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Editorial introduction: Korea as a problematic and Paik Nak‐chung

The focus here is on seeking out alternative modes of knowledge production by using intercomparisons within East Asia and the Third World to establish a mutual frame of reference. This special volume introducing Paik Nak-chung, Korea’s foremost critical intellectual, is just such an effort. Paik has worked both to determine the relationship between the problems facing Koreans and global issues and to examine the possibilities for solidarity by reflecting upon the theoretical and practical struggles of Koreans from a global perspective. If one of the major tasks confronting Asia’s critical intellectuals is ‘to create other critical routes of globalization’ (Cho and Chen 2005), it could be argued that Paik Nak-chung has already been engaged in this type of activity since the 1960s. Paik founded the critical journal Ch’angjak kwa bip’y ng ( Creation and Criticism , later The Changbi Quarterly ) in Korea in 1966, at the age of 28, and would use this journal as a principal platform for leading a critical culture movement in Korea, becoming deeply involved in the country’s national democracy movement in both theoretical and practical terms. As a result of his efforts, he was named by a Korean daily in 2007 as the intellectual with the most significant impact on Korean society during the 20 years following the country’s democratization in 1987 ( Kyonghyang Daily News , 30 April 2007). Any proper introduction of Paik, who has been engaged in multiple spheres of activity as a scholar of English literature, literary critic, and social activist, should begin with The Changbi Quarterly and his relationship to it. 1