Chong Daham: The Rise of South Korean “New-Right” Revisionist Historiography on King Sejong and the Issues of Post-coloniality in South Korean Historiography
Presented by Dr. Daham Chong, Associate Professor, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Sangmyung University
POSTPONED
Rescheduled Date: February 10, 2022 Thursday, 3:00pm (Los Angeles) / February 10, Thursday, 6:00pm (New York) / February 10, Thursday, 11:00pm (Paris) / Feb 28, Friday, 8:00am (Seoul)
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEkduyrqTktGtUFC-2RGu9oFNj1jG7eka9o
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
A renowned South Korean economic historian Yi Yŏng-hun(이영훈) 's arguments on King Sejong in a youtube media lecture series in 2016 and its publication into a book called Sejong ŭn kwayŏn sŏnggun in'ga (세종은 과연 성군인가) in 2018, has triggered controversial disputes, across the public media space, over King Sejong and his rule which have enjoyed its most iconic status as the all-time favorite national hero or saint king within the context of South Korean nationalism. Furthermore, this is the book where those South Korean far-right revisionists' core arguments on Japanese colonial rule issues, including "comfort women" represented in the book called Pan-Il Chongjokjuui(반일 종족주의) in 2019, have actually originated from and these issues are still ongoing. This book's arguments, phenomenal impacts, and reactions from the public audience represent the realities of Korean academia, politics, and society.
By historicizing them based on a postcolonial and a transnational perspective, this paper seeks to rethink where the studies of Korean history in South Korea have been, where it is now, and where it is going to be, historiographically and politically. First, with a historiographical approach, I will critically review the main arguments and problems of his interpretations of King Sejong and his rule. Then, I will critically examine how his arguments work for the Sejong period and the later period of Korean history within the current academic and socio-political context of South Korea. I will also show you how Yi's reinterpretation of King Sejong ends up only supporting Japanese far-right historical revisionist arguments on perennial controversial issues between Korea and Japan, including "comfort women." Finally, I will talk about some crucial points on the issues of post-coloniality exposed by the controversies of Yi's arguments in the studies of Korean history here in South Korean academia, and I will also talk about what the Korean historians studying Chosŏn history should rethink to deal with far-right historical revisionism in this age of new media and post-truth.
About the Speaker
Daham Chong is an associate professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Sangmyung University in Seoul. He received his Ph.D. in 2008 with the dissertation that scrutinizes how 15th century early Chosŏn kings such as Sejong and Yangban ruling elites appropriated Confucian knowledge and technology of "Sinitic" world system to create what they thought of their "own" kingship and dynastic identity in the fifteenth century. For about 15 years, based on a postcolonial and transnational perspective, he has focused on rewriting early Chosŏn history, which has been highlighted within the nationalist frameworks of South Korean Historiography as an iconic period of self-awareness and self-discovery of Korea's "own" identity. He has also focused on critically analyzing how post-1945 South Korean historiography has invented Korean identity throughout the nation-state building process after 1945 in its inseparable relationship with US academia within the global Cold war context.