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Debating the Korean New Woman: Imagining Henrik Ibsen's “Nora” in Colonial Era Korea Hyaeweol Choi a a The Australian National University

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Debating the Korean New Woman:

Imagining Henrik Ibsen’s ‘‘Nora’’ in

Colonial Era Korea

HYAEWEOL CHOI*

The Australian National University

Abstract: Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House caused a global sensation when first performed in the nineteenth century. Nora, the play’s protagonist, became an icon for women, an emblematic figure representing the pursuit of selfhood. This article aims to historicise the figure of Nora in Korean gender politics as a representation of both the quintessence of modernity and the antithesis of ‘‘womanly virtue’’. It specifically examines the tensions in the Korean perception of the character by juxtaposing the adapted representation of Nora that appeared in a Korean novel with the lives of actual New Women, some of whom were labelled in the press as ‘‘Korea’s Nora’’. Through a close examination of the creative process that took place in the introduction, circulation and appropriation of A Doll’s House in colonial Korea, the article demonstrates how the play served not only as a vehicle for experiencing the modern self, but as a proxy for critiquing the notion of Western modernity and feminism that had yet to be localised. It also reveals the significant chasm between the hyperbolic image of the modern Western woman and the locally rooted gender politics among Korean New Women. Such a chasm reflects the tension between local/national demands and transnational lures that both women and men experienced in envisioning modern womanhood.

Keywords: Colonial Korea, Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House, Korean New Woman, gender and modernity, Pak Ind�ok

Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House, has been a global phenomenon since it was first staged in Copenhagen’s Royal Theatre on 21 December 1879 (Templeton, 1997). The drama scholar Julie Holledge aptly encapsulates the global reach of the play by noting that the protagonist Nora ‘‘rivals Antigone, Medea, and Juliet, as the most

*Correspondence Address: Korea Institute, School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and

the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200. Email: [email protected]

Asian Studies Review March 2012, Vol. 36, pp. 59–77

ISSN 1035-7823 print/ISSN 1467-8403 online/12/010059-19 � 2012 Asian Studies Association of Australia http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2012.653001

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performed, discussed, and debated female character on the international stage’’ (Holledge, 2008, p. 13). There is no question that the play struck a chord that resonated across national and cultural boundaries. Its depiction of a new, modern brand of human relationship promised exciting changes, while simultaneously causing deep anxiety about its lasting impact on women and family (Holledge, 2008; Wang, 2003; Chen, 2010; Nilu, 2008).

Korea was no exception to the significant influence that the play had around the world. Ibsen was one of many Western writers whose works were translated into Korean, and among Koreans A Doll’s House was the best known. Nora was invoked as the archetype for the New Woman (sin y�os�ong) and figured in heated debates among intellectuals in the 1920s and 1930s. Some viewed the character as an iconic embodiment of the modern self, while others considered her to be a classic example of the perfidious influence of Western ideas, especially feminism, in destabilising the family. In this article, I analyse the introduction, circulation and appropriation of A Doll’s House in colonial Korea (1910–45) within the context of the global phenomenon of the New Woman, which was actively introduced to Korea in the 1920s and 1930s. A number of studies have focused on the impact of A Doll’s House within the literary community in colonial Korea, offering significant insights into the role of Western literature in the making of modern womanhood. However, their analysis is largely confined to the literary and discursive domain (Ch�ong, 2001; Kim, 2003; Yi, 2004). In this article, I aim to historicise the figure of ‘‘Nora’’ not only as a hyperbolic icon of the New Woman and the antithesis of ‘‘womanly virtue’’ (pud�ok), which women were instructed in during the Chos�on dynasty (1392–1910), but also as a historical agent for social transformations under the specific local and national circumstances.

It is well known that in the first half of the twentieth century the New Woman or Modern Girl phenomenon was a global trend coloured by local particularities (Heilmann and Beetham, 2004; The Modern Girl Around the World Research Group, 2008). The construction of modern womanhood in Korea precisely demonstrates the intersection of the global and the local. Given the colonial situation in Japanese-controlled Korea, Korean New Womanhood was deeply influenced by the New Woman’s movements in Japan and Japanese colonial gender policies (Mun, 2003; Hyun, 2003; Kim, 2005; Choi, 2009a). In addition, feminist thought and ideals from the West, most famously represented in A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906), Red Love by Alexandra Kollontai (1872–1952) and Love and Marriage by Ellen Key (1849–1926), clearly shaped the discourse on the Korean New Woman (Yi and Yu, 2004).

In the debate about the New Woman, it is important to make a distinction between the discursively constructed and oversimplified image of the ‘‘New Woman’’ and the heterogeneous realities of the ‘‘New Women’’, who were actual flesh-and-blood individuals. Chandra Talpade Mohanty differentiates ‘‘woman’’ from ‘‘women’’, arguing that the singular term ‘‘woman’’ should be interpreted as ‘‘a cultural and ideological composite Other constructed through diverse representa- tional discourses’’, while the plural form ‘‘women’’ refers to ‘‘real, material subjects of their collective histories’’. She further argues that ‘‘[t]his connection between women as historical subjects and the re-presentation of Woman produced by hegemonic discourses is not a relation of direct identity, or a relation of

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correspondence or simple implication. It is an arbitrary relation set up in particular cultural and historical contexts’’ (Mohanty, 1988, p. 62). In this vein, the differentiation between the singular ‘‘New Woman’’ and plural ‘‘New Women’’ is intended to sharpen the distinction between a discursively constructed image and the reality of actual historical figures.

In this article, such differentiation is crucial as I specifically examine the chasm between, on one hand, the portrayal of Nora in the 1933 novel, entitled After the Doll’s House (Inhy�ong �ui chip �ul nawas�o), by Ch’ae Mansik (1902–50) (Ch’ae, 1987) and, on the other hand, the accounts of the lives of actual New Women, some of whom were dubbed ‘‘Korea’s Nora’’ in the press. Through a close examination of the creative process that took place in the representations of A Doll’s House in colonial Korea, I demonstrate how the play served not only as a vehicle for experiencing the modern self, but also as a platform for critiquing imported Western modernity and feminism. I further argue that Korean male and female intellectuals actively engaged with the imported notion of women’s liberation embodied in Nora’s life choice and ultimately hybridised it on the basis of the particular local condition in Korea.

