Comments on: Self-introduction: Vladimir (Pak Noja) http://www.froginawell.net/korea/2005/11/self-introduction-vladimir-pak-noja/ The Korea History Group Blog Sun, 16 Oct 2011 01:29:23 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 By: Letter from Daechu-ri at The Marmot’s Hole http://www.froginawell.net/korea/2005/11/self-introduction-vladimir-pak-noja/comment-page-1/#comment-737 Letter from Daechu-ri at The Marmot’s Hole Sun, 21 May 2006 05:13:20 +0000 http://www.froginawell.net/korea/2005/11/self-introduction-vladimir-pak-noja/#comment-737 [...] Over at Frog in a Well, Pak Noja (Vladimir Tikhonov) posts a letter from the village head of Daechu-ri, Pyeongtaek. The letter is obviously interesting, but perhaps more interesting is Pak’s observations: I guess I should share with you the English text of a letter sent by Mr. Kim Chit’ae (Ji Tae), the headman of Taech’uri Village, which is struggling currently against a concerted encroachment by the American military and Korea’s own government. After more than 15 thousands (!) of police, military men and gangster-like types usually hired by the removal companies invaded the village on May 4th, Mr. Kim went to prison, together with several other resistance leaders. The letter, written in prison and then translated into English, was sent to me by Mrs. Serapina Cha. head of the Friends of Asia, a NGO involved in the work with “illegal” labour migrants. What is really interesting in this struggle from the viewpoint of the history of ideas, is the way how the concept of “patriotism” is being reconsidered and remade by the resistant peasants. They are no longer any sort of patriots of the South Korean state, which is throwing them from their land - they have burned down their citizen registration cards and officially announced that they would like to have their South Korean citizenship revoked. But they are the patriots of their land, their place - obviously wishing to solidarize with those living around them, and having no wish to see their mountains and fields being turned into a starting grounds for the WWIII. It reminds in some way of Sapatistas, with their attachment to Mayan land and legacy. [...] [...] Over at Frog in a Well, Pak Noja (Vladimir Tikhonov) posts a letter from the village head of Daechu-ri, Pyeongtaek. The letter is obviously interesting, but perhaps more interesting is Pak’s observations: I guess I should share with you the English text of a letter sent by Mr. Kim Chit’ae (Ji Tae), the headman of Taech’uri Village, which is struggling currently against a concerted encroachment by the American military and Korea’s own government. After more than 15 thousands (!) of police, military men and gangster-like types usually hired by the removal companies invaded the village on May 4th, Mr. Kim went to prison, together with several other resistance leaders. The letter, written in prison and then translated into English, was sent to me by Mrs. Serapina Cha. head of the Friends of Asia, a NGO involved in the work with “illegal” labour migrants. What is really interesting in this struggle from the viewpoint of the history of ideas, is the way how the concept of “patriotism” is being reconsidered and remade by the resistant peasants. They are no longer any sort of patriots of the South Korean state, which is throwing them from their land – they have burned down their citizen registration cards and officially announced that they would like to have their South Korean citizenship revoked. But they are the patriots of their land, their place – obviously wishing to solidarize with those living around them, and having no wish to see their mountains and fields being turned into a starting grounds for the WWIII. It reminds in some way of Sapatistas, with their attachment to Mayan land and legacy. [...]

