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With the growing popularity of K-pop, K-pop bands have become increasingly racially and ethnically diverse. However, is the diversity of K-pop bands—referred to as K-pop diversity—genuine? This article addresses this question by examining issues related to race and color and institutional racism within the K-pop industry. The discussion consists of four parts. First, the article visits three framing ideas that guide the article’s analysis, specifically Critical Race Theory (CRT), Koreanness, and neoliberal multiculturalism. Second, it examines the racial and ethnic diversity of K-pop boy and girl groups from 2010 to 2022, highlighting the implications of this trend. Third, it offers a critical analysis of EXP Edition, the first non-Korean K-pop band. Fourth, the article delves into ChoColat, the first mixed-race Korean K-pop band. Through these case studies, the article explores institutional racism, neoliberal ideas of racial diversity, and the notion of Koreanness in K-pop bands. Finally, the article discusses the future of K-pop diversity and K-pop bands regarding multiculturalism.

In this paper, we examine the transformation of women’s fashion in 1970s and 80s South Korea by analyzing the images and narratives of unisex clothing in print media. During the industrialization, modernization, and Westernization of South Korean society in the postwar period, women’s fashion underwent tremendous change. Korean society witnessed women’s daily clothes shifting from traditional hanbok 韓服 to simplified Western clothes (kansobok 簡素服) to unisex/androgynous styles. Fashion items such as pantalons, jeans, shirts, tailored jackets and suits, casual office wear, and neckties, conventionally identified as men’s wear, became wardrobe choices for women. One explanation for this is that these changes took place as a result of the influence of South Korean state policy and the national reconstruction movement to simplify women’s dress codes for the sake of economization. However, a closer investigation of the narratives of unisex clothing reveals the impact of feminist movements, a robust youth culture, and young women’s own desire to achieve gender equality and active social participation. Women’s choice of unisex styles came to be viewed as “the era of de-feminized culture: shock of daughters” (t’al yǒsǒng munhwa sidae: ttaltŭl ŭi ch’unggyŏk). There was increased social pressure to reinforce the existing gender-binary system in the face of gender-blurring styles or what was seen as the masculinization of women. Women’s cultural expressions of power, freedom, consumer choices, and modernity, nonetheless, became manifested through their fashion choices. By shedding light on the emergence of unisex clothing in South Korean modernity, this study ultimately seeks to undermine our view of the West as the epicenter of fashion and beauty and urges us to imagine alternative histories and spaces of fashion and bodily aesthetics.

The tragic death of Crown Prince Sado in a rice chest in 1762 has been the subject of much discussion, not only in the academic world but also in South Korean popular culture. In contrast to historical data that suggest that Sado was mentally ill and a violent person whose death was necessary to safeguard the position of the Yi royal house, popular culture has presented him in a more sympathetic light as a victim, blaming political power struggles for his alienation from his father King Yŏngjo (r. 1724–76) and his eventual death. This article explores this glorification of Crown Prince Sado in South Korean popular culture. Cases in point are a wall-tile painting in downtown Seoul, which portrays the procession of King Chŏngjo to the grave of Prince Sado in 1795, the TV series Pimil ŭi mun (Secret Door, 2014), the film Sado (The Throne, 2015), and examples from pseudohistory that apply the Sado narrative to portray Korean history as an ongoing battle between good (us) and evil (them). To understand the narratological motivation behind the glorification of Sado, the article also makes use of historical sources such as Hanjungnok 閑中錄 (Records written in silence), the memoirs of Lady Hyegyŏng, and Hyŏllyungwŏn chi 顯隆園志 (Hyŏllyung tomb epitaph), the epitaph King Chŏngjo wrote for this father. We argue that, for the public, Sado has become the epitome of a tragic hero who fell victim to the forces of the establishment.

This study investigates the use of historical films as a tool for content activism in challenging the historical perspectives of the Japanese government and hawkish right-wing groups. The investigation involves the conceptualization, production, and dissemination of two South Korean historical films, namely, Kwihyang 귀향 and Kunhamdo 군함도, and an examination of the social and political ramifications of these films. The study identifies two revisionist movements in Japan: (a) the rebranding of the comfort women as women who had chosen prostitution and (b) the transformation of Hashima Island, a site of forced labor, into a site of industrial revolution. It then outlines how the two films confronted these issues and led to social activism in relation to them. The study demonstrates how content activism through historical films can effectively confront historical revisionism.

