2014, Vol., No.45

Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.39

pISSN : 1598-4230 / eISSN : 2586-7601
https://journal.kci.go.kr/ihss

Public commemoration of unexpected death in America, while often focused on charismatic celebrities in the short term, typically finds permanent form only in the remembrance of the sudden mass deaths of average citizens. This paper examines the dynamics of public memorializing of large-scale death from its origins during the US Civil War to the present. The crucial turning point in public commemoration is located in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (VVM), which touched off a “memorial mania” across the United States. The key innovations of the VVM were its origins within a specific group asserting its identity, and its implied emphasis on victimization through trauma, which made the Wall in Washington, DC America’s first true therapeutic memorial. The paper concludes with lessons from the American experience for other nations enduring similar traumas by examining the sources of modern memorializing – a contemplative attitude towards death rooted in the Romantic sensibility, victimization, and democratization. Together they can, if thoughtfully applied in the creation of commemorative memorials, foster individual and even national catharsis when people are confronted with a major tragedy.

This study analyzes the influence of the Sewol Ferry accident, which occurred 52 days before the Seoul mayoral election on June 4, 2014, on the behavior of Seoul voters. There are two reasons for this study. First, previous studies have not adequately examined the influence of issues on voting behavior in Korea. Second, the Sewol Ferry accident was one of the most influential and prominent issues on voting behavior in the past 20 years. For this study, we conducted a telephone survey of Seoul voters after election day. The total sample of the survey was 970, which was proportionally extracted by gender, age, and region. The main findings of this study are that only 16.9% of Seoul voters voted based on the Sewol Ferry accident, although the accident was a dominant issue, and that the accident had little effect on variations in voters’ support for a candidate in the Seoul mayoral election. We obtain these findings when we control for two traditionally crucial variables, party identification and the personality and pledges of candidates. In the meantime, 75.6% of respondents estimated that the Sewol Ferry accident influenced the voting behavior of the electorate. More than three-fifths (61.8%) of the respondents answered that the accident was beneficial to the candidate Wonsoon Park, while only 3.2% said that the accident might be beneficial to the candidate Mongjun Jeong. The results show how voters’ unscientific estimate of the effect of the Sewol Ferry accident on voting behavior differs from that when party identification and the personality/pledge of candidates are controlled for.

Over the centuries, Chinese diaspora has significantly engaged and involved in economic cooperation in African countries. This article analyzes the historical development and roles in international cooperation of Chinese diaspora in Africa. By classification of the Chinese diaspora, the authors examine how Chinese diasporas have been involved and engaged in economic cooperation in transnational borders. Their strong ties and well developed networks make Chinese diaspora empower economic impacts on the host countries. In the end, the engagement of Chinese trade and labor diaspora in economic cooperation has made the outstanding transformation to most of the African countries and led to the change of international relationship between its home and host countries.