Gi-Wook Shin

Kyung Moon Hwang

Ki-uk Sin

One of the largest political protests in contemporary Korean history, the May 1980 Kwangju Uprising still exerts a profound, often contested, influence in Korean society. Through a deft combination of personal reflections and academic analysis, Contentious Kwangju offers a comprehensive examination of the multiple, shifting meanings of this seminal event and explains how the memory of Kwangju has affected Korean life from politics to culture. The first half of the book offers highly personal perspectives on the details of the uprising itself, including the Citizens' Army, the fleeting days of Kwangju citizen autonomy, the activities of American missionaries, and the aftermath following the uprising's suppression by government forces. The second half provides a wide-ranging scholarly assessment of the impact of Kwangju in South Korea, from democratization and the fate of survivors to regional identity and popular culture, concluding with an examination of Kwangju's significance in the larger flow of modern Korean history. In keeping with the book's title, the essays offer competing interpretations of the Kwangju Uprising, yet together provide the most thorough English-language treatment to date of the multifaceted, sweeping significance of this pivotal event.

The May 18 Uprising in Korea's Past and Present

Contentious Kwangju

This book explains the roots, politics, and legacy of Korean ethnic nationalism, which is based on the sense of a shared bloodline and ancestry. Belief in a racially distinct and ethnically homogeneous nation is widely shared on both sides of the Korean peninsula, although some scholars believe it is a myth with little historical basis. Finding both positions problematic and treating identity formation as a social and historical construct that has crucial behavioral consequences, this book examines how such a blood-based notion has become a dominant source of Korean identity, overriding other forms of identity in the modern era. It also looks at how the politics of national identity have played out in various contexts in Korea: semicolonialism, civil war, authoritarian politics, democratization, territorial division, and globalization.

Genealogy, Politics, and Legacy

Ethnic Nationalism in Korea

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Chronology -- Note on Romanization -- Introduction -- 1/ Explaining Peasant Protest: An Integrated View -- 2/ Social Change and Land Tenure in Traditional Korea -- 3/ Colonialism and Korean Agriculture: Growth without Development -- 4/ Tenant-Landlord Conflict, 1920-32: Ideology or Interest? -- 5/ The Red Peasant Union Movement, 1930-39, Part I: An Overview and Critique -- 6/ The Red Peasant Union Movement, 1930-39, Part II: History from Below -- 7/ Tenant-Landlord Conflict, 1933-39: Class and Nation -- 8/ Japanese Militarism and Everyday Forms of Resistance, 1940-44 -- 9/ Historical Origins of Peasant Radicalism in Liberated Korea -- Conclusion: Toward Reform and Revolution -- Appendix 1: Main Activities of Red Peasant Unions -- Appendix 2: Peasant Radicalism Index in Relation to Number of Red Peasant Unions and Socioeconomic, Demographic, and Religious Variables -- Appendix 3: Leadership Characteristics in Selected Red Peasant Unions -- Appendix 4: List of Counties Analyzed -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

Ki-uk Sin

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