Saturday Onsite Presentation Session 2

Symposium (Korean Studies)

11:25-11:50

70566 | Distribution and Formation of Christian Terms in East Asia through the Tracts: Focusing on F. Ohlinger’s Korean Translations during 1880-1890s

Hyewon Lee, Yonsei University, South Korea

After Protestantism was introduced to East Asia in the 19th century, Christian thoughts began to be widely translated and distributed in EastAsian languages. At that time, terms were firstly translated into Chinese in China and then distributed to Japan and Korea. In the case of Korea, Christianity was mainly introduced through tracts which were translated from Chinese books for about 20 years before the Bible translation was completed, and those terms even affected the Bible-translating work. Unlike preceding researches which are mostly focused on the Bible translation, this study focuses on Franklin Olinger(1845-1919), who came to Korea in 1887 as a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church and made great contributions to the translation and publication of the early Korean Protestant tracts until 1893, and his six tracts. Through a comparative study with the original Chinese versions, this study examines the transformation of terms. Olinger was the only missionary who used to work in China before coming to Korea among those missionaries who were in charge of translation in Korea at the time. Compared to others, he often brought Chinese terms directly. Considering that Korean Christians now use Chinese terms more commonly than Korean vernacular terms created at the time, it assumes that some of Olinger's bestsellers, such as Leading the Family in the Right Way had a considerable impact on Korean believers, and terminologies he suggested, having experience in translation and missionary work in China, had a great influence on the formation of Korean Christian terminology.

11:50-12:15

70663 | Japan in the Letters of Protestant Missionaries in Korea (1880-1942)

Sung-On Kim, Yonsei University, South Korea

Previous studies on the relationship between Japan and missionaries in Korea mainly dealt with missionaries’ responses to Japanese policy toward Korean Christians and political events. For example, those studies focused on finding out what position missionaries in Korea took and how they responded to the 105-Man Incident, the March 1st Movement, and Shinto shrine worship. This study investigates 560 letters mentioning Japan among the letters sent by major missionaries in Korea from 1884 to 1942. These letters are part of a collection of 2750 letters from a total of 53 missionaries from eight denominations. This study shows missionaries’ diverse views on Japan, including (1) Japanese culture and civilization, (2) Japan’s international relations, (3) Japan’s rule of Korea, and (4) Japanese residents in Korea. This study does not completely deny the results of previous studies. Instead, this study will pay attention to the various voices of missionaries that have been overlooked in previous studies. It appears that missionaries in Korea have a much more complex perception of Japan. For example, contrary to previous research that suggests that missionaries from the Southern Presbyterian Church did not take a stance against Japanese rule of Korea before Japan forced Koreans to visit the Shinto shrine, the letters left by Eugene Bell and Cornelia Rankin show that anti-Japanese sentiment had already arisen even before the Japanese annexation of Korea. Therefore, the tendency to categorize missionaries as pro- or anti-Japanese should be revised as it does not reflect the complex views of missionaries.

12:15-12:40

70333 | No Text Is Taken for Granted: The Role of Critical Digital Humanities in Digital Transformational Era

Jong Woo Kim, Yonsei University, South Korea

Riding the wave of digital transformation that is taking place around the world today, Korea is beginning to build digital archives of various cultural contents around the 21st century. In recent years, digitization of humanities texts has been carried out in a wide range of fields, and this research team's "Building a Digital Archive of Protestant Missionary Letters from Korea (1880-1942)" is also attempted in the same context. Through the process of conducting research, the research team realized the advantages and limitations of building a digital archive, which is in line with the ambivalence of 'cognitive automation' that all digital archives eventually aim for. As OpenAI's ChatGPT demonstrates, the digitization of humanities texts may eventually relieve us of the drudgery of passive thinking and spur us on to greater creativity. However, alongside these positive aspects, there is a risk of loss of text personality in unauthenticity and blind following of cognitive automation driven by scientism. If we overlook these issues, we could end up causing a great deal of social disruption and unnecessary expense in the future. Therefore, based on Bernard Lonergan's cognitive theory, this paper aims to redefine scientism in cognitive terms, and to suggest the pursuit of authenticity and the recovery of text personality as the role of critical digital humanities in the era of digital transformation. This can be a way to be vigilant against the craving for scientism that exists in all digital archive construction that is being attempted in the wave of digital transformation.