The politics of China studies in South Korea: A critical examination of South Korean historiography of modern China since 1945

Abstract

This paper argues that the South Korean scholarship on modern Chinese history since 1945 can be characterized as apolitical with its objectivism, positivism, liberalism, and anti-communist nationalism. This characteristic is a product of not only the Cold War and the military regimes of South Korea but also the political orientation and stance of the senior historians who played an initial and decisive role in determining the goal, direction, and research methods of South Korean studies concerning modern China. The South Korean perspective they promoted usually meant the study of liberal, apolitical topics in Chinese history from a nationalist perspective without any political/ideological influences. The utility of modern Chinese history has mainly lain in helping to construct an anti-socialist, modern Korean nation–state through modernization. South Korean historians of modern China, the paper argues, have not been able to induce a meaningful, broad discussion of critical historical issues in modern China as they might pertain to South Korean society, thus failing to utilize them to help challenge and transform the undemocratic South Korean society and regimes. Hence, the future success of new academic undertakings since the 1990s by South Korean historians will be determined by whether or not they are able to make a radical break from the previous scholarship, in particular, from its objectivism and nationalism.

Keywords:

• South Korean scholarship of modern Chinese history
• senior historians
• objectivism
• positivism
• liberalism
• anti-communism
• nationalism
• South Korean perspective

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was presented at a seminar held at the Institute of Korean Studies at Yonsei University (5 January 2009) and at a panel organized for the ICAS 6 (6–9 August 2009). The author wants to thank all the participants, particularly Professors Baik Young-seo, Ha Sae Bong, Yu Yongtae, and Chung Moon Sang, as well as Professor Arif Dirlik for reading an earlier version and offering important suggestions.

Notes

¹ See Itō Kazuhiko, “Nihon no chūgoku kenkyū” [Studies on China in Japan], in Gendai chūgoku kenkyū annai [A Guide to Contemporary China Research], supplementary vol. 2, Iwanami kōza gendai chūgoku [Iwanami Lectures on Contemporary China], ed. Nomura Kōichi et al. (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1990), 3–53; Namiki Yorihisa, “Nihon ni okeru chūgoku gendaishi kenkyū no dōkō” [Trends in Modern China Studies in Japan], in Gindai chūgoku kenkyū annai [A Guide to Modern China Research], ed. Kojima Shinji and Namiki Yorihisa (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1993), 3–31; and Stefan Tanaka, Japan's Orient: Rendering Past into History (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993).

² John K. Fairbank, Chinabound: A Fifty-Year Memoir (New York: Harper & Row, 1982), 355.

³ See the review essays on the state of the (modern) Chinese history field in South Korea since the 1960s in Yeoksa hakbo [Journal of Historical Studies], published by Yeoksa hakhoe [Korean Historical Association].

⁴ Yi Byung-in, “Kangoku ni okeru chūkamingokushi kenkyū ni tsuite” [About the Studies of Republican China's History in South Korea], Chikakini arite [Being Nearby] joint nos. 44–45 (2004), 20.

⁵ Lee Sung-kyu, “Han'guk dongyangsa yeongu 60 nyeon” [Sixty Years of South Korean Studies of Oriental History], in Han'guk yeoksahak eui seonggwa wa gwaje [The Achievements and Tasks of South Korean Historiography], ed. Yeoksa hakhoe (Seoul: Iljogak, 2007), 228.

⁶ Yi Yongbeom, “Han'guk eui hakbo – dongyang sahakgye” [Academic Genealogy in South Korea – The Oriental History Field], Daehan Ilbo [Greater Korea Daily], December 25–26, 1972.

⁷ Chun Hea-jong, Han'guk gwa dongyang [Korea and the Orient] (Seoul: Iljogak, 1972), 222–25.

⁸ Lee Sung-kyu, “Han'guk jungguksa yeongu eui donghyang [Trends in the Studies of Chinese History in South Korea], in 1945 nyeon yihu hanil yangguk eui yeoksa yeon'gu donghyang [Trends in the Historical Studies in South Korea and Japan since 1945], ed. Hanil yeoksaga hoeeui jojik wiweonhoe (Seoul: Gukak jaryoweon, 2002), 95.

⁹ Ibid., 117.

¹⁰ Chun Hea-jong, “Son Mun gwa Jang Gaeseok eui sidae – Jungguk geundaehwa eui nanhang eul bogo” [The Eras of Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek: Looking at the Stormy Voyage in Chinese Modernization], Sasanggye [The World of Thought] 11, no. 1 (1963), 80–85.

¹¹ Chun Hea-jong, preface in Han'guk gwa dongyang, 3–4.

