A JAPANESE EGYPT: KOREA AS DEPICTED BY EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITISH NEWSPAPERS

Abstract

This article investigates what kind of otherness the British projected onto Korea in the 1900s through a close examination of newspaper articles. The point of departure of this work is the idea that Westerners’ conception of the Orient in this period was not monolithic but hierarchically structured. What this article attempts is thus to reveal the distinct position Korea occupied within the assumed Orient, a position different from, and assigned particularly in relation to, that of Japan. It will be shown that Korea was perceived by British newspapers as a Japanese Egypt, an image made possible by the imperialist notion of the modern state shared, overtly or otherwise, by both British and Japanese intellectuals and discrimination in the application of the idea of national freedom. While Korea was largely perceived in terms of what were presumably inherent Oriental traits such as inertness, conservativeness, and laziness, the British accorded a distinct sense of otherness to Korea based on their individualized yet hierarchical understanding of the Orient. Therefore, the phrase ‘a Japanese Egypt,’ coined to describe Korea, represents the marginalized position Korea occupied within the British conception of the Orient.

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