This study argues that Simsŏl 心說 (Exposition on the heart-mind) by Sŏngho Yi Ik 星湖 李瀷 (1681–1763) follows the traditional Neo-Confucian understanding of the heart-mind. Based on the structural similarity between the three layers of the heart-mind—plant, animal, and human—in his writings and in those of the Jesuit order, much previous research has claimed that he was influenced by Western learning. Although the hierarchy of plant, animal, and human first appeared in the Xunzi 荀子, it is accepted by Zhu Xi 朱熹, and is included in the Sŏngni taejŏn 性理大全 (Compendium on nature and principle). Sŏngho’s articulation of the heart-mind followed Neo-Confucian ideas. He acknowledged that the heart-mind of plants is an allegory that refers to the existence of a pattern-principle in the world. He also described the function of the heart-mind in terms of a consciousness, zhijue 知覺 (K. chigak), that in animals, tends to like profit and hate loss, while in humans, it informs their sense of right and wrong. In contrast, Matteo Ricci rejected the Xunzian hierarchy of the myriad being and instead characterized living things in terms of their possession of a soul and found human beings to be unique in terms of their possession of an immortal soul, comprised of reason and free will. While Western learning may have been an inspiration for Sŏngho in composing Simsŏl, his work followed a Neo-Confucian understanding of the heart-mind.

In 1749, King Yŏngjo and his courtiers began to venerate the Ming emperors Hongwu and Chongzhen at Taebodan in the courtyard of Ch’angdŏk Palace. This was in addition to Wanli, who had been honored since 1704. During the late Chosŏn period, the court regularly held rituals to worship these emperors. This study examines court discussions to assess the impact of this veneration on the image of the emperors. These show that prior to 1749, Chosŏn monarchs and ministers often viewed the emperors negatively, while at the same time lauding their virtues. The study also explores the process through which the court constructed orthodox narratives on the emperors, a process which bestowed the emperors with certain merits and virtues. These images became the only legitimate means through which to view them and were reinforced by regular state rituals. After 1749, the emperors became objects of supreme veneration rather than objective evaluation. Ming loyalism discouraged voices critical of the Ming or disrespectful to the emperors, an approach that supplanted a more critical Confucian interpretation.

This article explores the widowed mother figures in So Hyŏnsŏng rok 蘇賢聖錄 (The Record of So Hyŏnsŏng), particularly how a widowed mother successfully distinguishes herself as the head of the household through her relationship with her son. The story deals with the aspirations of mothers of elite yangban families who dream of achieving power despite the social limitations placed upon them. The Record presents the ideal mother–son relationship as both close and hierarchical. The closeness of their relationship enables the mother and son to achieve emotional unity when the boy is young. However, by demonstrating that she is more capable and has better judgment than her son, the mother ensures that their relationship remains hierarchical, enabling her to retain a superior position in the relationship into the boy’s adulthood. The story portrays the complicated relationship between a controlling mother and submissive son in a positive light, despite it being in sharp contrast to the compassionate mother and heroic son of earlier literary works. This article argues that Madame Yang, the widowed mother and main protagonist, reflects both the anxiety and aspirations of contemporaneous Korean women facing the major social changes of the 17th century.

The Confucian concept of shu (恕) (reciprocity) is a leitmotif which is continuously interpreted and reinterpreted in response to changing circumstances. The purpose of this paper is to determine the features of shu in t he Analects (Lunyu 論語) and the Great Learning (Daxue 大學), as interpreted by Chŏng Yagyong 丁若鏞 (1762-1836), widely regarded as one of the greatest and most original Korean thinkers, by comparing his interpretations with those of Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130-1200), whose brand of Neo-Confucianism in Chosŏn constituted an almost unassailable orthodoxy. Both placed great emphasis on shu, but there are important differences in their interpretations. This paper thus contributes to an understanding of the dynamics of the Confucian concept of shu in East Asia.