¹² Koh Byong-ik, Asia eui yeoksasang [Historical Images of Asia] (Seoul: Seouldae chulpanbu, 1969), 346.

¹³ Tanaka, Japan's Orient, 21.

¹⁴ Lee Sung-kyu, “Han'guk dongyangsa yeongu 60 nyeon,” 236–37.

¹⁵ Oh Keum-sung, “Kankoku ni okeru chūgokushi kenkyū no hanseiki” [Half a Century's Studies of Chinese History in South Korea], Chūgoku-shakai to bunka [China – Society and Culture], no. 15 (2000), 245.

¹⁶ See Sin Seungha, “Minguo yilai zhongguoshi yanjiu zai hanguo” [Historical Studies in South Korea on the Period after Republican China], in Minguo yilai guoshiyanjiu de huigu yu zhanwang yantaohui lunwenji [Collected Essays from a Convention on Retrospect and Prospect for National History Research on the Post-Republican Era in China], vol. 1 (Taiwan: Guoli Taiwan daxue, 1991), 455; Lee Key-baik, “Yeoksa hakhoe eui eoje wa oneul” [The Korean Historical Association: Yesterday and Today], Yeoksa hakbo [Journal of Historical Studies] 99–100 (1983), 348; and Yi Boyeon, “Hakhoe eui chochanggi reul hoegohamyeo” [Recalling the Earlier Days of the Association], Yeoksa hakbo [Journal of Historical Studies] 99–100 (1983), 352–55.

¹⁷ See Heo Eun, “1950 nyeondae ‘juhan migongboweon’(USIS) eui yeokhal gwa munhwa jeonpa jihyang” [The United States Information Service in South Korea in the 1950s: Its Roles and Pursuit of Cultural Dissemination], Han'guk sahakbo [Bulletin of Korean Historical Studies], no. 15 (2003), 227–59; and http://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/view/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0000158321 (a popular South Korean online newspaper, accessed October 10, 2010).

¹⁸ Takeshi Matsuda, Soft Power and Its Peril: U.S. Cultural Policy in Early Postwar Japan and Permanent Dependency (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2007), 157. Note that some leading South Korean historians of China went to American institutions in the 1950s through the 1970s with financial support from various American foundations or institutions, although this does not necessarily mean that their research was done to meet the anti-Communist goals of those American foundations and institutions at the time. Chun Hea-jong was invited by the Harvard–Yenching Institute at Harvard University to study at Harvard from 1953 to 1955 and received his MA there. He went to the same institute again as a researcher from 1968 to 1970, while Koh Byong-ik did research at the University of Washington as a visiting professor from 1966 to 1968. I have not been able to identify who funded their respective stays in the US. Kim Junyeop (see below) received a grant from the Ford Foundation, with which he established the Asiatic Research Institute (Asea munje yeon'guso) at Korea University in 1957 to conduct research on Communist area studies (gongsan'gweon yeon'gu). For Kim's career and scholarship, see Chung Moon Sang, “Kim Junyeob eui geunhyeondae jungguknon gwa dongasia naengjeon” [Kim Junyeob's View of Modern China and the Cold War in East Asia], Yeoksa bipyeong [Critical Review of History], no. 87 (2009), 228–61.

¹⁹ Sin Seungha, “Minguo yilai,” 459, n. 19 ; Baik Young-seo, “Dongasia jeok sigak eui mosaek” [A Quest for an East Asian Perspective], Jungguk hyeondaesa yeongu hoebo [Bulletin of the Korean Association for the Studies of Modern Chinese History] 1, no. 6 (1992), 11.

²⁰ Koh Byong-ik, “Yoksa hakhoe changrip 50 junyeon ginyeom chuksa: changrib dangsi hakhoe eui banghyang gwa oneul” [A Congratulatory Address on the 50th Anniversary of the Korean Historical Studies Association: The Association's Direction When It was Founded and Today], Yeoksa hakbo [Journal of Historical Studies] 176 (2002), ii.

²¹ See the Association's homepage, http://www.kha.re.kr/sub1_1.htm (accessed September 22, 2008).

²² Some have suggested that Min should be described as one of the first generation historians, but I group him into the second generation because, unlike the first generation historians, he did not receive a higher education at a Japanese institution.

²³ Ha Sae Bong, “Dongyang sahakgye e daehan bipanjeok geomto” [A Critical Examination of the Oriental History Field], Yeoksa bipyong [Critical Review of History], no. 5 (1989), 236.

²⁴ Paul A. Cohen, Discovering History in China: American Historical Writings on the Recent Chinese Past (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 6–7.

