In order to do so, we must regard Protestant missions as a pro - ject of cultural imperialism. Cultural imperialism is defined as “attitudes, theories, and practices that dominate realms afar through culture.”3 It has its basis in the “Orientalism” of Western societies which makes non-Western societies the other. Orientalism is not merely an ideology following an actual political program. It is rather a more tenacious and cunning force that adheres to the heart of power and exercises influence in accordance with the workings of power. It is a system of cultural apparatuses and discourses that confines the nonWestern world within the enclosure of domination before the establishment of empire and colony.4 It is the power of cultural hegemony that endows Orientalism with durability and effectiveness.5 Therefore, cultural imperialism has nothing to do with the direct dominance of an empire. Its hegemony can be exerted merely by means of a book, a picture, or an article. In fact, as such cultural apparatuses are numerous and dispersed in everyday life, cultural hegemony dominates non-Western societies with a much stronger force than political, economic, or military control. Western modernity, as the spirit of imperialism, pours into non-Western societies and begins to dominate them. Hospitals, schools, and churches built by Protestant missionaries were important waterways for the influx and spread of modernity. They were crucial apparatuses for the work of imperial cultural hegemony: in the fields of medicine dealing with body and disease, of education relating to knowledge and learning, and of religious beliefs and practices. Therefore, we will explore, on the levels of episteme and of everyday life, how hospitals, schools, and churches functioned as the waterways through which Western modernity arrived and disseminated, and how each took part in the production of imperial cultural hegemony. But Koreans in this transitional period were not overwhelmed by the spectacle of imperial hegemony. In fact, they showed certain reactions against such hegemony. While recognizing the need to accept Western modernity, they rejected or countered the forces and effects of hegemony. Therefore, we will examine what shapes the rejections and responses took, and what implications they had. II. Apparatuses of Cultural Imperialism and Their Effects “Christianization” and the “civilizing mission” were the two axes of Protestant missions. The ultimate goal was, of course, Christianization. In Korea, however, as it was forbidden to introduce foreign religions, missionaries could not reveal their intentions. As a result, they tried to use the civilization strategy, an indirect missionary method which foregrounded hospitals and schools. Missionary work began in (Tāraṇa) when R. S. Maclay, a Methodist missionary, received permission to build hospitals and schools from King Kojong, and H. N. Allen, a Presbyterian missionary, set about providing medical service. In (Tāraṇa), Allen built Chejungw¡n (House of Universal Helpfulness), the first modern hospital which was established in a renovated traditional house. From (Tāraṇa) to (Vyaya), other missionaries such as Wm. B. Scranton, Mrs. Scranton, H. G. Appenzeller, H. G. Underwood, and A. J. Ellers also arrived and built hospitals and schools. On the basis laid by their predecessors, more missionaries came in and built hospitals and schools all around the country after the (Vikṛti). As direct missionary activity was allowed to continue, churches spread through out the whole country.6 Wherever they went, missionaries always built a hospital first, then a school, and finally a church. For them, the hospital was “a plough rooting out prejudices and preparing a ready soil for mission” and the school was “a harrow tilling and leveling the soil.” Realizing that “although Koreans do not want Protestantism, they want Western civilization and science,” missionaries thought “if we prove that Western civilization and science are the gift of Protestantism and its material benefit, we shall have an opportunity to tell about Christ.” As such, healing or teaching was a kind of bait.7 Hospitals and schools were not mere means of mission. Civilization was in itself the cornerstone of mission. Because for missionaries this “hermit nation”8 was “a land nobody has ever touched” and “a place covered with the darkness of pagans.”9 Therefore, it was a natural conclusion that “both gospel and civilization [were] desperately needed in [a] Korea that is captivated by superstition and ignorance.”10 In the images of Orientalism, juxtaposing “un-civilizedness,” ignorance, and barbarity on the one hand, and paganism and superstition on the other, the “civilizing mission” became one of the two faces of the mission. Consequently, as a means of either proselytization or “civilization,” hospitals and schools built by missionaries were visible representations of modern Western civilization and therefore functioned as waterways through which Western modernity arrived and disseminated. What about churches? Was not evangelical Protestantism an island of pre-modernity in the ocean of the modern world? Was