Northeast Asia

Organized Panel Session

4 - Colonialism Beyond Colonialism : Jin-Hwan Park and Paradox of Koreanization

Jin-Hwan Park graduated from the Department of Agricultural Economics at Seoul National University (1952) and completed his master's and doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota, USA. Returning to Korea, he served as a professor at the College of Agriculture at Seoul National University (1957-1970) and served as Chief Economic Advisor to President (1970-1979) in the Park Chung-Hee regime and laid theoretical foundations for the Saemaul-Undong (The New Village Movement). The Rockefeller Foundation (RF) and the Agricultural Development Council (ADC) supported him when Park conducted a farm management survey using the advanced survey methodology. First, this paper will analyze Park’s masterpiece, Farm Management Analysis: For 84 Crop Farms in the Village of Chung Ja Ri, Kyung Ki Province, Korea (Suwon: Seoul National University, 1966). The concept of ‘Farm Management,’ which was prevalent in the United States at the time of the 1950s~1960s and embedded in Park’s survey, was contrasted with the concept of ‘tenancy’ which was at the core of agricultural policy in colonial Korea. Second, I would like to confirm how the person who was trained in the knowledge system of the United States became a director (/planner) of ‘the modernization-project’ led by the Park Chung-Hee government, in other words, the Saemaul-Undong. Third, I will argue that Park tried to overcome the colonial knowledge system of agriculture by utilizing and internalizing the knowledge resources newly acquired in USA (‘colonialism beyond colonialism’). It was ironic that Park’s critics of monolithic modernization theory ultimately resulted in supporting ‘the modernization-project’ of Park regime. 

Speaker(s)

• IK

  In-soo Kim

  Konkuk University, Republic of Korea