Nora and the Woman Question

Ibsen was first mentioned in Korea in the Korean translation of the Japanese author Uchimura Kanz�o’s (1861–1930) ‘The Goal of the Study of Geography’ by Ch’oe Nams�on (1890–1957) in a magazine, Sony�on (Youth), in 1909 (Yi, 2004, p. 41). However, the iconisation of the character of Nora began in earnest in Korea when Na Hyes�ok (1896–1948), arguably the most celebrated and reviled woman of the colonial era, wrote an essay entitled ‘Ideal Woman’. In the essay she invokes Nora as a seeker of the ideal of ‘‘true love’’ – love and marriage that recognise a woman’s worth as a person rather than her value through the roles she fulfils as a daughter, wife and mother (Na, 1914). Na wrote this essay in 1914 while studying in Japan. At that time, the popular Japanese feminist magazine Seit�o (Blue Stockings, 1911–16) was at the height of its influence in shaping new discourses and life choices for women. The magazine introduced its readers to many European and American writers and activists, and Ibsen and his plays, especially A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler, were prominently featured. Leading Japanese feminists, such as Hiratsuka Raich�o (1886–1971), Yosano Akiko (1878–1942) and It�o Noe (1895–1923), engaged in discussion about these plays and took from them inspiration for their ideas about the Japanese New Woman (Japanese, atarashii onna) (Bardsley, 2007). It is clear that the flourishing intellectual milieu in Japan had a significant impact on Na’s new ways of thinking. In the same essay, she points to Hiratsuka Raich�o and Yosano Akiko as examples of ‘‘ideal women’’, along with the female protagonists in European literature such as Magda in Hermann Sudermann’s (1857–1928) Heimat and Katyusha in Leo Tolstoy’s (1828–1910) Resurrection (Na, 1914).

In 1921, after returning to Korea, Na wrote a song lyric entitled ‘A Doll’s House’ (inhy�ong �ui ka) for Maeil sinbo, a daily newspaper of the colonial government. This poem was a companion to the first full translation of Ibsen’s play by Yang Paekhwa (1889–1938) and Pak Kyegang (?), published as a series from 25 January to 3 April 1921. Yang and Pak used the Japanese translation of the play by Shimamura H�ogetsu

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(1871–1918) as the basis for the Korean version (An, 2003, p. 113). In the poem, Na includes the line, ‘‘I have a sacred duty to myself, as much as to my husband and children’’ (Kim, 2002, p. 14), a quotation from a speech by Nora to her husband Torvald in Act Three. This line became one of the most frequently quoted in Korean print media of the period (Han, 1932; An, 1921; Ryangmy�ong, 1924). Both the title of the poem and its content clearly show the intellectual influence of Ibsen and how strongly Nora’s longing for selfhood and emancipation resonated with readers.

According to Maeil sinbo, the idea for a full Korean translation of A Doll’s House came about at the urging of the editorial staff of the magazine Sin y�oja (New Woman) (Maeil sinbo, 23 January 1921). This piece of information is a key to understanding the circulation and impact of A Doll’s House on early twentieth- century Korean feminist discourse and movements. Sin y�oja, the first feminist magazine in Korea, was founded by Kim W�onju (1896–1971) in 1920 (Yu, 2005). The inaugural edition called for the ‘‘liberation’’ (haebang) of women, who had been treated like slaves ‘‘confined to the deep, dark inner chambers for thousands of years’’ (Sin y�oja 1, 1920, p. 2). It advocated real reform that would result in women ‘‘working in society, gaining emancipation, and finding ways in which we can help build a social order that is the envy of the world’’ (Sin y�oja 1, 1920, pp. 2–3). The magazine opened the era of the New Woman with a profound sense of historical agency in asserting the ideas, vision and sensibilities of women themselves in their new role as equal and legitimate members of society. Contributors to the magazine strove to make known to readers the remarkable accomplishments of women in ancient history as well as the distinguished careers of contemporary women worldwide so that readers would awaken to their potential as free, independent and capable beings. Sin y�oja distinguished itself from previous women’s magazines, such as Y�ojagye (Women’s World), by assembling an editorial and administrative staff comprised entirely of women, except for one male advisor, Yang Uch’on (Sin y�oja 1, 1920, p. 65). In her congratulatory remarks on the founding of the magazine, Alice Appenzeller, an American missionary teacher in Korea, called it ‘‘the first magazine which they [women] can call their very own’’ (Appenzeller, 1920, p. 11). Moreover, the magazine maintained a policy of inviting women of every social status to contribute. This inclusive practice offered women new possibilities to publicly voice their inner desires and daily experiences in the face of oppressive family life and the general denial of basic human rights to them (Sin yoja 2, 1920, p. 64). Thus, Sin y�oja began in earnest the modern feminist debate over what constituted the New Woman within the particular context of Korea. It also enabled the notion of the New Woman to enter the public consciousness in Korea and develop into a historical concept. Given the prominent standing of the magazine in modern Korean feminism, the fact that leading members of the magazine were in some measure responsible for bringing forward the full translation of A Doll’s House sheds light on the role of Western literature as a significant conduit for introducing and distributing new norms and practices for women. It was within this context that Nora became the symbol of the New Woman in colonial Korea through the conscious efforts of the Korean New Women who had been exposed to feminist thinking from Europe, America and Japan.

The Japan-educated playwright and cultural critic Hy�on Ch’�ol (1891–1965) also contributed to the comprehensive introduction of Henrik Ibsen to Korean readers.

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He considered Ibsen to be a contemporary playwright of international renown and a leading modern thinker who fundamentally challenged the old status quo and brought to the fore the central importance of individuality regardless of class or gender (Hy�on, 1921a). Hy�on identifies the key theme in Ibsen’s dramas as ‘‘self- awakening’’. This self-awakening is based on individualism, which he distinguishes from selfish egoism. He suggests that Nora should not be read as a woman who merely leaves her family. Rather, her act should be understood primarily as the result of her self-awakening. Perhaps more importantly, Hy�on points to Ibsen as a symbol of a ‘‘new culture that is appropriate to the Korean condition’’ (Hy�on, 1921a, p. 110). From Hy�on’s vantage point, Ibsen is an inspirational model for Koreans because he achieved stellar status in the literary world despite his impoverished childhood and social disadvantages as a Jew in a tiny country. As Brian Johnston puts it, Ibsen managed to break down a number of barriers by the ‘‘sheer force of his genius’’ (Johnston, 2006, p. 6). Hy�on sees Ibsen’s ability to overcome barriers as deeply relevant to Koreans, who were in a politically restrained, economically under- developed and culturally bleak situation. In this vein, Hy�on further advocates the use of drama in the form of ‘‘people’s plays’’ (minjung k�uk) as one of the most expedient tools for bringing ‘‘enlightenment’’ to the Korean populace (Hy�on, 1921b).

