Cha Mi-ri-sa (車美理士, August 21, lunar calendar, 1879 – June 1, 1955) was a Korean independence activist, educator, Christian activist, women's rights activist, and social worker during the Japanese colonial period and in the Republic of Korea. She worked as a teacher at Baehwa Girls' School (the predecessor of Baehwa Girls' High School), and she was the founder of Duksung Women's University and Geunhwa Girls' Vocational School (the predecessor of Duksung Girls' High School and Duksung Girls' Middle School). Originally a Protestant (Methodist), she later converted to Catholicism.
이력
교육가
Two years after her marriage, her husband died, and she joined the Christian church. Through an American female missionary, she became interested in the actual conditions of advanced countries and in women's social activities. While studying in China and the United States, she gave up on returning home after the annexation of Korea by Japan, and in the United States she attended a theological seminary and took part in the independence movement. She worked as a Methodist missionary, and in 1917 she became a teacher and dormitory supervisor at Baehwa Girls' School (培花學堂). In 1919 she participated in the March 1st Movement. In 1919 she organized the Joseon Women's Education Association (朝鮮女子敎育會), argued for the necessity of women's education, and led the women's education movement. In 1921 she founded Geunhwa Girls' School, and in 1934 she established the Geunhwa Academy foundation. In 1935, recognizing the importance of vocational education, she changed the school's name to Geunhwa Girls' Vocational School (槿花女子實業學校) and gave female students vocational training.
Because the Japanese objected that the name "Geunhwa" symbolized the mugunghwa (Korean rose of Sharon), she changed the name to Deokseong Academy (德成學園). However, after friction with the Education Bureau of the Japanese Government-General of Korea, she resigned as principal in 1940 and served as chairman of the foundation's board. After liberation, she argued for the necessity of women's education and persuaded the U.S. Army Military Government to establish a university. In 1950 she founded Duksung Women's Junior College (Duksung Women's Junior College, the predecessor of Duksung Women's University).
여성교육
Influenced by Yun Chi-ho, who argued for the value of vocational education and labor, she stressed the need for vocational education for women as well. Through Geunhwa Girls' Vocational School, which she operated, she taught technical and clerical skills, and in doing so she also broke the prejudice that vocational education was only for men.
생애
젊은 시절
She was from Hwadong, Jongno District, Hanseong Prefecture, her registered family home was Ahyeon-ri, Goyang County, Gyeonggi Province, and her clan seat was Yeonan (延安). "Misa" was her Methodist baptismal name. There are conflicting accounts of her birth year: one says 1879, and another says 1880. Her parents had lost all five of their children, and the child they finally had in their fifties was a daughter, so from birth she was called "Seopseori" (the "unwelcome one").1 Born into a poor yangban family, she was married at age seventeen according to her family's wishes, but two years after the marriage she was widowed. She did not remarry afterward, became a member of the Protestant Methodist church, and received the baptismal name Misa at Sangdong Church.
Until the late 1930s she used her husband's surname and was known as Kim Mi-ri-sa (金美理士) in her social activities. From the 1940s she changed her name back to her maiden surname, Cha. Therefore, some materials and articles record her under the name Kim Mi-ri-sa. In 1905, through the arrangement of a female missionary, she secretly traveled to China, and in 1909 she graduated from Virginia Girls' School in Suzhou.
Kang clan; the triplets born to the daughter of Kang Dong-gi (Peter) and Jang (daughter of Melania)
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Cha clan — gives birth to Cha Mi-ri-sa. (Granddaughter of Park Seong-sam.) 1) and 3) are first-cousin twins, and their fathers are the twin sons of Park Seong-sam.
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Younger sibling — Park Seong-sam — gives birth to Cha Bo-ryun. Cha Beom-geun, Cha Yong-ae, Cha Beom-seok, and Cha *-an are her grandchildren.
Park Seong-sam had Jang and Cha Mo; Cha Mo had, with Kang, Cha Mi-ri-sa.
- The son (surname Park) and his mother, Kang, had a daughter who is Deaconess Park *-ran.
Jang's mother was Melania, and Kang's mother was also Melania. Jang's niece's mother was also Melania. An aunt and her niece often married the same husband.
Kang's mother was Kang Dong-gi Peter's eldest daughter, and Kang's elder brother was Father Kang Do-yeong.
Park Seong-sam had Jang and Cha Mo; Cha Mo had, with Kang, Cha Mi-ri-sa.
Park Seong-sam had Jang and Park (surname) Sam. Deaconess Park *-ran.
Jang's mother was Melania, and Kang's mother was also Melania.
Kang's mother was Kang Dong-gi Peter's eldest daughter, and Kang's elder brother was Father Kang Do-yeong.
