<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif;font-size:12pt">A footnote to the question of cultural purism in South Korea vs. Taiwan:<br><br><div dir="ltr" style="font-size: 14.6668px; font-family: serif; left: 85.644px; top: 715.533px; transform: scale(1.03356, 1); transform-origin: 0% 0% 0px;" data-font-name="g_font_116_0" data-canvas-width="479.91677916669846">"The Taiwanese government banned the importation of Japanese culture between1972 and 1993, following Japan’s <br>establishment of relations with the People’s Republic of China. In South Korea, Japanese culture was banned soon <br>after the occupation ended and was allowed back in only in 1998." (Nissim Kadosh Otmazgin, "Geopolitics and Soft <br>Power: Japan's Cultural Policy and Cultural Diplomacy in Asia," <span style="font-style: italic;">Asia-Pacific Review</span> 19:1, p. 48.) A quite
interesting <br>contrast between the Taiwanese ban (which was motivated by specific diplomatic considerations) and the South Korean <br>one (which was of a more generic and ethno-nationalist nature).<br><br>All the best,<br>Balazs <br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><br></div><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <hr size="1"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <b><span
style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Frank Hoffmann <hoffmann@koreanstudies.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> koreanstudies@koreanstudies.com <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Sunday, 27 October 2013, 2:16<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [KS] Japan-Korea, France-Algeria: Colonialism and language policy<br> </font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container"><br>Dear Balazs:<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Two things, very short:<br clear="none"><br clear="none">1. We do not necessarily always have to understand similar developments <br clear="none">as a kind of "copy" of some model. After all we do talk about the same <br clear="none">wider East Asian cultural and historical Sino-centric world here that <br clear="none">both Korea and Japan belonged to. The Koreans were certainly inspired <br clear="none">by the Meiji period reforms, no doubt. But then, given the
similar <br clear="none">cultural past, and also given that, when talking about cultural purism, <br clear="none">which I just called the lowest common denominator model, we may see the <br clear="none">very point that this was an easy step! That cannot be compared with the <br clear="none">adaptation of a far more complicated political model such as Marxism <br clear="none">with its theories about society and economics (and culture), that a man <br clear="none">like Kim Il Sung seems not to have understood until long after he was <br clear="none">in power. It really just does not "take much" to get to what you call <br clear="none">cultural purism.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">2. You just wrote:<br clear="none">> I wonder if it was Taiwan's more ambiguous identity/identities <br clear="none">> (Chinese? or Taiwanese? or Fujianese/Hakka?) that somehow "softened" <br clear="none">> Taiwanese emotional reactions to naisen ittai. <br
clear="none"><br clear="none">I doubt that this statement about a "softened" Taiwanese reaction can <br clear="none">factually be sustained. Taiwanese history may not be very well known in <br clear="none">Korea. But I see no such "softened" Taiwanese reaction -- what I see is <br clear="none">the same fights, resistance, and collaboration issues as in Korea. <br clear="none">Except, Taiwan is an island with no Manchuria or Russian Far East in <br clear="none">the neighborhood where resistance troops could operate from or flee to <br clear="none">for a hiding, or where they could create an alternative system and <br clear="none">culture, more or less independent communities (so it was easier for the <br clear="none">Japanese to control). ... And also, the differences I was talking about <br clear="none">in my last message was more with those South East Asian countries in <br clear="none">mind that had been British or French colonies. Books hardly make
you/us <br clear="none">understand these differences, but once we see how people talk about the <br clear="none">colonial period and their own part in it, then there is a huge <br clear="none">difference there. <br clear="none"><br clear="none">Best,<br clear="none">Frank<br clear="none"><br clear="none"><div class="yqt7218202033" id="yqtfd97038"><br clear="none">On Sat, 26 Oct 2013 17:48:03 +0100 (BST), Balazs Szalontai wrote:<br clear="none">> Dear Frank,<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> I certainly agree with most of your observations, particularly with <br clear="none">> regard to Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Still, I think that we should <br clear="none">> distinguish between the various phases of Japanese cultural influence <br clear="none">> in Korea. Your model is fully applicable not only to the 1880s and <br clear="none">> 1890s (with Kim Ok-kyun as a notable example) but also to the <br clear="none">> "cultural
policy" in the 1920s. 1937-45 is another matter, however. <br clear="none">> In my opinion, the Japanese cultural impact that Korean society <br clear="none">> encountered in these periods probably would not have triggered a <br clear="none">> long-term policy of cultural purism, but the policy of naisen ittai <br clear="none">> did (see South Korea's official import ban on Japanese films, pop <br clear="none">> music, etc., which persisted until 1998, and which had no real <br clear="none">> equivalent in other post-colonial countries in Asia). I wonder if it <br clear="none">> was Taiwan's more ambiguous identity/identities (Chinese? or <br clear="none">> Taiwanese? or Fujianese/Hakka?) that somehow "softened" Taiwanese <br clear="none">> emotional reactions to naisen ittai. <br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> All the best,<br clear="none">> Balazs Szalontai<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> <br
clear="none"><br clear="none">--------------------------------------<br clear="none">Frank Hoffmann<br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="http://koreanstudies.com/" target="_blank">http://koreanstudies.com</a><br clear="none"><br clear="none"></div><br><br></div> </div> </div> </blockquote><div></div> </div></body></html>