it not the vanguard of anti-enlightenment and anti-modernism? Of course, it was, but that was not all. Because pre-modernity or anti-modernism was firmly placed within the inclusive project of modernity. Protestantism was not a total rejection of modernity itself, but merely a specific way of accepting and responding to modernity.11 However, in missionary fields like Korea, the pre- and anti-modernity of Protestantism were completely concealed. Protestantism was presented only as a part of the modern world. In addition, when protestantism was combined with schools and hospitals, churches become none other than strategic bases for the civilizing mission and, as a result, functioned as waterways for the spread of Western modernity. Being waterways for the influx and spread of Western modernity, hospitals, schools, and churches built by Protestant missionaries functioned as apparatuses for expanding the cultural hegemony of imperialism. How was this possible and what effects did they produce in relation to cultural imperialism? 1. The Spread of the Modern Episteme and the Collapse of the Traditional Episteme The apparatuses of cultural imperialism initiated and accelerated the spread of the modern episteme on the one hand, and the collapse of the traditional episteme on the other. The modern episteme is a product of the Enlightenment project that places the rational human being at the center of the world. According to this concept, man is the only subject who is able to recognize truth in the world and in himself through reason. From this, there appears a subject/object dichotomy, distinguishing I from the rest. It also generates other dichotomies such as culture/nature, mind /material, spirit/body, and rationality/irrationality. The subject, “I,” makes the “rest” objects of recognition and conquest. Consequently, the body comes to be seen as a sort of machine, and disease as certain disorders within that machine. Learning becomes an activity of exploring the so-called truth about the human mind or material world. And as the outer realm of nature, unrecognizable by reason, is named the supernatural, religion is relegated to the realm of the supernatural and to irrational inner emotions. All of these are parts of the modern episteme as a whole.12 The modern episteme was introduced and disseminated through diverse waterways, among which hospitals, schools, and churches played an important role. In hospitals, the success of modern Western medicine flaunted the validity of the modern view of the body and the superiority of Western medicine. In schools, modern learning was emphasized as the only way of grasping universal truth. In churches, Christianity was taught as the best and the only religion suitable for the modern world. Furthermore, these processes usually intertwined with one another. Pamphlets on hygienic knowledge were distributed not only in hospitals but also in schools and churches. In schools there were classes dealing with hygiene and students were examined to see if their physical condition was sanitary. Medical schools attached to hospitals were also important educational institutions, and churches functioned as quasi-schools for those who could not attend proper schools. Finally, as the missionaries expected from the beginning, Christianity was taught to non-Christians in hospitals and schools as the supreme religion. In such ways, hospitals, schools, and churches functioned as complicated waterways for the dissemination of the modern episteme. With the spread of the modern episteme, the traditional episteme came to be recognized as obsolete. According to the scheme of indigenous Korean medicine, diseases were thought to be caused by the disharmony of yin and yang within one’s body. Here, the body was a microcosm, corresponding to the universe. In folk religions like shamanism, diseases were regarded as being caused by superhuman agents. The body was part of a larger organic world including both the natural and the supernatural, and both the living and the dead.13 The ultimate goal of traditional learning was to acquire the virtues of a gentleman as the moral ideal of Neo-Confucianism. Studying for official examinations or acquiring technological knowledge was not included in the criteria of genuine learning. The only learning was to realize the primal principle within things and human beings.14 Lastly, in traditional society, diverse religions overlapped one another and were not separated from other areas of life. Besides, there existed no universal conceptual category of r e l i g i o n that encompassed all religions and established a hierarchy among them.1 5 However, as the traditional episteme was thought to be incompatible with Western modernity, it was slowly replaced with the modern episteme by those who accepted Western modernity. As a result, there appeared the modern subject/object dichotomy, regarding man as the subject “that dominates everything with reason” and nature as “a part of the universe outside man.” Futhermore, there appeared a mechanical concept of the body, regarding it as a “thing” or “a machine,” and a modern etiology regarding disease as “being