[KS] Children, Childhood, Corporal Punishment and Violence/Violent Spaces in Chosŏn?

[McCann, David]

Another related issue is who received an 'education'?  Upper class male youths in the Confucian classics and all such, at the sôdang.  Not female youths; not lower class youths.

When students-- males-- at the Andong Agriculture and Forestry High School misbehaved during my time there, 1966-68, they were sent to the teachers room for punishment.  Quite often they were told "Hold out your hands."  They would do so, in front, palms up.  A teacher would then strike the palms of their hands with a stick, very hard.  They'd flinch.  "Hold out your hands!"  "Son nae!"  They'd do so, hesitatingly.  "Hold them up!" and then again Whack!

I guess I must have flinched and acted disturbed, because a teacher explained that this built strong citizens.  And then he added, it was a practice the Japanese had brought.

Looking back, I think there was less of that corporal punishment as time went on.

David McCann


On Oct 14, 2016, at 12:55 AM, "Walraven, B.C.A." <B.C.A.Walraven at hum.leidenuniv.nl<mailto:B.C.A.Walraven at hum.leidenuniv.nl>> wrote:

Dear Robert,

Not what you are looking for, more a piece of counter-evidence: the statement by Hendrik Hamel about Chosŏn education, characterized by “softness and good manners,” by holding up for emulation the examples of great men. But then, there is counter-counter evidence:  Kim Hongdo’s picture of a sŏdang, with one of the pupils crying, suggesting that some form of corporal punishment was practiced.  At the Munmyo, there still are some flat stones in the backyard, said to have been used for the punishment of students (no longer children, of course, but physical punishment of children does not exist in a vacuum).

Boudewijn

From: Koreanstudies [mailto:koreanstudies-bounces at koreanstudies.com<mailto:bounces at koreanstudies.com>] On Behalf Of Robert Winstanley-Chesters
Sent: woensdag 12 oktober 2016 1:41
To: koreanstudies at koreanstudies.com<mailto:koreanstudies at koreanstudies.com>
Subject: [KS] Children, Childhood, Corporal Punishment and Violence/Violent Spaces in Chosŏn?

Hello to the Korean Studies world list serv
I am a Research Fellow at Australian National University, College of Asia and the Pacific and normally work on the geographies and topographies of the Korean Peninsula. Given that I wonder if I might seek the KS lists' help in accessing literature (including accessible doctoral theses) which addresses the role of childhood, children and child development during Korea's Chosŏn era. I am particularly interested in cultural conceptions of the role of corporal punishment on children (either during education or in the home), and other moments of violence and aggression against the body of the child. As I am a Geographer I am also interested in the places, spaces and infrastructures in which violence against children might have or did take place. I thank anyone for any help or suggestions - I have gone through as much of the literature as I can and have not yet found what I am looking for from any discipline. It could of course be as always that I am missing something enormous or looking in entirely the wrong place.

Dr Robert Winstanley-Chesters (Australian National University) - robert.winstanley-chesters at anu.edu.au<mailto:robert.winstanley-chesters at anu.edu.au> and r.winstanley-chesters at leeds.ac.uk<mailto:r.winstanley-chesters at leeds.ac.uk>

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