]]> By: noja http://www.froginawell.net/korea/2005/11/self-introduction-vladimir-pak-noja/comment-page-1/#comment-61 noja Wed, 23 Nov 2005 03:19:58 +0000 http://www.froginawell.net/korea/2005/11/self-introduction-vladimir-pak-noja/#comment-61 Recently the search for the Social Darwinist roots of the Korean state-centered nationalism (kukkajuUi- Japanese kokkashugi) seems to become a sort of popular topic among the Korean historians. There was a lengthy article on this by Pak Ch'ansUng (박찬승), which, by the way, made also an extensive use of Sin Ch'aeho writings. Then, we have a nice little book by my good friend Ko Misuk (고미숙) on "Korean modernity, sexuality and pathology" - also with a treasure grove of citations from various Enlightenment sources, Sin Ch'aeho included. Aside from this, there are around 8-10 recent articles on Sin Ch'aeho thought, which include also (often quite critical) analysis of its Social Darwinist component. If anybody is seriously interested, I can put here a list of these articles, with some of my comments on them. For me, Sin Ch'aeho is interesting, among other things, for one very special feature of his 1900s thought - unlike his elder colleagues Pak Unsik and Chang ChiyOn, Sin was never fascinated by the Japanese racialist pan-Asianism - all these ideas on the "war between the whites and the yellows" to which even earlier 1910s Liang Qichao (at least, until 1903-1904) seemed to be very loyal. In fact, Sin Ch'aeho was almost the only influential polemist of the 1900s, who explicitely contrasted the delusionary "preservation of the race" and more real "preservation of the state". Taking into the consideration that Sin still was a racialist thinker (that is, race-based taxonomy was a "scientific fact" for him, together with the block of the received wisdom on the "racial qualities"), such rejection of the racist Pan-Asianism may be explained, probably, by the influence of his old SOnggyun'gwan teacher, Sudang Yi Namgyu - vitriolically anti-Japanese Confucian patriot, suspicious of all the Japanese ideological wares. Recently the search for the Social Darwinist roots of the Korean state-centered nationalism
(kukkajuUi- Japanese kokkashugi) seems to become a sort of popular topic among the Korean
historians. There was a lengthy article on this by Pak Ch’ansUng (박찬승), which, by the way,
made also an extensive use of Sin Ch’aeho writings. Then, we have a nice little book by my good
friend Ko Misuk (고미숙) on “Korean modernity, sexuality and pathology” – also with a treasure grove of
citations from various Enlightenment sources, Sin Ch’aeho included. Aside from this, there are
around 8-10 recent articles on Sin Ch’aeho thought, which include also (often quite critical)
analysis of its Social Darwinist component. If anybody is seriously interested, I can put here
a list of these articles, with some of my comments on them.
For me, Sin Ch’aeho is interesting, among other things, for one very special feature of his 1900s
thought – unlike his elder colleagues Pak Unsik and Chang ChiyOn, Sin was never fascinated by
the Japanese racialist pan-Asianism – all these ideas on the “war between the whites and the yellows”
to which even earlier 1910s Liang Qichao (at least, until 1903-1904) seemed to be very loyal.
In fact, Sin Ch’aeho was almost the only influential polemist of the 1900s, who explicitely
contrasted the delusionary “preservation of the race” and more real “preservation of the state”.
Taking into the consideration that Sin still was a racialist thinker (that is, race-based taxonomy
was a “scientific fact” for him, together with the block of the received wisdom on the “racial
qualities”), such rejection of the racist Pan-Asianism may be explained, probably, by the
influence of his old SOnggyun’gwan teacher, Sudang Yi Namgyu – vitriolically anti-Japanese Confucian
patriot, suspicious of all the Japanese ideological wares.

]]> By: Nomadism http://www.froginawell.net/korea/2005/11/self-introduction-vladimir-pak-noja/comment-page-1/#comment-60 Nomadism Mon, 21 Nov 2005 10:55:18 +0000 http://www.froginawell.net/korea/2005/11/self-introduction-vladimir-pak-noja/#comment-60 박노자 선생님! I'm a Korean 'Fan' of you, and I'm really glad I could meet you here. 박노자 선생님! I’m a Korean ‘Fan’ of you, and I’m really glad I could meet you here.

]]> By: kmlawson http://www.froginawell.net/korea/2005/11/self-introduction-vladimir-pak-noja/comment-page-1/#comment-59 kmlawson Thu, 17 Nov 2005 23:54:20 +0000 http://www.froginawell.net/korea/2005/11/self-introduction-vladimir-pak-noja/#comment-59 It is great to have you with us Vladimir! Your prolific scholarship, in multiple languages, and your role as a public intellectual are inspiring to say the least. I read an article you wrote on Social Darwinism in the International Journal of Korean History (http://history.korea.ac.kr/journal/vol2/from-body-1.htm). Our modern Korea PhD orals preparation list here at Harvard includes the Allen article in that same issue, and I would love to hear your thoughts on that article (and Allen's discussion of the tension between anarchism, nationalism, and Social Darwinism in Sin Ch'aeho) at some point, or what progress there has been since in looking at Social Darwinism in Korean thought. I'm also quite fascinated by the whole strain of East Asian responses to, embraces of, and attempts to generate alterantives to Social Darwinist, or related organic national progressivist narratives. It is great to have you with us Vladimir! Your prolific scholarship, in multiple languages, and your role as a public intellectual are inspiring to say the least. I read an article you wrote on Social Darwinism in the International Journal of Korean History (http://history.korea.ac.kr/journal/vol2/from-body-1.htm). Our modern Korea PhD orals preparation list here at Harvard includes the Allen article in that same issue, and I would love to hear your thoughts on that article (and Allen’s discussion of the tension between anarchism, nationalism, and Social Darwinism in Sin Ch’aeho) at some point, or what progress there has been since in looking at Social Darwinism in Korean thought.

I’m also quite fascinated by the whole strain of East Asian responses to, embraces of, and attempts to generate alterantives to Social Darwinist, or related organic national progressivist narratives.

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