Coercion and Conversion: Time Management in Colonial Korea

While time is commonly considered a universal, objective fact of life, it is also an important political tool. The political significance of the actions and events it coordinates in establishing social order causes notions of time to differ both between nations and within them. After 1910, when Japan annexed Korea, changes in schools, the workplace, and public life began to become undergirded by the fast growing appeal of a capitalist cosmopolitanism and the symbolism of timepieces and leisure.

Professor Roald Maliangkaij, from the School of Culture, History and Language, explores the introduction of time management systems in Korea under Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945) and examines the impact of new holidays, hourly pay, and punctuality on workers, the general public, and tourists. Why and how were the new time systems and concepts promoted and adopted? What forms of resistance did they encounter? Answers to these questions inevitably foreground the experiences of urbanites, but Professor Maliangkaij seeks to incorporate also the experiences of the rural population.

About the Speaker: 

Roald Maliangkaij is a Professor at the School of Culture, History and Language in the College of Asia and the Pacific.

Roald specialises in Korean cultural industries, heritage preservation, performance, and fandom from the early 20th century to the present. He teaches and conducts research on popular culture in East Asia and is frequently asked to give talks on aspects of the Korean wave, including K-pop, advertising, consumption, fashion, and cinema.

Professorial Lecture Series:

This public lecture is the first in a series of five lectures that aim to celebrate our esteemed academics and showcase their areas of expertise in research and teaching.