Korean Modernization and the Meaning of “Cosmopolitan” Culture: W. E. Griffis and James Scarth Gale’s Evolving Views on Japan and Korea’s Place in East Asia

This paper analyzes the writings of the American Orientalist William Elliot Griffis (1843–1928) and the Canadian scholar-missionary James Scarth Gale (1863–1937), two of the most influential voices in establishing an image of Korea for a Western, Anglophone audience during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their writings demonstrate typical strains of Social Darwinism and Christian triumphalism, reflecting dominant Western discourses on Asia at the time. However, divergent views on the place and significance of “cosmopolitan culture” in a modernizing Korea suggest a more complicated legacy. Gale, due to his adoption of a “cosmopolitan” ideology oriented toward Hanmun literature closely linked with the Neo-Confucian episteme, approached modernization and the material benefits brought by Japanese colonialism in a more ambivalent manner. Whereas Griffis tended to essentialize modernization as necessarily intertwined with Westernization and Christianization, praising Japan and offering hope for Korea in reaching an objective yardstick of civilization, Gale continually questioned whether such a measure of civilization was indeed appropriate for Korea, a country which was essentially Confucianist and cosmopolitan in orientation. Thus, although both scholars demonstrate a critical turn against Japan following the March First Movement, Gale’s critiques represent the confirmation of lingering doubts as to the compatibility of traditionalist Korea and materialist Japan. On the other hand, Griffis’ criticisms impugn Japan for failing to fulfill the promise of full civilization and modernity. These approaches to Asian modernization suggest a further reevaluation of classical Orientalist tropes and invite us to explore instead the potential embeddedness of Anglophone discourse within the pre-modern Sino-barbarian (Hwa-i 華夷) paradigm.