Newsletter No.7

March 4, 2025 

[UMI4AA Advocacy] Column

During the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, London experienced a rapid surge in its impoverished population. Each year, around 1,000 infants were abandoned, left on church steps or discarded among piles of refuse. In response, philanthropist Thomas Coram founded the Foundling Hospital to offer refuge for children whose mothers, driven by poverty, were forced to give them up. Many of these women left small tokens behind, such as lace-trimmed caps or paper hearts, symbols of a promise to one day return and reunite with their babies. Sadly, only a few ever managed to reunite with their children. The Foundling Hospital closed in 1954 and was transformed into the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children, which began supporting children from impoverished families. In 2004, this legacy expanded further with the opening of the Foundling Museum, dedicated to preserving the memories of those lost histories. 

The Foundling Museum serves as a crucial space for remembrance, documenting the lives of those abandoned. It houses archives, photographs, and firsthand oral accounts from those who once lived there. When I visited recently, I found the small museum filled with a sense of solemn reflection. The tokens left behind by mothers long ago were carefully displayed. The museum also assists descendants in tracing their ancestors, made possible by its well-preserved records and a deep recognition of the importance of passing down the information about who their ancestors are and what sort of lives they led. 

But how does South Korea compare? The nation’s adoption record system, as revealed in the January 14th episode "The Nation That Erased Me: Missing Adoption Records" of the investigative journalism program MBC PD Note, is marked by severe neglect and systemic failure. This neglect stems from a broader societal disregard for the significance of understanding one’s identity. Alarmingly, some institutions have even issued orders to destroy adoption records, stating, “Destroy the records so that adoptees cannot access information from 30 or 40 years ago.” Such instructions are truly shocking. 

When South Korea faces international criticism for continuing to send children abroad for adoption despite its economic development, officials often deflect by citing cultural values, claiming that “Korean culture values blood ties.” But if that were true, it raises an urgent question: Why has the nation treated adoptees’ biological information with such blatant indifference?

 

[Book Talk Review]

I Am an Upside-Down Tree is a documentary novel presenting the narratives of eight Korean overseas adoptees the author encountered while volunteering as an interpreter. The text documents their experiences in the process of searching for their biological parents as part of their efforts to reconstruct their personal histories. 

This Is a Record of the Lost Children examines the cases of infants who were killed, abandoned, neglected, or adopted at birth, tracing how Korean society has treated newborns over time. It also interrogates what measures are necessary to prevent such outcomes. 

This book talk examined the issues of infanticide, abandonment, and adoption from a socio-structural perspective, creating a space for authors and participants to engage in critical discussion. Below are selected passages from the books for further reflection, along with a summary of the conversation. 

■ Key Takeaways for Reflection*

[UMI4AA Arcademic Activities] Seminar

🌸 February Seminar Review

On February 22, nine participants convened both online and in person to engage in an in-depth discussion of two seminal works by Professor Hyunsoog So. 

1) "The Orphans on the Boundary – A Study on Public Welfare Service Focused on Korean Orphan Problems during the Japanese Colonial Period" (2007)

Orphans emerged as a distinct social category ('other') with the dissolution of traditional family and kinship networks and the rise of the modern family structure. This paper examines how social welfare, functioning as "a mechanism of both protection and exclusion for marginalized populations," evolved in relation to orphans. By the late Joseon period, there was a growing societal interest in children's rights. With the onset of Japanese colonial rule, a nationwide movement for the establishment of orphanages gained momentum. In the 1920s, the Japanese Government-General of Korea promulgated the Chosŏn Reformatory Act or Chosen Kankarei Joseon Reformatory Ordinance (Chosun-Gamhwa-Ryung) (1923) and expanded reformatory schools under “the principle of one province, one reformatory school.” Within this framework, policies aimed at transforming yesterday’s vagrants into today’s soldiers and workers for the total war system placed orphans in a liminal space between the citizenry and the non-citizenry. As a result, they became subjects of a coercive process in which they were forcibly incorporated into the national body as “citizens.” 

