White clothing in Korea: Difference between revisions

 

In 1906, the Korean government, at the advice of the [[Japanese Resident-General of Korea]] issued a ban on white clothing during wintertime, but this order was largely ignored.{{Sfnp|Lynn|2004|p=79}} More and more roles began requiring the use of non-white clothing. Officials were effectively prohibited from wearing white clothing in the Gapsin dress reform of 1884.<ref name=":1" /> Beginning in 1910, increasing numbers of grade schools began requiring that students wear black uniforms.{{Sfnp|Cho|2010|p=685}}

Also around this time, [[Koryo-saram|Korean emigrants moved into Russia]]. Russians gave them the nickname "[[wikt:Lebed|lebed]]", meaning "swan", possibly in reference to their white clothing. These emigrants continued wearing white until the 1910s, when they assimilated more into Russian culture.{{Sfnp|Soh|2011|p=|pp=29}}

 

=== Japanese colonial period ===

{{See also|Korea under Japanese rule}}

Debates around the practice intensified during the Japanese colonial period. Some Korean intellectuals that opposed the practice saw it as a relic of a bygone era.{{Sfnp|Cho|2010|p=|pp=688–689}} Others noted that the time required for the clothes' upkeep hurt economic productivity, and that the labor particularly burdened women, who did the household's laundry.{{Sfnp|Cho|2010|p=|pp=688–689}} Multiple estimates of the economic cost of maintaining the clothes were calculated. These debates uniformly concluded that wearing white clothes was economically inefficient; these figures were later frequently cited by the colonial government to discourage the wearing of the clothes.{{Sfnp|Cho|2010|p=|pp=690–692}}

Japanese people generally had negative views on the practice. They viewed it, and many other Korean practices, as backwards and fixated on the past. Philosopher and art critic Yanagi Sōetsu, while seemingly sympathetic towards Korea, viewed the colonization of Korea as inevitable and even beneficial because of its backward practices.<ref name=":1" />

 

 

==== Colored Clothes Campaign ====

Beginning in the 1920s, the [[Governor-General of Chōsen|Japanese colonial government]] began efforts to ban the clothes, in what has been dubbed the "Colored Clothes Campaign"{{Sfnp|Kim|2011|p=8}} or White Clothes Ban Movement ({{Korean|hangul=백의 폐지운동|labels=no}}).{{sfnp|Nam|1990|p=103}} Nam Yun-Suk counted the number of policies that prohibited or discouraged white clothes as follows:{{sfnp|Nam|1990|p=104}}

{| class="wikitable"