민족운동과 교육활동
In 1906 (the ninth year of Gwangmu), she went to the United States and became one of the founding initiators of the Great Education Association (大同敎育會), organized in Los Angeles with the aim of saving the nation through education and Christian missionary work. In 1907 (the first year of Yunghui), when the Great Education Association was reorganized and expanded into the Great Protect-the-Nation Association (大同保國會), she became one of its founding initiators, and she served as editor-in-chief of its organ, the Great Public Gazette (大同公報), handling its editing and publication. In 1908 she went to China to continue her studies, and in 1909 she finished at Virginia Girls' School. That same year she went to the United States. Then, together with Yang Ju-sam (梁柱三) and others, she went to San Francisco, California, and with Ahn Chang-ho, Seo Jae-pil, and others she engaged in various activities, including publishing the Independent in an effort to restore the nation's declining fortunes. In 1910 she went to Missouri and studied theology at the Scarritt Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri.
In October 1910 (the fourth year of Yunghui), upon hearing the news of the annexation of Korea by Japan, she was shocked and collapsed; as a result of this incident she lost her hearing and could not hear for the rest of her life. Having given up on returning home, she continued attending the seminary and took part in the independence movement with Ahn Chang-ho and others. In 1917 she returned to Korea as a missionary dispatched by the American Methodist Mission, and at the same time she took up a post as teacher and dormitory supervisor at Baehwa Girls' School, a Methodist school. In 1919 she played a role as a staff member coordinating secret communications at home and abroad for the March 1st Movement.
While serving as dormitory supervisor at Baehwa Girls' School, she encouraged female students to take part in the March 1st Movement.
After returning home, she declined a proposal to introduce her to a good marriage match and devoted herself to women's education. When people around her viewed her as choosing hardship, she retorted that she was a descendant of a yangban family but was not herself a yangban. In 1919, for women's education, she organized the Joseon Women's Education Association (朝鮮女子敎育會) with Heo Jung-suk, Na Hye-seok, and others, and she received support from Yun Chi-ho, Ahn Chang-ho, Lee Gwang-su, and others. She also published Yeoja Siron as the bulletin of the Women's Education Association. For a time, Park Heon-yeong also worked as a reporter for her Yeoja Siron magazine.
여성 생활 개선 운동
From the time she was a teacher and dormitory supervisor at Baehwa Girls' School until the 1940s, she emphasized ironing clothes before wearing them, abolishing fulling (dadeumi), dyeing clothes before wearing them, eliminating superstition, washing clothes frequently, and keeping things clean and bathing children, and she appealed for these through various enlightenment lectures.
Starting from Gyeongseong, she traveled around and demonstrated to women how to iron clothes, dye and wear them, avoid fulling, wash often, and bathe their children. She also pointed out that if a mother held absurd superstitions or mistaken beliefs, her children could likewise come to hold absurd superstitions or mistaken beliefs, or could be warped by the shock of their mother's mistaken faith, and she urged them to abandon superstition or to seek the path of religion. She also advocated what she called "Lee Chae-ju-ism."
She also said that women should not think of passing property down to their children, that they should open their storehouses to educate sons and daughters alike, and that they should not begrudge spending money on their children's education. However, Neo-Confucian scholars objected to her promotion of new education, claiming that she was inciting people to adopt Japanese-style and Western-barbarian education, and she even engaged in quarrels and physical scuffles with Neo-Confucian scholars.
근화여학교 창설
On April 19, 1919, using the bell room of the Jongak room of the Gyeongseong church, she formally launched the Women's Night Study Association (女子夜學會) and opened a women's night literacy class, teaching women reading and arithmetic. Influenced by her, Heo Jung-suk and Kim Il-yeop also organized women's night schools in rural areas: Heo Jung-suk in Myeongcheon County, Dancheon County, and Hamhung Prefecture, and Kim Il-yeop in Yonggang County and Daedong County. They invited instructors and, using vacations and evenings, took part in education and enlightenment themselves.
From the time of the women's night school, she taught students without charging tuition, and this continued even after the founding of Geunhwa School.
In April 1920 she organized the Joseon Women's Education Association, and she continued to run the women's night school at Saemunan Church. The following year she created a traveling women's lecture corps and sent Heo Jung-suk, Kim Il-yeop, and others to various places, carrying out enlightenment lectures across the country that stressed the necessity of women's education. In four months she spoke at 73 locations and awakened people to the importance of women's education. In August 1920 Geunhwa Girls' School was officially authorized, and in 1921 she expanded and reorganized the women's night study class into the Women's Night Study Institute, secured a building, and continued education. In October 1921, using funds donated at lectures, she founded Geunhwa Girls' School, and she served as principal and chairman of the foundation.