²⁵ Kim Junyeob, Jungguk gongsandangsa [A History of the Chinese Communist Party] (Seoul: Munmyeongsa, 1976), 4–5.

²⁶ Bruce Cumings, “Boundary Displacement: Area Studies and International Studies during and after the Cold War,” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 29, no. 1 (1997), 6–26.

²⁷ Min Tu-ki, Yeoksa eui chang [Windows in History] (Seoul: Jisik saneobsa, 1976), i–ii.

²⁸ Peter Novick, That Noble Dream: The “Objectivity Question” and the American Historical Profession (New York and London: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 1.

²⁹ Min Tu-ki, Jungguk geundaesa ron II [On Modern China, Part II] (Seoul: Jisik saneobsa, 1981), 70.

³⁰ Novick, That Noble Dream, 2.

³¹ Oh Keum-sung, “Hoego wa jeonmang, 1994–96” [Retrospect and Prospect, 1994–96], Yeoksa hakbo [Journal of Historical Studies] 156 (1997), 129.

³² Bae Kyeonghan, “Min Tu-ki xiansheng de zhongguoshi yanjiu yu qi chengjiu” [Mr. Mi Tu-ki's Studies of Chinese History and His Achievements], Jindai zhongguoshi yanjiu tongxun [Newsletters on Modern Chinese Historical Research], no. 27 (1999), 43, 53.

³³ Ha Sae Bong, “Dongyang sahakgye e daehan bipanjeok geomto,” 226.

³⁴ See two interviews with Lee Young Hee, first by Kim Dong-chun, entitled “Lee Young Hee – naengjeon yideologi eui usang e matseon yiseongeui pilbong” [Lee Young Hee: The One who used the Pen to Stand with Reason against the Idol of the Cold War Ideology], Yeoksa bipyeong [Critical Review of History], no. 29 (1995), 196–97, 200; and by Baik Young-seo, entitled “Bipanjeok junggukhak eui bburi reul chajaseo” [In Search of the Roots of Critical China Studies], Jungguk eui chnag [Windows to China], inaugural issue (2003), 156.

³⁵ Yun Secheol, “Hoego wa jeonmang, 1979–1984” [Retrospect and Prospect: 1979–1984],” Yeoksa hakbo [Journal of Historical Studies] 108 (1985), 295.

³⁶ Yun Hyeyeong, Jungguk hyeondaesa yeon'gu [A Study of Modern Chinese History] (Seoul: Iljogak, 1991), introduction, iii.

³⁷ Yim Sangbeom, Hyeondae jungguk eui chulbal [A Departure of Modern China] (Seoul: Iljogak, 2000), preface, iii.

³⁸ Baik Young-seo, Jungguk hyeondae daehak munhwa yeon'gu [A Study of the Culture in Modern Chinese Universities] (Seoul: Iljogak, 1994), iii–iv.

³⁹ Yu Yongtae, Jisik cheongnyeon gwa nongmin sahoe eui hyeokmyeong [Intellectual Youths and a Revolution in Peasant Society: A Comparative Study of the Central and Southern Three Provinces in 1920s China] (Seoul: Munhak gwa jiseongsa, 2004), 4.

⁴⁰ Chung Moon Sang, Jungguk eui gungmin hyeogmyeong gwa Shanghai haksaeng undong [The Chinese Nationalist Revolution and Student Movements in Shanghai] (Seoul: Hye'an, 2004), 5.

⁴¹ Seo Jinyeong, Jungguk hyeokmyeng sa [A History of the Chinese Revolution] (Seoul: Hanul, 1992), 3–4.

⁴² Kim Gyeil, “Yi chaek eul pye naemyeonseo” [On Publishing This Edited Book], in Jungguk minjok haebang undong gwa tongiljeonseon eui yeoksa [The National Liberation Movement in China and a History of the United Fronts] vol. 1, trans. and ed. Kim Gyeil (Seoul: Sagyejeol, 1987), 5.

⁴³ Ibid.

⁴⁴ “Yeokja eui mal” [Translator's Notes], in Jungguk hyeondaesa [A Modern History of China], trans. Oh Sanghun (Seoul: Han'gilsa, 1980), 455.

⁴⁵ Yi Byeong Joo, “Jungguk hyeondaesa yeon'gu hyeonhwang e daehan gwan'gyeon: han'guk eui dokjajeok yeon'gu gyeonghyang guchuk eul saenggak hamyeonseo” [Views on the State of the Modern Chinese History Field: Thinking of the Construction of a South Korean Independent Research Trend], Dongyangsahak yeon'gu [Asian Historical Studies] 50 (1995), 90.

