일본제국기 ‘開城’의 지역성과 (탈)식민의 문화기획

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to closely examine the process of a locality forming in “Gaeseong” during the time of the Japanese empire, and the characteristics in this locality. Locality in Gaeseong was formed amid the combination of nationalistic modernity that is represented by tradition, called “ancient capital (古都)” in the Goryeo dynasty and by Gaeseong merchants. In particular, the symbol of the Gaeseong merchant, which was linked with anti-Japanese (capital) sentiment based on the National Economic Theory, is still positioned as a popular idea. When and by whom was locality in Gaeseong thus founded? First of all, the original moment, which gave value to the Gaeseong region, can be found in the historical writing and recognition of Changgang Kim Taek-yeong (金澤榮 1850~1927), an historian from Gaeseong. In the early-modern times, Kim Taek-yeong suggested the teachings and virtues of historical celebrities in the Gaeseong region were ideal values, which is distinct from the regressive Joseon Dynasty. However, what allowed Gaeseong (merchant) to be a discourse fit for modernity based on capitalistic value originated from the Gaesong feature in Bandosiron (半島時論) in the mid-and-late 1910s. Bandosiron, which is journalism of the empire produced by Japan and Joseonin (朝鮮人), formed Gaeseong as a region where capitalistic modernity had been developed naturally through Gaeseong’s features. Gaeseong (merchant) was compared with Geungang (merchant) in the middle of the whole of the Japanese empire. Since the 1930s, young elites coming from Gaeseong, such as Gong Jin-hang (孔鎭恒, 1900~1972) and Lee Seon-geun (李瑄根, 1905~1983), who returned after finishing their studies overseas, performed social and cultural/economic practices, which proposes the locality of Gaeseong (開城) as the universal value of the whole Joseon and Japanese empire. Young elites in the Gaeseong region proceeded to expand the locality of Gaeseong along the boundaries of the Japanese empire. It is a fact that the locality of Gaeseong had characteristics that were anti-Joseon (dynasty) and anti-Japan (capital). However, the shape of this racial (capital) subjectivity, which was identified as Gaeseong by the Gaeseong people themselves or by Joseon residents outside of Gaeseong, could be evident when collaborating with colonial powers and Japanese capital actually within the realistic boundaries of empire. The Gaeseongburip Museum (開城府立博物館), where Joseonin had held the chief position solely during the colonial period, is mentioned as proof of this racial characteristic of the Gaeseong region. However, when examining its establishment and operation in the context of the contemporary age, it may have been established under the donation of Japanese capital Mitsui (三井), which had sought to advance the ginseng business (蔘業) with contributions from Joseonin community leaders in Gaeseong, under a company established by the collection of Japanese people, and under “approval by the authorities for the Japanese Government General.” Also, it is being overlooked because Lee Yeong-sun, the first chief, and Goh Yu-seop (高裕燮, 1905~1944), the second chief who was a symbolic figure of the Gaeseong Museum, were Joseon residents. However, we must emphasize that they are figures who were trained in the academism of empire called Kyotojedae (京都帝大) and Keijo Imperial University, respectively. The position of Goh Yu-seop, who had worried about autonomy in Joseon (academic) inside the academic journal of empire, is what corresponds to the Gaeseong Museum within the system of the colonial museum. In this sense, Gaeseong was the “ancient capital of the modern times,” which was signified “nationally” inside the boundary of the Japanese “empire.”