Wen-hsin Yeh, the editor of this book, skillfully brings together seven chapters that examine Korean diasporic communities across time (the nineteenth century to the present) and space (from Sino-Korean borderlands to Japan and then further to the United States). In her well-crafted introduction, Yeh discusses the tension between the two pillars of Korean modernity since the late nineteenth century: the rise of ethnic nationalism and the staggering increase in the Korean diasporic population under colonial and neocolonial conditions. Whereas prior studies focused more on the Korean diaspora's role in engendering and rejuvenating Korean ethnic nationalism, Yeh argues that this book examines “Korean mobility, especially in connection with the formation of Korean subjectivity from the nonpeninsular perspectives of movement and mobility” (p. 6). The chapters in this volume do exactly that. This volume is about Korean diasporic experiences and subjectivities that have not been readily subsumed under the hegemonic Korean nationalist narrative. With the exception of chapters 4 and 6, this volume hardly touches upon issues of Korean sovereignty or ethnic nationalism. Rather, the Koreans' obtainment of intermediary positions in the borderlands controlled by colonial and neocolonial powers is one of the overarching themes of this book.
Chapter 1 by Kwangmin Kim describes how the Sino-Korean border communities emerged as important sources of labor and taxation in the nineteenth century. Through a careful examination of a diary of a spy sent by Chosŏn's Huch'ang County, Kim details the ambiguous identities of Sinicized Koreans in these borderlands: they gradually adopted Chinese clothing, hairstyles, and way of life, and some acquired power and status mediating between Qing authoritarians and the local Koreans.
Chapter 2 by Miriam Kingsberg focuses on Japan as an opium empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She effectively shows how opium “fulfilled important ideological functions as a signifier of racial status” (p. 38): Japanese were on the top, Chinese were on the bottom, and Koreans were considered “intermediate elites” (p. 39), acting as human links between Japanese and Chinese. Koreans' intermediate status became accentuated in Japanese Manchuria because Korean drug trafficking, alongside its Japanese counterparts, was tolerated as an illicit yet important source of funding for Japanese military expansion. Kingsberg does not deny the possibility of Korean drug trafficking funds being funneled into anti-Japanese nationalist movements, but quickly warns the readers not to take that out of proportion. She argues that Koreans' deep involvement in drug trafficking was more of a survival strategy than an act of resistance during Japanese colonialism.
Chapter 3 by Sungyun Lim is a fascinating historiography on the effects of Meiji Civil Code implementation in colonial Korea, especially the Household Registry system. Under this system, when the household head died, the widow's right to her husband's property was upheld against her in-laws (or men of her husband's lineage) by the colonial court. The Japanese colonial administration enacted this measure to protect and control the nuclear family unit. Lim departs from prior studies on Korea's Household Registry in that she argues that the registry system indeed perpetuated patriarchy but weakened the traditional lineage institution in Korea. To an extent, the Korean widows become unexpected beneficiaries of the colonial legal system.
Chapter 4 by Taejin Hwang discusses the structural changes (evolving Cold War alliances between Korea and the United States and industrialization) that drove the development of American military camptowns in South Korea in the aftermath of the Korean War. By investigating various representations of conflicts between Koreans and Americans in camptowns, she traces how U.S.-Korea relations were debated and negotiated in the media.
Chapter 5 by Jane Cho chronicles the rise of U.S.-educated elites in South Korea and how they came to dominate Korean educational, political, and corporate systems. The U.S.-Korea connections that formed in the post-WWII context had a lasting effect on Korea's social mobility structure, while they also brought about a “culture of migration” (p. 147) to the United States.
Chapter 6 by Yishi Liu is an examination of ethnic Korean architecture in Yanbian, China. He shows how the large heated floor and the lifestyle it entails has turned into a core marker of ethnic Korean identity since 1881.
Chapter 7 by Ivo Plsek features a careful comparative analysis of the staggering number of North Korean defectors who cross the Sino–North Korean border and East Germany's mass exodus that led to the regime's collapse in 1989. This is a commonly made comparison prevalent in media and academic discourses alike, but Plsek successfully provides convincing evidence that the drastic increase in North Koreans' defection in the late 1990s and 2000s was radically different from East Germany's mass exodus in terms of its scale and the reactions of the North Korean regime, the South Korean government, and other surrounding countries.
What is fascinating about this book on diaspora is that it includes chapters on Koreans in the homeland: Koreans in the peninsula during Japanese rule (chapter 3) and Koreans who witnessed the growth of American military camptowns scattered throughout the South Korean landscape (chapter 4). One might suspect “diaspora” in this book's subtitle, then, is a misnomer. To that point, Yeh argues that “[c]entral to Korea's colonial experience was the dispossession of the Koreans—culturally, socially, economically, and politically—in their homeland” (p. 6) and that this experience of colonial or neocolonial displacement was what rendered Koreans in the homeland still diasporic. These chapters on Koreans in the homeland seem somewhat misplaced at times, but Yeh's attempt to reconceptualize the notion of diaspora is certainly thought-provoking.
The majority of the chapters in Mobile Subjects are extremely well-researched and beautifully written, making them very enjoyable to read. Those with a general interest in migration, diaspora, Asian studies, and Korean studies will find this book well worth the read. It is also accessible enough that it can be used in upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in these areas.
