Session 6 readings

[Anonymous]

While I agree that these cartoon offer stereotypes of women in general, the cartoons reflect a transition that most cultures experience: the movement away from tradition towards modernity. Funny however, is not a description that comes to mind. Rather these series of cartoons seem to showcase a shift from a patriarchal society where women are finally in the spotlight. Yes, the focus is appropriately on Korean women’s transformation that took place simultaneously with those of American women in the 1920s. In both sides of the world, women shrugged off the stifling gowns that covered their female physiques and revealed freedom manifested in short skirts and bare legs. After all wasn’t the flapper dress, popular in the 1920s symbolic of the new wave of feminism in America and thus is it not indicative of the newfound power in Korea as well?
edited by cgao on 2/2/2016

[Anonymous]

In looking at these cartoons, I can only assume this collection of images were done from a Japanese perspective. As I read about the growing autonomy of Korean woman under Japanese colonial rule, I wondered how these women felt about the invasion of their country. On the one hand, Koreans suffered repression and the loss of freedom under Japanese rule, yet on the other, women found leadership an d education opportunities. These images, I can assume were a response to the growing autonomy of women and a critique on the loss of traditional Korean values. I captured two prominent themes in these images. On the one hand, there seems to be some lament on the loss traditional values. For example cartoon 7 depicts a less than happy husband lugging around his wife who has adopted cosmetics from the West. On the other hand, I see images of women navigating between multiple worlds. This is prominently displayed in cartoon 2 where a woman still fulfills here traditional wifely duties, but she also pursues her own intellectual interests.
edited by nramon on 1/10/2016

[Anonymous]

I agree that the cartoons appear to be done by men in that the tone towards women in general is condescending, not just to modern Korean women but all women. The cartoons are a bit crude in artistic execution, and sadly the humor seems crude as well. The class discussion regarding comfort women certainly adds a darker dimension to the lives of Korean women living in the first half of the 20th Century.

[Anonymous]

I was very interested to see the cartoons of the New Women in Japan. Reading over the previous posts, I can definitely resonate with many of the comments made about the traditional role of women and how that still exists in many cultures today. My family is very traditional, and the expectation is still very much that women get married (typically at a young age) so that they can be a wife and have children. It's interesting seeing these cartoons because they express the opinions and reactions that society had to this norm being broken. One of the more interesting cartoons to me was the one on Page 82, that shows a Japanese woman who is both modern and traditional. She fulfills her wifely duties of caring for the home, but also has time to be creative and pursue her passions. I was also surprised to see so many of the cartoons ridicule women for their interests in the "new", such as the cartoon exaggerating womens' interest in jewelry, and the one that shows a woman sitting in a cart to apply make-up as her husband drags her along the street. Its interesting to compare these two different kinds of images and see that some people accepted that women could modernize while also not neglecting their families, while some people feared what would happen to children and husbands.

[Anonymous]

As I am reviewing my notes and my readings, I came across the strips about the New Korean Woman. The themes in the reading remind me of the reaction of my parents to the acculturation that I was undergoing as I grew up in the United States. There were some things that I did, such as the music that I listened to, that my parents could not understand. There were also some things that they were not used to, like me going to college, that they did appreciate. According to the reading, the New Women in Colonial Korea has supporters and they also had doubters. My mom and dad were proud of me that I left home for college. Some of my aunt's and uncle's, however, thought that I was abandoning the family. All in all, change can be confusing wherever it happens.

[Anonymous]

Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} George Orwell’s 1984 relays the story of Winston who, through the novel, tries to thwart the hold of Big Brother and the Thought Police. He manages to find love in spite of the obstacles set in place by the redundancy of life, which is apparently is the scenes where he finds himself listening to the same stories told in the same fashion by the same individuals. Hildi Kan’g Under the Black Umbrella shares in the oppressive nature in which the Korean civilians live – under the Japanese rule. In this excerpt, the Japanese secret police, echo Orwell’s Thought Police, hiding in plain view, disguised as friends, intimidating any one who dare speak their individual minds – not even in resistance to the dominating government. A publication like Independence parallels the role Winston’s diary had as they spoke truth and justice in a world seeking to silence

[cgao]

Please download and read the attached PDFs on Colonial Korea.
edited by cgao on 10/7/2015

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[Anonymous]

It is remarkable that in each session, excerpts can be utilized in the classroom especially as they pair with existing units of study. Kang's Under the Black Umbrella parallels themes of oppression in George Orwell's 1984 as does Hwang Suwôn's "Cranes" themes parallel narratives from Maxine Hong Kingston's Woman Warrior or George Takaki's Strangers from a Different Shore. Even the articles regarding Korean singletons complement Kingston's short stories and these pairings continue throughout the entire program.

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