One can see significant differences in what Ibsen and his works meant to different groups of people. To Hy�on Ch’�ol, Ibsen was an iconoclastic modern thinker whose life and plays could serve as an inspirational model for the Korean nation. For Na Hyes�ok and the members of Sin y�oja, Ibsen’s Nora embodied their desire to become autonomous individuals who knew their own worth. Regardless of the particular angle taken on his works, Ibsen as ‘‘the father of modern drama’’ received special attention in 1928, the centennial year of his birth. A series of articles was devoted to memorialising his life and work (Tonga ilbo, 18–28 March 1928). As in other East Asian countries (Chen, 2010; Nilu, 2008; He, 2004; Wang, 2003; Sato, 1996), among Ibsen’s plays A Doll’s House and its protagonist Nora drew the greatest attention (Ch’oe, 2006). The figure of Nora spoke for Korean New Women, who were at the crossroads of the old Confucian-prescribed gender norms centring on womanly virtue in the family and the new modern views of women as equal partners to men. Not surprisingly, the climactic exchange that takes place between Nora and Torvald in the last scene of the play was frequently cited in the print media for its dramatic encapsulation of the conflict between women’s traditional roles and the modern alternative. Torvald invokes her role as wife and mother and accuses Nora of abandoning her ‘‘most sacred duties’’, and Nora responds by claiming an equally sacred duty to herself.

TORVALD: You can’t abandon your home, your husband and your children! What do you think people will say?

NORA: I can’t go worrying about that. All I know is that it’s something I have to do.

TORVALD: But this is outrageous. It’s going back on your most sacred duties.

NORA: And what in your opinion are my most sacred duties?

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TORVALD: Surely you don’t have to ask me that. I mean your duties to your husband and your children.

NORA: I have other duties which are just as sacred.

TORVALD: No, you haven’t. What, for example?

NORA: My duties to myself.

TORVALD: Before anything else, you are my wife and a mother.

NORA: I don’t believe that any more. I believe that before anything else, I am a human being, just as much of one as you are . . . or at least I am going to try to turn myself into one . . . what most people say and what you find in books just doesn’t satisfy me any more. I want to think everything out for myself and make my own decision

1 (Ibsen, 1989, p. 172).

This dialogue represents the essential question at the heart of the woman question: is a woman’s primary duty to herself or to her family? The idea that a woman would need to discover her own personhood before she could fulfil her role as wife and mother signalled an important shift in perspective from the Chos�on dynasty’s Confucian-prescribed gender norms based on the primacy of the family and the subordination of women to men (Deuchler, 1992, pp. 231–81). It was also indicative of a break from the late nineteenth-century enlightenment-oriented gender discourse in Korea that emphasised the value of women to the nation as mothers to future citizens (Kim, 1995). The survival of the nation was still the essential goal of Korean intellectuals in the face of encroachment by Japan and the West after Korea opened its doors to foreign nations in 1876. Thus, the configuration of women’s new role for the nation prevailed. However, the example of Nora’s awakening to her personhood significantly expanded and complicated earlier gender discourse. The print media made use of A Doll’s House to reflect a new trend in the 1920s and onwards in which women boldly challenged old customs and the status quo in both private matters and public issues. For instance, newspapers reported the story of a housewife who left her husband and children in order to go to school to get an education, refusing to continue in the ‘‘doll’s house’’ of a loveless marriage.

2 Stories about Chinese

women’s struggle for suffrage portrayed them as the descendants of Nora, whose claim to be her own person signalled the beginning of an expanded role for women in the public domain.

3 In this way, Nora and A Doll’s House were often cited as a

kind of shorthand that encapsulated a revolt against the conventional role of women in the domestic sphere as mere ‘‘dolls’’ in the houses of their husbands and cogs in the machinery of the family.

A Doll’s House was first staged at the Chos�on Actors’ School (Chos�on paeu hakkyo) for the graduation performance in 1925 (Yun, 2006). It was directed by Hy�on Ch’�ol, who founded the school, and starred Pok Hyesuk (1891–1965). Before this small-scale performance, Kim W�onju of the feminist magazine Sin y�oja and her colleagues had attempted to mount a production of the play with Kim playing Nora, but the notoriety that surrounded her divorce made it impossible to see the plan

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through (Samch’�olli 16, 1931, p. 27). It was not until April of 1934 that the play was first staged for the general public. The Korea Society for Theatre Arts Research (K�uk yesul y�on’guhoe), with the sponsorship of Tonga ilbo, staged two performances of the play in that year, on 18 and 19 April.

4 Art critic Na Ung (1909–?) wrote a

review of the play in four segments. He begins his review expressing full sympathy for the character of Nora as a doll who had never had a ‘‘serious talk’’ as an equal partner with her husband about any topic. After this brief commentary, Na turns to the reactions of three men who had been in the audience. It is not clear whether these are three actual audience members whose opinions Na is reporting directly or three figures created to represent different reactions on the part of male audience members. In any case, the three men, referred to as A, B and C, reveal slightly different takes on the play.

The three men begin their commentary by focusing on the reactions of men versus women to the final scene, in which Nora announces her decision to leave her family. Following the traditional ‘‘separation of genders’’, women and men were seated separately at the theatre. On the women’s side of the theatre, the last scene was met by a loud round of applause, while the male audience members, taken aback by the enthusiasm in the women’s response, urged the women to keep quiet (Na, 27 April 1934, p. 3). While C considers the women’s reaction to be an expression of their desire to liberate themselves from the despotic control of men, B suggests that, truth be told, many of the women in the audience would not have minded being a man’s plaything, as long as he was rich and made her life comfortable. In the end, even C, who seems to have more sympathy for the situation of women than the other two, was bothered by the thunderous reaction of the women to Nora’s final choice. C says, ‘‘if they [the women viewers] were considerate at all, they should have been more contemplative about life rather than clapping loudly’’ (Na, 27 April 1934, p. 3). A adds, ‘‘You are right. When one is deeply moved by something profound, she should not react with such frivolous clapping and vulgar laughter. Rather, she should seriously reflect on it’’ (Na, 27 April 1934, p. 3). But in the end, what is truly ‘‘unnatural’’ in the minds of these male audience members is the fact that a naı̈ve, powerless woman like Nora would actually leave her home. In disbelief, B proclaims, ‘‘What can she possibly do? I tell you, it’s absolutely impossible for her to achieve freedom or liberation with her vulgar petit-bourgeois attitude’’ (Na, 29 April 1934, p. 3).

