'Difficult Heritage' in Nation Building

Hyun Kyung Lee is a post-doctoral research fellow working on the Academy of Korean Studies-funded research project “Beyond the Cold War, towards a community of Asia” at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities, University of Cambridge, UK and Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University, South Korea. In collaboration with her Taiwanese colleague Shu-Mei Huang, she is preparing a monograph on the remembering of punishment in post-colonial Asian cities.

• 1. The Problematic past and Difficult Heritage: The Japanese Colonial Occupation of Korea and Its Architectural Legacies.- 2. Mapping the Memories of the JCO.- 3. Seodaemun Prison: From Symbol of Fear and Violence to Symbol of Freedom and Victory.- 4. Gyeongbokgung Palace and the Japanese Government-General Building (JGGB): Power Struggles and the Contested Places of Korean National Identity.- 5. Dongdaemun Stadium: Between Korean Tradition, Colonial Memory, and Dreams for the Future.- 6. South Korean Responses to Japanese Colonial Occupation Architecture (JCOA).- Conclusion: The role of Difficult Heritage in Nation-Building in South Korea.

“Huang and Lee’s well-researched and thoughtful work reminds us of the dangerous temptation to confine critique to a reviled external ‘Other’ when the impulse to repression still thrives much closer to home.” (Edward Vickers, International Journal of Taiwan Studies, Vol. 4 (2), 2021)