The white-clad people: The white hanbok and Korean nationalism

Lee, Y. 2022. The white-clad people: The white hanbok and Korean nationalism. Cultural Dynamics. 34 (4), pp. 271-296. https://doi.org/10.1177/09213740221117811

TitleThe white-clad people: The white hanbok and Korean nationalism
TypeJournal article
AuthorsLee, Y.
Abstract

The paper diachronically examines the white hanbok as the material and symbolic site of interaction between the hegemonising and the hegemonised in Korea. It traces the changing status of the white hanbok from the end of the 19th century to the present— from being part of unconscious material culture, to the synecdoche of the colonised nation, to the symbol of resistance, to the membrane of a ‘homogeneous nation’, to the symbol of democracy. It analyses the white hanbok as a paradoxical skin—at once in- clusive and exclusive—of Korean ethnonationalism, as well as a permeable membrane between the self and other of national identity. By exploring the white hanbok in relation to the ongoing movement towards a decolonised democratic nation, the paper reveals the entwined relations between material objects, practices, and nationalism in Korea.

Keywordshanbok
white-clad people
nationalism
colonisation
Orientalism
skin
veil
JournalCultural Dynamics
Journal citation34 (4), pp. 271-296
ISSN0921-3740
1461-7048
Year2022
PublisherSage
Publisher's version
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access Level
Open (open metadata and files)
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1177/09213740221117811
Web address (URL)https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09213740221117811
Publication dates
Published online04 Aug 2022
Published in printNov 2022

Related outputs

Eyes in the skin I live in: The incorporation of surveillance in mediatized culture
Lee, Yeseung 2022. Eyes in the skin I live in: The incorporation of surveillance in mediatized culture. Fashion Theory. 26 (2), pp. 185-210. https://doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2019.1697509

Текстиль-сфера (Textile-Sphere): порог повседневных взаимодействий
Lee, Yeseung 2021. Текстиль-сфера (Textile-Sphere): порог повседневных взаимодействий. Теория моды: одежда, тело, культура (Fashion Theory, Russian edition). 62 (April), pp. 162-187.

Distinction by indistinction: luxury, stealth, minimalist fashion
Lee, Yeseung 2021. Distinction by indistinction: luxury, stealth, minimalist fashion. Luxury: History, Culture, Consumption. 6 (3), pp. 203-225. https://doi.org/10.1080/20511817.2021.1897265

The Textilesphere: The threshold of everyday contacts
Lee, Yeseung 2020. The Textilesphere: The threshold of everyday contacts. Textile: Cloth and Culture. 18 (2), pp. 160-179. https://doi.org/10.1080/14759756.2019.1652429

Apparition: the (im)materiality of Modern Surface
Lee, Yeseung 2018. Apparition: the (im)materiality of Modern Surface. Apparition: the (im)materiality of Modern Surface. De Montfort University, Leicester 09 Mar 2018

Textilesphere: To mark is to be marked
Lee, Yeseung 2018. Textilesphere: To mark is to be marked. Textile and Place. Manchester Metropolitan University 12 - 13 Apr 2018

Rethinking luxury through the handmade
Lee, Y. 2017. Rethinking luxury through the handmade. Animate Objects: Encounters between People and Things. Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge 13 Oct 2017

Seaming, Writing and Making Strange: Between material and text
Lee, Y. 2016. Seaming, Writing and Making Strange: Between material and text. Studies in Material Thinking. 14 Paper 06.

The Authentic Surface: Making Garments, Selves and Others
Lee, Yeseung 2016. The Authentic Surface: Making Garments, Selves and Others. In Pursuit of Luxury 2. LIM College, New York 06 May 2016

Seaming, Writing and Making Strange: Between material and text
Lee, Yeseung 2016. Seaming, Writing and Making Strange: Between material and text. Studies in Material Thinking. 14 Paper 06.

Seamlessness: Making and (Un)Knowing in Fashion Practice
Lee, Yeseung 2016. Seamlessness: Making and (Un)Knowing in Fashion Practice. Bristol and Chicago Intellect.

Seaming Hands: The Meaning and Value of the Handmade in Contemporary Fashion
Lee, Yeseung 2015. Seaming Hands: The Meaning and Value of the Handmade in Contemporary Fashion. Luxury: History, Culture, Consumption. 2 (1), pp. 61-80. https://doi.org/10.1080/20511817.2015.11428565

The Ambiguity of Seamlessness: The Skin Ego and the materiality of fashion
Lee, Yeseung 2015. The Ambiguity of Seamlessness: The Skin Ego and the materiality of fashion. Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty. 6 (1), pp. 75-93. https://doi.org/10.1386/csfb.6.1.75_1

Seaming, Writing and Making Strange: Between material and text
Lee, Yeseung 2014. Seaming, Writing and Making Strange: Between material and text. The Art of Research V: Experience, Materiality, Articulation Conference. Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki, Finland 26 - 27 Nov 2014 Empirica.

The Poetics of Self-fashioning: Between nonsense and meaning
Lee, Yeseung 2014. The Poetics of Self-fashioning: Between nonsense and meaning. Fashion in fiction: style stories and transglobal narratives. City University of Hong Kong, China 12 - 14 Jun 2014

The Skin, the Garment Surface and the Production of Modern Magic
Lee, Yeseung 2014. The Skin, the Garment Surface and the Production of Modern Magic. Association of Art Historians 40th Anniversary Annual Conference. Historians 40th Anniversary Annual Conference. Royal College of Art, London 11 - 12 Apr 2014 Association of Art Historians.

Permalink - https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/vxw93/the-white-clad-people-the-white-hanbok-and-korean-nationalism


Share this

Usage statistics

104 total views
120 total downloads
These values cover views and downloads from WestminsterResearch and are for the period from September 2nd 2018, when this repository was created.