caused by outer factors.” There also appeared the modern concept of learning, which is divided into “that of subjective human phenomena and that of material natural phenomena,” and that attaches greater importance to the latter, i.e. natural science as the “control and utilization of nature.” Lastly, there appeared the modern concept of religion, relating religion to the supernatural or to the inner emotions of man, according to which the object of belief is defined as “limitless and perfect,” and the root of religion is found “within the innate religiosity of humans.”16 Such discourses, which were generated and disseminated by intellectuals, show that the modern episteme had already become dominant at the expense of the traditional episteme. This process was accelerated by hospitals, schools, and churches. In accordance with the increase of modern hospitals, indigenous doctors and shamans slowly decreased. As more and more modern schools were built, more and more traditional schools were abolished. As churches increased and the modern concept of religion was established, both traditional religions like Confucianism, Buddhism, and folk religions, and indigenous new religions like Tonghak (Eastern Learning), came to be considered inferior to the Western religion of Christianity. Such changes instigated the atrophy of the traditional episteme. The changes, of course, were neither completed in a day nor caused by hospitals, schools, or churches alone. All modern institutions, apparatuses, discourses, and practices were connected with these changes. For a strong and wealthy nation, control over population and labour was needed, the basis of which was the modern medical and health care system. In order to develop education and industry, modern learning and an educational system were required. And for the awakening of people, modern philosophy, ethics, and religion were indispensable. Hospitals, schools, and churches were no more than parts of such modern institutions, apparatuses, discourses, and practices. Nevertheless, missionaries accelerated the peripherization of the traditional episteme in a unique way: they produced and disseminated critical discourses of the traditional world view and life-style. They criticized indigenous medicine as irrational. They thought that “in the light of reason, Korean medicine is ridiculous and useless” and that “Korean doctors are quacks who increase suffering through fake healing skills.” They degraded shamanic ritual as “a drama of fraud” and shamans as “swindlers,” “witches,” “defrauders” and “hysterical and foolish women only interested in money making through the shamanic profession.” They also delineated the religious situation of Korea as “a motley assortment of diverse religions.” Especially, with their negative opinion of folk beliefs, they regarded shamanism as “demon worship” and tutelary posts as “devils with frightful protruding teeth.” Their enmity against folk beliefs stiffened further when they found “the beliefs were exerting enormous influence and causing Koreans to dread spiritual beings.” Furthermore, missionaries criticized traditional education as “the very cause of the collapse of Korea.”17 Such denunciations were no more than ethnocentric and Christianity-centered prejudices adopting the traditional episteme and lifestyle to the matrix of Western modernity. But as their influence was enormous, Koreans soon began to reproduce the same critical dis- courses for themselves. For example, it is not difficult to find writings produced by Koreans such as the following: “Korean doctors do not know the structure of the human body. . . . Having no idea of the positions and functions of blood vessels or entrails, of the relations between symptoms and visceral disorders, and of the chemical traits or effects of medicines, they give medicine and apply acupuncture at random. This pushes people into danger”; “Civilized nations became wealthy and strong by means of science, but uncivilized nations became poor because they ignored science”; “stupid women are being deceived by shamans.”18 Such descriptions show that Koreans themselves were reproducing the criticisms of Westerners with little modification. The appearance of such self-critical discourses is a symptom of the modern episteme, as the basis of Western modernity, being accepted by Koreans themselves. Now Western modernity began to spread not only through the main waterways of hospitals, schools, and churches, but also through other minor waterways dug by the very hands of Koreans. The cultural hegemony of empire overflows along a complicated web of waterways. 