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DATE: Tuesday. June 23, 2026. 7:20PM (Seoul)
VENUE: Seoul Public Activities Center (SPAC, 서울시공익활동지원센터). ‘다목적홀’ (For more information, see below.)
SUMMARY:
After Korea gained independence from Japanese colonial rule, there arose a heavily nationalist ruling discourse that openly promoted the supremacy of the ethnic nation above all competing forms of identity while rejecting core tenets of Western liberalism, containing strong parallels with fascist ideologies in Europe and Japan. Furthermore, this hegemonic discourse pervaded Korean political culture for decades, helping to prop up authoritarian regimes in the country until the 1980s, and we can still see lingering influences today. This discourse, which I call “transcendent nationalism,” was a product of the intersection of Korea’s postcolonial and Cold War conditions; it sought to overcome Cold War divisions through an embrace of the Korean nation while maintaining colonial-era suspicions of Western capitalist modernity. Ultimately, the fascistic aspects of South Korea’s post-1945 political culture reveals the liminal position that Koreans found themselves in during the Cold War, being pulled into the U.S.’s anticommunist orbit but expressing discomfort with American political and cultural hegemony.
Fascism is commonly understood to have been primarily an interwar European phenomenon, but it was, and is, a discourse and mode of politics that has had global reach since its inception. Postcolonial Korea was one such place in which fascism could be found in its political culture. The case of Korea emerges as an intriguing case study to better understand the nature of fascism as a political discourse promoting an alternative form of modernity that rejected those of capitalist liberalism and communism. By analyzing how fascism took root in a postcolonial nation-state after World War II, we can also gain an understanding of fascism’s enduring appeal in global politics even today.
BIO:
Sungik Yang is an assistant professor of history at Arizona State University. He is a political and intellectual historian of modern Korea, focusing on political ideology, nationalism, democracy, and historical memory. He received his PhD in History and East Asian Languages at Harvard University. His forthcoming book is titled Nation Transcendent: Postcolonial Fascism in Cold War Korea.
ADMISSION (Online & In-person): Free for RAS Korea Lifetime and Annual Members; W10,000 for Non-members; W5,000 for Non-member students (Student ID requested)
VENUE:
Seoul Public Activities Center (SPAC, 서울시공익활동지원센터) is located at Yongsan Verdium Friends #101 (용산베르디움프렌즈 101동) B1, 40 Baekbeomro 99-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul.
Walk 2-3 minutes from ‘Exit 8’ of Samgakji Station (LINE 6 & 4) and take the elevator down to the B1 Floor.
