ Kyŏngdŏk and Hwang Chini, Sŏ does not succumb to Hwang’s seduction, and Hwang, impressed by his morality, respects him as her literary teacher for the rest of her life. These so-called unofficial histories (yasa) about historical figures were a very popular genre. Hwang Chini’s story was included in a collection of various yasa, Yŏllyŏsil kisul (Stories by Yŏllyŏsil) by Yi Kŭnggi (1736–1806).
- 29.
Ch’ae’s reference to the Hwang Chini story was more likely influenced by Yi T’aejun ’s novel Hwang Chini (1936, 1938). See Kim Chongho (2014).
- 30.
For the colonial period censorship on print material, see Kŏmyŏl yŏn’guhoe (2011).
- 31.
The term “new woman ” in Korea refers to women educated in Western-style schools, who can manage the home in new scientific ways that they learned from school and the media. See the second chapter of Theodore Jun Yoo (2008).
- 32.
There are some short stories and novel that include a scene where a Japanese female puts on Korean dress either for the Korean male’s viewing pleasure or to show her friendship with another Korean female. Some examples include Yi Kwangsu ’s Kŭdŭl ŭi sarang (Their love, 1941), Yi Hyosŏk ’s “Midori no tō” (Green tower, 1940), and Pŏkkong muhan (Endless blue sky, 1940), “Pomot” (Spring dress, 1941), “Azami no shō” (The story of thistle, 1941).
- 33.
Japanese word kimochi (気持ち) is used several times in the story, written in Korean rather than hiragana.
- 34.
Kkakdugi is a type of kimch’i, the main ingredient of which is white radish.
- 35.
In the original text, her exclamation is typed in Japanese, “ひどいワ” followed by the Korean equivalent in parentheses.
- 36.
“White robes” only refers to Korean males on the street, describing the white coat in traditional male garments.
- 37.
I modified translation of hŭinot to white robes.
- 38.
Chŏn Kwang’yong (2007).
- 39.
The title addressing Dr. Yi In’guk as Kapitan Ri is a Russified reading of the word.
- 40.
Yanggongju literary means “western princess” and was used as a derogatory term for Korean females having an intimate, often sexual relationship with American military service men. It also includes professional sex workers. Kelly Y. Jeong (2011, fn. 43, 97).
- 41.
- 42.
During the post-liberation moment in Korea when various political factions had conflicts with each other (and later at the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950), there was no consensus in the decolonization process over issues of collaboration and over how to manage the “Special Committee” investigating collaborators. In this context, some writers voluntarily published “confessionals” that reflected on their past collaborationist acts in a fictional format. See Kelly Y. Jeong, ibid. Ch’ae’s story is considered to be the author’s “self-criticism,” in its similarity to other stories by writers such as Kim Namch’ŏn and Yi T’aejun . One of Yi T’aejun’s famous pieces sketches out the intellectual’s complicated condition in the post-liberation era. Yi T’aejun , “Before and after liberation” (Haebang chŏnhu) (2010).
- 43.
Ch’ae Mansik (2004, 156).
- 44.
Chŏng Houng categorizes various writings from before the Korean War to the post-liberation period as “self-criticism novel” (chagipip’an sosŏl). These writings involve the authors’ discussion not only of their past ch’inil (pro-Japanese) activities but also of the details behind their silence about the Total War Mobilization. Adopting Kim Yunsik’s analysis, Chŏng separates the “self-criticism novel” into three categories of criticism: self-criticism, nationalist self-criticism, and world-view self-criticism. See Chŏng Houng , ibid., 243–371.
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I would like to acknowledge the ECS fund from Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) provided support for the research and writing of this chapter.
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Kim, S.Y. (2019). Claiming Colonial Masculinity: Sex and Romance in Ch’ae Mansik’s Colonial Fiction. In: Lin, Py., Kim, S. (eds) East Asian Transwar Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3200-5_4
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