Resisting the Spell of Oblivion: A Conversation with Taeho Yoon
2019; University of Minnesota Press; Volume: 5; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.5749/vergstudglobasia.5.2.0055
ISSN2373-5066
AutoresYi ̆,
Tópico(s)Asian Culture and Media Studies
Resumo55 Translation We Jung Yi Resisting the Spell of Oblivion: A Conversation with Taeho Yoon The webtoon (web cartoon) has emerged as a key cultural form shaping the contemporary media landscape of South Korea, a country known for its high- speed internet connections and mobile device penetration. An exemplary case of converging content and technology in networked youth culture, the webtoon’s remarkable growth has thus often been discussed in terms of its transmedial nature and innovative aesthetics (Jin 2015; Cho 2016). Inheriting and expanding the popular tradition of manhwa (comic arts) from the old print universe, many webtoons have also drawn critical attention as social texts that both reflect and inform South Korean public discourse. One of the most prominent of these is Incomplete Life (Misaeng 1, 2012–13), serialized by Taeho Yoon. By offering minute details of the everyday struggles that corporate employees experience , the work received an avid response from a wide range of viewers as they could easily relate to the characters’ frustrations, agonies, and dilemmas in the face of structuralized inequalities and power imbalances in the workplace and society at large. Having sparked webtoon- based cross- media cultural production, its 2014 TV adaptation further amplified the Misaeng syndrome through the male protagonist, a young intern without “standard qualifications” like a college degree. Now recognized as a K- manhwa regenerator in a new digital ecology, Taeho Yoon (b. 1969) had been trained as an apprentice of renowned cartoonists Young-man Huh and Un-hak Cho in the late 1980s. He made his debut in 1993 with the serialization of Emergency Landing (Pisang ch’angnyuk) in the monthly magazine Jump. As comic magazine publication waned in the late 1990s, Yoon moved to online platforms and gained more fame with such serials as Moss (Ikki, 2008) and Insiders (Naebujadŭl, 2010– ), both of which were adapted into successful feature films. 56 Translation Taking central stage in transmedia storytelling practices within and beyond South Korea, he has won numerous awards, including Our Manhwa of Today by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 1999 with his epic sci- fi graphic narrative Yahoo (Yahu, 1998–2003). Subsequent to the megahit of Incomplete Life, Taeho Yoon’s Operation Chromite (Inch’ŏnsangnyukchakchŏn,2013–14)stirredupmuchinterestand debate during its serialization, since the work covered the unresolved past of Korea’s division after liberation from Imperial Japan in 1945. On one hand, it attracted “reply attacks” (taetkŭl konggyŏk) by “anti-Communist” keyboard commandos who saw the webtoon as left leaning and pro–North Korea. On the other hand, it earned positive reviews for the creator’s historical consciousness and masterful composition, on account of which the serial won the Grand Prize in the 2015 Puch’ŏn Manhwa Awards. However, these mixed responses to Yoon’s 2013 webtoon may not seem exceptional, if the webtoon is situated within the broader genealogy of Korean War aesthetics in South Korea.1 Among the various modes of remembering and forgetting in that genealogy, the modes explored in Operation Chromite demand close consideration because the graphic narrative remediates the nation’s haunting legacy into the new platform of memory in the age of connectivity. In particular, given that the word remediation “derives ultimately from the Latin ‘remederi— to heal, to restore to health’” (Bolter and Grusin 2000, 59), what kind of healing or restoration would the webtoon’s evocation of wartime Korea offer? How would the millennial generation, a major force driving digital culture, engage with the webtoon’s representation of the postcolonial division, a history that they have not lived through but which has nevertheless conditioned their lives? With this line of questioning in mind, I visited Nulook Media in Seoul to interview Taeho Yoon in winter 2017. The following conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity. Aside from the two participants, romanized Korean names are written with the family name first, followed by the given name. The transliteration of Korean words follows the McCune–Reischauer system, except for names better known under other spellings. we jung yi (wjy): I’d like to start by referring to your interview with the newspaper Hankyoreh, which took place right before the serialization of Operation Chromite. You...
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