Nora’s departure, rather than being regarded as a woman’s awakening to her selfhood, is derided as reflecting a ‘‘vulgar petit-bourgeois attitude’’. This view of Nora has direct parallels to the popularised image of the New Woman, who came from the middle class and was portrayed as being educated but egoistical, luxury- seeking, frivolous, and lacking the qualities of a respectable woman. However, in the process of being introduced and interpreted, Nora’s significance spread beyond the middle class. Indeed, she became a symbol of liberation to women of all social classes. Even women entertainers (kisaeng), who had long been considered outcasts in society, took Nora as a model when they discovered their true self-identity and left their former lives as sexual partners for men (Samch’�olli 11(1), 1939, p. 114).

There was another way in which Korean women connected to Nora. Prior to her awakening, Nora represented the experience of women of old Korea. The prominent woman intellectual Ch�ong Ch’ils�ong (1897–1958) used the phrase ‘‘a doll’s house’’ to symbolise patriarchal bondage during the Chos�on dynasty. She wrote, ‘‘In the

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past, the Korean woman sat quietly in her doll’s house, eating and sleeping’’ (Ch�ong, 1929). In a critique of the anachronistic attitudes male writers showed in their portrayal of women characters, an emerging woman writer, Mo Yunsuk (1910–90), lamented that they still adhered to the old notion of ‘‘men revered, women despised’’ (namjon y�obi). Thus, female characters in their novels were always depicted as weak, naı̈ve and ignorant, without free will, ‘‘just like Nora in A Doll’s House’’.

5 Nora’s life

in the doll’s house matched that of any woman in Chos�on Korea – a life centred on her husband and children with no sign of selfhood or autonomy. In this way, Nora’s exit from her doll’s house offered hope of relief from the male-centred, Confucian- prescribed family system that did not allow for the selfhood of a woman. In the end, Nora became, according to Pak Y�ongh�ui (1901–?), an icon of ‘‘individualism’’ (kaein chu�ui) and the search for personhood (Pak, 1924).

What Happened After A Doll’s House?

Despite Ibsen’s objection to A Doll’s House being labelled a ‘‘feminist’’ play (Templeton, 1997, p. 111), the character of Nora served as an icon of the New Woman after the play had circulated globally. In that global circulation, one can find local adaptations as the source meets local cultures (Nilu, 2008). Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the local consumption and appropriation of the play was in the question famously raised by the prominent Chinese writer Lu Xun (1881–1936) in a speech he gave in December 1923 at the Beijing Women’s Normal College: ‘‘What happens after Nora leaves home?’’ (Lan and Fong, 1999, pp. 176–81). Lu Xun gives the pessimistic answer that Nora is likely to fall into depravity or starve to death after her departure from the protection of her husband’s home and his largesse. She is like a ‘‘caged bird’’ who will have to face hawks, cats and other hazards once she leaves the safety of the cage. ‘‘What she needs is money,’’ he bluntly asserts, and without it she is likely to fall into misery (Lan and Fong, 1999, pp. 177–78).

Lu Xun’s conclusion about the fate of Nora is repeated with some significant variations in Ch’ae Mansik’s novel, entitled After the Doll’s House, published in 1933.

6 In his own reflections on writing this novel, Ch’ae says that by ending the

story with Nora’s departure, Ibsen invites his audience to imagine what will happen to her, and most importantly whether she ultimately achieves liberation. Inspired by the general plot of the play while incorporating new elements based on events that had actually occurred in the lives of some friends (Ch’ae, 1933, p. 77), Ch’ae re- imagines Nora’s life as an independent woman within the particular local context of colonial Korea. As literary critic Ch�ong S�ont’ae points out, Ch’ae sketches potential scenarios Nora would likely experience as a naı̈ve middle-class woman without any particular skills or financial means (Ch�ong, 2002, p. 13). In doing so, he imagines a post-‘‘doll’s house’’ life for Nora that goes beyond middle-class boundaries and touches on the lot of women from various class backgrounds who were thrown into the harsh economic realities of the colonial era in the midst of the continuing patriarchal social order.

In Ch’ae’s Korean adaptation, he quickly summarises Ibsen’s play in the first chapter, ending the chapter with an exact recreation of the famous last scene. The chapters that follow present a variety of life experiences that face a woman like Nora in Korean society. The character is forced to move from one job to the next in an

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increasingly desperate effort to survive. She first works as an instructor at a night school for women, then as a private tutor for a handicapped child. After these positions, which still afford her a measure of respectability, she becomes a cosmetics saleswoman and then a café girl nicknamed the ‘‘Indian Princess’’, a position in which she finds herself so degraded that she attempts suicide, after which she finally becomes a factory worker. Through these experiences Nora is transformed from a member of the petit bourgeoisie into a factory worker, a role that is presumed to signal her ultimate liberation and her participation in the struggle against the bourgeois class represented by her former husband.

It is significant that, while all of the other characters have Korean names, 7 Ch’ae

uses the Western name ‘‘Nora’’ for the protagonist. By assigning a Western name to the female character, Ch’ae immediately distances her from the rest and effectively invokes a sense that she is foreign and perhaps even irrelevant to Korean society. Her lack of connection to the real world is captured in a scene in which she goes to the marketplace in her hometown after she has left her husband’s house. With her high heels and modern hairstyle she stands out from the crowd because no one in that village apart from the woman who teaches in the elementary school sports such a distinctive style. To the villagers, the label ‘‘New Woman’’ refers to someone who is married to a rich, educated man with a prestigious job, lives in Seoul or some other urban centre, and leads a life of leisure. For them, it would be unthinkable to find a ‘‘New Woman like Nora shopping in the market, buying fish. It would have been equivalent to witnessing a palace woman coming into a dingy little shop to buy a bunch of green onions’’ (Ch’ae, 1987, pp. 41–42).

