Dear Ann,
<br>
<br>
You wrote: "My grandfather, Yi Kwang-su, collaborated with the Japanese. I find myself identified with my grandfather's politics. Why try to have a voice at all? Not having an identity could be one way to live..."
<br>
<br>
Extraordinarily, but after collaborating with the Japanese, Yi Kwang-su vehemently refused to collaborate with the communists...
<br>
<br>
In the first months of the Korean War, apart from obtaining material relics and historical documents from the occupied South, North Koreans were also interested in intellectuals (particularly historians and novelists). Yi Kwang-su was one of approximately one hundred prominent figures who were deemed potentially useful to communist propaganda. All of them were taken prisoners, transported to the North and quartered in the village of Kamhung-ni on the western outskirts of Pyongyang.
<br>
<br>
DPRK authorities tried hard to treat their precious prisoners amiably, anticipating that they would join them in constructing the “new” Korea. However, not all of the captives were predisposed to immediate collaboration with the communists. Yi Kwang-su demonstrated surprising unresponsiveness to the preachings of his northern colleagues, Han Sol-ya and Yi Ki-yong. Contrary to his pre-1945 reputation of being a notorious collaborator, Yi Kwang-su obdurately refused to accept socialist realism as the most progressive method in literature.
<br>
<br>
According to one South Korean source, when the front line began moving north, the recalcitrant writer was evacuated to China where he died of tuberculosis. However, other reports say that Yi spent his last days and was buried in the mountainous Yangdok county of South Pyongan province.
<br>
<br>
With kind regards,
<br>
<br>
Leonid
<br>
--
<br>
LEONID A. PETROV PhD
<br>
Visiting Scholar
<br>
*********************
<br>
The Academy of Korean Studies,
<br>
(Room 207, Unjunggwan), 50 Unjung-dong,
<br>
Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do
<br>
463-791, Republic of Korea.
<br>
Tel: +82(31)709-8111 + extension 792
<br>
Mob: +82(16)891-7211
<br>
E-Mail: <a href="mailto:petrov@hanmail.net">petrov@hanmail.net</a>
<br>
<a href="http://north-korea.narod.ru" target=nlink>http://north-korea.narod.ru</a>
<br>
<br>
<br>
---------[ 받은 메일 내용 ]----------
<br>
> Title : Re: [KS] Asian Americans
<br>
> Date : Wed, 22 Oct 2003 10:51:37 -0700
<br>
> From : "Ann Sung-hi Lee" <<a href="mailto:asl@myuw.net">asl@myuw.net</a>>
<br>
> To : "Korean Studies Discussion List" <<a href="mailto:Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws">Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws</a>>
<br>
>
<br>
> Dear Vladimir and Bill,
<br>
>
<br>
> Thank you for the kindness of your reply.
<br>
>
<br>
> I think what I am trying to articulate is a theoretical interrogation of my "position" as an Asian American scholar of Korea. If I as an Asian American criticize U.S. imperialism, without criticizing the U.S. on the matter of civil rights for Asian immigrants, this leaves the mythologic Center unquestioned.
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>
<br>
> I have noticed that Pak Chong-ae gave a paper at the tenth conference of the Hanguk yeoseong munhakhoe, entitled "Han'guk cheon kwa B'et'eunam cheon eseo yeoseong chakka eui tongweon yangsang kwa keu euieui." (the mobilization of women writers in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and its significance).
<br>
>
<br>
> My grandfather, Yi Kwang-su, collaborated with the Japanese. I find myself identified with my grandfather's politics. Why try to have a voice at all? Not having an identity could be one way to live. In spite of expectations that I identify with my grandfather, I nevertheless want to know what I think.
<br>
>
<br>
> Have I benefited from my grandfather's colonial collaboration? My father says he remembers his father as always being in prison. And that grandfather took him to see the governor of a province once to buy my father shoes. Grandfather was imprisoned, and collaborated. This is the complicated narrative that I see.
<br>
>
<br>
> Ann
<br>
>
<br>
>
<br>
>
<br>
> Ann Sung-hi Lee, Visiting Scholar
<br>
> Asian Languages and Literature Department
<br>
> University of Washington
<br>
> <a href="http://home.myuw.net/asl/" target=nlink>http://home.myuw.net/asl/</a>
<br>
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