Comparison of Cultural Nationalism in Modern Korea and China in the Early 20th Century
Comparison on Cultural Nationalism between Modern Korea and China in the Early 20th Century
Over the confronted, yet shared borderline, Korea and China have actively been engaged with each other in various fields of life ever since the dawn of the nations. Such frequent and constant interactions had undoubtedly brought about the civil similitude between them until nowadays. Amongst numerous cultural resemblances of Korea and China from the history, this paper focuses on how their unique, yet similar-to-each-other culture had developed particularly during the early 20th century. Both Korean and Chinese culture prospered in the process of fighting against the Japanese colonialism in 1920’s and 1930’s, and the notable sentiment underlying such cultural movements was nationalism. For the cultural nationalism during this period had lot contributed in advancing the modernization of both countries, I found it worthwhile to study further on this phenomenon of respective countries and then pinpoint similarities, as well as differences between them. As far as I have researched on this topic from the given text materials of “East Asian History and Civilization” class, the comparison could be narrowed down onto the criteria of political backgrounds that had initiated the cultural nationalism, features of the changes in educational, communicational, and consumer-habit culture of Korea and China. To start with, it is crucial to analyze the main reason why the cultural nationalism had emerged particularly in Korea and China among East Asian countries, during those specific years, from the first place. With regard to the political stimulations for the cultural mutation, both of Korean and Chinese cultural nationalism were invoked by student-led political movements, the 1919 March First and the 1919 May Fourth, respectively. However, it is important to note that Korea and China were in completely different political status, with Korea being a colony of Japan and China an
Over the confronted, yet shared borderline, Korea and China have actively been engaged with each other in various fields of life ever since the dawn of the nations. Such frequent and constant interactions had undoubtedly brought about the civil similitude between them until nowadays. Amongst numerous cultural resemblances of Korea and China from the history, this paper focuses on how their unique, yet similar-to-each-other culture had developed particularly during the early 20th century. Both Korean and Chinese culture prospered in the process of fighting against the Japanese colonialism in 1920’s and 1930’s, and the notable sentiment underlying such cultural movements was nationalism. For the cultural nationalism during this period had lot contributed in advancing the modernization of both countries, I found it worthwhile to study further on this phenomenon of respective countries and then pinpoint similarities, as well as differences between them. As far as I have researched on this topic from the given text materials of “East Asian History and Civilization” class, the comparison could be narrowed down onto the criteria of political backgrounds that had initiated the cultural nationalism, features of the changes in educational, communicational, and consumer-habit culture of Korea and China. To start with, it is crucial to analyze the main reason why the cultural nationalism had emerged particularly in Korea and China among East Asian countries, during those specific years, from the first place. With regard to the political stimulations for the cultural mutation, both of Korean and Chinese cultural nationalism were invoked by student-led political movements, the 1919 March First and the 1919 May Fourth, respectively. However, it is important to note that Korea and China were in completely different political status, with Korea being a colony of Japan and China an