[KS] Racism In Late Choson

[Robert Armstrong]

I am curious if any of the members of this board have come across negative 
references to Mrs. Philip Jaison.  Philip Jaison, while in the United States 
in the 1880s-1895, married the second daughter of George B. Armstrong.  When 
he returned to Korea in the mid 1890s he brought with him his wife - to the 
best of my knowledge this was the second Asian of some importance that 
married a western woman and brought her to Korea.  The only other case that 
I can think of is Woo Li-tang and his Spanish wife Amador.  Allen made few 
comments about her - except that she kissed an ugly dog that was a pet of 
one of the missionaries, but we know that Allen tended to be racist and did 
not approve of mixed marriages - their children never turn out right.

It seems that there had to be some reaction to this.  Korean women were 
generally kept away from the westerners - even the houses of ill-repute, 
were Japanese.  Secretary of the American Legation had a daughter with a 
Japanese woman, but he never married the woman, and the daughter died within 
a couple of years of her birth.  There are a great number of westerners that 
married Japanese women and there are also quite a few that married Chinese, 
but I can find no record of any American marrying - let alone having a 
relationship with a Korean woman.  There is the recent rumored scandel of 
the Pusan Commissioner's daughter having a relationship with the Korean 
servant in 1898-99, which might have led to him giving up his position in 
Pusan and moving to Hong Kong.

Amador for some time was pretty much ignored by the Western ladies until the 
mid 1890s, so perhaps, because of her, the Western women were more willing 
to accept Jaison's wife, a fellow American.  What about the Koreans - did 
they accept her?  What did the Korean men think of Jaison for marrying 
outside of his race?  I know that several years ago it was accepted for a 
Korean man to marry a western woman but there was a lot of hard feelings 
directed at women who married western men.

I would appreciate any information that the members might have.

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