Nora stands out not only for her distinctive fashion and style but also for her way of thinking. At the urging of a Bible woman

8 in her hometown, Nora begins to teach

a night class for women. One day in her class the question of marriage comes up, and Nora expresses her ideal of marriage based on love and mutual understanding rather than parental choice. She argues that loveless marriage results in disunity, with the husband and wife leading separate lives. What is worse, society allows the man to do whatever he pleases, but ‘‘the woman must submit to any unhappy situation. This is all because of the old morality and customs that privilege men and regard a woman as nothing more than a simple appendage to a man’’ (Ch’ae, 1987, pp. 59–60). She continues: ‘‘The world is now changed. A woman is a human being in her own right. Therefore, if she wants to live as a human being, she will have to leave the despotism of such a husband or family’’ (Ch’ae, 1987, p. 60). After this speech, the number of students attending the night class rapidly dwindles, and the class soon has to be discontinued due to the lack of students.

The rendering of Nora as bold but naı̈ve, highly fashionable and imbued with modern ideas of gender equality replicates the typical portrayal of the ‘‘New Woman’’ in newspapers, magazines and fiction at the time. A few real life ‘‘New Women’’, such as the writer Kim My�ongsun (1896–1951), inspired characters in the fiction of male writers, and these characters were always portrayed in a negative light.

9 The negative portrayal often centred on ‘‘sexual depravity’’ as the ultimate

fate of bold New Women. In Ch’ae’s novel, Nora ends up as a ‘‘café girl’’, the mod- ern equivalent of entertainers and prostitutes. Like other male writers, Ch’ae took a moralistic approach to the woman question, seeing a woman’s chastity as sacred. Falling into the life of a café girl was the worst fate for the New Woman. Nora’s life

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as a café girl is described in a chapter entitled ‘A Doll for Many Men’. The title of the chapter encapsulates the ironic fate that Ch’ae has imagined for Nora. She walks out of her husband’s house rather than remain his doll, only to become a doll for many men as a café girl. Ch’ae further invokes moral decay and a descent into hell by naming the café where she works Sat’an (‘‘Devil’’).

It is noteworthy that Ch’ae’s depiction of the café and the interaction between café girls and their male customers is remarkably similar to the accounts published in the magazine Y�os�ong (Woman’s Voice). Y�os�ong was founded in 1934 with an exclusive focus on café girls and their experiences and viewpoints. It offers a rare window into the intimate thoughts of those who worked in the cafés and the perceptions of the customers who frequented them. Feminist scholar S�o Chiy�ong (2008) argues that the category of ‘‘café girls’’ defies an easy and clear definition in terms of who they were and what they signified because their images intersect with those of ‘‘girl students’’, ‘‘workers’’, ‘‘actresses’’ and ‘‘prostitutes’’. Nonetheless, the most prevalent image of café girls highlighted their modern taste and sense of style, their up-to-date fashions, and their ‘‘ero [erotic] service’’ (S�o, 2008, p. 36). What is significant is that this same ero service was the basis for café girls’ claim to be ‘‘professionals’’ with a strong work ethic. In Y�os�ong, under the pseudonym ‘‘White Rose’’, a café girl contributed an article entitled ‘Korean Women! Go Immediately to the Frontline of the Job Market!’ The article is accompanied by a photo of a Western woman dressed in a pantsuit. Her tight fists and piercing eyes looking straight at the readers demonstrate her determination and readiness for any challenge. In the article, ‘‘White Rose’’ claims that every job is sacred and that unlike in the past when manual labour was demeaned, many women are now taking on jobs as typists, shop girls, gasoline girls and waitresses. She describes how these women have come out of the deep inner chambers like a bird escaping from its cage, claiming physical and mental freedom and thus finally becoming true individuals. Under the motto ‘‘Complete Freedom’’, the author argues that women should work harder to attain more freedom in a world that is still filled with male despotism. She even suggests that working as a café girl is a good way to subvert the old practice in which men treated women like playthings in that café girls manipulate men (Paek changmi, 1934, pp. 8–11). In another piece from Y�os�ong, a café girl named Sunja describes how male customers try to seduce café girls with every possible temptation, but she dismisses all of their sweet talk as lies and deception. She says that when men make such empty promises, she simply responds, ‘‘yeah, yeah, yeah . . . whatever. . .’’, making the men look ridiculous and pathetic (Sunja, 1934, p. 17). Some of the café girls take a more chastising tone. A café girl identified as ‘‘KNRY’’ says that she is troubled by the fact that the majority of the customers at cafés are male students. She wonders why students are visiting cafés instead of studying and where they get the money to spend there. She further points to those students who are willing to sacrifice their lives for the love of café girls. She rhetorically asks: ‘‘Wouldn’t it be better if they sacrificed their lives for society?’’ (KNRY, 1934, p. 25).

Despite the bold, empowered tone these café girls took, they still suffered from the common public perception that they were nothing more than prostitutes. According to one characterisation, café girls sell their smiles and songs and thus are labelled as ‘‘women with despicable jobs’’ and ‘‘parasites on society’’ (Ch’omi, 1934, p. 18). In her reflection on her life as a café girl in the same edition of Y�os�ong, Kim My�ongsuk

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talks about the public derision directed at women who are ‘‘playing around with men’’ at cafés and bars and will do anything, including prostitute themselves, as long as the money is good. But Kim claims that, while there are café girls who succumb to temptation and money, she is different because her mind is still pure and innocent, and she seeks to renew herself and come to a true awakening despite the circumstances she is in (Kim, 1934).

The descriptions actual café girls give of their experiences are nearly identical to what happens to Nora at the café Sat’an in Ch’ae’s novel, offering a depiction of the ways in which café girls interact with customers, largely male college students, journalists, businessmen, or jobless intellectuals. The novel also illustrates how café girls struggled in the face of incessant advances from their customers, capturing the despair they endured given the traditional expectation of female chastity. Nora’s attempt to commit suicide immediately after she has been sexually molested by one of her customers reflects the depth of despair that some of these women might have experienced. In the end, Ch’ae represents the café not only as the site of sexual encounters but also as a site of collective lamentation about the misery of ‘‘pure and innocent’’ women who enter or are forced into this ‘‘evil cave of depravity’’ (Ch’ae, 1987, p. 228).

The attempt to kill herself and her subsequent revival signal a new path for Nora – the path to true liberation in the imagination of the author. That liberation is embarked upon when she takes a job as a factory worker. In a significant way, there is continuity between her life as a café girl and as a factory worker. As female members of the proletariat, both must endure dismal working conditions with the constant threat of rape by customers or male supervisors.

