Stephen Epstein

Korean youth netizenship and its discontents

South Korea frequently is regarded as standing at the vanguard of the digital revolution, and its status as perhaps the worlds most wired society makes it a fruitful case study for considering how digital culture may develop. South Koreas reputation rests in part on statistics that place it at the global forefront in terms of broadband penetration and internet speed – that is, its infrastructural ‘hardware’ – but it is equally in the cultural expression of Koreas engagement with digital media – its ‘software’ – that the nation evinces characteristics that call for attention. Compressed modernisation in South Korea has brought about contestation over acceptable behaviour, and several recent incidents highlight the thorny negotiation of cultural practice in the Web 2.0 era. This article focuses on two interrelated phenomena: first, the use of digital media to confront convention and foster activism; and second, an opposing desire to police violations of norms, often at the expense of invasion of privacy and human rights.

Social Change and Marriage Patterns among Koryo Saram in Kazakhstan, 1937–1965

This article considers social forces set in motion when ethnic Koreans of the former Soviet Union (Koryo saram) were deported from the Soviet Far East to Central Asia under Stalin, treating these emerging phenomena as a context for understanding the community’s marriage patterns. Drawing on archival records from 1937 to1965 in Kazakhstan, we show how choice of marriage partner reflects changes in socioeconomic status, places of residence, gender roles and language use. Demographic data about interethnic marriages in Kazakhstan, we argue, serves as a useful tool for exploring relations between Koryo saram and the larger host society; these evolving trends in marriage patterns offer a window into the Korean diaspora experience locally and more broadly.