창작과 비평

The Quarterly Changbi 183, Spring 2019

Abstract

Rethinking the world-historical significance of the March 1^st Movement in the context of an interconnected East Asia and the double project of modernity, Baik Young Seo re-illuminates the meaning of the March 1^st Movement. Meticulously analyzing different domestic conditions, including trends in thought and religion, in the three East Asian countries of Japan, as an empire, China, as a semi-colony, and Korea, as a colony, he pays special attention to the movement for civilizational transformation led by the Gaebyeok (dawn of civilization) school within the Donghak (Eastern Learning) order and the Buddhism Study Association. At the same time, noting the meaning of the phrase “representatives of the people,” which emerged during the March 1^st Movement, he argues that this movement was a “revolution that is continuing to be relearned” in the sense that the result of a grand transformation underway from the March 1^st Movement to the Candlelight Revolution reveals itself as an “incremental achievement.”