2. Modern Spatial Structure and the Network of Surveillance and Control The second effect of the apparatuses of cultural imperialism was that they contributed to the construction of a network of modern surveillance and control. The network covering modern societies originates from specific spaces that make the surveillant gaze invisible, spaces such as hospitals, schools, churches, military bases, and factories.19 Equipped with such spatial structures, hospitals, schools, and churches built by missionaries became strands out of which the network of surveillance and control was weaved. Let us look at the hospital first. Indigenous clinics of Korean medicine had a simple structure in which a doctor took charge of almost all roles from preparing medicines to consulting patients. In modern hospitals, by contrast, all roles and procedures are differentiated and the spatial structure of the hospital is functionally divided.20 In the modern space devised for effective management of diseases, an invisible surveillant gaze of medical power falls upon the bodies of patients. What is noticeable in the hospital is the emergence of wards. Indigenous clinics had no wards. Usually staying at home, patients were not isolated from their usual space. Sickness was an everyday event. By contrast, in modern hospitals, with wards, patients are separated from their usual space and thrown into an unusual space. As hospitalization is an extraordinary event, a sickroom becomes a liminal space in which a ritual transformation is already in progress. Within the unusual space and time of a rite de passage, patients undergo symbolic death.21 By making sickness into an unusual event, hospitals now become a new sacred place in the modern world where doctors reign as secular priests. And from that space the gaze of medical power begins to stretch outward. What then about schools? In the traditional private elementary schools called s ¡ d a n g, students usually sat around a teacher in a semi-circle. The gaze of the teacher was fixed at the same level and facing the gazes of the students. As this gaze of surveillance was clearly visible, the s¡dang was an open and loose space in which students could escape visible surveillance. But in the case of modern schools, the situation is different. While students’ gazes are fixed toward the front, the teacher’s gaze is lifted up and, without being fixed, is dispersed here and there, in and out of the classroom. As it is impossible to foretell where the teacher’s gaze will be oriented, the gaze becomes invisible. Under the invisible gaze of d i s c i p l i n a r y power, students come to supervise one another and, in the end, internalize the gaze to survey themselves. Therefore, the space of the modern classroom is a closed one. Now, the disciplinary gaze coming from the classroom disperses all around the school as a sort of panopticon and begins to stretch to the outer world. Churches also had a modern spatial structure. Let us compare it with the space of shamanic ritual. Shamanic ritual space took the form of a circle from which people watched the shaman’s ritual dance and took part in the ritual process through prayer. People felt the emanation of sacred power from the shaman’s body at the center. On the contrary, church buildings are usually built in a rectangular shape, the space of which is divided into a pulpit in front and congregational seats in the rear. The pulpit is the source of God’s word and bliss. From behind the pulpit, the invisible God of Christian monotheism looks down on believers with His all-seeing eyes. The gaze of God becomes the gaze of invisible pastoral power. On the other hand, churches began to reorganize the map of sacredness. In the past, there existed numerous sacred places and sacredness was never fixed in a single place. If it had been sanctified and purified, any place could become a sacred place and a ritual space. Churches fixed sacredness to specific places. Repelling other indigenous sacred places, churches presented themselves as the only centers of sacredness in a disenchanted world. From these centers the gaze of pastoral power slowly emerged. The surveillant gazes flowing out of hospitals, schools, and churches were entangled with the networks of surveillance and control that were being woven by diverse modern institutions, discourses, and practices. Gazes from hospitals were entangled with the network of the modern health care system, including epidemic prevention programs. With the network of the modern educational system gazes from schools were based on the project of producing members of a modern nation. Gazes from churches were involved in the network of discourses and practices aiming at abolition of old customs and superstitions. Through this entanglement of numerous gazes and networks, Korean society came under a large network of surveillance and control. Such a network, however, cannot be sustained by legal or institutional forces alone. Its sustainment also requires the internalization of surveillance and control by the modern subjects themselves. Hospitals, schools, and churches were the most important spaces for that internalization process. In hospitals, and under the detailed regulation of a policed medical system, one had to inspect the sanitary conditions of one’s own body and of the surrounding environment. A filthy body and environment meant disqualification as a civilized being. Urinating in the street or throwing waste into a river became illegal behavior. In schools, and under the public educational system producing a standardized modern national citizenry, one had to constantly examine one’s knowledge and life-style. A good student must