아시아재단 지원을 통한 김용환의 미국기행과 기행 만화

Abstract

The Asia Foundation, the U.S foreign aid non-governmental organization, that supported Korea before and after the Korean War took a strategy of developing educational and cultural program centered with intellectuals. Founded in 1951, Committee for Free Asia changed its name as the Asia Foundation and established a Korean branch in 1954. While the Asia Foundation actively supported the cultural figures and organizations, influenced the field of Korean culture directly and indirectly. At the base of the works of the Asia Foundation as similar with the works of other foreign aid to Korea, the primary purpose was to disseminate the anti-communism under the cold war system and penetrate pro-Americanism. However, on the flip side, there had been interesting points where the Asia Foundation continuously modified and change the programs and eventually reset its purpose according to the process of understanding the academia and cultural field where the intellectuals and individuals were taken into the programs. This article contemplates the shaping process of early work of the Asia Foundation through the personal files of Cartoonist KIM Yong-Hwan who traveled to the U.S. with the support of the Asia Foundation in 1955. The significance of KIM Yong-Hwan’s personal files lay with the fact that they are documenting the detailed clues of developing and modifying process of programs and change of work plan of the Asia Foundation. Therefore, this article examines the process of the program and follows the works and recollections after KIM Yong-Hwan’s return from the travel and by doing so, infers how the operation of the Asia Foundation during the 1950s signified to KIM Young-Hwan personally and furthermore to the field of Korean culture.