TWIB-III: 46 (8/31-9/6)
Sep. 22nd, 2009 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akujunkanI don't know what it is about 2009, but I'm reading about 1/3 as many books as my yearly average and I don't like it. Anyway, here's the single book I read last week; the author dressed it up so well it took me awhile to peg it for the honker it is.
1) 日韓のパラリズム：新しい眺め合いは可能か - 鄭 大均
Japan-Korean Parallelism: Is a New Way of Seeing Each Other Possible? - Chon Tegyun
Japan-Korea Parallelism is the Joe Lieberman of Japan/Korea case studies, by which I mean it starts off by being personable and apparently reasonable in an attempt to lure you in before it exposes its chauvanistically conservative core. It opens with an examination of the Korean press's handling of the 1992 Los Angeles riots before moving into an examination of the sources of anti-Japanese nationalism in Korea. These first two chapters may not have offered much by way of a new take on these issues, but they were, at least, objective. Not so the next chapter, "The 'Myth' of the Zainichi Korean," in which Chon makes an argument that translates into Japan's version of "Now that Obama's been elected president, America is totally post-racial!" (Hint: if "all" Zainichi Koreans need to do to gain full rights under Japanese law is to register as Japanese citizens, but registering as a Japanese citizen would mean, in a large percentage of cases, being forced to surrender one's surname for a Japanese surname, then there is still discrimination at work.)
The third chapter, which compares Japanese criticism of America with Korean criticism of Japan, is fairly useful and could have formed the basis for a compelling book had Chon stuck with this formula. Instead the rest of the volume descends into a series of formulaic handwringing about how South Korea is too ungrateful to acknowledge all the Japanese occupation did for it, short-sighted for trying to restore aspects of its pre-occupation culture, and lying when it claims much of its modern culture is native Korean and not Japanese. I find it both interesting and telling that Chon abandons the U.S.-Japan/Japan-Korea comparative framework here, as it could have been quite productive given the fact that many aspects of modern Japanese culture have their roots in U.S. occupation-era reforms, to say nothing of Meiji-era cooptations from the West in general. Seems like someone is feeling a little defensive about the relative purity of their culture, and it isn't (just) the Koreans.
The final chapters, which deal with Japan's (imputed) influence on the Korean language are by far its weakest. They consist mainly of long lists Japanese/Korean vocabulary, and even worse, long passages of Korean text clumsily rendered into katakana with no hangeul originals provided. Given the fact that Chon includes hangeul elsewhere in the text, at least this cynical reader thinks the decision not to do so in these instances is an attempt to disguise faulty evidence and/or reasoning from biligual readers.
In summary: while Japan-Korean Parallism claims to explore the possibility for the two nations to coexist more harmoniously by letting go of their prejudices against one another, it's actually just the same old chauvanistic "Don't Worry Japan, You're Still Superior After All!" bullshit from a publishing house whose other works include the ouerve of O Sonfa.
That will be all.
1) 日韓のパラリズム：新しい眺め合いは可能か - 鄭 大均
Japan-Korean Parallelism: Is a New Way of Seeing Each Other Possible? - Chon Tegyun
Japan-Korea Parallelism is the Joe Lieberman of Japan/Korea case studies, by which I mean it starts off by being personable and apparently reasonable in an attempt to lure you in before it exposes its chauvanistically conservative core. It opens with an examination of the Korean press's handling of the 1992 Los Angeles riots before moving into an examination of the sources of anti-Japanese nationalism in Korea. These first two chapters may not have offered much by way of a new take on these issues, but they were, at least, objective. Not so the next chapter, "The 'Myth' of the Zainichi Korean," in which Chon makes an argument that translates into Japan's version of "Now that Obama's been elected president, America is totally post-racial!" (Hint: if "all" Zainichi Koreans need to do to gain full rights under Japanese law is to register as Japanese citizens, but registering as a Japanese citizen would mean, in a large percentage of cases, being forced to surrender one's surname for a Japanese surname, then there is still discrimination at work.)
The third chapter, which compares Japanese criticism of America with Korean criticism of Japan, is fairly useful and could have formed the basis for a compelling book had Chon stuck with this formula. Instead the rest of the volume descends into a series of formulaic handwringing about how South Korea is too ungrateful to acknowledge all the Japanese occupation did for it, short-sighted for trying to restore aspects of its pre-occupation culture, and lying when it claims much of its modern culture is native Korean and not Japanese. I find it both interesting and telling that Chon abandons the U.S.-Japan/Japan-Korea comparative framework here, as it could have been quite productive given the fact that many aspects of modern Japanese culture have their roots in U.S. occupation-era reforms, to say nothing of Meiji-era cooptations from the West in general. Seems like someone is feeling a little defensive about the relative purity of their culture, and it isn't (just) the Koreans.
The final chapters, which deal with Japan's (imputed) influence on the Korean language are by far its weakest. They consist mainly of long lists Japanese/Korean vocabulary, and even worse, long passages of Korean text clumsily rendered into katakana with no hangeul originals provided. Given the fact that Chon includes hangeul elsewhere in the text, at least this cynical reader thinks the decision not to do so in these instances is an attempt to disguise faulty evidence and/or reasoning from biligual readers.
In summary: while Japan-Korean Parallism claims to explore the possibility for the two nations to coexist more harmoniously by letting go of their prejudices against one another, it's actually just the same old chauvanistic "Don't Worry Japan, You're Still Superior After All!" bullshit from a publishing house whose other works include the ouerve of O Sonfa.
That will be all.
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no subject
on 2009-09-22 03:22 pm (UTC)Interesting review! Oh, and I don't have your e-mail address
for my thesis. Would you mind?no subject
on 2009-09-26 01:49 pm (UTC)And no problem. I've just messaged you my email, so send me what you've got!
no subject
on 2009-09-28 12:18 am (UTC)no subject
on 2009-09-28 12:16 am (UTC)LOL, the racists are coming out of the woodwork now that Obama's president. It's only inflaming them.