How did South Korean pop culture in the late 1960s and early 1970s shape the South Korean masses’ perception of the Vietnam War? What connections did it have with the Park Chung-hee administration’s nation-building project?
Dr. Rhee will provide an overview of how the Korean culture industry fueled a cultural boom around this “hot war,” imprinting specific images of the Vietnamese and the Vietnam War into the geopolitical memory and imagination of South Koreans. The talk will analyze South Korea’s Vietnam War film and television, specifically White Badge (1992) and The Far Away Songba River (1993–94 SBS TV drama).
Dr. Suk Koo Rhee is the Underwood Distinguished Professor at Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea. He is currently teaching Korean cinema at Emory University as a senior Fulbright Scholar. As the managing editor of Situations: Cultural Studies in the Asian Context, Dr. Rhee’s research interests include postcolonial literature and theory, division literature, and Asian cinema. His most recent book, The Korean War Novel: Rewriting History from the Civil War to the Post-Cold War (Edinburgh UP, 2024), explores these themes. His four Korean monographs have received major awards, including the Best Monograph of the Year Award from the English Language and Literature Association of Korea and the Korean Ministry of Education Award.
