Korean Studies Programme Director
Chief Examiner | UG Coordinator
Associate Professor of Korean Studies
Korean Studies Webmaster
Email: suyunkim@ hku.hk
(2023-24 Semester 1, Sabbatical Leave)
Research Interest
I specialize in modern Korean literature and culture. My interests include imperialism and colonialism in East Asia (former Japanese Empire), Cold War feminism, gender and sexuality, race, Korean literary history and novel, popular literature, and transwar Korean cinema. My recent monograph, Imperial Romance: Fictions of Colonial Intimacy in Korea, 1905–1945 (2020) examines discourses of romance and marriage between Koreans and Japanese by critically analyzing print culture, including literary texts, popular media, and films from the colonial era in Korea. Book reviews of Imperial Romance appeared in the Journal of Asian Studies, International Journal of Asian Studies, and CHOICE. My current research explores the production of popular fiction and romance from the colonial to the Cold War eras in Korea, supported by several research grants, including the General Research Fund (GRF) from the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong, Harvard-Yenching Institute, and the Academy of Korean Studies. 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 (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 the Louis Cha Fund and the China-West Strategic Research Theme Fund of HKU.
Co-organizer of The Modern East Asian Literature Research Cluster.
Education
Ph.D. Literature, University of California, San Diego
C.Phil. Comparative Literature, University of California, San Diego
M.A. Comparative Literature, Yonsei University
B.A. French Language and Literature, Yonsei University
Previous Posts
Hamilton College (NY), Department of Comparative Literature and Asian Studies Program: Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor
Doshisha University (Kyoto): Department of Sociology, JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow
Achievement Highlights
2022 Awarded GRF (2023-25) from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong for “Middlebrow Literature and Feminist Imagination: Towards A New Genealogy of the Novel in Korea, 1930-1960.”
2021 Awarded Cross-national Interdisciplinary Research Grant, Harvard-Yenching Institute. 2022/23.
2021 Awarded the Academy of Korean Studies, Individual Research Grant, 2022/23.
2019 Awarded Harvard-Yenching Institute, Visiting Scholar (2019/20), to conduct 10-month independent research.
2014 ECS (2015-18) from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong for “Production of Popular Fiction: Romance and Family Themes in Modern and Contemporary Korea”
2010 Awarded Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), 2010/12.
Selected Publications
Books
Imperial Romance: Fictions of Colonial Intimacy in Korea, 1905–1945. Cornell University Press, 2020
East Asian Transwar Popular Culture: Literature and Film from Taiwan and Korea. Edited by Pei-yin Lin and Su Yun Kim. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019
Click the image for publisher’s webpage.
East Asian Transwar Popular Culture_flyer
Link: New Books Network’s podcast on Imperial Romance with the author.
Book Chapters
“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 (Palgrave Macmillan, 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 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
“Introduction” (Co-authored). In East Asian Transwar Popular Culture: Literature and Film from Taiwan and Korea (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
Articles
“Transwar Continuities of Colonial Intimacy: Korean–Japanese Relationships in Korean Cinema, 1940s-1960s.” Asian Studies Review 45, no.3 (2021): 400-419, DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2020.1809633
“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
“Racialization and Colonial Space: Intermarriage in Yi Hyo-sŏk’s Works.” Journal of Korean Studies 18, no. 1. (2013): 29-59. doi: 10.1353/jks.2013.0002
Courses Taught at SMLC
KORE1021 Introduction to Korean culture and society
KORE2024 Korean Studies 1 (co-teaching with Ewha Womans University)
KORE3022 Korean Studies Research Project (capstone experience)
KORE3038 Korean Studies Research Seminar (capstone experience)
KORE2026 Topics in Korean Culture and Society (Introduction to Korean Cinema)
KORE2032 Korean Literature in Translation: Sentiments and Human Relationships in Modern Korean Fiction
KORE2033 Modern and Contemporary Korea: Social Movements and Modernity
KORE2034 Gender, Sexuality, and Family in Korea
KORE3036 Special topics in modern Korean literature
KORE3032 Directed readings in Korean Studies
KORE4009 Korean Studies research seminar (capstone experience)
Contact
Tel. (852) 3917 4069
Office: 5.39 Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU
HKU Scholars Hub: http://hub.hku.hk/cris/rp/rp01665