GGHS 오지○

2019 Winter Personal Essay

GGHS 2019 Winter - Team 5

In last summer vacation, I joined the global camp about ‘Goryeo’s women rights’. At that time, studied of Goryeo’s women rights and compared with present’s Feminism, I thought exploring for one subject is very attractive. Also, talking respective thinking and reading thesis with friends who have similar dream can give a help to make a better society. So I joined the camp because sharing thoughtful thinking and discussing and writing essay will make my dream comes true.

When I was middle school student, I take a interest in world’s women right after reading a book named ‘A thousand of splendid sun.’ Considering of job that can help many people who are suffering around the world, I chose ‘reporter.’ After take a interest in ‘Human right’, I searched more examples about women’s rights abuse. Among them, what angered me was ‘Japanese military sexual slavery’ which is Korea’s women suffered from another country. I want to become a help for them, therefore I read relevant books and searched articles but activities for alone was very hard for me. Meanwhile I saw the subject of this global camp ‘Ganghwa treaty : Human right’s abuse and press’ and I want to study more about this subject, so I selected this topic.

The reason why South Korea get into Japanese occupation, the instrument of losing the sovereignty of a nation is the Ganghwa treaty. Deal with important in history class, and I was interested in ‘Japanese military sexual slavery’, so I learned Japanese occupation with a lot of fun. So I knew a little bit about the Ganghwa treaty. Also, I　knew there were lots of other examples of human rights violation. So, I learned about the cases such as 창씨개명, and the ban on using Korean. However, I did not know what was there in the press that reported it, and how the anti-Japanese and pro-Japanese media situations were different and how this can compares with the current media,

The subject that I took one was ‘Human Rights and Media during the Colonial Period.’ Among them, I investigated enlightenment group and today’s progressive journalism. Just after Ganghwa treaty, Korea’s faction divided into conservative groups and enlightenment group. The enlightenment that I searched for was a force that seeks to inherit the characteristics of Shilhak and develop into a modern independent state by reforming Joseon. They suggested that opening up the economy can help overcome poverty and import foreign culture. What is the basis for their ideology? Thus, the enlightenment group positively assessed the integration of the domestic market and the establishment of foreign trade relations through the development of commerce and advocated market opening. To sum up their arguments, their trade views have been accurately recognized for their trade profits, with key elements of free trade theory. And I related this political complexion with battle of modern journalism. Currently, the Korean media is divided into progressive and conservative groups. The features of these media can be found in differences of views in reporting the same news. For example, on June 1st, 2009, Dong-A Ilbo, Hankyoreh newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, Kyunghyang Shinmun reported pictures of the former president Roh Moo-hyun's funeral ceremony. The Chosun Ilbo, the Dong-A Ilbo and the Kyunghyang Shinmun, which represent the conservative media, and the liberal press, posted different photos after seeing the same issues. The Chosun Ilbo and the Dong-A Ilbo carried pictures of demonstrators destroying riot police cars, pictures of Bongha Village memorial altar, pictures of citizens holding their portrait after police broke down the memorial altar, pictures of empty Seoul Plaza, and pictures of citizens being taken by police. The liberal press wrote articles focusing on police violence, and the conservative media, on demonstrators' violence. We saw similarities between the current progressive and conservative media, which express one social problem through different ideas, such as the Wijeongchupsa and the enlightenment, who had different ideas on one issue of trade. Further, they believed that the Uijeongbu faction mainly influenced conservative media and liberal media. To find out the similarities between conservative media and the opposition of Ganghwa-treaty, conservative media outlets surveyed how they were reporting the biggest issue of the 2018 inter-Korean summit. Some conservative media outlets viewed the summit with negative views from many media outlets. They pointed to the nation's economic damage and excessive trust in North Korea. Like the conservative media, which expressed a negative view of the above-mentioned inter-Korean summit, the opposition of Ganghwa-treaty opposed opening up the door unlike the enlightenment then.

