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KMID : 0857920200230020085
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Yonsei Journal of Medical History
2020 Volume.23 No. 2 p.85 ~ p.102
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The Medical Enlightenment Activities of the Catholic Church in Korean Colonial Magazines: Kyeong Hyang Magazine and Catholic Youth
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Park Seung-Mann
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Abstract
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This research note examines the development and meaning of the Catholic Church’s medical enlightenment activities in the Japanese colonial period. Before and after the turn of the 20th century, enlightenment activities to spread new information became active in Korea, resulting from the country’s incorporation into the world order. Not only the political system, but also everyday life was no longer the same, and media such as magazines and newspapers became popular means of informing on and knowing the new world. The Catholic Church was one actor that took the lead in spreading new cultures to colonial Korea by publishing magazines and newspapers such as the Kyeong Hyang Shinmun, Kyeong Hyang Magazine, and Catholic Youth. The circulation of medical information and paper consultations were at the center of the Catholic Church’s activities. It provided medical information, such as the concept and treatment of diseases, while also conducting medical consultations that “listened” to individuals’ symptoms and gave prescriptions accordingly. This series of activities was largely divided into four stages. First, folk remedies were considered part of the information necessary for everyday life through the “Various Problems” section of Kyeong Hyang Magazine. Next, the basics of medicine were covered as part of the knowledge on Western natural sciences in the magazine’s “Science” section. Then, Kyeong Hyang Magazine published the “Sanitation” section, which exclusively addressed medicine, in a series, and finally, Catholic Youth conveyed the basics of Western medicine while conducting paper consultations. The Catholic Church’s medical enlightenment was the result of the overlapping interests of the Catholic Church, the general Korean public, and the Japanese Government-General, colonial Korea’s three main agents of producing, consuming, and managing new information. First, the Church’s medical enlightenment distributed the knowledge that the general public “wanted to know.” In colonial Korea, medical personnel were scarce, so magazines and newspapers were useful windows to obtaining medical information and consulting on the physical condition of the body. The Church also presented the knowledge that it itself “wanted to inform”. Small dispensaries could not meet the medical needs of many, so mass media was a promising alternative. Lastly, the Catholic Church delivered knowledge “permitted” by the Japanese Government-General, as the dissemination of medical information did not threaten the legitimacy of colonial rule and helped develop colonial Korea. From the position of the Governor-General, the Catholic Church’s medical enlightenment activities were thus recommendable.
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KEYWORD
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Kyeong Hyang Magazine, Catholic Youth, medical enlightening, paper consultation, Catholic Church
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