[KS] Yong-ho Ch'oe, Pioneering Scholar of Korean History, dies at 93

[Cheehyung Harrison Kim]

Sharing the news of Yong-ho Ch'oe's passing with the Korean Studies
community around the world. Obituary below and attached. Thanks.
--Cheehyung Harrison Kim

*Remembering Yong-ho Ch’oe, a Pioneering Historian of Korea and a Champion
of Harmony between the East and the West*

[image: image.png]
Yong-ho Ch’oe, Emeritus Professor in the Department of History at the
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, a pioneering scholar of Korean history, a
devoted husband, and a loving father of two sons, died peacefully on
Wednesday, May 15, 2024, in Honolulu. He was 93.

Born in 1931 in the city of Daegu in southeastern Korea during the
tumultuous colonial period, Yong-ho Ch’oe grew up in a family deeply
involved in the Korean independence movement, an upbringing that brought
hardship but also equipped him with the capacity for hard work and a sense
of duty for a greater cause.
When the Korean War broke out in 1950, Yong-ho Ch’oe enlisted in the South
Korean army still as a teenager, eventually becoming an intelligence
officer and serving until 1958. A part of his duty was to work with the
United State military, a job that opened an opportunity for him to go to
college in the United States. In 1960, he enrolled at Rockford College in
Illinois and later transferred to the University of Arizona, where he
completed his undergraduate education. All of his graduate education was at
the University of Chicago, a place where he gained a broad perspective of
humanity, having studied European history and American history, along with
Asian history. He received his Ph.D. from Chicago in 1970 while he was a
researcher at the Harvard East Asia Research Center.

Yong-ho Ch’oe joined the Department of History at the University of Hawai‘i
at Mānoa in 1971, where he gifted the world with his tireless energy,
excellent scholarship, and beloved collegiality for thirty years. He was a
trailblazing scholar of Korean history and Korean American history, as well
as an early advocate of Korean studies. With Yong-ho Ch’oe and Hugh Kang
(also Emeritus) on the History faculty, the University of Hawai'i Mānoa
became the first university in the United States to grant a Ph.D. in Korean
history. Yong-ho Ch’oe was also a founding member of the Center for Korean
Studies at the university, the oldest and largest center devoted to Korean
studies outside of Korea, established in 1972. His commitment to advancing
Korean studies is further reflected in his involvement in launching two
seminal academic journals—first Korean Studies based at the University of
Hawai‘i at Mānoa, in 1975, and then Acta Koreana based at Keimyung
University in his hometown of Daegu, in 1998.

Yong-ho Ch’oe’s splendid research, represented by three books, traversed
time periods and regions. His first book, published in 1987, was *The Civil
Examinations and the Social Structure in Early Yi Dynasty Korea, 1392-1600*,
a groundbreaking book about the society of Korea’s Joseon Kingdom. Another
major contribution to the field of Korean history was the monumental
series *Sources
of Korean Tradition, Volumes 1 and 2* (1993 and 1996) and *Sources of
Korean Tradition, Volumes 1 and 2* (1997 and 2000), which he co-edited with
Peter Lee and Theodore de Bary and all published by Columbia University
Press. The *Sources*, which compiles and explains key historical texts, is
firmly placed among the Korean studies canon. Later in his career, he wrote
passionately about the history of Koreans in Hawai'i, penning *From the
Land of Hibiscus: Koreans in Hawai'i, 1903-1950, *published by the
University of Hawai'i Press in 2006.

In an interview with Acta Koreana in 2010, Yong-ho Ch’oe said the following
when asked about what the East and the West should to learn from each
other: “Too often in the encounters between the East and the West, the
latter has exhibited its ugly inclinations, such as misconceived racism and
a predatory appetite toward the former, taking advantage of its military
and industrial power. But, fortunately, such a conception has fast
dissipated in the last several decades. Globalization is inevitable and is
here now, and regardless of one’s origin or belief, all must live together
in peace and harmony with mutual respect for each other.” He was a true
champion of global cooperation.

As a teacher, Yong-ho Ch’oe was warm and cultivating. Many of his students
went on to become respected scholars in Korean history, including Yeon-ung
Kwon at Kyungpook National University, Seong-nae Pak and Byeong-yul Ban at
Hanguk University of Foreign Studies, Jay Lewis at the University of
Oxford, Kenneth Robinson at the International Christian University in
Japan, Michael Seth at James Madison University, Brandon Palmer at Coastal
Carolina University, John Duncan at UCLA, and Chizuko Allen at the
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

Even after retirement, in 2001, Yong-ho Ch’oe was active and engaging,
regularly organizing a community forum at his apartment in Kaka‘ako, where
people from different backgrounds gathered to learn and discuss the
pressing issues of the day. For his scholarship and dedication, Yong-ho
Ch’oe received, in 2020, the Light of the Orient Award given by the Korean
American Foundation of Hawai'i. In 2021, the South Korean government
awarded him the Order of Civil Merit Dongbaek Medal, the third highest
order of merit given by the government.

[image: 1973 Dept Soccer.jpg]
Yong-ho Ch’oe at the History Department soccer match in 1973

When asked, in 2022, to write a commemorative essay for the fiftieth
anniversary of the Center for Korean Studies, Yong-ho Ch’oe did not write
about the many accolades he received during his long career. No, he wrote
about the time in September 1978 when he formed the Committee for Korean
Rights and protested against the local media’s use of the term “Korean
bars” to refer to all hostess bars in Honolulu. He and the Committee
demanded the media stop using the term because it was derogatory and
because the hardworking people at these drinking taverns deserved dignity
and respect. In late September, a local newspaper released a statement of
apology and the term was never used again in the media in Hawai‘i. For a
person who overcame many barriers and achieved considerable success, he
certainly felt that fighting for the rights and respect of the tavern
workers was one of his proudest moments.

Yong-ho Ch’oe will be remembered as a person filled with kindness,
generosity, humor, and courage. He was a brilliant historian, a wonderful
colleague, and a champion of underrepresented peoples of Hawai'i. He is
survived by his spouse, Minja Kim Ch’oe (a renowned population studies
scholar), and two sons, Dan and Yun.

*Cheehyung Harrison Kim, the current Korea historian at the University of
Hawai‘i at Mānoa, contributed to this obituary.*
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