Cha Mi-ri-sa held lectures, concerts, theatrical performances, bazaars, and other events to raise funds. She did not ask for help from the Government-General or from foreign missionaries, but made the school self-reliant, maintaining and developing it by her own efforts. She invited several teachers to the school, and at the same time she personally served as both teacher and administrator, managing all of the school's affairs herself.
교육 활동
In February 1934 she established the incorporated foundation Geunhwa Academy (槿花學園) in Anguk-dong, and she served as chairman of the foundation and as principal. Moved by Yun Chi-ho's view that labor is not shameful and that working by the sweat of one's brow is a noble act, Cha Mi-ri-sa argued that women too should take part in agriculture, technology, and labor. In September 1935, arguing that women needed to have occupations in order to live independently, she renamed Geunhwa Girls' School as Geunhwa Girls' Vocational School (槿花女子實業學校) and taught sericulture, agriculture, machinery, construction, accounting, and other subjects. She was subjected to public prejudice and criticism for making women engage in hard labor and vocational work, but she did not change her conviction about the need for vocational education, and this influenced the establishment of girls' commercial high schools and girls' vocational schools after liberation.
In 1937 she was appointed as one of the members of the board of Ewha Women's College. In October of that year, shortly after the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese Government-General of Korea raised objections, on the grounds that the name "Geunhwa" symbolized the mugunghwa, the Japanese objected, and after much deliberation she changed the name to Deokseong Academy (德成學園). Under threat of school closure from the Education Bureau of the Government-General, in October 1938 Cha Mi-ri-sa changed the incorporated foundation and school name to Deokseong (德成), in the intention of cultivating talented people of "virtue" (德). Yet, amid the difficulties that forced the name change, she insisted on keeping the school emblem as Geunhwa (槿花), the mugunghwa.
In 1940, the Japanese Government-General of Korea, regarding her as a female leader harboring anti-Japanese nationalist ideas, began pressuring her to step down from Deokseong Girls' Vocational School (德成女子實業學校). The Education Bureau of the Government-General applied pressure to force her resignation on the grounds that she refused to read the Imperial Rescript.
Cha Mi-ri-sa asked Yun Chi-ho to take charge of the school, but Yun Chi-ho declined, citing the fact that he himself was under surveillance. In August 1940 she handed the post of principal to Song Geum-seon (宋今璇), a professor at Ewha Women's College, and she herself withdrew from educational work, becoming chairman of the incorporated Deokseong Academy (財團法人德成學園) and honorary principal of Deokseong Girls' Vocational School. When the Japanese name-change order was issued that September, she refused to comply. On August 11, 1943, at her request, Yun Chi-ho was installed as chairman of the foundation. After liberation, in December 1945, when Yun Chi-ho died, she again took office as chairman of the Deokseong Academy foundation.
덕성여자대학교 설립
After liberation, in 1945, Deokseong Girls' Vocational School was changed to Deokseong Girls' Higher School (德成高等女學校), and afterward, with further changes to the school system, it was reorganized into Duksung Girls' Middle School (德成女子中學校) and Duksung Girls' High School (德成女子高等學校). She argued for the necessity of women's education in the liberated nation and repeatedly visited John Hodge, the commander of the U.S. Army Military Government, to persuade him to permit the establishment of a women's university, but she failed.
In 1948 she issued a statement signed by 108 people supporting the North–South talks proposed by Kim Kyu-sik and Kim Koo, and she advanced the establishment of a women's higher education institution she had been planning, founding Duksung Women's Junior College (now Duksung Women's University) in 1950, and she entrusted the position of first president to Song Geum-seon. Afterward, she changed her denomination from Protestantism to the Roman Catholic Church.
She stressed the necessity of women's education, the importance of hygiene, and the sacredness of vocational education and labor. She opposed the views of some new women who favored independence from the family and liberation, and she personally arranged marriages for several women. In 1952 she resigned as chairman of Duksung Women's University, and three years later, on June 1, 1955, she passed away. At the moment of her death she said, "To die without seeing complete independence is a regret."1
사후
In June 1955 she was buried in Uido-dong, Yangju County, Gyeonggi Province (now Uido-dong, Gangbuk District, Seoul), in her capacity as principal of Duksung Women's Middle and High School.
Afterward, Song Geum-seon, who had served as the first president of Duksung Women's University, handed over the post of chairman to her son. In 1997 a campus dispute arose opposing this clan-based management, and the incident revealed the arbitrary conduct and corruption of the Song family. In the wake of the campus dispute, based on materials from a National Assembly audit, Duksung Women's University corrected the founder of Duksung Women's University from Song Geum-seon to Cha Mi-ri-sa in 2000, and in August 15, 2002, Cha Mi-ri-sa was posthumously awarded the Order of National Foundation Medal of Merit (Aejong Medal). Since then, Duksung Women's University has been actively carrying out projects commemorating Cha Mi-ri-sa, who founded the school.
