RAS KOREA World's oldest Korean studies group begins its 125th year
RAS Korea President Rev. Steven L. Shields, right, shakes hands with Philippine Ambassador to Korea Maria Theresa B. Dizon-De Vega during the RAS Korea Garden Party held at the British ambassador's residence in central Seoul's Jeong-dong, Sept. 16, 2023. The ambassador is also scheduled to give a lecture for RAS Korea on June 25. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar
Over a century ago, a group of missionaries, diplomats and educators gathered in the modest reading room of the Seoul Union Club. Little did they know, their fledgling Korean studies organization would stand the test of time. In an era when Korea was often overlooked, the notion of studying its history and culture was a novelty. The Korea branch of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, born from this gathering on June 16, 1900, paved the way for the modern Korean studies movement in universities worldwide.
Henry Appenzeller
Most of the founders were long-term residents of Korea and continued to live in Korea for many more decades. Of the 17 at the founding meeting, 12 were missionaries. However, starting churches and recruiting members was the least of their objectives, important though it was. They hoped to introduce Korea and its people to the larger world since the country had been closed off for so many centuries.
Many of the founders’ names are remembered through their literary work, their medical work, their educational institutions and their churches. They laid the foundations of modern Korea. Underwood, founder of Yonsei University. Gale, whose Korean-English dictionary was the standard for language learning, even for decades after his death. Appenzeller founded the first Western-style school (Pai Chai Hakdang) and a modern publishing house that produced books in Chinese, English and Hangeul. Allen was behind the first hospital to be known as Severance Medical Center. Many of these, and others, produced the first Korean-language New Testament, which was published in 1900 (the rest of the Bible came a short time later). The YMCA was founded in 1900 in Seoul. The list is long.
Horace Allen
Korea of 1900 was amid a decades-long period of upheaval and social and political turmoil and would still face many painful decades to come. The arrival of most of the RAS Korea founders overlapped with a period of unequal treaties with world powers (Japan, the U.S. and Britain). A massive period of food riots in 1882 showed the stresses of a population tired of centuries of being servants of the wealthy 1 percent, living in abject poverty, unable to feed their families and with a hopeless existence.
The 1884 Gapsin Coup pitted the Japan-oriented reformers against the Chinese-supported conservatives. In some sense, it was the opening salvo of the Japanese annexation 20 years later. The coup failed, and China’s Yuan Shikei became resident-general in Seoul, continuing centuries of Chinese dominance over the peninsula. Japan and China waged a terrible war in 1894-95, the outcome of which was decidedly in favor of Japan.
The pro-Japan forces in Korea raised their ugly heads again in 1895 when they murdered Queen Min in Gyeongbok Palace and dismembered and burned her body on the palace grounds. In the aftermath, the king tried to assert Korea’s independence from regional powers by declaring in 1897 the Daehan Empire. He allied closely with Russia and looked to the other Western nations for support.
Horace Grant Underwood
Japan refused to let go of Korea so easily, though. They again pushed their empire-building aims in 1904-05 by going to war with the Russian Empire in the Far East. Both empires were expansionist, and Russia sought a warm-water port on the Pacific. Their navy had been based at Port Arthur in Manchuria, leased from the Qing government. After a few years of diplomatic wrangling, Japan had enough and, within a short time, sank the Russian fleet and engaged in ground wars, mostly in Manchuria. The result was the victory of the pro-Japanese party in the Korean government. Complicit government ministers signed 1905 the Eulsa Treaty (over the king’s protests, but he was powerless to stop them). This treaty put in place a Japanese resident-general, placing all of Korea’s defense and foreign relations in the hands of the Japanese government.
And in 1910, the final blow. The pro-Japan party, having forced the abdication of the king in 1907 and placing his son on the throne, forced the signing of a new treaty stripping Korea of power over its internal affairs. The 1910 annexation treaty demoted the Korean emperor to the lower status of king but retitled him not as king of Korea but as King Yi of Changdeok Palace, where he resided.
Despite this turmoil, the missionary, business and diplomatic community tried to do their jobs as best they could. The new government threw obstacles at them. Some were pro-Japan, that can’t be denied. Many missionaries felt they should not pick sides but quietly continue their social development work and focus on education, medicine and spiritual matters.
By the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945, none of the RAS Korea founders remained in Korea. Most of them died before seeing Korea as independent again. Their humble Korean studies society went with the flow as well. During times of turmoil, most RAS Korea members didn’t have time to study or write academically oriented papers. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the Pacific War began, and all Westerners (except for the Germans and Italians) were detained and finally expelled early in 1942. That group included RAS Korea president Horace H. Underwood (son of the founder) and his son, who would also serve as RAS Korea president in the post-Korean War decades.
This coming Tuesday, June 11, at 7:30 p.m., current RAS Korea President Steve Shields will lecture on the history of RAS Korea, at the B2 lecture hall in the FastFive building next to Deoksu Palace. Entry costs 10,000 won or 5,000 won for students and is free for RAS Korea members. Visit raskb.com for more information.
Rev. Steven L. Shields, FRAS, is president of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea and a columnist for The Korea Times. Visit www.raskb.com or email royalasiatickorea@gmail.com for more information about the society.