Struggling with “Modernity”: Korean Elites’ Critical Perception of Western Ideas under Japanese Colonial Rule

Abstract

The journal Shin-Heung, published by Keijo Imperial University graduates between 1929 and 1937, reveals the worldviews of Joseon colonial elites under Japanese rule. Neither independence activists nor collaborators, they actively utilized western ideas when moving through the complexities, paradoxes, and dilemmas of a rapidly changing world. In their struggle with ideologies such as socialism, nationalism, and liberalism, they critically understood and somehow managed to reconcile them. As colonized intellectuals, they were essentially nationalists who were critical of colonial rule. Instead of directly participating in the independence movement, however, they embraced socialism with the hope of experiencing the collapse of the Japanese empire. Concurrently, they were liberals who envisioned a “modern” nation based on individual freedom and democracy. While this flexibility helped them endure their colonial reality and envision a future nation, the potential contradictions contained in their conciliatory understanding of diverse western ideas emerged as the colonial situation deteriorated. As they were losing ground, many began to support Japanese rule. However, the flexible and creative ways in which Korean elites understood various ideas would later shape Korean institutions during postcolonial nation-building. Ultimately, Korean elites’ active responses to western ideas also reveal that the process in which western “modernity” proliferated was neither simple nor unilateral, proving the limitations of the western “project of modernity”.