10 Nora’s transformation

from naı̈ve middle-class woman to café girl and eventually factory worker shows the proletarian leanings of Ch’ae at the time. As literary scholar Kim Yangs�on points out, Ch’ae’s After the Doll’s House is an experiment to convey his interest in socialist realism whereby he exposes a certain colonial reality inflicted by capitalist oppression (Kim, 2006). However, he does not fully explore Nora’s life as a factory worker, leaving her work experience and her struggles as a member of the proletariat to the reader’s imagination. He only hints that Nora is inspired by socialist views and labour issues. He describes her beginning to read August Bebel’s book, Women and Socialism (translated as Puinnon in Korean, which literally means ‘‘thesis on women’’).

11 The book was given to her by a friend from her hometown, a

socialist independence fighter. She had tried to read it at that time but gave up because she found it too difficult to understand. After taking the job in the factory, however, she starts reading it again, finding in it a line that captures her attention. The core message in that line is that class struggle must be dealt with before women’s issues because the latter are subordinated to the former (Kim, 2006, p. 194). Another important scene is the very last segment of the novel, in which Nora encounters her former husband who, as the manager of a bank, is in charge of the printing factory where Nora is working. In response to the derision of her husband at her current status as a mere factory worker, Nora retorts, ‘‘I escaped from your house because I didn’t want to live as your slave. . . Now I am once again bonded by you. Of course you would feel triumphant to see me like this, but the fight is just beginning between you and me. I do not have fuller knowledge yet, but I was told that this world is a struggle [deletion]. I believe this is true. So let’s begin our real fight

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from now on’’ [emphasis added] (Ch’ae, 1987, p. 297). The deleted portion is the point of interest. In colonial Korea the Japanese authorities often censored material, and political incitements were particularly frequent targets. Nora is depicted as having a growing awareness of class antagonism, as indicated by her reading of Women and Socialism. Given this, one could suggest that the deleted phrase might have referred to class struggle. In this class awakening, Nora’s liberation as a woman intersects with class liberation. In the end, Ch’ae’s message is clear. Nora’s true liberation comes from her engagement as a labourer struggling against capitalists. Significantly, after this critical transition in her life, Ch’ae rechristens his protagonist with the Korean name Suni. ‘‘Korea’s Nora’’ undergoes a metamor- phosis to be reborn as a Korean female factory worker with a new gender and class consciousness.

12

Ch’ae Mansik’s novel is a literary articulation of the adoption, deconstruction and appropriation of a foreign narrative to reflect the distinctively local conditions in Korea, which were vastly different from the European sociocultural reality. Ch’ae actively incorporates realistic episodes he has observed from actual women. Especially in the portrayal of Nora’s life trajectory after she leaves her family, he shows the life possibilities for an educated, middle-class New Woman with a desire to search for individual worth and gender equality within the context of the rapid urbanisation and industrialisation that were taking place in colonial Korea. In so doing, he warns of the limitations of Western feminism imported into the local circumstances of Korea. At the same time, he brings to the fore the harsh reality Korean women faced in terms of both gender and class inequality.

The Embodiment of Nora in Korea

Nora was not simply a fictional character. The name became a convenient label, shorthand for the New Women in Korea and their advocacy of women’s liberation, equal companionship and freedom to divorce. For example, the popular magazine Samch’�olli dubbed Pak Ind�ok (1896–1980), a well-known woman intellectual, ‘‘Korea’s Nora’’ after she left her husband and two daughters. It wrote:

Some of you probably feel complete sympathy for Nora, while others may criticise her for her callous act of abandonment. You may have asked yourself, ‘‘How could she forsake her own children even if her husband had treated her badly?’’ You might also think that such things only happen in fiction, but you should not dismiss this as a fanciful tale because we can find numerous real-life examples in Korea that are just like Ibsen’s play. Pak Ind�ok is an authentic counterpart of Nora in A Doll’s House (Samch’�olli 5(1), 1933, pp. 73–74).

In this essay, the author draws parallels between Torvald, Nora’s husband, and Unho, the spouse of Pak Ind�ok. The writer notes, ‘‘just as Torvald loved Nora, so Unho loved Ind�ok; however, neither man attended to the individual character of his wife’’. The phrase ‘‘individual character’’ highlights the iconic feature of Nora. Nora’s refusal to be treated as a lifeless doll by her husband was the beginning of a new life. In the end, expressing support for Ind�ok’s choice to leave her husband and children, the author writes:

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Ind�ok was a human being and a mother. How could she not have loved her children? While in the US, she made endless efforts to get any news about the well-being of her children. She considered sacrificing herself for the sake of her children. Yet, when she saw how little Unho had changed, she reluctantly gave up her beloved daughters. Just like Nora in A Doll’s House, Ind�ok escaped the shackles of her marriage to a man of antiquated thinking, believing that ‘‘before I am a wife, before I am a mother, first and foremost I must be a human being’’ (Samch’�olli 5(1), 1933, pp. 73–74).

Pak’s divorce met with significant criticism that she merely copied ‘‘Western feminism’’ without adjusting to the local realities. For instance, under the pseudonymous byline ‘‘S�ongbuk Hagin’’, a writer comments that Pak’s divorce was a selfish act and a reflection of her misunderstanding of feminism. In this author’s view, Pak should not have left her husband simply because he was poor and jobless. She should have considered her sacred maternal duty to her two daughters and been willing to support her family if she truly were a pioneer in the women’s rights movement. The author also ridiculed Pak as vain and hypocritical for claiming that her divorce was a sacrifice for the next generation, providing them with a model for the future (S�ongbuk Hagin, 1931).

Like the majority of New Women in Korea, Pak Ind�ok attended an American-run missionary school. While at Ewha Girls’ School and College, she drew the attention of teachers and fellow students for her exceptional intelligence, artistic talent and beauty, becoming one of the best-known protégés of American missionary teachers in Korea. However, her relationship with her teachers became strained when she married Kim Unho, a divorced man. Ultimately, the marriage failed. She said, ‘‘[b]eing bound by age-old concepts and traditions was the worst burden I ever had to bear. I had learned that the most precious thing in the world is the freedom to do what one believes is right, and now I had to choose between the Korean custom of remaining with my husband ‘no matter what’, or breaking out to pursue an independent way of life’’ (Pahk, 1954, pp. 162–63). In the end, she opted for divorce, essentially buying her freedom by agreeing to pay alimony to her husband.

