Na Hye- Sok
나혜석
Born Suwon, Joseon, 1896
A woman born during the dynasty Joseon. For the ones who doesn't know the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) is the core of all the values, costumes, etiquette, cultural traditions and language in the modern South Korean society. Founded during the Goryeo (state preceded Joseon) by a military commander Yi Seong-gye, who named it Joseon.
Women were expected to have the traditional roles. Helping in the kitchen during Chuseok (추석) or Seolal ( 설날); mid-autumn and Lunar new year respectively, raising the kids.
Na Hye Sok refused to follow the Korean traditional beliefs and became one of the first feminist of Korea. She became the first female painter and wrote several poems, books, essays and short stories that made her today a revolutionary for her time.
Born in a wealthy family, Hye Sok find the opportunity of studying oil painting in Japan. Once there she figure it out all the opportunities that a woman can have. Refused her father's proposal of going back to Korea and find a good husband and instead managed the Association of Korean Women Students in Japan.
Later when Japanese plagued Korea, in a movement on the 1st of March against the Japanese invasion, Hye Sok was there, advocating for the rights of her country.
Hye Sok was unique, from including a Western-style in the Korean art and constantly criticising the marital institution in the early 20th century. But perhaps one of the most remarkable moves in her career was during the the early 1920s. Sinyoja (new woman) the first woman's magazine in Korea published Hye Sok criticism to the impractical and uncomfortable traditional women's clothing.
She appealed to find new designs and pieces that made woman's life easier and convenient, preserving of course the good image of a woman.
As e can see Na Hye Sok was extraordinary for her time. She even managed to marry for love in a time that was quite rare. In her book " Thoughts of becoming a mother" she highly denounce and argue the absent role of father in raising the children.
Many claimed her ideas were poisoned for west. There was even an episode in which Hye Sok career was tainted, luckily what it came from it was a book of reflexions about divorce. " A Divorce Confessions" she attacked the patriarchal social system and male-oriented Korean culture.