⁴⁶ For a similar argument, see Min Tu-ki, Jungguk geundaesa ron II; and Yun Secheol, “Ganeungseong euroseo eui sahoegwahakjeok jeobgeun” [A Social Scientific Approach to History as a Possibility],Dongyang sahak yeon'gu [Asian Historical Studies] 50 (1995), 97–106.

⁴⁷ Yun Secheol, “Ganeungseong euroseo eui sahoegwahakjeok jeobgeun,” 104–5.

⁴⁸ Min Tu-ki, “Jungguk guensesa reul boneun nun” [A Perspective on Early Modern Chinese History], Yeongnam sahak [Yeongnam Historical Studies] no. 10–11 (1981), 49–52, and “80 nyeondae ilbon eseoeui jungguksa yeongu wa jungguk hyeonsil eeui daeeung” [Studies on Chinese History and the Responses to the Realities in China in 1980s Japan], Dong'a munhwa [East Asian Cultures], no. 22 (1984), 31–53.

⁴⁹ Yun Secheol, “Ganeungseong euroseo eui sahoegwahakjeok jeobgeun,” 103.

⁵⁰ Lee Sung-kyu, “Han'guk jungguksa yeongu eui donghyang”, 100–122.

⁵¹ Ibid., 98–101, 104.

⁵² Arif Dirlik, “Reversals, Ironies, Hegemonies: Notes on the Contemporary Historiography of Modern China,” Modern China 22, no. 3 (1996), 243–84.

⁵³ Baik Young-seo, “Dongasia jeok sigak eui mosaek.”

⁵⁴ Baik Young-sep, “Dongasia reul malhaneun geoteui euimi wa ganeungseong” [The Meaning of and Possibilities in Speaking about East Asia] (talk, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, April 7, 2008).

⁵⁵ Baik Younng-seo, “Jubyeon eseo dongasia reul bondaneun geot” [Looking at East Asia from the Periphery], in Jubyeon eseo bon dongasia [East Asia from a Peripheral Perspective], ed. Jung Mun-gil et al. (Seoul: Munhak gwa jiseongsa, 2004), 13–36.

⁵⁶ Young-seo Baik, “Conceptualizing ‘Asia’ in Modern Chinese Mind: A Korean Perspective,” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 3, no. 2 (2002), 277–86.

⁵⁷ Arif Dirlik, “The Asia Pacific Studies in an Age of Global Modernity,” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 6, no. 2 (2005), 158–70.

⁵⁸ Baik Yong-seo, “Dongasia jeok sigak eui mosaek,” 16.

⁵⁹ Bae Kyeonghan, “19 segimal 20 segicho junghwa cheje eui wigiwa jungguk minjokjueui” [Chinese Nationalism and the Crisis in the Sino-Centric System during the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries], Yeoksa bipyeong [Critical Review of History], no. 51 (2000), 234–49; and Yu Janggeun, “Dongasia geundaesa wa jungguk eui wisang” [East Asia's Modern History and the Place of China], in Jubyeon eseo bon dongasia, 39–63.

⁶⁰ Song Giho, “Jungguk eui han'guk godaesa bbaeakki gongjak” [A Chinese Conspiracy to Steal Korea's Ancient History], Yeoksa bipyong [Critical Review of History], no. 65 (2003), 181 . Song is not a China specialist but it is well known that many China specialists have made sustained efforts to present an argument against China's alleged efforts aimed at stealing their ancient history.

⁶¹ David Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country (New York and London: Cambridge University Press, 1985).

⁶² For a discussion of Japanese Oriental history, see Tanaka, Japan's Orient.

⁶³ Ha Sae Bong “Dongyang sahakgye e daehan bipanjeok geomto,” 226–32.

⁶⁴ Oh Keum-sung, “Kangoku ni okeru chūgokushi kenkyū no hanseiki,” 260.

⁶⁵ Itō Kazuhiko, “Nihon no chūgoku kenkyū,” 4. Itō states that Japan has been a neighboring country of China, has had a long history of interactions with China, has shared Chinese characters with China, and has had profound cultural affinities with China.

⁶⁶ Jean Chesneaux, Pasts and Presents or What Is History For? (London: Thames and Hudson, 1976), 1–2.

⁶⁷ Arif Dirlik, “Performing the World: Reality and Representation in the Making of World Histor(ies)” Journal of World History 16, no. 4 (2005), 393.

⁶⁸ Lee Sung-kyu, “Han'guk jungguksa yeongu eui donghyang”, 121.

⁶⁹ Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1979), 5.

⁷⁰ Prasenjit Duara, Rescuing History from the Nation: Questioning Narratives of Modern China (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1995).

⁷¹ Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country, xxv.