Her divorce took place in 1931, right after she had completed six years of study in the United States and a global tour. Upon her return to Korea, Pak contributed several articles to popular journals. In her essays, she emphasised ‘‘economic independence’’ as the first and foremost factor in women’s liberation. She told readers that the more civilised a country is, the more liberated its women are. She held up the example of Sweden for particular praise. She observed that the equality Swedish women enjoyed derived from the fact that they had independent work and economic autonomy (Pak, 1931). Pak had also visited Germany and had the chance to observe rural communities, where she was impressed by the peasants’ strong work ethic and frugal lifestyle (Pak, 1932).

What Pak reported about Swedish and German women came down to self- sufficiency through work. She considered economic independence to be the basis for the true liberation of women. To that end, Pak played a leadership role in championing the significance of economic independence through various organisa- tions, such as Chos�on chig�op puin hy�ophoe (Korean Association of Career Women). She gave lectures offering economic advice to women so that they could manage their own earnings (Tonga ilbo, 22 April 1933). She also launched a campaign to

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educate women and children in rural communities, offering practical knowledge of home economics, emergency care and hygienic childcare as well as literacy (Tonga ilbo, 5 November 1933).

In understanding the life of Pak Ind�ok after her divorce, it is crucial to take into consideration the role Christianity played. Because of her divorce she was ostracised by her Christian colleagues, who frowned upon divorcees. However, it was also the Christian community that offered her the small jobs that enabled her to survive. More importantly, a few years after the divorce her exceptional credentials allowed her to again take a leadership role in the Christian network. For instance, when the Methodist Church celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its introduction to Korea in 1934, Pak worked as a member of the organising committee along with prominent Christian leaders, such as Kim Hwallan (1899–1970), Yang Chusam (1879–?), Yun Ch’iho (1864–1945) and Sin H�ungu (1883–1959) (Tonga ilbo, 25 February 1934). Her connection with the Christian community also provided her with other opportunities to travel overseas. In 1935, Pak was invited to speak at the Quadrennial Convention of the Student Volunteer Movement in Indianapolis and also at the Chain of Missionary Assemblies in Florida. These invitations were a welcome opportunity to renew herself away from the ‘‘miserable, lonely and disappointing’’ life she had led after her divorce (Pak, 1936). In addition, unlike on her earlier trip to the US as a student, this time she felt she was ‘‘a kind of missionary to America’’, sharing stories about Korea and appealing to the ‘‘brotherhood of mankind’’. From December 1935 to September 1937, she made 642 speeches and covered 80,000 miles. She was very successful in raising funds for her rural development projects, especially for the purchase of livestock to help farmers (Pahk, 1954, pp. 187–88).

Pak Ind�ok’s life follows Nora’s dramatic arc with her self-awakening and finding the courage to end the age-old bondage to a husband and family. Pak’s divorce signalled the outright tensions between old conventions and new expectations placed on women in the family and society. Pak’s choice was not an isolated or unusual one. Indeed, the growing rate of divorce in colonial Korea began to be perceived as a threat to the stability of the family. A reporter for Tonga ilbo labelled the increase in divorce suits a ‘‘fashion’’.

13 This new phenomenon was particularly prominent in the

cities. In Seoul, there were only five or six divorces filed in the mid-1920s (Yoo, 2008, p. 82). However, by the early 1930s, Seoul recorded a higher number of divorces than Tokyo, Osaka, P’y�ongyang or Taegu (Samch’�olli 3(11), 1931, p. 35). The sensational reports about the divorces of prominent women, such as Pak Ind�ok or Na Hyes�ok, helped to amplify the fear of the declining cohesiveness of the family, serving as cautionary tales. However, unlike the imagined turbulent life path of Nora in Ch’ae’s novel, the real-life experience of Pak Ind�ok after her divorce shows her strong awareness of the importance of economic independence and an active search for self-realisation. It is in this gap between an imagined/fictional life and the actual life of the New Woman that one can detect male anxiety over New Women, who began to assert a new role for themselves beyond that of wives and mothers.

Conclusion

In this article I have analysed how a particular work of foreign literature, A Doll’s House, was received in Korea. The tone and nature of that reception provide insights

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into how gender politics were shaped, at least in part, by the continuous flow of modern ideas from Japan and the West. After Korea began to actively engage in political and social reforms in the late nineteenth century, new ideas and practices from the West and modern Japan often served as the model to emulate. However, when it came to ‘‘the woman question’’, the lure of the West was accompanied by deep anxiety about the ‘‘Westernisation’’ of women. The concept of ‘‘Westernisa- tion’’ drew heated debate in the discourse on the New Woman in the 1920s and 1930s. ‘‘Westernisation’’ included a range of behaviours, from reading foreign novels to marrying (and divorcing) for love. Those women who embraced these changes in social and material culture were often stereotyped as unconventional, hyper-modern or simply ‘‘unfit’’.

In a significant way, the character of Nora in A Doll’s House was the quintessential figure of the modern Western woman in the eyes of Koreans. Her self-awakening and her decision to leave her family were revelatory for women and shocking to general audiences. Thus, when it first appeared, the play provided an important intellectual platform for reflecting upon ‘‘the woman question’’. Ch’ae Mansik’s ‘‘sequel’’ to A Doll’s House demonstrates how the dynamic flow of ideas and images transcended national boundaries and shows that the local embodiment of that flow was not a passive adoption but a dialectical, and at times subversive, process. In that process, the life of the modern woman was viewed as bold and enlightened by some but suspect and despicable by others. These images closely intersected with the lives of actual women whose choices, including divorce, were often subjected to public scrutiny and criticism.

In Ch’ae’s literary re-imagining, Nora’s transformation from café girl to factory worker represents a stark rebirth from the frivolous and contemptible modern woman to the hard-working, potentially revolutionary woman worker in capitalist colonial Korea. The fact that the character is rechristened, stripped of the Western name ‘‘Nora’’ and given the Korean name ‘‘Suni’’, suggests a parallel transforma- tion from Western to Korean values. What is crucial in this literary formulation is the fact that Suni is made through the dialectic process of her exposure to the Western modern and ruthless economic reality. In this space of transnational influences from the West, Korea’s Nora is localised and reborn as an active participant in a struggle against not only male-dominant social arrangements, but also class contradictions in colonial Korea.