2) “From models of family modernization to criticism of family “normality”: Research trends and challenges in Korean contemporary family history" (2021) 

This paper summarizes trends in family studies and advocates for the necessity of historical approaches to the discourse. Until the 1970s, research predominantly focused on the structure of the family and the functions of the nuclear family. However, from the 1980s onward, influenced by Marxism and feminism, scholarship began incorporating class, social stratification, and gender as key analytical variables. Yet, many of these studies remained overly theoretical and schematic in their approach. Since the 1990s, scholarly attention has expanded to include individuals and groups marginalized from everyday life and social norms, leading to the emergence of oral life-history research and microhistorical studies. A critical approach to family history must engage with the interactions between structure and agency, interrogating subjectivity, practice, and strategic action. Such an approach fosters a reflexive examination of normative family structures and institutional frameworks. 

▶ Discussion 

• Orphans were institutionalized under the rationale of "protection," "education," and "reformation (moral rehabilitation)," a logic strikingly similar to that applied to unwed mothers, who were confined to facilities under the pretext of protection and labeled as subjects for rehabilitation. A shift can be observed when past newspaper discourses on orphans are analyzed. Before the 1970s, orphans were primarily defined as "parentless," "without families to rely on," and "without a hometown," whereas, from that point onward, children of unwed mothers, impoverished families, and divorced households increasingly came to be categorized as "orphans." This shift is noteworthy. 

• Studies that argue “the family, while positioned as a space separate from the state, is continuously summoned by the state, burdened with financial responsibilities for welfare, and designated as the site for preserving and reviving tradition” are particularly compelling. Similarly, research on the "shadow mothering" of modern Korean nuclear families, which explores the oral life histories of women who spent their lives performing care labor and filling maternal voids yet were never legally recognized as mothers, offers critical insights.

🌸 March Seminar Announcement 

• So, Hyunsoog (2018). “Postwar History of War Orphans in the 1950s: Their Condition and Social Measures.” Journal of Korean Modern and Contemporary History, vol. 84. 
• Lee, Clara Hyun-Jung (2020). “A Study on the ‘Normality’ in Family Systems and Social Awareness in South Korea Following Biological Mothers’ Experiences in Transnational Adoption.” Family and Culture, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 31-76.

▶ UMI4AA 1st Seminar Series Sign Up: Click HERE to register for the next session.

 

• Headline: "Expanding Efforts for Family Planning"
• Subheading: Social Workers' Involvement Broadens the Scope of Family Planning
• Source: Dong-A Ilbo
  
• Date of Publication: June 6, 1974
• Summary:
  The Planned Parenthood Federation of Korea has been actively expanding its promotional efforts this year to emphasize the importance of family planning across different social groups and professions. In April and May, the organization hosted family planning seminars for professionals such as female doctors, midwives, and hairdressers. On June 5, another seminar titled "Family Planning and Social Work" focused on key topics, including sex education, the prevention of unwed motherhood, and family welfare. At the seminar, Sang-nak Ha from the Department of Social Work at Seoul National University (now the Department of Social Welfare) emphasized the importance of social workers taking an active role in family planning programs.
  
  He pointed out that efforts such as preventing unwed motherhood, placing children in foster care, and promoting adoption align closely with the objectives of family planning. However, he identified two significant challenges: the lack of collaboration between family planning initiatives and social work, and the medical sector’s failure to recognize the specialized skills of social workers. Ha argued that family planning encompasses not only sexual matters but also broader issues related to human life, requiring the active involvement of social workers in these efforts.

• Headline: Korean Federation of Housewives Clubs Unveils 1976 Family Planning Goals
• Source: ​Maeil Business Newspaper
• Date of Publication: January 19, 1976
• Summary:
  The Korean Federation of Housewives Clubs (President Cheolgyeong Lee) has declared 1976 as the "Year of Loving Your Country Through Birth Control." This follows their previous campaigns: "The Year of No Pregnancies" (1974) and "The Year for More Male Contraception" (1975). The Federation has actively promoted family planning, even securing funding from the Asia Foundation, a first for a civilian group.
  
  For 1976, in addition to counseling for unwed mothers, the Federation plans to expand initiatives to suburban areas: 1) Establishing family planning counseling centers in selected local dong-level offices of vulnerable districts and distributing contraceptives. 2) Stocking condoms alongside cigarettes at select tobacco shops for easy access. 3) Collaborating with Korea Yakult to have door-to-door salespersons deliver condoms with Yakult drinks for just 10 won per pack.