Protest Politics and the Democratization of South Korea: Strategies and Roles of Women

187 Pages·2014·1.819 MB·English

by  Youngtae Shin

Protest Politics and the Democratization of South Korea
Protest Politics and the Democratization of South Korea
Strategies and Roles of Women
Youngtae Shin
LEXINGTON BOOKS
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Copyright © 2015 by Lexington Books
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shin, Youngtae.
Protest politics and the democratization of South Korea : strategies and roles of women / Youngtae Shin
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7391-9025-8 (cloth : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-7391-9026-5 (electronic)
1. Women--Political activity--Korea (South) 2. Women and democracy--Korea (South) 3. Protest movements--
Korea (South) 4. Social movements--Korea (South) 5. Democratization--Korea (South) 6. Korea (South)--Politics
and government--1960-1988. 7. Korea (South)--Politics and government--1988-2002. 8. Korea (South)--Politics and
government--2002- I. Title.
HQ1236.5.K6S55 2015
320.082095195--dc23
2014034019
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for
Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Dedicated to the Mothers, with respect and appreciation
Acknowledgments
There are many who stood behind me during the long journey of writing this
book. First of all, I would like to acknowledge the anonymous readers for their
valuable comments and input. Without their help, this book could not have reached the
level of quality it has now. My colleague and friend Bruce Cumings has always been
supportive and encouraging since my undergraduate days at the University of
Washington. I appreciate his support and faith in me, which never faltered throughout
my academic life. My dear friend, Kim Nyung, has always been willing to find ways to
help me and has shown his support since the first time we met as graduate students
in the late 1980s. Once he drove me through the labyrinth of the small alleys leading
to the police station in Namyeongdong where the infamous torture of political
prisoners took place, and I wanted to have a first-hand look of this horrible place and
take a photo for this book. It would have been daunting to find the place on my own,
let alone to be in the room by myself where Bak Jongcheol was tortured and died. It
is in his friendship that I find the warmth of Korean hearts. Kathy Moon, whom I first
met in 1991 at the Women in International Security Conference, has also inspired me
with her hard work and success as an academic whose love for Korea has been
expressed in many academic settings.
Justin Race, editor at Lexington Books, has been so understanding and
encouraging throughout the process. When I felt stressed, he gently reminded me
that the work was near completion and cheered me up with his compliments. His
careful editing skills and suggestions significantly elevated the quality of the book, and
I could not possibly ask for a better editor. Brian Hill, assistant to Justin Race, also
worked hard to improve the work.
The support I received from my sisters and brother is also noteworthy: they
distributed and collected the surveys for this study in their own communities. My
niece, Jeongmi, not only regularly fed me her delicious and nutritious home-cooked
food, she also organized the survey results in a manner that made it much easier to
understand my findings at a glance. My sister’s husband, Hong Taepyo, took my work
as seriously as his own while he was busy serving as principal of a high school and
pursuing his Master in Science in physics. He is so humorous and light-hearted that
very few, including him, understand how valuable his help has been.
The fellowship from the Academy of Korean Studies allowed me a year of
research in Korea. In addition to the grant and free access to the library, the
academy provided me a place to live in its quiet and beautiful campus. Having this
living accommodation was most helpful for my mental and physical space, thus
enabling me to focus on my research. Participating in the International Folk Dance
and the Chancel Choir at the Westminster Presbyterian Church, both in Oklahoma
City, provided much needed diversions and respite from the mental work. I thank
them for allowing me to join in when I am not particularly talented in either area.
I also thank my colleagues at the University of Central Oklahoma for their
endless support. My colleague, Randall Jones, especially deserves a few words of
appreciation, however inadequate they are, for lending his ears to my numerous ideas
and issues. I would also like to extend special thanks to Don Betz, then provost, now
president of the university, for allowing me an extended sabbatical leave when the
idea of this book was first conceived of and most of research was done. Without the
extra semester to stay in South Korea, I doubt that I would have gained the trust of
the people who are the main subject of this study. In the same vein, Louis Furmanski,
my colleague and chair of the department, always worked to make my research
efforts easier and wrote many supportive letters to the administration to this end. My
former graduate student, Randy Mitchell, read the entire manuscript in rapid
succession to help me avoid repetitions (I was aware of the problem because of the
long drawn-out process of writing it, and not in sequence) and did the initial
editing/proofreading for me. There are many more friends and mentors whom I would
like to note. Donald Hellmann has always greeted me with enthusiasm whenever I
visited Seattle and his happy disposition (even when his life was not that easy) and
faith in me uplifted my spirit. My other friends and mentors, James Townsend and
Dan Lev and George Modelski are no longer with us, but they would have been very
happy to see my scholarship grow and mature.
As a Korean American, who has lived two-thirds of my life in America, I
increasingly appreciate the values that my heritage bequeathed me. My parents, who
endured and lived through the vicissitudes of Korean history and tumultuous politics,
instilled in me the love for humanity, no matter how difficult life at times became. It is
this belief and faith in humanity that sustained me through many small and big
disappointments and invigorated me at times of happiness.
Most of all, without the help and willingness of the Mothers and Fathers who
helped me in various ways, this book would not have been possible. It is their grief
and hardships from which the book is born. This is the reason why the book is
dedicated to them: the Mothers sublimate their personal grief and hardship to a larger
goal of democratizing Korea, lest extreme poverty and economic inequality coupled
with political oppression find their voice only through the suffering and death of so
many. I hope this book conveys the contributions that the Mothers made to the
democratization of Korea.
Last, but not the least, I am eternally grateful for the support that my daughters
and their families have lent me. Arum, also an academic, has seen many of my
proposals of various sorts and always gave me very valuable input. Dawn has always
encouraged me to see the other side of my life when I felt down. Although they are
my children, I sometimes felt that they were the sole emotional support to their
mother, rather than the other way around. This was a long process and they always
stayed with me. Their spouses and children who came on board into the family later
in the stage of writing this book gave me many joys and delights. Without their love, I
do not think I could have done any work, let alone such an undertaking as writing a
book. I love and thank them for being in my life. And I would like to give all their
names in the order of their appearance to my life: Jason Lee Hamilton, David Carlisle,
Timothy Lee Hamilton, Desmond Seyoon Shin Carlisle, Lillian Narah Hamilton, and a
ten-week-old fetus at the time of this writing, I will simply call, Love Carlisle.
Romanization
I use three different systems of Romanization of Korean alphabets: (1) the
Ministry of Education (MOE) system that was instituted in 2000. Most of the
transliteration is done in this way; (2) McCune-Reischauer system for things published
before 2000 in order to prevent potential confusion, especially when the works are
well-known enough that the chances of them being published in English using
McCune-Reischauer system is highly likely or they have already have been published;
and (3) my own modification of the MOE system (at risk of criticism) in some cases
where the revised system is not clear, especially when two consonants are right next
to each other. For instance, the name Changuk can be either Chang-Uk or Chan-Guk.
In this situation, I prefer to use hyphenation between consonants. I tried to abide by
the MOE system, but I found it very difficult to read Korean words with this system,
the reason why I modified for my convenience; hopefully it also helps others as well.