In parallel with the literary representation of the New Woman embodied in the character Nora, real-life Korean New Women were invoked as Korea’s Nora. Pak Ind�ok, in particular, drew much attention after her divorce. Her decision to forsake her children in order to pursue freedom and self-realisation was criticised in the print media as an inauthentic, superficial imitation of Western feminism and a typical example of the vainglorious mind of an educated New Woman. Under such circumstances, some Western-educated Korean women put a strategic distance between themselves and ‘‘Western’’ women and culture by criticising Western women as having no concern for their nation or collective goals, being consumed instead by self-interest (H�o, 1927; Yun, 1929). However, Pak and like-minded New Women did not always fit the representations of educated women as mindless followers of modern ‘‘Western’’ culture. For instance, they advocated emulating successful models of agricultural development from Western Europe for the

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predominantly agricultural society of Korea (Pak, 1932; Kim, 1928). Their emphasis on rural development rather than urban sectors defied the typical image of educated women, who were supposed to be solely interested in the chic culture of the city. In this way, these presumably ‘‘Westernised’’ Korean women challenged and complicated the widespread, monolithic images of New Women.

Furthermore, New Women in Korea greatly stressed economic independence as the most important factor in women’s liberation (Yi, 1999, pp. 77–78), distinguish- ing themselves from the naiveté that Nora was perceived to have had in economic matters. Pak Ind�ok’s campaign to educate women more about economic issues illustrates such an emphasis. In this regard it is important to note that Pak’s work life was deeply interwoven with Christian organisations. Although it is not explored in depth in this article, Pak’s life trajectory reveals distinctive aspects arising from a feature of the Korean situation – namely, the existence of a Christian network. This network evolved from the missionary school system. It trained the first cohort of educated Korean women and provided some of the few employment opportunities that were available to educated Christian women.

14

Nora is an international icon of the New Woman, representing selfhood and control of her own life but at the same time a threat to the stability of the family unit. This icon was appropriated in Korea, where several actual women were nominated as local versions of the icon. The juxtaposition of the re-imagined Nora who appeared in modern Korean literature with Pak Ind�ok, whose scandalous divorce made her into a real-life parallel of Nora, reveals the significant chasm that existed between the hyperbolic image of the modern Western woman and the locally-rooted gender politics among Korean New Women. That chasm reflects the tension women and men experienced between local/national demands and transnational lures in envisioning modern womanhood.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Peter Jackson and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions. In the early stages of this research, Ellen Rees offered most helpful guidance on Ibsen. This study was supported by a Fulbright grant that enabled me to conduct research in South Korea. My host institution, Ewha Womans University’s Korean Women’s Institute, and its members provided me with exceptional opportunities to have in-depth dialogue with scholars and students. I especially thank S�o Chiy�ong for sharing rare documents on café girls in colonial Korea.

Notes

1. This section of the play was translated into Korean for publication in magazines. Rather than re-

translating that section into English here, I have used the English translation from the book,

Hedda Gabler and A Doll’s House (Ibsen, 1989, p. 172) translated by Christopher Hampton.

2. Y�oja to paew�oyagetta n�un kaks�ong �uro ‘Inhy�ong �ui ka’ r�ul t’alch’ulhan kaj�ong puin. Tonga ilbo,

22 June 1925; Inhy�ong �ui ka r�ul nas�oja. Tonga ilbo, 27 March 1924. 3. Chungguk puin �ui ch’amj�ong kis�onghoe ch’uls�ok. Tonga ilbo, 12 May 1920.

4. Tonga ilbo sponsored the play and ran an advertisement on 2 April 1934 to publicise

performances on 18 and 19 April. The play was based on a translation by Pak Yongch’�ol and

was directed by Hong Haes�ong. See S�o (1938, p. 194) and Shim (2004, p. 145).

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5. Y�oryu chakka chwadamhoe. Samch’�olli 8(2), 1936, p. 224. 6. The novel was published in serialised form in Chos�on ilbo, 27 May–14 November 1933. In this

article, I have used the version included in Ch’ae Mansik (1987, pp. 9–297).

7. The one exception to this is Nora’s daughters. Ch’ae gives them the Western names Maria and

Anna, while her son bears the Korean name, Songi.

8. The term ‘‘Bible woman’’ refers to those Korean women Christian converts who worked for

American missionaries, helping to teach the Bible to Koreans. In colonial Korea, it was rather

common for educated women to offer lessons, largely focusing on literacy, to children and

women in the rural areas on an informal basis.

9. For example, Kim Tongin (1900–51) wrote a short story, ‘Kim Y�onsil ch�on’ (The Story of Kim

Y�onsil), in 1939, portraying the female protagonist as an educated New Woman whose life is

centred on romance and sexual encounters and thus draws ridicule and scorn. See Kim (1969).

10. As a café girl named Ch’omi (1934, p. 19) put it in the magazine, Y�os�ong, ‘‘the job of café girls is

indeed the sole option for proletarian women for survival’’. She further wrote, ‘‘while those who

have enough means plan for tomorrow’s fun, we café girls have to think about how to get bread

just to survive. We don’t have much choice but to sell our smiles and songs in order to make a

living’’. See also Yoo (2008, especially chapters 3 and 4) and Kim (2009).

11. It was reported that August Bebel’s book was translated by Pae S�ongryong under the title, Puin

haebang kwa hy�onsil saenghwal (Women’s Liberation and their Life in Reality). Tonga ilbo, 9 November 1925, p. 3.

12. Recent studies demonstrate that while factory women in colonial Korea were victims of

oppressive colonial industrial policies, they also embodied the frontline of New Womanhood as

they had economic independence, enjoyed modern fashion and leisure, and possessed a sense of

self-identity and pride. See S�o (2009) and Kim (2007).

13. The most common causes cited for divorce were domestic violence and abandonment on the part

of husbands. However, there were also news reports of suits brought by husbands who were the

victims of domestic violence or infidelity. Yuhaengs�ong �ui ihon sosong. Tonga ilbo, 30 September 1921; Puj�ong �uro ihon. Tonga ilbo, 4 March 1922; Chingihan ihon sosong. Tonga

ilbo, 26 February 1922.

14. For the crucial importance of Christianity in the formation of modern womanhood in Korea, see

Choi (2009b).

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