Organizer: Helen J. S. Lee, University of Florida

Chair: Miriam R. Silverberg, UCLA

Discussant: Leo Ching, Duke University

This panel addresses ephemeral aspects of colonialism – its fantasies and reminiscences, while investigating concrete manifestations of colonial sensibility such as mementos of a sojourn in colonial Korea brought back to Japan. Working from film, television, literature, K- and J-POP (asking what would a Z [Zainichi]-POP be), museum exhibits, and ethnography, presentations span the early decades of colonialism to the present. Colonial sensibility (encompassing representations and self-presentations of the body, affect, and style in all aspects of culture) has continually been reformulated by colonial relations of power – socially, geographically, and historically. Our focus is on historicizing the sensibilities of Japanese subjects (now citizens) and Korean subjects (now "foreign natives") still considered alien within Japan. (The body of Kitano Takeshi in Blood and Bones, emblematic of gender projections, is likened to a monster in a post-war monster movie.)

Querying the applicability of categories and findings of postcolonial scholarship (including work on the "metropole," and the colonial/postcolonial divide), we seek a constellation of associations comparable to those in European reminiscences of grand hotel verandas with servants in uniforms that were, like sexual transgressions, exotic and familiar.

We are experimenting with a format of collaborative dialogues. Presentations of the scholars from Japan, leaders in colonial studies, (Kawamura Minato – literary studies, Kim Puja – historian of Korean women and zainichi society, and Song Younok – historian of comfort women, and zainichi women and founder of the Zainichi Gender Study Group) – will

Haeng-ja Chung, UCLA; Miriam R. Silverberg, UCLA

An anthropologist and an historian introduce terms central to new research agendas, grounded in concern for the history resulting from the absence of decolonization in Japan as made clear by Leo Ching. Presenters employ the elasticity of the term "foreign native" referring to the tension between the ascribed identity of "foreigner" to "resident" Koreans and their embeddedness in Japanese society, and discuss the relationship between their respective keywords.

Haeng-Ja Chung’s discussion of "passing" provides one response to Komagome Takeshi’s recent call for research on the non-visible markers of racism analogous to the British focus on skin color. Basing her findings on the English language social science literature on "passing", including the theory of Erving Goffman, on critical race theory, on fieldwork requiring her to pass as Japanese, and on interviews she discusses why and how Koreans in Japan have chosen to "pass" at different historical junctures. Emphasizing a process of performance based on gestures, she argues for "passing" based on "acting like" rather than looking alike.

Miriam Silverberg asks "If kitsch is the colonizing of consciousness through familiar symbols, how did colonial kitsch work?" emphasizing the sentimentality of kitsch and its mass production. Examples of Korean colonial kitsch in the "metropole" include tenko literature, museum exhibits, the musical "Sayonara Rikoran," and "Yonsama". Establishing the distinction between the kitsch within the Zainichi community and kitsch objects enjoyed by colonizers, the presentation argues that "post" colonial kitsch illustrates that post-war Japan was not the site for forgetting colonialism, but for not talking.

Kim Puja and Song Younok, Aoyama Gakuin, Japan

Kim Puja and Song Younok critique the prevalence of ‘popular amnesia’ in Japan’s pop culture, wherein producers and consumers alike resort to apolitical and uncritical engagement with cultural commodities. Examining the images of resident Koreans in Japan (zainichi chôsenjin) in recent films, Song discusses what types of resident Koreans are permitted, represented, and desired in the Japanese film industry, along with critical response to these films from within the Zainichi community. Kim explores Japan’s popular music industry, namely J-POP and K-POP imports, demonstrating its deliberate disengagement with socio-political concerns. About 90% of J-POP songs have to do with themes of self-healing, rejuvenation and empowerment—reflecting the loss of Japan’s collective confidence. While K-POP songs heard in Korea address themes such as love, love lost, and social satire, when imported to Japan, K-POP is re-formed as "J-POP style" by changing the lyrics to cater to the tastes of Japanese consumers. What would a Z(Zainichi)-POP contribute?

By examining the film and music industries, Song and Kim illustrate how cultural commodities have become merely a type of "therapy" providing pure "goraku (pleasure)" in Japan. This trend in Japan has given rise to an unbearably "light" spin to cultural production. Thus when resident Koreans appear in films they are simply viewed as an exotic group within a subculture, and not a postcolonial phenomenon that evokes Japan’s imperial past. The current ‘popular amnesia’ in Japan continues to inhibit Japanese society from confronting its imperial past and the subsequent international conflicts within East Asia.

Helen J. S. Lee and Kawamura Minato, University of Florida

Kawamura Minato and Helen Lee address the recent fad in Japan known as the "Korea Boom," or kanryû, as a postcolonial phenomenon. Symbolically manifested in the Yonsama Phenomenon, the current "Korea Boom" differs from previous Korea booms that have sporadically developed in Japan. In a broad sense, the current "Korea Boom" has spurred a thriving flow of cultural commodities between Japan and Korea, giving rise to new patterns of interaction and cross-market penetration within the pop culture spheres. As such, when Korea exports "Yon-sama" and "Jiwoo-hime" to Japan, Japan reciprocates with exports of comics and games to Korea. Historically, this cross-cultural courting of markets between Japan and Korea dates back to the colonial period. The "Yonsama Phenomenon" begs to be considered within this enduring historical context, and encourages us to examine how Korea’s colonial past, or colonial sensibility, is reformulated within a commodity culture. Furthermore, the East Asian entertainment industry—chiefly in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan—has evolved to produce a so-called "nation-less" film industry that transcends national borders and regional cultures. The presenters debate whether the "Korea Boom" is situated within the broader context of the East Asian film industry, which has emerged as a powerful cultural medium within which all cultures transcend colonial cultural hierarchies and national boundaries, continuously influencing and shaping one another. They ask the audience to consider whether this dismantling of national borders and cultural hierarchies within the East Asian cultural sphere is a necessary and unavoidable step toward a "post" colonial era.