Right after the Liberation from Japanese occupation, the Leftist and Rightist political factions claimed the legacy of the March 1st movement as their own, even to the extent of resorting to violence. Yet the people just remembered the sacrifice and d...
Right after the Liberation from Japanese occupation, the Leftist and Rightist political factions claimed the legacy of the March 1st movement as their own, even to the extent of resorting to violence. Yet the people just remembered the sacrifice and death made by a plain simple teenage girl, and wished to commemorate her in a cultural sense. In the process, Yu Gwan-sun suddenly became a female icon (and an Icon identified with its gender) of the March 1st Movement, and placed at the center of state power’s policy of historical commemoration. State authorities promoted Yu Gwan-sun as the embodiment of the March 1st Movement’ spirit, yet shoved aside other female individuals who also had important roles in the movement. Each of every regime as well as political factions, despite all their differences in political stance, never differed from or clashed with each other over the “Hero Yu Gwan-sun Narrative.” Yu Gwan-sun was the ultimate hero of the state. Meanwhile, the public continued to remember Yu Gwan-sun by creating various images of herself, yet in the process forgot about other female heroes, and left them fade into oblivion. As a result, whenever the March 1st Movement was remembered and imagined(or ‘re-imagined’ for that matter), either state-wise or public-wise, Yu Gwan-sun was always the only (female) one we would remember.