I created, investigated the theme of "Comparison analysis of the situation of modern media with after the past peace treaty." I also prepared and translated an introduction, imagining the expected effect after reading this essay, based on my motivation to write this essay. I also created the scripts of related parts because he wanted to learn more about the media coverage and repression at the time. I played the role of MC1 in the team's announcement, and on the day before the announcement, I studied many cases of repression during the Japanese colonial era and helped to make the announcement smoothly on the day of the announcement.

I wish the subject should not be allowed to one field to each person can set a theme we want. Since foreign mentors help us to learn more about English and have a higher vocabulary, I want to have a good experience that other foreign languages cannot have at other schools.

2018 Summer Personal Essay

                                                               2018 Global Forum Camp
                                                                    Essay Writing

Topic : A Comparative Study of Women’s Status: Goryeo Dynasty, Joseon Dynasty and Modern Society
Team : 3

I found this Global camp very interesting, because we have toi make our presentation in english with our friends who has similar interest and similar goals.

I participated in this camp because I wanted to share my thoughts as well as make presentations with our friends who dream of becoming journalists rather than thinking about my dream alone.

I wanted to study women’s right more because I dreamed of becoming journalist and the purpose was to help female, those who are suffering from strict Islamic rules. Furthermore, while considering issues related to Goryeo to commemorate of 1,100 years of the Goryeo Dynasty, the topic of women's rights in Goryeo was chosen. Although I was very interested in women's rights, I knew little about it. I just expected the lives of women has advanced rather than the Joseon Dynasty, but did not know about women’s right during the Goryeo Dynasty and why women’s rights were higher during the Goryeo Dynasty. Through this activity, I wanted to learn various views on women's rights of Goryeo and women's rights of other countries because I think understanding our country’s women's rights is the first priority to understand the human rights of the world. To investigate Goryeo’s women rights, our group had a meeting because we wondered that why women’s rights falls during the Joseon Dynasty, what is the condition of women’s right now?

and why the issue of feminism is so popular in Korea these days. So finally, we did a comparative analysis research activities about women’s social state centering around changing time of Goryeo, Joseon, and Modern Times.

Among them, I check and sum up the news of indicators of modern women's human rights and translate into English. As we know, the human rights of Korean women are not that high. Looking for various articles on discrimination against women, I found that there are many factors that encourage discrimination, such as wages for men and women, job rate differences, and words that discriminate against women. The biggest reason for the wage difference between men and women is unknown, and next is marriage and childbirth that are significantly disadvantageous to women. Thanks to, the a demonstration for the recovery of women's status like Hyehwa station protests and the Me-too movements and Feminism diffuse widespread in our country.

Also, I compared the social status of women of Goryeo and Joseon, and wrote a conclusion and translated it. Goryeo’s women's status was equal to men until the arrival of Neo-confucianism. The Goryeo women was able to remarry, inherit property equally, and have her name listed in the family tree by birth order, in order to avoid discrimination against son. However, the patriarchal culture became stronger with the introduction of Neo-confucianism in the late Goryeo and the readjustment of the marriage system after Joseon’s found. As a result, women were banned from remarrying, were not able to attend the ceremony and were even restricted from acquiring knowledge. Thus, I was able to learn that Neo-confucianism had a very repressive function for women. Currently, women's rights is not too high but is much better than before, we should have more interest in the women's rights and talk more about feminism in our public life.

Thus, we need to pay more attention to women's rights, and we need to educate others about the relationship between human ethics and Goryeo history, and we need to learn about all female human rights violations in relation to the present. Then, how should the media be covering? Whether to stand on the side of a relatively weak women or deliver the news objectively will be a endless concern.

There are voices that media should on women’s side to reform the contradictory social system to promote gender equality because they are discriminated against men. On the other hand, some argue that the media should only deliver facts objectively because it should deliver fair news without being biased. Despite of many women are still being discriminated, these days, women require feminism in a radical way, such as womadeu. I dreamed of a world where Journalist play an important role for the upliftment of women, and write an article in the journal related to feminism. I think if journalist will support our issues, I can realize my dream soon.