New Chef, Park
: “Koreanness” with Full of Non-Koreanness
By Ye-mok Jeon[1]
This propaganda poster portrays an imaginary situation when former Korean President Park Chung-hee become a chef at a Canteen[2]’s Korean Cuisine vendor of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. Although the vendor’s menu provides “authentic” Korean dishes for customers, the stall also sells field rations, Manchurian dishes, Japanese dishes as well as Korean dishes. Those dishes are far from authentic Korean dishes. Bibimbap is a Korean food but Guobaorou (锅包肉, Northeast Chinese cuisine) and sushi (すし, Japanese cuisine) are not Korean food. Furthermore, Park said, through a speech bubble, “Do not ask me why I can cook exotic food,” implying that he wants to hide his background regarding his ability to cook exotic dishes.
The main message of the poster is to indicate the irony of President Park’s regime through metaphors in the poster. Park was eager to spread nationalist sentiments to achieve economic success and purge communists. Paradoxically, his background was, to some degree, far from a true “Koreanness.” This irony can be explained by several studies.
First, President Park received the legacy of Manchukuo. He was once a soldier of the Kwantung Army, a segment of the Japanese Imperial Army in Manchuria. Michael Robinson points out that Park’s experiences in the Japanese military affected “Park’s nationalist vision” and “massive mobilization campaigns,”[3] which are especially true in the case where Park urged the Korean labor force to work hard.[4] In addition, Suk-Jung Han argues that Park’s experiences in Manchuria as a cadet deeply affected his way of governance in South Korea.[5] For example, Han reveals similarities between Manchukuo and South Korea: How the two regimes used Confucianism as a fundamental rule for governance; how gymnastics played a political as jaegun in South Korea and as jianguo in Manchukuo.[6] Second, while modernizing and industrializing South Korea, Park also demonstrated Japanese ideologies. Park and his technocrats assumed nationalist qualities under the banner of “the ‘Korean Way (Han’guksik)’ development,[7]” which is related to Japanese ideas and methods of industrialization in 1930s.[8]
Moreover, many symbols are carefully arranged in the poster to represent the above-mentioned irony. First, Park’s military experiences in Manchu and Japan were depicted as Park’s ability to cook a Manchurian dish (Guobaorou), a Japanese dish (sushi), and field rations. This menu demonstrates the irony of the “Korean Way,” which was proclaimed by Park’s regime. The reason for this is that Park’s “Korean Way” consists of non-Korean parts. In other words, his “Koreanness” was inundated with non-Koreanness. Other figurative images continue to support the irony. The image of Park’s job as a chef implies that he is the leader of South Korea and the list of his menu means his style of governance in South Korea.
Next, Park’s remark in the poster also reflects his other ironic situation. As Park was not able to be proud of what he did in the past, he did not want to reply to the question: Why can he cook foreign dishes? His message in the speech bubble means that Park continuously endeavored to conceal his record on joining Japanese troops and participating in communist activities which contradicted his “Korean Way” and nationalism.
Lastly, the color combination of the poster is also relevant to the irony, inspired by the national flag of Manchukuo whose colors are matched with five races in the nation and are related to Manchukuo’s slogan, Five Races Under One Union (五族協和). The background color is yellow which is the same as that of Manchukuo’s flag and the color of the poster’s headline is also red and blue which is the same as the first two stripes of Manchukuo’s flag. Also, yellow, red, and black colors correspond to peoples of Japanese, Manchurian, and Korean respectively in the poster as does Manchukuo’s national flag. The color of Park was depicted as a black and white picture because the black color represents Korea in Manchukuo’s national flag. The same color combination between the poster and Manchukuo’s national flag connotes the fact that unrealized Manchukuo’s ideal was, to some extent, realized in South Korea, considering the legacy of Manchukuo in South Korea despite seemingly two countries’ irrelevance.
[1] This exegesis was submitted as a final term project of the class HH3020, Introduction to Korean History, at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore in 2019. Also, this project was selected as one of the best three essays in the class and displayed at the library of NTU for one month.
[2] Canteen is a name for a food court in Singapore and other Chenese-speaking places.
[3] Michael Edson Robinson, Korea’s Twentieth-Century Odyssey (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007), 128.
[4] Robinson, Korea’s Twentieth-Century Odyssey, 134.
[5] Suk-Jung Han, “Those Who Imitated the Colonizers: The Legacy of the Disciplining State from Manchukuo to South Korea,” in Crossed Histories: Manchuria in the Age of Empire, ed. Mariko Asano Tamanoi (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2005), 168.
[6] Tamanoi, Crossed Histories, 171.
[7] Hyung-A Kim, Korea’s Development under Park Chung-Hee: Rapid Industrialization, 1961-1979 (London; New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), 8.
[8] Kim, Korea’s Development under Park Chung-Hee, 178.