have a fine record and a refined attitude. Students who failed examinations or disobeyed regulations were regarded as unqualified students. Churches deepened the process of internalizing surveillance in terms of a special mechanism, i.e. repentance. Although repentance is found in almost all religions, Christianity made it an action of linguistic utterance and, therefore, reinforced the requirement for moral introspection. It was by means of repentance that Catholicism could construct a space of pastoral power.2 2 However, unlike Catholic repentance which is mediated by a priest, Protestant repentance is conducted through an immediate relationship between the divinity and the believer without any mediator. As a result, the moral introspection of Protestantism penetrates more deeply and the internalization of surveillance is further heightened. In such ways, the network of modern surveillance and control, which originated from the specific spatial structures of hospitals, schools, and churches, was being entangled with other greater networks while also procuring a certain degree of sophistication in infil- trating our inner selves. The cultural hegemony of empire whirls within the web of this dense network. 3. Modern Temporality and the Change of Temporal Rhythm and Experience The third effect of the apparatuses of cultural imperialism is that they supplanted traditional temporality with modern temporality and, therefore, transformed the rhythm and experience of time. Traditional temporality was an amalgam of a complicated chronometry and calendar: 24 hours based on 12 celestial cycles; 5 kyong and 5 chom23 between sunrise and sunset; the cycle of a full moon; days/months of the lunar calendar; several important feast days of the lunar calendar; 24 seasonal days of the solar cycle; yearly dates based on the circulation of 60 kapcha24; era names of Chinese imperial reigns; larger cycles of 60 and 180 years. By contrast, the modern temporality introduced from the West consisted of different elements: 60 seconds, 60 minutes, and 24 hours; a 7-day week circulating around Sundays; days/months of the solar calendar; the Gregorian calendar beginning from 1 A.D. Although the latter was introduced long before, it was after (Manmatha) that it began to be widely utilized.2 5 But the everyday rhythm of Koreans did not change accordingly. Seconds and minutes were unfamiliar concepts to them. In addition, they had no opportunity to see foreigners’ watches or clocks. The 7- day week, solar days and months, and counting years according to Western practice had nothing to do with people’s lives. People counted days and months according to the lunar changes and markets held every 5 or 10 days. Important feast days were still observed according to the lunar calendar. The Buddha’s Birthday was always the 8th day of the 4th lunar month. Almost all people and even the royal family celebrated birthdays and memorials by means of the lunar calendar. Seasons circulated along the 24 seasonal days. Important days were chosen by the fate of each day. For ordinary people, eras based upon either the Chinese emperor or Christianity were of no use. There was no room for the acceptance of Western temporality. In such a situation, it was hospitals, schools, and churches that helped modern temporality spread and gain acceptance. They disseminated the 24-hour day and the 7-day week. Hospitals opened and closed on time. Consultation time for outpatients was limited and was not provided on Sundays. Medicines were to be taken 30 minutes after each meal.26 At school, there was a daily schedule for all students, and even a nightly schedule for lodging students. Students who were not punctual were punished. Classes were organized according to each day. On Sundays, there was no class and study or labour was strictly forbidden.27 Not only that, but church bells also rang on time. In such ways, people became accustomed to a new temporality. Hospitals, schools and churches had an influence on the establishment of the solar calendar and the Gregorian calendar. Appointments with doctors were made at a certain time on a set day and month. The span of semesters and vacations was defined in accordance with the solar calendar. As dates in the lunar and solar calendars did not correspond with each other, one had to know both if one did not want to be confused. In churches, almost all feasts were kept according to the solar calendar. In particular, Christmas emitted a festive mood with colorful decorations.28 As a result, Koreans came to have two New Year’s Days: one based on the lunar calendar, the other on the solar. In addition, as public newspapers and magazines issued by Christians used “19XX after the Coming of the Lord” or “19XX after the Savior’s Coming,” Christianity could boast of its ownership of the Gregorian calendar. In such ways, almost all activities in hospitals, schools, and churches were organized in accordance with the Western concept of time: 24 hours, 7 days, solar days and months, and the Western era name. As a result, they made many patients, students, and Christians accept modern temporality and changed the whole