New Woman As A Spectacle Of Femininity: Na Hyesok's Kyonghui

Although Na Hyesok’s short story, “Kyonghui,” is a work of fiction, it serves as an accurate historical depiction of a specific group of women, one that the eponymous protagonist and the author herself belonged to, that was brought into colonial Korea on the tidal waves of modernity in the 1920s and 30s. These said women, labelled as New Women, are now remembered as first generation Korean feminists; however, at the time, especially as a minority, they were frequently a spectacle of society due to their nontraditional characteristics. In her article, “New Woman as a Spectacle of Femininity: Na Hyesok’s ‘Kyonghui,’” Kelly Jeong explains that “Korean New Women’s relatively high level of education and their modernized consciousness essentially

Throughout the story, she is depicted as an active participant in housework and chores. In fact, she finds it fun and engaging, to the astonishment of the family maid. Furthermore, higher education for a woman was intended to be flourish on her marriage resume, which also implies that the women were not expected to exercise their education. But for Kyonghui, education is the tool she would use to earn her own living: “in direct proportion to one’s education, one would command respect from others and also get a high salary” (Na 67). When she receives and accepts an offer for an elite position and high salary by a sewing company director, this shows that she is eager and unafraid to exercise her skills and knowledge. By working for her own money, Kyonghui is not only able to be productive, but she also proves that women are capable of earning their own living, which would provide financial independence from her family and remove the need for

While this sounds plausible today, during Kyonghui’s time, it was nearly impossible to consider due to the stigma surrounding New Women and the double standard regarding gender. When the women returned home with their new knowledge, society had anticipated them to act according to social norms and expectations. At the same time, New Women expected their peers, especially their family and friends, to accept their differences. But New Woman or not, women in colonial Korea were expected to get married, have children, and housekeep, just as the in-law lady previously nags Kyonghui. Meanwhile, men who were equally educated abroad, were not faced with the same obstacles women faced when “their lives did not conform to the traditional molds… many of them had painful personal lives marked by divorce, scandal, exile, and ostracization” (Jeong, 6). When considering that Kyonghui is an extension of the author herself, one can assume that it is possible that Kyonghui would have faced a similar outcome as Na Hyesok, who also believed that her motives and actions would be understood. Infamously, she published her confession of having an extramarital affair, which not only turned society against her, but also her family and friends. Eventually, she becomes socially and financially estranged and “died a homeless vagrant” (Jeong 9). As a