New Women in Colonial Korea by Hyaeweol Choi is the first English translation of archival material on the New Woman who stimulated caricature and discussion about transforming gender norms in colonial Korea. With annotations, biographical sketches of the authors, an overview of the newspapers and magazines used, and a bibliography that includes Chinese and Japanese studies scholarship to situate the book in a broader global context, New Women in Colonial Korea promises to be productive in the classroom and for researchers with interests in gender and comparative studies.
Choi distinguishes women as individuals with “heterogeneous realities” from the “oversimplified image” often (mis-)attributed to them (p. 3). She uses the term “New Women” to indicate the former and “New Woman” for the latter. By the 1920s, public fascination with the personal lives, careers, and activities of educated women whose visibility pioneered new gender practices provided fodder for the native press. These figures were at once heralded and castigated as symbols of modernity. New Women, in turn, contributed directly to the very forums in which competing claims of womanhood were contested.
Translating sixty-five texts and cartoons, the sourcebook spans across the ideological spectrum and addresses key issues related to gender. Choi chooses texts that “raised controversies” (p. 13) and reflected “unprecedented choices of action” (p. 14), such as an extramarital affair or love suicide. Sources come from representative newspapers and magazines like the Tonga ilbo and Sin yŏsŏng as well as publications less familiar to U.S.-based scholars, such as the Christian Sinhak wŏlbo and the woman-themed Yŏsŏng chiu. Intended to incorporate as many women's voices as possible, the sourcebook also includes texts written by male intellectuals. For example Yi Kwangsu's “Ten Commandments for New Women” (source 15) provoked a sharp rebuttal (source 16), demonstrating poignantly the tension between conservative and liberal ideals. Moreover, Choi expands the purview of current scholarship focused on liberal feminism and socialist radicalism by offering Christian-centered perspectives, which she claims formed an additional and major strand in the construction of Korea's New Womanhood.
Choi organizes the chapters thematically, allowing them to be read independently if desired. She traces the New Woman discourse to earlier “civilization and enlightenment” paradigms that critique gendered spatial customs and promote women's education for modern nation-building purposes. After an introductory chapter that provides historical context, the first chapter (sources 1–6) addresses the “woman question,” translating seminal texts such as the 1898 “A Circular for the Establishment of a Girls' School” (source 1). These contributed to the “Wise Mother, Good Wife” ideal, which Choi argues elsewhere was at the core of colonial Korea's gender discourse.
Chapter 2 (sources 7–17) centers on the opposition made between New Woman and her antithesis, Old Woman, while chapter 3 (sources 18–27) focuses on the controversies over “schoolgirls” and women's education, both associated with the New Woman image. In their writing and art, New Women demanded women's self-awakening, economic independence, and gender equality. Nonetheless, anxiety raised by the threat they posed to the traditional family structure raised criticism of New Woman as indulgent, materialistic, and morally depraved, conflating New Woman with the image of the Modern Girl (chapter 4, sources 28–31). The issues that mattered intimately to women, such as sexuality and fashion (chapter 5, sources 32–42; chapter 6, sources 43–52), tackle the heart of Korea's patrilineal gender system and women's chastity and bodies. Choi incorporates sources by medical physicians on reproductive knowledge, including birth control. Women wrote of their impressions after studying abroad (chapter 7, sources 53–59) and of their hopes for social movements (chapter 8, sources 60–65). Choi also includes a section of cartoons.
Occasionally, chapters overlap. Romance, for example, is discussed in many of the chapters. Authors did not necessarily belong to one ideological perspective, making simple categorization of their positions difficult and at the same time revealing Korean gender politics' complexity. Although Choi admits that Korea's lower material base made Modern Girl less relevant in colonial Korea, she also asserts that it operated distinctly from the New Woman. Yet the sources present that distinction ambiguously. In addition, certain literary figures emerge repeatedly as authors of the translated texts. This may result from the sources available overall as opposed to Choi's selection. Nonetheless, it would be illuminating to read voices of less prominent figures, such as working-class and rural women. Moreover, why end in the mid-1930s? Choi explains that major publications such as Sin yŏsŏng and Pyŏlgŏngon shut down at this time, but contestation over the “woman question” continued in the late 1930s and 1940s. How the New Woman, the Modern Girl, and even the Wise Mother, Good Wife informed wartime gender constructions would be instructive. Finally, the cartoon section does not follow the structure of the other chapters. Some are directly translated, while others provide limited explanation. At times it remains unclear what is translation and what is annotation.
Nevertheless, scholars, teachers, and students alike will find New Women in Colonial Korea a valuable addition to their libraries. It avails itself to non-Korean studies or language researchers allowing for future comparisons. It also demonstrates the resilience and evolution of patriarchal norms in Korea's gender system, as well as a longer history of the fascination and anxiety provoked by women's material and social transformations that stretches well into the present.
