New Publications on Korea At Harvard

Initiated in 1956, the Asia Center Publications Program currently publishes about fifteen new titles a year. The program oversees three series: the Harvard East Asian Monograph Series (now totaling 185 published titles); the Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series (49 published titles); and the reactivated Harvard Studies in East Asian Law (1 book in print through the Publications Program). Included in the East Asian Monograph Series is the new Harvard-Hallym Series on Korean Studies, with five books and the CD-Rom Bibliography currently in print, and a number of new manuscripts underway. The Publications Program is directed by John R. Ziemer, who was previously the editor-in-chief for production at Stanford University Press.

The Harvard Korean Studies Bibliography: 80,000 References on Korea
compiled by Frank Hoffmann with Matthew J. Christensen and Krik W. Larsen

With references to some 50,000 articles, 17,000 books, 4,000 book chapters, 7,000 dissertations, and 4,000 reviews, The Harvard Korean Studies Bibliography is the largest listing of Western-language publications on Korea available in CD format. The coverage spans works in all subject areas published from the 18th century to the present in English and other European languages using the roman alphabet. The EndNote software included with the CD allows searches by author, title, subject, or date of publication. Bibliographies can be formatted and printed in any of several standard reference styles. The CD can be run on both Mac and PC platforms.

The Harvard Korean Studies Bibliography was created under the sponsorship and supervision of the Harvard University Korea Institute. It is being produced by the Harvard University Asia Center and is distributed by Harvard University Press.

(Available as CD-ROM only - not a book.)

Culture and the State in Late Choson Korea
JaHyun Kim Haboush and Martina Deuchler, editors

The Choson state is often cited as one of the rare instances in which a pre-modern polity was proclaimed on the basis of a specific ideology. But the state's adherence to the doctrines of the Ch'eng-Chu school of Neo-Confucianism did not mean that all members of the ruling elite agreed on doctrinal matters or that non-Confucian worldviews were totally discarded.

The six chapters in this volume investigate the shifting boundaries between the Choson state and the adherents of Confucianism, Buddhism, Christianity, and popular religions from the late sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Each of the six chapters seeks to define the meaning and the constitutive elements of the hegemonic group and a particular community--some of which were part of the mainstream and others of which were marginalized communities--in the Confucian state. The contributors argue that the power of each group and the space it occupied were determined by a dynamic interaction of ideology, governmental policies, and the group's self-perceptions and that each relationship was continuously recalibrated and adjusted. Collectively, the papers in the volume counter the static view of the Korean Confucian state, elucidate its relationship to the wider Confucian community and religious groups, and suggest new views of the complex way in which each negotiated and adjusted its ideology and practices in response to the state's activities.

JaHyun Kim Haboush is Professor of East Asian History and Culture at the University of Illinois; Martina Deuchler is Professor of Korean Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Colonial Modernity in Korea
Gi-Wook Shin and Michael Robinson, editors

The study of Korea during the colonial period (1910-45) has long been dominated by the nationalist paradigms of Japanese imperialist repression versus Korean nationalist resistance, colonial exploitation versus national development, and Japanese culture versus Korean culture. The twelve chapters in this volume seek to overcome these the limitations of these binaries by adopting a more inclusive, pluralistic approach that stresses the complex relations among colonialism, modernity, and nationalism and sees them not as opposites but as a mutually reinforcing web of relations that continues to influence Korea today. By addressing such diverse subjects as the colonial domination through the legal system and the corporatist Japanese state in Korea, the growth of radio and telecommunications, the rural economy, and industrialization and the formation of an industrial workforce, the essays in Part I of this volume analyze how various aspects of modernity emerged in the colonial context and how they were mobilized by the Japanese for colonial domination and utilized by Koreans for their own purposes. The studies in Part II examine the development of various forms of identity, from nation to gender to class to intellectual to a minority struggling for human rights, focusing in particular on how aspects of colonial modernity facilitated the formation of individual and group identities through negotiation, contestation, and redefinition.

Gi-Wook Shin is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Michael Robinson is Associate Professor of Korean History at Indiana University.

Colonial Industrialization and Labor in Korea: The Onoda Cement Factory
Soon-Won Park

This book is a study of labor relations and the first generation of skilled workers in colonial Korea, a subject crucial to the understanding of modernization in twentieth-century Korea. Born in rural Korea, these workers confronted both the colonial experience and the modern workplace as they interacted with Japanese managers and workers in Japanese-owned and -operated factories. In post-colonial Korea, they formed the nucleus of the workforce, both blue and white collar, that has transformed They are often portrayed as passive victims, but in reality they were active players who formed their own identities as skilled workers. Based on the archives of the Onoda Cement Factory and interviews with surviving workers, this work analyzes the complex relationship between colonialism and modernization. In the life experiences of these factory workers in colonial and post-colonial Korea can be seen the emergence of the Korean industrial workforce and one aspect of the modern transformation of the Korean people. The study focuses on the history of the Onoda plants in Korea, structural changes in the workforce of Korea during the colonial period, labor-management relations in a Japanese-run factory, the effect of the war on Korean workers, and the post-colonial experiences of the generation of workers created during the colonial period.

Through interviews with surviving workers, this work analyzes the complex relationship between colonialism and modernization. In the life experiences of these factory workers in colonial and post-colonial Korea can be seen the emergence of the Korean industrial workforce and one aspect of the modern transformation of the Korean people. The study focuses on the history of the Onoda plants in Korea, structural changes in the workforce of Korea during the colonial period, labor-management relations in a Japanese-run factory, the effect of the war on Korean workers, and the post-colonial experiences of the generation of workers created during the colonial period.

Soon-Won Park is a lecturer in Korean studies at Keio University in Tokyo.