WEBZINE ACC

The Asia Culture Center (ACC) hosts “A March of those who have left: Women and Migration,” a program in conjunction with the Library Park’s permanent exhibition.
The exhibition will investigate the footsteps of women and migrants over six sessions, from August 13 to September 24.

In conjunction with the permanent exhibition in the ACC Library Park, the ACC is currently hosting the event “A March of those who have left: Women and Migration,” which includes lectures, film screenings, and other programs that present a holistic perspective on Asian women’s migration and lives.

Poster of the program “A March of those who have left: Women and Migration”

“A March of those who have left: Women and Migration,” a program in conjunction with the permanent exhibition in the ACC Library Park, began on August 13 (SAT) with Professor Kim Hyun Mee of Yonsei University’s lecture “Why do women leave their homes? The feminization of global migration and politics of care.” Professor Kim investigates the phenomenon known as the feminization of global migration and imagines how social solidarity, centered around care, may be possible.

Professor Kim Hyun Mee, during the lecture “Why do women leave their homes? The feminization of global migration and politics of care”

On August 20, the film “The House Is Black,” by Director Forugh Farrokhzad, was screened, followed by a program led by Sung Moon, programmer for the Jeonju International Film Festival, under the theme “Forugh Farrokhzad, The Forerunner of the Iranian New Wave.” In this session, Moon discussed Forugh Farrokhzad’s life and her works, as well as the questions of women’s desire and human dignity within her works.

We took part in the third program of “A March of those who have left: Women and Migration,” the workshop “A Great March of Women Monsters,” and the experience event on “Creating a Compendium of Asian Women Monsters.”

# ”A Great March of Women Monsters” workshop and “Creating a Compendium of Asian Women Monsters” experience event

All monsters speak directly to the unconscious fears that exist within the deepest human unconsciousness.
Women monsters, then, undoubtedly speak to the fear of women by men and the fear of themselves for women.

- Barbara Creed, from the Korean foreword to “The Monstrous-Feminine”

“What are some unconscious fears that exist within us? How do they take form?”

As a part of their group “Dolgoji Yokai Studies,” Choi Go-eun and Choi Hana focused on how beings that are not “normal” or “mundane” are made into monsters and created works such as the “Gwiyeoun yogoe dogam” (A Compendium of Cute Monsters) (2016), “Seulpeun yogoe dogam” (A Compendium of Sad Monsters) (2017), and “Baekgwijuhaeng: yeoseong goemul haengjin” (Day Parade of Hundred Demons: A March of Women Monsters) (2022). “Baekgwijuhaeng: yeoseong goemul haengjin” (Day Parade of Hundred Demons: A March of Women Monsters) intersects the descriptions of women monsters in each country with interviews of women activists and takes the form of a screen book that symbolizes a demonstration in solidarity between women monsters and humans.

Explaining the program “A Great March of Women Monsters - Creating a Compendium of Asian Women Monsters”

Why are so many monsters with tragic stories portrayed as women?

The day’s event introduced us to the tragic stories that make up the background for women monsters, such as the Korean Songaksi, Malay Langsuyar and Pontianak, Thai Mae Nak Phra Khanong, Japanese Ubume and Ame-onna, Mexican La Llorona, and Inuit Qallupilluit. Scattered long hair, white clothes, and sharp and long nails are recurring motifs found in women monsters across different cultures. What is interesting is their shared narratives. Most women monsters are related to children, as women are rendered into “monsters” by failing to fulfill the task of reproduction, such as being unable to bear a child, experiencing a miscarriage, having a stillborn, or losing or killing a child.

If that is the case, what created the women monsters? Who created the women monsters?

Choi Go-eun and Choi Hana emphasize that the mythology of monsters always reflects the contemporary consciousness and has always been changed or reproduced as needed—that is to say, women monsters are the manifestations of things feared or treated as taboo by cultures around the world. In the patriarchal society of the past, men’s fear of losing their power and warnings and taboos against women who fail at their duty of societal reproduction created women monsters. From this, I could realize that the terrible and grotesque forms of women monsters reflect the ideology of society.

“A Great March of Women Monsters - Creating a Compendium of Asian Women Monsters” activity sheet

This warning is not unfamiliar to us living in the present.

Fears of our society and boundaries create new monsters without end, even today. The experience program “A Great March of Women Monsters - Creating a Compendium of Asian Women Monsters” features the activity “affirming the strengths of monsters, and creating monsters based on individual wishes.” The process of creating the monster was as follows. Step 1: Turn myself into a monster. Step 2: Define the sounds, odor, form, and appearance of the monster. Step 3: Name the monster, and you have the monster you created.

The participants were ecstatic. The new monsters, created through their active engagement, were deeply related to the problems of today’s society. Monsters who eat and spread depression and narcissism, mascara monsters that can persuade anyone with a gaze, even in wage negotiations, virus monsters that track and punish digital sexual violence, and many others appeared. These new monsters become strengths that “oppose the ones that fear us and seek to control us.” These monsters will be displayed in the participatory corner in the October ACC CONTEXT “Beware the Zombies.”

Participants working together to make new monsters

Programs in conjunction with the permanent exhibition under the theme “A March of those who have left: Women and Migration” will be continued.

On September 17 (SAT), platform.c researcher and activist Hong Myungkyo will deliver a lecture on supernational solidarity and resistance by East Asian workers under the title “Labor and Resistance in East Asian Diasporas.”

On September 18 (SUN), SPACE AFROASIA’s Moon Sun A and Choi Onejun will examine the lives and changes in identity among second-generation migrants living near Dongducheon, Paju, and other American bases under the title “The Cold War and Capitalism: Changes in Migrant Lives and Identities.”

On September 24 (SAT), independent researcher Park So-hyun will share her research on the expansion of Asian women’s migration from text resources, such as the Ancient Indian epic “Ramayana” to the Singaporean Samsui, under the title “The History of Asian Women Travelers.”

All of the programs are offered free of charge and can be applied for on the ACC website (www.acc.go.kr). We hope for the participation of many visitors interested in thinking together about the increasing crises and social phenomena surrounding Asian women and migrants.

Find out more on the ACC WebsiteClick to proceed to the web page