rhythm of life. How then did the experience of time change with the spread of modern temporality? First, the experience of time was quantified. In traditional 12-hour (12 shi) chronometry, each hour was not called by a number but by a name like cha shi, ch’uk shi, in shi, etc.29 In addition, it did not indicate a specific point in time but instead a certain time span. In modern 24-hour chronometry, each hour is called by a number and is also divided into 60 minutes and seconds. So, time became mere numbers. There was, of course, a sort of traditional numeric chronometry as in 5 ky¡ng and 5 ch¡m. But the positions of k y ¡ n g and c h ¡ m fluctuated in accordance with the seasonal changes of sunrise-sunset. By contrast, the positions of the 24 hours were fixed exactly. Therefore, according to the spread of modern chronometry, time came to have an unchangeable quantity which could be measured by a machine (clock). Time became an object having a certain numeric value. Second, the experience of time was denaturalized. In the traditional natural calendar, months altered according to the lunar cycle and the turn of the 24 seasonal days followed the solar cycle including solstices and equinoxes. By contrast, the purely artificial 7-day week has nothing to do with nature. As we know, the 7-day week originated from ancient Judeo-Christian custom, continued through medieval Christendom but in the age of the industrial revolution began to dominate the lives of all Western people, including urban city laborers. The modern world came under the reign of the 7-day week as a social contract created by the cohesion of religion and capitalism. Consequently, each date came to be reified and, as a result, its magical power began to dominate the work-and-rest rhythm and to affect all activities and emotions.30 The 7-day week was disseminated into almost all non-Western societies in the age of imperialism and has brought great change to the non-Western world. As a result of the introduction of the 7-day week, Koreans were thrown into the center of the modern world, revolving every seven days, and unconsciously became accustomed to the Western way of thinking and lifestyle. Being separated from nature, time became a solid grid organizing the lives of modern people. Lastly, the experience of time became linear. This process already began when the relentless tricking of the watch divided time and put it on a straight line, and when years began to be counted according to the Christian year. In traditional Korea, years circulated in large cycles every 60 and 180 years. According to Confucian thought, the names of eras were altered according to the enthronement of Chinese emperors (Korea was culturally subordinated to China during the period of Chos¡n from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries). Years stopped revolving and were not renewed after the introduction of the Gregorian calendar. Years began to run relentlessly from a starting point to some future end. In this way, time became linear and moved irreversibly in one direction. Accordingly, as time began to run from the first millenium to the second millenium, an obsessive fear of the end of the world began to dominate.31As modern temporality based on the Western chronometry and calendar was introduced and disseminated, Koreans were isolated from the rhythms to which they were accustomed, and were thrown into a new modern life of strange rhythms. As a result, the entire experience of time was changed completely: Save time, time is money! Work on weekdays, rest on the weekend! Prepare for a new century and a new millenium!. . . Hospitals, schools, and churches built by Protestant missionaries were deeply involved in this change. III. Fissuring the Empire: Resistance and Hybridity The project of cultural imperialism operates as a global force devouring everything. Hegemony, however, does not work by means of the unilateral force of its agency alone. It is always accompanied by conflict. For where there is power, as Foucault says, there is resistance. Even though the resistance is destined to be swallowed by power play, it has the potential to shake the basis of power by generating retroactive forces against the unilateral force of dominance. What should be paid attention to is the retroactive forces produced by the resistance. In a situation where no one could escape the grip of expanding modernity, it was due to retroactive forces that the hegemony and effect of cultural imperialism were fissured and weakened. It was due to these forces that, although our modernity could not be an autonomous modernity, it did not remain simply a transplanted modernity. Koreans in the early modern period produced such retroactive forces by actively reacting against the effects of the apparatuses of cultural imperialism. In what ways did Koreans generate such retroactive forces? 1. Expression of Resistance: Rejection One of the most immediate reactions against the cultural hegemony of imperialism is to defy it directly. That is, to reject the apparatuses of cultural imperialism and their effects. This scratches the face of hegemony and thereby weakens it.