On April 19, 2003, the Cha Mi-ri-sa Institute was established near Sungshin Women's University in Seoul.2 On December 23 of the same year, the Cha Mi-ri-sa Memorial Hall was built within Duksung Women's University.3
저작
- 〈To Give New Life to Ten Thousand Women〉 (〈천만의 여자에게 새 생명을 주고자 하노라〉)
상훈
사상과 신념
Moved by Yun Chi-ho's theory of the sanctity of labor, she advocated from an early stage women's self-reliance and women's participation in labor. The advocacy of women's social and labor participation was carried on by Heo Jung-suk, Jeong Jong-myeong, and others.
여성 교육론
She returned home in 1912 and devoted herself to the education movement. She transformed feudal women's education into a modern women's education institution, Geunhwa Girls' Vocational School, by 1925, and she realized education for women, the majority of whom were illiterate. At the age of 60, in 1938, she renamed the school Deokseong Girls' Vocational School, and she laid the foundations of what is now Duksung Women's University.1
노동 신성론
She personally tested women's vocational education and eliminated the prejudice that vocational education was only for men. Accepting Yun Chi-ho's view that working by the sweat of one's brow is not shameful and that labor is sacred, she held that working by the sweat of one's brow is the highest human virtue. Convinced that vocational education was the way to build real ability, in September 1935 she renamed Geunhwa Girls' School as Geunhwa Girls' Vocational School (槿花女子實業學校), arguing that women needed occupations in order to live independently, and she gave female students vocational education as well.
This had been a policy she had been pursuing since the 1920s, and when Geunhwa Girls' School was converted into a girls' vocational school in 1935, it showed up in the teaching of agriculture, animal husbandry, construction, clerical work, and accounting to female students. In the early period she suffered criticism for making women do hard work and for forcing women into labor, but she argued that women also needed occupations and that women too should be able to earn money legitimately through labor. Her vocational education for women influenced the spread of girls' commercial high schools and girls' vocational schools after liberation.
개성과 자립론
She habitually stressed self-reliance and individuality. She often said, "Live, but live your own life by yourself! Think, but think your own thoughts by yourself! Know, but come to know by yourself."
She urged students and young people not to rely on others but to take care of matters on their own. At the same time, she advised them to think for themselves without losing their own thoughts and their own will. She also overcame hearing impairment by herself, without depending on anyone. Yun Chi-ho, a Enlightenment-faction politician and independence activist, highly valued her independence, individuality, and spirit of self-reliance.
통일 독립론
She regarded division as not true independence, and she regarded the establishment of a unified nation as true independence. In April 1948, together with 108 cultural figures, she supported the North–South negotiation proposals of Kim Koo and Kim Kyu-sik. At the moment of her death she said, "To die without seeing complete independence is a regret."1
평가
Yun Chi-ho, who was also her patron, praised her, writing that she was "the most noteworthy person among Koreans in Seoul. A woman who could not hear, who was not educated, and who was poor accomplished what wealthy and educated men or women could not do."1 This praise came from the diary entry in which Yun Chi-ho, the Enlightenment-faction figure who watched Cha Mi-ri-sa throughout his life and acted as her patron, evaluated her.1
Together with Josephine Campbell (1852–1920), founder of Baehwa Girls' High School, she converted to Catholicism.
기타
She opposed the free-love theories and independence from the family advocated by Na Hye-seok, Kim Il-yeop, Kim Myeong-sun, Heo Jung-suk, and others, and she arranged marriages between several female students and prominent young women and capable men. In doing so she did not focus on the family background or property of the man, but personally verified whether he had the ability to make a living and then arranged the match.
참고 자료
- Han Sang-kwon, Complete Works of Cha Mi-ri-sa, Vols. 1 & 2 (Cha Mi-ri-sa Research Institute, Duksung Women's University, 2009)
- Han Sang-kwon, A Biography of Cha Mi-ri-sa: Pioneer of the Women's Liberation Movement in the Japanese Colonial Period (Purun Yeoksa, 2008)
- Jo Deok-song et al., Korean Biographical Series 9 (Jo Deok-song et al., Bakwoosa, 1973)
- Yun Chi-ho, Diary of Yun Chi-ho, 1916–1943 (edited and translated by Kim Sang-tae, Inmul gwa Sasangsa, 2001)
- Choi Eun-hee, Until We Found Our Country (Tamgudang, 1973)
- Kim Seong-sik et al., Modern Korean History 4 (Singu Munhwasa, 1971)
- Choi Eun-hee, The Woman Who Sowed Seeds: The Life of Cha Mi-ri-sa (Cheonggu Munhwasa, 1957)
각주