Public Culture

This chapter explores Korea’s booming public culture during the postwar 1950s. It begins with a discussion of the popular women’s magazine Yeowon and its role in the production of the woman-in-public as a visual icon of modernity. From there it focuses on the film industry, exploring Han’s role as a modernizer and one of the most important producers of the figure of the modern woman. It introduces the metaphor of “budae jjigae cinema” to capture the role of textual and material poaching in filmmaking and to highlight the cosmopolitan intermingling of Korean and foreign elements. It also touches on Han’s role as a Cold War cultural entrepreneur who took advantage of opportunities that the Cold War made available.