Prof. Kim, Su Yun

I specialize in modern Korean literature and culture. My interests include imperialism and colonialism in East Asia (former Japanese Empire), gender and sexuality, race, popular literature (middlebrow and lowbrow literature), Korean literary history and novel, transwar/transnational Korean cinema. My monograph, Imperial Romance: Fictions of Colonial Intimacy in Korea, 1905–1945 (Cornell UP, 2020) examines discourses of romance and marriage between Koreans and Japanese by critically analyzing print culture, including literary texts, popular media, and film from the colonial era in Korea. Book reviews appeared in The Journal of Asian Studies, The American Historical Review and CHOICE, among others.

Meanwhile, I have co-edited a book on the transwar culture of Korea and Taiwan. East Asian Transwar Popular Culture: Literature and Film from Taiwan and Korea (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) explores the shared experience of colonialism and post-colonialism of Korea and Taiwan through analysis of literature and film. This project was supported by Louis Cha Fund and China-West Strategic Research Theme Fund of HKU.

I am currently working on two book projects, tentatively titled “Middlebrow Literature and Feminist Imagination: Towards a New Genealogy of the Novel in Korea, 1930-1960” and “Writing Mobility: Literature of Border-Crossing, Migration, and Travel in Mid-Century Korea.” They were supported by several research grants including the General Research Fund (GRF) from the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong, SAR, the Academy of Korean Studies, the Harvard-Yenching Institute, and Kyujanggak Institute of Korean Studies (Seoul National University).

I started the position at HKU in 2012 when Korean Studies major was launched. Before arriving at HKU, I taught at Hamilton College (NYS) and was a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow at Doshisha University (Kyoto).

I'm co-convener of Modern East Asian Research Cluster (MEAL). MEAL regularly organizes book talks and conferences. See here for more of our scheduled events.

Publications

1. MONOGRAPH

2020. Imperial Romance: Fictions of Colonial Intimacy in Korea, 1905–45. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 204 pp. ISBN: 9781501751882

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501751882/imperial-romance/

Reviews appeared in The Journal of Asian Studies 81, no 1 (2022): 217–19, The American Historical Review 128, no. 2 (2023): 1056–57, The International Journal of Asian Studies 20, no. 1 (2023): 250–54, Canadian Review of Comparative Literature (Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée) 48, no. 4 (2021): 565–68, and CHOICE 59, no. 4 (2021): 609. Podcast interview at the East Asian Studies channel of the New Books Network (2021); link to interview: https://newbooksnetwork.com/imperial-romance .    

2. Co-Edited Volume

2019. Lin, Pei-yin and Su Yun Kim, eds. East Asian Transwar Popular Culture: Literature and Film from Taiwan and Korea. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan.

ISBN 978-981-13-3200-5, https://www.palgrave.com/la/book/9789811331992

ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS

3.        2021. “Transwar Continuities of Colonial Intimacy: Korean–Japanese Relationships in Korean Cinema, 1940s–1960s.” Roland Bleiker, David Chapman, David Shim, eds. Visualising Korea. Asian Studies Review 45:3, pp 400–419. doi:10.1080/10357823.2020.1809633

4.        2019. “From the Detective to the Romance Genre: Popular Fiction in Postcolonial Korea” in East Asian Transwar Popular Culture: Literature and Film from Taiwan and Korea. 111–37.

5.        2019. Lin, Pei-yin and Su Yun Kim. “Introduction”: co-authored in East Asian Transwar Popular Culture: Literature and Film from Taiwan and Korea. 1–20.

6.        2019. “Claiming Colonial Masculinity: Sex and Romance in Ch’ae Mansik’s Colonial Fiction” in East Asian Transwar Popular Culture: Literature and Film from Taiwan and Korea. 81–109. *reprint of 2018 article.

7.        2018. “Claiming Colonial Masculinity: Sex and Romance with Japanese Women in Ch’ae Mansik’s Colonial Fiction.” Acta Koreana 21, no.1. (2018): 255–282. doi:10.18399/acta.2018.21.1.010

8.        2013. “Racialization and Colonial Space: Intermarriage in Yi Hyo-sŏk’s Works.” Journal of Korean Studies 18, no. 1. 29-59. doi: 10.1353/jks.2013.0002

9.        2005. “Ppijŏngsŏngsi wa Pakhasat'ang ŭi mellodŭramajŏk kiŏk” [Melodramatic Memories in A City of Sadness and Peppermint Candy]. Taejung sŏsayŏn’gu [Journal of Popular Narrative] 11:2 (2005): 325–353. (Korean)